Lost in the Dark

By E.M. Megs

Chapter 28 – Getting Nowhere Quickly

When she saw Hunny and Mori, she grinned. Hunny stopped when he saw her and stared. At her leg. She rolled her eyes. "It's nothing."

"What happened?" Mori asked instead of Hunny and she glanced at him with a raised eyebrow.

"Litriad. Two of them," she replied. Then Kyoya walked in and looked at the two intruding men with narrowed eyes. "Kyoya," she said with a smile at him, "This is Hunny and Mori. They're the ones that freed me. And they're Yuiichi's spies. Or former spies, rather." Then she paused and added, "Hunny's a fire elemental and… Mori's a seer."

"A seer?" Kyoya demanded, shooting her a look of shock. She nodded. He stared at her for the longest time, then he said, "And I thought your Witching Dreams were as far into the future as we were going to get." He turned to the two soldiers with a smirk. "Nice to meet the two of you. Thank you for saving her."

Hunny shook himself out of his shock at her condition and smiled at him. "She's our friend. Of course we helped her." He paused for a moment then said, quietly enough that even if others were around, they wouldn't be able to hear, "Haru-ki -," he stopped and revised his statement. "Haru-ianc asked us to help you with ending the war." For some reason, Haruhi didn't think that the Narian suffix added to her name sounded as natural as –kisci did.

He nodded. "We'll be travelling to a more… secluded area later. You'll accompany us?"

Hunny nodded enthusiastically. "We might have something useful for you, right Takashi?" Mori, like normal, gave a silent nod in reply. Kyoya raised an eyebrow while Haruhi silently dreaded the idea of travel as it tended to be more painful than staying in one place.

"Kyoya," she asked quietly. He looked down at her inquiringly. "What kind of travel…?"

"Ah. We'll be walking. It isn't that far. And I understand that it may be painful for you, so I'll push your wheelchair and bring your medicine with us. Speaking of which, we should get ready."

The cousins nodded. "We need to go see your brother anyway," Hunny said with a brilliant shining smile.

~o~

If not for the bumpy dirt road that they used to get to the place Kyoya wanted them to use, Haruhi would have been perfectly fine. As it was, every bump her chair ran over made her want to cry. Now, Kyoya knelt in front of her, one hand on her knee, the other steadying him on the arm of her wheelchair, inspecting her leg. "Better not be infected," he growled under his breath while Mori and Hunny stood by waiting. She shut her eyes and leaned her head back, honestly trying not to alarm him by making noise.

Finally, he used her knee to push himself up and stand to the side. "Haruhi," he said. She shushed him, trying to breathe in order to regulate the pain. "Haruhi." She opened her eyes and found him partially leaned over her laid back head. "It'll get better."

She stared at him, partially wondering why saying that made the pain lessen and partially wondering why he had gotten so close. For a moment, she thought he was going to kiss her and then he cleared his throat and stood up straight. "How do you know?" she asked softly, lifting her head.

"Because my brother-in-law is perfectly fine now." She scowled. Fuko had an amputation? "His left hand, Haruhi. His prosthetic is somehow magically hooked into his nervous system so he can move his fingers. I'm seeing if I can get something similar for yours but it isn't easy to come by."

"You don't have to… It's not like I need to move my toes." He shot a look at her that was wedged somewhere between a glare and exasperation. She smiled sheepishly in return only to have her gaze turn to Hunny as he giggled. She gave him a questioning look but he only shook his head and doubled over in more laughter. "What, dare I ask, is so funny?"

"Nothing. Nothing Haru-ianc," he said quickly, brushing back his laughter.

Kyoya, she noticed, barely suppressed the urge to roll his eyes. She held back get own grin while knowing that his stony face was just an act because he didn't know Hunny and Mori very well. She drew in a breath and changed the topic quickly. "Prophecy?"

"Ah, right," Hunny mumbled, looking toward his cousin for a moment. Haruhi waited expectantly with Kyoya at his side. "Normally, we wouldn't share. But there's a chance that it might end the war, at least, that's what I think."

