Three weeks slowly passed since Tamaki's birthday hike, and I was miserable. I haven't left the castle since I came back. Kaoru immediately noticed that I was down and asked if I was alright. It hurt to lie to him, but I couldn't tell him that I was outside the castle walls, at least not yet anyways.

I haven't really ever left my room, the only times I ever left was when I had to eat or had a lesson with Naomi, but after I was done I would just shut myself back in my room. I told Naomi about everything and she saw how much this was all affecting me, so she tried to shorten our lessons a bit so she wouldn't give me too much work when I was like that.

Was this what a break up felt like, your heart broken into a million pieces because the girl you love doesn't want you anymore? According to Naomi, it is. I hated love, I don't get how people love doing something so painful...but yet I also loved love, and understood why people loved doing something so wonderful. Being with Haruhi for the past couple months has been the most fun I've had in a really long time...and I never wanted that to end…

I sighed sadly as I laid in my bed staring up at the ceiling. Since Haruhi and I broke up, this is what I've been doing with most of my time. I brought up my hand and glared at it as I conjured up a flame in my palm. I stared at the flame, feeling the heat of it on my face. I watched as the flame grew bigger and hotter as I grew angrier at the sight at it. The bottom of the flame began to turn a light blue color, and slowly began spreading up through the flame.

I growled and clenched my hand into a fist, making the flame disappear. I hated my powers, they're the reason why everything in my life was messed up. I couldn't leave the castle because of them; the villagers would fear me and might hurt my family. I couldn't be friends with any of the other royal families in fear that my existence would get out and spread throughout the kingdom, and...my powers kept me from having a relationship with the people besides my family I loved the most.

I huffed and put my hand down, staring back up at the ceiling sadly. "I hate my life…"

After a couple more minutes of wallowing in self pity, there was a knock on my door. The door opened when I didn't reply and Kaoru popped his head in, he gave me a sad smile.

"Hey," he said, "how are you feeling?" I just mumbled a inaudible reply and Kaoru entered our room, closing the door. He walked over to me and knelt down next to my bed. "Come on, can you just tell me what's going on? I know that you're not sick."

I sighed and slowly sat up, putting my pillow in my lap. I looked up at him with doleful eyes. "Well you promise not to tell mom and dad?"

He lifted his left hand and used his right to draw an X over his heart. "Cross my heart."

"Ok," I took a deep breath and looked down as I played with the fabric of my pillow case, "I've been sneaking out of the castle grounds for the past four months." I looked back at Kaoru and saw a faint smile on his face. "What's that look for?"

His smile grew and he began to quietly laugh. "I know, I've known for awhile now."

My face grew pale. "What?"

"Yeah, that night of the festival a couple months ago, I saw you in the crowd. It took me a while to realize it was you, but when I noticed that it was your cloak, which the two of us only have in the kingdom, I knew it was you." He winked at me. "Don't worry, mom and dad don't know.

I let out a sigh of relief and ran a hand through my hair, thanking God that they didn't know.

"So, now tell me why you've been so upset. Did you see something you didn't like?"

"No, not exactly," I looked up at him with a slight smirk, "would you believe me if I told you that I got a girlfriend?"

Kaoru began to laugh, then when he saw that I wasn't laughing along with him, just giving him a cocked eyebrow his smile immediately fell. "Wait you're serious?"

I nodded and Kaoru grabbed my shoulders and pulled me closer to him until we were centimeters apart, his eyes locked with mine.

"Tell. Me. Everything."

I told Kaoru about everything, about how I met everyone to the break up three weeks ago. Kaoru listened in awe, as if he was a kid listening to a fairytale. He would gasp throughout the whole thing whenever something shocking happened, until I got to the break up. His expression turned sad as I told him what happened during the hike.

"And that's what happened?" I sighed sadly.

"B-But you saved her. She should love you even more because of that not hate you. If I was her I definitely would've fallen even more in love with you."

I shrugged my shoulder and ran my hand through my hair as I looked away. "Well, I guess she doesn't think the same way as you."

"So, I was right about that day you were feeling all those pains in your chest? You were in love?" I nodded and Kaoru's smile reappeared. "Yes, I knew it! I knew you were in love! I knew reading that book would help you!"

I just rolled my eyes, blowing my bangs out of my face. "Yeah, whatever," I sighed for what felt like the umpteenth time that day and laid my head in my hand, looking down sadly. "There's really no use in talking about it now."

