Chapter Two: Flight

The plane began to taxi along the runway as the sign flashed on above the seats to 'fasten seatbelts'. The perspiration on Kaoru's forehead was glistening and he kept making fists with his hands whenever there was the slightest bump or nudge from the plane. Haruhi could see his chest rise and fall as he began breathing faster and faster and, as the plane speeded up, Kaoru gripped the arm rest between his and Haruhi's seats so tightly that his knuckles turned white and the tendons on his bare arm stood out. His legs were shaking and as the plane sped ever faster, he closed his eyes tightly so as not to see the runway rushing by outside.

Haruhi looked over towards where Hikaru was sitting, expecting to see the more stubborn twin occupying himself with something but, to her surprise, Hikaru was staring over at his brother with what looked like a pained expression on his face. Hikaru's eyebrows were raised and he looked like someone had just stabbed him in the chest as he continued to watch Kaoru. After a few moments Hikaru unbuckled his seatbelt and climbed over Tamaki's legs. One of the air stewardesses shouted from her position behind a green curtain for him to sit back down but he ignored her and fumbled his way over to Kaoru. Without speaking (and much to the delight of Tamaki) Haruhi moved over to where Hikaru had been sitting and he sat in what had been her seat. He quickly fastened the seatbelt.

"Kaoru?" Hikaru placed his hand under his brother's identical one and squeezed it tightly, "Are you alright?"

Kaoru opened his eyes slowly and looked at his twin with a look of relief that was quickly extinguished by a look of pure terror. He gripped Hikaru's hand firmly as the plane lifted off the ground and took off into the bright blue sky. Once in the air the seatbelt sign turned off and Hikaru unfastened his and undid Kaoru's for him. Kaoru was still shaking and he didn't dare move his head in fear of seeing out of the windows and looking into the clouds. Instead he simply sat staring with eyes as wide as saucers at the seat in front of him; he could just see the black spikes of Mori's hair above the backrest and he focused all of his attention on them.

"Kaoru?" Hikaru was trying to peel his brother's hand off of his own but it was grasped so tightly that he couldn't prise his fingers away. He knew that Kaoru hated flying, he always had. Whenever they'd been on holiday with their parents he would always freak out and they'd either end up having to find another way to get there or cancel the holiday altogether. Suddenly Honey's face popped up over the seat in front of Hikaru; the small boy looked at Kaoru and then back at Hikaru,

"What's wrong with Kao-chan?"

Hikaru pasted a smile on his face and answered as cheerfully as he could, "Nothing, he's fine."

A sudden bout of turbulence shook the plane, knocking Honey back onto his seat, and Kaoru let out a pained squeak. His fingers gripped Hikaru's hand tighter and he bit his lip to stop any more sounds escaping. Hikaru managed to prise his brother's hand off of his own and lift up the arm rest that divided their seats. Kaoru instinctively shuffled closer to his twin and rested his head on Hikaru's chest. Haruhi watched as Hikaru started to softly stroke his younger brother's hair, like a mother taking care of a scared child, and as Kaoru slowly began to calm down. Within an hour he was snoring softly, his fingers entangled in Hikaru's.

~ o o O o o ~

They'd been on the plane for almost three hours and Honey was starting to get bored; he'd tried sleeping for a while but he just wasn't tired, then he'd played tic tac toe with Mori but he kept losing and so refused to play it any longer. He was seated between Mori and Kyoya, the latter of which was fast asleep, trying to catch up on the hours he'd lost after being woken up so early. Mori was staring out of the window, watching as more and more wispy white clouds glided by. He felt completely at ease and even thought about sleeping for a short while. That was until Honey started to lean over Kyoya.

The vice-president of the host club was lying back in his seat, almost horizontal, with his glasses still on his nose. He didn't look peaceful, instead he reminded Honey of one of the sleeping dragons in the stories Mori sometimes read to him and Honey believed that, if he did accidentally wake him up, Kyoya would have the same reaction as the dragons. Mori watched silently as Honey leaned over Kyoya, his Bun-Bun in one hand whilst the other reached across the spectacled teen's face. For a brief second Mori thought that Honey was going to wobble and end up lying on top of Kyoya but then Honey's nimble fingers plucked Kyoya's glasses from his face and he flopped back down into his own seat. Mori raised his eyebrows quizzically and the tiny blonde smiled. He lifted the glasses to his face and put them on, along with a stern look very similar to the one Kyoya usually wore.

