The gorgeous weather maintained itself throughout the day, and so the Ouran Host Club Valentine's Day party started up without a hitch. Haruhi spent the first half hour on greeting duty with Hunny-senpai and Mori-senpai. More orange Life Threads came by than she could count. The vast majority were female, and many of them carried boxes and bags of chocolates with them. A few of the girls gave Haruhi looks that, much to her embarrassment, could only be described as lustful. She imagined she'd be going home today with heaps of chocolate-y gifts that would never even be eaten.

Maybe she'd just pass them on to Hunny-senpai once everyone left.

She was more than grateful when Kyoya-senpai came over to relieve her of her duties. Haruhi now sat in the corner by herself, tapping the glass table top while Ozzie wandered around in a circle, scanning the area.

"A lot to do, a lot to do…" he muttered every now and then.

Haruhi didn't know how much constituted 'a lot' and didn't want to either. The longer he left her alone and let her rest, the more happy she'd be with him. Maybe in another few minutes or so she'd have the energy to get started. For now, she'd just rest her head in her head and watch Hikaru and Kaoru try and pull Nekozawa-senpai out from under a heavily shaded tree with only the barest interest.

"STOP IT!" the Black Magic Club president screamed. "YOU CAN'T BRING ME OUT THERE, YOU MURDERERS!"

"Come on, suck it up, Senpai!" Kaoru groaned, pulling harder on his arm and leading Hikaru to follow suit.

"Who's bright idea was it to invite him anyway?" Hikaru said, just loud enough that Haruhi could hear, even over Nekozawa-senpai's shrill cries of fear.

In unison, the twins gave a mighty jerk and managed to bring Nekozawa halfway into the light. Though this soon proved futile, as Nekozawa immediately jerked back into the shadow with another terrified scream, Haruhi did get a nice, long look at his Life Thread. The bright pink color stuck out harshly against the cloak of pure black ever adorning Nekozawa's shoulders. She looked out into the crowd, full of happily smiling people either paired off or in groups. Blue and red hit her hard, with a some orange and white mixed in as well. Even so, today was an almost reverse situation to the one she'd been in on her first day as a cupid. So many couples were around, so many whose Life Threads dictated that they would be together forever. Haruhi had to admit, she liked the love in their eyes when one such couple looked at each other. Maybe it was just Ozzie wearing off on her, but they always seemed so genuine in their feelings. She noticed that they weren't overt about it like the blue Life Thread couples. A lot of them seemed to be making a show of it, prancing around and flirting in loud voices like they were the luckiest people on the face of the earth. All they really got in return were confused and irritated looked, as well as pearls of laughter from Ozzie. What little he was able to say coherently told Haruhi that this wasn't the first time he'd seen this, and that it never ever got old.

Shaking her head, Haruhi got back to the more important task at hand: finding the rest of the pink Life Threads she knew were going to be around. One of them had to go with Nekozawa-senpai's.

"Ozzie?" Haruhi said sharply as he stopped laughing to take a breath. "Are you sure all the pink Life Threads here connect? There aren't any stragglers or anything?"

Ozzie took in a few gulps of air and squeezed at his chest before answering.

"Yeah, pretty much. The only ones you don't have to worry about are those two guys over by the punch bowl. The one with the phone and the one reading. Their Destined Loves go to school in other districts. One of my co-workers will deal with them later. No, you only have a few more couples to worry about."

"Right," Haruhi said, still staring out at the sea of people. "One of them involves Nekozawa, another for Renge, Hunny-senpai, and…"

She had stopped speaking without knowing it, the sudden realization that she couldn't see Tamaki' blond head anywhere had hit harder than she thought it would. As she was wondering to herself where he might be and what he might be doing (probably just charming another one of his customers or something), someone else walked into her line of sight. Haruhi knew her face right away, even before the pink Life Thread was in view.

"It's her!" she said aloud. "That girl… Yuriko! She's here too?"