Kyoya raised an eyebrow and glanced at her. She shrugged her shoulders indifferently. "Alright. Let's hear it," Haruhi said softly.

Mori, to her surprise, was the one that answered in his deep tones.

"The battle of two nations equally worn

Longwinded shall be ended or torn

Inner evils shall rise from ashes

Despaired vortex ignites

Sucking in all who go near

Only seven unbiased will pull

Back the ground to wreak heaven's wrought

Witch and Warlock combine

When magic flushes white

A soul most unwilling, finally freed

After life's red river accordingly flows

Eyes opened to all that could be

Battles end, wars begin."

Haruhi felt a shiver run down her back while Kyoya bristled slightly, eyes shooting to hers. Mori fell silent after finishing, regarding the couple with his blonde cousin. Finally, Kyoya, after staring her in the eyes like he was trying to find something he'd lost for several moments, gruffly said, "Riddles? Why can't it just be told straight?"

"That's how Takashi gets them. He goes into this funny trance and speaks in this funny voice. He's just as clueless as we are as to the exact meaning of it," Hunny said innocently. Kyoya growled with frustration, obviously irritated with the form of the prophecy. Haruhi, glancing between him and the small blonde gently took his hand and squeezed. He didn't even glance at her or the gesture, just carefully intertwined his fingers with hers.

"Two nations are obviously Kira and Nari," she started analyzing line by line, "Ended or torn, is the end of the war either way you look at it."

"Unless it means that both will be torn apart," Hunny chirped with a frightening grin.

She nodded her head. "That seems to be the only clear part of it. The end makes it seem like something even worse though. I have absolutely no idea what any of the rest could be. Kyoya?" She looked over at him only to find him gazing off into the distance as though he were in a trance. She squeezed his hand again to gain his attention. He looked at her. "Something wrong?"

"No," he replied, "Just… thinking." He seemed to shake himself enough to be able to pull himself back into reality. "We've already discerned that the Witch shares some connection in the continuation of the war, the extent of which we aren't sure of. Her showing up in the prophecy attached to the Warlock isn't exactly very promising. Especially since the Warlock's been dead for nearly a century."

"His ancestors are still around," Haruhi pointed out.

"Maybe," he snorted, "But no one knows who they are. He was much less careful with mixing blood so his ancestors are both incredibly mixed and completely unknown. I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't know that they themselves were a Warlock." She gazed at him silently, assessing his answer then nodded in agreement.

"Regardless, I'm the only living descendant of the Witch. So it has to pertain to either her or me." She drew in a deep breath and shifted in her chair. Her leg ached but she ignored it. "Whatever we're going to do to end this war, there are a few problems that need to be sorted out." Haruhi took another glance at Kyoya before continuing, "One is the Kiran military. We either need to reconcile with both them and Kiran royalty, or find a way to rejoin the military with the royal court."

"Fusawa's the main conflict in that. And Larsen," Hunny interjected softly. Haruhi nodded and closed her eyes briefly, her exhaustion seeping through to show on her face.

Kyoya, sensing her state, continued where she had left off. "The Witch is especially an obstacle in regards to Nari since she has very close ties to my family, mainly my father. Since he is now awake, it shouldn't be long until she's here for a long stay and to try and marry my father."

"Is your father a Warlock, Kyo-ianc?"

"No. Generational."

"Then it wouldn't be the Witch. So it must mean me," Haruhi muttered, scowling at this new information. "Combining with a Warlock. How does that even work?" Hunny shrugged, Mori remained indifferent, and Kyoya's hand just barely curled into a fist. She didn't think about why that might be. "Either way we'll have to find a way to get her banished or killed. And without anyone interfering."

Kyoya snorted, knowing immediately that she was hinting that they'd need to find a way to keep his brothers distracted. "Yuiichi shouldn't be a problem. Akito on the other hand…"

"Maine said she was trying to get him to leave us alone."

