"What happened at the beach house?" Kaoru asked in the dimly lit media room. He had intended to be more tactful when he asked, but once she answered, he wasn't able to restrain himself from asking the question that had been bothering him and Hikaru since they got back. "We've kept quiet about it long enough. Why were you crying? Did Kyoya do something to you? We just talked about being open with each other. I'm glad you've been more present in the club, again, but you've been distant," he continued in exasperation. He and Hikaru knew that the other hosts were picking up on her strange behavior, too, but Kaoru was absolutely certain that they hadn't seen her crying in the library with Kyoya. "Look, Hana, if you're unhappy with the host club, we'd understand if you wanted to quit. I mean, we all know that it's not part of your job."

He wanted to be the supportive best friend, but there was a biting panic when he had the thought. The host club was the only reason they saw her. Before Tamaki formed the club, it was as if she had disappeared from their lives, and the fear that had been gradually building since Hanako started talking to them normally again reared its ugly head.

"Don't be stupid, Kaoru," she said with an unwavering resolve that beheaded the doubt rising up in Kaoru's anxiety. His frantic heartbeat slowed to a normal rate and he let out a relieved breath. "I tried to talk with Takashi at the villa," she admitted in a dead voice that hinted at how well that conversation had gone.

"What happened?" Kaoru asked her. He wasn't thrilled by her response, and his concern for her replaced the overwhelming fear of rejection that he had just felt. He had liked Mori as a partner for his godsister right until the day their engagement ended, and after she effectively cut off her ties with the twins, he had at least been confident that Mori would be there for her. Until he had been proven completely wrong.

"I told him to speak up, and he didn't" Hana answered plainly, as if they could have been discussing anything else, but it sounded too casual. That was her tell. Hanako had a habit of overcompensating for whatever she was feeling. When she was overwhelmed, she would act unbothered. When she she had to face something head on, she focused on just about anything else. "He didn't have anything left to say, and I can't keep holding on to nothing."

"Are you sure he just didn't know what to say?" Kaoru broached the topic tentatively. He wasn't going to defend Mori. He wanted Hana to be happy, and with everything that he had witnessed over the past two and a half years, he just wanted her decisions to be the ones that were right for her. She deserved that freedom.

"I appreciate your concern, Kaoru, but he always speaks up when he needs to," her voice sounded impossibly soft. Soft but not weak. His big sis was never weak because she couldn't afford to be. She didn't have the luxury of succumbing to something like heartbreak when they were all relying on her to be the strong one. She sounded sad, but he could hear the acceptance behind her gratitude for her best friend. All he could do now was be there for her and try to pay her back for everything she had done for them over the years. "Either he had nothing to say, or it didn't matter enough for him to say it," she continued.

"I suppose that's true. I'm glad you have some closure." Admittedly, he felt some relief. The host club was more perceptive than they got credit for, and they had all been watching Hanako's recovery closely since the genesis of their club. He doubted that Haruhi knew it yet, but the others were all well aware of the safe bubble that Hanako was trying to keep them in. He was the first one to recognize it when she cut them out, and he knew that the others realized it later on. Hana's life had come undone with rapid changes, and she put every effort into maintaining the status quo, even at the expense of her own happiness.

She was so wrapped up in preventing them from changing that she didn't even realize that she cast the first stone into a still pond, creating ripples that would disrupt the black and white fantasy she wanted to hold on to.

"Kyoya kissed me, too," she threw it out so nonchalantly that he thought he misheard her.

Her inappropriately voiced statement floored him, and the phone almost slipped from his hand as he scrambled to form a response. "How could you bring that up so carelessly?" he scolded with the phone held in both hands as he shouted into the mouth piece.

"Don't get so worked up about it," she advised.

Kaoru scoffed and moved the phone to one hand again, regaining his lazily posture as he leaned over the back of the sofa to watch what was happening on the flat screen. "How am I supposed to do that when Kyoya's being reckless like this?" irritation pooled in his gut as memories of his peers mocking whispers clouded his thoughts. "Were you two thinking about the repercussions of being seen?"

They weren't normal teenagers like Haruhi. There were always eyes on them and mouths ready to spew acid if they ever had the chance. Hanako had already suffered the crippling weight of their society, and Kaoru knew that Kyoya was well aware of the pressure that she was under. One mistake could reduce the walls that protected their little kingdom to rubble, and they had worked so hard to create a place that was safe for all of them. If anyone found out, their credibility would be questioned, and then what little they had been able to do for her would go to waste.

"Obviously, neither of us were thinking," she said dryly, and he knew that she was well aware of every concern he had. "I'm only letting you know about it because you're my best friend, not because it was something relevant. It only happened because of the circumstances. We are both aware that it was a lapse in judgment. There were no real feelings behind it other than confusion and comfort, and it won't happen again. Can you trust me on that?"

