Pairing: KyouyaxHaruhi
Rating: eto...PG. Nothing serious in this chapter.
Written for: the sake of writing
Dedicated to: Krys-sama--the wonderful person who started FRoP 3
Warning: Beware of OOCness and just general suckage! This isn't BETA'd...not like any of my other works are, but if you find any mistakes that aren't too great, please pretend you don't see anything :P

Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran or any of its characters. They belong only to the great Bisco Hatori-sama (and BONES)...the day I own Ouran is the day I get to marry Kyouya. Now, what does that tell you?

Kimi no Koe

By, Yue Guang Kuroneko

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Chapter Three:

Haruhi sighed as she closed her textbooks along with the rest of her class as the bell rang, signaling the end of class.

It's been a week since she had dinner with Kyouya and she was distracted. She was distracted from her studies and from her everyday life, but what distracted her the most was that for some strange reason, she kept staring at her phone whenever she was at home and especially when she had studying to do.

"Fujioka-san," Her Law professor spoke up as she stood from her seat, ready to leave the classroom with the rest of the class. "May I speak to you for a moment?"

"Yes, sensei," Haruhi replied, walking towards her professor's desk.

"Has something been troubling you?" Her professor asked her, looking thoroughly concerned after everyone else had left the classroom.

"No, sensei," Haruhi lied, clutching her books tightly to her chest.

"You seem distracted as of late," He explained. "I am worried that you are not taking care of yourself well."

"I'm fine, sensei," Haruhi answered with a smile. "I just haven't been getting enough sleep,"

Because I can't stop thinking about him, Haruhi growled mentally at herself. I can't even study at night!

It was true—Haruhi hadn't been able to push him out of her head since the dinner. Ootori Kyouya was pushing his way into her mind and she couldn't seem to get herself rid of him. In fact, it felt like she was in love—no, that was the wrong word—infatuated would be the correct term. But this was Kyouya-senpai, the Shadow King of the ever-famous Host Club, who kept her on her toes whenever he was near…is that why she couldn't stop thinking about him? Nevertheless, she knew that it wasn't the reason at all.

After the talk with her professor (who was still seriously concerned about his top student when she dismissed herself), she left Tokyo University, returning home just long enough to drop off her books and change into her work uniform, consisting of a white blouse, a black vest, and a black knee-length business skirt.

Now that she was living alone and independent, she had to work for a living but she enjoyed it. She found a job at a nearby café just a few weeks after renting her comfortable apartment and was now working happily as a waitress there (thanks to some training that Misuzu-san had put her through during her first summer with the Host Club.) Whenever she had to work as an intern for a local law firm, her boss would always gladly allow her to take a break from the waitress life and work towards her dream.

"Hello everyone," Haruhi greeted them as she entered the café through the back door, shrugging off her light jacket as the warm air of the building began to make her uncomfortable.

The air was becoming chilly, signaling the start of fall and then soon, the leaves will be turning into their calming reds, oranges, and yellows. Haruhi loved fall—it was beautiful and the air was crisp in the mornings, which always seemed to put her in a better mood. But the beginning of fall also signaled that day…that melancholy day that still made her heart ache just thinking about it.

Haruhi shook the dark thoughts from her head and folded her jacket, placing it neatly in her small locker and placed a few handy clips in her hair to keep her bangs from irritating her from her work. She walked towards the sink and washed her hands thoroughly, greeting those who were cheerful enough to greet her.

"Haruhi! We need you in section two!" A voice shouted from somewhere in the front amidst a chorus of screams.

"Coming!" Haruhi called back as she grabbed a towel to dry off her hands.

She hurried to the front to find that one of their customers had brought in a pet—a…what was that? A large rat?—and it was now roaming section two at lightning speed, scaring the wits out of the other unfortunate customers in that section who were ordered to stay seated and stay calm.

"What is that?" Haruhi asked the nearby waitress named Tsukiko, who was sighing at the chaos a little animal was causing.

"Some sort of rat or something," Tsukiko answered, shuddering lightly. "I hate rats."

"Haruhi, can you please help me catch it?" A close friend, Riiko, was panting and out of breath. "You're good with animals, right?"

"Not really," Haruhi admitted truthfully.

"Well, please help me anyway!" Riiko grabbed her hand and hauled her out of the crowd that gathered around section two with curious looks on their faces. "I can't catch this darned thing by myself!"

At the corner of her eye, she spotted a man bowing over and over to their boss and recognized the man as the person who had brought in the furry creature from outside.

"Behind you!"

Haruhi spun around and barely missed the creature as it gave a leap onto her shoulder and over the sea of onlookers.

