I never in a million years would have thought this would have gotten the response that it did. I just wanted to finish what I had started and immediately got five reviews upon it's republishing. Thank you, thank you, thank you. To everyone who still takes the time to read all of this. I hope I don't disappoint you all.

KageNoNeko: I needed to get back into the swing of writing for these characters. I have a pretty particular place where I want this to go, though I still am not sure who I'm going to have her end up with yet!

Blackangel150: I felt particularly bad doing this to him. Honestly? I just don't like writing the evil side of him. Taking it away for a bit was a chance to get rid of my lack of evil. You never know. He may snap back ;D

Mutemuia: As of right now I don't have any plans to kill him. But thanks for the idea!

Chapter Twenty-One:

Back and forth, back and forth. Haruhi Fujioka could have dug a whole in the west corridor of the Suou manor for all the pacing she was doing that night. Over the last couple of months both Tamaki and Hikaru had warned her that she was neglecting her friends to care for Kyoya. Today she would make up for it all, today she would fix the problems she had created.

"Haruhi?"

Spinning on her heels, Haruhi flinched slightly, constantly filled with fear left over from her kidnapping. "Oh, Honey-senpai," she spoke softly, her hand fluttering up to her rapidly beating heart. "You scared me."

"I'm sorry, Haruhi." Honey's voice was like sugar, his lip pulled into an adorable pout as he closed the distance between the two. "Everyone is almost here and Mori has gone to pick up Kyoya and Kaoru and Hikaru. They're going to be so surprised!"

The boy was almost jumping and his excitement was hard not to capture as a lithe smile crossed over her lips. "Are you sure the girls are going to like this? I'm worried it seems a bit too…."

"Common?" Honey asked, innocently tipping his head to the side. Years at the side of her Host Club companions and still sometimes they found ways to offend her meager beginnings.

"Yeah, common." She spoke, rolling her eyes slightly as they continued down the corridor towards the main room.

"I've never been camping," Pulling open the door to the main room, it was clear to see that some of the Suou's staff had been real camping. There was mock tents set up everywhere, sleeping bags placed out on elaborate mats to make them more comfortable. Spread out erratically were fire pits with stations to make food and smores.

"This isn't really camping, Honey." Haruhi's voice was deadpan but her eyes were filled with wonder. This was a chance for her to share a part of her soul with her friends, a part of her childhood.

"Oh? It looks like the pictures that you showed us." As he spoke, the small boy made a b-line for the closest pile of marshmellows, popping them into his mouth.

"Real camping happens outside, Honey-senpai. Without bathrooms." Chuckling slightly, Haruhi popped a marshmellow into her own mouth.

"Sounds primitive."

Haruhi could once again feel the heart in her chest skip a beat as she spun on her heels to face the dark whisper. How she hadn't heard the Host Club sneaking up on her was a mystery. How she hadn't noticed Kyoya's presence was something more. She had grown attuned to him in ways she didn't understand and up until that moment she had prided herself on knowing when he was around just by the sound of his breathing.

"Don't scare Haru-chan like that!" Honey chastised the group as if he hadn't been the one to frighten her just moments before.

"You did all of this for us?" Tamaki asked, ignoring Honey all together.

Nodding lightly, Haruhi moved her eyes to where Hikaru stood eyeing her skeptically. "I owed you all an apology, I think."

"You don't owe us anything…" Hikaru huffed, crossing the distance to the back of the room where a giant sheet had been hung and a projector waited to display movies for the group during the late hours of the night. "You got to do all of this when you were a kid?" He asked, his tone hinting to his disbelief.

"Not quite like this, no." She said with a smirk, tucking her hands into the pockets of her hooded jacket. "Dad and I always went with just a tent and some hot dogs. We never did the movies or smores or anything like that but I thought you would all enjoy it a bit more like this." She chuckled.

The entire room silenced, all six pairs of eyes trained upon her as if she had turned green or something strange had overtaken her form.

"What?" She asked, her eyes wide as saucers.

"You… laughed." Kaoru finally spoke, disbelief etched upon his face.

"So?"

