Lost in the Dark
By E.M. Megs
Chapter 39 – Unresolved Issues
The guards holding her by the arms dropped her out of sheer surprise and she scrambled toward him as Kyoya sat up slightly and his eyes darted around as though trying to place where he was. He sucked in breath after gasping breath and attempted to get his bearing. Haruhi stood by the side and stared at him until his eyes fell on her.
"Am I back?" he gasped, between lungfuls of air. "Haruhi, am I back?"
Haruhi nodded numbly and took a moment to find her voice. Once found, all she could say was, "Yes. Yes. Yes!" She dropped down on the bed next to him and wrapped her arms around him, her face burying itself in his neck. His arms slowly came up to wrap around her back.
"I'm fairly sure you can heal me now," he murmured, "Poison's still in me. Magic's broken." Haruhi sat up, biting her lip. She cast an unsure look toward Akito, scared that if she did it would just plunge him back into delusion. The Second Prince shrugged and nodded. She hesitantly placed a hand on the bound wound on his chest that hadn't quite completely healed and pushed a bit of magic into it. Just enough to catch up to any poison in him and burn it up. Kyoya sucked in a sharp breath but otherwise didn't react. "Thank you," he breathed when she withdrew and sat back.
Fuyumi came rushing forward as soon as Haruhi had moved and squeezed her brother as tightly as she could. "Baby brother," she mumbled, tears in her eyes.
"Don't stress yourself too much, Fuyumi," he muttered, "It's bad for the baby." She laughed and stood again. Yuiichi, to his surprise, also moved forward to embrace him. Kyoya gave him an awkward pat on the back and his eldest brother stepped back again, flustered. Akito just begrudgingly held out a hand to shake.
"Welcome back," the older grumbled shortly and promptly left the room.
Then came the King who stood there just staring at his youngest son. "Hello Uherfa," Kyoya said after swallowing.
"You made it," Yoshio said plainly, though he seemed partially surprised. He then turned his eyes to Haruhi and added, "Miss Fujioka, I believe it's time for you to hold up your end of our deal."
Kyoya was immediately alarmed. "Deal? What deal?" Haruhi nodded, biting her lip.
"Just... give me a moment?" she asked. Yoshio nodded once and led the way out of the room.
"What's he talking about? What did you do, Haruhi?" Kyoya demanded once his family had left, shutting the door behind them.
"He... came to arrest me about 4 days ago. And I said that I'd go willingly once I knew you were okay," she explained quietly, her fingers running through his hair.
Kyoya groaned, "Why would you do that, Haruhi?"
"It was either that or leave you!" she exclaimed defensively. "And there was no way that I was going to do that!" He sighed and she leaned closer. "Everything will be fine. You've promised me that enough times, so trust me when I say it. It will be fine. I just have to convince your father that I mean no harm."
"That's not as easy as it sounds," he retorted with a scowl.
"I know," she said, "I will find a way. We will find a way."
He took her hand and nodded, squeezing. "Don't give him any reason to want to hurt you."
She nodded determinedly and squeezed his hand. "I won't do anything stupid. Promise."
~o~
The Narian King, it turned out, was definitely not up for negotiations and wasn't interested in hearing Haruhi's case as he was in keeping her away from his family. "I don't understand why this is so difficult for you, Uherfa," Kyoya said a week and a half later. "Just let her go! She isn't a flight risk! She showed you as much by staying with me for over two weeks all the while knowing that I might not survive."
"She's a known fugitive, Kyoya," Yoshio retorted.
"Fugitive? What was her crime, Father? Surviving when the world was against her? She was a baby when we took over Mora!"
"She is a threat to our country! Have you forgotten what Moradians did to your mother?"
"The Witch killed Mother. Not Moradians. You-"
"Think before you speak, Kyoya. I am not in the mood for insolence from one of my sons. It is hard enough for me to swallow the idea that you knowingly harbored her and in doing so defied me."
"And for that I apologize but I don't believe Haruhi ever deserved your malice. We could end the war, Uherfa. Don't you ever get exhausted by it?"
