Chapter Twenty-Five

Haruhi Fujioka could feel nothing.

As she sat in that cold hospital waiting room, her small frame practically vibrating from her anxiety, she found that she could feel nothing. No sadness. No anger. No grief. She could only feel the cold darkness that was sweeping over her. She had dealt with tragedy time and time again. As the doctor stood before her, repeating his words for the rest of the group to hear, Haruhi felt nothing.

"His injuries were extensive, a concussion and a few broken bones but we have been able to rule out the possibility of paralysis or brain injury. Now we simply have to wait for the medication to wear off and for Hikaru to wake up. Then the real analysis can begin." He explained, his voice lacking any comfort or consolation. To Haruhi it felt as if he could have been reading from a boring textbook, not giving a worried family the news on an injured friend.

"And Kaoru?" Haruhi finally spoke, her voice sounding unfamiliar even to her own ears. It was deadpanned and broken and tired. She was just so tired of all of the pain and suffering and heartbreak. Her life had become a Shakespearean tragedy.

"Has… no one spoken to you yet?" The doctor asked, taking a small step away from the still shaking girl who sat before him.

"I wouldn't be asking you if they had." Her voice held no venom and no malice; she had simply had enough.

"Kaoru's injuries were extensive and there was nothing we could do to revive him… the young man died at the scene of the crash."

And suddenly the nothing that Haruhi had been feeling exploded inside of her. Suddenly it was as if a thousand shards of glass were bounding around inside of her chest, shattering and ripping her apart from the inside. The pain was extraordinary, unlike anything she had felt before, and in that moment she only needed to get away.

Her body was moving before she even realized she had told herself to go, sprinting through the hospital and out into the rainy night. Darkness swallowed her, the cold rain splattering upon her face as she sprinted through the parking lot. She didn't know where she was going, she didn't care, she simply needed to get away from all of the death that had surrounded her.

Once she reached the other side of the parking lot and into the grassy expanse across the street, she fell to her knees. She knew she was muddy and soaked to the bone, but she couldn't keep herself standing any longer.

Her sobs were going to rip her body in half. She couldn't breathe through the tears and the rain and the cold. All she could see were the many faces of all of the people she had lost; her mother, her father and now Kaoru. Sweet, innocent Kaoru who had loved so deeply and who had finally allowed someone to climb the walls he had built. He didn't deserve this; none of them deserved this.

Haruhi stiffened as a pair of warm arms wrapped around her body. She recognized the scent immediately and was grateful that Mori was a man of few words. He knelt behind her in the muck and the mud and the rain and simply held her, sheltering most of her body from the steady rain. He didn't try to move her or calm her or stop her tears; he was simply there for her.

"He's gone…" She sobbed. "He's gone."

"I know." Mori spoke, finally rising to his feet, turning the small girl as he did. She buried her face against his broad chest and he held her tightly. As the strong boy embraced her, Haruhi's sobbing intensified. Her small hands fisted, grasping onto the fabric like a lifeline. Her cheek pressed firmly against his warm chest, right above his beating heart, and through that touch Haruhi could feel the shaking of Mori's frame.

Her silent protector was crying as well.

XXXX Back In The Waiting Room XXXX

"Died?" The word seemed so foreign on his lips. Death had been a presence in Tamaki's life only once and only through his existence in Haruhi's world. Watching her father pass away had been the hardest part of death that Tamaki had ever experienced. Until now.

"How?" Honey's voice held none of the sweetness it normally possessed. It was as if someone else entirely had taken over his tiny body.

The doctor shifted anxiously from one foot to the other, not making eye contact with either of the boys. "His neck was broken during the crash. He died immediately and it is my professional opinion that he didn't suffer."

"Can we have a moment?" The small boy asked, his eyes falling upon the self proclaimed King of their group. Tamaki looked as if the smallest utterance would send him toppling over the edge and into darkness. He needed space and he needed time; the same thing Honey assumed Haruhi had run from the hospital to find.

