I was floating, just like Honey had said i would. Floating towards a hazy, dream-like memory.

A little girl sat crouched on the steps to a small suburban house, she held a doll in one hand, and was reaching for a small hairbrush with the other.

"Nala darling, it's time for you to come inside for dinner!"

The sweet voice belonged to the child's mother. The woman stood leaning against the doorframe with her hip, wiping her hands on her apron to dry them as she she smiled fondly at her little girl.

Nala looked up at her mother happily. This is how it's supposed to be. I miss you mama. She didn't speak the words out loud, but rather in her child form, sprang up and ran to hug her mother. Laughing, the woman returned the embrace.

"I hope you don't mind sweetie but I invited some of your friends over for dinner too."

Frowning, Nala wondered who they could be. Maddy was out of the country again, and Haru hadn't mentioned she was coming by.

"Who is it mommy?"

The young Nala's voice was soft, plaintive, not trying to hide what she felt. It brought a smile to her mother's face as she knelt and pressed a kiss to the girl's face.

"You know them baby girl. You'll see."

She held out her hand to her daughter with a soft smile, and Nala slid her own Into it with a returning, trusting smile and a heartfelt, happy sigh. Skipping behind her mother, she happily ran down the hall from the front door into the kitchen, only to freeze in shock at who she saw there.

The host club sat around the small kitchen table in all their glory, smirks on the twins faces, a beaming smile on Tamaki's face as he held Haruhi's hand, a blank stare from Mori, followed by Honey's wide smile, and the familiar flash of Kyoya's glasses as he turned his head to look at her.

"Welcome home Nala."

Frowning, the girl walked up to them. However the scene shifted, so rather than being in the memory like state of her childhood, she was back in her normal body as if it had been transferred into the dream.

"Why are you guys here? It doesn't make sense.."

She trailed off slowly as Kyoya glanced up smirking.

"Why are we here Nala? A wonderful question, one you should be asking yourself."

I took a jerky step back at his accusing tone, and bumped into someone. Somehow, the twins had positioned themselves on either side of me, and for the life of me, i couldn't tell them apart.

"You don't let us in Nala," They pouted at me. "All we want is to be your friend, why don't you let us in?"

Yanking myself out of their grip, i leapt back, crashing into the table behind me and into Honey and Mori.

"We can't help you if you don't let us Nal-chan. We saw you at your worst, but now you won't let us see you at your best."

The frustration built, angry tears filling my eyes as i pulled back from them all.

"You're always so reserved."

"Never act like yourself."

"You need to trust them-"
"EVERYONE SHUT UP!"

Thunder rumbled outside, as my frustrated scream rang through the room, instantly silencing the others.

"Do you guys not realize i'm trying!? I am! I just don't know how to freaking relate to you all! You're all rich, and privileged, and i'm scared of it!"

I was panting at this point, my words still ringing through the room. I dropped my head in frustration, but upon raising it back up, screamed bloody murder. The twins sat crouched in tiger form in front of me, tails lashing back and forth as they bared their long sharp teeth at me, Honey and Mori's eyes glowed as they slowly approached me, and Tamaki's fangs had dropped. I stumbled back from them. I need to wake up! Fear flooded my system as the tigers crept closer. This is when i need to wake up before the yokai take too much from me….i think that's what Honey said anyway, when it turns into a nightmare right? I stared at Tamaki in fear as he raised glowing red eyes to look at me. If so i need to wake up NOW! The tigers leapt, and i heard the crack of lightening striking something outside as everything around me went dark.

_o_

"AHHHHHH!"

I woke up screaming.

"Nal-chan!"'

Honey shouted and yanked me back from the yokai's reach. I braced myself for the dizziness and pain, but there was nothing. Whaa? Raising a hand to my forehead, i found no bump, no cut, no nothing.

"Sweet!"

I fist pumped the air momentarily forgetting the 'I want to kill you' yokai just a bare hands reach from me. No pun intended at that... Honey suddenly threw his arm around me in a vice like hug, and began crying into my shoulder.

