Lost in the Dark

By E.M. Megs

Chapter 14 – A Matter of Time

When she reached the tent she regularly shared with the twins, she was grasping her wound. She sat down on her cot heavily, noticing Kaoru's immediate reaction to her distress while Hikaru remained indifferent to the fact that she'd even returned. "Lift your shirt," the younger twin commanded softly, kneeling on the ground in front of her so he'd be able to get a good look. She did as he said without a second thought.

He tsked softly. "You traveled with this thing? Are you crazy?"

"Maybe a little," she mumbled, gasping in pain when he touched the angrily infected thing. He tsked some more, mostly in anger at his twin for causing this.

"I have to cut it open again," the younger muttered while the older continued to ignore his Princess's presence. Haruhi groaned softly at the prospect of having another blade taken to her flesh. Her guard didn't even give her a chance to protest though before swiping out the knife and slicing it across her infected knife wound rather deep.

"Dammit!" she grunted. "Could have warned me!"

"I did," he retorted in amusement, pushing a clean handkerchief to it. "Now though, I can get to the inside better. Which will make frying the infection a ton easier as well." She felt faint and tried not to look down at where her blood was soaking into the rag. He pulled his hand away, pushing two fingers just a little inside, causing her to wince. "Pugna Contagio." His fingers withdrew, a needle and thread appearing in one hand while the other shot out and touched her again. "Cruor Tela."

Blood flow slowed to a stop and he started to sew up the cut he'd made swiftly, ignoring her soft gasps of slight pain as the needle wove in and out of her flesh. Finally, he cut a length of cloth and wrapped it around her middle tightly. "Done," he murmured, standing again.

Hikaru glared at both of them. "You're still a traitor."

She shot him a scalding look quickly. "I am not," she grunted, "And you could have killed me."

"You would've deserved it."

"You don't understand."

"I understand perfectly fine. You didn't kill the person assigned to you because you have some relationship with him. You stopped me and Kaoru from killing the family we were assigned because you're on their side," he reasoned calmly.

"You have no idea what was going through my head."

"Saved those baspultes is what you did. Betrayed Kira. Betrayed Tamaki. Betrayed your father. For what?"

He was really starting to piss her off. "She's five! And she has no goddamn maetha now either! She's exactly like me! She's going to grow up without a mother and it's your fault."

"She and her father were both supposed to die!" he spat back, sitting up. "The entire Narian royal family was supposed to die!"

"Their father was the only one that had anything to do with it. None of them deserved anything of what happened to them." She drew a deep breath to calm herself while Hikaru opened his mouth to retort with more nonsense on her treachery. "Nari and Kira are trying to do the exact same thing that Nari did to us 20 years ago, only to each other! Did that help the world at all? NO. Stop trying to act all high and mighty when I did what I thought was right, Hikaru."

Now, the older twin seemed almost regretful as she gave him a cold glare and exited the tent again.

–

She was granted a week long leave home to recover. Though, now that she was home with her over-eccentric father she kind of wished that she could have stayed home at least until she was healed completely.

"My poor little girl! Who did this to you? Daddy will go get them!" he fretted the moment that she walked through the door with Hunny and Mori – who coincidentally had been sent to the Kiran palace for some sort of business with King Yuzuru. She gave a weak smile while he proceeded to crush the living daylights out of her.

She didn't want to tell on Hikaru – Mostly because that would result in the older red-head being maimed by either his parents or her father. No matter how much trouble he'd caused she didn't want him to be treated like that.

"It was an accident Dad. You know how clumsy I can be..."

"Namahi! You should really be more careful!" he scolded, shaking his finger. She was glad that he bought the poorly thought out excuse so easily. "Now, Yuzuru has requested to see me. So, I'm going to the castle! I'll be back later to check on you! Don't strain yourself!"

Namahi resisted the urge to roll her eyes as she sat down at the dining room table with a small loaf of bread and a bowl of leftover soup that was probably from her father's dinner the night before. She started scarfing it down as her father left. Hunny and Mori sat down with her. She offered them some food, which they took, mostly out of politeness.

"Nama-kicsi why'd Hika-kicsi hurt you?" the blonde asked, with wise innocence. She sighed through her nose. It would just figure that the two older soldiers would figure it out.

