Lost in the Dark
By E.M. Megs
Chapter 30 – The Meeting of Seven
It took a while but between Haruhi and Yuiichi's magic, Kyoya eventually healed well enough to move about again. The couple rarely ever spoke about their engagement or the strained emotions that they had yet to admit were there. They avoided speaking about emotion at all when possible.
Haruhi also had yet to message Tamaki and her father to tell them about their engagement. Finally, while on a walk in the garden, Kyoya murmured, "Have you told them yet?"
"Hmm?" she mumbled distractedly. He took her left hand, now ringed with a diamond engraved with the Narian crest, in his re-ringed right and twisted her ring gently. She sighed and shook her head.
"Why not?"
"I want to tell them in person. Somehow, I feel as though that would upset Tamaki the least."
He raised an eyebrow at her and intertwined his fingers with hers. "If you think so," he muttered shortly. "We'll need to meet with Tamaki and the twins soon anyway though to try and brainstorm a plan of some kind."
"Where the hell could we meet that wouldn't be noticed?"
"Pait. Fuyumi and Fuko can easily cover up our absence and Tamaki's as diplomatic relations. It'll be entirely coincidental that we're there at the same time. Or at least it will seem that way to everyone else."
"Have you talked to them about this yet?"
"I mentioned it. Not in detail though. Kaoru had previously been working at getting Fusawa off his and Hikaru's tails. Should see how that's going now." Haruhi scowled at him while a small smirk lit his face.
"That's not funny," she reprimanded softly, "You almost died."
"And yet I'm still walking beside you without a problem. Not to mention, I now get to marry you as I wanted."
She rolled her eyes. She didn't understand how he could be humorous about a situation that he'd almost died from. Regardless of the apparent benefits that it reaped for him. She felt his fingers break away from hers and sighed to herself. That was another thing that had changed since the Kiran General's assassination.
Every touch meant something more than it had before. Every touch, glance, look, squeeze, kiss, meant something. What exactly she couldn't really be sure of. But it was somehow different from before. Every time he came near her, she could practically hear her own heart pounding in her chest in time to the dull ache that started when he moved away. She wanted to be around him all the time – not matter how much she tried to berate herself into thinking otherwise.
He looked back at her with a raised eyebrow. "Coming?" he asked simply. She nodded.
No other words were spoken of either a meeting or their emotions and Haruhi allowed the musings that plagued her to drift away.
~o~
She should have been fully prepared for at least three sweeping hugs, but somehow the idea of preparing for them had slipped her mind with the more pressing thought of the news she had to present to her three arriving friends. Hunny and Mori were in the adjoining room in the Paitet castle waiting for… what she didn't know exactly. Something interesting. Kyoya was off making final preparations for Tamaki, Hikaru, and Kaoru's arrival.
And she was left to let her nerves run their final course.
How on earth was she going to tell her three best friends that she was engaged to someone that at least one of them held an extreme dislike for?
How could she say that without admitting that she had feelings for him?
"Haruhi!" a voice called to her from down the hall. She sighed and stood, pushing her nerves aside for the moment in order to fully greet them. As soon as she stepped into the hall, her mind flooded as Tamaki swung her into a hug and released her, only to be sandwiched in between the Hitachiin twins.
Kyoya stood to the side, observing the exchange silently with Mori. Hunny greeted the Kiran Prince and his former comrades with enthusiasm. And then, just when she was starting to feel happiness swell inside her, it exploded as she caught sight of her father.
"Faetha!" she cried, running toward him. He caught her with a grunt and sank to his knees.
"Oh, sha litre gipsy." He kissed the sides and top of her head repeatedly until she finally pulled away with one more squeeze.
"What are you doing here?" Ranka merely looked toward her fiancé. She looked toward him as well, noting his gentle smile as he pushed off from the wall and strode away from them.
