Lost in the Dark

By Meganes Ultimate Fangirl

Chapter 6 - Revealed

She stared at him like he'd lost his mind. He... did think she was a boy didn't he? Did that make him...? "I'm not gay, Hanaru," he stated swiftly, reading her thoughts. "As you, very well know." Now, he was just being confusing. She looked at him questioningly. "Honestly," he muttered, swooping to catch her reluctant lips again with his.

She yanked back as she had before. "What the hell?"

"I still don't understand why a girl would want to join the army," he murmured, eyes sharp and intent as they looked into hers. Her eyes widened. Shit. She was screwed. Utterly, utterly screwed. Him knowing her true gender was just a step away from knowing her true identity.

"H-How...? How long have you known?" she asked in a voice that was an octave higher than her normal one.

He smirked and replied, "Since the moment I first saw you."

She stared at him, mouth slightly open. This was... not good. Not good at all. God, how the hell had she gotten herself wrapped up in this mess in the first place? Oh right, that was her big mouth and the desire not to die. Stupid Haruhi. Now, not only was there the risk of him finding out who she was, there was the risk that he'd somehow fall in love with her and turn her into a murderer. 'My day's just going wonderfully, isn't it?' she thought sarcastically, her lips burning as she found herself wrenched away from her thoughts by his lips on hers in a horribly gut-wrenching yet somewhat desirable kiss. Again, she yanked back. "Do you treat all women in this way?" she asked irritably.

"Only ones that don't answer my questions," he answered flippantly, "Why did you join the army if you're a girl?"

"Aren't you prying a bit too much?" she retorted, hedging around the answer to his question. That would only give him more information that he could use against her. That would only get him closer to knowing she was the Princess of Mora.

Again, she found that his mouth had sought out and found hers. "Just answer the question, Hanaru. You wouldn't want me to submit you to more selective methods of torture, would you?" he whispered, lips close enough to brush hers as he spoke.

She shuddered at the thought of what he could do to her if she gave him the chance. No. She didn't even want him going anywhere near that. She swallowed, sure she was going to eat her words later. She opened her mouth, only to close it again seconds later. This earned her another searing, torturous kiss from the Narian Prince.

She shoved him away in annoyance. Honestly, he made it hard to think when he did that. Not because she liked it or anything. But because it was so very easy to be distracted when you find that someone's kissing you senseless. Because Kyoya was such a rich Narian bastard that he had stolen her first kiss. And second. And third. And fourth. The bastard. And she had a feeling that he liked watching her attempt to squirm out of his torturous, seductive hold. "Stop that! I can't think with you kissing me senseless every five seconds!" she spluttered in complete, utter annoyance.

His smirk only grew at this statement. "Oh, but my dear Hanaru, that was the entire point," he drawled lazily. Yes, Kyoya was definitely enjoying this way too much.

Her chest wrenched painfully for some reason unknown to her. It just suddenly yanked at something. Like someone had reached their hand inside of her and pulled at her heart. She held in a small gasp at the painful jolt, glaring at him. The pain however, faded quickly. "Arrogant bastard," she muttered under her breath.

"I may be an arrogant bastard but you're talking about a Prince who could have you executed for saying those words," he threatened, eyes flashing dangerously behind expensive spectacles that she was absolutely sure very few people in the kingdom would be able to purchase even if they needed them.

"You wouldn't..." she trailed off, slightly unsure of herself. He might actually. It was Kyoya after all. Same as the next sneaky Narian bastard of a prince. He was the one that was currently torturing information out of her in such an indecent manner. 'Then again,' she told herself in her head, 'I may possibly deserve this. God only knows I've been way too lucky with this secret for the past 20 years.'

"I would," he said dangerously. He bestowed another kiss on her lips which made it even harder to concentrate on what she was supposed to be answering. God, if he could just stop and let her think for a moment. Maybe, just maybe, she'd be able to answer him within a timely manner. And maybe she'd be able to come up with a reasonable explanation that was as far from the truth as she could manage to get. "I suggest to watch your mouth and answer my question, Hanaru."