"Good luck to her on that front," Kyoya muttered, releasing her hand to scratch the back of his head. "Hopefully my father won't choose a successor before the war is through, so we won't have to worry so much about that as convincing him that it's pointless to continue fighting."

"And if he does?" Haruhi asked.

"Then… We'll have to hope it's either Yuiichi or I." He paused just long enough to sigh and then looked back toward the pair of cousins who were again smiling at the two of them. He scowled. "We'll have to find some way to make peace with the Moradians as well."

She let out a sigh of her own and took the wheels of her chair, backing up and wheeling away from them slightly in order to think. "I thought you said you had a plan?"

Kyoya shook his head. "Not good enough. And my father would never go for it. We have to deal with the Kiran military and the Witch separately before we can even think about trying a peace treaty. Convincing him that the Witch is actually a threat will be difficult as well as the fact that Kira wants peace as long as the military's acting on their own."

"So we have nothing?"

"We have the prophecy!" Hunny exclaimed, trying to be optimistic. Haruhi shook her head slightly, not wanting to crush the poor man's spirits.

"We don't know what it means though," Kyoya said, quite bluntly. Hunny's smile dimmed in response. Mori patted his head a bit to reassure him while Haruhi shot her male companion a look. He was obviously frustrated with how things were turning out but that didn't give him the right to snap at the people that were trying to help them.

"We'll figure it out," she stated gently, attempting to quell his anger. "It says there are seven people. They have to be the four of us, Hikaru, Kaoru, and Tamaki. We'll solve it." He shrugged her off when she tried to touch his arm. Her lips turned down slightly in a frown while she looked toward the cousins for help. Hunny quickly nodded his head in agreement with her analysis of the seven people.

Kyoya let out a quick breath after a moment and muttered, "We should be heading back. Before long someone will start to wonder where we've gone." Before anyone could say or do anything, he took the handles of Haruhi's wheelchair and started to push her back in the direction of the castle.

Hunny grinned as soon as they were out of earshot. "They're cute, aren't they Takashi?"

"Ahh," Mori agreed.

~o~

Not long after their return, Kyoya was called in to see his father. Haruhi gave a soft sigh as he helped her get settled in the bed before rushing off. Charmaine quickly took his place in the room, choosing to choose the one moment that Kyoya was out of the room to speak with her.

"Have you thought about what I said?" she asked eagerly.

Haruhi stared at her, trying to remember what exactly had been said. She'd had bigger things to worry about honestly. Like developing a plan to end the war. Something that was obviously a failed attempt. Instead of telling the older woman the truth however, she lied, "Yes…"

"And?"

"And what?"

"What are you going to do?"

"I'm going to leave things as they are until King Yoshio is willing to give his consent to let me marry Kyoya."

"Does that mean that you're going to say yes?"

"Not necessarily. It means that if the King grows to like me, then it will be a possibility. Right now, I still won't risk his status with his father."

"He doesn't care about any of that!" Maine said stubbornly, more upset than Haruhi thought she had right to be.

"His father does! And I'm not going to end up being another Saren for him! I care too much about him to do that!" As soon as the words were out of her mouth, she regretted them. She had voiced her feelings without thinking. She'd been so frustrated with Maine's lack of understanding that they had just jumped out. She turned away from the older woman quickly, effectively hiding her expression.

Of course, Kyoya chose that exact moment to return. He walked in the room and blinked as he regarded Maine standing in his bedroom. "Akito won't be happy that you're here," he acknowledged her.

"Screw Akito. He doesn't control my every goddamn move," Maine retorted with flaring nostrils. Then he turned his eyes to Haruhi, who still wouldn't look at either of them. He scowled.

"What are the two of you up to?" he asked suspiciously.

"Nothing," Maine said quickly while Haruhi remained silent. Kyoya narrowed his eyes at her.

