Haruhi hugged her knees even tighter to her body. Her teeth rattled uncontrollably, even with the extra blanket wrapped around her. I wonder . . . if I'm just going to stay like this. If no one will be able to find me.

The thought made her force her frozen fingers into action again. She pulled out her cell phone and flipped it open again. But it was the same as it had been the first hundred times she had checked. No service.

Maybe I should walk around again and search for a signal. But Haruhi was doubtful that anything had changed. Not to mention she didn't want to move around in the cold air and sacrifice whatever body heat she had managed to build up huddled in a ball like this. Thankfully the snow storm was finally dying down. She had half worried that she would be buried alive.

A loud noise, almost like a thrumming engine, made Haruhi jerk her head up. Barely breathing, the girl waited in the silence that followed. Five minutes passed. Haruhi hung her head again.

There was another slamming noise. The thick quiet of the train sharpened and magnified every noise, and Haruhi found that she could hear footsteps. She pushed herself to her knees and clung to the back of the train seat in desperate hope.

Help? Oh please tell me that it's help! Haruhi thought. She cleared her throat and squeaked out, "I'm here."

The footsteps paused, and then they staggered twice as fast towards her direction. The door to her cabin scraped open. Haruhi squinted in the dimness, and her eyes flew wide open when she finally identified the shape of the silhouette.

"Kyouya!" she gasped, throwing the blanket off of her and jumping to her feet.

Kyouya leaned against the side of the doorway, breathing heavy and shaking visibly. "Honestly, Haruhi," he growled, sounding almost angry. "What kind of honor student is so bad at geography that they can't tell when a place doesn't exist? Kyotouwazawa?" Kyouya let out a curse and stumbled forward, nearly falling. Haruhi quickly rushed over to him and held him up.

"Kyouya, what are you doing here?" Haruhi asked sharply, her eyes wild with worry. "More importantly, how did you get here? The snowstorm—!"

But instead of answering, Kyouya sank wearily into the nearest seat. Haruhi shut the door and sat down next to him. Haruhi's fingers and toes may have been painfully numb for a long time now, but Kyouya looked as though he had just crawled out of freezing arctic water. She hovered uncertainly for a moment, not knowing what to do first. Then she quickly retrieved the spare blanket.

"Kyouya, your clothes are wet from the snow," Haruhi said, bringing the blanket over. "You should probably—"

Haruhi jumped when Kyouya actually let out a bark of laughter. "Haruhi," he said with chattering teeth, "of all the times and places, you choose now to get me naked."

Haruhi flushed in both anger and embarrassment. She threw the blanket at his face.

Kyouya caught it and quickly removed his coat. After a brief hesitation, he took off his shirt too and wrapped up in the blanket, greedy for warmth and dryness. He flashed her a pointed look. "I'd rather not remove my pants as well, thank you. You'll have to deal."

"It's not th—" But before she could finish her retort, Kyouya suddenly grabbed her and held her tightly against him. Haruhi felt her spine involuntarily arch back, and she shivered when she touched his icy cold skin, his heart positively racing under her fingertips But he had already trapped her inside the blanket, and there was no escape.

Not that she minded that much, of course.

"You're not very warm," he grumbled as his teeth chattered in her ear.

"I've only been sitting in this freezing train for roughly two hours. Excuse me!" And Haruhi was going to continue, but she sucked in her breath as Kyouya squeezed her tighter. Though this time, Haruhi got the feeling it wasn't due to cold.

"A helicopter shouldn't be too far behind. We just have to hold out until then."

"But wait. If you're not with the helicopter people, how did you get here?"

Kyouya threw her a look. "Can you not tell?"

"Kyouya! Don't tell me you actually walked over here?" Haruhi blinked, and reached for his face. "And is that a black eye? What have you—!"

Kyouya snorted. "Are you going to lecture me?"

Haruhi narrowed her eyes and sarcastically mimicked him. "What kind of an honor student would be stupid enough to go out in a blizzard?"