"That is beside the point-"
"That is the entire point! Twenty years of war and how much of the treasury do you think has been drained? How far have we gotten in our goals? Were those goals even justified? We were practically making a land grab against Kira when the Witch – look there she is manipulating you again – was orchestrating the entire thing." He paused to sigh. "Father. She just wants there to be peace. I just want there to be peace. I just want my wife."
Yoshio regarded his youngest son for a long time then said, "Your marriage will be annulled. She will serve her time and you will remarry."
"I don't want—"
"This is not your decision! If you want her to live so desperately then you will do as I say!" Kyoya fell silent. "You will remarry. I will consider negotiating with Kira and Ryoji but I will not let her go until I am satisfied that she has atoned for her crimes. Is that understood?" His son nodded numbly, a look of disdain on his face. Yoshio turned to leave. "You will be a great King, Kyoya. If only you would get your heart in line with your head."
"They are in line," he shot back. "I survived because I chose Haruhi. She has never steered me wrong."
"You misinterpret my words, Kyoya. You will be King. I just wish you weren't so strong-hearted as to let it rule you."
His father stopped at the door when he called out to him. "Father, I don't want the crown if Haruhi can't be my queen."
Yoshio drew in a deep breath through his nose. "Yet alas, you cannot have both and we cannot always get what we want," he said softly.
~o~
"Give Yuiichi the crown," Kyoya told him flatly two days later. "I don't want it if it's going to be corrupt and built off the suffering of another nationality."
"Do you think that this will free Haruhi?" Yoshio asked with steepled fingers.
"I'm willing to bargain. I give up my right to the crown and you free Haruhi."
"You are my first choice for kingship, Kyoya."
"I don't care. I don't want it."
"There was a time when that was the only thing you wanted."
"I changed. People change."
"Why are you so adamant?"
Kyoya shrugged and picked up a figurine from a nearby bookshelf. "You would have done the same for Mother, I believe. Once you found that you loved her."
"Haruhi is not the same as Mayumi."
"She is to me... Haruhi is to me, what Mother was to you."
"You're sure that you want to give up the crown?"
"Positive."
"Fine. She will be pardoned and released within a week. You realize that this does not mean you will be allowed to be with her, correct?"
"I believe you'll change your mind once you begin negotiations with Ranka and Yuzuru." Kyoya walked out of the room.
~o~
He was there when they released her. Even after only a month imprisoned she seemed smaller and frailer than when he had seen her when he woke up. She fell into his arms, clutching the back of his shirt and burying her face in his chest. "He doesn't want me seeing you," Kyoya murmured.
"He isn't going to get what he wants," Haruhi mumbled in return.
"He annulled our marriage. He wanted to keep you imprisoned longer."
"Why did he change his mind?"
"I bartered a deal with him."
Haruhi drew back and stared into his face. Her face paled when she saw that he avoided looking directly into her eyes. "What did you do?" she whispered.
"He wanted to give me the crown and an arranged marriage," Kyoya began and Haruhi knew instantly what he had done.
"You gave up the crown to free me?" His silence was enough of an answer. "Why? You would have done so much good as king!"
"The crown and the kingship itself has practically become irreparably corrupt just because of my father's actions the last twenty years. I don't want that."
"You could have reversed it!"
"I preferred freeing you. There's still a chance that my father will reconsider our marriage plans once he negotiates with Yuzuru and your father."
"I could have put up with prison for a while longer!"
"I don't know how long it'll take."
"I still would have dealt with it."
"Haruhi, you've lost weight just being in there a month. They were starving you weren't they?"
She was silent. "I could have lived with it," she finally said.
"I prefer you alive!" he snapped. "Not dead or barely alive. Alive. Well-fed. Thriving. Where I can reach you. Not locked behind prison bars where not even I am allowed to see you." He sighed and one hand cupped her cheek. "He will come around. He's beginning negotiations in a couple days. I won't forbid you from accompanying your father but if you do just... don't provoke him."
"Are you trying to defend him?"
His hand dropped to his side. "No. No. He's just... I can understand him to some extent. He's gone years thinking that Mother was killed by Moradians. It's a hard to accept a reality that you denied for that long."
"Even if that reality almost killed his son as well?"
