Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club.

Suzume screamed as another contraction wracked her body. Kyoya could hear her from the hallway. He had brought her to an Ootori private clinic because it was closer than the University Hospital where he worked, and because he felt she would receive the best care possible. She was bringing the next generation of Ootori into the world, after all. Kyoya sent a group message to the Host Club.

She's in labor. I'm going to be a dad before the day is through.

He didn't even care if they thought he was excited about this. He was more excited about the prospect of having a child than anything else in his life. They'd decided not to find out if it was a boy or girl, and he wasn't allowed in the delivery room, so he waited.

Kyoya was not a patient man, and his wife's screams of pain were not helping. He wanted nothing more than to be with her. He lamented that he hadn't taken her to the University Hospital. He would have been allowed in the delivery room there.

She had gone into labor in the wee hours of the morning. It had been six hours and she was still struggling to bring forth his child. He had brought his laptop to try to get some work done, but he couldn't focus. Instead, he sat in the waiting room, wringing his hands. His knuckles were white with the tension he placed on them. From time to time, he would pace up and down the hallway. This could be another ten hours or more. First time births were difficult, and Suzume had such a tiny frame.

Another hour passed, and a team of doctors rushed down the hallway, past him, into his wife's room. Something was wrong. He tried stopping someone, but they just told him to stay put. He asked at the nurse's station, but they didn't have any information. Kyoya stood in the middle of the hallway, staring at the door to his wife's room. He didn't hear her scream again.

Mori was the first to arrive at the clinic. He liked to be the first one to visit new parents. He easily found his friend, but he was not the Kyoya he had expected. What he expected to find was a jubilant new father. What he found was a shell of a man, pale, disheveled, and staring into space. Kyoya didn't even register anyone who passed him or Mori standing next to him.

"Kyoya." When Kyoya didn't respond, Mori went to the nurse's station.

"Dr. Ootori is a friend. What happened?"

An older woman with a tag that indicated she was the head nurse responded. "Oh, it is so sad. The baby was coming at an odd angle, but his wife refused a C-section. She lost too much blood and didn't make it. She passed shortly after the baby finally came out. But the little girl had the umbilical cord wrapped around her neck. The doctors tried to revive her, but her brain had been deprived of oxygen for too long. She died about an hour ago.

No wonder Kyoya was despondent. He hardly knew how to put it into words, but just made it simple. He texted the others in the group.

Complications during childbirth. Suzume and daughter didn't make it.

Three days after he lost his wife and child, Kyoya was forced to attend their funeral. It was to be a Buddhist ceremony, so it had to take place quickly. He hadn't made any of the arrangements. Her parents, though distraught, made all the calls and set everything up. They didn't make him attend the wake the day before, but Kyoya was still expected to go to the funeral. He didn't want to face anyone though.

So many thoughts ran through his mind. Was there anything he could have done to change this? What if he had taken her to the University Hospital? What if he had been allowed to be in the room and could have convinced her to do a C-section? This kind of thing isn't supposed to happen, especially at an Ootori clinic. These private clinics were supposed to be top-notch. Of all the people to receive underwhelming care at this kind of facility, it certainly shouldn't be a member of the family who owns it!

The funeral was a blur. Kyoya didn't pay attention to who was there or who spoke to him. He was vaguely aware that all his friends were there, but he never said a word to anyone. He had been crushed when his best friend died nearly two years ago, but this devastated him in a way he had never known. He had just started to love the woman he married, just began making a life with her, and there was no doubt he loved the baby she carried the second he found out about it.

After the funeral had cleared out, Kyoya remained in the temple alone. He just sat there staring, not believing this was his life. What had his life become? What was this emptiness? This pain? Haruhi sat next to him. Her eyes were red. She'd been crying.

That's right. Suzume was friends with Haruhi. She helped her.

It was a fleeting thought. Kyoya made no move to comfort her. It was his turn to be in mourning. She was saying something, but he wasn't listening. He was in a world of his own thoughts, turning the same questions over and over, trying to look at all the angles. It just shouldn't have happened! His own helplessness incensed him.

"...she helped me so much. You can survive this, and I can help you like she helped me." Haruhi was telling him.

"This was your fault."

