I made it home close to ten pm. I had never been more ready for sleep than I was at that moment. I took all of Haruhi's things upstairs and put them on the lounge chair in my bedroom. I'd give them to her tomorrow.

I decided I'd check my laptop before bed, clicking through what felt like millions of notifications from Tamaki from our instant messenger. I also saw that Tamaki had actually emailed me what I'd missed at school, and it didn't look like I'd missed much. I closed the laptop, and got into my bed, making sure my alarm was set.

It was dark. I was back in the school, feeling an odd sense of dread and deja vu. I saw the music room door slowly swinging closed. I sprinted towards the door, that feeling of dread building.

There was Haruhi. Sitting on the sill of the open window. I ran towards her. "HARUHI!" I screamed, knowing exactly where this was headed. She looked back at me, wiping the tears from her eyes. "Oh, hello, Kyoya!" She swung her legs back inside the music room and hopped down onto the floor, just as I'd reached her. She smiled at me, moving her arms around my waist to pull me into a light hug.

I broke down and fell to my knees, hugging Haruhi tightly, tears rolling down my face. "Haruhi...don't scare me like that...I love you so much, I…"

She shushed me. "Oh Kyoya. I love you t-"

I woke up, tears from the dream still in my eyes from the dream. I wiped them and looked at the clock. It was just about six am. I turned off my alarm that was just about to go off, and got myself out of bed. I almost never woke up before an alarm. I was admittedly a very heavy sleeper.

I looked over at my chair, Haruhi's things still sitting there. Unfortunately that part hadn't been a dream. I had a little bit of time before I had to leave, so I figured I'd bring Haruhi's breakfast up to her. Unlike me, she wasn't one to sleep in, even in her condition. If she wasn't already awake, she would be very soon.

I changed into my uniform and walked downstairs to the kitchen, where there was already food being prepared. I grabbed her some fresh pancakes that had just come off the stove, along with an assortment of toppings as I wasn't too sure about what she liked on them. I walked the tray back up to her room. I didn't want to just leave it in the hallway, so I gently tapped on the door. No answer. She must still be asleep.

Against my better judgement, I went in anyway. I was right, she was still quietly asleep. I left the tray, covered, on her nightstand. I went back to my room and grabbed a small piece of paper to leave her a note. I also decided that someone should probably be watching over Haruhi while I couldn't, so I also carefully took out the locked box, her mother's urn. I walked back over to her room, leaving the note by the food, and placed the box next to the photo of her mother. I placed my hand gently on the top of the box. "I'm doing what I can for Haruhi, Kotoko." I prayed in my head.

I looked over at Haruhi, who had turned over in her sleep, and now had a small smile on her face. It's like she knew. I quietly walked out and closed her door. My chest was pounding. I'd never experienced someone being able to make me feel like a nervous idiot the way she could. And she wasn't even awake…

I took a deep breath and grabbed my school bag, I was actually running a tad late, which was very unlike me. I went outside and my driver was already there waiting for me. I sat in the back seat, just kind of staring at my phone. I wasn't sure why, but part of me was hoping Haruhi was going to text me any minute, asking me to come back.

I sighed as we pulled up to the school, mentally preparing myself for a barrage of questions from all of the Hosts as to where I was yesterday. I opened the door and walked straight towards the school, hoping I could get inside and to the music room uninterrupted.

The day went by incredibly slowly. Just making it to lunch felt like an eternity. I didn't even really have an appetite. All of the hosts gathered around me at the table. "Kyoya, Kyoya!" Hunny yelled excitedly, sitting between me and Mori. "Did you hear? Kaoru talked to Haruhi!" I looked over at Kaoru, who was sitting next to his brother and Tamaki on the other side of the table.

"Oh, did he?" I asked. He looked back at me, then back down at his phone.

"I did. She told me she was just sick, but that she was at home being taken care of. She doesn't want to be bothered…!" His statement turned into yelling as Tamaki leaned over to try to look at Kaoru's phone. He turned the screen off.

Tamaki frantically went to take his phone out of his pocket. "I just can't believe that Daddy's little girl would talk to YOU instead of ME! I've been trying to get a hold of her for the past two days and she hasn't replied a single time!" He screeched, clearly texting her again.

"Milord, if you keep texting her, her phone's going to keep going off and she'll never get any sleep! She won't get better if she can't sleep! Maybe she'll never get better… and it'd be all because of you…" The twins said, changing off between sentences, like they often did.

Tamaki immediately turned his phone off. "IF I MUST ABSTAIN FROM TALKING TO MY LITTLE GIRL, I WILL!"

Everyone just kind of rolled their eyes, with the exception of Hunny, who was eating cake, looking happier than ever.

My phone vibrated. I looked down, and Tamaki freaked out. "SHE'S TALKING TO MAMA TOO?"

"Tamaki. It's my sister." he sighed. It wasn't Fuyumi, though. It actually was Haruhi. I tried to keep my demeanor calm, as usual. I opened the message.