"Obviously the same kind of honor student that would fall in love with a person like you," he deadpanned.

Haruhi gaped at him wordlessly for a few moments. "Are . . . are you trying to be romantic?" she replied, her voice almost shrill with disbelief. "This is hardly the place."

"Who knows?"

They fell silent, just holding each other. Haruhi felt his breathing slow down. Their body heat slowly warmed each other up, and though it still wasn't much, Haruhi certainly felt warmer than she had alone.

After a while, Kyouya started to shift around. Haruhi glanced at him curiously. He pulled out a thermos. "I brought some hot chocolate," he said. "It didn't fair too well in the storm, but at least it's still a little warm."

He poured some of the hot chocolate in its cap and offered it to Haruhi. Surprisingly, Haruhi's stomach actually turned a little nauseously at the thought of drink. "I'm fine."

"Drink it," he ordered. "You need some warm fluids in you."

Obediently, Haruhi took it from him. She cautiously took a sip, but it didn't make her feel sick, so she gulped down a little more. Kyouya watched her carefully until he also took a swig of hot chocolate.

"More?" Haruhi asked in a small voice when her share was finished.

Kyouya let out a relieved breath and poured her a little more. "I had feared the worse, to be honest," he mumbled. "You definitely have mild hypothermia, but you don't seem too delirious or dazed yet, so I'm sure it's not too serious."

Haruhi nodded. "I didn't remember exactly how to prevent hypothermia, but I made sure to stay inside the train and keep bundled up."

He sighed again and put a hand on her head, pulling her even closer. "That's my Haruhi."

Haruhi waited for a while with her eyes closed tightly, expecting him to tell her how he had got there, and why he was there. Why he wasn't flying away somewhere above her head. But he didn't, and sitting here with him again filled her with such contentment that she didn't want to ruin the moment by confirming her fears. She didn't want to spoil the dream, which felt so pleasant and warm.

"You know," Kyouya began after a while, "when I said I wanted to go somewhere with just the two of us, with no interruptions, this wasn't exactly want I had in mind."

Haruhi smiled ruefully. "Me neither."

Kyouya reached into his pocket again, and Haruhi greedily hoped that it was another thermos. Disappointment crashed down on her when he pulled out an iPod. With one arm still wrapped around Haruhi, Kyouya inspected the iPod to make sure it had not been damaged. Once satisfied, he gently tapped Haruhi to get her attention. He offered her one of the ear phones. "It'll make time go by faster," he explained.

Haruhi shrugged—she would have preferred more hot chocolate—and put it in her ear, closing her eyes once more. Watching her face very carefully, Kyouya played the first song on the playlist.

At first, her face was blank as the first notes spilled out from the ear buds. But after a while, she began to frown, puzzled. The lyrics followed, and she was slowly opening her eyes wider and wider. But there was no way. No way at all.

"I named it Tsumetai Yoru," Kyouya murmured in a low voice.

Haruhi turned her head an inch to the right, and then to the left. A small, disbelieving shake of the head.

"Well, it was supposed to be a Christmas present," Kyouya continued quietly. A faint grin spread across his pale blue lips. "The plan was to kidnap you and take you to some expensive, tropical place. Just to get on your nerves." His voice was low and wistful, painting a picture of what could have been. "We'd stay in the fanciest hotels and only eat at the five star restaurants. And then when you had just about had it, I would pull out this song and tell you this was the real present." He chuckled once at the thought. "To be honest, I had hoped that it would move you to tears, but that was just a fanciful little wish. You're not that kind of person, I suppose—"

"You're an idiot," Haruhi choked out, ducking her head. "An idiotic, rich bastard."

The way her voice shook wasn't lost on Kyouya. He peered down at her. "Oh? Are you still cold? Or am I actually going to get a few tears?"

"Shut up." She sniffed and drew in a shuddering breath. After a while, she trusted herself to whisper, "It's beautiful. The most beautiful song I've ever heard."