She swallowed again. Well, gulped actually. She really didn't like the look in his eyes as he hovered in front of, yet slightly over her. Like a vulture looking for it's next meal. Or better yet a lion stalking his prey. "I... I was drafted."

He didn't seem to believe this, however. "So, Kira's started drafted women as well as men?"

She gulped again and closed her eyes for a moment, thinking. However, she couldn't think up a story other than the truth. Damn his torture techniques. Damn them that they worked so well on her. She opened her eyes slowly before replying, "No. I was just... hiding in Kira as a man. Therefore I was drafted as a man would be."

His jaw went slack while the one doubtful eyebrow rose. She shoved him away before he even got the chance to kiss what he thought would be the actual truth out of her. She swore, one more kiss and she'd probably spill her entire story. Which would lead to her ultimate demise, seeing as she'd get turned into The Witch and his father, they would kill her, blah blah blah. "And why, dare I ask, were you hiding as a male?"

She flashed a quick sarcastic smile. Like hell she was going to tell him that. Only when all hell froze over was she ever going to tell him that piece of information. Why did he have to use his decidedly good looks on her? Couldn't he choose to use them to seduce some maiden into giving him what he wanted? "That... is none of your business."

"You're certain?" he hedged suggestively. God. Who knew that seduction could even be used as a method of torture? Of course. It would only be usable by few people. Unfortunately for her one of those people had to be Prince Kyoya. And even more unfortunately, he had to decide to use it on her.

"Yes. I am. And I don't care what you do to me, I'm taking this to the grave," she replied with determination. He was not going to find out about her royal blood. No. Way. In. Hell.

"We'll see about that," he murmured, eyes flashing dangerously again as he pulled himself away from her.

It was then that it dawned on her how suggestive the position they'd been in just moments ago had been. How intimate it was. If a maid, Gods no, had walked in on that... Oh Lords. She would have been even more screwed than if it was only Kyoya who knew. He at least wouldn't tell anyone. Or at least she didn't think he would. Maids... Maids had loose tongues.

Haruhi pulled herself away from the wall slowly, eying the Third Prince warily. Like he would swoop in and steal another kiss from her at any moment. What was it about her that made him do that? He could have simply asked. He didn't have to sexually harass her to get the information he wanted. Granted, she'd probably tell him that it was none of his damn business as she had loads of times. But, really. Was harassment really necessary? And if he told... She shuddered at the thought. "Will you tell?" she asked quietly.

He smirked in amusement for a moment, contemplating thoughtfully. "As long as you prove useful as a spy, I don't see why I should tell anyone," he replied just as softly. She held back at breathing a sigh of relief.

Thank the Gods. She was saved.

There was silence for awhile between them while Hanaru contemplated what she should do now. Should she leave or wait for the Prince to speak? He was suspiciously quiet. Like he was thinking about something. And when Kyoya started thinking it could end very badly for her. As she'd just learned.

So she stood there in silence as he stood over by the balcony, staring out at the view with that contemplative look on his face. She felt a knot in her gut as he turned back to her very slowly. "You're dismissed, by the way."

She let out a low growl that was barely audible to his ears before she turned and left the room. He'd probably want to ask her more personal questions later, knowing him. She just prayed that he didn't remember that she had never answered his inquiries about The Witch on her last visit. And that he wasn't perceptive or intelligent enough to figure out that she had been hiding in Kira because she was the Moradian Princess.

'Hah. Fat chance of that,' she snorted sourly in her mind. She'd seen his intelligence at work. And if he had the intuition to know she was a girl just by looking at her, she was definitely screwed.

For now, she figured it was better to feign ignorance and come up with better cover stories.

Ones that were as far from the truth as she could possibly manage them to be. Though, he already had an inkling of what her life was like back at home due to the conversations they had already had.

'Oh Mother,' she sighed in her head, 'I wish you were still here.'

–

Just as she thought, Kyoya came to visit her around dinner time when she was still eating. She nibbled on her chunk of bread, eying him anxiously. This newest venture with the method of torture that he had found to use against her just put her on edge more than she had been before.

