Three Years Later


"Haruhi!"

Tamaki practically threw himself at his friend as she walked through the gate. Haruhi held herself straight, but her closer friends, Hikaru and Kaoru, could tell that something was off. As when Tamaki hugged her, Haruhi didn't shoo him away like they expected her to. In fact, she looked on the verge of tears from wanting to hug back. But it would have been weird to everyone else.

At least, until Ranka stepped in.

"Get off! She's already tired from the flight!"

Tamaki backed off as he noticed Haruhi bent back a little too far to accommodate the hug.

"I'm sorry!"

Haruhi smiled and waved it off. The urge to cry not leaving her as much as she wanted it to.

"It's okay, I'm not that tired."

Despite how much she should have looked forward to this, the introduction couldn't have ended soon enough. Neither could the drive from the airport to Ranka's apartment.

"Feel free to stay as long as you want! No rush in getting a place, sweetie."

Haruhi rushed her reply out, trying to hide her desperation.

"Only one day, actually! I just have to finalize it and get a reply from my job—"

Haruhi cut herself off. Kyoya raised an eyebrow.

"When I get assigned to a case. Sorry, that was a weird way to say it."

Suspicion dissipated for the most part.

Ranka beamed proudly.

"I can always count on you to be ahead, can't I?"

Haruhi nodded.

This didn't feel right.

She missed everyone so much when she was in Boston. She could barely handle having to spend three years away from them. With no breaks to return due to her schedule.

But now that she was finally face to face with them, she wanted to curl up and disappear. Something Kaoru, and especially Hikaru, could sense.


"I won't be long."

Haruhi had underestimated how much she would hate standing in that room again. In that apartment.

"Okay! Enjoy your walk, new lawyer of the year!"

Haruhi put on a fake smile before she exited the home. Nausea nearly consuming her as she finally created enough distance between herself and where her father was.

Earlier, Hikaru texted her to discreetly ask if she was okay and wanted to talk. And she agreed, picking a meeting spot and hoping that nobody else she knew would be there.

She stopped walking after an undetermined amount of time, overlooking the bridge and bracing her arms on the railing. Her head almost hung below her shoulders. She tried to calm herself by listening to the sounds echoing from the city and neighborhood.

On the way there, she had passed by multiple people who recognized her, and got excited to see her in the news.

She never would have done enough, huh?

Haruhi's legs trembled, despite her arms assisting in holding her upright.

She wasn't going to tell them. But how would they not find out? How would it not result in disownment right when she was finally able to see them again? Right as she was finally freed from her crushing loneliness? And was in the middle of getting back onto her feet?

Maybe coming back was a mistake?

Finally, a burning in her throat evolved into tears sliding sorely down her face. Cooling her as wind pummeled itself into her face.

"Haruhi?"

Haruhi turned, making eye contact with someone she expected to lose sooner than everyone else.

Hikaru had arrived a little later than Haruhi did, and immediately recognized that she was crying.

Haruhi tried to wipe her tears away as soon as possible.

"Hikaru! Sorry! I didn't realize I was being loud."

She didn't know how she forgot that they were supposed to meet up.

Hikaru's eyes narrowed with concern.

"Are you okay?"

Haruhi came close to lying. But this was Hikaru, the one person who was wholeheartedly supportive of her decisions. The one person she could count on not to extend her usual expectations to her like everyone else.

She couldn't lie to him. She was about to burst, anyway.

"No."

More tears flooded her eyes and created shiny, stinging waterfalls on her cheeks.

"No, I'm not!"

Haruhi began to cry harder, Hikaru not hesitating to pull her into a hug.

Haruhi clung to her friend. Releasing a day's worth of pent up emotion. Regret. Guilt. Anger. Despair. All of it tumbled out with the chaos of an avalanche.

Hikaru eventually murmured something to her. His voice as soft and comforting as warm water over a sore wrist.

"Boston?"

Haruhi could only nod.

"I only gave myself one day to get a job and a place to stay. The apartment situation, I can handle. But a job?"

Hikaru raised an eyebrow.

"Why?"

Haruhi finally raised her head and allowed their eyes to meet. Hot, sharp hazel to warm, burning brown.

"You... You shouldn't be talking to me... I completely bailed on you three years ago and haven't talked to you since!"

Hikaru shook his head.

"I know you were pressured. You made it obvious that you didn't want to go. I care about you, Haruhi. So why would I not want to talk?"

Haruhi's eyes closed tight.

"Because I'm a liar! I said that I could handle telling everyone! I said that I wouldn't give into the pressure! I said that I could handle Harvard on my own. But none of that was true!"

Hikaru blinked.

"Do you, want to talk about it?"

Haruhi took a deep, shaking breath. And nodded.

"Please."

Hikaru let her lean further into the hug as the conversation continued. A day's worth of pent up emotion leading towards three years worth of it.

Eventually, all of it hung in the air lazily, as if surrounding their heads with a suffocating fog.

Hikaru smiled, earning a small blush from Haruhi.

"Is any of that supposed to make me stop caring about you?"

Haruhi blanched.

"Yeah! Why didn't you?"

Hikaru pulled free of the hug partially, allowing both to fully face one another.

"Because my feelings towards you aren't conditional."

Just then, a different pair of floodgates opened. Six years worth of pent up feelings for one another. Feelings that went past those of friendship.

Feelings that they had only acted on a single time in their club's changing room.

Haruhi's eyes turned glassy, a small smile on her face.

"You still feel the same?"

Hikaru nodded. Relief lining his features.

"Yes."

The heat that emerged was overwhelming. The rest of the next five minutes blurring into obscurity until they opened their eyes again. Both having now fully closed the gap and indulged in a deep, passionate kiss. Led by Haruhi, evidenced by Hikaru having bent backwards slightly during it while Haruhi held him steady.

They didn't say anything for a moment. Heat rushing to their faces. Eventually pulling away before words were finally exchanged.

"Sorry."

Haruhi's voice was tiny, and coupled with her red face, completely sincere. Hikaru smiled playfully, suppressing a childlike laugh.

"It's okay, I enjoyed it."

Haruhi wasn't sure how her face could have heated up more. Hikaru's hand gently contacted her shoulder. And, despite the coat she was wearing, she felt it, and made eye contact again.

"Would you mind if we did it again?"

Haruhi stood still, before nodding faintly.

"Please."

When Haruhi came back to the apartment, she pushed down her blush, just before Ranka looked at her.

"Hey! How was the walk?"

Haruhi hummed. Her body seemed lighter after her conversation with Hikaru. Not by a lot, but she wouldn't protest any improvement over the crushing weight that had been on her for three years.

"I really needed it."