To Chase a Criminal
By E.M. Megs
Part 4: Committing the Crime
Haruhi looked between the files in his hands and the hardness of his eyes as her brain attempted to catch up to his words. Too soon. Way too soon. I'm not ready yet. He raised an eyebrow at her frozen form standing in the doorway to her bedroom. She could feel the beginnings of betrayal rising in his mind. And his eyes… They were so cold.
He had already started to hate her.
"I… can explain," she finally said hoarsely.
"Then explain," he replied, voice hard and toing the line between resentment and hurt. Why did she have to do this? How could she get out of this without him hating her?
She couldn't so she closed her eyes, took a deep breath and plunged headfirst into the water. "My name is Haruhi Fujioka," she began, voice shaking. That was enough to send his expression into one of disgust. Disgust with her, disgust with himself for not noticing. He recognized her name - of course, he did. He had a file on her nearly as big as the twins'. "It started off as a job. Become your secretary, obtain information that we could use against you, get as close to you as possible to do so." She cringed at his glare.
"Who is 'we'?" he asked when she opened her mouth to continue, gritting his teeth in anger.
She let out a deep breath and whispered, "Interpol."
He was pissed. She could tell because although he appeared calm, his eyes were practically on fire. She almost wished that he would yell or hit her or something. Anything but the cold calm anger that he was emanating now. "How…?" he stopped and shook his head. "So this entire thing has been a lie." It wasn't a question.
"No." She stepped forward only to step back again when he glared at him. "I love-"
"Don't," he spat, "Don't even go there." His hands clenched into fists and she flinched as he stood, scattering papers with her notes on them. "I don't want to hear empty lies."
"They aren't-"
"You were spying on me the entire time, Haruhi!" She zipped her lips shut, letting him take his anger out on her. Lord knew she deserved it. "I trusted you. As my secretary, my friend and my lover!"
"You're overreacting."
"How am I supposed to react to this?" He was close to yelling now, losing every ounce of calm that he had. "My entire relationship is a lie. The woman that I fell in love with is just a spy out to take me down."
"That's not true!"
"Bullshit, Haruhi! You were sent to me by Interpol! It was a job! That was it!" He stared at her and, shaking his head angrily, started for the door. "I can't believe I didn't realize it before," he growled. She turned and walked as calmly as she could after him.
"Kyoya, stop. Just listen-"
"No," he spat back at her. "No. You… Stay away from me." He'd reached the door and yanked the front door open. "Good bye, Fujioka-san."
The door slammed shut with a bang before she could even gather her thoughts. Her heart crumpled, cracking in two as she slumped to the ground. She pulled out her phone and texted the twins, although they were probably the last people that would possibly understand, she couldn't tell her father. She got up and stumbled back toward the bedroom, holding back tears as she gathered up her fallen papers.
When she stood again, holding the huge folder in her hand, she noticed the small jewelry box sitting on her bed and frowned. She picked it up gingerly, setting the file down to cradle it in her hands. She was scared to open it because opening it would just show her how much she had screwed up.
She did it anyway. The small diamond ring nestled inside the box nearly made her want to scream at her own stupidity. She stared at it, hearing her front door open but not really caring. When the twins entered her bedroom, she looked up at them and shook her head. "He was going to propose," she mumbled. They took a seat on either side of her and wrapped an arm around her. She snapped the box shut and dropped her hand.
"And what would you have said if he did?" Hikaru asked quietly.
"I would've said yes." She shut her eyes against the ache in her chest now that it was hitting her that he was gone. "I'm an idiot."
"No you aren't," Kaoru berated her gently, taking one of her hands while his twin took her other. "If he had proposed before this that just would have made it worse. You would feel even worse."
"I guess." She sniffed and laid her head on Kaoru's shoulder.
"It's okay to cry," they stated in unison.
"No it's not," she muttered. "I'm not allowed to cry because this is my fault. He's the one that's really hurt by it."
Hikaru sighed and stood, muttering something about making tea. Kaoru watched him leave before responding gently, "You're hurting too, Haruhi. You need to do something to ease your own pain."
"Kaoru," she murmured, lifting her head and staring him in the eye. "I have seriously hurt the man that I love. There is no way that I'll be able to feel better about it until I ease his pain."
