Chapter 13 The Pool

The sun shone through the window and I blinked in the light laying sprawled on my king sized bed, and though everything was fine I wished that I were back home. All of this drama had drained me and whilst last night was a (mostly) refreshing sleep I still felt as if a large part of me had been twisted and broken so completely the past couple of days that there was no hope of it ever coming back and fitting to my slim frame. We were supposed to be taking the ladies out to a rose garden today at noon but after the events of last night I was sure that if I requested I could probably have the day off. Tempted for a minute I thought about what I would do with that free time…

I would…..

Sit here and think.

God no! If rolling out of bed and putting on a brave face was all that it took to escape my thoughts for a moment, then I would have to brave the day. At that moment my phone started buzzing from somewhere in my bed, I picked it up after diving under the covers and answered quickly.

"Hello?"

"HARUHI! HOW ARE YOU MY SWEET GIRL?"

I groaned, Tamaki and my father were way too alike, luckily for me it was only dad so I smiled and relaxed in the cocoon I had wrapped myself in.

"I'm good dad, yeah,"

"THAT'S WONDERFUL! THOSE BOYS BEEN TREATING YOU ALRIGHT?"

"Huh…yeah kinda," I mumbled.

"WHAT?! WHEN I GET MY HANDS ON THAT TAMAKI!"

"No, no, no dad, not him. He's been lovely…it's Kyoya"

"Kyoya? Oh but he is such a nice boy!" Dad said, his voice calming down a little and becoming the sweeter, more relaxed tone that I loved.

"Yeah, I thought so too."

"Well, if you want to talk about it, your old dad's here!" he chuckled nervously, "but remember, if he hasn't treated you right you don't have any responsibility to forgive him. You can just walk away when you want darling, you don't always have to feel pressured to make things right."

I thought about that for a minute. Did I want to forgive Kyoya? Definitely not, he had wronged me and it wasn't something I felt I could put past me, at least not for a long time. I did feel pressured to make things right just for the sake of the club though, maybe, maybe it was time to take a break from the club if me forgiving Kyoya was a condition of me staying.

"You're right dad," I smiled.

"Of course I am! Anyway I just wanted to see how you were! I'm off to the markets, toodle oo!"

And with that the phone clunked and I was left alone in the room again. I promptly dressed in a grey t-shirt and shorts and left my room. I didn't quite feel like eating in the dining room so I asked a kind servant woman if she could fetch me some toast. She smiled politely and hurried on, returning as promptly as she had left with two pieces of steaming toast on a plate. I thanked her and walked across the hall to Karou and Hikaru's room. I knocked and heard Hikaru call out to come in.

The room was slightly dishevelled as always to match the twin's style, and where I had expected them both to be lying in bed at this hour, Karou wasn't to be seen and Hikaru was sitting by the bed playing some sort of game device. He paused it and put it down when he saw me, and smiled.

"Morning,"

"Morning."

I went and sat by him and put my arms around my knees. He didn't say anything he just rested his head on mine and hummed a song that was dimly familiar to me.

"What're you humming?"

"Oh, uh it's the song I was listening to when I found you at the church when it was storming," he said, he sounded bashful and I smiled remembering that day.

"Sorry about that" he said again, and stood up stretching.

"You already said sorry, and I already forgave you," I smiled and stood up with him and although I was only about his chest height I tried to look into his eyes.

"Yeah, but I've always known it to be a little more difficult than that, just because you say you're sorry and you mean it, doesn't mean that what you did still doesn't hurt the person long after the fact"

I frowned, "this doesn't happen to have some sort of relevance to last night does it?"

"No, no of course not…well kinda. Don't be mad, didn't mean to bring it up. I just think you shouldn't forgive Kyoya so easily if what he has done has hurt you as badly as I think it has," he backtracked and stepped away looking kind of nervous.

I gritted my teeth, "I don't need advice on how to handle this Hikaru! I can handle it fine on my own!" And with that I stormed out, slamming his door.

I stood by his door breathing heavily feeling my eyes fill up with tears. The door gently opened again and I could feel Hikaru standing behind me. Filled with guilt at my sudden outburst I leant back against him and let him hug me from behind.

"It's okay" he whispered and took my hand, "we better get down stairs, it's almost 11 o'clock."

