Hello there. :) This chapter took a bit longer to write, so sorry for the wait. It was a real challenge for me, but I hope that something good came out of it. Please enjoy.

Chapter 5: When I Couldn't Reach

"Now, since the club room has been turned into a disaster zone because of certain antics, the three of you will be staying after today to get the room back in order."

These words came from the mouth of none other than Kyoya, and as I stood between Hikaru and Kaoru in a line of the accused parties, I couldn't help but think of how I did not deserve the blame for this mess.

Every time Hikaru, Kaoru, and Tamaki end up chasing each other for some reason that somehow traces back to me, a huge mess is made, especially when I literally get caught in the middle of the situation. Usually Kyoya has someone else clean up the mess, but that day's mess apparently called for a personal level of punishment.

I, of course, could do nothing about this. Then again, I was more content to have to clean up than I would have been with having the damages added to my debt. Again.

"It was all Tono's fault!" Hikaru protested once Kyoya's orders had been given.

"Yes, we were just trying to defend poor Haruhi from Tono's idiocy!" Kaoru added.

"You would be much more helpful if you saved me from your idiocy first," I grumbled, something that they didn't seem to hear.

"This is not all our fault, Kyoya-senpai! Yet you allowed Tono, Honey-senpai, and Mori-senpai to leave!" the two of them pointed out.

"Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai were in no way related to this mess, so I dismissed them. Plus, I believe that Honey-senpai is traumatized and that Mori-senpai will have to look after him until he has recovered," Kyoya explained. "As for Tamaki, he had a very important meeting with his father to attend to."

Just when I thought that Tamaki was off the hook, Kyoya added darkly, "Tamaki will be punished tenfold at a later time."

Tears rolled out of the twins' eyes as they said, "Poor Tono! He will have to suffer Kyoya-senpai's increased wrath later!"

Their swift changes of heart never fail to amaze me.

"Now, you will each have a separate assignment. Haruhi, you will take down today's decorations and put them into storage. Hikaru, you will clean up the mess that was made, including all the spilled desserts from flipping over Honey-senpai and Mori-senpai's table. Kaoru, you will come with me."

"What? Why me?" Kaoru cried in fear.

Hikaru immediately took hold of his brother and shielded him from Kyoya.

"You will not hurt my Kaoru, Mother!" he said bravely.

Kyoya smiled. "Would you like to find out what Mother does when her children are disobedient, Hikaru-chan?"

"No, Okaa-sama!" Hikaru exclaimed immediately, fearfully moving to cower hide behind Kaoru.

Kyoya's smile widened a little before he said, "Come, Kaoru. There is a vehicle waiting at the the main entrance that is loaded with all of tomorrow's decorations and cosplays. You will unload all of the boxes and carry them back here."

"All by myself?" Kaoru whined. "What will you do?"

"I will supervise your work," Kyoya said with that tone that told Kaoru not to question him again, causing Kaoru to shrivel childishly.

These people are so dramatic.

"Well, come along, Kaoru-chan, or would you like Mother to hold your hand on the way out?" Kyoya asked as he pushed the door open to exit.

"No, please don't!" Kaoru said, scurrying after Kyoya and out the door, as if such touch would make his skin burn and disintegrate.

"Be strong, Kaoru!" Hikaru called out as the door shut behind his twin.

"Don't worry, Kyoya-senpai won't do anything to Kaoru," I told him, not nearly as affected by the theatrics.

Hikaru growled, "I have half a mind to protest evil Kyoya-senpai's wishes by not following his orders."

Just then, one of the doors swung forcefully back open.

Kyoya stood there holding the door open, and Hikaru shrieked and hid behind me.

"Oh, and I almost forgot," Kyoya said, "if anyone decided to use their half of a brain to defy my wishes, they would inevitably suffer dire consequences."

And with that, he vanished once more, the door closing loudly behind him.

"Never mind," Hikaru said, releasing the fistful of my blazer that he'd had a hold of. "Let's get to work, Haruhi!"