~o~
Kyoya drove angry, fast, recklessly to his best friend's house. Despite the blonde's normally annoying nature, he could be incredibly understanding when the situation called for it. Being around his goddaughter would also hopefully change his outlook on the current situation with his ex… everything.
That and Lucienne made a mean cup of tea strong enough to erase any emotion from his system.
It was getting late but he didn't so much care about his intrusion on Tamaki and Lucienne's night when he knocked on the door. It had begun to rain. Funny how the weather always seemed to reflect a sour mood. He leaned against the doorframe and waited for one of the Suohs to answer the door. When Lucienne finally did, she started in surprise at seeing him.
"Kyoya?" Then she noted his expression. "Merde. What happened?"
Tamaki stood slightly behind his wife, holding his 13-month-old daughter. Kyoya glanced at him and said in a surprisingly stable voice, "She's an Interpol spy. Haruhi Fujioka. She was spying on me the entire time." He finally cracked, laughing in disbelief.
"I'll go make some tea," Lucienne murmured, stepping back from the door and hurrying into the kitchen, taking Akami from Tamaki on her way past. Tamaki strode to his best friend and put his hands on his shoulders. He felt the shudder of the Ohtori's body and sighed sympathetically.
"Mon ami," he tsked softly, "Are you alright?"
"No," Kyoya growled, "I just got my heart ripped out by an unfeeling Interpol seductress. Do you think I'm alright?"
The blonde smiled sadly and squeezed his shoulders, allowing the other man to vent. "I'm so… angry with myself for not realizing it sooner. There was always something off about the way that she behaved. And then those stupid twins showed up… I should have known."
Tamaki was silent, leading him to the couch and sitting him down. He was surprisingly logical despite the fact that he knew for a fact that he was dying inside. He also seemed to be rather calm about the entire thing when anyone else would have broken down crying by now. Finally, as he caught sight of his wife carrying a cup of tea, the blonde murmured, "I doubt she's as unfeeling as you claim she is."
Kyoya snorted. "She is. She didn't show any remorse."
"Now I doubt that," Lucienne stated with a frown, pouring tea with one hand and placing Akami in his lap with the other. "Even I could tell that she genuinely cared about you, Kyoya. Even if she was ordered to get as close to you as possible, she wouldn't have gotten into a relationship with you if she didn't want to."
Kyoya bounced his goddaughter, smiling when she pointed at him and said, "Kyo!" He seemed to completely ignore Lucienne.
"Are you even listening to me?" the Frenchwoman demanded.
"Of course, I am. That doesn't mean that I'm going to believe you."
Tamaki winced as his wife glared at his best friend. Finally, Akami yawned and settled herself against her godfather's chest, falling asleep rather easily. Her parents stared at her. "You need to come over more often," Tamaki muttered, "She never does that for us."
Kyoya smirked and asked hesitantly, "May I stay here tonight?"
Lucienne sighed and nodded her head, gently pulling Akami from his arms. "Of course, Kyoya. We wouldn't push you away. Just don't sleep with my husband." Kyoya didn't laugh at her joke, though Tamaki gestured wildly, asking, "Why would I do that?!" Lucienne smacked him in the head with her free hand and put a finger to her lips, looking down at the sleeping baby girl in her arms pointedly. He gave her a sheepish look and turned back to his best friend, letting her go to bed.
"Mon ami," Tamaki murmured, sitting back next to him. The other man seemed deep in thought, his mind running through all the scenarios that could have possibly happened with Haruhi. He felt a hand on his chin and looked up from the floor. "What are you thinking?" the blonde asked softly.
"I was going to propose to her. Not tonight. Not tomorrow. Possibly not even this week. But soon. I had the ring already. What would have happened if I'd proposed to her and then discovered this? What if I ended up marrying her and found out that she…"
Tamaki sighed, placing a hand on his friend's knee. "Are you saying that perhaps this is a blessing in disguise?"
"No," Kyoya stated, "No. Heartbreak can never be a blessing. Though I guess it is a good thing that I found out now as opposed to later."
"But," the blonde interjected a thought, "What if you had married her and you were happy together? Kyoya, Lucienne had a point when she said that Haruhi wouldn't have gotten into this with you if she didn't want to. She wanted to be with you. What if she had wanted to marry you?"
