Shards

Come hither loose sailors,
forsake life ashore.
I'll lead you to ruins,
and you'll love me the more.

For buried in my bosom
a place just for you.
My words sweet like venom
If only you knew

Haruhi never sang.

Hunny found this interesting, wasn't that what mermaids did? All the stories said that their voices were so beautiful that they would draw sailors to their death, so perhaps she was simply worried for the consequences should she dare to even hum a tune.

This theory was disproved when he heard her humming a broken and pitchy melody while making tea in the kitchen.

He flinched.

Apparently not all stories were accurate.

Though whatever she was humming was familiar in a way he couldn't quite put his finger on.

Ouran was a school comprised of the future pillars of economy, pillars that had better things to do than spend half their time playing sports. As such, participation in the school sports competition was optional.

Those who did choose to compete had the very best equipment money could buy, and Ouran featured various pools for practice and competition to take place.

Such expensive equipment would likely be faded by chlorine, so one practice pool was saltwater (the other being chlorine so that the students would be ready to swim at away meets and such).

It just so happened that one Seika Ayanokoji had access to that lovely saltwater pool on a day where it was closed for school practice.

Haruhi sang in the bath.

She had to be careful and sure that no man could hear, for fear of luring them toward her.

When she was positive that no one was there, and only ever when she was taking a bath. Her tail bent so she might fit and her now short hair clinging to her face, she would sing.

She supposed it might've been beautiful.

It wasn't though, not the way it should've been.

It was passable, far better than when she was stark dry at the very least, but it still wasn't as good as it should be. She couldn't be satisfied with it though, not when she knew it could be so much better should she be fully submerged or at least transformed in salt water. An impossible feat in the small bathtub she sat in.

Still, she sang.

Sometimes Kyoya swore that Tamaki was still a child, sustaining nutrients only by sucking the energy out of him. It would explain why he was always so gosh dang tired while dealing with the idiot.

The blonde had been pestering him about the idea of a fun beach vacation for all the hosts, even Haruhi.

Kyoya sighed, knowing that this wouldn't be possible if Tamaki remained determined to be as thick as possible.

Honestly, he was sure everyone except the king knew by now. The boy didn't even know she was a she yet, let alone a mermaid (though he supposed they'd all been a little bit... preoccupied when she had said it).

Or maybe Tamaki had believed it a joke. It was a conceivable reaction, considering mermaids had been extinct for the past 10 years.

Haruhi didn't like this.

She didn't like this at all.

Hosting had been fine, if not a tad bit strange. Then she had been requested by Ayanokoji.

The girls words were overly sweet, and she blinked just a bit too much. Haruhi noted how absolutely disgusted she looked when she saw Haruhi pouring her tea, likely assuming the host wouldn't notice. She could imagine what the girls train of thought must have been, you catch more flies with honey than vinegar. She wasn't really a fly though, was she?

No, decidedly not. If anything, Haruhi was closer to a rat, surviving the streets, and passing on disease to all that she touches.

A plague.

The honey that Seika Ayanokoji put out was laced with arsenic.

Nevertheless, Haruhi willingly guzzles it down.

It is a decent plan. She really had had a girl ask her to deliver a message to Haruhi, and she had made sure there were witnesses. As far as the world was concerned, that poor elf girl was just an unknowing pawn in another's plan.

The lackeys she hired to wait for the street rat wouldn't snitch, of that she could be certain.

No one would be swimming that day, so they would be all alone.

All Ayanokoji's bases had been covered.

Well, all except one.

Not that she knew that.

Haruhi really was naive sometimes.

Considering she had seen the things that people did to each other, you would think that she wouldn't have gone to the pool.

Yet there she was.

She really wasn't all that surprised when two boys came out of nowhere and suddenly she was in the pool and they had put the pool cover over it.

Shoot.

She quickly pushed off her pants before they could rip, thrashing against the pool cover for good measure to make it seem like she was scared. There was just enough space between the pool cover and water that a person could smash their face against it and breath, but it would still be a thoroughly traumatic experience. She could have died had she not been a mermaid. Hell, these people probably weren't even sure if she could swim.

She heard receding foot steps and knew that they had left, likely planning to free her once she was on the verge of collapse.

Haruhi tried lifting the cover but found that it was far too heavy to do so from inside the pool. She couldn't open it from the inside.

Haruhi sighed,

it was going to be a long afternoon.

Mitsukuni had been helping clean up after club (eating the leftover sweets) when he heard something. He knew that something. It was a familiar noise, something built into his very genes. It was...

singing

He looked around

Where was Haru-chan?

He followed the noise, having a strong inkling it would lead him to the answer, though not being remotely confident it would be the one he wanted.

A/N: So I'm kind of on a sudden flow roll with this and I'm getting as much out as I can before I lose my will to write.

STORYTIME:
I was talking to my friend J.E. Forkwit (they're thinking of joining this website by the way, so I'll probably mention when they do) and I mentioned how there are a few people who review on almost (if not all) of my Ouran stories. The two of us agreed that those people are the bomb and deserve to have some stuff dedicated to them. So while I work on the KyoHaru one shot I'm writing I'd just like to give a special thanks to 'Abelia'.

Abelia is a guest reviewer who is constantly filling up my gmail with the kindest reviews ever and I swear to goodness I love them for it. So yeah, this chapter is officially dedicated to Abelia. Thank you for your continued support.

The first half of the next chapter is somewhat Honey centric, and I plan to put some light on Mori too for a bit if I can.

-Lucas_Gilbert

P.S.- Fun fact, I'M actually J.E. Forkwit and my friend is J.E. Forkwit 2.0 but I didn't want to have to explain that right now.