Prologue:

Country— Japan

Population— 127 Million

Date— Friday—December 29th—2016

———————

It was after school and a big snowstorm had just rolled in, so all the hosts went to stay at Tamaki's place to wait for it to blow over.

All except for Haruhi, who said she was going to stay for another hour or so before she heads home. Tamaki of course objected to this, but he couldn't change her mind.

Eventually the snowstorm got so bad the hosts just decided to spend the night. All of the hosts were asleep rather quickly once it got dark, except for Honey, Hikaru, and Mori who was dozing off. Honey was about to fall asleep himself when he noticed Hikaru looking sad, and holding something in his hands.

"Hika-Chan? What are you holding?"

Hikaru looked at Honey, and then back at the object. He moved it so that Honey could see it, it was a necklace.

It had a brown leather string with a knot holding the pendant in place. Which was a silver colored, metal circle, as well as a metal rectangle behind the feather that had writing on it.

Hikaru hesitantly handed the necklace to Honey so he could look closer. Upon closer inspection Honey saw the writing on the rectangle that read: Yours, forever and always. Honey got the hint and looked at Hikaru.

"You're in love with someone?"

Hikaru nodded in response.

"Yeah, she returned my feelings as well, and a while ago we'd agreed that we would eventually get married. I... had wanted to give this to her, so she'd have a little reminder of our relationship, our love, even when she's alone, or I'm not around."

Honey beamed at him.

"That's so sweet! I'm so happy for you, Hika-Chan!"

Hikaru smiled awkwardly, and then frowned again.

"But, we broke up a while ago, neither of us wanted to, like, at all but, we figured that our relationship will upset you guys..."

"Huh? Why?"

Hikaru looked at Honey, and then over at this younger twin, Kaoru. Hesitating before speaking again.

"Will you... promise not to tell anyone? Or freak out?"

"I don't know, I can't know how I'll react if I don't know what you're going to tell me, Hikaru."

At this point Mori had begun to stir, and was listening in on the conversation.

"She, well. A lot of people are after her romantically, and not even Kaoru knew we were together for a while. To put it short, we both already know that Tamaki likes her... and sadly we both knew that a huge fight would probably break out if they were to find out about us. The only reason we broke up was because we didn't want that to happen."

Honey looked surprised, but kept listening.

"She was mostly the one to make the call, since she didn't want to hurt her friends. And, I agreed because I knew that a good chunk of anger would be directed at her, and, I'd hate for that to happen to someone as amazing as her..."

"Aww, Hika-Chan, if you really love her, you shouldn't just throw your chances away just to keep others happy. You deserve happiness too."

That's when Mori finally chimed in.

"Our world would be a whole new level of cruel, if everyone sacrificed all their happiness for someone else. Or downright made themselves miserable for someone else."

"You don't deserve that Hika-Chan, and your loved one probably doesn't deserve that either. You've already isolated yourself from people to a harmful level, and then when you've fallen in love you're going to give it up?"

Hikaru didn't answer, since he didn't know how to reply.

"Actually, sorry for getting off topic but, didn't Haruhi say that there was a lock down...? Haruhi hasn't answered her phone for a while either..."

Honey tilted his head.

"That doesn't really sound like her, I know she's usually really busy, but if there's something going on like a lock down she usually answers rather quickly..."

"That's what I was saying, do you think something happened?"

"I hope not."

Hikaru then got up after Honey handed him back the necklace.

"I'm going to go see what's happening, I know a short cut to get to Ouran quickly."

"What about Kao-Chan?"

"I don't want to wake him up, and it might not be serious, so if he wakes up can you tell him where I went?"

"Okay Hika-Chan, but be careful, it's still snowy."

Hikaru nodded and left a few moments later. Leaving Honey and Mori alone with the other sleeping hosts.

"Do you think you know who Hika-Chan's talking about, Takashi?"

Mori looked at him and shrugged.

"I have a strong feeling for who it is, but I can't know for sure. What about you, Mitsukuni?"

Honey was about to answer when a loud crash followed by a scream was heard down the hall. Both hosts jolted their heads in the direction of the scream. The noise had also woken Tamaki up.

"What was that? What happened?!"

Both Honey and Mori shrugged, still feeling a little shaken themselves.

"I don't know Tama-Chan. Should we see what happened?"

"It might not be a smart idea, Mitsukuni. If it's a real safety hazard, then we shouldn't try to approach it immediately."

That was when Kaoru woke up.

"Hey, where's Hikaru?"

"He went out to check on Haruhi, she said the school went into lockdown and then stopped responding to his messages. He was just going to make sure everything was okay."

Kaoru tilted his head at this, clearly confused. Then when Haruhi was mentioned he seemed to flinch a little. Did he know something?

"Why would he go by himself in this weather?"

Mori responded quickly.

"He didn't want to wake you up. He told us to tell you where he was going if you did."

Kaoru shook his head.

"No, it's not that I didn't go with him, but we both saw something about an outbreak somewhere near the school. I think it was the flu, but I'd rather not be stuck here wondering if Hikaru would freeze, get sick, or be in trouble with whatever the lockdown is about."

This left the hosts a little confused, and worried. They had gotten a similar warning earlier, but ignored it because they thought it wasn't serious. The flu? They didn't hear any mention of the flu...

That was when Kyoya piped up.

"The flu? I thought they said it was rabies?"

Everyone went silent, they looked in the direction where the scream came from, remembered the lockdown at Ouran, and looked at each other again. They all thought the same thing.

"Oh no."

—————- Meanwhile -—————

Hikaru had finally made it inside the gates, after spotting somebody looking at him like he was a piece of meat. He also noted that they had a bloodshot look in their eyes.