Pulling farther away from the grasping yokai I patted his head.

"Honey? Honey what's wrong? Did something happen while I was out!?"

He kept wailing into my shoulder, while I continued to pat his head and rub his back. He was that worried for me? Shame filled me momentarily again. What have I been missing out on with these guys? I was still mentally berating myself after the dream and my realization of how I'd pushed the guys away from me so much and cocooned myself against their attempts to befriend me, and make me a part of their little family.

"I was so worried!" He finally pulled back from me, gazing up into my face, his sweet eyes were red-rimmed and puffy. "At first you just lay so still, then the color came back into you and the cut healed, and you were mumbling, and then you weren't waking up! I kept shouting for you, but you just lay there!"

"Oh Honey." I pulled him back into another hug, but kept my eyes on the yokai that had gathered at the edge of the clearing. "I'm not going anywhere. If I can survive through what I've been through, then a few yokai won't hurt me. Especially when I have such good friends to watch my back."

Honey's eyes got real wide as he stared up at me.

"What? What did I say?"

His shock was plain on his face as he responded.

"You've never called any of us...friends before...! Ayeeeee!" He was back to his bone crushing hug. "I'm so happy! You care! We have all been so worried we hadn't been helping you at all!"

I shook my head down at him, gently extracting myself from his grip and taking a few deep breaths before finding my voice again.

"I totally admit to having been an idiot Honey, you guys have been there for me through everything and it hasn't been fair of me to push you all away. But," I eyes the yokai warily as they seemed to come a little closer, as if they were testing their limits. "I vote we continue this later, after we get out of here alive. Now, where's my stick?"

Haruhi's POV

"Eeeyaahh!"

This was the third deadly accident I had almost been in. First, I'd nearly gotten tangled up by a boa constrictor, then a swarm of poisonous bugs had swarmed towards me, and now I had almost fallen into another alligator pit. Why did kyoya-senpai and his family make it SO realistic? This was supposed to be relaxing!

"Haruhi."

"Eh?"

I looked up at Mori-senpai as he stood over me at the edge of the alligator pit. That's the first time, he suddenly scooped me up into his arms, that he's ever called me by my name. A Ssight blush burned my face at that thought. I'm just a bit pleased at that.

Standing straight, while still holding me, Mori began making his way deeper into the woods in his search for Honey.

Nala's POV

"Did you hear that Honey?!"

I was panting and holding my stick with now bloody fingers that had been worn ragged from my tight grip on the rough bark.

Honey danced away from another of the grasping hands, chanting something that made it disappear in a small puff of some sort of smoky haze.

"No Nal-chan, what did you hear?"

He was panting just a little as he pulled himself from the fray to briefly stand next to me. I shook my head in confusion, scanning the tree tops around us.

"I'm not sure, I thought I heard the echo of a voice saying 'eliminate all suspicious figures without mercy', but I may have just imagined it."

He frowned as he too scanned the trees.

"Maybe, maybe not, but I didn't hear anything Nal-chan."

I nodded briefly at him, but before I could respond, i had to duck out of the way and whack one of the hands away from Honey and I.

"Honey! Is there some sort of spell you can do to get rid of all these things?!" He breathlessly made some wordless affirmation as he fought at my back. "Alright good! I'm assuming that it'll take you some time to pull together, so you do that, and I'll watch your back! Go!"

He opened his mouth to argue, when I spun to face him, but I just ran past him screaming wordlessly at the top of my lungs in some sort of battle cry.

The clearing around us had turned into some form of battle ground, severed yokai hands dragged themselves across the the wet, muddy ground towards us, while others darted from high in the trees before jerking back again. The ground of the clearing was covered in blood, mud, and all manner of yokai filth, but hey, at least it had stopped raining on us, and the sun was out.

