ღLast time on Picking up the Piecesღ

"You missed!" Rai said, completely ignoring me. There was another bang and the person who shot Kyouya fell down, his left eye bleeding profusely.

Kyouya was out cold, but his heartbeat was still strong. The gun surprised his body and knocked him out. I stood up and glared at Rai.

"This stops here!" I hissed at him and cracked my knuckles, "or are you too afraid to take a girl on!" I shouted at him and cocked an eyebrow taunting him again. He took off his jacket and dropped it to the side before rolling his shoulders.

"First, let's take a trip down memory lane!" Rai said with a wide grin before he turned towards the door and held up a hand. "Why would you be saving the life of your boyfriend when he cheated on you with a girl? Why would you be saving the life of a family who only fostered you so you could become a lawyer like Kotoko and defend them?" he said with a smirk. My eyes narrowed. He knew nothing. Before I could say anything, the devil walked out.

By that, I mean Kotoko.

ღ Now ღ

She walked down the steps and over towards Rai, she flashed a smile towards Takashi who the entire time was keeping a poker face on. I slid on my own poker face and stared at Rai instead of the manipulative bitch.

"She seduced Takashi on your orders, and he dated her..." I couldn't finish that sentence; I didn't know why he did decide to date her.

"Because she was a new hot piece of ass compared to the tomboy girl who is practically his sister," Rai said with a shrug before patting Kotoko's thigh, she walked to the side and placed arm around Takashi's shoulders. I resisted the urge to slam her in the face with my foot.

"Stop with the surprises, Rai, you are relying on distracting my so you can kill me. Just do it," I said throwing my arms to the side. I heard the protests from the others and Rai laughed.

"I would, but wouldn't it be better if I killed your friends first?" he asked before raising his hand. There was another bang and I felt blood splatter my face. This time I heard a softer thud and felt my heart squeeze tightly. I slowly turned around and nearly fainted by the emotion that washed over me.

Mitsukuni's head was bleeding profusely and he wasn't moving. I heard everyone's outraged cry and I turned and advanced on Rai. Tears blinding me. He deserved to die even more now.

I launched myself at him. Throwing punches and kicks at every available moment. "You will never ever be my family!" I yelled and slammed the heel of my boot into his temple. He fell to the ground and scooted quickly away from my feet. I took a few heavy breaths and stared down at him. I looked up to see if the sniper was there.

No. Fuck. I had to do it myself.

I reached back and grabbed the gun from my pocket. Rai saw the gun and stood up and backed up towards the gunmen. He tripped over his own feet and landed with his back towards his own gunmen. I slammed my foot on his chest and he fell with his back flat to the ground. I shot his shoulder with hesitation and he yowled in pain.

"That's for Kyouya," I whispered before shooting his other one and moving to grab the knife from my sweater which wasn't very hard since he fell beside Kyouya's body.

I then stabbed him in the stomach.

"That is for my father."

I could faintly hear Sakura and Akira snapping orders to the others to stay where they were. Sakura saying that no one could bear to lose two in the same day.

I then delivered a kick to Rai's side and felt a bullet dig into my arm. I hissed and raised the gun and shot one of the gunmen. The rest aimed their guns at me and I aimed mine at Rai. Though I knew, they wouldn't care if I was aiming at Rai. They only cared that Rai was paying them to protect him.

"This, this is for Mitsukuni and all the bullshit I've had to put up with because of you!" I said before aiming at his face and pulling the trigger. The moment the gun went off, I felt four sharp pains plough through me and I fell to the ground. Pain enveloping me entirely.

I did it. I killed the man who killed my father. I didn't exactly prove to anyone that I wasn't guilty, but I felt my shoulder become light. That may just be because I have five bullet wounds in various points of my body, and I was pretty sure that my nose was broken. Landing on my face did that.

I faintly heard a growl and yells of anger before a few gunshots and then I saw a gunman land beside me, dead. I twisted my head weakly the other way and saw Mitsukuni. I slowly moved my arm, the movement hurting it completely, and ran my hands through his hair.

"I'm sorry," I whispered, but knew that I had killed the man who killed him when the first bullet went into me. I knew that he was already avenged. He was killed because of me. He should've listened to...me.

My...thoughts...are becoming...slower...does this mean...I'm dying?

Good...I need the sleep...Goodbye Takashi, My Love, My Life. My glass heart...is about...to...shatter once more...

Takashi stared at Haruhi's body connected to tubes and wires keeping her alive. There was nothing else that he could. Kyouya was trying as hard as he could to get the doctors to do more. Though he knew, there was no use. She was dead; the body in front of him was just the shell of Haruhi. One that was breathing but not her.

He still clung to her hand as if she was in the body; his mother was at the other side of the bed. She was murmuring comforting words towards the three of them, stroking Haruhi's hair, which held the barrette that Sakura had given her earlier in the months. He watched as her mother stared to hum, then caught herself and swallowed a lump in her throat.

Everyone else had been ordered to leave the room by the doctors, since there had been many people visiting Haruhi. Only Takashi and Sakura were allowed to stay. That was only because they said that they needed to be there for her if she woke up.

It had been two days.

Takashi was starting to lose hope that she was ever going to wake up, but with every day, he noticed his mother gaining strength in the fact that she was going to wake up. If she would.

He kissed her knuckles and dropped his head to her lap and stared up at Haruhi. It wasn't her fault that all five of the men shot her. It wasn't her fault that she was born into that family of lies. He wanted her to wake up. For even an instant so he could say goodbye to her. He didn't get the chance. He wanted that chance.