"Well then," he said softly, "You have no more reason to be here do you?" Maine nodded her head and curtsied quickly before scurrying out of the room. He sat down on the bed next to Haruhi. "What did she say?"

The brunette just shook her head. "Nothing of importance."

"She wouldn't have been here if it wasn't important, Haruhi."

The woman sighed and looked over at him. He raised an eyebrow at her weariness. "Can I get some tea?" He nodded his head but still waited for her to answer his question. "Now?" she prodded, trying to get him to leave the room. He shook his head, a simple indication that he wasn't leaving without a proper answer. She swore under her breath. "She's trying to convince me to marry you, okay? You have a very stubborn childhood friend. She won't listen to me, no matter what the reasons that I give her are."

He chuckled. "I think that's why Akito likes her so much. She's one of the only people he knows that can't be controlled by anyone." He stopped and thought for a moment before adding, "Kind of like you…" He stood before she could answer, muttering, "I'll just go get that tea for you…"

She stared after him, her chest aching vaguely. Was Maine right that she wasn't giving him enough of a chance? That she wasn't giving him enough credit? She wanted to believe that there was some way that she could marry him without repercussions, but no such option had ever existed before. There were always consequences. No matter what she did there always were. And then there were her feelings. She heaved another sigh. She had known she held affection for him. But she had never thought that anything would come from said affection. Yet, if what Maine said was true, it meant that Kyoya also held similar affections for her.

Her heart hurt just thinking about the possibility.

~o~

Within a week, she was fitted for a fake leg to replace the one that she had lost. The fitting itself was painful but trying to stand on it was worse. The recently healed skin on her stump broke again, leaving a bloody mess. Where it didn't break, it blistered from being rubbed against the metal of the prosthetic.

Kyoya swore more frequently then she had ever heard him while he and Yuiichi worked on it to make it more comfortable. Meanwhile, she started moving around on crutches, dumping her wheelchair and only using it if she absolutely had to.

The third time that Yuiichi came with the fake leg in hand for her to try, she groaned. She'd lost her leg three weeks ago and every time she put the damn thing on, it made the wound open up partially again.

"This is the last time, Haruhi, I swear," Yuiichi coaxed softly as he strapped it to her knee and lower thigh. The metal cup that held her knee had been padded somehow this time, which made it much more comfortable than it had been before.

She shrugged. "Not bad…"

"Try standing before you say that," Kyoya commented, watching from the doorway as his brother helped her up.

She shrugged again. "A bit worse. Not terrible though."

"Walk."

She stared at him. "Kyoya… I can't just walk."

"Try."

Yuiichi offered his arm which she grasped firmly before even trying to take a step forward. She did, right foot first. She grimaced with the pain that shot up her left leg from having all her weight on it. The eldest Ohtori quickly helped her sit back on the bed and remove the brace. "Didn't break the skin this time."

"No," she said in a voice that was an octave higher than normal, "I think it was just the pressure on the wound that hurt. Don't think that there's much else that we can do to fix that though. I'll use crutches with this until I'm used to it."

Kyoya didn't say anything, just stared at her leg. It was a rather simple design. A padded metal cup that attached to her leg via straps, a thick metal rod that served as her calve, and hallow metal foot. It was odd seeing her mismatched feet. And it was a sight that made him strangely guilty. He strode toward the bed where she sat slowly. Yuiichi, after replacing the prosthetic on her stump, stood and left, clapping him on the back on the way past.

As he sat down next to her, he just kept staring at the metal leg. Like he couldn't take his eyes off it. "Are you still blaming yourself for this?" she asked him quietly, shifting her left leg a bit. When he didn't reply she sighed and placed a hand on his knee. "Kyoya?"

"I'm fine," he murmured. "Father's requested our presence at dinner tonight."

"Wonderful," she muttered sarcastically as his hand grasped hers.

"I'll make sure that they serve you you're tea."

"That's not exactly what I'm worried about, Kyoya, and you know it."