She rose an eyebrow at him as he came through her bedroom door, shutting it behind him. The corners of her lips turned down slightly in a scowl. "And now I suppose you're expecting me to spill my one and every secret?" she asked with complete sarcasm dripping from her every word.

He smirked in amusement. "I wasn't aware that you were keeping any secrets from me, Hanaru. Care to share?" he retorted smoothly. He grabbed a chair that sat uselessly in the corner for some reason and strode over to where she was eating at her desk. Plopping the chair down next to her, it's seat away from her, he sat, facing her with a leg protruding from either side of the chair and his arms resting on the back of it.

How the hell had she managed to somewhat befriend this assumptive bastard? And his arrogance made her slightly ticked too. "No, I would not like to share. Least of all with someone who could use it against me," she answered coldly, taking off another chunk of bread and dipping it in her soup.

His eyebrows shot up. Shit. That was never a good sign either. "Now you've gotten me curious. What secrets could you possibly have that I would be able to blackmail you with? You seem rather innocent to me, aside from the fact that you're a girl."

If there was anything more dangerous than a thinking Kyoya it was a curious one. Dammit.

She snorted and decided to ignore him, choosing to let him ponder while she ate quietly. Wait, letting him think was a bad idea. But how the hell else was she supposed to think herself without leaving him to? Alright... Cover stories.

She made a mental list of all the things she needed to cover quickly. The Witch, why she was posing as a male in Kira, perhaps her relationship with Tamaki. She thought that was it. If something else arose she could just blatantly lie.

Her relationship with Tamaki was easy enough to do. She could tell the truth with that one. He was her friend. She'd known him since she was eight and they'd grown up together. Simple as that.

Her connection to The Witch was simple as well. She'd been cursed because of something that her sister had done. Since she had no sister to speak of that shouldn't be able to lead him to anything close to the truth.

Why she was posing as a male was the one that was tricky to cover-up. She realized now that she could have said that she wanted to prove her family's worth but her father had no son. But she'd already told him something different. No going back on that now. She frowned inwardly, keeping her face carefully blank on the outside. She supposed she'd have to tell him something else that was relatively close to the truth. The Witch's curse had forced her to hide. When he asked why she could tell him that she didn't know because her father had never told her.

So that was it. That was her cover story. Pathetic. And so very close to the truth. How the hell was she going to get out of this without getting killed along the way?

She finished off her soup and wiped her mouth with her napkin. She was rather pessimistic about this entire thing that was beginning to unfold.

Kyoya coughed. "Well, Hanaru?" he asked, leaning forward against the back of the chair he was sitting on in amusement, his eyes intent.

"Like I said. Nothing that I'd tell you," she said softly, pushing her tray away from her and turning her gaze to the Narian Prince next to her.

"Come now. Wouldn't want to have to torture it out of you, would I?" he muttered, eyes laughing slightly behind the glare of the glasses on his nose. God. The snoopy bastard. A shiver involuntarily ran down her back as he spoke again, "Though, that isn't completely undesirable." His eyes twinkled with mirth.

She shuddered, chest clenching some more. It seemed to be doing that a lot lately and all she could do was wonder why. "That is quite unnecessary. It was unnecessary the first time," she growled sharply.

"Was it?" he countered, "Wouldn't you just have come up with an excuse and pushed your way out of it like you have since you've come here?"

She tensed. So he did know she'd been lying. Goddammit. She'd known it was a bad idea to let him time to think and become curious. "Well, then," she muttered, "Since you seem to know all the answers. Care to start your interrogation now?" He smirked and stood, pushing his chair aside so he could lean down and trap her in her chair. She glared up at him. "If you use 'methods of torture' on me again I won't hesitate to smack you like you deserve and like you were any guy. Being royalty will get you nowhere with me."

"Really?" he murmured, interest piqued. She nodded, glaring into his eyes calmly. "Well then, perhaps I should just have you hung for defying me."

She couldn't tell whether he was serious or not. The coldness of his voice made her heart freeze over with a slight fear. No, she was not afraid of him. And even if she was she wouldn't give him the satisfaction of showing him. Instead, she stared at him and replied, "You wouldn't do that, Kyoya."

