"Ack! Cut it out, Kaoru!"

"Just hold still!"

Of course, Haruhi did the opposite. She fidgeted and tried to get out of Kaoru's grip. He let go eventually.

"I was just getting the soapsuds out of your hair," he said with a laugh.

Haruhi wasn't amused. "Yeah, well I could've gotten it out myself…" she grumbled, trailing off when Kaoru began guffawing. "What's so funny?"

The auburn-haired boy clutched his sides. "It's all over you!"

To her dismay, Haruhi found out that he was right. She was about to tell him off, but her voice gave way to a giggle when she saw him covered in the bubbles as well.

Honestly, since when did washing up after dinner become so messy? When Hikaru had gone off to shower, she had decided to do the dishes, and the remaining Hitachiin offered to help.

When the two had recovered from fits of laughter, they ensued to clean themselves up, wiping off the froth with paper towels amidst light chuckles.

Kaoru looked at her and tilted his head.

"What?" Haruhi demanded.

He took another paper towel and leaned close to her. "Okay, trust me. Just hold still…"

He proceeded to wipe her face gently. Haruhi's cheeks started to color. They were alone… Maybe now would be a good time to tell him about… No wait. Maybe she was just thinking that way because of her weird dream. She was actually letting it get to her. How ridiculous. She shook her head mentally. How could something as trivial as that delusion affect her like this?

Then she realized that Kaoru had stopped wiping her face. His pupils had dilated and his face was flushed.

"Kaoru?"

He moved abruptly away from Haruhi and was saved from saying anything when a frenzied Hikaru appeared in the doorway.

"What do I do, Kaoru, what do I do?" he whispered hoarsely.

"Hikaru, where's the fire?"

The elder replied by frantically waving around the ringing cell phone he was holding in his hand and mouthing out a single word.

Mom!!!

"Oh, it's your mo—" Haruhi began, but Kaoru clapped a hand over her mouth and signaled for Hikaru to kill the conversation as best as he could.

The Hitachiin followed and quickly composed himself before putting the phone to his ear.

"Mom!" he said casually, though his face was evidently pale. "Back from your trip already? How are you doing? That's good to hear. Oh, me and Kaoru are fine, why do you ask?"

Hikaru flinched a little from something his mother had said before carrying on.

"Oh, so Tamaki-senpai said… Ah, don't freak out, mom! What? No, we're not going through a rebellious phase! No! Geez, no, no… Mom, listen. You've met Haruhi, haven't you? Yes, we're over at her place. Really, they said that? Hmm… They must've gotten confused. I'm sure. What do you mean Kyoya-senpai—" He cut himself short, ashen-faced. Then he took a deep breath.

"Mom-can't-hear-you-signal's-really-bad-call-you-later-bye."

He hung up, dropped his cell phone nonchalantly and slid down with his back against the wall.

"So," Kaoru asked. "What did she say?"

"I told her that the driver must've made a mistake in telling here where we are."

"Mmmf!" Haruhi grumbled under Kaoru's hand.

Just then, the front door was opened unexpectedly.

--

"Haru—What the…" Tamaki was suddenly there, his eyes burning as they fell on Kaoru's hand. The latter had forgotten that he still had Haruhi gagged and released her as soon as he realized his mistake. But Tamaki was already having another fit.

"Kyoya! Come over here and see what these hooligans are doing to our daughter!"

"How did you get in?" Haruhi demanded.

Kyoya made his entrance coolly, swinging a key ring on his index finger. Haruhi eyed it incredulously.

"Where did you—"

"Your father gave me a duplicate key so I'd be able to keep tabs on you while he's gone."

"You can't barge into my home whenever you want!"

Tamaki made an impatient little noise. "It's a good thing we did! These devils had you at a most unladylike position when I got here! But never fear, Haruhi! I'll save you!"

Haruhi was still hotheaded with him from the afternoon, so she let herself vent her thoughts on him. "Somehow, that doesn't sound very promising coming from you."

The blonde recoiled against her brusqueness. "Why does my little girl have to be so cruel all the time? All daddy wants is for you to be out of harm's way…"

Kyoya took this moment to step in.

"Earlier this evening, Tamaki received a very interesting phone call from Mrs. Yuzuha Hitachiin."

"She just called Hikaru a few minutes ago," Haruhi informed him despite the twins making violent gestures for her to shut up behind Kyoya's back.

"Did she, now?" Kyoya ruminated. "And what did she ask you, Hikaru?"

"She just wanted to know where we were, that's all," replied the boy offhandedly.

"Why, didn't you tell her before you came here?"

"We did," Kaoru answered. "We told the driver to tell her that we—"

"That you were at Tamaki's place, am I correct?"

"No," the twins replied a little too fast.

Hikaru tried to make an excuse. "The guy made a mistake. We definitely said that we would be staying at Haruhi's place."

"I see," Kyoya said as he adjusted his glasses, the way he always did whenever he knew something. That was when the twins knew that they were really in for it.

"I wonder what this means then?" Kyoya fished for something inside his blazer and held out a tiny silver disk. "It clearly has your voices telling the driver to 'fetch our stuff and bring it to the Fujioka's apartment straight away.' Hmm. Do you still deny anything?"