Kyoya sat back, looking over at him and swallowing. "It still doesn't change the fact that she lied. She lied to me about her identity, her life, her reasons for being here, everything."
"And? What would you have done if she had told you straight out that she was an Interpol agent?"
Kyoya hated it when he was right.
~o~
Haruhi stared down the hall of the top floor of the KOMSS office building. Her desk was still there, everything left untouched. The thick wooden door to Kyoya's office still remained firmly shut. This had been her life for the past year and a half. She strode hesitantly to her desk and opened the drawers, pulling out the company laptop she had been given for work. She sifted through the drawers, emptying them of all personal items that she had left there while waiting for the laptop to boot up.
Her pockets were filled with hairclips, photographs, small notes to herself and ones from Kyoya, things that reminded her painfully of everything that she had done wrong even though it had felt so right. She pushed a USB drive into one of the slots on the laptop and sifted through the files, sorting between the ones that Kyoya's next secretary would need and the ones that were her personal ones.
She made copies of those on the USB drive and deleted the hard drive's copy.
"I thought I made it clear that you were fired," Kyoya's voice startled her, causing her to jump.
"I'm gathering my things," she replied softly, eyes scanning the last of the computer files and deeming them necessary for him. She unplugged her USB from the drive and looked at him. He stared at her just as coldly as he had the night before. "Do you hate me now?" She couldn't stop herself from asking.
He gritted his teeth in response. "You could say," he growled. "It's not every day that someone slips past my guard and turns out to be a spy."
She swallowed. "I… Asked them to drop the investigation when the twins dropped by two weeks ago." It couldn't hurt to tell him. If Interpol really did drop it, it would be in his best interest. If they didn't, then he'd just have to be more careful about the people he hired. "I honestly never wanted to hurt you."
"Get out," he spat. So apparently he was still bitter. He still didn't want to listen to her tell him the truth.
"Will you just listen to me?" she asked, her desperation showing through as she walked toward him. He put a hand up, stopping her in her tracks.
"I don't want to listen to you if you're going to tell me everything that I want to hear instead of the truth."
"I'm trying to tell you the truth!"
He looked away from her, obvious irritation crossing his features. "Talk then," he said, gesturing for her to continue. His eyes were cold, unaccepting, cruel. The complete opposite of everything that she was used to seeing in them.
She sighed and strode forward. "There's no point if you're not even going to hear what I say," she grumbled, taking his hand and placing the jewelry box in it. The elevator at the end of the hall dinged, indicating Lucienne's arrival. She started to walk away as Lucienne headed toward them but stopped and turned back, her eyes sad and determined. "But… Just for the record, if you asked, I would have given up Interpol to marry you."
The corners of Kyoya's lips twitched as he watched his ex-girlfriend leave. Lucienne stood and watched from next to him until the elevator doors closed. "What was she doing here?"
"Gathering her things," Kyoya replied shortly. "I want you to follow her." Lucienne gave him a confused look. "I don't want her near me. I don't want her meddling in my business. But most of all, I don't want her screwing with my emotions, ever again. If she shows any signs of coming anywhere near me…"
"You don't honestly want me to kill her," Lucienne said, scowling at him with disproval, "That is hardly a way to deal with your ex-girlfriend, imbécile!" He gave her a hard glare and she huffed. "I will trail her, but I will not kill her, Kyoya. Not when I don't have a reason to."
Lucienne stormed away in a way typical of her husband, leaving him staring down at the jewelry box in his hand. He flipped the lid open and gazed at the ring for a moment before taking note of the tiny slip of paper tucked into the inside of the lid. He scowled and pulled it out, unfolding it into a small two inch squared slip of paper. The folds made it more difficult to read but he looked past it.
Kyoya,
I'm sorry. I never ever wanted you hurt. Please believe me. I love you.
He tsked angrily and threw the note in the nearest trashcan, slipping the ring box into his pocket.
He never wanted to see her again.
~o~
It was late when Interpol Command called her. Apparently, they forgot that Tokyo was 8 hours ahead of Lyon. Either that or they didn't care if they woke her up accidentally when they called at midnight Tokyo time. She would have loved to just ignore the Unknown caller ID that popped up on her phone, but she knew that it was no use. If they couldn't reach her via phone, they would find other ways. She flipped her phone open and said in rapid French, "I have exactly 2 minutes to listen to you yell at me, Matisse. You better as hell make good use of it."
