Here's chapter 8!

Enjoy

No, I don't own Ouran High School Host Club, Mori, Kyouya, Tamaki, Kaoru, Hikaru, Hunny, Haruhi...or anyone else really.

Her father had been set on keeping her home for a week, but her saintly mother had talked him out of it. Her mother was now living with Ryou in their second mansion as she wasn't on the greatest terms with her ex-husbands wife. Emi didn't mind, because now her mom wasn't hovering over her all the time.

The woman who had put the poison in her and Kanaye's food was quietly fired. She had been forced to do it because the person who was doing the forcing threatened her family. Hiroshi didn't want a trial on his plate along with everything else that was going on.

He was concerned with the way things were going. Morinozuka Akira and Hanoinzuka Yorihisa had both caught people sneaking around their estates, but hadn't caught either of them. Yuzuru Souh hadn't reported anything going on around his estate or anything else. This Yamada kid was hard to catch. But he was starting to think that there was someone higher involved in this than some revenge bent kid. He knew Yamada Mamoru in high school, he wasn't the type of person you'd want to revenge.

But again, there was nothing to do but wait until another opportunity presents itself.

His phone rang, "Hello?"

"Kichida-san, I have an idea for you."

When she went back to school, Emi couldn't have been more happy to be out of the house. Her classmates welcomed her warmly, all of them wondering how she felt with her mono. Of course, she didn't have any symptoms of it, but no one really noticed, or cared probably. She hadn't seen any of the Host Club members so far, and she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or a bad thing.

As soon as class started, Kyouya and Tamaki walked in; it was unusual for Kyouya to cut it that close to the bell. Although he had visited her in the hospital, their relationship was still strained. But Emi noticed there was no extra security in the room today, so Kyouya must be conceding somewhat.

She suffered through four hours of classes before it was lunch time. She was having trouble concentrating on her classes, her mind kept wandering back to Takashi. The guillt of lying to him was finally catching up to her. At least she wouldn't have to see him at the Host Club today; her father hadn't lifted the restriction on her movements.

Emi tried to avoid Kyouya on her walk to lunch, but he caught up with her, and stayed unnaturally close to her side, "Can I help you Kyouya?"

"No, but I helped you."

"Sorry, if I find that hard to believe. You haven't been helping me very much lately."

Kyouya ignored her anger, "Haven't you noticed that there are no guards today?"

"Yes I did notice, are you admitting that you were wrong?"

"No, I proposed to your father that the Host Club wouldn't let you out of their sight so you could come back to playing the piano for us."

That pissed her off, "Well, it's nice to know that your still looking after your own interests Kyouya." and she made a sharp turn around and ran off.

All he could do was stand there dumbfounded. Is that really why she thought he'd done it? For his own purposes? No, he had done it for her, to make her less miserable, to make her happy. But instead he'd gone and made her angry. He had to go after her, she wasn't safe on her own.

Emi ran away from Kyouya, anger, sadness and a sense of relief mixed inside of her. For all these years she had known everything that Kyouya did was for himself and giving him an advantage of some sort, but she had turned a blind eye because it had never really affected her at all. Their friendship (she might go as far to say, former friendship) had never really had any merits for him, so she hadn't cared. But now that his merit system was affecting her, it hurt a lot more than he probably knew. It felt as if their friendship for the last twelve years had been fake.

She sat down on a bench near a rock rimmed pond and started to cry. She hadn't really sat down and cried like this since her parents had explained the divorce to her. She had ran away from them too. After a few minutes she was reduced to sniffles. Wiping her eyes she stood up to go back to lunch; she was hungry now that she had exhausted herself crying. There was a rustle in the bushes, and a feeling she couldn't describe rose in her. Rebellion? Anger? She didn't know what. She bent down and picked up a bunch of rocks, "Leave me alone!" she yelled, throwing them in the bushes, "Why are you doing this to me? Leave me alone! That's all I want!" When she ran out of rocks, she started picking up more, panic rising in her throat. She picked up a rather large one and threw it as hard as she could. It collided with someone with a quiet grunt.

She grabbed another rock, prepared to smash it into the face of whoever it was, and went into the bushes. Sure this was against all the rules of what you should do in a situation like that, but she was spurred on. Sitting on the ground, rubbing his head was Takashi.