"When did you even find time to go back to the apartment?" She asked. I couldn't tell if she was mad or not.

"After you went to bed. I figured if you'd want anyone there with you, It'd be your mother."

"Breakfast was fantastic, by the way. Thank you 3" The little heart made my heart skip a beat.

"Is there anything you need before I come home tonight?"

"No, thank you. Can't wait for you to get home though! It's still really weird being here without you. How's lunch going? Tamaki and the twins behaving?"

I looked back up from my phone, not realising that Tamaki and Hikaru had started arguing about something. My phone buzzed again, this time, a message from Kaoru, who was staring at me.

"I didn't talk to her, but I figured this might get them off your back a little."

It buzzed again. "Also, are you looking at porn or something over there? You're bright red, and that's super weird if you're still texting your sister." I looked back up and he was laughing a little at me, even though he was sitting right in between Hikaru and Tamaki who were still arguing about something at max volume.

"I hate you." I responded.

"No you don't :)"

I sigh, and finally go back to texting Haruhi.

"Well, currently Hikaru and Tamaki are arguing about something very passionately, and I cannot for the life of me figure out what about. I need you, you're good at translating."

"Record them for a minute and send it to me, I could use something to do" She was more like me than I thought. I followed orders though, quietly recording them while I pretended to text. After about a minute, I sent it to her.

"Hikaru stole a few of Tamaki's potatoes, and is claiming that Tamaki just ate them and is trying to start a fight. If you keep listening for a bit, I can almost guarantee you that they're going to try to bring me into it, realise I'm not there, and start bringing you into it."

"It's a bet."

The two continued arguing until…

"HARUHI WOULD BE ON MY SIDE IF SHE WAS HERE, YOU EVIL TWIN!"

"You really think she'd side with the BIGGEST CRY BABY OF ALL TIME?"

"MAMA! DID YOU HEAR WHAT HE JUST SAID TO ME?!"

Haruhi was more observant than I gave her credit for. "Of course I heard it. Everyone in this room can hear you. I'm just ignoring you." Which of course made Tamaki even more...dramatic…

"Well, Haruhi. I'm not one to lose a bet, but here we are. You're good, I'm impressed."

Her next message was just a thumbs up emoji. However, it was time for us to go back to class.

"I'll text you before club activities begin, we have to go back to class."

"Good luck with that."

"Business as usual."

The rest of the school day dragged on as bad as the first half. Club activities did too. The short conversation I had with Haruhi before Club started felt like the only thing getting me through it. It wasn't a particularly interesting conversation, other than the fact that she had already talked to one of our doctors, and she was already cleared to use an orthopedic boot instead of the chair. I could feel her excitement radiating through the phone.

I was embarrassingly excited to go back home and see her. No one or no thing has ever made me feel this way. In fact, just the idea of seeing her face again made me happy, and it hadn't even been a full day since I'd last seen her.

I'd always felt differently about Haruhi than I did everyone else. From the day I met her, I knew she was special. I was drawn to her independence. I never did care for a woman who never wanted to lift a finger for anything or anyone.

"Kyoya!" I looked up from my laptop. Hunny was running up to me, with a small box in his hands. "Kyoya! Look at the cupcake I picked up for Haruhi! Kaoru said he'd take it to her when he dropped off her homework tonight!"

"That's a very nice choice, Hunny-senpai. I'm sure she'll love it." My instant messenger went off. It was Kaoru.

"I'm leaving her stuff here with you. I just gotta make sure Hunny leaves before me and Hikaru so he doesn't see me forget the cupcake."

"What about your brother?"

"I'll just go shopping for a little bit or something tonight so Hikaru doesn't find out. No worries."

I was glad Kaoru was on my side here, even though he really didn't know much. Well. I knew he was more doing it for Haruhi, but all the same…

First, Hunny and Mori left, then the twins. Kaoru had "accidentally" left Haruhi's things at the table I was working at. It was just me and Tamaki, and I'd managed to get her work and the cupcake into my bag without him noticing.

"Kyoya, why does everything feel so...off... today? I'm not used to getting the wrath of only one twin. And Haruhi not being here… Everything just sort of feels wrong." He asked me, dramatically looking out the window like he was known to do.

"Well, Haruhi wasn't here, and maybe everyone was just having an off day because of it. It's not really a big deal, Tamaki, I wouldn't worry." I started packing up my things to leave. "I'm heading out. I'll see you in the morning." He sighed and waved, still looking out the window.

I texted Haruhi that I was on my way home, and I never got a response. She was probably just napping.

When I arrived home, I first went up to my room, and put all of my things down and changed. I grabbed Haruhi's homework and the cupcake and walked down the hall to her room. I knocked. No answer. I opened the door to just set everything down on the small desk in the corner of her room, but she wasn't in there. I told her she had the run of the house, but I wasn't actually expecting her to take me up on that offer.

I didn't expect a game of hide n' seek when I got home, but I guess I was it.