Kyoya pursed his lips. "According to him, I was never meant to get hurt. You were the one she was after."
"Regardless, that would have made me his daughter-in-"
"That wouldn't matter once he annulled the marriage that gave you the position."
"Kyoya-"
"Stop trying to convince me that taking the crown would have been a better choice than you. As things are now, Yuiichi will be officially crowned king right after the negotiations come to a close and my father will retire. Then any future decisions will be up to him as to my fate, though I doubt he will force me into anything I do not wish. It's completely possible that he'll even overturn Father's initial ban on our marriage if he doesn't come around in negotiations."
"I'm so tired of all of this, Kyoya."
"I know," he replied. "I know. But we will be together by the end of it. I will make it happen."
"Don't make promises of situations that you can't possibly control," she mumbled.
"I'm not promising. I'm insuring."
"Same thing."
"No it isn't." She gave him a small smile as he took her hands. "You should go. I'll see you in a couple days. Go stay with my sister. She, at least, will always welcome you, even if my father won't." Haruhi nodded and stretched up on her toes to kiss his cheek.
~o~
Seated across from each other around a table in Pait two days later, Haruhi avoided looking at him. Kyoya's jaw tightened as Tamaki's hand strayed over to squeeze hers. "I find it funny that you are still seated at this table," Yoshio said as an opening ice breaker. His gaze had rested on Haruhi. Her gaze immediately narrowed into a glare in the Narian King's direction and Kyoya felt as though he knew exactly what was going to be said next, even though he could do nothing to stop her.
"Funny how, exactly?" she asked. "Funny in the way that I am the princess of the country that you tore down? Or funny in the way that you treated me like a criminal when I did nothing wrong, locking me up and starving me for a month and thus keeping me from the man that I rightfully, lawfully married? Because if either of those is the 'funny' that you mean, then I don't understand your sense of humor. Your Majesty."
"Haruhi," Kyoya hissed.
She directed her indignant glare at him instead. "Not to mention, all of this after I showed you that I wasn't a threat and that I... truly love your son."
"That's enough Haruhi," Fuko stated as he entered and sat in one of two empty seats across from Yuzuru and Tamaki. "This is a negotiation table, not a grudge match." Haruhi pursed her lips and, squeezing both her father's and Tamaki's hands, stood and left. Kyoya, though knowing he shouldn't, followed her.
"I thought I asked you not to provoke him," Kyoya muttered after backing her against a wall. She flinched and buried her hands in her hair. "What's wrong with you?"
"I don't know," she answered bluntly but she still avoided his eyes.
"You've always been patient. I don't understand why you're suddenly reacting this way." Haruhi stared at the floor and Kyoya narrowed his eyes at her. His hands snatched hers from her head. "You're shaking."
"No I'm not," she snapped, ripping her hands from his grip. "I'm fine!"
"No you aren't, Haruhi." He gripped her arms and she closed her eyes. "What is it?"
She rested her forehead against his shoulder and sighed. "I don't know how else to react than with anger," she breathed finally. "I tried being calm. And patient. And genuine. And pleading. And it never worked. None of it ever got through to him. None of it ever made a difference." Kyoya slowly moved to grasp her shaking hands again and gently nudged her until she looked him in the eye. It was a haunted look. He pressed his forehead to hers and stood there breathing until she finally whispered, "He tortured me, Kyoya." His jaw clenched but he let her talk. "I- He-" Her eyes and hands squeezed tighter. "Perhaps it would be different if someone else had been the one physically holding a knife to my skin. But... You remember how you used to be the one that tortured Kiran prisoners of war?" He swallowed and nodded. When she spoke again her voice was barely audible. "That's what he was. And he- He wanted to know what I was doing there, what my plan was, what I wanted. After a while I just- I just wanted the... pain to stop. I- I started hoping that he would just kill me."
Kyoya's blood froze. He didn't know what was growling until Haruhi gave him a startled look and he realized that it was him. "I'll kill him," he grunted and turned to head back into the conference room.