I was sprinting across said clearing, slamming yokai hands away with my stick as they darted from the trees, and stepping on the severed ones that crept over the ground when it happened. A soft, flickering, shimmering mist began to creep around my legs. It moved like fog, slowly crawling across the ground, reaching out its long tentacles to wrap around the Akatko. Every single one of the bloody hands it touched, evaporated immediately, the puff of smoke they became joining the swirling mist to creep ever closer to the tree line.

"Honey?" I pulled back a bit from the tree line, deeper into the iridescent mist because I sensed it wasn't out to destroy me. "This is your doing right?"

I turned to find him kneeling on the ground, chanting something under his breath. Within moments, the Akatko were all gone, or so it seemed, and the mist was slowly sinking into the ground.

"I'm done Nal-chan!" Honey stood up from his kneeling position, beaming at me. "And I'm hungry. We should hurry and get candy!"

I grinned, and laughing, picked him up and swung him around, cheering at our success. Our happy moment was broken however, when we heard a sharp voice ring through the trees.

"Put the young man down before we have to resort to using force!"

Followed by a familiar shout. I took off sprinting, as Honey leapt into the trees and began using vines Tarzan style.

"Takashi! Haru-chan! Watch out!"

Honey began yelling something, and letting go of the vine, crashed feet first into some soldier, black ops looking guy. The blow sent the man flying, and Honey landed on his feet like a cat.

"What do you think you're doing, pipsqueak!"

Suddenly the battalion of scary looking masked guys had their guns trained on Honey. Oh hell naw! Not my little man!

I slid out of the clearing and chucked my stick at the guy closest to Honey with the gun. It slammed into his arm causing him to drop it, and even as that happened, I leapt monkey style onto the back of another one.

The man snarled and ripped me off his back sending me flying into a bush with a yelp. It knocked the wind outta me, and it took a moment before I was able to stand and get back to the others. When I managed to stumble into the clearing, I found Honey with his head bowed, saying,

"Don't go off being so reckless! Picking on my friends is a big no-no!"

I swear dropped, I couldn't have been gone more than a minute...shoving the disturbing thought out of my head, as I reminded myself I'd already seen Honey in most of his worst states, I ran to Haruhi and Mori.

"Are you guys ok?!" I gripped Haruhi's shoulders, before pulling her into a bone crushing hug, before proceeding to do the same to Mori. "I was so worried for you guys when I heard Haruhi shout! And then saw all these guys with guns! Especially after we fought all the yokai!"

"Eh?!"

Haruhi and Mori made the same shocked noise, but before they could ask their obvious questions, a shout was heard.

"Haruhi!"

And upon looking, I found the twins, tamaki, and kyoya all sprinting towards us.

"Ah! Tama-chan!"

Honey turned and threw him a huge smile, and the twins ground to a halt.

"Huh?"

"Honey-senpai?"

"HARUHI!"

She was suddenly in Tamaki's embrace, and I snorted behind him.

"Nice to see you too Tamaki."

Of course he didn't hear me, instead choosing to rub his chin on Haruhi's head, much like a cat, while he murmured something to her.

Suddenly the twins were on either side of me, poking two of the soldiers unconscious on the ground.

"Not sure what happened here, but they seem ok."

"They'll ever be fine, all that happened was their own stupidity."

"Nala!"

Upon hearing my voice, the twins spun, and threw their arms to me, and, much to their shock, I returned the embrace.

"Hey guys! You missed all the fun!"

"Fun?"

Kyoya's voice cut through my happiness like a knife through butter and I spun around, poking him in the chest.

"Oh yes fun! Alligator tanks, current pools, concussions, and yokai are a world of fun! Honestly dude, why is the place so bloody realistic! And why were these guys pointing guns at my friends!"

He blinked, and in the background I vaguely heard the twins explaining to Haruhi about Honey being a martial arts champion. As he opened his mouth to reply, he was cut off.

"We humbly apologize!"

"Eh?"

Haruhi and I chorused as we turned to find the soldier guys bowing to Honey.

"We are in your debt!"