At that moment, the door of the café opened and three rather tall figures walked in.

"Catch that thing!" Riiko shrieked at them.

Haruhi watched as the animal landed neatly in one of the figure's arms and she hurried off to relieve the person of it.

"Arigatou gozaimasu!" She exclaimed when she reached them, her eyes glued onto the animal (which could now be identified as a chinchilla) in high hopes that it doesn't run away. "We're so sorry about that."

She took the chinchilla from the figure's arms, although the chinchilla looked awfully comfortable there. Haruhi looked up into the figure's face and her eyes widened, "Kyouya-senpai…?"

"HARUHI!" Another of the three figures exclaimed boisterously and attacked her, hugging her until she couldn't breathe.

"Tamaki-senpai?" Haruhi glanced sideways at the mop of golden hair at her shoulder. She winced as he hugged her tighter, nearly crushing the chinchilla that was now struggling in her grasp.

"YOU REMEMBERED ME, HARUHI!" Tamaki cried gleefully. "YOU DON'T KNOW HOW HAPPY THAT MAKES DADDY!"

Haruhi bit her lip and winced as the chinchilla sunk its sharp teeth into her right arm, violently thrashing in her arms, begging for freedom.

"Stop it, Tamaki," Kyouya pulled Tamaki off of her. "Fuyumi, find a seat for us and take him with you."

Riiko had now gotten through the crowd and relieved Haruhi of the now-calmed chinchilla, who snuggled lovingly against Riiko's bosom.

"Haruhi! You're bleeding!" Riiko cried out.

"Oh," Haruhi glanced down at her arm. "I'll go wash up and bandage it. I'll be right back."

Haruhi headed towards the sink in the back, trying to turn on the faucet awkwardly with her left hand. She struggled with the tightly-closed faucet before an elegant hand closed over hers and turned it sharply, freeing the water from its confinements. That elegant hand had only disappeared from sight for a moment before she felt a body towering over hers, another hand grasping her injured arm gently, running it under the cool water. His free hand was on her other side and it gently ran over her wound so that she was caught in the middle of his embrace.

Haruhi recognized the figure's scent immediately, and then his warmth, and then the rhythm of his smooth breathing. Since when was she so aware of him and his addicting presence? The sound of his leather shoes clicking on the floor, the habit of pushing his glasses up the bridge of his nose whenever he was hinting at something, even the rustle of his expensive, yet fashionable, clothes happened to be more distinct than anyone else's.

Kyouya turned the faucet off and silently patted her arm dry with a nearby towel. Holding her right arm, he used his free hand to reach into his pocket to pull out a rather expensive-looking handkerchief and wrapped it almost lovingly around the wound. All this time, Haruhi was staring intently at her arm and found that she felt too embarrassed to look up at him.

That was strange, she thought to herself. She never had a problem with looking at people before and feeling embarrassed wasn't one of her many fortes. Fujioka Haruhi was hardly ever embarrassed, so why did she start now?

"Thank you, Kyouya-senpai," She smiled up at him with gratitude, carefully avoiding his dark eyes.

"It was nothing," was Kyouya's short reply before he turned and joined Tamaki and Fuyumi at the nearby window seat.

"Are you okay, Haruhi?" Riiko, with a few other coworkers, gathered around her in worry. "The customer apologized deeply and left."

"I'm fine," Haruhi smiled at them with reassurance.

"All right," spoke up the deep voice of their boss. "Get back to work."

Haruhi greeted him with a smile and he replied by patting her on the head in greeting. She quickly went to work greeting entering customers, cleaning tables, and damn it, was she glancing in his direction again?

"Haruhi, did you want to take your break now?" Tsukiko asked her after a while.

"Eh? But it's not time yet…"

"It's okay!" Tsukiko said cheerfully, pulling her from the cash register, leaving a customer standing there looking confused. "I'll take over for you today!"

"But…!" Haruhi began to protest.

"Someone at table five wants to speak to you," Tsukiko whispered into her ear, pushing her into that direction. "And he's good-looking to boot! So go on!"

Haruhi sighed, pulling off her apron.

She was fully aware that he was watching her with those onyx eyes, their intensity hidden behind his glasses. And no matter just how aware she was of his gaze, she concentrated solely on her polished black (and admittedly rather cheap) heels as she slowly walked to table five.

"Haruhi!" Tamaki exclaimed once more. "Come sit down with us!"

Before Haruhi could reply, she was pushed into the empty seat next to Ootori Kyouya, facing a grinning Tamaki and a meek-looking woman she's never met before.

"You must be the infamous Fujioka Haruhi I've always heard about," she said with a pleasant smile.

