Chapter 3 - Safe And Not So Sound

Tamaki snatched the baseball out of Haruhi's hand, reading the message over and over more dramatically each time than the last, as if rereading it would make the problem go away. Instead he just ended up smearing the bright red lipstick on the worn baseball to the point that the message disappeared.

"Who would do this to Haru-chan?" Honey asked slightly scared. "Haruhi is the nicest person in the Host Club, why would anyone go to such extremes?" He asked again but this time much louder.

Kyoya took the baseball out of Tamaki's shaking hand, and examined it closely, "I'm afraid I don't know who would do such a thing as throw a baseball in our window just to scare Haruhi. At the same time it must have been someone who was listening in on our conversation earlier, or how else would someone have known Haruhi had a bodyguard so soon." Kyoya was mostly mumbling to himself, but he had a valid point.

Hikaru piped up, "Also from the looks of it, Haruhi's stalker is a girl."

At the sound of the word 'girl' all of the Host Club members turned around remembering the ladies. They found all of the customers still cowering near a wall.

"Sorry for the scare ladies, I promise it won't happen again, but for now until this mess is taken care of I'll have to ask all of you to excuse yourselves. Our greatest apologies," Kyoya offered to each and every one of them.

They all nodded and a few of them cooed over Kyoya's words, and then a few moments later after they all filed out of the room, they were left alone again to contemplate over the suspect.

"Uhh, Tama-chan are you okay?" Honey asked directed towards Tamaki.

Tamaki was still shaking from when Kyoya had pulled the ball out of his hand and he seemed in a state of shock. He looked up though and answered, "We have to find who did this, I will have no more harm come to Haruhi!"

"It is getting a bit dangerous, we'll have to figure it out soon," Kaoru agreed.

Kyoya examined the ball once more over and then stated, "Mori could you get your driver to drive Haruhi home tonight. I know it's short notice, but with this amount of danger it seems whoever Haruhi's stalker is, she or he is in total love with her and will hurt others to get to her."

Mori nodded his head, "Of course," he said softly, pulling out his phone and leaving the room to make a call.

Haruhi couldn't help but find her eyes trailing after him. He was so kind to go out of his way to protect her, maybe he really did care about her like Honey had said earlier. She never would of thought he cared for anyone but Honey, but recently she was seeing a whole other side to Mori. . .and she had to admit she liked it. Of course, she'd never admit it aloud.

Mori came in a few seconds later announcing that everything was set up.

"Good, then I will see you all tomorrow. In the mean time I'll check the baseball for hand prints," Kyoya concluded, ending the Host Club meeting for the day.

Everyone but Haruhi headed for the doors and Kyoya added just for her ears to hear, "And if anything else strange happens make sure to inform me tomorrow," Kyoya said pushing his glasses back in to place again.

"Of course," Haruhi replied, hiding her fear deep inside her. She hoped nothing else would happen tonight, she didn't know if she could take it.

"Coming Haru-chan?" Honey called from on top of Mori's shoulders. Mori was standing at the door looking at her expectantly and she nodded her head.

"I'm coming."

The ride to her apartment was much different than her usual walking home. For one thing she was riding with Mori and Honey-sempai, something she had never done before. Second, she was in a Mercedes Benz and yet again. . .it something she had never done before.

She also didn't imagine the ride to be as silent as it was, excluding the sound of Honey eating yet another cake. Even in the car ride home he found time to eat and she wondered how he kept so small when he ate so much.

Every now and then she would steal a glance at Mori to see what he did during the ride, and the answer was. . .not much. He would occasionally grab a napkin and hand it to Honey when his cake began to cover his face, but other than that she found that he just looked out the window.

For some reason Haruhi felt this nagging feeling in the pit of her stomach to get to know him better. She was dying to know what he thought about, how he felt, what he did in his free time. Mori was such a mystery and she couldn't stand not knowing what went on in his life.

She vowed that during the time that he was assigned as her bodyguard, she would learn more about him. Even if it was just his favorite color, well she would deal with that. She just wanted to know more about him, and that was that.

Finally the car came to a stop and she felt relief that the awkward ride to her apartment was over. She didn't know how much more cake munching and awkward silence she could have taken.

"Thanks for the ride Mo -" she began but watched as Mori opened his door as well and got out along with her.

"Stay in the car Mitsukuni, I'll be back," Mori said, and Honey happily just gave him a thumbs up and a muffled, "Okay," through all the cake in his mouth.

Haruhi made her way up the apartment stairs until she reached her own. "You didn't have to follow me to the door Mori," Haruhi mentioned, even though she did feel safer with him around.

"It's fine, it's my job," he said, his lips yet again a thin line of no emotion. She very rarely got to see his smile.

She pulled out her keys and opened the door, preparing to tell him everything was all well and good, but what she found on the other side of the door wasn't all well and good.

"Mori," she started, picking up the several pieces of paper cluttering the other side of the door. "Look at these."

She felt sick to her stomach knowing someone knew where she lived and was shoving papers under her door. Swallowing her fear was becoming harder and harder to do and she handed the papers to Mori with a shaky hand.

Written in all caps and in bright red lipstick were the word :

I LOVE YOU, DO YOU LOVE ME?

Haruhi gulped as she watched Mori look them over. All of the pages said the same thing and there were at least a dozen of them.

"Are you okay with staying here alone tonight?" Mori asked, actually sounding concerned. She wondered if she said no what he would do. Stay the night with her? She set that thought out of her mind.

"Yeah, my dad will be back later tonight," she replied not feeling so sure about her well being anymore.

Mori thought about it for a second and said, "I'm going to take these to Kyoya," he then went about his way picking up every piece of paper.

Haruhi helped him, picking up every last disgusting paper with the horrid words written on them. They both reached for the last piece of paper at the same time and their hands accidentally touched.

Haruhi felt a shock, an electric zap that spread through her body from the touch. She pulled away quickly watching the paper flutter back towards the ground. She had surely felt something when their hands touched each other. She hoped it was just her being weird and Mori hadn't noticed.

Regardless if he had noticed she apologized, "Sorry," she said quickly.

"All's fine," he said picking up the last piece of evidence.

Haruhi felt scared suddenly, more scared than she had in a long time and she wondered if Mori sensed it because he then offered her, "I promise I will protect you. No matter what. I will be here for you Haruhi"

And then it happened. He smiled. Sure it was just the corners of his lips turning up into a very small smile, but she noticed. Just his smile alone made her feel ten times better and safer knowing she was being guarded by someone like Mori.

"Thank you, Mori."

Then Mori walked away towards his car, got inside, and rode off. Haruhi could still feel where their hands had touched and she took a deep well needed breath.

What was this she was feeling?

Regardless of what it was, she hurried inside and locked the door.

A/N Thank you for all the wonderful reviews! I really love knowing people like what I have written. The next chapter will be up soon!
-Krista