He sighed and squeezed her hand a little tighter. "We'll get you a nice dress and then as long as you don't insult my father then things should be fine. Just act like a lady."

"Harder than you think," she grumbled. He chuckled under his breath and stood again, pressing his lips to her forehead. "Where are you going?"

"Meeting with my father. Your dress is in my wardrobe. Be ready in about an hour, alright?" She nodded, watching him curiously as he turned away and left the room. He was acting strange. Stranger than normal. Like something was bothering him. Something more than usual.

When he came back for her later, she was completely dressed and ready for dinner. He looked at her. She stared back, trying to decipher the thoughts going on in his head. She stood when he took a step closer. Her metal foot barely showed underneath the skirt of the light blue dress she wore. He stepped forward the rest of the way and offered his arm. She took it carefully. "Think you can walk down there?"

"Could try. Bring my crutches just in case though." He nodded and took them in one hand, slipping his other arm around her waist to help hold her up. She gained more strength after her first few steps but still required her crutches by the time she got to the stairs. When they reached the bottom, she tripped a bit and Kyoya caught her. "Thanks," she mumbled, pressing her face into his shoulder to try and get a grip on the pain that now shot through her leg. The arm around her waist tightened slightly, his nose pushing into her hair.

"It's alright," he whispered, "Breathe, Haruhi."

Of course at that moment Yoshio himself walked down the staircase. He gave them both a look, to which Kyoya just raised an eyebrow while Haruhi did as he had told her to and breathed. Finally she muttered, "Crutches." He nodded and handed them to her, still holding her up with one arm while his father merely watched them.

"Father," Kyoya finally said softly, nodding at him once Haruhi had slipped the crutches underneath her arms. "Shall we?"

Yoshio made some kind of unintelligible grunting noise and pushed past both of them into the dining room. Kyoya, she could tell, was doing his best to keep his temper under control and not punch his father. He walked alongside her hobbling until they were just outside the dining room when he stopped her and murmured, "He's not the most pleasant person to have dinner with. Don't be surprised if no one talks throughout the entire thing." She just nodded, confused with his need to tell her that. "Also… Don't take anything that he says to heart."

"Kyoya, I get it. Your father will try to insult me. It isn't like he hasn't already done that."

He took in a deep breath and nodded once quickly, letting her go in ahead of him.

The entire castle felt like a dragon's lair lately.

~o~

The entire dining room was quiet. Dead silent aside from the scurrying of servants, which only served to put Haruhi more on edge than normal. Kyoya would glance at her out of the corner of his eye every once in a while, as if trying to assure her that everything was find with a single look. She could feel King Yoshio's intense gaze on her nearly constantly, creating a slight burning sensation on the back of her neck.

Finally, halfway through their meal, the plate for which she had hardly touched, the King spoke in his normal monotonous commanding tone. "Aren't you hungry, Miss Yukikawa?"

She looked up, a bit startled at the beginning of speech and shook her head with a small smile. "Not particularly, Your Majesty." She paused and took a sip of the tea in front of her. "Pain tends to be a deterrent against hunger." Kyoya's eyes slid toward her face, his hand slipping into hers under the table. She looked toward him. "I'm fine," she mumbled in response to his worried gaze.

"You're sure?" he replied in a low voice. She nodded and turned her gaze back to the King.

"It's been three weeks, is it really still that bad?"

She gritted her teeth a bit, fighting the urge to make a biting reply and answered calmly, "I only just received my prosthetic, which will be painful to walk on until I adjust."

The King nodded. Haruhi thought it was a good sign. At least he was acknowledging that she existed instead of just pretending she wasn't really there. Though his questions, she knew, were out of malicious curiosity, not concern as Kyoya's would have been if from him. She prepared herself silently since she knew that this would not be his last question. She squeezed Kyoya's hand and let go carefully after a moment of breathing.

"Tell me more about your family."

"What would Your Majesty like to know?" she answered politely, sticking a bite of meat in her mouth and chewing slowly.

"Your parents for one."