"Why have you not been in contact for the past month?"
"Oh, I don't know. Perhaps because my cover was blown nearly two weeks ago and now I'm just trying to pretend like you don't exist."
"Fujioka." The warning in his voice couldn't be more prominent. God… He sounded like her father.
"Look… He knows. So just… Drop it, okay? There's not even a point in sending someone to replace me here now since he knows Interpol is after him."
"We'll have to use what we have now."
"Which is what exactly? A couple names of people that are maybe connected to him? Records of medical supply shipping? Which, by the way, I can validate as being completely valid as medical supplies. We have bigger fish to fry than Kyoya."
"First name basis now, huh? Is that why you want to drop it?"
She swore as she realized her mistake. Calling Kyoya by his first name was something that she could do around the twins, but not Matisse. "No. I'm dead serious about this… You know I am. And if almost a year and a half as his secretary and a year as his girlfriend yields this little, there's really no point in continuing. I am asking you as an agent to drop this before anyone gets hurt."
"And what do you think we should do instead? A year of investigation just down the drain? I don't think so."
She smiled as a thought came to mind. "I think I might have something else for you. The leader of another crime circuit, Takeshi Kuze, is a rival of Kyoya's. And I bet you anything that Kyoya would be willing to testify against him given that you drop all investigation on him."
"You know we don't compromise with criminals, Fujioka."
"Yes, I know. But considering this has yielded so little, he's technically not considered a criminal. Perhaps a suspected one, but not a convicted one." She paused and sighed. "He just wants to be left alone, Matisse. He's a regular man who wants to be left alone."
She heard silence on Matisse's end of the phone as he thought about it. She could practically hear the reluctance in his voice as he said, "I'll check with the General Assembly and such about Takeshi Kuze. Since you've become so cozy with Ohtori, can I ask that you speak with him about testifying against him?"
She faltered for a moment. "I can try," she murmured unsurely, "He's… not really speaking to me at the moment." Haruhi could practically hear Matisse's silent scoff over the phone. She defended herself before he could even speak, "I broke his heart, Matisse. He was going to propose to me and I broke his heart." She didn't even mention that hers was broken along with it and she could still hear the implication in her voice.
Her superior made a tsking noise. "Emotion in a case is dangerous, Fujioka."
She snorted. "You were the one that suggest I become his girlfriend."
"I never told you to become emotionally attached."
She bit her lip. He hadn't. That had been her fault entirely. "Goodbye, Matisse."
"Good night Fujioka."
She sat in her pajamas, on her bed, in her empty apartment and felt totally alone. He'd used his key to retrieve anything that he had there while she was out and then left the key on the kitchen table.
She closed her eyes and let the hand holding her phone fall into her lap.
She had to do something about this.
~o~
Haruhi didn't discover Lucienne trailing her until nearly a week later. She started devising a plan to trap the woman and talk to her. She still hadn't given up on Kyoya, although she had decided to keep her distance for now. If only to give him time to heal without her there trying to convince him that he was wrong.
She walked into a bookshop that she knew was normally empty and turned down an aisle, waiting until she heard the jingle of the bell on the door again to move from her 'browsing' of the shelves. She hurried around silently until she found the blonde Frenchwoman standing on the other side of the bookshelf. "He sent you, didn't he?" Haruhi asked, crossing her arms and tapping her foot.
"How are you holding up?" Lucienne asked instead, clasping her hands behind her back innocently.
"How is he?"
Lucienne pursed her lips at the lack of answer to her question but answered the brunette's anyway. "He's… hurt. Angry. I don't think it's quite registered in his mind yet that you could completely destroy him but you aren't."
"I never wanted to hurt him," Haruhi mumbled, running a hand through his hair. "I love him to death and he wants nothing to do with me."
"Why didn't you tell him sooner then?"
"You and I both know that he would have done the exact same thing. Pushed me away and shut me out."
"You could have left him."
The idea of leaving him without explanation drove a spike of pain straight into her heart. "No. That would have just hurt him more. I just want him to listen to me. I just want him to understand that I never wanted any of this to happen. He never needed to know. I was getting ready to quit Interpol."
"Why did you wait then?"