A wide grin crossed over both twins' faces as they wrapped their bodies around hers like they had done so many years before. "It's been months since you've laughed."

The rest of the night seemed to be passing too quickly, vanishing into the darkness. They played games, watched movies and burned more marshmellows than Haruhi knew what to do with. Every time they would throw away one of the sugary morsels, Honey would bawl until someone made a fresh and gooey smore for him to devour.

They spent the night laughing and reminiscing as if the past months had vanished from their minds completely. Haruhi was passed around like a doll from one host to the other, sitting by their sides with an arm draped over her shoulder as if she had not been lost to them since her return to Japan. It was as if the horrible accident had never occurred and for the first time in what seemed like forever, Haruhi was honestly happy.

It was a few hours after they had all retired to their sleeping bags, huddled within a good few feet of each other, that the darkness started creeping in again.

The small girl could feel herself running, sprinting through the darkness and the rain as she tried to outrun her assailants. They would catch her at this pace, find her and take her away again, take her to a place where none of her friends could find her, where no one would save her.

"This time we'll finish the job." His voice was haunting. Every night in her nightmares she heard the voice of the man who had taken her and every night he felt more real and more terrifying. "This time we'll kill them. This time we'll kill you."

Faster she ran, faster and farther from the haunting voice until her lungs and legs burned from the strain. She could feel the tears cascading down her features as she reached the first mound upon the wet concrete. The uniform they wore was familiar, an Ouran male jacket and black slacks. Their bodies were toppled upon each other, one bleeding out upon the street; Mori but it was the second man who caught her attention. He was tiny, tiny and bent in ways that seemed unnatural. It was only then that Haruhi realized this man had been broken.

Stepping around their bodies, her eyes landed upon the lifeless eyes of the smallest and yet most powerful of their group; Honey.

"He was easy enough. One quick snap of the neck and he was out of commission." The voice was taunting her now and he was succeeding.

She could feel the wave of grief and guilt building in her, her tears spiraling down her soft features as she stumbled backwards and ran, leaving Honey's broken body behind her. "No." The word fell from her lips over and over again as she ran, farther and farther away from Honey and Mori's lifeless forms. The voice was fading, the fear subsiding until her eyes landed upon another mound of bodies.

Wrapped together in a painful and loving embrace, Haruhi could see the puddle of blood that surrounded them; the rain was washing away their youthful ignorance. Hikaru and Kaoru had been close in life; it seemed now they were only closer in death.

"They loved you. Their love made them blind. You would always be their killer, you would always be their demise."

"GET AWAY FROM ME!" Her shrill shriek vanished into the dark night as Haruhi sprinted forward again, tripping on the wet concrete as she fled. She needed to get away, she needed to be free of this horrible nightmare.

"He was the easiest of all."

Illuminated, not ten feet before her, lay the crumbled blonde headed boy that Haruhi knew best of all. "Tamaki…" His name fell from her lips in a broken whisper, her body falling to her knees beside his broken form.

"He tried to save you. They all tried to save you. You put them all in danger by simply breathing; the commoner girl who captured their love. They saw you as a friend, a lover, a companion while the rest of the world saw you as an easy target."

Her body draped over that of the King, shielding him from the nightmare that was stalking closer, the darkness that was sweeping in to extinguish her light. "Please wake up." She whispered into his matted and bloodied hair. "Please."

"You brought this on them. You brought this on them with your selfishness."

She could feel her assailant standing mere inches behind her, could feel her death rapidly approaching in the darkness. "I'll keep you safe," she whispered again as she turned her body and lifted her head to stare into the eyes of the man who stalked her.

Kyoya.

"You'll keep them safe?" He chuckled, his voice morphing from that of her kidnapper and into his new, calmer persona. This was the Kyoya she feared the most; the one who blamed her for his injuries. A wicked snarl crossed over his features as he lifted a large blade above his head, poised to strike her down. "WHY DIDN'T YOU KEEP ME SAFE?!" He yelled into the darkness, his hand tightening around the knife as it plunged through the air and down towards her chest.

All she could do was scream.