Hikaru sped toward the closet that held the cleaning supplies, newly motivated, and I sighed, looking at all the over-the-top decorations that I would have to take down.

I went toward the window that was near Honey and Mori's flipped table (and all of the wasted cakes all over the floor) and tugged at the end of the fabric that was hung on the wall. My first tug did nothing, so I tugged a little harder, but the fabric was well-secured in place and refused to come down.

"Haruhi, is that your painting project over by your bag?"

I turned to see Hikaru, with a mop and bucket in hand, looking curiously toward the canvas next to my bag.

"Yes," I answered. "Why?"

He swiftly set down the mop and bucket and ran over to the painting, chanting, "I want to see! I want to see!"

"Ah... Hikaru!" I called out, suddenly embarrassed. "It's really not that good."

And then Kaoru's words came back to me.

You have to show it to the world and at the same time not care what anyone else thinks about it.

By the time I had decided to try and stop him and then decided to not try and stop him, he had the canvas in his hands, his arms stretched out in front of him to see the entire painting.

I walked over to him, not knowing his reaction since the canvas was concealing his face.

When I reached him, he said, "Haruhi... it's... beautiful."

He started wiping away melodramatic tears, and I rolled my eyes.

"Stop that," I demanded.

"No, seriously, Haruhi! I mean, I have no earthly idea what it's supposed to be-"

I narrowed my eyes at him.

"-but it has character and feeling." He turned his head to look at me and added, "More feeling than I have ever seen that face express."

"Is that a compliment or an insult?" I asked dully.

Ignoring my question, he looked back at the painting.

"It's very you, Haruhi. It's beautiful," he repeated.

If anything at all from inside you shows up on that canvas, then it's definitely going to be beautiful.

My face got warm at the statement that was unmistakably a compliment, and I turned away and strode back toward the window.

"We better get some work done before Kyoya-senpai returns," I said, getting a chair and dragging it under the decorations that I intended to pull down.

"Ah, okay," Hikaru said quietly, setting the painting down and returning to his mop and bucket.

As he started moving the mop around in the mess of cakes in a way that clearly showed how little cleaning experience he had, I stepped up on the chair and reached underneath the fabric to undo the fastener with which it was stuck to the wall. It was just beyond my fingertips, so I got on my toes and reached a little farther.

That's when I reached too far and lost my balance. I tried to grasp at the cloth to hold me up, but the fine material slipped out of my hands. I fell sideways, barely hearing Hikaru yell out my name.

The next thing I knew, I was in Hikaru's arms, and then we were both falling backwards as he slipped on the desserts under his feet. He hit the floor hard, and then I made it worse as he acted as a cushion for my own fall. As I rolled away from him, I ended up next to him, on my stomach, my entire front half covered in cake.

"Haruhi! Are you okay?" Hikaru cried.

"Yeah," I muttered.

"You have to be more careful!" he reprimanded as he sat up.

I used my elbows to push myself up and looked at Hikaru, who, upon seeing the cake all over my uniform and face, burst into a fit of laughter.

"Hey!" I said, but then I saw that his back half was also covered in cake, and I had to laugh too.

"Ahaha," he chuckled, holding his stomach. "Where did Haruhi go?" he asked as he wiped cake off of my face, as if I was buried somewhere far beneath the frosting.

I wiped some of the cake off of my face too and said through a small laugh, "I'm sorry, Hikaru. Are you okay?"

"Yes, I'll be fine," he assured me as he ran a finger across my mouth to get some pink frosting off of it.

My eyes widened a bit.

"It's weird to see Haruhi being so sweet for a change," he remarked, looking at the frosting on his hand and then wiping it off on his pants.

I was slightly bewildered at first, but then another laugh burst out of me, forcing me to wipe tears from the corners of my eyes.

"That was a horrible joke, Hikaru!" I told him, and he laughed, scratching the back of his head as if he was both ashamed and proud of his joke.

We finally both stood and stepped out of the cake mess carefully, and Hikaru walked over to the fallen chair.

"How dare you drop Haruhi," he told it, kicking it away.