Kaoru matched my expression as he looked at me. It killed him to see me like this, he knew how hard my life was hiding away in this castle, forbidden to even step outside the gates in fear of someone seeing me. He kept trying to tell me ever since we were little that the outside world wasn't anything special, but I knew that was bull.

Now that I know what life outside the castle was like I don't want to be cooped up in this place anymore. I was just here because of the break up, in fear of running into Haruhi, making my emotions becoming too overwhelming for me to control.

Kaoru nudged me, causing me to look back up at him. He gave me a sad smile.

"Hey, let's go for a ride. It'll be fun and take your mind off of everything, and I'm sure Zorro would love the exercise."

"I don't really feel like riding around the estate today. I've already seen it thousands of times already."

His smile turned into a mischievous smirk. "Who said we were going to ride around the estate?"

I looked at Kaoru surprised from what he was suggesting. He has broken the rules before, he'll proudly admit that, but they were usually something small, like taking a sweet before dinner or doing something for me. Even though I've never asked him to do it, though by what he was suggesting this would've been the biggest rule he's ever broken.

"What if we're out there and we see Haruhi? She usually picks berries in the forest a couple times a week."

"Then I'll confront her and throw her in the dungeon for breaking my brother's heart."

I glared at him. "Kaoru…" I warned.

He held up his hands in defense and laughed. "I'm kidding, I'm kidding." He lowered his hands and smiled at me. "We'll just sneak around her so she won't notice us."

"What if we get caught?"

"Then I'll take the blame, don't worry about it. Come on, I promise it'll be fun."

I sat there, contemplating if I should go or not. I really did want to go, I was beginning to get stir crazy. I missed the wide open areas, the smell of the trees and other plants. The crisped air through my hair, the crowds of people enjoying themselves, but yet I was also scared. I was afraid that I would run into Haruhi and all the events that happened that day would flood back into my mind, or we would get caught and I would have to be placed in even tighter lockdown in the castle.

I looked up at Kaoru, finally making my decision. I smirked, which he matched immediately when he saw it. "Yeah, let's get out of here. I've already broken the rule multiple times. One more couldn't hurt."

Haruhi shot up from her bed panting, her clothes and sheets drenched in sweat. She looked around the room frantic. When she saw that she was safe she let out a sigh of relief and wiped the sweat off her forehead. She's been having nightmares for almost the past month. They were usually the same thing, a dark figure of a person that she knew terrorizing the kingdom.

She stared down sadly at her blanket that she had clenched in her hands. "Another horrible dream and it felt so real again."

She knew who the figure was and didn't want to fear them because she loved them, but from what people have told her and what she's read in folktales, elder twins held a dangerous dark power that could destroy the whole kingdom in an instance.

There was a knock on the door and it slowly opened. Ranka popped his head in and looked at his daughter.

"Haruhi, are you ok? Is everything alright?"

She looked over at him and gave him her best fake smile. "Yeah I'm fine. I just had a bad dream, that's all."

Ranka eyed her suspiciously, then entered her room and sat down on the foot of her bed. He put a hand on her knee. "You've been having nightmares almost every night through the past three weeks, what's wrong?" He looked at her sadly. "Is this about what happened with Hikaru?"

Haruhi sighed sadly and looked down, putting her covers around her stomach. "Yah," she ran a hand through her disheveled hair and placed it over her right shoulder, "I keep having these nightmares about him that he destroys the kingdom or trying to kill us because he's the cursed twin. Just like in the folktale…"

"Has he ever done anything that could indicate that he would do something like that?"

She looked back up at her father, thinking all the time we spent together. The only things that she remembered were happy memories, nothing that could indicate that I was anything like what the folktale described.

"No…" She finally answered.

"Then why are you so afraid of him now if he hasn't done anything even close to that before?"

"Who wouldn't be, it's unnatural."

"It may be unnatural, but as long as he's not hurting anyone then there's nothing to be afraid of." He reassured, giving her a warm smile.

"It's just...the folktale that we were told about twins when we were younger. About how the cursed twin Kuro, who went through the whole kingdom on a rampage, destroying everything and killing random people in his path over two hundred years ago. Now learning that Hikaru is one of those twins…" She looked at her father sadly. "I'm afraid he might turn into something like that."