She could have been talking about the profits from the auction with that tone. She sounded like a robot, and Kaoru didn't believe a damn thing she said. It was clear that she and Kyoya believed everything that she said to him, but Kaoru knew better than to buy into whatever it was they were selling. He may not have been there recently, but everyone could see how close Hana and Kyoya had become since she was appointed as his personal body guard. It was the little things that gave them away, and Kaoru had a suspicion that the bubble was going to pop soon.

She was so distracted by everything else that she was completely oblivious to her own feelings. Kaoru mulled over what she had just asked him. He could trust that she really believed what she was saying, but he wasn't so confident.

"Kaoru?" she prompted over the phone.

"Yeah, okay," he ran a hand through his hair, annoyed that he had to lie to her so blatantly but glad he was better at it than she was.

"Thank you," he could hear the relief in her voice. "Can you please not tell the others?"

There she went trying to keep that bubble intact, again. Kaoru's gaze slid to Hikaru. His older brother sat on the sofa next to him, pressing buttons on his controller. Hikaru hadn't looked away from the screen the whole time that Kaoru was on the phone. If he didn't know better, he would have thought that Hikaru hadn't been listening in on the conversation. "I promise, sis," Kaoru said earnestly. There wasn't anyone outside of Hikaru who he would tell, and she didn't need to know that her other godbrother had been there the whole time.

"Make Hikaru promise, too," she urged him as if she could read his mind over the phone. He should have known that she would expect them to be together while they were on the phone. She didn't sound mad, and he knew that she probably wasn't. She just wanted them to keep this between them.

"You don't even need to ask," Hikaru called back with mild annoyance. They were the last people on earth who would gossip about her, and she didn't have to go out of her way to ask them to keep their mouths shut.

"Thanks," she answered fondly, and they could hear the smile in her voice followed by a yawn. "It's getting late, and I'm tired. I'll see you at school. Good night. I love you guys."

"Love you, too, sis," Kaoru returned. "Good night."

{OR}

Their call ended, and Kaoru pocketed his phone. The boy sighed heavily and fell over the couch, landing on the plush velvet cushions next to his brother. "She's as oblivious as Haruhi," Kaoru complained. "She should know better than to let something like that happen."

Hikaru nodded and continued to play his game with half of his interest, "The last thing she needs is to prove all those rumors about her true." The light from the television cast a harsh shadow across Hikaru's face, darkening his already serious expression.

Kaoru shot up from his reclined position and stared at his brother indignantly, "It's not like that!" They knew that other people didn't understand Hanako's situation. They were quick to make judgments about her and her relationships with the host club without looking at the facts or waiting for evidence. Besides, they knew Hana was more complex than other people wanted her to be.

Hikaru fixed Kaoru with a stern look and took off the headseat he was wearing, not that he had been using it anyway. "It is as long as she and Kyoya are still telling themselves that there isn't anything between them," Hikaru voiced the unwanted thoughts that Kaoru already knew to be true. The longer those two denied whatever feelings they had, the more susceptible they were to proving the rumors about them true.

Kaoru groaned in frustration, burying his face in his hands, "I just don't want to see her get hurt again." Hikaru's younger brother hung his head and pushed his palms against his forehead. The twins were once again faced with the dilemma they had been trying to overcome since middle school.

Hikaru sighed and readjusted his headphones, "I don't either, but even we can't protect her from herself." His eyes narrowed at the screen, but his mind wasn't on the stupid first person shooter game.

{OR}

The twins were in middle school when their godfather died. Yuzuha hadn't been responsible for his funeral. This time, Yoshio Ootori had made the arrangements, and not long after their Uncle Yuudai's memorial service, Hanako went to live with the Ootoris. Everything went to the Ootoris, and anything they didn't want was auctioned off. The twins kept to themselves more than ever, and it was very clear to them that they hadn't just lost their godparents with Yuudai's death, they had lost their godsister as well.

The comfort that they had sought from her when Akina died wasn't there this time around. The person in place of their godsister was a cold, entirely removed body guard as unattached to them as any of the other members of the Black Onion Squad that had also come under the ownership of Yoshio Ootori. They rarely saw her, and when they did, it was like she couldn't see them anymore. She had become Kyoya's shadow, an empty shade that never strayed from his side.