The question was not one that stumped her, just one that she hadn't expected to be asked. "I wanted to pretend that the real world didn't exist. There was the world where I was with Kyoya and there was the real world where I was supposed to turn him in. I wanted the one with him and I tried to ignore that the other even existed. It was a mistake to wish it away and it came creeping back to destroy both of them."
Lucienne narrowed her eyes slightly in thought. "You really do love him, hmm?"
Haruhi nodded. "I was an idiot for ever letting my emotions into this investigation." She closed her eyes. "I need to talk to him. And I need him to listen."
The Frenchwoman seemed unsure for a moment but then she nodded slowly. "I'll… see what I can do. Don't try for a week at least. Until you get my message."
"Thank you."
Haruhi nearly sighed in relief as the woman left. She knew it would be easier to talk to Lucienne, despite how intimidating it was to know that she was a trained assassin. The Frenchwoman had no reason to hurt her or hate her, although there might be a slight grudge against her due to what she'd done to Kyoya.
~o~
Kyoya frequently caught himself staring at the ring box on his bedside table whenever he was at home, which was not often any more. It ate at him how often he thought about his own stupidity - about her.
He should hate her for what she had done to him. Led him on, spied on him, made him think she actually gave a shit.
And yet… Her face when he had left her apartment still stuck with him. Her brown eyes shadowed with guilt, weighed down with sadness. Extremely similar to the way they had been during their encounter at his office.
He was not hiring a new secretary. In fact, he was not hiring anyone for a very long time - at least until he was positive that Interpol was no longer on his tail.
He sighed and pulled himself off his bed when the doorbell rang. Why did the trek from his bedroom to the front door of his apartment feel so… tiresome? He sighed as he opened the door to glare at Lucienne. "Hey!" she said much too cheerfully for his taste, "How you doing, Kyoya?"
"Shouldn't you be trailing Haruhi?" he growled.
She scowled at his attitude. "In case you forgot, I do have a family, Kyoya. And my work day is officially over as soon as she's home, which she is. I can't constantly babysit your ex-girlfriend for you and it's not exactly what I was hired to do either."
"You were hired to do security detail for whatever I need you to do," Kyoya retorted, moving aside to let her in and moving to plop on the couch.
She ignored his comment. "You look like hell."
"Thank you so much for that encouragement," he muttered sarcastically, taking off his glasses and pressing his palms into his eyes. He groaned when he noticed the incoming migraine.
"Are you sick?" she asked, concern edging in her voice.
He lifted his head long enough to glare at her. "I don't get sick."
"Of course you do. You're human."
"Shouldn't you be home with Tamaki and Akami?"
"He can deal without me for another hour. And I highly doubt that Tamaki will mind that I'm late getting home if it was because I was taking care of his best friend." She gave him a pointed look. "Have you eaten dinner?"
"No."
"Have you eaten at all?"
"Haven't been hungry."
"That isn't normal, Kyoya."
"I wasn't hungry, so I didn't eat."
"Kyoya, you need to eat something."
"No."
Lucienne sighed, frustrated with this stubborn man. He was going to be the death of her one day if her husband didn't manage to kill her first. "Heart break is not an excuse to neglect taking care of yourself," she murmured, taking his hand carefully. He pulled it back stubbornly. She hadn't wanted to resort to this but… "What would Haruhi say or do, I wonder? I doubt she would approve of this type of behavior."
"I don't care what she thinks!" Kyoya spat, the rage appearing in his eyes in seconds. Lucienne overlook his outburst and allowed him to calm down a bit before taking his hand again.
"You need to eat something, Kyoya. You're acting like a child and you aren't taking care of yourself properly. Tamaki is worried and, frankly, so am I." She paused for a second, wondering if it was even safe to bring this up. "And… Haruhi is too."
"You talked to her?" The accusatory tone in his voice did not escape her notice.
"Is that not allowed?" she asked innocently.
"I told you to follow her, not interact with her!"
"She's my friend too, Kyoya! Besides, she trapped me in a bookstore. I could hardly not talk to her. And she noticed that I was following her."
"You weren't trying to be stealthy then."
"She's an Interpol agent… I think she knows how to tell when someone's trailing her."
"Why are we even talking about this?"
"Because she is worried about you. Because she wants to talk to you, but you won't let her anywhere near you!"