"Haruhi, in the folktale Kuro was evil throughout the whole story. He tried to kill his twin brother Akio multiple times because their parents favored him because he was normal. It had nothing to do with his powers. So you shouldn't be worried about Hikaru turning evil."

He saw his daughter grow depressed and looked away from him again. Playing with the necklace that I have given her that she still wore. His heart began hurting seeing his daughter like this; the only other times he's seen her like this was when her mother passed away and when her and Tamaki broke up.

He scooted over on her bed to be next to her and wrapped his arm around her shoulders, bringing her closer to him as she laid her head on his shoulder.

"I don't know what to do." She said, her voice brittle.

Ranka tightened his grip around his daughter. "Do you love him?"

Haruhi was hesitant for a bit, then slowly nodded her head that was still laying on her dad's shoulder. "Then I think you shouldn't give up on him, because you and I both know that he loves you too and wouldn't do anything to hurt you."

Haruhi just remained silent. She knew that she was in love with me. She missed the days we spent together. All she does now was work and sleep. She was too depressed to do anything else. The group would come and try to visit her, but Ranka would just tell them that she wasn't feeling well and ask them to leave.

"Hey since you're finally up, do you think you can go get some berries? I just ran out."

Haruhi lifted up her head from her dad's shoulder and smiled at him. "Is that the reason you came to my room? To see if I was awake to get more berries for you?"

"Well, that's one of the reasons," he smiled back, happy to see that his daughter was cheering up, "but I really do need them, and I can't leave the bakery unattended because you're still so sad and probably wouldn't want to talk to the customers."

Haruhi laughed and pushed her dad away from her playfully. "Ok, ok fine. I'll go."

"See, this is why you're my favorite child."

"I'm your only child dad."

"Which means you don't have to compete to be my favorite."

Haruhi laughed again then hugged him. "Thanks dad. I love you."

He wrapped his arms around his daughter, his smile softened. "I love you too."

Kaoru and I were riding down a trail in the forest. Zorro and Knight carefully walked through the uneven snow that was caused by the carriages going down the trail. It might've late April but it would still occasionally snow until May.

Kaoru took in a deep breath then released it, his breath turning into mist. "Isn't this refreshing? Finally some fresh air after being cooped up in that castle for so long."

I smiled, looking over at him. "Yeah, I almost forgot how it felt like to be outside the castle walls. It really is refreshing."

"You know, I never thought I would be riding with you outside our estate. I know it might sound a bit weird, but I'm really happy that you broke the rules and left the castle that night. If you didn't, you probably would be still locked up in the castle 24/7, afraid of the outside world."

"I'm glad too, if I didn't I probably would've been too afraid to try it another night. It was just an impulsive decision that I'm happy I made."

Kaoru looked at all the snow, a cold breeze blew past us making Kaoru shiver. He used one of his hands to readjust his cloak over his shoulder so he could try and warm up.

"I can't believe it's still snowing this late in April, it's supposed to be spring. I'm so sick of snow."

"You and me both."

"Why are you tired of it? You can't get cold." He chuckled.

"I may not get cold, but I'm sick of all this cloudy wet weather. I'm ready for some sun."

"Ugh, don't even get me started with the sun. Mom made me stay out in the cold freezing rain during dad's speech. We might've had something to cover us from getting wet but I was still cold and miserable."

I just laughed as Kaoru continued to rant about the weather. I'm really glad that Kaoru convinced me into coming on this ride. Because we were getting closer to becoming adults, Kaoru has been a lot busier. He is now forced to go on every trip outside the kingdom even if he didn't want to because he was next in line for the throne. When we were younger he was able to stay home usually, only forced to go on trips that the whole royal family had attend. I really did miss those days that he was able to stay home, now because of his new royal duties he has been barely home lately. This has been the longest he's been home for the past six months, and he's only been home for a week and a half, but I'm really nervous that he might have to leave again soon.

"Hey Kaoru," I said, making him look over at me, "when are you, mom and dad leaving again?"

"Oh, I didn't tell you?" A smile formed on his face. "We just finished doing the last of the royal duties outside the kingdom. So I'm staying here until more come up. Which won't be for a couple months."

"Really?"

Kaoru nodded and a bright smile spread across my face. I was waiting for the day that he wouldn't have to leave overnight anymore. It might only be for a couple months, but it was better than nothing.

