"Good, that will be it for today." The teacher announced. Everyone started to pack their books for tomorrow. The twins came over to my desk and waited while I got my things. "Hurry up, Haruhi."

"Yes, yes!"

Hika-niichan glanced at me, our eyes met and he looked quickly away. Kao-niichan noticed his twin brother's uneasiness and I saw a glance of suspicious flash through his eyes.

"Um, Kaoru…?" Hika-niichan asked his brother carefully.

"What?" the other twin asked.

"I have to do something right now, so I'll leave first." He replied.

Kao-niichan grinned. "What? Do you have to turn down a girl again? He teased his brother. Hika-niichan's eyes crossed mine and snapped to the other direction. Again Kao-niichan noticed it and he frowned. "Do whatever you want, I'm not your mother."

Hika-niichan ignored the comment and left the classroom after glancing at me one more time.

I sighed, it must be hard for Hika-niichan to keep silent to Kao-niichan.

"Let's go." I said to Kao-niichan and swung my bag over my shoulder. My eyes crossed Arata's and he nodded quickly.

Kao-niichan and I entered the clubroom to find the other hosts in a depressed state. "Wow, what happened here?" Kao-niichan asked.

"Princess Aneko has started to move." Mitsu-niichan replied. Kao-niichan turned serious.

"What did she do?" I asked.

"Do you know the Takahashi family?" Kyo-niichan asked. I nodded.

It was a wealthy family with a long history. "They trade in silk, right?"

Tama-niichan nodded. " At least they did until now, they were totally ruined by the princess."

"They were assaulted of treason against the empire and were thrown in jail." Mitsu-niichan added.

"It's quite unrealistic that they actually committed treason since everyone now their centuries long loyalty to the empire."

"So they didn't really betrayed the royal family?" I asked, I had known some of the Takahashi family members myself and the idea that they would have turned their backs on us was ridiculous.

"No, of course they didn't. Princess Aneko just assaulted them so they wouldn't be in her way of getting her son on the throne." Kyo-niichan replied.

I sighed relieved, if they had they would probably have started an intern war in Japan with all the wealthy families.

Taka-niichan turned to me. "They were one of the families that secretly supported the lost princess." He said. Shock went through my body like electricity. They were in jail because they supported me?

There came a thousands of questions up in my mind.

"Why… Whywould they support the princess?" I asked, my voice unsteady.

"There are a lot of families that plan to support the lost princess when she's found." Tama-niichan answered. "B-but they don't even know whether she's alive or not." I protested.

"So what?" Kao-niichan said.

"I'm sure that as long as we believe in her, she'll come back to us." Mitsu-niichan added.

Tears stung behind my eyes. How can they have so much faith in me when I abandoned them?

"We're a family after all." Tama-niichan added.

My bag slipped from my shoulder and fell on the ground. "Haruhi?" Mitsu-niichan asked.

I clasped my hand on my mouth and fled out the room.

"Haruhi!" I heard them call after me but I didn't turn back.

...

After running through some corridors, I finally slowed down. I was totally out of breath.

"Sh*t…" I shouldn't have ran away, they'll be worried. I just had started to panic and ran out the clubroom, I'm sure that if they had said more I would have started to cry. After all these years they still see me as a part of their family… Their words made me so happy.

I should return to the clubroom but first I had to find an explanation of why I ran away. I stopped walking when I felt something fly just next to me and that missed my head on just an inch. With a lot of noise the object crashed into the wall in front of me.

I turned around in one swift movement to see a person in a black attire who hid his face behind some kind of scarf so I was unable to identify my attacker. The man, I could figure out that much, pointed the gun in his hand at me.

Could this be the assassin Arata talked about? Then it must be one of my classmates?

The assassin aimed again. I slowly took a step backwards, at moments like this Arata would come and save me so I wasn't really afraid. The man came closer with some steps and I made the distance between us bigger again by stepping backwards. I started to breath faster and glanced from one side to the other, searching with my eyes for a sign of Arata.

Why isn't he showing up? As my bodyguard, he's supposed to protect me, right?!

I took some more steps backwards but I bumped into the wall and became trapped between the wall and my attacker. The man stepped slowly closer and I sank against the wall.

Arata!

I turned my head away. Am I going to die?

The assassin stopped walking and dropped his hand.

He's not going to shoot? I looked at the face of my attacker and met his eyes. For a moment I saw a sad expression in his eyes, a glance of hesitance flashed through them. For a moment I had the hope he wouldn't shoot but his eyes turned cold again as if there had never been any hesitation.

He lifted his gun again and moved his hand to pull the trigger.

As if in slow motion I saw the bulled leave the gun, I closed my eyes and screamed. "Arata!"

The bullet crashed into the wall, a few inches from my head. The gun in the assassin's hand started to shake together with his fingers. I breath out shaky, in my ear echoed the sound of the bulled hitting the wall. My attacker stepped backwards, unsteady, his hand on his forehead. I saw the confusion written in his eyes.

What the hell is it with this guy?

I used this option to run away, of course it was just wishful thinking to think that he would be so confused that he wouldn't notice my escape. As soon as I passed him he grabbed my wrist and pulled me back. I tripped and fell on the ground.

Once again he pointed his gun at me but before he could pull the trigger a hand grabbed his arm and forced him into a painful position.

"Taka-niichan!" I yelled relieved. The assassin escaped Taka-niichan grip but dropped his gun.

My attacker wanted to punch Taka-niichan in the face but the latter blocked his fist and stomped the assassin in his stomach. He stumbled backwards, he probably realized that he couldn't dominate this fight.

To both my and Taka-niichan's surprised the attacker jumped out the window, crashing the glass and shattering it everywhere.

Taka-niichan and I hurried to the window to see the assassin disappear behind a corner. Taka-niichan turned to me.

"Haruhi, are you all right?" he asked concerned.

"I'm fine, what about you?"

Taka-niichan nodded. "I'm sorry, Haruhi, I shouldn't have said something about the families that supported you." He apologized.

"It's all right, Taka-nii."

"Who was that?" he asked.

I hesitated to answer.

"Haruhi…"

I sighed. "An assassin sent by my aunt."

Taka-niichan didn't react surprised. "You shouldn't run of by yourself, Haru –" the sound of my phone interrupted him.

I took out my phone and I saw an unknown number calling me.

I answered it. "Hello?"

"Hi, Haru-chan, it's me Shiori."

Haru-chan?

"You've been a good girl, very kind of you to send Hikaru-kun to me." She giggled over the phone.

"Uh, Shiori?" What's going on?

"But I don't think that I want to return him to you." She said and though she sounded playful it was clear it was a threat. "What do you mean, Shiori?"

I heard her sigh. "I mean that if Haru-chan doesn't obey me, she might never see her precious brother ever again."

I apologize for the late update but I had trouble writing the last part of the chapter, so please forgive me ^_^

I'm planning on making Shiori a crazy pshychopath, that kind of characters are Always fun and don't worry, there will be no character dead in this fanfic ^_^

To bookspazz55: if there are any resemblances between Arata and someone from that manga, it's accidentally but the manga is on my "plan to read" list :3