"No!" Haruhi grabbed his arm. "I didn't tell you so you could enact vengeance for me!" It took some fighting to get him to look at her again but the rage in his gaze didn't settle. "I told you so that you will understand why I am reacting the way that I do. We are here to make peace Kyoya. Not to start a civil war."
"He started a civil war the moment he laid a hand on you," Kyoya hissed back.
"But killing him will only make it worse!" Haruhi snapped. He shoved her hands away from him while she scrambled to get a hold on him again. "Kyoya!"
"Am I interrupting something?" Fuyumi asked as she entered the foyer where they were having their argument. Kyoya straightened up and Haruhi closed her eyes.
"Fuyumi, where's Mayumi?" Kyoya asked calmly.
"With her nanny. Any other questions? No? Good. I assume that they will start once all of us are seated. Shall we?" Haruhi and Kyoya shared a five second conversation of just looks challenging the emotional and intellectual capacity of the other and Fuyumi interrupted again. "Oh. And no more talk of murdering Father. That definitely would not do any good for any of the countries involved."
Then she opened the doors and strode right in to sit next to her husband. Kyoya looked at her as the door swung shut again. "I will have justice for this, Haruhi," Kyoya muttered in a low voice. "He will pay for what he has done to you." He then followed his sister into the room and left her in the foyer to compose herself before heading inside.
~o~
A week later they were still in the middle of negotiations. Haruhi hadn't thought that it would be so exhausting. She sat down on her bed and rubbed the back of her neck. "Are you disappointed?" Kaoru asked from the doorway. She gave him a questioning look. "With how negotiations are going?" he clarified. Behind him Tamaki and Hikaru both popped their heads in as well. She motioned them inside.
"No," she sighed, "I expected Yoshio to be stubborn and unyielding. The treaty we created was only a starting point; a first draft. I knew that going in."
Tamaki sat on one side and Hikaru on the other while Kaoru knelt in front of her. "Why do you look so sad then?" Tamaki asked softly.
Haruhi shrugged.
"Is it Kyoya?" Hikaru murmured.
Haruhi shrugged again. "He says that we'll be together by the end of this disaster but somehow I don't think we'll have a chance. Especially if he really does kill his father. I doubt even Yuiichi-"
"Why would he kill his father?" Tamaki said in alarm.
"Because... he hurt me. Kyoya will kill his father because he hurt me." She stared over Kaoru's shoulder at the door blankly. "I shouldn't have told him," she whispered. "I didn't think he'd react this violently. But I suppose I should have known after everything else. He killed Fusawa and Larsen because they hurt me after all." She swallowed.
"Where is Kyoya?" Kaoru asked her, taking her hands.
"What do you mean?" she replied on edge.
"We mean, he wasn't in his room." Hikaru explained. "And we looked everywhere else before coming to see if he was here."
Haruhi looked at them for a long time and then broke into a sprint out the door, ignoring their calls after her. She knew vaguely where the Narian King was staying and a vague idea was all she needed. She heard a crash from inside the room and broke in without invitation. "Kyoya!" she yelled as the sight of Kyoya holding his sword to his seated father's throat while the King glared up at him.
"Go back to your room, Haruhi!" he snarled back.
"Don't kill your father, Kyoya," she said, stepping forward.
"Why shouldn't I?" he asked with a growl. "I've weighed the pros and cons. If he dies then Yuiichi takes over the crown which will expedite negotiations. There will be justice for every wrong he has done, including torturing you, tearing down your country, starting a war that could have destroyed all of Filandria, ignoring his youngest son and treating him like he's nothing; all of it."
"And what about the cons?" she retorted. "I doubt even Yuiichi will let you get off free for murdering your father. You hate getting your hands dirty, Kyoya. Fusawa and Larsen already haunt you. Why add your father to the mix as well?"
"I am not haunted by them," he spat. "They deserved what they got."
"Does your father, though? Does he really?"
"Yes!"
"Justice is not yours to serve, Kyoya! That is for the gods!"
"I cannot believe in the gods anymore, Haruhi. Not after seeing everything that the Witch has wrought."
"You will not be allowed to marry me if you're in prison!"