"This is no good," Honey said in a serious voice that was eerily similar to Kyoya's whilst he wrote on an imaginary notepad, "We won't reach the quota this month if Tama-chan continues to spend so much!" He suddenly stood up on his seat and peered over it towards Tamaki and Haruhi, "And you two…"

They looked towards Honey and Haruhi couldn't help but smile, he just looked so cute. Tamaki's eyes glistened and he clasped his hands together as Honey continued,

"The budget for this month has been blown!" he stopped for a moment to push the large glasses back onto his face, "I can't allow it to continue, it's… It's, err…" his head tiled to the side for a moment as he tried to figure out the word he wanted to use.

"Preposterous," said Kyoya.

"Yes, prepos-" Honey spun around so quickly that the glasses flew from his face and landed in the aisle just as a hostess was bringing along a trolley loaded with tea. He tried to speak up but it was too late, the hostess rolled the trolley over the delicate spectacles and crushed them.

Kyoya stared at the broken shards of glass and picked up one of the damaged frames that was now bent into an 'L' shape. He squinted at it and then turned his ferocious gaze upon Honey. The small boy clambered backwards onto Mori's lap and held his bunny in front of his face as protection,

"I'm sorry Kyo-chan!" he wailed, "I didn't mean to!"

Kyoya's eye twitched for a moment and Honey had an awful feeling that the dragon was about to breathe fire. Then Kyoya sighed, "I've got a spare pair in my suitcase."

Mori could practically feel Honey relax as Kyoya pulled his seat upright and ordered some tea from the hostess and Tamaki fanned himself with the safety manual to try and cool himself down. He'd thought that maybe Kyoya would explode at the sight of his broken glasses but, as usual, 'Mother' had been calm and collected. The prince leaned back in his seat and turned his head to look at Haruhi. She was reading a book about Hawaiian customs and Tamaki's jaw dropped.

"You knew where we were going?" he pointed at the book like it was a dead cat, "You knew all along?"

Haruhi nodded, a little bewildered, "Was it a secret?"

Tamaki raked his hands down his face, "YES! Who told you?" His eyes darted around the plane; he looked towards the twins, who were now both asleep, then he turned to Kyoya and the others. No one seemed interested in him.

"No one told me," Haruhi answered quietly.

"Then how-"

"I guessed," she said, matter-of-factly.

Tamaki's face paled and his mouth set into a thin line. He turned away from Haruhi and brought his legs up to his chest in an attempt to look sullen. Haruhi was used to his wild reactions by now and so she ignored him, turning back to her book.

~ o o O o o ~

BOOM!

Haruhi's eyes shot open and the book she'd had on her lap flapped to the floor. She rubbed her tired eyes and looked around dizzily for a moment. She could see Honey leaning over Mori's lap to look out of the window; the sky outside was grey and lifeless, it looked like someone had drained all of the colour from it. Then suddenly, like a slap in the face, Haruhi knew what was happening. She turned to her right to see Tamaki sleeping, his head was back and his mouth was gaping open like a dead fish, not one of his more attractive looks.

BOOM!

Haruhi squealed. She couldn't help it; the thunder was so loud that it sounded as though the world was breaking in two. Tamaki woke up and groggily looked around, he saw Haruhi with her hands clasped tightly over her ears and flinched as another thunder clap echoed through the sky.

"Oh, my Haruhi!" Tamaki sang. He threaded his arm behind her back and she instinctively leaned towards him, "Here," he placed a pair of his headphones gently over her ears and grabbed his ipod. He turned up the volume so that it was loud enough to drown out the thunder but not so loud as to deafen her and pressed 'play'. A soothing tinkling tune drifted through the headphones and Haruhi felt immediately more relaxed. It was a tune she recognised played on piano and, within minutes, she realised it was one of Tamaki's pieces. She looked at him from her position against his chest,

"It's you?"

He nodded proudly, "Yep."

Haruhi felt a blush threaten to pink her cheeks and so added snidely, "Trust you to have yourself to listen to!"

Tamaki's lower lip jutted out and he turned his head away without moving his body, after all, he didn't want to move Haruhi from her current position.