Using only his first name might be strange, but it added a different kind of affect to her words.

His eyebrow rose again. Slowly, he moved away from her and turned his abandoned chair around so he could sit in it properly. "And how do you know that?"

"Because. I saw what learning Corporal Kanri's identity did to you when you realized you were the one that killed him." She turned away from him after saying this as softly as she could and walked to her dresser. Much to her annoyance, he followed her, more curious than ever.

"What's your relationship with the Kiran Prince?" he asked.

She narrowed her eyes at him in the mirror, turning so she could do so to his actual person. "Who says there's any relationship at all?"

"You found the battle plans in his room, Hanaru. That constitutes knowing him on a personal level."

Damn her mouth. Damn his memory. Damn this entire situation. "Fine," she muttered, "We're childhood friends. Met when I was eight."

"Your father's an aristocrat then? Or part of the royal court?" She closed her eyes and nodded. "Name?" She glared at him pointedly. "What? Too much?"

"Yes," she mumbled coldly, "I'd rather not let you have the name of one of the only people dear to me."

He nodded in slight understanding. "I can understand that. Protective of your father are you? Is that why you went along with the male charade?" Again she nodded carefully. "And we can't forget your supposedly bad blood with The Witch."

Her blood ran cold on the spot, her fists clenching just at the thought of her grandmother. Because of that woman, that selfish woman, her mother was dead, she and her father lived in fear, and she couldn't ever love someone. She faked a story quickly that involved her sister's wrongdoing. "My sister-," she broke off, anger pulsing through her, "My sister did something wrong. Angered her somehow. But she died before The Witch could punish her. So I got the punishment by default. She cursed me." Harsh bitter laughter left her mouth without her control. "Some. Logic."

He was regarding her with a look of completely unfathomable apathy.

"It's not fair," she bit out, teeth gritted. "It's not bloody fair. I didn't do anything. I was four. I hate her, she hates me. End of story. Now, can we move on please? Since you're so intent on learning every single thing about me." She snorted angrily, her rage with The Witch transferring to him.

He was still staring at her with that same look in his eye. "Is the curse the reason that you're hiding as a male?"

"Yes," she growled. God. How the hell did he find ways to torture her just by speaking? First torture by seduction, then torture by language. She had never known what she was so susceptible to the stuff. "Are you finished now?"

He nodded slowly. "For now."

"Good," she spat, "Get out so I can sleep then."

He left without another word.

–

Despite the fact that she didn't particularly like the youngest Narian Prince at that very moment, she still felt compelled to see him later that week. Mainly, to see if there were plans in his room as there had been in Tamaki's. Regardless of which side she was on – which was neither in her honest opinion – she still had to keep some sort of knowledge of plans from both sides.

Problem was... Where the hell were his chambers? She had known exactly where his office was because it wasn't far off of the gate. Well, and her ability to somehow randomly find the right room even when she was preoccupied with dodging attacks and then consoling the attackers that she wasn't the enemy.

It was a simple fact that she had absolutely no clue where she was going. Perhaps because she had never actually been to the Prince's room. Unlike the Kiran palace – which had all the royal chambers stationed in the Eastern wing – it seemed that the Narian one didn't follow the same pattern.

Who was she kidding? She didn't even know how to get back to her own room anymore. And there weren't any servants in sight to ask for guidance.

Just when she was about to throw her hands in the air and sit down, waiting for Kyoya – or anyone – to find her, she heard voices. Male voices that she really didn't recognize. "Qincep Akito?"

"You heard me perfectly well, Heantser Korma. In a few weeks time you will command Fralgen Yakamora to launch an attack on Katari on my father's behalf. While the Kirans are obviously distracted by this we can sneak a wizard in and set up a magic barrier like they've been attempting to do. Set it just outside Miera. Assassins can then be sent through to kill the royal family and the royal court."

Hanaru felt her face pale as she heard this from the other side of the corner. "Kill the royal family and the royal court." Tamaki... King Yuzuru... and her father... She swallowed, eyes wide, and tuned her ears again while Prince Akito started talking again. "You will keep this secret until the time that I give the order. Uherfa has already agreed to this."

