Shards

The day of reckoning slams into Haruhi like a wave, and caught her feet from behind.

She had requested a salt water pool, because chlorine made her skin crawl, and hoped that the room would be one of the smaller ones. That way, nobody would be able to fit in. A pipe dream at best.

Instead various yellow dresses were crammed together in a very large room and- did they really bring cameras?!

She shuffled her feet as she stood there, and was suddenly very aware of the fact that she was forced to share air with a number of people.

She wore swimming trunks with a sweater, and Hikaru managed a joke about how Kaoru and him would need to get her a decent bathing suit. (She didn't bother pointing out that the tail she grows didn't exactly work well with a leotard between her legs.)

So the walked up to the damned pool, all considered for a moment why she doesn't just say no, but the look on the face of the instructor testing her warned otherwise.

So Haruhi stepped forward, about 5 seconds after some supposedly random boy began a walk to the other side of the pool. This resulted in Haruhi being bumped (shoved) from behind. This caused a small female body to begin to propel forward, and various looks to cross a few other of the rooms residents at once.

Though, a few had a more physical reaction than others.

Take, for example, Haninozuka Mitsukuni. He instantly began pushing his body forward to catch Haru-chan, and perhaps he could even play it off as a sort of spinning hug. Tears would flow down his cheeks, and he would have Haruhi assure him that 'Yes, senpai, I promise I can swim. You don't have to worry about me at all.'. It would be a good show for the guests, and perhaps it would stall long enough for Kyo-chan to unmask whatever set-up had clearly just occured. Surely such a spectacle would be enough to have this put off?

Or Morinozuka Takashi, whose need to take care of small things had him immediately lifting his arms to try and slow her fall. Stop it completely, even. He just had to get a decent feel for the air around, and damn him for having let his guard down.

In fact, even a king cried out, and feared that soon enough he would have to dispatch his knights to try and fix whatever this was. Still, humpty is long broken, and a secret exposed cannot be revoked.

These are all trivial though, and the important one was the reaction of one Miss Hagiwara Manaka. For hers was the one that stopped it all.

The girl ran forward on unprepared feet, and surely would not have made it in time to grab this boy cascading down before her.

So when she slipped, (and suddenly remembered why there was a 'do not run' sign) she pushed herself forward in a sort of self sacrificial display.

Of course, Manaka had no idea why it was so important to her that she reach him in time. It was instinct, she supposed, a sort of gnawing primal knowledge that this needed to be done. She'd always had a knack for these sort of things, though she was often called paranoid in her younger years. Perhaps that was why she grew happier by herself, when she often found herself fearful for the world around.

Still, Haruhi was a friend, and Manaka would protect her friends. Especially from gnawing feelings.

So the girl lunged forward, and in quite the grand show, pushed Haruhi with her weight toward the nearby blonde who had ran to the rescue as well. The sudden change had her falling toward the pool instead, and an unexpected splash occured.

Once Haruhi stood up, having been caught by Hunny-senpai after someone had changed her fall, she looked toward the pool.

Her unknowing saviour, as it turned out, was none other than Miss. Hagiwara, who she swiftly assisted out of the water. It was somewhat difficult to avoid getting wet, but her sweater surely helped a great deal.

The debacle truly began soon after, when the girl began itching. Then she was scratching. Soon enough, it looked as if she were attempting to rip off her very skin with nothing but her nails, at which point her friend (who Haruhi had only seen once at their first appointment) came rushing over concerned.

The predicament soon became all to clear, after someone else had put their hand in the water and it too was soon causing quite a bit of discomfort.

Someone had put itching powder all throughout the water.

Far too much itching powder, at that.

Of course, finding the right ratio seemed like dreadful work, and he instead just dumped as much would go in before he got bored of using the pool cleaner* to stir it around.

While the water and salt made it less potent, he really only needed it to be enough for Fujioka to come out red and flail about itching. Who wants to be associated with someone who had made such a fool himself?

Sure, it was a tad undercooked, but a bad plan done soon is better than a good one too late.

It wasn't a particularly bad plan, he just didn't quite know who he was dealing with.

"It's everywhere!" The girl cried out, soon after clenching her jaw shut while her face contorted and shifted about.