Her reply was hesitant. But she eventually came to the conclusion that they were trust-worthy and told them the truth. "He... thinks I'm a traitor because I saved Princess Yuki and Prince Yuiichi. And... I didn't kill Kyoya like I was ordered to."

Hunny and Mori both observed her silently for a moment. "You see them as friends," the taller of the two intoned quietly. She nodded, tearing her eyes away from them with only slight shame.

"They didn't deserve it. Yuki's five. Yuiichi's suffered enough with the death of his wife. And Kyoya..." she trailed off, shaking her head slightly with a small smile, "He saved my life twice. Risked losing his father's approval multiple times. I couldn't just betray that trust."

She sighed softly while the small blonde tilted his head at her. "If you trust him with your secret, then he was worth saving," he murmured simply, shrugging his shoulders a bit, "We won't judge you for being merciful to a friend." Mori nodded in agreement, taking a bite of his bread.

Namahi felt her shoulders relax a bit, knowing that they weren't going to inform anyone of her betrayal. Her character judgment skills hadn't been hindered. Thank God.

–

That night, she slept horridly. Horrendously in fact. Mainly because of two things: A rising fever and the nightmares.

It wasn't always the same nightmare. It changed every time she managed to get back to sleep – which was about every hour to two hours. But they all were centered around the same single idea; The murder of the Third Narian Prince.

She woke up, practically screaming this time, for about the 6th time that night just after dawn. Her father came rushing in when he heard her crying out. "Haruhi," he murmured, sitting on the edge of her bed and drawing her toward him. His hand found its way to her forehead shortly after, tsking under his breath at her temperature. She groaned a bit but let his hand stay there. "Higher than it was last night." He sighed softly. "What was the nightmare this time?"

"Same thing," she muttered tiredly, rubbing her eyes. The damn infection was trying to tear her apart while her own magic and Kaoru's was trying to tear it apart. She thought that it was more of the magic overload in her body that was making her sick than the actual infection. She was half-witch but even she had a limit.

"You killing some guy?" She nodded, having opted not to tell her father about her friendship with Kyoya. He already knew that she interacted with him on a semi-regular basis. Besides, he still had a slight grudge against the Narian King for destroying Mora just when it was starting to evolve. "Haruhi, Haruhi, Haruhi. I highly doubt that's going to happen. We've been careful."

"I know it's just… a nightmare. But what about the Witching Dream? What if this is a Witching Dream? You know the last time I had a dream at all was when I was 12 right before Nari took over the Eastern Tip." Practically the only times she ever dreamed at all was when she had a Witching Dream, or rather a prediction of the future. She shut her eyes and leaned back on her pillows.

"Not every dream you have has to be a Witching Dream, sweetie. And it's been so long since you've had one that I'm starting to think it was just a childhood thing." She shook her head, still not convinced. Her teeth were worrying her bottom lip. "Prince Tamaki's coming to visit you later." A single soft groan left her lips before she could stop it. Ranka smiled a bit. "You know he's impossible to stop once he finds out that something's wrong with you."

Namahi resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the Idiot Prince's antics, but continued to chew on her lip with worry, images from her most recent Maybe-Witching-Dream flashing through her mind.

He was lying there and his blood was on her fingers, the blade used to kill him still in her shaking hands. She'd told him a thousand times not to do it. But he still had. Why?

All the nightmares ended in that same situation where she'd wake up screaming right when she was starting to call for Kyoya in the dream.

This was one Witching Dream that she had to make sure wouldn't end that way. She had to make sure it wouldn't come true. But how? How the hell did you stop someone from falling for you when resisting falling for them seemed almost impossible as it was?

Ranka eyed his daughter as she worried endlessly – and needlessly in his honest opinion. Her eyebrows creased down in a frown while her top teeth seemed to be trying to wear straight through her bottom lip. "Haruhi, who is he?" he asked gently.

She shook her head. "I dunno," she lied a little too quickly. Her father's eyes narrowed immediately.

"Haruhi," he said in that I'm-not-taking-any-of-this-lying-bullshit stern voice, "You wouldn't be so worried if you didn't know who it was. Sure, you'd be slightly concerned, but you're practically tearing a hole through your lip with your teeth." He gestured toward her mouth while she sighed and leaned her head back, eyelids fluttering closed tiredly. "Who is he? Tamaki? Hikaru or Kaoru?"