"Well, this party is open to all students, right?"

"Yeah," Haruhi said. "But you said everyone here with a pink Life Thread has a Destined Love around, so hers must be here too, right?"

Ozzie opened his mouth to respond, but stopped short for reasons Haruhi didn't understand until she heard a soft coughing behind her and turned around.

The girl who had approached was immediately familiar to her. She had bob cut black hair and shining brown eyes. Her skin was pale and her cheek sported a rather noticeable birthmark, that currently looked even bigger thanks to the face splitting grin she sported. Any wider and it would have been plain creepy. As it was, Haruhi couldn't think of a thing to say.

"Hi, Haruhi-kun," the girl said. "Nice to see you outside of the club for once. This is a great party by the way."

"Thanks, Fujimi-san," Haruhi said, nodded softly. "Do you need something."

"I just wanted to say hi." Fujimi shrugged. "And also, I need to ask you about Koji-kun. He's in your class, right?"

"Koji-kun?" Haruhi repeated, her mind immediately going to an image of the skinny young man who sat two rows in front of her and raised his hand about as often as she did, but otherwise never talked to anyone. Haruhi furrowed her brow. What on earth would Fujimi want with him? He didn't seem her type at all…

"So you know him?" Fujimi asked, rubbing her hands together with barely contained excitement. "Great! Do you know if he's seeing anybody?"

She leaned her head in closer, waiting expectantly for a response that Haruhi was still trying to figure out. She hadn't known Fujimi for long; the girl had only just started visiting the club a few weeks ago. From what little she had seen then and now, Haruhi could tell that the girl was really outgoing and loud. She seemed completely unafraid to let the world know where her affections lie, but she at least had enough restraint to make sure he was single first. On the flip side, Koji was a very reserved person. The few times Haruhi spoke to him, he rarely supplied more than a three word answer, unless the topic of discussion was something homework related; then he was an open book.

Haruhi tried to imagine Koji and Fujimi together. It was an… odd picture, to say the least. Fujimi was clearly the one who would take the initiative, and whether or not Koji would mind, Haruhi couldn't say. It didn't seem like anything that could go bad, so long as Fujimi knew to take it slowly. There was only one obstacle Haruhi could see that kept the two apart, but oh what an obstacle it was.

"Orange," Ozzie spoke the obvious, furthering it with a blatant gesture at Fujimi's Life Thread. "This one's dead in the water already. You know what to do, Haruhi."

Her eyes flicked to him for a brief second before she could stop it. The strange stab of annoyance she'd felt at his flippant tone was taking it's time in fading. It didn't help that he was right. That orange color was bright and unmistakable. Haruhi thought to look around for Koji, maybe see if he had a similar color, but instead she maintain eye contact with Fujimi, who appeared to be growing impatient.

"Well, is he?" she said with a great deal more force.

"I…" Haruhi started to say, feeling the intensity of both Fujimi and Ozzie's gazes increase. She tried to ignore how it bothered her as she finally spoke. "No, I'm pretty sure he's not."

Out the corner of her eye, Ozzie's mouth fell open, but Haruhi paid him no mind as she was suddenly assaulted by a squealing Fujimi, pulling her into a hug.

"That's great! That's awesome," she cried. "Oh my God, you have no idea how relieved I am."

"No, I think I do," Haruhi said, slightly pained from Fujimi's shockingly tight grip.

"Thank you so much," Fujimi said as she let Haruhi go and jumped away. "If you'll excuse me, I have someone very special to talk to. Bye, Haruhi-kun!"

She took off in a sprint, pushing past crowds of befuddled students and making a break for the main gate, at which point, Haruhi's attention was once again diverting to someone else.

"What was that?" Ozzie said in a low voice. "Do you realize what you just did?"

Haruhi gave him a look of her own. "She asked me a question, I gave her an answer, an honest one."

