Here's chapter 9!

Thank you very much to my loverly reviewers, Girl-Kaulitz and Kuramasredrose!

No, I don't own Ouran. *Sniffles*

Two weeks went by for Emi in mostly the same routine. She went back to the Host Club after Mitsukuni, Kaoru and Hikaru begged her to come back. While she still did it, her heart wasn't in it anymore. Her anger at Kyouya had faded and now she was just being stubborn by not apologizing. Takashi didn't bring it up, but she knew what he wanted her to do.

"Emi-sempai." a quiet voice said, "Are you okay."

Emi snapped out of her daze. Haruhi was standing there with a concerned look on her face. "Oh, yeah, I guess, not really."

Haruhi raised an eyebrow, "Does it have to do with Kyouya-sempai."

"Yes, he's a selfish jerk."

"You know Emi-sempai, he doesn't do everything for merits." and Haruhi told her the story of what happened the first time the Host Club had gone to a 'commoner' shopping center and what Kyouya had done. "So maybe you can forgive him for what he's done."

"I should forgive him, but he never apologized either, so I'd rather just leave it be."

"How long have you two been friends?"

"Twelve years."

"A friendship that lasted that long can't just end like this."

Emi sighed, "I suppose you're right." she spied Takashi heading for the door, "I've got to go home, I'll see you tomorrow Haruhi-chan." She followed Takashi out the door, "Not going to say good-bye to me?" she asked.

"Kyouya-sempai, why is Emi-sempai mad at you?" Haruhi asked him.

Kyouya had seen Haruhi talking to Emi and now he knew what they were talking about, "A petty argument."

She nodded, unconvinced, "She called you a selfish jerk."

"That doesn't surprise me."

"Are you going to talk to her about it?"

"When she's ready to talk about it."

Haruhi sighed, these two were impossible. She checked her watch, it was almost time for her to leave so she could catch her train. Haruhi walked out of the door to the third music room wondering if she neded to buy food, but she stopped, something catching her eye, "Mori-sempai, what are you doing still here?" He turned around, hands behind his back, with a guilty look on his face. "Are you okay."

"Yes."

"Okay. . . what are you hiding behind your back?" she walked around him to see what it was. There was Emi, standing there with the exact same guilty look on her face, holding Mori-sempai's hand. "Emi-sempai. . ." and she started to put the pieces together.

Emi broke away from Takashi, "Haruhi-chan, please don't tell anyone." she took the younger girl's hands, "It's a secret."

"I won't Emi-sempai, but who else knows?"

"Mitsukuni-sempai, Kyouya and. . . my mom." she hadn't told Takashi that her mom knew about them.

'This must be part of the reason that Kyouya-sempai and Emi-sempai are angry at each other.' Haruhi thought, "I won't tell anyone, I promise. I have to go or I'll miss my train." she hurried off.

Why hadn't she told him about her mother? Takashi was worried about all the secrets they were keeping, from others mostly, but she kept secrets from him. He still didn't know anything about the mysterious mono she supposedly had, but had disappeared. He wanted answers from her.

"That was close." she said when Haruhi was out of sight.

"Emi, we need to talk."

She looked up at him, "About what?"

"Mono."

Emi looked at the ground, brushing her foot back and forth awkwardly, she was found out and she knew it. "Well, I don't have mono, it was a false alarm."

He crossed his arms, "Why do you lie to me?"

She was avoiding looking at him, "Why do you think I'm lying?"

Takashi took her chin and made her look up at him, "I know you."

She broke, "I didn't want to worry you with the truth."

"Emi, we can't keep all these secrets, it will tear us apart."

"I know, but I can't tell you the truth."

Takashi let out a breath, "If that's the way you want it to be." and he walked away.

Emi felt her heart break right there, watching him walk away. In trying to save him the pain of the truth, she had caused him more pain by lying to him. Tears welled up in her eyes, but she blinked them back, "Takashi!" she yelled, running after him.

Takashi didn't know what to do now that she was refusing to tell him the truth. Walking away from her was the hardest thing he had ever had to do. His heart hurt more than it ever had, more than when he had first figured out that he loved her. He had been on the brink of telling her those three words when Haruhi had interrupted. He didn't want they're relationship to be a secret anymore, he wanted it to be more. These secrets were eating away at him, affecting his behavior. Their relationship couldn't handle any more secrets. He heard her yell his name and he turned around.

Emi threw her arms around his waist and buried her head in his chest, "I'm so so so so sorry. It's all my fault. Everything that's going on is my fault. It's my fault I got in a fight with Kyouya and my fault that we're falling apart. I'm so sorry."

He stroked her hair, "Are you going to tell me the truth then?"

"Everything." she promised, "Anything you want to know, I'll tell you. I won't keep any more secrets." she took his hand, "I don't want us to fall apart."

"We won't." he kissed her forehead, "Tomorrow we'll talk."

"Okay." she started walking ahead of him, but not far enough that she would be out of his sight. She had a smile on her face as she got in the car, when something occurred to her, "Oh Takashi-sempai." she called out the rolled down window, "My birthday is in a week, are you and Mitsukuni-sempai going to be there?"

"Yes." he said with a smile, how could he forget?

"That's wonderful."

Her mother was waiting for her when she got home. "How was your day honey?"

"Mom, why aren't you at Ryou's?"

"Oh, I came to talk to you before your father could, not that he probably would." She led her daughter into the house and sat her down in the nearest sitting room.

"What's this about mom?"

Carissa took a deep breath, "After your birthday, I want you to come back to America with me."

So there's chapter 9! I hope you enjoyed!

Please review!

~Cloudy