Once the two were alone, Honey took note to the way his body was trembling from the combination of sadness and heartbreak. They were supposed to have overcome their hardest trials, having lost the Kyoya they had all known and gained a stranger. That was supposed to have been the hardest thing they ever had to do. This was a thousand times worse than Haruhi's kidnapping or Kyoya's amnesia. Or at least, a thousand times different.

"Are you okay, Tamaki?" Honey asked, his voice still sounding like a deadpanned ghost of a noise.

"I think I should go and check on Haruhi." The King replied, gathering himself in what seemed to be a calm demeanor. "Wait here. I'll be back." Without waiting for Honey to respond, Tamaki was striding towards the door, holding himself high. He made it to the corner of the hallway, disappearing from Honey's view.

As soon as Honey lost sight of his King, he felt as if all the energy had been drained from his form. Slowly and weakly he lowered himself into one of the empty chairs in the waiting room. "Oh Kaoru…" He whispered, dropping his head into his hands as silent tears streamed down his face.

XXXX With Tamaki XXXX

The tall blonde boy made it down the first hallway and the second; he even stood for two long moments in front of the elevator doors in calm and put together silence. He seemed more like a businessman leaving an important meeting rather than a teenage boy who had just learned that one of his best friends had been killed. Outwardly, Tamaki looked presentable. Inwardly, he was breaking.

Thousands of pieces of who had been were shattering everywhere. He could feel the darkness creeping into his soul as he stepped into the elevator, desperate for height and seclusion and quiet. The roof had been the first place to come to his mind; he would find Haruhi later. She would have been his first priority if he hadn't known that Mori had chased after her. Mori would comfort the girl in his own way. These moments belonged to Tamaki and his grief.

As soon as the elevator doors closed behind him, secluding him in the quiet space, Tamaki fell to pieces. His body slumped against the wall, sliding until his knees were planted firmly against his chest. His fists slammed again and again and again against the hard wall of the elevator until his knuckles were bleeding, tears cascading down his soft features as terrifying sobs ripped their way from his chest. Forgetting to have pushed a button, Tamaki sat on the floor of the unmoving elevator for what seemed like hours cursing God, cursing fate and cursing Kaoru for leaving them all behind.

It had been less than five minutes when the elevator made a loud ding! and the doors pulled open before him revealing a stunned and rather uncomfortable looking Kyoya.

"No…" He breathed, taking in the sight of his hysterical friend. Immediately he knew what had happened; not who but what. Without saying a word, Kyoya fell to his knees before his sobbing King, allowing the blonde headed boy to launch forward into his arms.

To anyone who passed them by it must have looked strange; two tall and handsome teenage boys on the verge of being men huddled on the floor of an elevator as one sobbed and one consoled.

They truly had lost everything.

XXXX Two Days Later XXXX

Everything ached.

As Hikaru's senses slowly started to flutter back to him, he could feel how heavy and hurt his body really was. His throat was dry, his head pounded just behind his eyes, and any time he moved he felt sharp pain radiating through him.

A moan of mixed agony and irritation fluttered from his lips as he struggled to open his eyes and get his bearings; but he had already awoken the small girl who slumbered restlessly beside him.

Haruhi had practically jumped to attention, recognizing the first sound Hikaru had made since his brothers death. The doctors had told her time and time again that he would wake up, that his wounds would heal, and that the coma he was suffering through at that time was entirely medically induced. They had wanted to keep him comfortable until they could figure out the extent of the damage that had been done to him.

Haruhi had never faulted in her vigil. She had sat beside his bed for two whole days, leaving only to use the rest room and take quick showers that never lasted more than ten minutes. Tamaki's father had been kind enough to send one of his drivers with a bag full of Haruhi's stuff to Hikaru's hospital where she had set up camp. From the moment she had composed herself, she had sat in a hard chair beside Hikaru's bed and waited.