We continued riding down the trail, talking and laughing to each other. Then suddenly something out of the corner of my eye made me stop Zorro. Kaoru looked at me confused and stopped his horse as well, turning him to face me.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't know," I replied, looking around the forest, "but I think I saw something."

I continued to look towards the direction where I saw something and when I finally found it, my face fell, my heart began to hurt again just like that day, making my eyes burn from holding back tears. Kaoru noticed my expression and faced the direction I was looking towards. He saw a young brunette girl with cheap clothing walking through a section of the forest by the lake with a basket around her wrist. Kaoru looked back towards me.

"Is that Haruhi?"

I nodded and turned away from her, a grave expression on my face. I softly kicked Zorro with my heels and he began walking. "Come on, let's go."

Kaoru just watched me pass him, then looked back at Haruhi before turning Knight around to follow me. For a couple minutes we were silent. Kaoru would occasionally look over at me, then back at the nature around us, waiting for me to speak. He really wanted to ask me how I was doing after seeing Haruhi, but he thought I should be the one to start up the conversation.

I sighed sadly and was about to tell Kaoru that we should just head back when Zorro suddenly stopped, making me jerk forward. I regained my balance and looked down at Zorro confused. I kicked him, trying to make him move but he just stayed still. I began to grow irritated and kicked him harder, but he still wouldn't budge.

Kaoru walked up and stopped his horse beside me. "What's wrong?"

"I don't know, he just stopped moving." I growled as I continued to kick him. "He's never done this before."

"Here, let me try and help."

Kaoru grabbed a portion of Zorro's reins and began tugging him forward, trying to get him to move, but Zorro just responded by darting backwards causing Kaoru to let go of the rein so he wouldn't fall off.

"Woah, woah Zorro!" I gripped the reins, trying to calm him down, but he wouldn't listen.

He began hopping his front hooves up and down while snorting before rearing up, whining loudly.

"What the hell is wrong with him?!" Kaoru panicked.

"I don't know!" I gripped onto his mane so I wouldn't fall off. "He's never acted like this before!"

Zorro went back down, then began bobbing his head up and down, whining. Knight seemed to be replying to him by snorting and whining back.

"I think they're talking to each other." Kaoru said.

Knight then jolted forward, making Kaoru grunt as he landed on his neck from the sudden movement.

"He's starting to act out too. What the hell is going on with them?" I asked even though I knew Kaoru didn't know as well.

They've never acted out like this before. When our parents were looking for horses they chose the most well behaved and trained horses so we wouldn't have to deal with stuff like this.

Then suddenly Zorro turned around and he began communicating with Knight again, stomping their hooves on the ground. Kaoru and I looked at each other nervously, gripping our reins tightly, knowing what was about to happen.

Zorro and Knight then took off down the trail, not stopping no matter how hard we tried to make them to.

Haruhi picked another berry and put it in her basket. She sighed and brushed her hair out of her face, looking up at the sun seeing time of day it was. Even though it was cloudy she could still see the glow of the sun through the clouds. The glow was in the middle of the sky, which meant it was midday. She's been out here for a couple hours picking berries. She looked down at her basket and saw that it was three fourths full.

"That should be enough for a couple days." She sighed again and began walking back home. "I should just plant a couple seeds behind our bakery so I don't have to keep coming into the forest to get some.

She looked through the berries to make sure she didn't accidently pick any bad ones. As she took another step, she suddenly heard a loud crack. Haruhi immediately stopped where she was and looked down at her feet. She grew pale when she saw that she was standing on ice that was beginning to crack beneath her.

"Crap," she whispered nervously, as if her voice would crack the ice even further, "when I was looking through my basket I've must've accidently walked on the lake."

She looked over to her left and saw that the bank was only about twenty feet away, and if she moved slowly and carefully she could safely make it there. She slowly began making her way to the bank, taking small, careful steps, holding her breath out of instinct. As Haruhi was only a few feet away from the bank, another loud crack made her stop. She look towards where the cracking sound was coming from and saw where she was standing before has cracked even more, and the cracks was heading towards her, fast. She tried to move again but a small pool of water began to form underneath her feet. She was trapped. She couldn't move closer to the bank because the ice was too thin, and she couldn't stay where she was because the cracks were coming towards her. No matter what she did, she was going to go in the water.

As the cracks were only a few feet away, she threw the basket of berries to the bank, knowing it would only weigh her down and by her sudden movement the ice gave out from underneath her, sending her deep into the waters of the frozen lake.