"No," she murmured, "No, no, no."

"Then who? One of the other soldiers in the army with you?"

"No, Dad. It's no one. Just don't worry about it." She could practically feel her temperature rising the more he questioned her.

"Tell me, Haruhi. You can trust your Papa!"

She sighed and brought a hand to rub temples in circles. He continued to chatter so she finally cracked and muttered, "Fine! It's…" she drew in a breath and swallowed, "It's Narian Prince Kyoya Ohtori alright?"

Her father's head tilted just the slightest to the left in confusion. "You… know him personally…?"

She could feel a bead of sweat running down the side of her face. "Yes. I've… Been in his bedroom before actually." She cursed her voice for raising an octave at the end of the sentence. Ranka's face reddened, both in anger and embarrassment at knowing something so private about his daughter's life. "It's not like we were doing anything bad, Dad!" she exclaimed defensively, "We just have to make it look like we're lovers to his family so they don't find out that I'm a soldier…" her voice gave out when he stood abruptly and glared at her. She stared back as calmly as she could when she was practically dying of fever. "And… He knows who we are," she added softly.

That was when Ranka Marioka blew up. "WHAT?"

He was loud, and continued to be so even when she tried to drown him out to explain. "DO YOU KNOW WHAT HE COULD DO TO US? WHAT IF HE TELLS HIS FATHER? OR WORSE, YOUR GRANDMOTHER? WHAT WERE YOU THINKING?"

"Dad! He disagrees with his father's way of dealing with Moradians and he wouldn't wish the fate Gritivmaetha would have in store for us on anyone! He's not going to tell! Besides, he guessed! I didn't tell him! In fact, I did everything I possibly could to make sure that he didn't find out!"

Her father pursed his lips and turned on his heel. "If I find The Witch on my doorstep any time soon I'm going to go after that boy with a battle ax and a mace!" he threw over his shoulder angrily. She tried to rub away her oncoming headache but gave up after a few seconds and hunkered back down in her bed to sleep a bit more before Tamaki arrived.

–

An explosion of noise erupted the next time she cracked her eyes open, much to her headache's annoyance. "Tamaki," she groaned, "not so loud, you moron. I have a headache."

"And a fever. And an infection. And YOU COULD BE DYING FOR ALL I KNOW!" he stressed with loud angry noise. Her head pounded in protest. She pulled her covers over her head and growled under her breath. Between her father and her best friend she couldn't get a moment of rest.

"I'm not dying, Tamaki," she muttered, panting slightly from being too hot. "It's mostly magic overload, not the actual infection. And for God's sake, stop yelling. You aren't making it any better."

That quieted him down quickly. "Sorry," he muttered, voice so quiet that Namahi could hardly hear it. She chuckled softly, gazing at her best friend of 12 years. Then she groaned, realizing that she really really had to pee. She pushed the covers off of her carefully, pulling down her night shirt in the process. "What're you doing?" Tamaki exclaimed, "You shouldn't be moving, Namahi!"

"How else am I supposed to make it to the washroom?" she asked irritably, standing. She wobbled slightly on her feet, making him jump to his to help her. The moment his arm wrapped around her waist he froze while she stiffened, heart clenching as she realized that her chest wasn't bound – possibly a grave mistake. "Oh God," she breathed, eyes shooting to his face.

He remained frozen, trying to make sense of what was in front of him. Her father walked in, immediately noticing the tense air. He half-groaned, half-gasped, "It was only a matter of time." Proceeding to pull his daughter out of her best friend's clutches, they both looked at the Kiran Prince.

"You're a girl?" Tamaki shrieked.

–

Both Namahi's and Ranka's heads were pounding from all of the 21-year-old's questions. How long had she been a girl? Why hadn't he known? Why didn't anyone tell him? Who else knew? Why was she hiding her gender?

She felt like pounding her head on the table repeatedly until he shut up. Ranka, noticing his daughter's distress quickly swatted the blonde prince on the top of the head. His mouth shut quickly. Namahi's father moved toward the wood stove to fix her some soup. She and Tamaki were sitting at the dining room table. He was practically bouncing with anticipation for her answers.