Kaoru had taken to sticking closer to Hikaru during the school day, and the next time that they saw her at school, they saw that she had traded her Ouran student uniform for a black and white suit. The twins were playing a handheld game at the time and loitering in the hallway between classes when they saw her. They watched her openly as she and Kyoya passed by them, and they tried to make eye contact with her, desperate for her to see them. Her face was completely impassive, and she followed behind Kyoya like some kind of servant. They caught her gaze over the stupid dark shades that she had taken to wearing, and they knew without a doubt that she had seen them. They craned their necks to follow her when she passed by, and they waited in vain for some kind of acknowledgment that never came.

She looked like some kind of twisted imitation of Akina, the ruthless brain behind their uncle's success. A younger, more polished version of the wild child their godmother had been when she was their age. Her dismissal stung, and Kaoru racked his mind, wondering what they had done wrong for her to ignore them like this. Hikaru shook with rage and stormed off, and Kaoru followed his brother, hurt and confused by the sudden distance between them and their godsister.

It was around that time when their classmates were getting braver with their gossip. They no longer feared the Negida name the way that they used to, and it seemed that they forgot about Hanako's connections when the numbers of mediocre names surrounding her fell away. Superficial friends turned on her at the first chance they had to save themselves. They thought that she was defenseless, and they attacked like it was open season.

That day, the twins were together at Hikaru's desk. The older twin had his handheld game station while Kaoru sat on his desk and watched the repetitive patterns playout on the small screen. They weren't social, and nobody thought twice about their presence before they started talking about how they had seen Kyoya leaving the dining hall with Hanako close behind him.

"She's always hovering close to him, now," one of the girls who had been an acquaintance of Hana's was saying petulantly. "I mean, it's awful what happened to her parents, but moving in on the Ootori family is so disgraceful."

"You know she's his personal servant now. I heard it from my cousin in the 2-A class," one of the boys chimed in. "She moved into their estate and everything. She leaves and arrives in the same car as he does."

"What? Really?"

"Yeah! It's true," another student corroborrated the claim.

"She takes care of all of his personal needs," the boy stated as more students expressed their interest in what he had to say, "and in return, the Ootoris support her financially. That's why she's able to stay here as a student."

"That's so shameful," a girl's nose scrunched up distastefully.

"I never thought Negida-senpai would sink so low."

"Do you really think she's that dirty?" another boy asked, excited and sharing a laugh with his other male friends in the classroom.

"You heard about her mother, right?" one of the girls asked. "My parents said that when she was in high school, Lady Negida used to flirt with the sons of wealthy families for gifts."

"My mom said the same thing."

"Yeah, mine too, and you know, before she married into the Negida family, her family was facing bankruptcy. It's how the Suohs rose to power."

"Do you really think Negida-senpai's a gold digger like her mother?"

"You can't honestly believe that what's happening with Ootori is innocent!"

"Poor Morinozuka," one of the girls lamented.

"That's right, Morinozuka's still engaged to her."

"What a whore," they started to sneer.

"Gold digger and a whore."

"Just like her mother."

"Man, wouldn't it be great to be Ootori? I wonder if she calls him master when she…" The arrogant boy didn't get the chance to utter another word. The jeers and whispers faded into a tense silence, and in the middle of the classroom, Hikaru Hitachiin held his classmate by his collar with a murderous look in his eyes. Kaoru stood beside his brother with his hands in his pocket and a disgusted, hateful expression that was no less dangerous than his brother's.

"You're talking about our big sis," Hikaru hissed at the boy. They had all forgotten. They hadn't seen Hanako with the twins lately, and they thought that made it okay to talk about her like that in their presence. Their collective fear was palpable. These two boys who never interacted with anyone had the power to topple everyone else's families with a single word. Wealth was one thing, but lineage was another. They had forgotten that rule, and they had forgotten that Hanako's bloodline would always tie her to the Hitachiins'. No matter what happened, at Ouran, Hanako Negida would always stand above the rest of them.

"You should really learn to watch your mouth because you never know who's going to hear," the eerie threat in Kaoru's collected voice chilled the students to their bones.

"Next time you run your mouth, it might just be Ootori or the chairman who's there," Hikaru admonished with narrowed eyes.

"Do you really want to piss off the Ootoris or the Suohs?" Kaoru questioned. The boy who had taken the brunt of the twins' anger was quaking in his Italian leather shoes.

"Everyone here better think twice before saying anything about Hanako Negida!" Hikaru declared to the classroom, shoving his classmate away from him as if he was garbage that Hikaru couldn't bear to touch any longer. The twins returned to their desks together, and the classroom remained silent. Their classmates were too scared to speak out of turn again.

{OR}

Later that day, the twins were enjoying enjoying a two player video game in their media room when a maid entered and let them know that Hanako was waiting for them in the sitting room. The brothers were pleasantly surprised by the unexpected visit, and they met their godsister in good moods.

"Hey, Hana," Kaoru greeted.