"Hikaru! Don't kick things!"

"Come here, Haruhi. I'll lift you so that you can get this down."

"What?"

"It's better to put your trust in your friends than in something so much less stable," he said, looking angrily at the chair again.

Before I could ponder the meaning behind that statement, he lifted me up, and I quickly undid the fastener, causing the fabric to fall satisfyingly to the floor.

We moved to the next fastener and then the next one, eventually getting down all the fabric off of the walls, with Hikaru lifting me each time and insisting that any other way would be too dangerous. I couldn't really argue that point because of the falling incident I had just had.

When we got the last one off of the wall, he set me back down and then suddenly hugged me tightly from behind.

"Please don't do anything like that again," he said, resting his head on my shoulder.

It made my heart hurt to hear the worry in his voice.

"Someone may not always be there to catch you if you fall," he told me.

"Maybe not," I said, reaching up and wrapping a cakey hand comfortingly around his arm, "but I have a feeling that there will always be someone to lift me back up after I've fallen."

I felt his breath catch, and his hold on me fell.

I turned to look up at him, and he tried to hide the surprised look that was on his face.

His expression then turned into frustration, and he threw his arms in the air. "Just because that's true doesn't mean that you should be fine with putting yourself in dangerous situations where you could fall!"

I mimicked his arm motions and shot back, "That's not what I meant at all!"

"If you don't stop endangering your own life, Haruhi, I'm going to have you wear a padded suit at all times to avoid injury!"

"A padded suit? I'm a little clumsy, not insane!"

"A little?"

"Hey!"

Hikaru bent down and put his face on level with mine, looking comically serious.

"Promise me that you will be more careful," he said.

"Fine," I mumbled.

"Pinkie swear," he said, extending his pinkie toward me.

I wrapped my pinkie finger around his with an exasperated sigh.

"Children, what is going on?" Kyoya's voice intoned from the doorway.

Hikaru and I looked over to see Kyoya walk in and Kaoru follow, struggling under the weight of a large box. He set it down on the floor and then gave the two of us a confused look. Kyoya and Kaoru looked at us standing there, covered in smeared cake and frosting, and Kaoru tried to stifle a laugh.

"We fell," I explained simply.

Then Kaoru did laugh, and he ran over to hug Hikaru, happy to be reunited with him. He grimaced a little when he got cake on himself, and Hikaru motioned for me to join the hug, so that I could make Kaoru more messy. He reached out and pulled me in, making Kaoru cry out in protest as I got even more cake on him.

He eventually settled back into laughter, though, making Hikaru laugh and making me smile. Then Hikaru and Kaoru got those devilish glints in their eyes, and they both looked over at Kyoya, who was watching disapprovingly.

"Don't even think about it," he said, crossing his arms.

"Okaa-sama is a party pooper!" Hikaru and Kaoru exclaimed, still holding each other after I had let go.

"Kaoru, you stay in the room and clean up. Hikaru, Haruhi, let's go get the rest of those boxes... now."

"Oh, fine," the two of them grumbled.

I trailed behind Hikaru as he headed toward the door, which Kyoya was holding open. Before I got out the door, however, I tripped and ran into Kyoya.

He looked down at me and realized that he was now coated in cake.

Hikaru turned and saw the situation and worriedly yelled, "Hurry, Haruhi, jump onto my back!"

He knew that I needed a quick escape to ensure survival, and he also knew that I was not a fast runner at all.

With no other option, I hopped onto Hikaru's back, and he caught me in a piggyback hold. He then bolted down the hallway, carrying me away from Kyoya's clutches.

After we were a safe distance from the third music room, I started laughing at the foolishness of the whole situation, and Hikaru laughed with me.

He had managed to lift me in a number of ways that day, but the most important way was the lifting of my spirits.

The love of my friends, no matter how it is displayed, is always uplifting.

This one seemed to be quite different from the other chapters, but I hope that's not too bad of a thing. Haruhi is starting to really get out of her hole of self-pity, so I think that comes through in the humorous parts of this. I think.
Please review!

-Skye