Hey guys, sorry for the wait. My computer was broken so I was out of action for f*****g ages... so long that I am so cross I censored myself... honestly!. So sorry, thank you for your lovely reviews, I hope you like this chapter and I hope you review again.

"No, of course not. So long as you have a functioning Wi-Fi."

"Stupid rich bastard."

Kyoya allowed a rich chuckle to fall from his parted lips. It was said as an insult but was flooded affection as she nudged her shoulder into his.

"You should laugh more often Kyoya, it really suites you. You have such a beautiful laugh."

Haruhi paid no mind to the blush that infused her boyfriend's cheeks as she decided to call an end to the impromptu snuggling session and get back on with packing. She had no idea how her stuff had ended up as spread out as it had... damn maids, unpacking and doing their jobs too well.

Kyoya followed her up the stairs and swallowed back a lump at the site of her packed bags; the carrier bag and the small case she had brought being almost full.

"I don't understand how so much of my stuff has turned up here; I know I packed less than this."

Kyoya adjusted his glasses nonchalantly before answering.

"To make up for the damage that they did to your home the Ootori family army volunteered their services in retrieving the rest of yours and your father's things."

"Oh."

Haruhi looked around the room in puzzlement, sure enough there were tops in the drawers that she definitely hadn't put in the bag as well as photo albums. How had she not noticed that before?

"Wow."

"They are efficient."

"They are morons."

Kyoya shot her a confused look. Surely she had gotten over her anger by now, if only slightly.

"Because they broke your home?"

"Because they didn't bring any extra bags to pack the excess stuff in and I know we had spare cases knocking around."

Kyoya could see the problem, however the business man in him was rubbing his hands in glee. If she couldn't pack her stuff to all go now it meant she would have to return for it which would mean they would have even more chances for alone time.

"Haruhi, whilst I remember, my father has said that this room will be yours for as long as you want it. He suggested that you could stay here when your father has to work late, especially if there are storms."

"That is really nice but unnecessary."

"Haruhi, it isn't a problem and I would rather you aren't alone when it isn't necessary for you to be alone."

"And I said no, it never bothered you before, if anything I'll be safer than before. Besides I don't want to be an imposition."

"It's hardly an imposition if an offer has been made Haruhi. In fact I insist."

"Kyoya I said no! I don't want to be dependent on others so much. I'll be fine, if I need you I can call or maybe come round but I don't want to make a permanent thing. That seems like a massive imposition."

"Haruhi I am not taking no for an answer and neither is my father. Or yours for that matter."

"I won't come."

Kyoya observed the way she squared her shoulders and stood rigidly against him, arms crossed over her chest. The lily in the storm. Kyoya sighed. He knew he would get his way eventually, he just needed her to see why he was right and then she would give in.

"We will talk about it more latter."

"No we won't."

She turned away, not seeing any reason to continue the conversation to go onwards. Kyoya's steely gaze burned into her back. She was being so unreasonable but he wouldn't give up. That was fine because neither would she.

He picked up a well thumbed book from the side of her bed, glancing at her whilst she continued trying to shove as much as she could in her case in a neat manner. He noted the minimalist cover, a dark purple sash falling over a black background. He didn't know why he found that to be so striking, it resonated within him. He barely glanced at the title, "The Love of a Dark Man."

The pages made a grating rustle as he flicked through them, stopping occasionally to skim the words. He felt a sickening familiarity tug in his stomach as he glanced over the words.

"You will be mine Haruka, no one else shall have you."

"Kohei, you don't own me. You can't make me date you. I value our friendship too much to ruin it on a whim!"

Kohei's inky hair fell in front of the thin frames of his glasses as his head tilted slightly forwards. In all of his twenty years never had he been told no, he always got what he wanted, now what he wanted was this stubborn commoner and she said no. For weeks now she had been consuming him, tainting his thoughts and staining his soul. Because of her he had even lowered himself to touching himself, caressing his own heated flesh with her eyes in his mind and her name on his lips, he spilled himself in his hand like a young boy first learning of the carnal pleasures one could find with the right touch or partner. His silver eyes examined her face, the face that haunted him in a way no other had. She would not deny him. No one would!