"You gave her- YOU SET HER UP WITH SOMEONE WHO ISN'T HER DESTINED LOVE! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU?"

"Do NOT yell at me," Haruhi snapped in as loud a voice as she could manage without being heard by an outside party. "All I did was tell her that he isn't seeing anyone and he's not. I know Koji-kun, he's never been on a date with anyone. Believe me, the way my classmates are, I would know about that."

"Well, now you're going to hear all about his failed relationship with some random girl he wasn't supposed to be with anyway."

"Are you listening to yourself?" Haruhi turned abruptly, knocking Ozzie off her shoulder and onto a nearby table in the process. "Aren't you supposed to be some kind of expert at love? Because even I know that this isn't a big deal. I mean, Koji-kun might not even feel that way about Fujimi-san. Or if they do go out, I doubt it would end that badly. Koji-kun doesn't seem the type to just callously break a girl's heart. They'll probably just decide they're better off as friends or something and go their separate ways. Plus, the experience of being together might help them in future relationships. Ever thought of that?"

She met his glare with a harsh look of her own, and refused to let up even as Ozzie got back to his feet. At a very non-threatening six inches, he couldn't do much by way of frightening her, aside from maybe kicking her in the finger. Then, suddenly and without warning, Ozzie's face broke out in a massive grin and he let out a whooping laugh that left Haruhi baffled.

"What the- what are you laughing at?"

"I-I'm sorry," Ozzie wheezed and slapped his knee. "I not trying to offend you, really! But yeah, I know exactly what you mean. I was just checking to make sure you understood."

Haruhi deflated, her shoulders falling heavily as she worked out the meaning behind Ozzie's words and tried to block out the sound of his continuing laughter.

"So… that was a test," she said after a minute.

"Sort of, yeah," Ozzie said. "Not Fujimi coming over, that was all her. I just used it to my advantage is all. My instructors did that a lot to me when I was in training. They faked me out so many times, I can't even tell you. Some of them just made me so nervous after a while, I could never tell when they were really angry or just…"

His words faded away until they no longer registered in Haruhi's mind. She focused now on the people around her, all the reds and blues and oranges and whites. The pinks she knew remained were nowhere to be found, aside from Nekozawa-senpai, whom Hikaru and Kaoru had long since given up on. With him lost in the shadows, Haruhi was left to search for the rest of those people who needed her attention, all while trying to figure out if she would rather give Ozzie the cold shoulder for tricking her, or begrudgingly thank him for the thinly veiled compliment.

Becoming antsy, Haruhi began walking around the table, looking out in every direction she could while Ozzie went on with his ramblings. He didn't notice that she was no longer listening until she'd made three full circles. He said nothing about this, but ceased speaking altogether as Haruhi scanned the foreground for the third time, feeling more and more that it was futile and she'd be better off looking somewhere else. She didn't know if Ozzie was thinking similarly, but when she wordlessly lowered her hand for him to step up, he did so immediately with no questions.

With the tiny cupid back in his place on her shoulder, Haruhi started for the crowd of party guests, giving quick responses to those who called out to her and returning the any soft smiles sent her way. She found the orange Life Threads many of them bore didn't bother her as much as they had in previous days, but that might have just been because here, Haruhi had no way of knowing which ones were targeted at her and which weren't. She liked it far better that way.

Haruhi was zeroed in on the task at hand, at finding those remaining pink Life Threads. So much so, that when not one, but two appeared in her line of sight, Haruhi was halfway to them before Ozzie even knew what was happening. It was the girl who caught her attention first. She was fairly tall and skinny, her auburn hair split into two braids and her hands clasped in front of her chest. She looked like the picture of shy innocence as she spoke in low tones to the young man before her. Haruhi wondered for a fraction of a second if the girl was confessing love to boy, but that theory went out the window the once Haruhi came into earshot and heard exactly what the girl was saying.

"…and I was hoping I could talk to you about this. I know I don't bring it up much when I come to visit, but I've known him for so many years and I think I might be in love with him. Will you please help me?"