Hikaru and Kaoru had only seen him pull this stunt off when the journalism club had threatened Tamaki, and they were a little infuriated to know that he had actually bugged their car. But in any case… the Shadow King had won.

"By the way… I've sent a copy of this disk to your mother."

Haruhi was in the middle, following the conversation but not quite grasping something.

"Okay, so the twins lied. What's new?" she asked.

"Hey," Hikaru huffed. "You make it sound as if lying is a thing we do often!"

Tamaki angrily jumped up from his corner of woe. "Haruhi! They double-crossed you for the second time! Are you seriously going to let them get away with a crime as filthy as that?!"

All the yelling was getting to the girl. A vein twitched as Haruhi tried to think. When the puzzle pieces clicked together in her mind, everyone saw it happen. Tamaki let out a "Hah!" of triumph and the twins slowly started to shrink away from her; they knew it was no use when she started to approach them, so they just plugged their ears with their fingers and hoped for the best.

"So," Haruhi began.

Instead of the outburst the boys were expecting, her voice was abnormally saccharine. It made everyone uncomfortable; even Kyoya looked slightly unnerved.

"You shouldn't be alone in your condition, so we'll be here to take care of you," she continued in her sickly sweet rendition of the twins' voices. But it didn't mask the steely venom that laced her next words.

"We've realized! This is our responsibility! Typical cowards!" Haruhi spat. "You fed me with all that garbage, when all you had in mind was escaping? What, you were trying to buy enough time to form some great plan on how to ditch everything? Why did I even buy your crap? Especially you!" she directed her voice vaguely at one of them, but no one knew for sure if she was addressing Kaoru or Hikaru. "You… When I thought… I actually thought…"

The brothers cringed, but nothing more came but a flumping sound, some footsteps and Tamaki's cautious voice.

"Haruhi?"

They opened their eyes (the twins didn't even know when they had shut them) and the sight that met them was Kyoya standing over Tamaki, who was trying to put a comforting arm around a shuddering Haruhi.

It would have been a pathetic sight if it weren't so appalling.

She was sitting on the floor with her arms encircled around her knees. Her face was hidden from view, but it couldn't have been any clearer that she was crying.

Between the twins, only Hikaru had seen her this way before, and he wished that he were back in that thunderstorm instead. At least he had been able to do something for her back then. He couldn't even go near her now. He just remained stock still.

But Kaoru had never been witness to a Haruhi like this. So he approached her carefully regardless of Tamaki glaring daggers at him.

"Haruhi…"

He looked almost imploringly at his brother, then at Kyoya. The second only said "Mood swings, pretty natural," and that didn't help Kaoru at all.

He found that he could move his fingers. He used them to gently pry Haruhi's face from between her knees. Her brow was still furrowed and tears had made tracks down her cheeks. She refused to look at Kaoru.

"We're really sorry," he managed to say. "It's just… We were really scared, Haruhi. We had no idea what we were supposed to do, so we did what we were best at. We tried to run away. We didn't think of what you must be going through… We're cowards, just like you said. But I promise… We promise to do better from now on. I know it's too much to ask, but… Forgive us?"

Haruhi opened her mouth reluctantly, then closed it and flung her arms around him instead. She smiled half-heartedly at Hikaru and beckoned him to join them. He drew near hesitantly, but she wrapped him in the embrace as well.

"I'm scared too," she whispered. "I really don't have a clue about what's going on. I wanted to run away just as much as you did, but if I did… Where would that get us?"

She let go and looked both of them in the eye as she carried on. "Guys, I really need you. I don't want to do this alone. I can't."

The twins smiled a little and took her hands. "You won't."

--

The whole moment was beginning to feel like a living cliché, and just when everyone began to become conscious of how hackneyed everything was, Kaoru's cell phone rang from the depths of his cargo jeans.

He flipped it open. His "Hello?" was followed by a flinch and a sound that resembled an incensed cat coming from other end of the line. "Oh, hi mom. Huh? O-okay…"

"Well, that was quick," Hikaru commented as his twin slipped the phone back in his pocket.

"She's sending someone to fetch us," Kaoru said dully.

His brother was horrorstruck for a minute. "Well what are we waiting for? Let's make a run for—"

Hikaru bit his tongue since everyone was currently giving him the evil eye.

"Right," he said, shamefaced. "We have about twenty minutes before the limo gets here. With any luck, we'll be able to make an explanation that's at least near half-decent…"

"Mom won't buy it. You know her; she always needs the details. And I have a feeling that she'll completely blow up once we tell her about Haruhi."

Tamaki spoke up. "Well, normally I would be against conspiring anything along with the two of you, but since Haruhi is involved, I have no choice."

A gleam appeared in his eyes as he thought. "If it's quickness and shrewd efficiency that you need, we all know a certain someone who could lend a helping hand…"

Kyoya stopped scribbling in his notebook when he felt eyes pierce the back of his neck.

"Why is everybody looking at me?"


A/N: First of all, I'd like to apologize for taking a longer time than usual to update. ^.^"

Yeah. ...Nothing much happened here, only the twins getting caught in the act and Haruhi losing it with a couple of mood swings which were followed by a totally corny scenario. xP

This chapter is pretty much just a filler for the next one. Time for confrontation!!! (-insert doom music here-)

So, tell me what you think, if you please. x)

l
l
V