He rammed forwards, gripping her arms tightly. He was consumed with a fiery passion like no other, if he couldn't show her with words he would show her with his body. He pulled her close, breathing in the sweet, tangy scent, savouring it like a fine wine. He pretended that he couldn't see the fear in her amber eyes as he pulled her close. He peppered the ivory column of her neck and the satin skin of her cheeks with kisses, desperate to make her see, make her understand. This wasn't a whim and he didn't just want her as a belonging. He needed her, needed to know that she was his and that she loved him even a tenth of the amount he adored her, he needed her to own him too.

She tried to move her face away, her eyes stinging with tears, it wasn't that she didn't want to say yes, it was that she couldn't bear the thought of being alone again. He would grow tired of her and she would be alone, the others would leave her when Kohei moved away from her. Her heart was breaking but she had no choice.

Her further refusal inflamed him. His pianists finger tightly griped the supple flesh of her arms before one hand reached up to her pixie short brown locks. He gripped her silken hair tightly, yanking her head back to look at him.

"Kohei, please-"

He silenced her rebellious mouth by brutally pushing his own to it. He couldn't help the broken moan that fell from his lips when he shoved his tongue in her hot cavern, she tasted just as sweet as he thought she would. Haruka stood shocked for several moments, sparks of pure energy flooded her being from their connection, she could feel the pound between her legs as it began to effect her yet still her traitorous mind screamed at her that she had said no. He moved his other hand from her arm to rest just above the gentle swell of her shapely arse. He had marked her now, in a way no one else would be able to see but it was there. He would never want another now, her taste, her touch was ingrained on his being as much as any branding. He tightened his arms around her, confused by the tangy, coppery taste he was beginning to detect as he moved his lips more skilfully against hers.

Haruka gasped in pain as her lips began to burn and she gripped his shirt tightly. It hurt so much! It was then that she realised her hands were free. She tried to push him lightly away but her only response was to have him grind his erection into her hip and grip her tighter. The pain was becoming almost unbearable as the kiss continued and he wasn't responding to her pushing him and her words were lost in his insatiable mouth. Although it hurt her to consider causing him pain she had no choice.

She reared her hand back and slapped him.

"-Yoya. Kyoya! Are you o.k."

Haruhi had been trying to get his attention; he looked devastated as he read her book. She waved her hand in front of his vacant eyes to bring him back to her.

Kyoya's brain picked up something his eyes didn't. He caught Haruhi's hand and held it tightly in his own. What wasn't he seeing? His mind was still caught up with the shock it had received as he essentially relived the past through a book but it knew something was wrong. He ran his fingertips over her palm, noting the pained, hissed breath she released.

A bandage.

How had he missed that? The ropey texture was rough on his fingertips as he unwound it, his grasp on Haruhi's wrist strengthened as she began to try and tug her hand away.

His mouth went dry as he stared at the large, angry gash on her palm. He could smell antiseptic coming strongly from the wound; his hawk-like eyes saw the box of tablets on her bedside table next to the damn book. Pieces were fitting into place but still he had to ask.

"What happened?"

"Nothing, I just fell."

His grip tightened almost imperceptibly, just shy of a bruising clamp around her delicate skin.

"There is nothing 'nothing' about this Haruhi. This is a deep cut, someone has put hospital strength antiseptic on it. Tell me what happened!"

His tone brooked no refusal and for the first time for days Haruhi felt a twinge of fear being left alone with her mysterious senpai and the snide little voice in the back of her head that had all but disappeared reared its ugly head again questioning what she actually knew about him.

"I fell on some glass."

"Where?"

"In Akito's room."

Kyoya's nostril flared in anger. Why did she keep going to his brother? Why did she continually put herself in danger by standing alone with men who could very easily hurt her or worse? How had this even happened? Sure Haruhi was clumsy but there was nothing in Akito's room that could have done this, even the glass coffee table wouldn't do it, it was reinforced glass! He couldn't help the panic he felt, it was blinding his better judgement. If he had tried to calm down he would have noticed the tension building in Haruhi's shoulders or how her other hand had risen to try and push his away from her.

A disturbing picture was forming in Kyoya's head, one of a drunk brother throwing the diminutive girl into something or onto something. A picture of terrible, ugly things going on behind the shut and locked door of his brother's room. A picture of Haruhi being too afraid to tell him that Akito had hurt her.

"Did he touch you?"

"What?"

"Did he touch you? Did he hurt you? Why can't you ever do as you're told? Why do you continually put yourself into dangerous situations and not call for help? I was down the hall, why didn't you- Why-"

"Kyoya, you're scaring me."