"Yes," Kyoya interrupted her rant, "And I don't want to talk to her either. I don't want my emotions being toyed with again."
"What emotions? For years you denied even having them and suddenly, because of one girl, you've completely lost it." Lucienne sighed as he gave her a glare that would have killed any other person but her where they sat. "I'm just trying to say… That she's given you space and now I think it's time that you stop this silly game of yours and talk to her. Or at least listen to her talk. If anything I think it'll give you closure."
"I don't need closure; I need her as far from me as possible."
There was no reasoning with him. None at all. She sighed and gave up for the night. "I'm going to make you some soup," she declared, "You better eat it."
~o~
Haruhi waited for a week. An entire week waiting for Lucienne's call. An entire week rehearsing what she would say to him in her ten minutes. What she would do to get him to listen. She'd gone through practically every scenario in her head that she could think of ranging from him threatening her or kicking her out to accepting her - which she hoped he would.
And finally, when that call came. All of her thoughts left her.
"He's in his apartment for his lunch break right now. I'll give you 15 minutes unless he calls me first. Please don't let him call me, Haruhi."
She grabbed her bag immediately and left the coffee shop she had been seeking refuge in. As she approached his apartment building, she felt a small shudder of nerves pass through her. He would not be happy to see her. Not at all.
She used her key, which she still had not given back, and was now glad of. She closed the door behind her as quietly as she could but somehow when she turned around, she still found a gun being pointed in her face. She raised an eyebrow at the holder. "You think this is the first time I've had a gun pointed at me, Kyoya?"
His glare was one that held his misery and anger. "Get out. Now."
"I just want to talk."
"I don't want to talk to backstabbing whores."
Ouch… That one actually kind of hurt.
"You never let me properly explain, Kyoya. Besides, I have a proposition that you may want to hear."
"From Interpol? Tell them to go screw themselves."
She shook her head, a faint smile beginning to show. "Put down the gun. I think you'll find it rather appealing actually. It'll get them to drop the investigation on you, something that I personally would like actually." His lips twitched in disgust as he lowered his arm, tossing the firearm onto the island counter by the kitchen.
"You have 5 minutes. Less than if I choose that I don't like where this is going," he growled, giving her another resentful glare.
She swallowed and told him straight out, "I offered up a proposition to the General Assembly of Interpol. They're still deliberating it but it will mean that my year and a half of undercover work will not be useless as well." He snorted at the words 'undercover work' spitefully. She ignored him. "They will drop the investigation on you given that you provide information on and testify against Takeshi Kuze."
Kyoya's face seemed to pale slightly - or perhaps it was just the light - as he stared at her. "Don't go after Kuze," he murmured quietly, shaking his head.
"Getting rid of your business rival seems like a good plan actually."
"Kuze will destroy you," he stated it as if it were a proven fact. "Regardless of whether you get him in custody and manage to convict him or not, he will destroy you." She stared at him, wondering how one man could have that much power. "I mean it, Haruhi. And I don't mean just you specifically. I mean all of you. All of Interpol if he has to. And trust me; he's insane enough to try it."
Was that… fear she detected in his voice?
"It's either Kuze or you," she said gently. "And I'd really prefer that it were Kuze."
"Because you still love me, right?" he asked scathingly. She hated that he mocked her feelings.
"Yes, actually," she said calmly. She had imagined this conversation going slightly different. "And that's also why I brought this." Her hands reached into her bag. He dove for the gun that he'd previously discarded, aiming at her as she pulled out a file folder. She stared at the weapon in his hands in disbelief. "You thought I was going to bring out a gun and shoot you?" she demanded angrily. "Why the hell would I do that? You… idiot. That would completely counteract every point I'm trying to make."
He lowered the weapon, actually looking a bit guilty. He wouldn't look at her now. He placed the gun back on the counter and stared at it with this strange kind of sadness. "I can't believe…" she trailed off, the pieces clicking in her mind. "I might have once spied on you, but that doesn't mean that I'd…"
"I don't know that," he muttered, finally letting his eyes rest on her. "I don't know anything about you anymore, Haruhi."
She let out a deep breath slowly and cleared her thoughts quickly. "I brought this ," she wiggled the huge file folder in her hand a bit, knowing he'd recognize it as her case file on him. "It's everything that I have on you. Everything. I deleted all the electronic copies of it, so this is all I have left."