"I stayed up late every night, making sure it was perfect. And I tried to—"

"Why are you here?" Haruhi interrupted sharply, desperately. The dream had to end. It was going too far. "Why are you doing this? You're just going to leave anyway, aren't you? What's the point?"

The glare on his glasses seemed especially bright. Haruhi couldn't read his expression at all. "Would you try to stop me?" he asked slowly.

"It's not that!" Haruhi insisted.

"Even if it was my goal, you wouldn't let me leave? If you got the scholarship to America, I would let you—"

"But I can't follow you!" Haruhi exclaimed. She blushed at her outburst and, with a swallow, looked away sheepishly. "Kyouya, you . . . you're so very rich," she admitted, and said it as if it were a bad thing. Being stuck in a train for so long had forced her to think about things and realize things. And now she couldn't help but spill them all out. "If I were to go to America, you could probably fly over there without even blinking at the cost. And you'd probably come visit and bug me all the time. But I'm not rich. Not at all. I wouldn't be able to drop everything and fly over to South Africa or whatever whenever I was lonely. In just that one regard . . . in just that one situation, I actually hate the fact that I'm poor."

"You know I could have paid for the plane tickets."

"And you know that I wouldn't be happy with that. I don't want to be dependent on you. But I also don't like the feeling of not being able to do anything . . ." Haruhi trailed off, blushing deeper.

Kyouya let the silence hang for a moment before stating, "That's surprisingly clingy of you."

"It's not clingy!"

"Well, not that I can talk." With one hand on her chin, Kyouya brought her face back to his. He admired the pink color of Haruhi's cheeks before leaning in to kiss her. For just a few moments, the blood rushed in Haruhi's veins, and she truly felt warm. But just as the high was beginning to fade, Kyouya broke the kiss and held her close again. Haruhi felt his big hands on her neck and the small of her back, pinning her against him.

"For the record," he mumbled in her ear, and Haruhi swore that she could hear him smirking, "I'm not leaving."

Haruhi sucked in her breath.

"I told you, didn't I? You had been tricked. By my older brother. Though I can't believe you actually fell for it. There is no such thing as Kyotouwazawa, and the idea of me leaving for South Africa . . . that is a lie as well. Well, I must admit, I had entertained the idea for a while. It was a big chance for me as the third son. But quite frankly, I didn't want to leave you. You're the one who told me to be honest with myself. This is what I have chosen. This is what I want"

Haruhi let out a long breath, mildly surprised at herself. She hadn't realized she had been holding it. Haruhi snuggled a little closer, burying her face in his neck.

The song faded out, but it came back on again. It was on repeat. Haruhi wanted to hear it over and over again until each and every second of the melody had been engraved in her memory. Honestly, it was a little strange and amusing to think of Kyouya playing this late into the night, singing softly so as to not draw any attention. But at the same time, it seemed to fit so perfectly.

"Are you still listening to me?" Kyouya asked, grumbling a little. "I just braved an ice storm from hell in order to rescue you, and now I'm telling you I love you and you won't even respond. What a rude commoner."

"I heard you, you rich bastard," Haruhi teased playfully. "I heard you. Crystal clear."

A/N: It's been a year. A year ago, the day after my birthday, I wrote a oneshot because I happened to have the day off from school. Some people loved it so much that they begged me to continue. Admittedly, I was a little reluctant because I hadn't really thought ahead for a plot and I don't like writing without a plan. But in the end, I decided to take the challenge. Now, thanks to the warm and loving support of my reviewers, I've made it through a year's worth of ups and downs and writers block, and I have finished my first ever, multi-chaptered fic. What a journey it's been! And I have you all to thank. I only hope that I was able to live up to your expectations.

But readers, this is where I must close. I honestly don't know what I'll do now that Crystal Clear is over, but I think I'm going to take a break from long fics for a while. At least, I will when I finish my other long fic, Usagi Tales. But don't forget about me completely. Because I promise, there will be more KyoHaru (and hopefully even HikaHaru finally) in the future.

So I thank you. I love you. And I bid you farewell . . .

. . . for now anyway. :D