"Good! Maybe that's what you need. I've tried to teach you not to be so trusting but you just don't get it! How someone so stupid could actually get into Ouran I will ne-"

CRACK

Kyoya's head snapped harshly from the force of the blow. His glasses flew from his face and landed with a crunch on the marble floor of the room below after skittering across the landing and out through the rails. The roar of blood was deafening in his ears and the throbbing, pulsing, burning pain consumed half of his face in its entirety. She had kneed him in the balls before but that was nothing compared to this. He knew as soon as he had said it he had gone too far but for her to hit him, for a brief moment his mind flashed to the day at the school fair when his father had struck him in front of everyone. As he turned his neck slowly so he could look at her and the lurch he felt in his chest far outshone the pain in his jaw.

Haruhi's face was drained of colour; her eyes sparkled with tears that threatened to flow freely down her face, her bottom lips quivered unintentionally as she struggled not to cry. She shuffled back on the bed, desperate to put space between them. She only stopped when her back hit the headboard at the opposite side of the bed. She tucked her knees up tightly under her chin and used them to hide her face. Blurry though his vision was from the loss of his glasses and the tears of pain that had sprung to his eyes unbidden, Kyoya could see her shoulders shaking as she let the tears out.

"I apologise."

He heaved himself up off the floor and blindly manoeuvred himself onto the edge of the bed. His hands covered his mouth and nose, his hands clasped in a prayerful manner. Perhaps he was praying, he didn't know what he was doing and as he listened to the sniffles from his Haruhi behind him he knew less and less.

"Haruhi. I shouldn't have said-"

"No you sh-shou-shouldnt."

"I know you aren't stupid but- you don't know Akito. I am his brother and I am finding out things about him that I never knew. I can't stand that you were hurt because-"

"Because I'm so stupid."

He winced and turned to look at her, she was looking at him with cold, hard eyes. He would have shuddered in fear had his stomach not plummeted and his pulse begin to race at the thought that he had ruined his one chance of happiness with this girl.

"Haruhi-"

"Don't, Kyoya, just don't. This is wrong, it shouldn't be like this."

"I can change."

"You shouldn't have to. Kyoya you are a great guy but I cannot cope with being yelled at over the slightest things. Akito was really nice to me the other day, he has given me no reason to mistrust him, he frightened me slightly and I fell. That is it, it isn't a big deal."

"Haruhi, you don't know my brother as I do. His behaviour recently is a new thing. I remember him throwing a maid into a solid marble wall for entering his room, I remember him knocking a man unconscious in a drunken rage. He is dangerous, if he wanted to hurt you he could and no one would stop him because the only people who could are employed by him."

"The same applies to you."

Kyoya span to face her fully, feeling panic rising uncomfortably up his chest. The tears were drying on her face and she was looking at her wounded palm with a keen interest. Kyoya longed for her eyes to meet his, because, if they did then he could calm her down, he could comfort her or do whatever it took to make her forget this whole horrible incident. It was manipulative but he didn't like where this was going.

Sadly she wouldn't meet his eyes, she couldn't bring herself to do it.

"Kyoya this is wrong. We have only been dating for a couple of days and we shouldn't be fighting like this. We should be out enjoying ourselves like a normal couple... But we aren't a normal couple are we? Maybe this was doomed from the start, no-one should be living with their boyfriend when they get together and they shouldn't... Kyoya this whole situation is like a pressure cooker. Maybe being here just forced us together when it wasn't meant to be."

Kyoya's mouth went dry and for a second he struggled to answer. She was right that this wasn't how things were meant to be but they were defiantly meant to be together. He had wanted this for too long to let her give up on him. Foolish, heated words weren't going to prevent Kyoya Ootori from being with what was his.

"Haruhi, I love you, I-"

"That's kind of my point Senpai, it's only been a few days, how could you love me? There has been too much pressure and you're saying things you don't mean."

"Haruhi look at me. LOOK AT ME DAMN IT!" Her eyes snapped to his in shock, Kyoya was finally beginning to lose his tentative hold on his control. He met her gaze and held it. "I love you, no, do not shake your head. I do, I love you Haruhi, if I think about it I have for months and I know you love me too. You're right, there is too much pressure here so it is a good thing that you've got somewhere lined up. But never, ever tell me that I am saying things I don't mean. The only thing I have said to you that I don't mean is that you are stupid. Please, let's just... take a breath; I'll go to my room, I'll get on with some work. Then I can come back in a while or I'll see you in the morning. "

"Ok."

