Title:Simple Words

Word: Thunder

Request by: firewu

Ever since she was little, Haruhi had been afraid of thunder. Since her father was always working and her mother was gone, she had learned early on to take care of herself. During thunderstorms she would simply hide in her closet or under her bed, covered in blankets and with her fingers stuffed in her ears. It may not have blocked the sound completly, but it did reduced the volume of it which made her feel slightly better.

Haruhi stared out the window of her bedroom. The sun was being hidden by the clouds which gave her an uneasy feeling. She tore her eyes away from the window and looked at the list she had made of things she had to do for the day. Since it was a Saturday, there was alot of cleaning to do and she also had to make sure to get some groceries for dinner. So she started with sweeping, then mopping the apartment.

While the floors dried she went to the market nearby and bought the groceries. When she got back, she put the groceries away and them began cleaning the kitchen, followed by the bathroom, then her room. Haruhi's uneasy feeling from earlier had been forgotten until she had to clean the windows and she looked outside again. Was it just her or had it gotten darker outside? Then came the thunder...oh wait, that was the door.

knock knock

She went to open the door and found him leaning against the wall next to the door.

"Um, hi Hikaru," Haruhi said, eyeing the sky as she spoke. "Can I help you?"

"Kaoru left me alone and bored at home so I decided to come see what our toy was doing," He responded.

Toy? "Well, actually. I'm a little busy right now." She began closing the door but Hikaru stopped her.

"I can help. Please? It's boring without Kaoru."

She sighed. "Fine." Haruhi handed him a rag and pointed to the window. Which he did begin to clean with much muttering under his breathe.

I was only joking about that.

As she set to work starting dinner, she swore she heard thunder in the distance and instantly dropped the knife she was holding. It fell into the sink making a clatter as it hit a few dishes inside. Haruhi looked out the window, the clouds had turned black since the last time she checked. Indeed, she would see the thunder flashing some where in the distance. Was it getting closer?

As Hikaru tried to clean off an oddly colored spot from the window, he heard thunder some where in the distance, then a noise coming from the kitchen. Looking out the window, he saw that the clouds had turned from a light grey to black. The clouds rumbled and then there was a flash. Haruhi!

He ran into the kitchen but there was no one there save a half diced tomatoe on the cutting board. The knife was placed neatly by its side.

"Haruhi?!" There was the sound of a door closing in the hallway.

Hikaru knocked on her door but heard nothing but the thunder. When he opened the door, the room was seemingly empty but the covers had been taken of the bed. Turning away from the bed he found a piece of the purple bed sheet sticking out from the door of the closet. And upon opening the closet, he found her sitting on the floor, hands on her ears and covered in blankets. Just how many did she have on her bed?

He kneeled down in front of her and pulled her towards him. Instantly, Haruhi wrapped her arms around him and buried her face in his chest while he gently patted her back. Hikaru grabbed the blankets and wrapped them around the two of them, seeing as how she wasn't too keen on letting go at the moment. No sense in freezing out here. After a whille, maybe it was from the warmth, his eye lids began to feel heavy and eventually he drifted off to sleep.

Hikaru was awoken many hours later by the sunlight sneaking into the room from the window. He was lying on the floor of her closet with her hugged close to him and soundly asleep. Gently so he wouldn't wake her, Hikaru gave her a light kiss on the lips before going back to sleep.