Shigure's room was large, bigger than any of the other bedrooms in the house. Although he'd only stayed in that room for a few days, it already was instantly recognizable as his own. Several kimonos were draped over a small burgundy armchair in the corner, and a bag of jellybeans sat open on the desk. The entire room held a strong aroma of raspberries with a trace of some sort of cheap cologne, which made Tamaki and Hikaru both draw in a sharp breath.
They stood in the doorway for a few seconds, skimming the room with their eyes. There were several possible hiding places in the exceptionally large space, including a closet and wardrobe. Tamaki and Hikaru entered the room, the grayish light of the storm cascading from a small window on the far side of the room their only source of light, along with the occasional flash of lightning.
"Haruhi, are you in here?" Tamaki's unsteady voice penetrated the still silence of the room. "Please, if you are, you need to come out here for me now."
"Haruhi?!" Hikaru cut in, his voice much louder than Tamaki's had been. "Damnit, you need to let us know where you are!" His voice broke with emotion, and he clenched his fists hard at his sides.
A soft murmur, almost too quiet to be heard, cut through the nervous energy in the room. Hikaru and Tamaki visibly jumped a bit off the ground, their eyes darting wildly around.
"I... I'm here..." The murmur emerged once again, a bit louder this time. Tamaki met Hikaru's intense stare, and they both looked toward the closet.
They darted to the closet and grabbed for the door handle and the same time, swinging it open with a combined force that sent the door crashing into the wall. Haruhi was huddled in the corner of the closet amongst an old vacuum and several long coats, her body trembling uncontrollably. A bolt of lightning illuminated the small closet, almost simultaneous with the opening of the door. Haruhi released a small, terrified sound and attempted to bury her face in the rigid corner of the closet.
Tamaki and Hikaru struggled to fit themselves into the closet as quickly as possible; Hikaru ended up having to lodge himself behind the vacuum in order for Tamaki and himself to both fit in the small space with Haruhi.
Silently, Tamaki slid an arm around Haruhi's quivering shoulders and pressed his forehead against the top of her head. Not to be outdone, Hikaru snaked both of his hands around her waist and leaned his cheek into the curve of her neck. Both boys attempted to say words of comfort to her at the same time, and the result was rather incoherent over the sound of the vicious storm outside.
This happened several times, neither Tamaki nor Hikaru willing to back down and let the other have the first distinguishable word to Haruhi. Haruhi, in question, was rather uncomfortable with all of the contact beneath her crippling fear of the storm. She wanted to get to her feet if only to put an end to the uneasiness, but every time she felt she had worked up enough courage to do so, another roll of thunder rocked the room, and she remained paralyzed with fear.
And so the three of them remained that way, with Tamaki and Hikaru verbally battling for the right to comfort Haruhi, and the storm raging violently just outside the window.
Meanwhile, as the storm worsened, Kyo's mood went along with it. He pelted through the woods, his legs beginning to feel heavy with fatigue. He had been running for too long, and it was starting to take its toll on his body.
Refusing to give up on finding Tohru, Kyo pressed further onward, the rain stinging his eyes and chilling him to the bone. But he certainly couldn't feel the icy chill of the rain, he had worked up too much of a desperate anger to feel very much of anything but the overwhelming need to know that Tohru was safe.
Exhaustion was plaguing Kyo, and he knew that he needed to stop running for just a few minutes, or else he might just keel over. He dropped to his knees in the mud, not caring that it gurgled sickeningly beneath him, or that it's slimy cold attacked his exposed ankles. He panted heavily, his heartbeat pounding loudly in his ears. He was tired; so tired that he knew if this was anybody else that he was searching for, he would have to stop.
But this wasn't just anybody. This was Tohru.
He didn't know why, but he knew that there was no way he could stop searching until she was found. He simply couldn't bear the thought of doing anything but looking for Tohru when he knew that she was out in the woods, alone and afraid, and in a terrible storm. When he knew that it had been his actions that had gotten her lost in the first place.