Kyoya didn't push her for clarification on which, instead he reached forward and placed a light kiss on her forehead before carefully straightening her glasses. He gripped the hand rail tightly to manoeuvre down the stairs and then tried to find his glasses as quickly as possible.

Haruhi sat on the bed where Kyoya had left her, she barely dared to breathe till she heard the door click shut behind him. She had reacted badly, she knew that, but for a second when he called her stupid... it was like being back with him.

(Flashback)

Haruhi pushed her long hair over her shoulders for the third time as she continued to write up her notes for her homework. She ignored the approaching laughter as best she could but it's obnoxious sound completely distracted her. With a roll of her eyes and a sigh she pushed out of a seat, intending to tell the boys to be quiet, they were in a library after all.

To her surprise it was Kei. A small smile graced her lips, she hadn't seen him all week because of one thing or another and she had missed him, she went to walk up to him when their conversation stopped her in her tracks.

"Seriously, she is cute but Haruhi is so stupid. I mean, come on! She won't sleep with me because she's waiting for the right moment and she never has any time for me because she's too busy studying."

"So?"

"So, she's with me, she doesn't need to study because she isn't going to work! Besides, did you hear her in class the other day, 'The foreshadowing of his death is clear through the graphic descriptions of the surroundings and the author's use of colours' God, she is so dull. I bet someone else gave her the answer anyway, there is no way she could come up with it on her own."

The lads all laughed with Kei and Haruhi felt her face blush with anger and pain. How could he say such horrible things about her?

"Get this, she didn't even know what brand my t-shirt was the other day when we went out on a date. She is so completely clueless. How she ever expects to get to Ouran academy on a scholarship I will never know, she's way too stupid to pass the exam."

The lads all laughed and kept walking, they walked straight past her at one point but they didn't see her. Haruhi stood frozen in the shadows, unable to speak. Stupid. Was she stupid? Not in an academic sense, she knew that, her grades were exceptional and she worked hard to make sure they stayed that way, even when she didn't have to but... She liked Kei so much and she had no idea he was like this. That was stupid wasn't it, not knowing someone who you were going out with.

Dazed, she trudged back to her seat and continued with her work. Her heart wasn't in it though, her hand was working on autopilot but her mind was reeling.

She broke up with him as soon as she saw him.

Then she was alone.

Haruhi released a shuttered sigh as she broke away from her daydreams of the past. She had spent so long trying to put that behind her that it hurt more to think about it now. Kei had been everything she had thought she had wanted, sophisticated, grown up and charming. He turned into everything she despised, a rich snob. She didn't know what angered her more, that she didn't see through his lies or his slight on her intelligence. Not long after that notes began appearing in her desk, threatening and mocking, telling her that she was too stupid to get into Ouran and that she had better not even try. Finally she had a group of friends she was comfortable with, she wasn't constantly looking over her shoulder anymore.

The sad thing was even as she thought of what had been said she could see how childish and pathetic it had been, just a silly boy who thought he was grown up showing off to his friends. Kyoya was so similar to Kei in some ways, but Kyoya wasn't Kei. All that was a...a smear on her past she was different now, she was stronger now. She gripped her stomach as a sharp pain rippled through her; she glanced at the calendar by her bed and groaned in misery, could this day get any worse?

Kyoya slammed his phone on his desk, he didn't flinch when he heard the crunch of the screen, he simply reached into his top drawer and pulled out a new one, slipping the old SIM into the new shell he fumed. How could he have looked so deeply into Haruhi's past and not come across this?

"So you knew Haruhi Fujioka from school?"

"Yeah, well from a distance."

"Do you know why she would react badly to a.. slight on her intelligence?"

Kyoya held the phone away from his ear as the boy snorted loudly.

"Who'd she hit this time? I tell you what that kid had a cracking right hook!"

"Why would you assume she-"

"She had Hell with this lad she used to see, Kei."

"I know all that."

"Yeah, well, he got all his mates to pick on her because he said he thought she was thick. People followed his example and soon teachers were getting involved. At one point there was a suggestion that she be moved down from the high class, rumours that she wasn't doing her own work, well after that she worked herself nearly to death to be the top of the class, she did her homework in after school clubs and at dinner times so that the teachers could see it was her doing it."

"She was over compensating."

"In a way, yeah. She doing all right now?"

"Thank you for your time."