"We were wondering when you were gonna show up again," Hikaru added cheerfully. Their matching smiles fell when they saw her face.

Her mouth was set in a hard line, and she regarded them with inhospitable caramel eyes. "I heard that a fight almost broke out in your homeroom," she stated bluntly. "Would you like to tell me about it?"

Kaoru was the one who spoke up, saying in a flat voice, "It was nothing."

"It must have been the other set of twins, then," her eyes flashed angrily as she accused her godbrothers of the unbecoming behavior.

"It's not right for those bastards to say what they are about you and Auntie Akina!" Hikaru snapped, his anger and frustration finally pouring out of him. He hated that his peers felt that they could kick her while she was down, and it felt worse that nobody was doing anything about it.

"It doesn't matter," she argued, her anger building to match Hikaru's.

"You didn't hear what they said," Hikaru scowled, thinking of all the foul things he and Kaoru had to hear.

"Do you think that shutting up a couple of middle schoolers is going to stop the entire school from talking?" she demanded. "I know what they're saying about me."

Something in Hikaru snapped when he heard that, and his eyes widened with pure outrage. "How can you allow them to continue?" his voice shook with the emotion behind his words, as if he would burst into tears at any moment. "Why aren't you doing anything about it?! You could go to the chairman and make a formal complaint. God damn it, Hana, tell Kyoya to do something about it. Just make them stop!"

They wanted her to be as angry as they were. They wanted Hana to fight with them and make things right, again. They were raised as a family, and as far as they cared, Hanako Negida was their own flesh and blood. Akina had been like a second mother to them. Every word spoken against the Negida family was a word spoken against the Hitachiins. Did she not understand what was happening? Did she not know that they needed her? God damn it, their world was falling apart around them, and they couldn't handle it by themselves. They needed her to tell them that she was with them, but she never did.

"Listen to me," she told them in a clear, measured voice. "I am not in the same position that I was when my parents were still alive. I have to be careful not to make any enemies because I can't afford to. The two of you trying to help me won't do anything for my reputation, and the last thing I need is to give the people watching me more of a reason to talk."

"It's not like that!" Hikaru all but snarled in her face at the suggestion of those kinds of rumors forming around their little family.

"It doesn't matter," Hanako shot back. "They will think what they want to think about anything I do and anyone who's around me."

"What does that mean for Ootori?" Kaoru asked.

"Nobody with a shred of self-preservation would dare insult the Ootoris like that," she said, and they all knew it was true. That was the way their society functioned. The Suohs and Ootoris were infallible. The Hitachiins and Haninozukas were untouchable. The Morinozukas were out of reach, and the Negidas had been, once, too. Everyone else, was replaceable.

"I will not watch you drag yourselves down to my level for me," she continued as the truth of her words fueled Hikaru's growing rage. "Promise me you'll leave things alone."

She fixed her gaze on both of them, and they were torn between respecting her wishes and their desire to keep what was left of their already incomplete family together. Kaoru didn't like what she was asking of them, but he understood her points and knew she was right. She didn't have the safety of her lineage anymore, and she didn't have the wealth to back her. The Ootoris couldn't claim her as theirs, and her engagement with Morinozuka didn't change anything until they were married. With the weight of her expectant gaze on him, Kaoru relented grudgingly.

"I promise," he said under his breath.

Hikaru rounded on his brother in shock and horror, looking as though his two siblings had betrayed him with the memory of his aunt and uncle. Hana stood unflinchingly in his burning glare, holding his gaze evenly, "Hikaru?"

Just like that, he was outnumbered.

"Fine," he spat his agreement. "I will, but that means you're on your own." The oldest son of the Hitachiin family stormed out of the room, and his twin hesitated. Kaoru caught a glimpse of the expression on Hanako's face as he passed her to chase after his brother, and he swore that the iciness melted away when they had their backs turned to her. Instead of anger, there was defeat and a relief that permeated her entire being. Kaoru never forgot that look, and he was sure that his brother never saw it. Over the years, he started to realize that there was genuinely nothing Hanako wouldn't give up to protect them in any way possible, and he knew that he wouldn't be able to live with himself if he never made it up to her.

{OR}

A/N... Sorry this chapter is so short! I wanted to include it in the last chapter, but it just didn't feel right. I'm falling a bit behind with the chapters I want to have done before the next update, so I may not be updating quite as frequently, but I will try my best to have, at least, a weekly update. Thank you for reading, and your support in the reviews means so much to me! I've been mulling over this story and reworking it for a few years now, and I'm so glad to know when readers are enjoying it! I really appreciate your feedback, so please leave a thought in the reviews.

Who do you think Hana's extended family is?

Next time: A commoner's house. Hanako accompanies the boys on their first visit to a commoner neighborhood.