The day passed uneventfully, the girls couldn't tell that anything was wrong and had a lovely time looking at the flowers. Tamaki in particular put on a good show, outdoing his princely best and looking rather beautiful surrounded by all the flowers. He looked almost like a fairy king. Honey Sempai also did very well making flower bunches for his favourite girls and singing with them.

Kyoya was there today but kept his distance from me, and although I could always feel his eyes on me I tried not to let it get to me. He followed me back to the car on the way back to the hotel and called out to me but I yelled back at him 'not now!' and he left me alone. When I got back to the hotel though trying to avoid him became a nightmare. He was everywhere I went, looking up with really sad eyes and trying to call out to me. I responded the same every time and left the room no matter what I was doing.

I ended up spending the afternoon in Tamaki's room and at the indoor pool where I could get some peace and quiet. It was strange to think that after all this time, the one place I could get quiet was with the one boy whose name pretty much is a synonym loud and obnoxious. After talking to him in the woods though he had calmed down significantly, well around me anyway. He was still his animated self with the group and with the girls. But when it was just us, he no longer felt the need to constantly talk about something.

We sat quietly in his room and then out of nowhere he started talking about his mum, how much he missed her and how unfortunate it was that she was so far away. He then spoke about his grandmother and how easy it would be for him to despise her for taking away the most precious thing in his life, but he chose to love her and respect her. Even if it meant never seeing his mother again.

She felt as though she was doing the right thing and protecting her family, even if it meant tearing his apart.

I didn't say anything; I just listened and put my hand on his when the story called for it. After he'd finished and there was a wall of silence he grinned cheekily and said, "let's go swimming!"

I began to feel chilly by the pool, Tamaki assured me it was much warmer in the water but while I dangled my feet I knew he was a liar.

"Come on Haruhi! Jump in!" he laughed and splashed me. His hair hung over his eyes and he flicked it back, sending water in every direction.

"No!" I laughed and splashed him back with my feet much more menacingly, "I have my clothes on I can't! I didn't bring swimmers!" I squealed, but he swam closer towards me regardless of my splashing.

Suddenly I felt two hands grip my ankles and without warning I was suddenly in the pool too! I yelled and splashed all around me not sure where he was as my eyes were shut and full of water. When I could finally see I saw him laughing right in front of me, I jumped on him and started hitting him with my fists and with the water. My legs wrapped around his waist and I shoved his shoulders back. He grinned and held me there before wrapping his arms around my back and pulling me closer to him to what I thought was an embrace. I started to fight it but he flung himself backwards and we were both submerged underwater. I swam to the surface laughing and watched him come up as well.

"You're evil!" I grinned and he grinned back splashing me lightly. I swam over to him and pulled on his shoulders trying to pull him under the water but although I couldn't touch the bottom I soon found his feet were firmly planted and I was doing little more than pulling myself to him. My body pulled closer and with my hands still on his shoulders I felt his hands grip onto my waist. Our faces were close and he looked down at me, "oh, hey" he said, his voice gruff.

For some reason I felt a strong pull towards him and I felt safe in his arms, I couldn't help but stare at his lips.

Nervous I started to mumble, "you're not going to dunk me again are you?" he leant in closer so our lips were nearly touching, I felt my breath catch and he whispered, "wouldn't dream of it."

At that moment there was a knock one the glass door of the pool and we broke apart. The same servant woman from this morning walked in, "sorry to disturb you ma'am but there's been some commotion by you're room that I think you should see."

I looked at Tamaki confused and he shrugged his shoulders. We wrapped ourselves in the hotels plush towels and ran back down to my room. Inside there were mountains of neatly wrapped presents and in the middle a very shiny, very expensive looking telescope with what looked like diamonds encrusted in a few of the turning handles. I walked in shocked and searched for a card, there was a small tag attached to the telescope. On it was written, "Humble Apologies, Kyoya".

My breathing quickened at I looked at Tamaki who had read it over my shoulder, he put up his hands to calm me but I was already too enraged. My blood bubbled and I fought with all my strength not to kick apart all the stupid presents and the stupid expensive telescope.

"Where is he?" I fumed, spitting between my teeth. By now the other boys were crowded around my door looking just as scared as Tamaki.

"WHERE IS HE?" I yelled and Karou was the first to respond.

"He's in his room, but Haruhi.." he started and tried to pull me back, his eyes were concerned but Hikaru held his wrist and he looked nervously from his twin to me storming down the hall.

How dare he try to buy my forgiveness with all these stupid expensive gifts! First I was a thief, and now I can be bought?!