"Kyoya?" Those were the first words he'd said all day.

He turned his head to look at her, his eyes clearly visible behind his glasses. There was a wild fury in his eyes that frightened her. He stood and turned to look down upon Haruhi sitting next to the empty space where he had been seated. "This is your fault. You're the one who encouraged me to care about her. You wanted us to be close." His voice was getting louder the more he spoke, raw emotion escaping his usually masked voice. "I needed to open up to her because we both deserved to be happy, right? I didn't want to care. It was just supposed to be business. You even used Tamaki to persuade me. Tell me, how did I benefit from caring about her?" he bellowed.

"You were happy, Kyoya. I saw it myself. You can't tell me you weren't. You benefited because she made you happier than anyone's ever seen you. It's not like I knew this would happen."

"Happiness is overrated," he scoffed. "I could have spent my whole life not caring about her and if this was still meant to happen, I could have moved on with my life. But now, what am I supposed to do now?"

"I know how angry you are, I've been there. But please…"

"You know how angry I am? Have you lost a spouse and a child at the same time? A spouse who you weren't even supposed to love and a child you never even got a chance to meet?"

Kyoya's tone was starting to irk Haruhi. She knew she had to choose her own words and tone carefully. She didn't know exactly what he was going through because her situation was different, but she had a better idea than any of his other friends. How could she vocalize her thoughts rationally to someone who was outside his right mind with grief? She stood and her gaze directly met his eyes.

"I haven't been through the same experiences, but similar. And I know better about some of these things than our other friends. I've dealt with the grief and the anger and…"

Kyoya laughed. "You've dealt with your grief and anger? You're ridiculous." He had reclaimed the normal calm in his voice, but it dripped with disdain. "You hate when anyone else is happy. If someone else is married or successful in their career or has a new baby, you cringe. You put on a smiling face to make it less awkward, but you resent your friends' happiness! And you still dream about Tamaki, don't you? You still wake up crying, screaming his name." Losing his composure again, he roared, "You still wear your damn wedding ring! You're not married anymore, Haruhi!. He's gone!"

Why was he making it so difficult for her to reach out? In her own grief, she wasn't as level-headed as she once was, and it was hard to contain the enmity building inside. Had Suzume repeated her confessions to Kyoya? Weren't those supposed to be private? Haruhi couldn't hold back her tears and frustration anymore. She pushed him.

She held her head high as he stumbled backward a bit. Her voice was cool. "Maybe a part of me does resent the happiness of others, but I want to be happy for them. At least I make some effort, no matter how difficult it is. And I do dream about Tamaki and I know he's gone. I don't know what you're going through, but mine is worse. I chose Tamaki because I loved him and we were supposed to be together forever. We wanted more children and to take Suoh Corp to a whole new level. We were supposed to raise our family and grow old together, watching our children marry and have their own children, then we would turn into doting grandparents."

Haruhi began losing her composure. Her face was hot with indignation and her voice cracked as she raised its tone in her attempt to hold back more tears. "But fate robbed us of the world we dreamed and stole my children's father from them. My daughter doesn't even remember Tamaki. You lost a wife you didn't love and a daughter you never met. You can still go out and get a new wife and have a million baby Ootoris! If you loved her, that was a new development. It's not the same and you know it."

Haruhi knew she had overstepped, but the words were already out of her mouth.

The fire in his eyes hardened to ice and narrowed. "How dare you insult my relationship with Suzume. If you hadn't convinced me to give her the chance to love me, I could have gotten past this easily. That's not the case now."

"Kyoya, I'm s…"

"Get out," Kyoya growled in a low, ominous tone.

Haruhi looked up at him defiantly, trying to withstand the wrath of the Shadow King only to prove she still wanted to be there for him. She had crossed a line, but he'd crossed one, too, hadn't he?

"Out!" he howled.

Unable to hold out any longer, Haruhi turned and ran out of the temple and didn't look back. Meanwhile, Kyoya collapsed onto a chair, sobbing uncontrollably, alone in a sea of white floral arrangements and burning incense.

A/N: This was a tough chapter to write and post. Suzume and baby's fates and Kyoya's pain (and subsequent lashing-out at Haruhi) were difficult, but necessary for the progression of the story.