"What about Interpol's files?"
"I'm working on getting someone to hack in and delete them too. They don't have nearly as much as I do though." She offered him a small smile that he didn't return. She walked to his fireplace and placed the folder into it. A matchbox appeared in her hand from her bag, a single match striking it and falling on top of the folder. She watched to make sure it caught fire properly before standing. "I don't want it. Any of it."
He didn't say anything for a while then said, "You're throwing away your entire career."
"I don't care. I don't want the job if you're going to be angry at me for it. Or if you aren't going to trust me because of it. I don't want it if you won't be part of my life. I don't even want the fame of catching you anymore because it's nothing compared to actually having you with me." She paused and watched her fingers fiddle with the matchbox in her hands for a moment. "That day right before my birthday when you asked me to go on vacation with you… You said I was practically crying. And that's because I was trying to decide if you were more important to me than the job. You are. That entire vacation I was trying to block out the real world because I didn't want it to exist anymore. If only to extend our time together. That's why the twins' showed up. That's why you found that folder. The real world got tired of me ignoring it and it decided to take it out on you - on us.
"I really don't expect you to come back. In fact, I don't blame you if you don't. But I needed you to know this. It was real. What we had… It was real. I love you. And I'm incredibly sorry that it turned out like this. I didn't want you hurt. I never wanted either of us hurt-"
"Stop," he said abruptly, looking away from her again with that pained look in his eye. "Please. Just stop."
She did, slipping the matchbox back in her bag and looking at him. He looked like he was about to cry or something, but she knew that was absurd because Kyoya never cried. He rarely even showed his emotions past that which someone close to him might be able to read in his eyes.
He opened his mouth again after a few seconds. "Get out," he said softly, eyes staying on his hand braced on the counter, fingertips just centimeters from the handle of the gun laying there.
"What about Kuze?"
"I'll think about it… Just... get out."
"Okay," she mumbled, striding straight toward the door. She glanced back at him before she exited, noting that a hand had risen to his forehead. She bit her lip in worry and kept going.
At least he'd listened to her.
~o~
It had only been a week since Haruhi had been there. Her mere presence had been draining. He wanted to hate her so much but somehow he just… didn't. He guessed that it was because of everything that she had said that night in his apartment. The way she had been so gentle. He scratched his forehead and leaned his elbows on his office desk.
His thoughts were everywhere but the workplace.
He simply could not think about anything but her.
What the hell had she done to him?
He shook his head and pressed the enter key on his keyboard to wake up the computer, determined to get something done today before his father or his brother had a fit about something or another.
Fate seemed to be against him today.
A set of red-headed twins, whom he recognized from both the files he had on them and their visit to Haruhi's apartment, came barging into his office right when he thought he was about to start working again. "I haven't come to a conclusion yet," he stated, jaw set.
To his surprise, they looked confused, annoyed even. His surprise doubled when Tamaki came in huffing.
He scowled. He really did need a secretary. A secretary would have prevented them from just running in and creating chaos in his office. The twins shook their heads after giving each other a look. "We don't know what you're talking about," one said.
"We need your help. Haruhi's been taken," the other said, his face all business.
Kyoya's frown deepened as he looked to his second-in-command. "I was about to come up here to tell you the same thing," Tamaki stated. "Haruhi's gone. They somehow drugged Lucienne and took Haruhi while she was knocked out."
"We don't have time for this," the twins were practically tearing their hair out. "Will you help us get her back?"
Kyoya ignored them for now, zeroing in on Tamaki. "Who took her?"
Tamaki stared at him like it was the most obvious answer in the world. Kyoya felt dread begin to pool in the center of his stomach.
"Kuze."
~o~
A/N: Well… This has been quite the angsty, emotional chapter. Not too sure if I like it or not. I'm withholding judgment for now.
Kudos to: She Promised Us Lamingtons, Misty-chan, and SisterOfScarletDevil.
Part 5 is already complete by the way… I finished it earlier today. Err… Late yesterday… (It's REALLY 1:30 in the morning isn't it? Dammit I need to fix my sleep cycle.) And MAYBE if I get a nice amount of reviews I'd be willing to post it BEFORE I go out of town on Friday as opposed to AFTER I get back next Monday.