That the person she was speaking to was Tamaki-senpai also helped.

"Hey there," Haruhi called out without thinking.

Tamaki and the girl turned, blinking in confusion, though Tamaki at least looked happy to see her. He flashed that charming smile of his, and for a moment, Haruhi's chest hurt again.

"There you are, Haruhi," Tamaki said, raising his arms as if to hug her. "I haven't seen you at all since the party started. Allow me to introduce Mikage-san. She's a more frequent guest of mine and she's having a bit of trouble."

Haruhi nodded. "Yeah, I know. I uh- I couldn't help overhearing. Something… about a guy, right?"

A funny sort of sound escaped Mikage-san's throat, and she shrunk away from the two hosts like a frightened child. Haruhi, it seemed, was right about the girl being shy. When she didn't regain composure, Tamaki stepped forward and offered her a comforting hand.

"It's okay, Mikage-hime," he said gently, the title slipped past his lips with what had to be a heavily practiced ease. "Haruhi is my dear friend and you can trust him implicitly. In fact, I believe having two opinions may better serve you. Wouldn't you agree, Haruhi?"

He gave her a look, eyes searching hers and Haruhi met him with a thin lipped smile and a friendly glance at Mikage-san.

"I'd be happy to help however I can," she said.

Ozzie let out a laugh that rung in her ears.

"I should've given him my powers too, then you guys could be a real team."

Haruhi didn't respond, either in words or actions, though she did briefly consider shaking Ozzie off her shoulder. She scrapped that idea once Mikage-san straightened herself out.

"Well, okay," she said, clearing her throat. "His name is Yuu. I met him in Junior High when he first transferred in. He was kind of shy, and I was assigned to show him around the school. We became good friends, and have been ever since. It's just that lately…"

"Your feelings have started to change," Haruhi said when Mikage-san's paused had gone on for too long.

She nodded weakly, lowering her head a bit.

"Go on," Tamaki said.

She did so without looking back up. "I don't know when it started, when I… when I fell for him. We have also been so comfortable together, I can talk to him about anything and never feel afraid. But then I started to feel nervous around him. My heart would beat faster when he was around, my face would heat up when he smiled at me. There was this girl who had a thing for him last month, and whenever she tried flirting with him, I got so angry. It made no sense at all, but I just hated the thought of his returning her feelings. I mean, I wouldn't have tried to stop them if he did, I want him to be happy! I just…"

Though it was unnecessary as Mikage didn't have any more to say, Tamaki raised a hand to her. He had heard enough.

"Mikage-san," he said. "I can tell you with utmost certainly that what you feel for this boy is love."

She sucked in a breath.

"I know," she said. "I mean, I thought so."

"And now you have to let him know how you feel, otherwise it'll keep eating away at you."

"What?" Mikage said, her head snapping up. "But what if he doesn't feel the same way."

"If he's as good a man as you imply, he will not hurt you, even if he doesn't return your feelings," Tamaki said.

"It scares me."

"I know," Tamaki answered, suddenly becoming stiff. "Believe me, I know."

Haruhi stood there silently, listening half-heartedly to the conversation happening just to her left. Her eyes were on the grass, and her mind was on Mikage. On her words.

They ran through her head over and over again, growing louder and faster and almost painful.

'I started to feel nervous around him… My heart would beat faster… whenever she flirted with him, I got so angry…'

'Then it's love,' Tamaki had said.

"Love?" Haruhi mouthed, the simple four letter word suddenly feeling heavy on her tongue; intimidating almost.

'Is that really what love is?' she thought. 'Is that all? It can't be! That's not how you fall in love with someone, that's just… hints, maybe?'

Haruhi glanced at Tamaki. He was speaking in gentle tones to Mikage, coaching her with the genuine care Haruhi had come to expect from him when it came to his clients. Or anyone for that matter.

