"The marks humans leave are too often scars."

― John Green, The Fault in Our Stars

Kaoru sat with his brother, watching their first best friend preparing to leave to go back to the city. Kyouya preparing to join her. Takashi looked like he wanted to go with them, but restrained himself. He was needed there, right? Mitsukuni was rocking on his heels, wanting to give his input on the situation but keep silent. The two younger cousins were bickering with Ritsu and Haruhi wanting to go with her. It was almost as if their mother was leaving.

It hit Kaoru. She was their mother-figure. The only woman who had taken care of them for six years. Who probably fed them, healed them, scolded them, gave them hugs when they were feeling down, cut their hair, broke up fights, cleaned up. Did everything for them because she loved them in the same way. They were like her children in a way. She would do everything to protect them.

He stood up, fists clutched. "Why are you leaving?" his voice was louder than he had meant it. Ceasing all conversation in the room, the room froze as if someone pushed pause. Haruhi rose her eyes from her bag and her chocolate eyes locked with his caramel ones. His mouth became dry when he saw the emotion in her eyes. He swallowed thickly and managed to choke out, "You just got here!"

"If it wasn't for Mori coming, I wouldn't be here," Haruhi murmured looking back down at her bag and continuing making sure she had enough supplies in case something happened. "I never intended to leave the city until I had killed him."

"Then why come?" Hikaru asked, venom in his voice. "This is like dangling a treat in front of a dog and then taking it away."

It was silent, Haruhi didn't pause but as she zippered the bag it almost had a deadly finality to it. Her eyes rose up to Hikaru, an almost bitter anger in them. "Maybe I shouldn't have then."

"Haruhi," Satoshi spoke up, sounding distressed, "They're just worried about you. Don't say that."

"That's not it, Haru-chan. Apologize to everyone, lots and lots to Tama-chan too. Apologize for making us worry."

She stilled and looked at him curiously, then lifted the bag onto her shoulders and tested the weight. However her mind was remembering that day at the beach. They had gotten irritated with her lack of ability to differentiate between genders, and were worried when she was thrown off the cliff into the freezing waters.

"I'm not weak, I've never been weak," she spoke quietly looking at the twins, "I need to do this for my father, and myself. I-"

"Isn't that selfish?" Hikaru asked, standing up beside his brother, his red hair falling in front of his eyes. "We just got you back and now you're running off into harms way!"

Haruhi was silent, staring at Hikaru. She honestly didn't know how to respond to him. Her eyes flickered over to Ritsu, he nodded. She needed to do this. It weighed heavily on her shoulders, and he knew it would drive her into madness. Her eyes flickered to Takashi, but he avoided her look, instead having a silent conversation with Mitsukuni. A hand rested on her shoulder and she turned to see Tamaki.

"I'm not letting you go," he spoke, crossing his arms. Haruhi stared at him blankly, stepping to the side, he followed her. He mirrored her motion, not allowing her to get past him. She quick-stepped one way and then twisted around him. Tamaki grabbed her and lifted her up. She let out a noise and dug her elbow painfully into his shoulder, causing him to drop her. She scrambled to her feet, leaning against the back of a chair, looking like she was about to slug him. He touched his shoulder before looking at her, eyes narrowing slightly. It became tense in a second. He grasped her shoulders and pressed his lips to hers forcefully.

She brought her head back and slammed it forwards, their foreheads collided together with a painful crack. Tamaki looked stunned and she bit on his shoulder, making him jump away. Her body moved on it's own as she slammed her foot into his crotch. Satoshi jumped forwards, grabbing Haruhi and pulling her away from Tamaki and hugging her tightly. "Shh," he murmured into her ear, ignoring the punches she was giving him.

"Don't force yourself on someone," Ritsu growled, stepping on Tamaki's chest and pushing him into the ground with a dark look. "Especially Haruhi."

Most of the men in the room had no idea what was happening, but a few had an idea forming. Kyouya moved forwards to where Satoshi was holding Haruhi tightly. "Let's go, we're wasting precious light."

The Morinozuka boy slowly released the commoner, looking down at her. She didn't look any different from her angry state, but the moisture that clung to her lashes betrayed her. However, she turned on her heel and stormed out of the house. The door slamming with such a force that they heard a crash of something falling upstairs. Kyouya turned towards Takashi.

"We'll be back by tomorrow if we're lucky. If we get stuck for any reason we'll leave a note in the store where you met Haruhi if we are unable to get to the syndicate, telling you of our location. Regardless, go to the store first, just in case. We'll leave a note where Haruhi and you bumped into each other. That will be only if we don't return back within four days," Kyouya spoke, ignoring the others cries of protest. "You know what it means if there is no note."