Kyoya sighed, typical, he would stumble onto Haruhi's only real sore spot in the middle of an argument. Why was it that they couldn't have a happily ever after moment? If she was with Tamaki she would be happy, that French idiot would romance her and they would ride off into the sunset. Maybe it would be better if she was with Tamaki.

No.

Even thinking about her with Tamaki, laughing with him, sitting with him, kissing and holding him made Kyoya feel sick, it made his stomach churn with thick cords. He could wine and dine as well as any French moron, he had the facts now, he could apologise to Haruhi and since it was her he'd even mean it.

He leant back in his chair and added some quick, scribbled notes to his Haruhi black book before putting it back in his host club drawer... the biggest drawer on his desk. He dialled a number and made gave a clipped order for three red roses to be sent to her room immediately before glancing at the clock, he'd been gone well over an hour... would she mind if he came back? He hoped not, he put a quick call into the kitchen to have them send up as much sushi as they could make in five minutes with particular focus on tuna.

He idly rubbed his cheek, her old class mate was right; she had a hell of a hit behind her. He wondered how he could have changed so quickly, if anyone had hit him before the start of this school year they would have found themselves on the first plane or boat out of Japan that his army could throw them onto, now he felt bad about it. Love, so stupid, so numbing, so wonderful. As he thought of Haruhi his chest felt warm and it felt... odd to breathe... and his cheek really fucking hurt. All in all not too bad. The more he thought about her moving out the more he felt it was a good thing, this was all too much too soon. Some distance would be good. Everything would be less intense.

He ran a comb through his hair and walked back to her room, intercepting the waiter who was ready to knock on her door with a tray laden with savoury goodies and knocked himself. He was slightly bemused to not hear a reply and wandered in anyway. What he saw shook him.

Lizzie wanted a cigarette... which was odd because Lizzie did not smoke; in fact she had never picked up a cigarette in her life. But now, now she wanted a cigarette. Those stupid, slimy, handsome, smug, rich, self-serving bastards! She flung a dirty top that was lying over the coffee table at the dirty washing basket with as much rage as one could fling a top at a basket. Three years, she hadn't seen any of them for three years. It shouldn't still hurt so much.

It had been a long relationship, sure, but three years later. How long would it be before she could breathe again? Before she could think about Japan and not wince. She couldn't go and meet up with her old friends and risk seeing their old haunts, she hadn't looked at her old photo albums, wouldn't let anyone go into them.

She needed to be strong. It was her duty to be strong. The phone call this afternoon had shaken her, the second more than the first. She could still hear the whiney, nasally voice of that receptionist.

"Ooh Mr. Ootori says has had a cancellation, would you like to come in next week? No, I pissing well don't. I need three weeks to.. prepare myself for facing the man who helped ruin my fucking life."

She sat back and rubbed her face vigorously, she suddenly felt so tired.

"Come on old girl, shake it off. You can't tell Haruhi to shake her issues off if you aren't going to do it yourself." She sat straight and stared off into the distance. She saw them all, all the good times and the bad, running through the rain in a park because he said he had never played out in the rain as a child, going on holiday to his private island and trying not to feel inferior to his waiting staff who had better bodies than her. Teaching him to cook fajitas (because it was the simplest thing she could think of and it was all she had the ingredients for) and nearly burning down her flat because he got too distracted with distracting her to keep his eye on the chicken. Telling him she loved him, her first kiss, her first time. All the tears and the laughs, that last goodbye, she watched it all in her head before shutting it away. Locking it all up in the deepest, darkest pit of her mind never to be opened again.

"Enough is enough."

She would go to the meeting in a week's time and she would be the height of professionalism. She wouldn't acknowledge any prior affiliation, she would just be in and out.

"Besides, it's not like they'd remember me. Three years is a long time."

I cannot apologise enough for my absence, I can only say that technology turned against me, first my charger then my laptop. I will do my best to not be gone that long again.

I talked to one of my friends about H+K's relationship and their fight, I decided to put that in because 1. It was kind of needed 2. They are both fairly young and that is a high tension situation, classic too much too soon. I promise that should be the last of the H+K angsty whines... for a while at least... I think.

Poor Lizzie, little does she know that the Ootori's are just as stubborn as her. I wonder what Yoshio will have in store for her... I kid of course... I definitely know what's going to happen... probably =P

Hope you enjoyed it, please let me know and if not let me know what you think so I can try and make it a story that you do like.

Thank you so much to everyone who has supported this story and me by adding it to your favourites it and reviewing, love you guys =D

Wp2 xx