With this thought, Kyo forced himself back onto his feet. Guilt rushed through him in a tidal force of terrible emotion, and he released it in one loud, desperate shout into the storm. He called Tohru's name, over and over again, until all of the air was gone from his lungs and his voice was hoarse and sore.
But it still wasn't enough.
Kyo put his head down and began to sprint once more, breathing loudly as he went. Something that he stubbornly dismissed as rainwater rolled in a single, hot stream down his cheek. He was just running in circles with no strategy, no aim, no guarantee of finding much of anything, let alone the girl that he was searching for.
With this rather down putting thought came an idea. An idea that Kyo knew wasn't necessarily safe or smart, but would hopefully be effective. He scanned the forest surrounding him for what he needed, and his eyes lit up slightly when he spotted just the thing he was looking for.
It was an ideal tree, really. Tall and thick, with lots of low, sturdy-looking braches. Kyo gritted his jaw, shaking any potential nerves out of his hands, and grabbed onto the lowest branch with both hands. He was a relatively decent tree climber, and it didn't take him very long to scale the tree, even with the rain.
The wind whipped ferociously around him as he reached the top of the tree, which swayed dangerously from side to side. It was at least seventy feet tall, and Kyo felt his stomach lurch as he looked down to the forest floor. He wrenched his eyes from the ground and instead looked fixedly upward. He saw a branch at the top of the tree that looked stable enough to support his weight, and hoisted himself onto it.
Kyo wrapped his arms around the trunk of the tree and straddled the branch with his legs. His fingers dug into the bark of the tree, and they felt brittle to the point of shattering. He squinted his eyes against the rain and waited for his vision to adjust to seeing clearly with all the water in them.
When they finally did, he was almost surprised by the view. He had apparently chosen one of the tallest trees in the forest, as he could clearly look out over all of the woods without much of a problem. He could see the house from his vantage point atop the tree, and was startled to see that it wasn't as far away as he had imagined.
After this discovery, he focused on the reason he had climbed the tree in the first place: to find Tohru. He carefully sifted through all of the trees with his eyes, searching for any bright color or movement. He craned his neck around the trunk of the tree so that he could see around it, and he saw something that made his breath catch in his throat.
A yellow ribbon, determinedly bright despite the storm, waved like a beacon of hope from beneath a tree to Kyo's far left. And attached to that beautiful ribbon was an abundance of soaking wet brown hair.
Kyo couldn't fight the smile from his lips. He had found Tohru. It hadn't been Yuki, or Momiji, or anybody else. And that meant that it would be him to bring her back, and to see that striking smile on her face, which would exist only for him.
Kyo practically leapt from branch to branch as he climbed down the tree. He knew exactly the direction in which he'd seen her, and he didn't waste time in running to her once he'd gotten down from the tree. He no longer felt the rain on his face, or the burn in his legs.
He saw her ribbon in the distance, between the trees, and he increased his speed. He didn't even mind when he tripped over a mossy log beneath his foot, he simply kept running to Tohru.
"Kyo!" Kyo could barely hear Tohru's shout over the storm as he approached her. She was huddled under a tree, her knees hugged to her chest and her eyes large and worried. She leapt to her feet when she saw Kyo, and ran the rest of the distance between them.
"I was so worried about you!" She hugged him tightly. Kyo couldn't help but notice how small and cold she felt against him, and he awkwardly patted her back.
"Come on..." He extracted himself from Tohru's embrace and – perhaps a bit too roughly – seized her hand in his own. "We're going back."
Author's Note:
Okay, so yes, I know that in my last author's note, I promised that the next chapter would be up in a week. I may have lied a little bit about that. But it's summer now, so I'm going to focus all of this free time on bringing this story to a close. Thank you guys for your constant support and reviews! It seriously means the world to me J
Xoxo
-lubluebell
Chapter 12