Takashi's jaw tightened and he looked at the others before turning and opening the door. Haruhi was waiting by the edge of the trees, staring in. The others moved to follow him but he looked at them, "Give me a minute." The door closed, and they hurried to windows to peer out. Using curtains to hide their watching eyes. Takashi walked over to Haruhi, Kyouya stood at the door not caring about what was happening out there.

The man stood in front of her, his grey eyes boring down onto hers with such an intensity that it actually shocked her, but she stayed silent. His mouth opened but no words came out. "What happened?" Haruhi was dumbfounded. What did he mean by that? "You wouldn't have reacted that way from a simple kiss. I kissed you and this is the third time Tamaki's kissed you, why did you react violently this time?"

She swallowed thickly and looked down at her feet, shuffling them slightly. "Nothing."

"You can't lie to me."

Haruhi's eyes flickered up to his, but her chin was still tucked to her chest. "Not now..." she trailed off, reaching up and rubbing her neck awkwardly. "If you must know, talk to Ritsu and your brother." He stiffened and his eyes slid to the house. Fists clenching. Haruhi quickly touched his shoulder. "They didn't do anything," she soothed, her hand sliding down from his shoulder to touch his forearm and gave a gentle squeeze before letting go.

They were silent for a longer time. Kyouya would be getting impatient. He leaned down slightly. "*O daiji ni," he spoke quietly, giving her a warm smile. "Come back as soon as possible. You've been gone for too long."

Haruhi stared at him before smiling and nodding. It was her natural smile, one that he hadn't seen since he had left her apartment six years ago. After he offered her the tickets. He wondered what would've happened if had offered those tickets before and they had been gone when the war had started. Of course, that's not something he could dwell on.

He lifted his hand of his own accord and touched the corner of her lips. The motion ceased her smile, causing him to frown. They were silent for a while before Haruhi tilted her head slightly, and pressed her lips against his finger tips. They were still. Haruhi felt regret starting to build up in her stomach.

'No! You can't be in a relationship! It's stupid! You might be going to your death! Spare him the grief!'

'It doesn't matter! If he cares for me in this way then even if I return those feelings he'll be hurt! It's too late.'

His fingers moved to the back of her head, burying them in her dark tresses. He bent down and pressed his lips to her forehead. Pulling her closer. It was silent, with his lips on her forehead. When he pulled away, Haruhi stared up at him. He avoided her gaze. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be," she responded, swallowing the lump in her throat away. "I should probably be going now."

He nodded and took a step towards the house before she heard him mutter something and turned towards her. His hand touching her cheek and lowering his mouth to hers. It was a light brush of lips, not forceful, and not unwanted. He didn't look at her reaction before he turned and heading back into the house.

-X

The two bespectacled companions were silent as they jogged through the forest, wanting to reach the syndicate to go over their plan. Haruhi stumbled and caught herself on a tree. Kyouya slowed down to watch her as she picked herself back up, looking a bit deep in thought. He followed after her as they continued on. Kyouya had heard Tamaki shouting in French and the twin joining in but Takashi had opened the door more roughly than necessary and said that they were leaving, all but shoving Kyouya out the door. He hated being left out in the dark, but had a glimmer of what had happened.

However, he didn't push it and continued on at a slower pace than he would if he had been going into the city with Takashi or even Mitsukuni. She was obviously conserving her energy as they picked their way to the edge of the town. He wondered how she and the others managed to get Takashi all the way to where they had when the larger man was unable to walk. They paused about ten minutes outside the town to rest and drink some water. Haruhi would take over as the guide from thereon in.

He lowered himself to the ground and saw a darker portion of the soil. He reached over and brushed it. A leaf flipped over and he saw red on the green texture. His hand retracted immediately as if bitten by a snack. Haruhi lowered her water bottle, staring at the bloodied soil. "That's where we stitched his leg," she commented, just then realizing that they had almost retraced the steps exactly. "It's like going backwards..."

An exhausted look crossed over her face but she put the bottle away and stood up again. "Let's go."

It was too weird for him to sit that close to the dried blood of the man who he had become quite good friends with since the ending of the apocalypse. He agreed readily and followed her. The streets were silent. A patch of dried blood and torn bones laid just off the centre of the street. What was left of the dead dog. They moved with purpose and stuck to the side. The only threat the creatures. However, the area was seemingly void of them. Kyouya was always curious about why there were no bodies just littering the street.

There was a far of shout and they both froze in mid-step, Kyouya stumbled slightly. The girl grabbed his arm and tugged him in the opposite direction. Her eyes showing a bit of fear. He pushed her ahead of him and they took off running as quietly as possible around the corner. Neither stopped until Haruhi grabbed his sleeve and pointed to the wall they were beside. A portion of the roof was removed, allowing someone to grab it. Kyouya was easily able to lift himself up and then pulled Haruhi up after him. They both jumped down and were silent. Haruhi took one of her guns from the holster. Kyouya followed suit, lifting his dark gun.