She licked her lips, putting the story together in her head quickly before telling it. "My mother was a two-thirds Paitet, a sixth Kiran, and a sixth Moradian. She was the daughter of a high-ranked Paitet aristocratic couple – possibly a duke and duchess though I'm not exactly sure since I never met my grandparents on either side. My father is a third Narian and a sixth Kiran, Chartonian, Gratweny, and Tribal each. He is the son of a professor and a seamstress – not exactly high-ranking by your standards."

"How did two individuals come to marry?"

"They fell in love. My mother left her family and eloped with my father. Grandmother, I'm told, was absolutely furious with the choice. Both she and grandfather disowned her. My father couldn't have been any happier."

"And your father's parents?"

"They died… in a house fire a year before he and Mother wed. They weren't exactly sure of the marriage though either and discouraged Father from pursuing it. He, of course, did anyway. Father held a small position within the Paitet royal court of a scribe before mother died and continued for a short while after before he had to quit in order to take better care of me."

"When did your mother die?"

"When I was merely a child. Two, maybe three, years old. I don't have many, if any memories of her. Most of what I know is from my father."

"And where is your father currently?"

"Pait. He's currently a… bartender but occasionally helps a professor friend of his teach a class."

"Are he and your uncle close?"

"Somewhat… They rarely ever see each other though thanks to the war." The King nodded his head and finally fell silent, content with eating. "I am a Narian citizen, Your Majesty. I live here more often then I'm there and I have dual-citizenship." She glanced at Kyoya, wondering if that lie would be able to pass the tests that his might put it through. He didn't make any indication that she had overstepped her boundaries so she assumed that it would be taken care of before anyone could prove it false.

Yoshio took no acknowledgment of her testimony, but Haruhi really didn't care. All she wanted was to be out of the man's presence so she could be herself again. The other members of the family who were there, having remained silent through the entire conversation now took their turns conversing with their patriarch.

"Akito, how is your recovery?"

"Well," the younger Ohtori replied, "I'm close to walking again. My physical therapists say that I might even be able to before the end of the week." He seemed happy, though Haruhi felt a shiver of dread. A completely mobile Akito was a dangerous one. Yuiichi excused himself as Yuki was fidgeting in her seat, ready to go back to playing. Akito took leave shortly afterward, leaving the youngest Narian Prince, Haruhi, and the King alone in the dining hall.

And there was silence.

It seemed that Yoshio had nothing to say to his youngest son, which she found to be a bit rude. He'd talked with every other person at the table but not Kyoya. Haruhi glanced at Kyoya, who was finishing up his last bit of food. "Ready?" he asked her as he wiped his mouth with his napkin. She nodded and moved to stand.

Now Yoshio did say something and Haruhi's heart nearly stopped at his words.

"Kyoya, it seems that you have a penchant for attempting to negotiate peace. I set up a conference for possible peace with the Kiran General. I want you to go and take her with you, I'm sure she'll be at least some help to you."

~o~

A/N: Kind of awkward place to stop but this is only 300 words short of 5,000 words.

Will they be able to negotiate peace with the Kiran Army? And will King Yoshio finally see reason?

I'm not telling!

Guess what? I'm legal! Woohoo! (Not that I was illegal before) I turned 18 on the 29th of April C: So happpppppyyyyyy! I don't have to ask permission to do stuff now. I just go (the only downside is I have to pay for it myself). I also figured out what's wrong with me, yaaaaay! No more migraines! AND I figured out that I get to go to college next year practically for free. Yes. This month has been a very good month.

Excuse me… Ramble over.

Kudos to: isara-love, Magpie09, xxXDreamFan98Xxx, Nessie-san, and Koharu Veddette!

-cough- By the way… If you have checked out my new story… You should. It's vaguely Sherlock-esque, and absolutely amazing (at least it feels like that in my brain). I didn't realize that it was Sherlock-like until I finished both seasons in like… Two days though. Doh. Anywho… Check it out!