He smiled at one point, and Haruhi's heart skipped a beat.

'No, that's… you have to know a person to fall in love with them. This isn't love at first sight, Mikage-san knows her friend, she's seen him at his best and worst and she knows who he is under the mask. That's why…'

Haruhi's hand curled into a fist, so tight her nails threatened to tear at her palms.

'That's why her heart beats faster around him, and her face heats up when he smiles, and why she feels so intensely jealous with all those girls around him every single day. It gets so bad, she starts to think something is wrong with her, like an illness of some kind, but that's not it. She's never really loved anyone besides her parents, and then her friends somehow wormed their way in, but it's different with him. Maybe it wasn't before, but now…'

"Haruhi?" Tamaki sounded worried as he said her name.

Haruhi looked up, fighting back the hot, stinging tears and forcing herself to smile at Mikage-san.

"Sorry," she said. "I was just thinking… about what you said, Mikage-san."

She took a deep shaking breath, avoiding the shine of his blonde hair in her side vision at all costs. She didn't think she could bare it right now.

"I agree with Tamaki-senpai. What you feel… it's definitely love."

Haruhi sat alone under a tree and the farthest edge of the garden. The party was in full swing all around her, but she had no desire to join in on the celebrations just yet. The young girl had quite a bit on her mind, and someone wasn't helping.

"What was with you back there? You totally spaced out," Ozzie stood right in front of her ear. This was the only way he could get a reaction out of her now that she'd made it a point to ignore him completely. "It's lucky your friend was around to smooth things over. That girl and her Destined Love should be fine now, no thanks to you."

"Just stop it, Ozzie," Haruhi said softly. "I'm not in the mood."

"My God, she speaks!"

Growling, Haruhi bent back her head against the tree. In her lack of focus, she put too much force behind it and had to deal with some minor shockwaves of pain running down her skull. The wood's hard and rough texture felt good regardless, and she allowed herself a few gulps of air to hopefully calm herself back down. She laughed humorlessly, wondering who the hell she was kidding. Even if she got close to relaxed, an image of Tamaki's face would appear without warning and rile her back up.

He would be there smiling, laughing, crying, screaming, falling on his face, trying to charm her, hugging her, spinning her around, standing there watching her, calling out her name, telling her he loved her back…

Haruhi groaned and smacked a fist into her temple, praying that it would somehow dislodge the thoughts and grant her a reprieve from it all. That last one hadn't even happened yet ('Yet,' she thought with a humorless laugh)! When it didn't come, she slumped further down, almost her entire back in the grass dirtying up her jacket. She didn't care in the slightest.

"I don't believe this," she groaned, bringing her hands to her forehead and massaging it.

"What?" Ozzie asked.

Haruhi sighed and pulled herself back up.

"Nothing, I don't want to talk about it," she said, and then mentally added, 'I'm not ready to deal with this yet.'

Ozzie raised an eyebrow, but asked no further questions. For that, Haruhi couldn't have been more grateful.

"Well, your break's over then," he said. "You've made good progress, but we still have a few more couples to put together. I'd say about four or five."

"That doesn't sound too hard," Haruhi said, glad to have something else to think about now.

"Depends," Ozzie said cryptically. "So far, we have your pal, Renge, and we don't know who she's supposed to be with yet. Yuriko and her destined love are definitely here- his name is Kazuya, by the way- and then there's Reiko Kanazuki."

Haruhi nodded, making a mental list of all those names in checklist form. "So that's three."

"Right," Ozzie said. "And while I'm still not sure who everyone goes with, I do know that every girl here with a pink Life Thread definitely has a Destined Love in this garden right now."

"Sounds easy enough," Haruhi said, getting to her feet. "I already know Yuriko's Destined Love, Renge and Reiko-san shouldn't be too hard if I can find them."

'Not to mention looking for their matches will help me keep my mind of off other things.'

"HARUHIIII!"