"One: I'm pretty sure that I've always been a girl, Tamaki," she growled. "Two: You didn't know because you're an idiot and I've never told anyone, therefore no one ever told you. Three: Hikaru and Kaoru have known since we were 12. Mori and Hunny only since about a month ago. Four: I was hiding for a specific reason that I don't feel like sharing at the moment."

Actually, she felt like running to the bathroom again to barf up what little she'd eaten in the last few hours. Lord, she hadn't felt this sick in 4 years when she caught the influenza that had been going around the kingdom. She absolutely hated it when magic and infection fought each other so fiercely that she got even sicker than she should have been if it had only been the virus. Her hand came up to her head, rubbing her temple in a circular motion.

Ranka placed a small bowl of soup down in front of her. Her nose crinkled up slightly. "Eat, Namahi. You have to keep up what little strength you have," he spoke sternly. She groaned softly and picked up the spoon, stirring it around the bowl lazily.

"Why nooooot?" Tamaki whined, practically begging her to smack him.

"Because… I'm sick and I'm eating," she bit out between her teeth.

Her father cut in before the Kiran Prince could protest some more. "Your Highness, it's imperative that you don't inform anyone of Namahi's gender. I suspect that your father is already aware but if the army finds out she could be killed for treason."

The Prince's eyes widened greatly as he nodded vigorously. "Agreed. I won't tell a soul." He crossed his fingers over his heart exaggeratedly to complete the promise. She almost rolled her eyes but managed to stop herself from doing so.

–

Over the next few days she concentrated on recovering. Slowly her fever went down and her wound healed. Tamaki came by every day, seemingly becoming attached.

He was a charmer. She'd always known that, but never noticed the intensity of it since he had never turned those charms on her. It worried her sometimes though. Worried her that he might fall in love with her. That he'd make her a murderer. He wasn't like Kyoya. He didn't even try to control his emotions, wearing them on his sleeves constantly.

"Y'know… In the last 12 years, I didn't think once that you might be a girl," he murmured, leaning back in his chair a bit, "But now I see it clearly."

"What? That you're a moron?" she asked, snorting and biting into her sandwich. "Haven't I been telling you that for 10 years or more?"

"How did I not notice what a beautiful woman you are?" he continued like he hadn't heard her.

Her chest clenched much the same way that it did when Kyoya said or did something like that. Her eyes turned away. "Tamaki, don't say things like that," she mumbled, avoiding his eyes.

"But you are! Don't be modest, Namahi!" He kept going on about her beauty but she tried to turn him out.

"Don't say things like that!" she burst again, once more avoiding his eyes while clutching the front of her shirt. God, this man was going to be the death of her one day. Perhaps even sooner than she would have ever thought. He stopped abruptly and stared at her.

"What's wrong?" he asked gently, trying to pull her hand from her chest.

"You can't just go around saying things like that! There are consequences!" Tamaki's eyebrows furrowed questioningly while she drew in a deep breath, staring directly in his bright violet-blue eyes. "The reason I was hiding my gender is because the Witch cursed me when I was little. She cursed me to kill any man that falls in love with me."

"W-What?"

"You can't say things like that, Tamaki. Not to me. I don't want to have to kill you. You're my best friend. I just… don't want to lose you. Y-You can't fall in love with me, alright? You can't. And you absolutely cannot say things like that. It tries to trigger the curse and makes my chest hurt. Just don't do it."

He was still staring at her with confusion but very slowly nodded. "Alright," he muttered, seeming slightly dejected. "Alright, Namahi."

–

Tamaki didn't want to her to leave when her leave was up. This would have been normal, but now that he knew she was a girl he was even more insistent to make her stay and quit the army. "Tamaki, I have to go. If I don't it's suspicious."

"Women shouldn't fight wars!" he spluttered in objection.

"Dammit! Be reasonable! They still think I'm a boy!"

"I'm coming with you then!"

"You're the Prince! The only heir! You can't be fighting! If you're killed then who will take over the throne?"

He fell silent, pursing his lips in the process. He thought that was a low blow. She knew that she shouldn't use his status against him but it seemed to be the only way to make him let her go. He hated being confined to the palace and Meira. She knew that. She also knew that there were times when he wished that he wasn't the Kiran Prince. That he wished he was just a high-middle class noble like she was.