"I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I don't know you," Haruhi said bluntly before she realized just how rude she must have sounded.

"She's Shido Fuyumi," Kyouya spoke up, looking rather relaxed in a commoner's coffee shop. "My elder sister married into the Shido family."

Haruhi felt her eyes widen at the gentle, warm woman across the table before reverting her eyes to the cool exterior of the handsome man sitting next to her, whose evil could rival the devil.

"You're siblings!" Haruhi exclaimed.

"Why are you so surprised?" Kyouya questioned her, sipping his coffee nonchalantly.

"Well, I…" Haruhi felt speechless before deciding that it would probably be better to keep her mouth shut. To think that the cold Ootori Kyouya had such a beautiful and loving sister! It must have made one wonder what went wrong in Kyouya's life that could have made him so detached and obsessed with profits and benefits.

Rich people must have it hard, Haruhi sweatdropped. It makes me fortunate to be a commoner.

As Tamaki and Fuyumi chattered on about the absolute wonders of the tasteless coffee and noisy commoners ("oh…and we can't forget about those delightful little snacks they serve!"), Haruhi sat quietly at Kyouya's side, half-listening to their conversation and half-wondering what she was doing in such a group.

She would have preferred to be working right now, or even having a nice cup of tea while she studied at home. Instead, she was stuck at her own café, listening to two rich people gawk at everything and silent man—who could've been invisible for all he cared—drinking his coffee and gazing out of the window, his sharp eyes drinking in any piece of information he could use for future references in that overworking (but good-looking) head of his.

Haruhi sighed and dropped her hand to her side, leaving it dangling in boredom, reflecting the idle thoughts that currently ran through her head.

She admitted to herself that her knowledge on dating is less than the average person and that's she's definitely never been head over heels in love before, but it wasn't as if she was particularly interested in the matter anyway. She had always loved studying and hadn't found anything or anyone that could take her interest away. Except now.

What is he thinking about? She wondered, giving him a sidelong glance before glancing at the clean tabletop once more, feeling like a schoolgirl who was caught staring at a recent crush. She didn't need to worry about things like this, right? Like her father used to say: "What happens happen; just let your life go its course."

Remembering her father's rare, intelligent quote, Haruhi felt calm and dropped the subject before going through her lessons in her head. She was halfway through the lesson before she realized that Tamaki had been calling her.

"Ha-ru-hi!" Tamaki smiled brightly. "You're spacing out!"

"I'm sorry," Haruhi said quickly. "I was just going through some lessons in my head."

"Oh?" Fuyumi inquired. "What are you majoring?"

"Law," Haruhi answered with a smile.

Fuyumi only gave her a knowing smile in return before resuming her commoner discussion with Tamaki.

"I apologize," Kyouya spoke up.

"Eh?"

"For having you go through this," Kyouya gestured toward the happily chatting pair across from them.

"You were the only who requested me?" Haruhi asked, slightly surprised.

"No," He replied simply. "That was Tamaki."

Haruhi was silent and felt rather stupid for assuming that the Shadow King would ever request anyone's presence, much less her own.

Mother, Haruhi thought to her mother up in Heaven. What am I going to do?

Kyouya was difficult to pin down. She was sure he had emotions and she had good reason to believe so, despite popular belief. It wasn't just her past experiences with him that resulted in her to believe that, but even now, he gaze upon his sister with hidden affection and Tamaki with appreciation.

She was hardly ever curious (when it came to life itself) but he was the first person to rouse her hidden curiosity. He made her want to know more, particularly about him.

"Kyouya-senpai," Haruhi spoke up bravely.

"Yes?" Kyouya glanced over at her, an elegant, dark eyebrow raised in inquisition.

"Do you have free time sometime this week?"

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Author's Note: Thanks to all who are still reading and reviewing this horrible story of mine xP Also, thanks to Nya-san, who's always supporting me and my distasteful writing (and putting up with my horrible singing voice whenever we have MSN karaoke xP)!

- "Fujioka-san" The prefix -san is used for those who are not close to you and is unisex.
- "sensei" is translated into "teacher"
- Misuzu-san was Haruhi's father's crossdressing friend that held the "Refreshing Battles" between the Host Club members to see who was most capable of staying at the pension.
- "Arigatou gozaimasu" means "thank you very much"
- "Kyouya-senpai...?" The prefix -senpai is used for those higher than you. For example, an 8th grader would call an 11th grader "-senpai"

Feedback is really appreciated. Constructive criticism is also appreciated. Mean flames are retaliated with my evil dust kitties and their water furballs...so don't try them. You'll regret it. Really.

Thank you for reading!