He would need a familiar face when reason returned to him.

"Hikaru…" She breathed, his name but a whisper as it passed over her lips. "You're okay." It took everything in her not to let the tears fall, to keep herself in some semblance of calm.

Quickly she rose to her feet, rushing to the other side of the room where Hikaru's mother slept, her eyes red and her hair disheveled. "Yazuha." Haruhi whispered, shaking the woman gently by the shoulders. "He's awake."

Hikaru's mother bounded upwards, rushing to her son's side. "Oh thank god. Hikaru? Can you hear me?"

Groaning again and finally opening his eyes, Hikaru focused first upon his mother and then upon the small girl who was anxiously shaking in the corner. "I feel like I've been hit by a truck… What happened?"

But he didn't need anyone to answer that for him. In a flash the events of Kaoru's death flashed before him. The violent spinning of the car, the squeal of tires and the shattering of glass. He could see Kaoru's limp form slumped in his seat, held up only by his seatbelt.

"Kaoru! Where's Kaoru?!" Hikaru yelled, crying out in pain as he tried to move his body. He could tell immediately that quite a few of his bones were broken.

Hikaru's father entered the room then, moving quickly to the opposite side of Hikaru's bed from his wife.

Slowly, Haruhi began to back up, never taking her eyes off of Hikaru as she moved. This moment was not for her; this was between family. She didn't think she could take listening to how his mother chose to explain what had happened. She didn't want to be there.

The door closed behind her as she exited the room, though she remained glued to her spot, staring through the glass window as the tiny family huddled closer together. Silence separated them, and though she could not hear what was being said, she knew the exact moment when Kaoru's fate had been disclosed.

Hikaru's body seemed to physically react against the pain in his body and the pain in his heart. He screamed, a sound she could hear even through the wall and glass. She could see the tears flying down his face and the pain that had forever etched itself upon him. Hikaru had lost the only person in this world who had ever completely understood him, the only person who knew him both inside and out.

Haruhi's body convulsed against the tears she had been holding back, sobs quietly echoing down the long and empty hallways. She stood, almost folding in upon herself, her hand pressed firmly to her mouth as she cried.

A pair of strong arms turned her on the spot, wrapping her in warmth and comfort. She didn't need to open her eyes, didn't need to hear the sound of his soft voice. Kyoya's scent was familiar to her now. She simply buried her face in his chest and held onto his strong arms as if letting go would send her spiraling into the darkness.

They had lost everything. She had lost everything.

"He's going to be fine, Haruhi…" Kyoya whispered, gently combing his fingers through her soft hair. "Someday, somewhere along the line, he's going to be fine because he has you."

His words stunned her, not enough to ebb the tears that flowed freely, but enough to ground her to that moment. "He lost his brother, Kyoya, his twin brother. How does anyone ever get over that?"

"The same way a person gets over feeling alone in the world. The same way someone gets over losing her father. The same way they get over losing their memories." He placed a gentle kiss to the top of her head, his heart going out to her in her moment of suffering. "With love."

A/N: Ah…. So this chapter was very hard for me to write. I knew, being that I had designated this story as a tragedy from the very beginning, that I wanted a lot of pain and suffering inflicted upon our characters. I knew someone was going to die. Originally, it was going to be Haruhi. I had every intention of having her killed off when she was kidnapped; but when the time came it didn't feel right. Then it was Kyoya. Remember when the chapter ended with "Kyoya was flatlining?" Yeah. That was supposed to be the moment. Except, when I was writing the chapter after that, I realized there were two people who I wanted Haruhi to end up with. And for a long time I waivered. For a long time I couldn't pick which of them would get the girl. But now I know and soon you will too, because there are only five chapters left. Please keep reviewing, you are all so awesome and I love you all so much. Also, keep in mind that the next chapter is going to be VERY short. So don't be surprised when that one is posted.