"That's poor warfare etiquette, Vyro Inesshig," the Sergeant Major mumbled, wincing at the glare that was shot her way.

"It'll put an end to this godforsaken war and give victory to Nari. That's all that matters," Akito cut in sharply. "Uherfa has passed it. Yuiichi is in agreement and most of Father's advisers admit that this is the plan that will bring Nari to greatness. Kyoya is the only one who frowns upon it but his opinion hardly matters."

"Desy Vyro Inesshig."

Footsteps were coming her way and she hurriedly looked for a place to hide. She ducked into the first door that she caught sight of, shutting the door behind her until the footsteps faded. Then she covered her mouth and closed her eyes, rethinking what she had just heard in her mind. "Launch an attack on Katari... Distracted... Sneak in a wizard... Magic Barrier... Just outside Miera... Assassins... Kill the royal family and royal court."

"I need to get home," she whispered under her breath to herself.

"And why would that be?" a suspicious voice interrupted her thoughts. Her eyes shot open to meet Prince Kyoya's steely gray ones. "Aren't thinking of betraying me are you, Hanaru?"

She shook her head quickly, hiding her surprise rather well she thought. "Of course not, Your Highness," she murmured, gazing around the room. She blinked when she realized that she had been so close to finding his chambers. "I was looking for you actually."

He waved his hand dismissively, staring into her, still slightly pale, face doubtfully. "You could have sent a servant to do that. Why do you look like you've just seen a ghost?"

She swallowed and quickly thought up a lie. "My imagination was overreacting. My father was sickly when I left. Just a bit worried is all," she muttered, hoping against all hope that her voice sounded as confident as she didn't feel at all. The entire conversation that she'd just overheard between Kyoya's brother and his Sergeant Major was still running through her head at amazing speeds that just made her feel slightly sick. So many Kirans would die. Tamaki, her father, and the twins' parents among them.

She blinked a few times when she realized that Kyoya had appeared directly in front of her. "You're sure that's all?" he rumbled, face getting entirely too close to hers for comfort as images from earlier that week flashed through her brain at lightening speed.

"Ohoho. What's this?"

The youngest Ohtori jerked back quickly at the sound of his brother's voice, jaw set. "There's this new invention called knocking, Akito," he growled curtly, the slightest hint of a glare glinting on his glasses.

"Who's this, Utleli Uherbro? The latest woman you've been playing around with?"

Hanaru glared at him indignantly then glanced at Kyoya worriedly. He wasn't about to tell that she was Kiran was he? She searched his face for any sort of clue as to what he would tell his fellow Prince. "Yes, actually. Jealous?" he retorted, sliding over to wrap an arm around her waist.

Akito shrugged, not looking all that interested, though his eyes also glistened with a predatory air. She resisted the urge to shrink away from him though her entire being screamed for her to turn and run the other way. His gaze turned back to his younger brother after giving her what she guessed was supposed to be a seductive look, it just frightened her. "Father wanted to see us and Yuiichi in his chambers immediately."

Kyoya nodded once in acknowledgment and pressed a quick kiss to her temple. She blinked a few times, getting that painful feeling of her heart getting yanked out of her chest again. "I'll be back," he murmured in her ear. She suppressed a shiver, knowing the double meaning of those words. 'We aren't done talking quite yet.'

–

A/N: Kudos to BlackestNight BrightestDay (double for guessing correctly that Kyoya knew), Enigmaticrose4, and 43ver. Oh and also to my beta, Koharu Veddette~

I'd... just like to mention... that I have been put back into my wrist brace for my Carpal Tunnel... And it makes it excessively harder to type. GAAH. SUCKS TO MY CT. (LOL. LORD OF THE FLIES REFERENCE?)

I apologize for the late late LATE update on this. I was otherwise distracted. But now I have my gears switched from murder mystery to fantasy peace-keeping, kay? I'll try to get the next one out sooner than a few weeks.

Putting this up right before I head off to a rummage sale for the day. You're lucky that I have an hour break between church and this otherwise, you'd be stuck waiting until tomorrow probably.