The voice came from behind her, growing in volume with each syllable. Haruhi turned obliviously, just in time to see a head of swishing brown hair and pink bows diving at her.

"Huh? Wh-AAAH!"

Renge tackled her into a hug, crushing her bones with shocking force as she squealed in fangirl-y happiness about… something or other. Really, Haruhi never knew what to think when Renge was involved.

"Oh, Haruhi," the club manager said upon letting go. "Sorry about that, I just get really excited about Valentine's Day."

"Yeah, I can tell," Haruhi said through grit teeth as she rubbed her aching sides.

"I'm just I needed to talk to you right away. I'm glad I finally caught you alone!"

"O-oh yeah?" Haruhi asked. 'Please don't be about to declare your love for me or something. You already have a Destined Love and it's sure as hell not me… right?'

Before Haruhi could dwell more on that less than pleasant notion, Renge was embracing her again. Thankfully, it was a looser hold this time, one she could easily pull herself out of. Whatever Renge wanted, Haruhi would just have to get it out of the way quickly so they could move on to the important stuff. Namely, finding out who Renge was destined to spend the rest of her life with. Knowing Renge, she'd be far more interested in that.

She probably just wanted to ask about club business or homework.

"I know all about you and your feelings for Tamaki-senpai."

Haruhi stopped. Completely stopped. Stopped moving, stopped breathing.

She imagined this was how getting a bucket of ice bucket dumped on one's head felt like.

And now everything Tamaki related had come crashing back down into her mind again.

"Wh-what?" she choked out.

Renge giggled, blissfully unaware of the tailspin her words were putting Haruhi's mind through.

"Oh come on, don't deny it. You're not exactly subtle about it," she said.

"I… I don't understand…"

"What's there to understand?" Renge asked. "You're in love with Tamaki-senpai and so of course you want to be with him. I've been seeing the signs for weeks now, and I'm here to tell you: you should go for it."

Shakily, Haruhi reached around for a chair to sit on before she fell over. She found nothing, and had to dig her feet into the dirt for more leverage. She bit but a gasp, sucking in air through her teeth as she once again found Tamaki, with his violet eyes and tousled blonde hair, in the forefront of her mind with no intentions of leaving any time soon.

"You think I'm in love with Tamaki-senpai," she said weakly.

"I know you are," Renge intoned. "And it's okay, I won't tell anyone. You can come out as gay at your own pace, Haruhi-kun. I just want you and Tamaki-senpai to happy. Dumbass narcissist he may be, I think you two would be great together."

"Wait a minute," Haruhi cried, all her energy coming back to her at once from places unknown. "Just… wait a minute. Renge, tell me what makes you think Tamaki and I would want to be together."

Renge gave her a funny look, one Haruhi could almost mistake for serious. Bring a finger to her chin, Renge tapped lightly and looked Haruhi up and down like she was a bug under a microscope.

"Well, first of all, you need to fix your jacket, it's a mess," she said, waving a hand at Haruhi's chest. "And I can see the way you guys look at each other, and the way you have his complete attention when you speak. Every day, you're the first one he wants to talk when he arrives and the last one he says goodbye to when he leaves. Plus, I know about all those times he's protected you from harm. I mean, he jumped into an ocean twice for you! If that's not love, I don't know what it."

Where Haruhi's head not spinning so fast, she might've wondered who had told Renge about all those things, only to come to the conclusion that this was Renge she was talking about and she had to have sources everywhere. Events replayed before her eyes in fast forward, all through the filter of Tamaki possibly feeling the same way… and it made so much sense to her. Not only that, it made Haruhi's heart swell in her chest.

She felt happy, happier than she had in days. She hadn't even done anything yet, hadn't talked to him about it.

"This makes no sense…" she muttered softly.

But it was still loud enough for Renge to hear.

"It makes perfect sense," she said. "I won't force you to do anything now, but I want you to confess your love for Tamaki at least by the end of the day. You guys would make far too cute a couple for me to just let it slide."

