Two Years Later

"Haruhi?"

Tamaki went over and knocked on the door, concern clear in his voice.

"I'm fine. Just... Could you come in here?"

Tamaki obliged before there could be an audible pause. Opening the door and standing next to Haruhi in front of the counter.

Everyone had mixed feelings when the couple announced that they wanted to stay in South Korea after college. It was the initial reaction, anyway.

Honey was happy that they liked the place enough to live there. The twins were happy for them, but it was clear they were also a little sad they couldn't see each other very often. Ranka was a little suspicious and angry when he found out that they still wanted to live together. When they could seemingly do fine on their own.

There were still plenty of mixed emotions around their decision. But Haruhi and Tamaki, having not done anything irresponsible in over six years, had convinced everyone they were going to be fine. They didn't need to explicitly state that they were going out, but everyone saw they were being careful, so they didn't worry so much anymore.

When Tamaki looked at the counter, he could tell that that fact alone could easily change within the next few months. Depending on how they react to the news.

Haruhi turned her head to look at Tamaki. The twenty four year old having a strange look of concern in her eyes.

"Um, at least we don't have to explain that we're going out to them. But I can't think of a way to break the ice. Any ideas?"

Haruhi's eyes motioned next to her, and Tamaki looked. Recognizing why Haruhi worded that so specifically. Whenever she said something of that nature, it was a double entendres.

This meant that not only did Haruhi not know how to break the ice with everyone else. She was telling Tamaki that she had no clue how to start the conversation with him, either.

Tamaki gave her a soft smile, and pulled her into a hug. Not wanting her to worry for even a moment that he was upset about it.

"You think we're ready? Looking back, I think I can see how this happened."

Haruhi shrugged, hugging her partner back.

"I dunno. I think we are, we've at least talked about it for the past two years. But, I'm not sure if I'm ready to have that conversation with the others. We haven't even told them the other big thing."

Tamaki pulled away slightly, holding up Haruhi's left hand that had a small glint in the light. An image briefly flashing in his mind of about six months prior. Bright flashes of city lights that barely illuminated the pair. Haruhi in front of him smiling from such happiness and excitement that she was on the verge of tears.

Another image flashed, one from two months ago that explained their current predicament, but Tamaki's face went red at the poor timing and he forced it back to reply to Haruhi.

"Well, we were already planning on telling them when they visit next month. Why don't we just figure out what to say first?"

Haruhi smiled a bit as her attention briefly went to the ring on her finger. And she nodded.

"I think I can answer that fast enough. Let's tell them about the engagement first. You proposed over six months ago, it's more of a long time coming."

Tamaki nodded in agreement.

"Well, what now, then?"

"We figure out how we're gonna make this work."

Tamaki smiled. Clearly ready to do his best to help. They were both supporting themselves rather well. But, since Haruhi would likely need to take a break from work, it might have gotten a little more difficult. They were going to need to prepare for some difficulties. Just in case.

Honey went over to Ranka, who seemed a little uneasy, and smiled just as brightly as he usually did.

"Are you excited for the visit, Ranka-san?"

Ranka nodded, giving Honey a small smile.

"Yes, I wish we didn't keep getting delayed. I'm just hoping another one doesn't occur."

Honey didn't blame him for being frustrated about that. There were several delays. They tried visiting for over two years, but every time they got close, something came up to where they needed to cancel it.

It had happened over six times already. And everyone was rather tired of it. Especially since Haruhi and Tamaki had to start working overtime because they took days off for the visits, only to have said visits cancelled last minute.

"Well, this one is lasting longer than the other times. That's a good sign, right?"

This made Ranka smile slightly, and nod.

"I suppose so. I was starting to think it would take a disaster here for a visit to actually happen."

Hikaru laughed.

"That's fair. Kaoru and I were thinking something similar. More so that we had some bad luck thing going on."

Kaoru continued the thought.

"Yeah. We were starting to debate what we did to get the bad luck issue. We were just starting to narrow the most likely options into a top ten list."

Everyone laughed hearing that. Not because of the story on its own. But that the twins were saying this with full seriousness. Kaoru even picked up and held the list for the others to clearly read tapping on the paper aggressively to draw attention to it.

"Why do several of those have to do with Haruhi and Tamaki doing something?"

Hikaru shrugged.

"It's just what we're trying to come up with. It makes sense that it would be them if they're being separated from us with some bad luck thing."

The others didn't necessarily argue with the reasoning. But they were still holding in their laughter with Kaoru shaking the list around.

Then, Honey looked closer at the list.

"Um, why is one of the options of Tama-Chan and Haru-Chan doing that?"

Kaoru shrugged. Everyone else looked at it, and were just as confused. Ranka seeing another dot and becoming nervous.

"Eh, sorry. That's part of why we wanted to narrow it down. We got bored trying to think of rational explanations, so we just played around a little."

Kyoya raised an eyebrow.

"Why not put that on a seperate list?

"That's why we're narrowing it! We were in the process of putting them on two different lists."

Ranka glanced back at the one option on the list, and pointed to it.

"Did you mean that seriously? Or was it one of the jokes?"

Hikaru paled slightly.

"That one we made when we were just starting to joke around. But I don't think of it as a real thing. For one, Haruhi is too responsible to let that happen. If it did, she would take immediate responsibility for it. For another, if it was happening, why would it be considered a reason for us to have bad luck?"

Everyone looked at him as Kaoru continued.

"Think about it, they're so cautious about it, that it's just about as impossible as it could get. So if it did happen, it had to be at least a little intentional. Meaning that they both have everything planned out for every negative consequence. So why would it warrant bad luck?"

Mori looked at Ranka, and wanted to make sure the words comforted him. Briefly glancing at Hikaru blushing in embarrassment as he spoke.

"They have a point. If they think they're prepared enough to let that happen, we should trust their judgement on it. We still haven't even seen their apartment, they might be fully prepared already."

This finally seemed to get Ranka to relax. And he directed a smile at Mori.

"Thank you. You're all right. They're too careful for an accident to happen. Well, Haruhi is, anyway."