She felt a smile of her own coming to her lips, her mind putting together the pieces to puzzle out how and why her father was there. She squeezed her father's hand once then hurried ahead of him until she caught up to Kyoya. "Sometimes I feel as though you show me a kindness that I don't deserve," she murmured, feeling the gaze of the others behind them.
"I don't think I understand what you mean," he replied softly.
She sighed and said, "You arranged for my father to join us, didn't you? For me?"
"I did arrange it," he admitted after a moment and a small breathy laugh. "However, we can't plan to end the war without the insight of the Moradian King can we?" he added questioningly, striding ahead of her again. She slowed and fell back with her father and Tamaki.
"You have something on your mind, Haruhi?" her father breathed, glancing at her. Tamaki, seeming to sense the private conversation, hurried ahead to catch up with the twins.
"He can't just admit that he did something good for someone," she whispered, frowning slightly. "He's… so kind but he just refuses to show it as kindness. It always has to be covered by some… business venture."
"The Ohtoris have always been like that," Ranka stated. "Yoshio was the same before his wife died. Before he took down Mora. To them, showing kindness is showing a weakness that can be exploited. Do not hold it against him. It's what he was taught."
"I hate it," she mumbled.
"But I notice that you don't hate him." His voice held a sly teasing tone. She could feel her face heating up, to which Ranka just chuckled. "Oh to be young and in love."
"I am not in love," she denied quickly.
"Deny it all you wish, my child. It still does not change the fact that the feelings are there. And he obviously cares for you to some degree." She nodded thoughtfully, getting lost in her mind until her father pulled her out with his next words. "I'm surprised that he hasn't proposed to you. Or that you aren't at least thinking about marriage by this point."
She felt her face paling and snuck a glanced at Ryoji. He caught her look and scowled questioningly. "About that…"
"What?" Ranka shrieked, immediately losing all his calm in replacement of pure excited shock. "How long have you-?!"
"Shhh," she hissed, "I don't want the others to know yet!"
"How long?" he insisted, stopping right there in the middle of the hall to interrogate his daughter.
"About… 3 weeks."
"And why didn't I get notice of this sooner?! My little girl is getting married! I want to know about it!"
"I'm sorry! Jeez! I wanted to tell you in person!"
"Haruhi Kotoko Fujioka!"
"Dad! Shut up!"
They had finally reached the library doors behind everyone else, all of whom were staring at the father-daughter pair with either confusion or amusement. Haruhi caught Kyoya's smirk most prominently among the six looks they were receiving and shot a glare his way.
"Tell him, did you?" Kyoya asked, his smirk only growing.
"Show me," Ranka insisted then, crossing his arms over his chest and jutting his hip out. She groaned.
"Show you what?"
"You know what!" he exclaimed, grabbing hold of her left hand and bringing it to his eye level. She sighed in embarrassment and looked away from him as he squealed with delight. The twins and Tamaki both looked over curiously. Hikaru's mouth bent down in an outraged frown as he caught sight of the ring on her finger. Kaoru's twisted into a sad kind of smile. Tamaki's face remained blank.
"What's this?" he asked in a far-off voice.
"Oh… Um… This is my… Uh…"
"Engagement ring," Kyoya finished for her helpfully.
"To who?" Hikaru asked, voice outraged as much as the look on his face. Then he whirled around to face Kyoya, sticking a finger in his face. "You?"
"Yes, actually," the Ohtori remained calm as all hell broke loose.
"What gives you the right?" Hikaru yelled.
"Why does he get to marry Haruhi?" Tamaki added, now looking annoyed. She sighed and shook her head while Kyoya looked at her.
"Is this what you wanted?"
"Shut up," she growled at him. "Hikaru, Tamaki, stop. Now." They ignored the command until she practically yelled, "SHUT UP." Every person in the room stared at her like she'd grown a third head. "It was not just him. I had to choose to say yes first." Tamaki started to open his mouth but closed it again with one glare from her. "And I did. So do not go blaming Kyoya for this. Don't… be angry at him for anything. He merely asked to put the ring on my finger, and I let him. I ask that you respect my decision."