She sighed under her breath. "Tamaki… Just… It's easier if I go. For me. I have a contract with the army for the next year that can only be broken if I'm discharged, found to be a traitor, or the contract expires. I have to honor that agreement. I'll be careful. I always am."

He muttered incomprehensively under his breath for a couple moments. Finally he pulled her into a hug, mumbling, "Alright. Alright… If you come back injured again though, I'm going to use my royal authority to pull you."

She smiled softly and nodded. "Agreed." He held her head to his chest for a few more moments until she pushed against him, her chest throbbing gently. "I've got to go." He nodded, releasing her reluctantly. "And you be careful too, Idiot Prince. Don't do anything stupid."

–

Mori and Hunny once again accompanied her. When they reached the camp, Hikaru and Kaoru jumped up from where they were sitting by one of the many fires cooking their supper. She avoided Hikaru's eyes and he stared stubbornly past her to her two companions. "Hello Mori, Hunny," he greeted.

She felt slightly dejected. She motioned toward the older red-head's twin and turned back the way she came again. The younger twin jumped up from where he was sitting to follow her, leaving his dinner in the hands of his twin. "Is he still angry with me?" she mumbled, looking back toward the campfire while they walked away.

"A bit. Not nearly as much as before though," the red-head replied softly, looking over at her. "What happened over there after we left?"

She swallowed, remembering how Kyoya had looked at her and how Yuki had still clung to her like she would have her real aunt. "Yuki clung to me. Kyoya was angry for a while but he got over it. Yuiichi wants me dead. Akito and King Yoshio are both in critical condition. Akito and Yuiichi's wives both died."

A small kind of pained look crossed Kaoru's face, taking a guilt trip with the knowledge that he'd been the one to take the life of Yuki's mother.

"Kyoya argued with Yuiichi in my defense. He still wants me dead." She faltered slightly, stopping in her tracks and closing her eyes. "He knows."

Kaoru let out a small noise that was somewhere caught between a gasp and a groan. "What?"

"He knows and he's given me his word that he'll keep it safe. He didn't want me to come back because he thought that you or Hikaru would tell and that would get me killed. I convinced him to let me leave. But barely. And… he asked me to marry him."

Kaoru's entire being froze. "Well… He didn't ask me. He made a suggestion. But he may as well have. Apparently I'm the only woman in Nari that he'd be inclined to take as a wife. And Narian royals apparently are either engaged or married when they take the throne by tradition. I told him I couldn't even pretend that I was engaged to him."

"Good," her companion nodded approvingly.

"The other thing is Tamaki," she muttered after a moment's hesitation. "He knows I'm a girl…"

"What? How the hell did that happen?"

"I forgot to bind my chest and had to get out of bed to go to the bathroom, stumbled, and he caught me?"

A groan fell from his lips. "Haruhi! Dammit! Now not only do we have to keep the Narian Prince from falling for you but now the Kiran one as well?"

She nodded sheepishly. "It's not like I meant for it to happen. And Dad made him promise that he wouldn't tell anyone. I should be safe."

"You better hope so, Haruhi. You better hope so."

–

A/N: Sorry for the delay on this… IB is sucking up my life. And I got the tiniest bit stuck on it. My computer's charger cord jack thingy broke… So I'm borrowing my best friend's laptop until it gets replaced (Yaaaaay warranties). The space bar is kinda screwy so if a space is supposed to be somewhere and it's not sorry… (Though I doubt Koharu will miss it if it's there.)

Hohoho. So Tamaki knows now as well. Things are getting exciting hmm?

I really should start my English homework so that I don't have to do it all tomorrow… But I really wanted to get this done. (So dedicated…)

Kudos to: Mikame15, Mrs. Ootori43ver, BlackestNight BrightestDay, Jengurl24, Enigmaticrose4, XxNightshroudxX, The Phantom Devil (Double… Because I feel like you're the only one that made the amazing discovery of the foreign languages), Twilightrewriter, JUCHKO, GalanthaDreams, just a reviewer, and ItaSaku29.

Yay for 15 chapters? (At least by FF. net standards. By my standards it's 14 plus a prologue.) I have a feeling this is going to be longer than I thought it would be… (What on earth have I gotten myself into…?)

Sooooo. Who wants to do my horrible IB homework for me? –SHOT-