"The Refugee" by Pekorimomo

Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club

Chapter Two

He ran down the path of what used to be the memorial garden of those lost in the last war, in utter disbelief of what he was seeing. Trees were burning, statues broken, and him trying desperately to avoid tripping on the broken pieces. He sprinted, for they were catching up.

Where was the safe house his caretaker told him about? That was where to go…but where?

He yelled out. A pool of water had suddenly opened up where he was stepping. He fell feet first into the cool freezing liquid, in pure shock. His hands were numb; he could not pull himself out.

Oh that traitor! He would murder him if he knew where!

He struggled wildly, but he ran out of air. Taking in water through his nostrils, his lungs burned for survival as he felt grief-stricken to apologize for killing his body with water.

There was pain all over his body. Let it go away, let it be over! He yelled out in frustration.

Ah, so this was lady death coming to greet him with chin pointed up. Who could save him now? Colours were disappearing now…

His conscious leaned on a support now…

Oh Haruhi…

---

He heard murmurs.

"He's awake! Hey guys! Kyouya's awake!"

His eyes adjusted to the semi-translucent light far above him as he heard thumps of footsteps near him. Pain came next to his ribs.

"How do you feel, Kyo-chan?" Hunny asked nervously.

"Pretty bad," he managed with groggily. His vision was still blurry. "Where are my glasses?" He tried to move his arm to get up, but winced.

"Don't move," Tamaki said. "The doctor's not sure what you have, but he said moving was a bad idea."

Kyouya, upon hearing this, disregarded the advice completely and sat straight up, meeting six other surprised expressions as he did so. He stretched, turned his head and shoulders.

"I'm fine," he replied calmly, ignoring the searing pain running up and down his left arm.

"Are you sure?" the twins uttered in disbelief. "The doctor said you were going to need at least three days in here."

"Yes, I'm really fine. Now," he reached over for the buzzer, "I am going to ask to be discharged from the hospital. Thanks for coming to see me. I apologize for causing a disturbance at the ball."

"It's alright, as long as you get better!" the blond said happily.

"Right then, well, we'll be going now. It's past midnight," Kaoru yawned.

"Ah! Takeshi, will Santa be coming even though I'm not asleep?" Hunny asked close to tears.

The five dashingly handsome gentle men got up from the circle of hairs they had around his bed and calling out wishes of farewells and 'Happy Holidays' behind them as they left. Kyouya found his glasses and placed them on the bridge of his nose, just in time to focus his eyes on the back of the brunette, whose short thin frame, he noticed, would have done an evening gown justice that same night.

As he changed out of the hospital clothes and picked up his things and signed out at the reception much to the doctor's dismay, many thoughts ran through his head. He contemplated his dying existence, and then the dying possibility of living longer where he was most contented. His mind raced back to the dream and memories from when he fainted. He had fainted, he reasoned, because his body was finally rejecting the unknown essence that was him after all these years. It was the time.

And then his mind wandered gently to the warm breath of fragrance that had entered and somehow ended the bad dream.

Where he came from, it was not so different from this world. He had thought, upon arrival, that this world was like his world, except less time had passed here. Perhaps this world would achieve a state of what his world was like in a few tens of thousands of years, where technology was more advanced, but where raw human substances were fading away, the main one, emotions.

His true father, a renowned scientist, had told him stories when he was young, such as when he had first met his mother. "It was strange. I did not realize that I wanted her until I went to sleep that night. It was pleasant."

If conscious denial of emotions were what people of his time traded away for superior intelligence, then in the unconscious state of dreams, emotions were still present.

The evoking warm scent of something unidentifiable to him, an enigma, was plastered in his mind, as if the walls of his head had already absorbed its sweetness from just one encounter. It was unforgettable, and bothering him to unimaginable lengths.

Kyouya, a being considered smart, even amongst his race, immediately made the connection of the fragrance to the human equivalence, love.

His father had then added on, "For us, once it comes, it never goes away. Remember my sister? She passed away immediately after his death. That was no coincidence. Because our beings are so deprived of what the ancients were so bountiful in, emotions, the one experience of extreme emotion serves as the source for all emotions in one lifetime. Once it's gone, we go with it too."

This could prove troubling, Kyouya thought, as he now realized that perhaps he was already infatuated with Haruhi.

---

She sneezed. Brushing her nose with her right hand, she picked up the grey feather duster with her left. It was two days before New Year's Eve, and she was taking this long-desired chance where her father decided to stay out for one whole day and get going on her winter cleaning, for her father always slowed her down with distractions. She got up and retied the rubber band with which she tied to hem of her oversized shirt with. The morning sun shined through the window, brightened in intensity by the snow scattered on the veranda.

While in the midst of wiping the counters, the doorbell rang. She set down the rag and walked to the door, brushing off dust from her hair.

"Good morning, senpai," she greeted, only able to hold back half of the surprise she felt in her voice.

"May I come in? That is, if you're not too busy." He eyed her apparel with raised eyebrows.

"Sure. It's cold this morning."

The two of them sat down by the kitchen table after Haruhi had prepared some rice tea. She took a sip, her lips red afterwards from the temperature. It was certainly out of the ordinary for Kyouya to come visit her by himself. She wondered what he wanted from her, and as an afterthought, she hoped it was not more debts.

"How are you feeling?" she ventured, a harmless question.

"Very good, thanks," he replied, while moving his eyes elsewhere. They settled out the window, but during the brief darts he dared to venture her way, he felt fear that she would notice him watching her.

"We were all so worried," she said, trying to continue the small talk.

"Yes, well," he pushed up his glasses as the tea fogged up the lens, "it was circumstances beyond my scope at the time. But it isn't all bad. Some guests that night actually favour the Host Club better now because of the drama I unintentionally caused."

What the hell…Haruhi thought to herself. Some of those ladies were so silly that they would fall in love with anything.

The look on her face exposed her real thoughts, to which he chuckled inside, distracting him from the pause of silence that stuck out in the air, and of which Haruhi was all too aware of.

"Umm…" she said out loud, "so what's the occasion for your visit today?" Might as well cut to the chase and see what he wants, she thought.

He grounded himself and focused on his purpose today. He had to do this, and complete this so-called mission otherwise his life was in danger.

"Today, I have a proposition for you," he stated with a business-like manner.

"Okay, what is it?" she asked, sitting up, with an equally firm resolution on her face. Here it comes, she thought as she braced herself for wondrous debts. She swore the last auction of her book cover fetched at least ten thousand yen give or take a few…

He smiled uncharacteristically, and Haruhi recoiled. "I would like you to spend the majority of your time with me next Saturday."

It's official, she surmised cynically, he wants to make more money off me. How, she knew not, but from his tone, it was more than evident that were his intentions.

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Thank you for reading. I have finished ch. 3.