Haruhi walked up to the entrance and opened the door. They went through the entire compound, before meeting back up in the sitting room. She let out a breath. "Good, no one squatted here."

She sat down on one of the couches and some dust fluttered into the air. Kyouya gave her a look before choosing to lean on the back of the other couch instead. "Do these things have any patterns or habits?"

Haruhi pulled her legs up onto the couch and thought for a while. "He tends to go between my old apartment and the bar, but sometimes he'll wander else where."

"Can they open doors?" he asked, wanting to know everything about the creatures as he possibly could. The only time he saw one, he and Takashi had run the other way. Dragging Tamaki between them. She shook her head.

"They aren't that intelligent. Though, if they know you are in a room or an area they will knock the door down to get to you. They can make traps as well, if there are two or more they could corner you. Their pretty hard to kill since their mutation heals them fairly quickly," Haruhi explained, not wanting to waste time answering his questions.

"So, they are like zombies?" he asked, raising an eyebrow. Never would he have ever thought that he would be actually be in the zombie apocalypse. The look on the girls face made him rethink his question.

"They're nothing like zombies. They are able to feel and talk. They just don't have memories and they brutally murder anything. Even each other if there isn't something more interesting to kill usually," she shook her head, looking disgusted and touching her eye. "He spoke to his friend, and I thought he could remember me. A foolish thought..." she trailed off, tears bubbling in her eyes. Kyouya moved and sat beside her. Awkwardly patting her shoulder.

The heels of her palms dug roughly into her eyes, trying to clear her eyes from the threatening tears. He placed his arm around her shoulders and squeezed her lightly. "You aren't alone in this, Haruhi."

"I know," she whispered quietly, lowering her hands uselessly in her lap.

"I offered to come because I know Takashi wouldn't have, even if he wanted to," Kyouya murmured quietly, "He had to kill his father."

Haruhi's head whipped towards Kyouya, her head smashing against his nose. He shouted in pain and jumped away from her slightly, rubbing his nose. She messaged the side of her head with her hand and stared at him. "What do you mean?"

"The situation wasn't exactly like yours, in fact it was nothing like yours..." he trailed off, looking a bit awkward. "You should probably talk to him about it."

"No. Tell me," she demanded tugging at his arm, looking thoroughly concerned, and alarmed. He shouldn't have mentioned anything. He adjusted his glasses a few times before clearing his throat.

"It was just a few months after...and Takashi, Hikaru, myself and Morinozuka-san were scoping out the area near the city, not getting too close. To see if anyone had survived and made it out..." Kyouya didn't want to tell her, but the concerned look on her face was just too much for him to bare. He knew that she would be thinking about it, wondering and creating an assumption. Distracting her. "There was a large area that was cleared on the Northern edge of town, the area where the graveyard had been created after the countries used biological warfare to wipe the Earth near clean of humans. Takashi and his father told us to stay behind and went searching around that area to see if they could find any survivors mourning their lost ones.

"Morinozuka-san was attacked by something. If he had survived he would've been missing an arm and one eye. We heard the noise and came running, we arrived before Takashi. The creature was already gone. Morinozuka-san was in a lot of pain, Haruhi, you could tell it. Not from the amount of blood he was losing, but from the fact that he couldn't protect his family with his lost arm and lost eye. He told Takashi to kill him..." Kyouya trailed off, wanting her to fill in the blanks. Her hand was covering her mouth, not looking at him. When he stopped she looked at him. Waiting for him to finish the story. The man took a deep breath.

"Takashi denied his father's wishes, saying that they would heal him. Of course, Morinozuka-san reasoned that he was a burden. For the first time ever, not one, but two Morinozuka men were showing more emotion than ever. It would've been terrifying if the actual situation wasn't so gut-wrenching depressing. I have never heard Takashi raise his voice that loud before. His father said the only thing that made Takashi crumble. His father played the wife card," Kyouya fell silent. Haruhi knew what happened. Morinozuka Akira said that Takashi's mother was dead, and he wanted to be with her again. Wanted to hold the woman even if his physical body was unable. Takashi wouldn't have done it if his father wasn't in so much pain and was slowly bleeding out.

Haruhi was incredibly silent. Takashi loved his family. He loved them so much. Haruhi knew his sense of duty to his cousin was out of love as well. His duty to his family was just as strong. For him to kill his father would've been like ripping out his own heart and stabbing it. It was a betrayal to his father, even though the man asked for his own death. She was suddenly glad that Takashi didn't go with her.

"Let's go to my old apartment, we'll be able to iron out a plan there," Haruhi managed to whisper out, standing up and grabbing her bag. Kyouya nodded and followed after her.

-X

Haruhi's apartment had been on the side of town furthest away from the nuclear bomb, and wasn't effected. The bombs had been small and dropped 'strategically' even though many had been dropped into the ocean as the diseases and viruses that had been spread killed many of the operators and military people as well. Plants were overgrown, curling up the fence around the compound and up the railings. There were some steps on the stairs that had fallen down and a door was broken down.

