Disclaimer: I do not own "Ouran High School Host Club" or any of the characters in this wonderful manga/anime in any way.

Shelter in the Storm

Previously in chapter twenty six: "…I accepted his confession…."

Tamaki's face was blank, like he hadn't heard a word that she had said. Kaoru's face looked like he had just been hit in the gut at full force, and he was about to be sick. Hikaru's face looked as if he had been splashed with a can of tomato sauce. He was red! Kyoya's face had the same mask he always had, as if what he had just heard did not affect him in any way.

Chapter Twenty Seven

"Tama-chan, aren't you happy for Haru-chan?" Huni prompted, hopeful that someone besides himself was happy for the couple.

"Who?" he asked while staring at the Haruhi.

"Me. Do you mean who confessed?" she queried back.

"Yes, who confessed to you?"

"That would be me, Tamaki. I confessed to her. After she was attacked, I was afraid of losing her, and I couldn't accept it. I never want to lose her again, for any reason." Takeshi stepped up behind Haruhi and placed a hand on her shoulder. He knew that this wouldn't go as smoothly as the rest has gone so far.

"Why? Why him? Why not me?" Tamaki was asking himself more so that Haruhi.

One down, two more to go. She looked at Kaoru who still looked like he was going to lose his lunch real quick. But it was what came out of Hikaru's mouth that shocked her. "What the fuck?!? Who the hell do you think that you are?" His anger was aimed at Takeshi.

"I know that you're mad right now…" Takeshi was cut off by Hikaru's anger.

"Hell yeah I'm mad! Who the hell gives you the right to take away my t… our toy. She belongs to us, right Kaoru?"

"Hikaru, stop," his brother implored him. Kaoru placed his hand on his brother's shoulder to try to calm him.

"Hikaru, I am not your toy. I am a person with rights of my own, and it's my right to date who I want to. So if your mad, then direct it at me, because it was my choice to accept or not." Haruhi spoke up but Hikaru would not look at her.

"She's right Hikaru, it's her choice, not ours." Kaoru was trying to calm his brother, but nothing was helping.

"The fuck she is! She's ours, dammit! We have the right to decide which one of us she dates, no one else." He threw his brother's hand off of his shoulder, and stormed off.

"Haruhi, I'm sorry. I have to go after him. I'll talk to you later." With that, Kaoru ran after his brother.

Haruhi started to silently sob. She had known that they wouldn't take it lightly, but she hadn't expected the reaction that she had gotten from the twins. They were her closest friends and the only ones in her grade. She didn't know what she would do if they stopped speaking to her. Class would be different, that was for sure. Kimiko came and put an arm around the girl that was fast becoming her friend.

"Not quite the afternoon I had expected. Son, you definitely have an eventful life going on, don't you? All this because of the girl that you want to date? I thought the Otori boy would be the one to cause an outburst." Takeshi's mother pulled him aside as he started to go after the twins.

"We told Kyoya Friday. He's had time to accept it. To be honest Mother, Kyoya was the only one who was really a potential rival. Haruhi's feelings for her other friends were never as deep as they were for Kyoya and me. It's just those two twins who think that they own her."

Kyoya got up and silently went in the direction the twins had left. He said nothing as he left the rose garden. Huni-senpai walked over to Tamaki to make sure that he was ok. He would recover. It would take a while, but he would get on with life. Haruhi had made her way to Tamaki and Huni-senpai since Takeshi was talking to his mother, and their father's were chatting idly together. She didn't know what to do. She knew that the twins would act up somehow, but she thought that Kyoya had accepted it. She didn't expect him to walk out as well. Tamaki could see that she had really been affected by the whole ordeal and was trying to comfort her. "Kyoya will be ok with it soon. It isn't like him to walk out without saying anything. The twins are just stupid anyways. They always act out and then calm down later to realize how stupidly they had acted. It will be ok Haruhi. As long as you're happy, then I will be happy for you. Your happiness is what we all really want. I just…"

"I know Tamaki. It's ok. You don't have to try and comfort me. This is my own mess that I got myself into. I just hope that they will forgive me. I really do love all of you guys, but not in the way that they want me to."

"Shh, it's ok. They will either get over it, or move on without you as their friend. It will be their loss. We all know that you care deeply about your friends. You wouldn't have been so worried about telling them if you didn't care, right?" Takeshi had walked over to the small group when he heard Haruhi crying as she talked. He lifted her into his arms and sat down amongst their friends. It was then that Tamaki could see how much his senpai really cared for the girl. If he had to lose her to someone, at least it was someone from the host club. "Why don't the rest of you go ahead and eat. Haruhi worked hard on some of the dishes, even though we asked her not to, she wouldn't hear of it. She made them specially for her friends. So go eat, I'm going to take her over to the other side of the rose garden for a little bit to let her calm down."

Takeshi stood up, still cradling Haruhi in his arms. He carried her over to the bench where he had confessed only a week earlier. It was far enough away that they could still see everyone, but they couldn't be heard. He sat her down on the bench, then kneeled next to her. "Haruhi?"

"Uhn"

"Do you remember what happened here a week ago?"

A slight smile played across her lips, "I thought that I was hearing things, or that I was going crazy." He brushed the tears from her face with his thumb.

"Well, that too, but I meant what caused you to think that you heard things."

"Uhn"

"If I tell you again, will you not ask me if you are hearing things?"

"I won't ask."

"Good. Then Haruhi, I meant it when I said it then and when I decided that I wouldn't let you get away from me again before I said it to you. And I mean it still. I love you. I have been in love with you for a while, but it took almost losing you before I could finally put a label on my feelings. I knew from the moment that you realized what I was telling you, that this would be hard for our friends, because they love you too. They probably love you as much as I do. All I know is that my world came to a dead standstill when Kyoya told me that you had been attacked. It would have killed me right then and there to lose you, and I hadn't even told you how I feel." He took her face into his hands and looked straight into her eyes.

"Haruhi, I love you."

"I love you too, Takeshi." With those words finally spoken in the same spot to erase the first confession, he gently kissed her lips, for the first time. She had kissed a girl by accident at the Christmas party her first year, and she had kissed Tamaki by accident at Takeshi's graduation. But this was the first time she had ever kissed anyone other than her dad, and meant it.

When he pulled away, they straightened up and headed back over to the rest of the group to get a plate of food. Kyoya had managed to bring the twins back and they were in process of getting food when the couple finally made it back. It was a very tense atmosphere, but at least it was quiet.