Honey blinked.

"Eh is that so?"

"Yes, sir! We are sorry! We were completely unaware that we were supposed to be looking for you, and have committed a terrible offense! Even if it was accidental!"

Aren't these guys taking it a little too far? Talk about sucking up...then again, Honey is pretty amazing.

Honey kind of just nodded, before turning away and running to Mori.

"Takashi," Honey was all smiles and flowers, "you did a good job protecting Haru-chan."

Patting Mori's head, Mori looked very pleased with himself. Kind of like a dog who gets a treat from their owner... "You didn't get lonely without me around nei?"

Mori's dark eyes cut to the side as he solemnly replied to Honey.

"I wouldn't say that."

Honey beamed up at him, and I flicked my gaze to Haruhi, a smile of my own breaking across my face at the look of pure wonder and shock on hers.

"Say everyone, I vote we walk back and explain what happened while we were separated, sound good?"

After everyone chorused yes to that, we all headed back towards the current pool and told the rest of the hosts what had happened with the Akatko, my injury, healing and how Honey had apparently exorcised the park so in future no one would have problems.

"We should go to the beach next time to clear the mood."

"Yeah the beach would be nice."

"Idiots!" Tamaki cut their conversation off there. "Haruhi wouldn't be interested in doing that!"

Haruhi paused, a small contemplative smile on her face.

"Actually, I wouldn't mind that." She paused and turned to face the current pool. "This obviously artificial location may not be any fun, but the beach would be nice. It's pretty there."

Tamaki took a mere second to get over his shock before he was grinning evilly and smirking with a hand on his chin, and another on his hip.

"Alright. You got it! Next time, we go to the beach!"

The twins and Honey were all smiles, and grins, now.

"He said we're going to the beach next! Won't it be fun Takashi?"

"Yeah."

There was a calmness about Mori that surprised me now that i was looking at him, a small smile on his face, and his eyes focused ahead of him as he walked towards the car with Honey on his shoulders. These guys are overflowing with compassion, have I really been so scared to just dip my hands into it? Apparently I have. Shoving the thoughts out f my head, my slight aggravation with Kyoya melted, and I sprinted forward to throw my arm around his shoulders with a whoop.

"To the beach!"

"We aren't going today Nala!"

"Ehhhhh?!" I pouted at the twins, "Wwwhhhyyy?"

"Because it's late!"

"You guys are no fun! It's called skinny dipping at night!"

"WHAT!? MY PRECIOUS DAUGHTER WILL NOT GO SKINNY DIPPING, AT NIGHT, DAY, MIDNIGHT, SUNRISE OR ANYWHERE IN BETWEEN! STOP HARASSING HER INTO DIRTY STUFF YOU SHADY TWINS!"

"But it wasn't our idea!"

"Sure it wasn't! Nasty perverts!"

"Boss!"

I grinned happily at the playful banter, my arm still around Kyoya's shoulders, I laughed up at his serious face.

"So you're not mad with me anymore?"

I blinked at him.

"Nah that came and went I get why the park is like this, but it wasn't too useful in the moment."

He nodded, and scribbled something down in his black book, before seeming to hesitate until i laughed up at him.

"Kyoya, what a normal person does, is put their arm around the other person."

I playfully nudged him with my elbow, until he gave in, and put his arm around my shoulders to walk with me to the car.

* * Authors note * *

Hello everyone! I'm back from my trip! Can I just say driving from MA to CO is a long freaking drive? But I got this chapter and most of another one done! I'm feeling more back on track now that we've moved and all that. Anyway, was it good? I know I kept it a bit short but I didn't want to keep dragging it out after how I did that either the previous two chapters. Anyway, the next few chapters will involve the beach, and we all know what happens there. Do any of you guys have any ideas on how I could improve the cliff scene? Make it a bit special? I'm not sure, I want to do something different with it, but i dont know, so we'll see what happens! Anyways please review! I love hearing what you all have to say! Enjoy!