When he glanced up at Haruhi again, her hand was on his head running her fingers through his hair and his mother whispering gently to her. He sat up and looked around before staring down at her.

"Takashi," Sakura said in a soft voice, "Haruhi has agreed to do a surgery that has only a ten percent chance of success... she doesn't have much energy and she only stays awake for ten minutes every hour."

Takashi brushed some of Haruhi's hair out of her eyes before kissing her forehead. "Baka," he whispered to her and pulled away slightly. "You shouldn't have done that-"

"He would've killed others," Haruhi murmured quietly, sounding strained of energy. Takashi stared at her hand and messaged the back of her hand for a moment before looking up at her.

"Haruhi," he trailed off, not knowing what to say. He couldn't exactly say that they could've gotten out of it, but he wasn't sure if they could've.

"Takashi, what I did was for the best...though I wish...Kyouya hadn't found me...this wouldn't have happened," she murmured looking directly at Takashi, not ashamed of her words or actions.

"What did you mean it was for the best? Who did it benefit?" Takashi asked, trying to keep his anger out of his voice by looking down at her hand.

"I know I should've gone with Rai and Takahiro, they probably would've left you alone, I should've hurt you guys worse to protect you. Instead, I chose the route that lead to Mitsukuni's death and mine. You guys benefit for my death, the person who caused the Morinozuka's and Haninozuka's so much grief, and who got Kyouya shot in the shoulder," Haruhi said, her voice going up an octave, no longer the energy deprived injured woman.

"Haruhi, you may have caused us grief. However, that grief will make us stronger and bonded everyone in the family, you taught my son to love and taught Satoshi how to respect boundaries. Our grief is horrible, yes, but we do not blame it on you. If anyone is to blame, it is Akira and I for fostering you, but we wouldn't have it any other way," Sakura said, interrupting before Takashi could retort. "It was our decision to have you in our lives," she paused before adding, "Mitsukuni would've been horrified by your words, he would've told you that you were worth it all because you are his little cousin and would be forever. Takashi explained to me the full extent of what happened that day in front of the hospital. I have a question to ask, if Mitsukuni was in that van, and you had only a few seconds to get him out and that meant giving up your life. Would you have done it?"

Haruhi stared at Sakura in surprise and paused to think before nodding, "If Mitsukuni or Takashi or Kaoru or any of my friends were in that van I would've given up my life to save theirs."

"If Mitsukuni heard those words, then he would have said that he would've gladly given up his own life to save yours," Sakura said before placing her hand on the barrette on Haruhi's bangs. "You have done nothing terrible in your life, except stabbing Tamaki in the stomach, killing Rai was to protect yourself and we've already cleared it up with the police. You are not being charged and all the people there whom were not tied up are going to jail. They are the ones who deserve to die, not you."

Haruhi took a deep breath before reaching up and touching Sakura's hand with a soft smile. "Thank you...mother" she stumbled over the word, since she had never really called Sakura 'mom' and meant it. Sakura beamed down at Haruhi and gave her a hug before sitting back down and looking over at Takashi.

"Haruhi-"

"If I do die," she said, interrupting Takashi, "I want you to move on. You've helped me pick the pieces of my heart back up and assemble my heart to mostly what it was like before, you were the one who taught me how to open my heart up and let people in, you were the one who taught me how defend myself, you were the one who was always there for me. I just want you to do this, promise me that you'll forget I ever existed and continue your life on like normal," she paused, "I already destroyed the scrapbook I made for you. It contained all the pictures of me in the house," she said before smiling slightly and taking the barrette off and handing it to Sakura, "I want you to worry about Mitsukuni, he didn't deserve to die, and I won't live knowing the fact that I was the one who ripped him away from all of you,

"I want to say many things in my life, I want to say that I want to be with you every night, I want to hug you every day for the rest of my night. The things I want to see in my life? I've seen almost all of the things I've wanted to see when I ran away. The one thing I truly want to see is you go down on one knee and ask me to marry you," she said with a soft laugh and shake her head, "though that's just me wishing my life away," she said and then closed her eyes briefly.

"What's wrong with me? Saying things that I normally wouldn't say?" she mumbled to herself. Sakura looked down at her hand and slid off one of the rings on her right hand and passed it silently to Takashi with a smile. He stared at it before looking up at his mother with questioning in his eyes. She mouthed 'ask her'.

"Haruhi-"

"Excuse me, but I need to prepare Fujioka-san for her surgery," a nurse said, bowing before walking over and began to check Haruhi's vitals.

Sakura stood up and told Haruhi they'd be waiting for her when she woke up after the surgery. Takashi stared at Haruhi before bending down and kissing her forehead.

"If you make it out of this. I'm marrying you," he whispered to her before holding up the ring, Haruhi stared at him before kissing him gently. Takashi knew she couldn't wear jewelry in the operating room so he tucked the ring into his pocket and gave her a quick kiss before leaving to give the nurse space.

End.

A/N: Actually...I'm kind of glad this is over, just because I haven't found enough muse to write it, and am proud that I actually finished it for once :D

I'd like to thank everyone for reading this. Special thanks to Yuuna Arashi for being there for me when I was out of inspiration, as well as Emo-Shukun for giving me inspiration and being an awesome person all together.

Check out Yuuna Arashi's profile for an amazing Ouran fic and Emo-Shukun for Inuyasha, Avatar: Last Airbender, Teen Titans, Ouran High School Host Club, Bleach, and Naruto.

Please check out My Last Goodbye, the last of the trilogy.