The two of them stood far enough away from the apartment before hurrying across when the coast was clear. They quietly climbed the stairs, being as gentle as possible. They hurried over to her apartment and she quickly twisted the handle. It stuck, Kyouya grasped the handle and twisted it forcefully. Breaking the already weak lock with a snap. They quickly entered the house and shut the door. Hunkering down against it and waited. Five minutes. Ten minutes. Fifteen Minutes. Twenty minutes. Thirty minutes. An hour.

Kyouya looked out the window and saw nothing so after adjusting the blinds so they were closed, they entered the tatami mat room and Kyouya sat down around the table. She went to find her pencil, knowing that they'd have to be quiet or risk being found by the creatures. Her study material was strewn out on the table, but her pencil must fallen. She wasn't going to tear apart the living room to find it.

Her hand hovered over a clump of papers that must fallen during the explosion. She brushed them aside and saw the red cellphone laying there. A ticket resting beside it. Long past the date. She lifted both, grabbed the pencil laying near there, and headed back to the main room. Tucking the cellphone into her bag for later and handing Kyouya the pencil. She held onto the ticket, a thousand what ifs ran through her head before that too was put into her bag.

They dove head first into planning, even though they both knew it wasn't going to go by plan. Neither liked not planning. The pencil scratched and danced over the paper. Creating shapes that were slightly sloppy but quickly turned into their elegance. Like stepping into an old routine. There faces contorted with confusion, disagreement and irritation as plans were dashed, ideas were shot down and the paper was torn in the furry to erase an idea.

Haruhi wanted to shout at Kyouya as he scribbled out her plan, her mouth opened but in the silence they heard shuffling on the street. Both went incredibly still. Hearts beating fast in their chests. Haruhi shifted to her feet and half crawled over to the counter, lifting herself up slightly and parting the curtains ever so slightly.

On the street were two grotesque looking men. One was wearing a dress, and could easily been confused with a woman. The once red perfect hair was spilling over the mans shoulders, matted with blood. There were scars that looked black and parts of his body that Haruhi couldn't recognize as anything human. Fear paralysed her. That was her father.

Kyouya didn't touch her, knowing that she may freak out and draw attention to them. Instead he stayed still until she sank to her knees and covered her mouth. Stiffing the noise of her panic attack. He moved over then and pulled her against his chest, rubbing her back. Wanting to give her instructions to calm down, but if they were found...

"Ha...ruu..." a voice groaned out, Haruhi's fingers clutched Kyouya's shirt tightly. Her nails biting through the fabric and scratching him. They were silent as the shuffling sounded below them. Oh my god. He knows we're here.

Ohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygodohmygod

They were still, neither breathing. Kyouya covered his mouth with one hand and kept Haruhi against his chest with the other. The shuffling faded, and Kyouya removed Haruhi from him to peer outside. The two...things...were moving away from the house. He carefully exhaled, no matter how much his lungs were screaming for air.

He kept silence, bending down and taking Haruhi back into his arms. Her hand covering her mouth as she sobbed. Sobbed out of fear and sadness for her father. Kyouya stroked her short hair, incredibly distressed to see the girl crying. She never cried. Yet, he had seen her cry more than he had ever wanted. He didn't want any tears of sadness to ever spill from her eyes. He tucked her head under his chin and leaned against the wall.

Eventually her tears dried up, but she didn't move. Clinging to his shirt like it was her lifeline. Kyouya didn't delude himself like he knew the twins or Tamaki would've. She was relying on him purely because he was there, she didn't have any extra feelings for him. For that? He was glad. He didn't want to seek any sort of relationship with her besides being her friend. She was too important.

It seemed like a life time before she pulled away, her fingers uncurling from his shirt and she leaned away. Wiping her eyes and mouthing an apology for his shirt. Kyouya ignored the apology and gave her arm a gentle, comforting squeeze. Now that she had cried and gotten that out of her system, they both knew she could steel her nerves later when faced with the actual task of killing her father.

A/N: Just wanted to show that Kyouya is not seeking any form of lover position with Haruhi, but is looking to be a brotherly or friendly figure in her life. It shows his character development from his character in the canon and what happened since then. Also, Kyouya and Takashi spend a lot of time planning out things and are the ones who usually go into town so they became quite good friends. Tamaki isn't a bad guy, also, he just doesn't want Haruhi to go and is trying to show her that he loves her to convince her to stay. Which doesn't work for a reason that will be explained later~!

ON A SIDE NOTE: This writers block is still going, unfortunately. If you read my other stories, can you please send me some sort of inspiration? I'm a little stuck at the moment especially for LOV3.

Translation:

O daiji ni: Take care of yourself.