It's been ages. Phew! If you're still reading my stuff, then I appreciate it so much. Thought I'd come back to this after reading some good fanfictions about a different anime, and also seeing some Fruits Basket fan stuff on tumblr etc etc. So... Did Haru turn black?

Disclaimer: (I finally put one, huh?) I don't own Fruits Basket or Ouran High School Host Club.

I blinked slowly, and gazed up at the blurry faces around me.

'Izu-chan? You awake?'

Momiji? No... Honey-sempai? Where exactly was I?

'Rin? You have to wake up, Haru's gone crazy!'

That was Momiji, and he didn't sound like he was just playing around. I rubbed my eyes and swung myself off the couch, oddly worrying about how dirty it would be after my boots had been all over it.

The world spun around, and I had to steady myself against a wall, but I wasn't going to sit down again. Something was going on.

'Kisa? Hiro? Did you guys find them?'

'Almost immediately,' said Kyoya, 'Kisa explained to us that she wanted to see the pretty gardens, and Hiro followed her to keep her safe, as he put it. They were right below us all along.'

I sighed and rubbed my hand across my face again. Those two... Jeez.

'So where's Haru? And how long was I out for?'

'About 10 minutes,' said Mori shortly.

'He's still in the Club Room,' Momiji said, sounding sadder than ever. 'It's not his usual black, Rin. Not like when the...you know. It's worse.'

Worse? Oh God, Haru. How much stuff is broken? Have you insulted anyone yet? What's going on? All these thoughts were spinning through my mind as I raced back down the corridor. As it turned out, we were just a few doors down from where we had been, so it wasn't hard to find the way back.

I couldn't hear any crashes from inside the Club Room, which made me half-assume that it was over, but the strange quiet sounded bad all the same. Like the quiet voice of Akito before she slapped me. Or the quiet of the hospital bed. Or the quiet of the streets that time I ran away from home, so long ago. Too silent. Too wrong.

But I found Haru every time.

I pushed the door open softly, wincing at its slight creaking sound. The club room looked sinister without its guests and hosts, and someone had turned the lights off, but the red curtains were still wide open. Everything was bathed in silvery outside-light.

Walking across the polished floor, I called out tentatively,

'Haru? You here?'

No reply, but I heard someone moving.

'Haru? Kisa and Hiro are fine, they're idiots for running off like that, but they are OK. I don't want you to feel bad... It wasn't your fault.' My voice got closer to a sob with every word. This distance wasn't like Haru at all...

Then, out from behind the archway at one end of the room, came a tall boy, with hair and eyes that I knew and would have studied for hours, but an expression that I'd only seen him wear once before, when we were children and he thought that I was asleep.

'Rin?' He sounded shaky. I was standing, stunned, as he came towards me. Haru looked...so scared...so scared...

'I'm fine, honestly. I just fainte-'

'I didn't, Rin,' he cut in, as though he couldn't hear me. 'I didn't...turn black...'

He reached out his hand and touched my face, stroking along my cheek with his white leather glove. I stared into his face.

'But that's good isn't it?' I said softly. 'The curse is gone, you're not under its control any more... Isn't that better?' His black-gold eyes shone with tears, which immediately sent one rolling down my face.

'I didn't turn black, Rin,' he said again, even more quietly, 'But I wanted to. I smashed that vase because I thought I would, but I just couldn't and then you fainted and I just-' Haru stopped himself and lowered his voice again. 'I don't deserve you, Rin. I used to become a monster, but what sort of person would actually want to?'

My beloved Haru. His hand felt warm underneath the light, elastic leather. I reached up and took it in my own, pulling it down so that his face was as close to mine as I could make it.

'You can't help wanting your black side,' I whisper, 'It's been a part of you for so long, why wouldn't you feel like that? Haru, you're the strongest person I've ever known, and you know what?'

He kissed me before I could finish, and I tasted salty tears, although I couldn't tell who they were coming from. His arms travelled up around my shoulders, into my hair, pushing us closer together. I broke away, and breathed into Haru's skin, our foreheads touching,

'You can be angry, I'll love you whoever you are. But you don't need a black side now.'

'Bravo!'

Suddenly all the lights came back on, and there was applause everywhere. We looked up, and saw, yes you've guessed it, a friggin balcony. All the screaming girls in yellow were up there, as well as the hosts and our fellow Sohmas.

I mean, what the hell?!

'Oh, that was wonderful! The way you two connect is so perfect, and all those beautiful lines! The moe! The MOEEEEEEE!' screeched a girl with ribbons in her hair, setting off all the other squealers too.

'That... was so beautiful...' said Tamaki, wiping a tear from his eye and fanning himself with his hand. 'Just, oh, magnificent!'

'Way to go, Hatsuharu-san!' called out the twins, 'We may have to sample that scene too!'

'WILL YOU PLEASE KNOCK IT OFF?!' I yelled as loud as I could, but none of them seemed to care.

'So that's the job of a high school host, huh?' asked Haru, who seemed to be reverting back to his usual self in front of the crowd, 'Weird.'

The unnecessarily large gates to Ouran Academy swung shut behind us, and our little band of odd-looking Sohmas trooped down the road to the bus stop.

'I still don't understand why she called us idiots. We're both more mature than Isuzu-san could ever be, in my opinion,' sulked Hiro, eventually quieted by a little 'Hiro-kun?' from Kisa.

I was still unsure whether to be completely outraged that the host club had watched our private conversation as if it was a pantomime, or humiliated that they'd all seen me crying, so I was flipping in between the two extremes, clenching my fists and covering my face by turns.

'Haruhi!' called out Momiji, jogging over to her. She was sitting all alone at the bus stop, her blue blazer still on. She grinned at us, but then remembered what had just happened and bowed low.

'I'm so sorry for what those idiots did! They're so...,' she struggled to find a word, 'rich, when it comes to things like that. I promise I'll do everything I can to stop Kyoya selling the videos and photos they took.'

'What?! Videos and-? Oh no...' I slumped down on the old bench.

'But I thought Rin-san looked beautiful,' said Kisa, looking at me in confusion. 'Why are you worried?'

'Doesn't matter. They've all seen it anyway, I suppose,' I grudgingly answered her. 'Come on, sit down. You must be tired, huh.'

She yawned and plopped onto the seat, Hiro obediently next to her, and Momiji on the other side of Haruhi, talking to her about Honey-sempai.

'Do you mind, Haru? About the videos, I mean?' I murmured to him, more aware than ever about the people around us.

'To be honest, we've just done those girls a huge favour,' he said. 'In their minds, stuff like that only happens in films and in books. We just proved to them that it's possible for anyone to be in love like a movie.'

I blinked and ran through his words again. In love like a movie...

'What sort of movie are we then, Haru?'

'I don't really know anymore,' he replied thoughtfully, 'But I hope it's a long one, with you in every moment of it.'

Just as my heart was about to skip a beat, cries of, 'OH THE MOEEEEE!' sounded from the school far behind us.

'How do they know what we-'

'CCTV,' said Haru. 'Dammit.'

Thanks for reading! New chapter soon, hopefully, although I have no idea how I'm going to follow this one up. Probably just something with the two of them alone, but I don't know what yet... Hmm. Feel free to R&R if you liked it, I'd love to hear what you think!