"Why him though?" Hikaru demanded.
"Who else would I..?" She stopped and shut her eyes quickly, realization coming to her. "You? Kaoru? Tamaki?" She shook her head. "Hikaru," she murmured gently, "You know that you and Kaoru are like brothers to me. And Tamaki…" The blonde looked up at his name. "Tamaki is too." She didn't even want to try and explain all her thoughts regarding the idea of marrying Prince Tamaki Suoh. "I love you all. But… not that way."
"So you love him then?" It was the first time Kaoru had spoken throughout the entire fiasco. She sucked in a breath and felt Kyoya's gaze on her in an instant, heating up her skin with his intensity. "You love Kyoya like that?"
She drew in a deep breath, not sure how to respond. Luckily, Kyoya rescued her. "Haruhi and I came to the mutual decision that we cared about each other in a way that was not just friendly but wasn't loving either," he stated carefully, looking to her from confirmation, which she gave in the form of a relieved sigh. "And we can use Haruhi's and my marriage to aid in ending the war."
She narrowed her eyes the tiniest bit at him in confusion. Kyoya gazed back at her in his usual calm fashion. "I will explain once we're actually seated," he added softly, his fingers wrapping around hers and leading her to a table in the library with 8 seats. She sat in the chair that he courteously pulled out for her before seating himself. "First I will ask that Mori repeat the prophecy for us."
He did in his deep monotone, sending shivers up Haruhi's spine. Ranka glanced at her somewhere in the middle of it but she paid him no mind.
Once Mori was finished, Ranka spoke softly, "Your curse… It's going to be broken."
"How?" Haruhi asked him, eyes meeting his quickly and searching his face, which had broken out in a smile. "What gives you that idea?"
"'A soul most unwilling, finally free,'" he quoted, staring at her with relieved joy. "That has to be you being freed from your curse."
"I don't even know how to break my curse," she said, trying to reason with him without killing all his hope. "And if that means my curse is going to be broken then what about the 'After life's red river accordingly flows' part? Does that mean that I have to die for my curse to be broken?" Her father sighed in defeat. "I don't want to kill your spirit, Dad… But there has to be something else."
Ranka just looked back toward Kyoya, who looked between the two with mild interest. "Anyway… Continue Kyoya?"
The Narian nodded once in respect. "I've been thinking a lot lately about my parents' marriage. It ended the Tribal-Filandrian war. After Haruhi agreed to marry me, it occurred to me that our marriage could be a similar way to end the Narian-Kiran war."
"How so?" Hikaru asked, curious now.
"It is a conflict between Nari and Kira over the treatment of Moradian land and citizens. Haruhi is Moradian royalty and Kiran royal court. I am Narian royalty. As such, our marriage could be the binding factor in a peace treaty between the three countries, assuming that Ranka would be willing to come out of hiding as the Moradian King to sign for Mora, of course."
"Your father will never agree to it," the Moradian man stated, looking at the younger with a sad smile. "As soon as he discovers that Haruhi is the Moradian Princess, he'll cancel the marriage and have her killed."
"Not if we don't tell him until after the fact," Kyoya replied, his smirk reappearing on his face. "He wouldn't dare execute the wife of one of his sons. Moradian or not."
"You're going to lie to your father about my identity and then tell him about it after we're married and just hope that he agrees to a peace treaty after the fact?" Haruhi demanded, voice incredulous. "That's… That's insane. How do you even know it will work?"
"I don't. As you said, I just hope that he'll consider the peace treaty because of us."
"What about the Witch?" Kaoru asked, letting his fingers form a steeple in front of his face as he thought.
"She has close ties with your family, doesn't she, Kyoya?" Tamaki asked. "Surely she'll be present at the wedding."
"We'll have to find a way to hide Haruhi's identity until after we're wed."