"Oh, what have I done?" she asked him and fell to her knees beside him. She pulled his hand away to inspect the damage. It looked worse than it really was, head wounds were always like that. It was really a shallow cut, but it was bleeding quite a bit. "I'm so sorry." she wailed, hands flitting around the wound helplessly.

"You have good aim." he said.

Emi laughed nervously, "I must throw pretty hard too. Lets. . . get you to the nurse's office." She helped him up. He was a little wobbly, so she put her arm around his waist to help him walk. "What were you doing in the bushes?" she asked.

"Looking for you. I saw you run away from Kyouya."

She averted her eyes, "Did you hear what we said?"

"No." A silence fell upon then while they walked back into the school, then Takashi spoke up, "Do you want to talk about it?"

"He's just doing what Kyouya does best, looking out for his own interests." She went on to explain everything that had happened with Kyouya. She didn't say anything about the poison because she still didn't want to worry him. "I should have known it would come to this eventually."

"He did it for you." Takashi said.

Emi snorted, "That's a nice thought, maybe I can trick myself into thinking that."

Takashi didn't try to convice her otherwise; she was being tunnel-minded again. He didn't like to admit it to himself, but Kyouya was in love with Emi, and Kyouya didn't know yet. It worried him that he could lose her to Kyouya.

"We're here Takashi." she said, looking up at him. He had zoned out while they were walking. He grunted, still thinking about Kyouya and Emi. They had everything going for them really. They had been friends for who knew how many years, they were so alike. It was conceivable that if Emi hadn't left, they would have fallen in love. He pondered over these thoughts as the nurse took care of his head. Emi sat in a chair near the window, looking out. The sunlight really made her eyes shine and the red come out of her hair. She was defiantly a sunshine kind of person.

"There you go Morinozuka-san." the nurse said, finishing putting the bandage on his head, "Try to be a little more careful. You'd better get back to class Kichida-chan, you're late."

"Of course."

Takashi got up, "I'll take you there." He wanted to talk to Emi about her 'mono.'

As soon as they were out the door, Emi asked, "Are you part of the 'we won't let Emi out of our sight' deal with my dad?"

"Yes."

"Takashi, I don't think I'm coming to the Host Club today." Emi did not want to see Kyouya until at least tomorrow.

"I'll tell the others."

"There you are Emi." the last voice on this earth that she wanted to hear at that moment. Kyouya walked up to them, "I was sent to find you."

"I should mark this day on the calender. You did something without any merits. Or is there some kind of hidden prize if you bring me back?"

Kyouya was hurt, but he didn't let it show, "Just come back to class Emi."

"Not with you." she said.

"Stop it." Takashi said, "You two need to talk about this."

Emi looked up at him, "Takashi, I don't want to talk to him."

"But you need to. I have to go back to the university anyway." and he walked away. He didn't want to leave them alone, he wanted to stay with Emi and keep her away from Kyouya, but he knew he was doing the right thing.

They stood there for awhile, not saying anything. "I'm going to class." Emi said, starting to walk off.

"I didn't talk to your dad for myself."

She whipped around, "I've turned a blind eye to your 'merits' for a lot of years Kyouya because they never applied to me, but now that they do, I find it hard to believe."

"Well believe it or not, I did it for you, to make you happy. I thought you like playing the piano for us."

"But it still benefits you. You get more money when I'm around."

"True, but it's still not why I did it.

Emi took a deep breath, "Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why do you want to make me happy."

The question stunned Kyouya into silence. Yes, she was his friend, and that's what friends do. But there was something else there, something that he just now realized, "I. . . care about you."

Emi didn't know what kind of answer she had been looking for, but that wasn't it. There was almost a double meaning behind his words, and it shocked her as well, "Lets go back to class." and she whipped back around and walked as quickly as possible to class.

Kichida Hiroshi checked his calender, it was still three weeks until Emi's birthday, but the way things were going, he would have to tell her earlier. Then, for the second time that day, he got an unexpected phone call.

"Hello?"

"Can we wait three weeks?"

"Right to business then?"

"I don't have much time to talk."

"We'll see if we can wait, but if we have to then we'll announce it."

"I'll be in contact." and the phone call was ended.

'We'll just have to see.' Hiroshi thought, leaning back in his chair.

Well that's chapter 8! I hope you enjoyed and I will have chapter 9 out as soon as I can!

Please review!

~Cloudy