Her hands roamed her back, neck, and arms in a continuous cycle. The fabric of her dress clung to her skin, and each itch seemed only to rub the remaining substance further into her epidermis.

"What is this?" Manaka winced as her nail scratched a bit too sharply on the nucha of her throat.

"Something has been put into the water." A nearby Kyoya supplied, already occupied with making many phone calls "There's a shower right there, I suggest you thoroughly rinse yourself immediately. Please be sure to run your eyes underwater as well, they may become irritated."

Led to the aforementioned shower room by her best friend, the commotion had already been set into action.

"That could've been Haruhi-kun!"

"Thank goodness he was stopped!"

Murmurs of agreement spread throughout the crowd.

"Excuse me," Haruhi's interruption has no clear direction, and heads turned to face her "Do any of you ladies happen to know who that boy was? The one who walked by a second ago."

"Wasn't that Suzuyami? He's in class 2C with me, though I don't know why he would be here. I don't actually know him or anything. He only ever hangs out with the one boy... What was his name?"

"Sazama Hibiki" The girl beside her chimed

"Thank you very much."

Before she can even turn, identical arms encompass her shoulders.

"What're you up to?"

"Hm? Nothing much, just a bit of curiosity." She shrugs them off before turning to face them "I think I actually have some lotion in my bag, but it's in the classroom. I'll run and grab it for Miss Hagiwara, alright? Be right back!"

Haruhi did not go to the classroom.

Instead, she wandered the halls of Ouran Academy, going in no discernible pattern. She had been doing as much for somewhere over five minutes when a voice called out behind her.

"The hell are you doing?" A voice called from behind her

She does not turn her body, inclining her head toward the source instead.

"Well I was walking around."

"What are you, lost?"

She turned completely now, facing the boy before her. She glanced toward his hands, fixing her eyes upon the red skin.

He'd been itching.

"I have to admit, I don't really get why you don't like me."

He was surprised for half a moment before screwing up his face "What was that, squirt?"

"I just don't get what I did to upset you so much. It's causing issues for others now though, so I guess I have to do something now. I'd like to know what you think I should do."

Sazama paused, blinked, and let out a toothy laugh "Are you for real?" He is met with a nod "You want to know what I want you to do? Leave. Go away. We were all doing perfectly fine until you showed up, and look at it now. Poor girls are being drenched in itching powder and banned from clubs which made them happy. They were all so happy. Once you showed up everyone started focusing on you. They're not even mooning over you though, they're staring! You're the freakshow."

"Oh" Haruhi breathed "No."

"This is pointless then, isn't it?"

"I think your actions are pretty messed up, and you need to work on not doing... that."

Sazama sighed, leaning against the wall and running his hands down his face before letting out a frustrated noise "You're so holier than thou." He groaned

"Yeah, I guess."

"See? That right there! I don't get how anyone can put up with you, let alone pay for your company. I thought Hagiwara had better taste then that."

Ah.

"Hagiwara?"

"Shit!"**

She glanced over at the idiotic boy "Why don't you just talk to her?

He gawked back "Excuse me? Not everyone can have a pretty face like yours!"

Really, it was probably best she didn't encourage him too much, as she wasn't sure how the high schooler would approach Miss Hagiwara. Though, Haruhi couldn't exactly leave things as they were. "If you want an excuse to not approach her, you'll need a better one then that. Miss Hagiwara enjoys the company of people who aren't too overbearing, ut are willing to talk and have something worthwhile to say. If you really want to impress her, the best thing you could do is probably just to study."

Then Sazama laughed, and the hallway felt terribly empty with just the two of them.

"Whatever, Fujioka."

He left.

It felt like a terribly anti-climactic end, and Haruhi wished they could all be that simple, even if it weren't particularly exciting. Highschool probably isn't meant to be. Though, what would she know?

A/N: I wanted Haruhi to handle this herself, because I felt like she was always described as doing things herself in the show, and she always tried to, but people always got involved.

I hate this chapter, but I really want to move on to the next one and prove I haven't abandoned this story. From now on, we're going to be deviating more heavily from the plot of the source material, though I plan to maintain the episodic feel.

*The stick net thing? What is this even called...

**Same.

-Lucas_Gilbert