Kyoya stared at her. She had stepped forward and was only a couple feet away from him. Every sentence she spoke brought her closer. "Your brothers wouldn't forgive you. Your conscience wouldn't forgive you. Your sister wouldn't forgive you."
"I don't care."
"You do," she said. "He raised you, as awfully as you perceive he treated you, he did raise you."
"How can you possibly forgive him so easily?" Kyoya spat. "After everything that he's done to you, you forgive him. Why?"
"Because every misfortune that has ever happened to me has had some good come from it. Losing Mora brought me to Tamaki. The curse made me disguise myself as male, which made me into a soldier, which brought me to you. Losing my leg made me realize how much you care for me. Even your near-death brought me to the realization of just how much I love you. And I believe that some good will come from this as well."
"What good could possibly come from this, Haruhi?"
She ignored him and continued, "I forgive him because he is your father. Because he was one of the two people who created you. And I love you, so why not forgive the man that brought you into the world so that I might love you?"
"That is a small – and perhaps the only – blessing he has given the world, Haruhi." He turned his gaze back to his father and moved as though to plunge his sword into Yoshio's chest.
Haruhi acted quickly and yelled, "Kyoya, if you kill your father, I will never forgive you!" Kyoya froze with his sword tip pressed into the fabric of the King's tunic. Yoshio stared at his son and then shot his gaze to her. She glanced at him and then stepped up in front of Kyoya, turning her back to the King. She put a hand over the hand the gripped the sword hilt and whispered, "Let it go. It isn't worth it. He's not worth it." She gently pried the sword from his grip and he shut his eyes and let her. She tossed the sword to the side and he tugged her to him. She sucked in a breath and slowly wrapped her arms around him. Yoshio straightened up in his chair and glared at them.
"Come on," she murmured, pulling Kyoya toward the door. He followed, only to turn back when they were at the door.
"If you ever lay so much as a finger on her ever again, I will kill you," he threatened with a finger pointed in his father's direction.
Yoshio swallowed and nodded. "Understood," he stated and perhaps Haruhi was hearing things but she thought that his voice cracked. Kyoya left and Haruhi moved to follow when Yoshio said, "Haruhi, a word?"
"Of course," she replied and, ignoring her shaking hands, closed the door. Yoshio stood and strode toward her.
"He's been very influenced by you, hasn't he?" he murmured.
"He thinks for himself, Your Majesty. I have nothing to do with-"
"He loves you and that influences him."
"Yes." She pursed her lips. "Sometimes in ways that I don't at all encourage."
"That is what surprises me. You don't wish me dead?"
"I did for a long time... But I came to realize that revenge isn't worth the trouble. And murder is definitely not something that I would ever be in favor of, no matter what the crime. I would never enact revenge on my own volition." She paused. "I saved you purely because of Kyoya, Your Majesty. I would not be able to bear seeing what murdering you would do to his conscience. Had he not been involved, it's very likely that I would have allowed you to be killed. I assure you there is no love lost between the two of us. What you did to me was despicable. And I hope that you've learned something from it."
"I have," Yoshio said quietly. "Thank you... Princess."
She turned back to the door only to stop and say without looking at him, "Be warned, King Yoshio: this was a one-time deal. Kyoya was not thinking rationally. If he tries to kill you again, I will not intervene."
She left the Narian King to his thoughts and went to Kyoya's bedroom. "Are we going to talk about this?" she asked softly after sitting next to him in silence for several minutes.
"What is there to talk about?"
"You tried to kill your father, Kyoya."
He closed his eyes and leaned toward her. When his eyes opened again they were tired. "I don't want to talk anymore, Haruhi," he breathed, his lips meeting hers.
~o~
A/N: Merry (late) Christmas, happy (late) Hanukkah, happy (late) Kwanzaa, and a very happy New Year, y'all! There is literally one more chapter left. Hard to believe, eh?
Also apologies for the review prevention whammy I unintentionally wrought on everyone. I finally went back and deleted that preview chapter 19. If you didn't review because of that then kudos to you anyway!
Kudos to: isara-love, sisflower, reina. len, Infinities Lover (double to you, my friend. Private message and all.), Cactus 2008, SarcasticComment, and Luna Midi.