Title: Invisible
Written by: WraithR249 & Yue Guang Kuroneko
Pairing: KyouyaxHaruhi
Rating: K (for now)
Warning: Slight OOCness!

Invisible
By WraithR249
(and co-written by Yue Guang Kuroneko)

--

Haruhi gulped audibly as she stared at Ootori Kyouya across the Third Music room. She felt like she was preparing for a suicide mission, not for pleasant conversation with the Shadow King.

That is a suicide mission, she thought bleakly. Your mission, should you choose to accept it, is doomed to fail.

Haruhi looked down at her shoes. Normally she was not afraid of anything, but she was going to confront the devil himself and had every reason to feel at least a bit anxious.

It was moments like this that made her wonder why she was attracted to him at all. She wondered briefly if she was crazy.

Probably, she thought to herself.

She thought back to all of the things that her father said the previous night.

"Try to be calm," he said encouragingly. "I know you're a charming, beautiful girl."

"Why are you so serious?" she asked him. "It's unnerving. I'm not used to it."

His father smiled at her grimly. "Because of all the possible people…we're dealing with Ootori Kyouya."

These thoughts did little to calm her. Couldn't her father say something that comforted her?

Before she knew it, her legs were moving her towards him, and she almost begged them to stop. When he glanced at her, moving his way, her head was immediately filled with thoughts.

"I…apologize that I upset you, Haruhi." He looked embarrassed as he said this.

"I suppose I just wanted to have a conversation with you." His warm, smiling face…

Haruhi closed her eyes, feeling slightly more confident, and kept marching in Kyouya's direction.

With her eyes closed, she didn't notice Tamaki's teddy bear sitting on the floor. She was very surprised when she tripped and started to fall forward.

The instant her foot hit the teddy bear, she knew exactly what was happening.

Oh, how embarrassing, she thought to herself miserably. Of all days to be clumsy, it just had to be today!

She braced herself to hit the ground. But instead, she fell into a pair of lean arms.

Opening her eyes only slightly, she found herself staring up through a pair of lenses into stony, emotionless eyes.

She could have sworn she saw a flash of concern, but it must have just been her imagination.

They stayed that way for a moment, and Haruhi could have sighed in contentment. His arms wrapped around her made her feel safe.

"Ooh, in an uncharacteristic leap of faith, the Shadow King saves our princess," the twins said in unison, then nodded in agreement.

In a fit of rage, Tamaki starlight-kicked his teddy bear across the room onto the couch.

"Mother, good catch!" The king rushed over. "You've saved our daughter from inevitable peril! What would I do if you were not there to save her…! Oh, my daughter! You worry daddy so much!"

Kyouya released her, and stepped back to let Tamaki coddle the girl.

"I'm fine—no, really, you can let go…!" Haruhi struggled to get away with no success.

Haruhi sighed as her small plan failed. It's not like she could just strike up casual conversation with him now.

She wondered if she should just charge ahead briefly with her feelings in tow, and tell him how she felt in private. While she agreed with her father's plans to attempt to ease into the topic and see where he stood on relationships and the like, she admitted to herself that she wasn't the type to just play around.

Besides, if he wasn't interested, it wasn't like it was going to help her any to find that out in the middle of a conversation. It would be nice to know how he felt before spilling her feelings all over, but she knew that that was only a minor convenience. She was determined, and she was going to tell him, whether if he was interested or not.

A brave plan, she thought, but when I think about all of the things that he might say, I want to go hide under a pillow.

Steeling her nerves, she approached him. "Um, senpai?"

"Yes, what is it, Haruhi? Are you alright?" His words showed that he cared, but his tone said that he clearly didn't.

"Ah, yes. Thank you for watching out for me," she bowed, embarrassed. "I was wondering…after the Host Club's activities are over for today, is it possible that I could have a word with you?"

He made a face that she couldn't decipher.

It didn't feel pleasant, but the feeling disappeared as he checked his watch and flipped through his planner.

After several moments, he responded, "Is it very important?"

She didn't want to interrupt his plans, but she felt indignant that since he invaded her thoughts as he did, and then also made her wait for her to express her frustration, then he should at least help remedy the problem.

Gathering her courage, she spoke.

"It is rather pressing," she replied firmly.

He looked at her for a long while, perhaps attempting to stare her down. He looked more cunning than intimidating.

"Perhaps we could try to make it quick." It was a statement, not a question.

"I can't make any promises," she said truthfully.

He stared at her a little longer, before then scribbling some things down in his planner.

"It must be quite pressing for you to ask me like this," he remarked, getting up straightening his jacket and tie.

Quite pressing indeed, she agreed silently.

--

Hours later, Haruhi sat on a polished mahogany table in the Third Music room. It had been long since it was deserted, and she patiently waited for his appearance.

Suddenly, the doorknob turned loudly, and the door creaked open slowly. Haruhi wondered if the door reacted as loudly to anyone else.

The young Ootori businessman strolled towards her, leafing through several pieces of paper. He reached the table that she was seated at, set his papers down, and leaned against the table across from her. "What was it you wanted to discuss with me?"

Haruhi stared at him, and found that words would not leave her lips.

Speak, you idiot, she commanded herself. Say something. Anything.

"Senpai… how…" she managed.

Kyouya's gaze was set upon her unwaveringly. She felt like needles were pricking the back of her neck.

"How… how much debt do I have left to pay back?" she managed pathetically.

Now, he looked confused, or at least irritated. It seems that she had been a bother to him.

"I hope this is not what I rescheduled an important luncheon for," he said, leafing through several papers.

Pulling out a piece of paper, he pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, and read aloud a few numbers from the paper, but Haruhi wasn't listening. She could only hear her pulse pumping in her ears.

"Is that all?" he asked, straightening himself as he prepared to leave.

Haruhi tried to summon her courage once again, but she couldn't do it.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, and Kyouya turned around wordlessly to leave.

She watched his retreating back, and tried to will him to stay with her, to encourage her… to tell her that he cared for her.

"Wait," she cried out. "Wait, please…"

He stopped walking, and turned around to look at her. She closed her eyes, and convinced herself that he cared about her, that he wanted to get to know her better. Why else would he apologize for hurting her? Why else would he want to strike up a conversation with her?

"I want to tell you something," she said to him as confidently as she could.

It was now or never.

--

Authors' Notes:

-WraithR269: What a crazy cliffhanger! I'm so tempted to make everyone wait like a week before seeing what happens! If I get bad reviews, maybe I'll make good of that offer… but if I get some nice reviews, maybe you could check back later today and find a surprise…:O ! Btw, I hope no one really minds stuff being too OOC. I mean, let's face it, in the actual Ouran High School Host Club story, the chances are slim that Haruhi and Kyouya would end up together. I mean it goes without saying that things will get OOC, but my co-writer here does a great job of keeping Haruhi in line… if she were to go for the Shadow King XP

-Yue Guang Kuroneko: Just so everyone knows…I SUPPORT KYOUxHARU! –fangirls-(Actually, some of you may know that already due to my fic: Kimi no Koe) so if Wraith-san somehow makes it way too OOC, I will punish him and change it xD But he's getting so much more better at limiting the OOCness that he may not need me anymore –sweatdrop-

-"-senpai" The suffix -senpai is used for those higher than you. For example, an 8th grader would call an 11th grader "-senpai"