With that, Renge turned all the way around and pranced away like she was walking on air. She sang along to a tune no one could hear, her voice pitchy and off-key, not that Haruhi was one to talk. She hardly noticed it anyway. All of her surrounding were now a blur of noise and color, the only thing clear to her was the handsome blonde in her head who looked so lovingly at her.

And the real one..

Haruhi walked. There was no conscious thought behind it, not at first, but she took long strides away from the tree and into the fray. Gently moving past fellow students, ignoring those that called out to her, stepping over loose trash and making Ozzie's newest spot in her pocket shake madly with each step.

"Hey! Hey!" he shouted. "Easy there. You trying to kill me?"

"You're a spirit right now, you can't get hurt," Haruhi said curtly. "And I'm taking another break from work."

"What? Who said you could do that?"

"I did," Haruhi snapped, no longer caring who saw her as she pulled her jacket up to get a better look at his shocked face. "Because if I don't do this now, it'll drive me crazy until I do, and then I won't be able to get anything else done, including your job. Do you want that?"

"No," Ozzie said. "But can you at least tell me what you're doing?"

"I need to talk to Tamaki-senpai."

"You do?" Ozzie said excitedly. Following a slight pause, he coughed twice and slid casually back into her pocket. "Okay whatever, just make it fast."

"Right," Haruhi said distractedly, scanning the sea of brown and red head for even a hint of yellow.

It wasn't long before her efforts bore fruit. Tamaki was over by the refreshment table now, talking amiably to someone Haruhi couldn't see. Paying this no mind, she moved past various obstacles and questioning people, her heart beating faster as she got closer and closer to him. She didn't even give herself time to stop and think about what she would say. All that would accomplish was giving herself a huge case of nerves. How exactly were you supposed to tell someone you love them?

She'd find out firsthand in just a few more seconds.

'It'll be fine,' she told herself. 'I just have to say it, just come right out with it. No beating around the bush. I have to do this even if he doesn't feel the same.'

She turned a corner, and she could see him perfectly now just up ahead. She picked up the pace.

'No matter what happens, I'll have plenty of time to finish Ozzie's work later. It won't take long. There are only a few people left with pink Life Threads. Those two guys Ozzie mentioned before who I don't have to worry about, and then there's Renge, Nekozawa, Yuriko and Kazuya, and-'

Haruhi stopped.

Her foot was caught suspended in mid step, and came down heavily when she almost lost her balance. Her legs began to feel weak then for an entirely different reason.

There was Tamaki, handsome and cheerful as ever, chatting with only the barest hint of fear with Reiko Kanazuki. Outside in the open air and sunshine, she looked far prettier and more alive. She still had the distinct air around her of a black magic user, but there was also a glow about her, as if something had happened in the past few hours that had made her happier than she'd ever been before.

Something like finding true love.

Haruhi glanced back and forth, from Tamaki to Reiko, one pink Life Thread to the other. With a sick feeling, she recalled what Ozzie had told her before.

All the girls with pink Life Threads had a Destined Love right here at the party.

Only two boys with pink Life Threads did not.

Tamaki was not one of those boys.

Haruhi's throat suddenly felt dry, she could barely speak.

"Ozzie," she said, her voice almost a croak. "Are they…"

She looked down at him, searching for any indication anywhere that she was jumping to conclusions, that this wasn't what it looked like. Just a moment ago, she could've sworn she heard him suck in a breath and matter something almost unintelligible that sounded like cursing. She didn't know what that meant or if it was even real, but right now, as Tamaki and Reiko engaged in deep conversation about God only knows what, completely unaware of Haruhi's tearful visage watch them like a hawk, Ozzie wasn't telling her that she was wrong.

He wasn't saying a single word.

A/N: Two chapters left now! Two chapters which I swear on my life will be out much faster than this one was and which will also explain everything so please, PLEASE don't kill me for what just happened.