Hikaru shook it off and walked up to the front door—very difficult with the several feet of snow here—, locked. He knocked a few times, no answer. Okay. It was a lockdown.

There didn't seem to be anyone inside though. Okay?

He decided to go around the back, and found one of the lesser known back doors with scratches and blood on it. Plus evidence of somebody already trying to dig through the snow to get to the door but failing. Okay...?

Then he managed to dig through, replace the snow and walked in, and saw dark red splatters on the floor. Then footprints leading into a hallway and turning left. He turned around, closed the door and locked it. He hesitantly walked into the hall, his gut starting to pressure him to get out of there.

He kept walking forward, and eventually found his homeroom and peeked inside, by that I meant he knelt down and peeked under the door frame. The lights were off. He had a small coin in his pocket and slid it under the door, no response.

Hikaru got up and kept walking. Then he got to a staircase and went upstairs to where the club rooms were. Then he spotted the third music room, maybe... he pulled out another coin from his pocket and slid it under the door, hearing a loud-ish clang as it hit one of the pillars. No response, other then a shifting noise that he thought was his imagination.

Hikaru sighed and kept walking, before looking around a corner and spotting a police officer. But it quickly became clear to Hikaru that something was wrong.

There was blood soaking the officers uniform, and he had a large bite mark on the back of his neck, his eyes had the same bloodshot madness he'd seen in the last person he saw. He looked like he had some kind of rabies.

Hikaru got the cue and backed away, looking behind him and going slow so he made no noise.

Once the cop was out of view behind the wall, Hikaru had to force himself to walk back to the stairs, and trust that the cop won't walk in his direction and see him.

Now it made more sense, of course there was a lockdown. Of course it was on the news. There could have been an outbreak of something that made people crazy. If Haruhi was here, she probably would have been able to—... Haruhi.

Hikaru paused as he was a few feet from the stairs. Haruhi!

Hikaru quickly snapped out of his daze and looked behind him, he needed to know if Haruhi was okay.

So he decided to look around, he went door to door, finding loud objects that he slide under the door, no response, no response, no response. Silent.

Then when he made the mistake of opening a door, he had an unpleasantly accurate view of three bodies, two were dead, the first lying there in a pool of blood, the other was getting bitten in the neck by the cop. He felt even worse as he recognized their faces, but neither of them were Haruhi, so he at least felt comfort in that area.

Hikaru managed to avoid being noticed, and started praying that Haruhi didn't end up like either.

Then he reached the final room. Slid his last coin underneath the door.

Heard the clang.

Got ready to keep looking.

And heard faint murmuring from the other side of the door. He got up, this time more hopeful, and realized that he'd managed to loop himself back to music room 3.

He looked to the hallway where he saw the cop. And tried to speak as quietly as possible, under the doorframe so the others inside could hear him better.

"... Hello?"

Hikaru heard somebody gasp and walk over to the door. When that person got on their hands and knees, Hikaru felt a pulse of relief circulate through his body, and he could breath again.

"Hikaru, is that you...?"

Hikaru smiled and reached his hand under the door to touch hers.

"Yep, are you okay?"

"Get your hand out from under there first."

Hikaru moved his hand out and got up, the door opened quietly and he felt even more relief when he saw Haruhi's head poking out to look at him.

Then he was pulled into the club room, and Haruhi re-fastened the door closed with the lock and someone's blazer.

The next thing he knew, Haruhi had her arms wrapped around him in a tight hug. Hikaru sighed happily and hugged her back.

Hikaru opened his eyes and looked around the club room, two clients, Renge, two male students, and then one female student that particularly caught his eye. Once he had been looking at her for a few seconds he knew exactly who she was, Seika Ayanokoji.

Hikaru hugged Haruhi tighter and instinctively narrowed his eyes a little at her, and she seemed to quickly understand why.

Hikaru shook his head and focused back on Haruhi. Then when the two pulled away from the hug, Hikaru got butterflies in his stomach when he saw her smiling at him.

"Where, are the others?"

Hikaru looked away.

"I came over here by myself, I wanted to see if you were okay."

Haruhi smiled at Hikaru and hugged him a little tighter.

"That's sweet, Hikaru. But didn't you see the news?"

"I knew there was something going on with a disease or something, but I didn't know that was what the lockdown was about."

Ayanokoji had at this point walked over to the window and looked outside.

"Well, either way, it looks like we'll be stuck in here for a while. Especially with those rabid whack-jobs trying to get a bite out of us."

Then one of the clients spoke up, and Hikaru realized that the two were Kanako Kasugazaki and her fiancé, Toru Suzushima. Hikaru was a little happy to see them again, but frowned.

At least they don't have to hide their love, their affection, nobody will try to stop their engagement... they get to be public about their relationship, and don't have to worry about a surge of anger from their friends and family. I wonder if they realize how lucky they are to have that luxury...

"But how are we supposed to survive if we're stuck in one room with no food or water?"

Hikaru winced a little, she had a point after all. Haruhi looked down and responded quietly.

"We can try to figure something out, if we do go out to get food, we'll need to be really careful."

Everyone in the room went about their business then, mostly trying to figure out a good way to stay alive. Kasugazaki and Suzushima seemed like they were discussing something that scared or severely worried them.

Hikaru looked down at Haruhi, who gave him a weak smile in spite of the situation.

We both want to, and we know it. Would have made things easier if somebody had told me how badly this would hurt, especially since I know it's hurting you too...

Hikaru hugged Haruhi again, tightly.

I think Honey-Senpai and Mori-Senpai were right, this isn't good for either of us, I know for a fact that Haruhi doesn't deserve this.

Hikaru took a deep breath, leaned down a little, and whispered something to her.

"I love you."