"As soon as that veil comes off, she'll recognize her," Hikaru added his input.
"She looks too much like her mother," Hunny interjected.
"And then she'll kill me." The room fell silent at Haruhi's words. "Which would completely destroy the idea of presenting a peace treaty to your father as it would then be irrelevant as well as saving him the job of killing me himself."
"If she so much as lays a harmful finger on you after we're married, I have the authority to banish her from Nari," Kyoya said sharply, fiercely.
"And, I'll technically have the authority to banish her from Kira, as well," Tamaki added softly. Kyoya raised an eyebrow. "Harming a royal court member is violating the terms of her agreement with my father."
"So… If she touches me… Then she's permanently banished from Filandria," Haruhi murmured, her thoughts going haywire with the introduction of this new information. "So if we set it up so that she hurt me after we were married, then she'd be gone forever."
"Haruhi, we're not going to purposely let you get hurt," Kyoya said, reading the direction of her thoughts immediately and shutting them down. "We're not going to use you as bait."
"But then… We'd never have to worry about her. Ever again. Wouldn't that be great?" she insisted, battling with him in a game of wills.
"I won't let my wife be bait. Not when there's a possibility of fatality."
"We can have the twins, Hunny, and Mori on security to ensure that I'm not fatally injured."
"No, Haruhi."
"But—"
"I said, no." The couple stared at each other hard, eyes locked for several minutes of silence.
"I'm not a fragile little flower or something, Kyoya," she murmured.
"I'm not going to risk your life."
"I'll be fine."
"I'm not risking it, Haruhi. End of discussion."
"Kyoya—"
"I won't let you become another Saren!"
He let out a frustrated breath, tearing his gaze away from her. She looked at him, understanding appearing in her features. No one else at the table understood the implications he'd placed on that very sentence, nor who Saren was. It didn't matter, though. She knew what it meant and it nearly brought tears to her eyes.
"Sooooo," Kaoru let his vowel draw out in an attempt to diffuse the tension that had just appeared in the room. "What's the plan exactly?"
Kyoya took a deep breath to plunge into explanation but Hunny beat him to the punch. "We draw up a peace treaty before the wedding. Kyo-ianc and Haru-kisci get married, keeping Haru-kisci's identity a secret. We reveal hers and Ranka's identities to King Yoshio, ask him to consider the treaty, and hope for the best."
"Perfect," Kyoya complimented his restatement of the conversation. "Is it a clear plan to everyone?" Nods around the table were seen. Kyoya glanced at her out of the corner of his eye. "Tamaki and I will be in touch in order to put together a proper treaty that both countries will agree to." The blonde and Ohtori made eye contact for several seconds.
"Hikaru and Kaoru will return to the Kiran army and make sure that no one there causes trouble."
"Hunny and Mori-."
"Will continue working for your brother," Hunny interrupted quickly, "And we will make sure that your family stays out of the way of your plans to the best of our abilities. As well as the Narian army."
Kyoya nodded once in agreement. "And Ranka—"
"Will agree to any terms placed in the treaty as long as citizenship and equality of Moradians is accepted by both Kira and Nari. That is the only requirement I have for signing the treaty."
"It will be included," Kyoya promised solemnly.
"I will also be your eyes in the Kiran royal court, seeing as Tamaki cannot always be present." Kyoya smiled in thanks, taking a final look around the table before standing, pulling Haruhi with him in the process. "Good. Now… Dinner is probably ready, so I suggest all of us go down."
~o~
A/N: So. Short. Ugh. But good stopping spot AAAAAAND my month is up. Forgive me. But hey… I have another month of summer still when normally I'd be going back to school in like… two weeks. (Oh college….)
Kudos to: Nessie-san, Koharu Veddette, Cactus2008, rephiamlovers123, Magpie09, LuxenShadow123, Phenix31, LittleLiar666, and Mrs. Ootori43ver!