A/N: Thank you everyone for your thoughts and reviews. :D This story has taken on a life of its own and it is not done yet. Yasu is about to get out and it seems as if he has his spies. This could be very bad. This chapter may help to explain some of her attitude towards Tamaki. Thank you to my bff and stylewriter565 for reviewing this chapter for me. Enjoy the chapter and if you get a chance, please review.
Chapter 22 – More Truths
"NO!" The yell came from a bedroom in Japan. Haruhi bolted up in bed and immediately ran across the room to hide in the closet. She was lost to her nightmare and was not completely aware of her surroundings. Huddling in the closet, she covered her ears and squeezed her eyes closed as tight as she could in order to shut out the world.
Hunny heard Haruhi scream and immediately got out of bed and ran to her bedroom running into Mori in the hall. Other than a passing glance to see that his cousin carried one of his shinai, Hunny didn't pay any attention to him. His only goal was to get to Haruhi, but when he entered the room cautiously, it was empty and his stomach dropped. Fear was clenching him as he started to move about the room searching for her or a clue as to her whereabouts. When he heard a small whimper coming from the closet, he thought it was one of the most beautiful sounds he ever heard. He ran towards the sound and found Haruhi curled into a ball on the closet floor.
Mori had heard the scream and grabbing his shinai ran towards the sound. He knew it was Haruhi, but he couldn't fathom why she would be screaming like someone was attacking her. The apartment was safe and Yasu was still in jail for another day. Following his instincts, he carefully walked into the guest room ready to do battle. Emptiness met him and his cousin, but it did not look like someone broke into the room or that there was a struggle. Together he and Hunny started to search the room and when he heard a sound coming from the closet, he knew who it was. Haruhi was safe. He lowered his shinai and watched as Hunny ran to the closet and opened the door. The sight of Haruhi curled up, broke his heart. He knew that the impending release of Yasu from jail would be hard for her, but he didn't expect this. Once he saw that Hunny had the girl in his arms, Mori walked out of the room and back into his bedroom. As he lay there, he could not help but think about how haunted she had looked when the closet was opened.
Hunny gathered the shaking girl in his arms. When he first touched her, she cried out and it tore at his heart that she was like this. He softly spoke to her and called her name. Slowly she opened her eyes and was able to focus on him. He breathed a sigh of relief when she buried her face in his shoulder and started to cry, "Its ok Haruhi. I am here." Hunny carried her over to the bed and instead of putting her down, got in the bed with her still in his arms and sat her on his lap.
Haruhi felt like a fool, but the dream had been so real. She hadn't even been fully aware that she had been cowering in the closet until Hunny had pulled her hands away from her ears and started to call to her. She very carefully and slowly opened her eyes. First one and then the other, and when she saw that it was Hunny crouched down in front of her and pulling her into his arms, she broke down and cried. She could feel him lifting her and carrying her to the bed, but he never put her down and instead pulled her closer to him. Cradling her as if she was a small child and precious to him, she felt him run his fingers through her hair with one hand and the other held her firm and close like an anchor.
Hunny spoke softly to her, crooning to her as if she was a skittish horse. He knew he had to calm her down, "Haruhi, I am here." He kissed the top of her head and hoped that he was getting through to her.
When the tears were spent and she felt calmer, Haruhi pulled back to look at Hunny and took a deep breath. She brought her hand up to trace his face, to study it. It was almost like she was trying to commit it to memory. Never speaking, she just looked at him and he stared back at her, letting her do what she needed to in order to feel better. After a few more minutes, she took another steadying breath and whispered, "Thank you Mitsukuni."
"Do you want to talk about it?" Hunny asked her.
Haruhi really didn't want to talk about it or anything else that had to do with Yasu, but she knew that she should. She also knew that she was safe with Hunny. When she had thought about her time with the hosts now and before, she had realized something, Hunny had always been there for her no matter what happened. She could see the truth of his words when he said he had loved her for a long time. He had and she hadn't seen him. Now she could see nothing but him and he was still there for her. It was time to tell Hunny everything and not just the stuff she had already told him. Taking a shaky breath, she nodded, "I don't want to talk about it, but you deserve to know everything."
Hunny didn't like the sound of that. What did she mean by everything? Didn't he already know everything? He gave her a perplexed looked and said, "Ok, what do you mean everything?"
"Let me go to the beginning, ok?" She said quietly.
"Ok. Take your time," Hunny uttered. He wasn't sure why he suddenly got chills or why he felt like he wanted to hide her away from the world forever, but those were the feelings that crashed down upon him at her words.
"You know that Tamaki and I dated for a while, but it didn't work out for several reasons. The main one though was that he didn't feel like I was giving him enough time. I was so focused on my studies and he wanted me to focus on him instead. Sometimes he would say that I didn't need to worry about school because he could take care of me. I would say that being a lawyer was my dream. Then he would surprise me with romantic getaways and I would wind up going on them because he would give me a guilt trip about not spending time with him. On a few of those, he tried to take our relationship to the next level thinking that if we were more intimate, I would be more committed to him or something. It never happened, and it made me a bit leery of dating someone again after we broke up. I needed to concentrate on my studies and not be worried about someone getting their feelings hurt if I focused on school and not them, or someone trying to get me into bed for whatever reason. Tamaki and I got into a huge fight on our last trip as a couple and he told me that I wasn't right in the head if I didn't want to sleep with him. Then said as long as we had been going out, it was natural to have sex with your boyfriend and most couples were already sleeping together by that point. We broke up and he started to go back to his daddy complex and was more controlling than ever."
Hunny was shocked. He knew that they had been arguing more before they broke up, but he didn't know about all of that. Tamaki was an ass and right now Hunny wanted to teach him a lesson about manipulating your girlfriend: someone you should cherish and love. Not someone you tried to control and manipulate in order to get your way. Something told him that this was just the tip of the iceberg and there was a lot more that he didn't know.
Haruhi took a deep breath before continuing, "After we broke up, I hated his daddy act even more. It seemed more over the top and more constricting than it ever had before. It was not an easy break up and when we finally go to the point that we were friends again, I just tried to brush it off because I didn't want to cause a rift. Then I met Yasu. At first he seemed different. He made me laugh and it seemed like he was there for me. He understood where I came from because he was the same. I honestly didn't know that he was putting any restrictions on me until I was already into the relationship. When I would say something, he would always have an excuse for me and like an idiot I readily accepted most of them. If I didn't accept his excuses, we would argue and he would come back and tell me he was sorry. He would change for a period of time and before long a pattern had been established. In my heart I knew that Yasu was not the one for me, but I didn't want Tamaki to tell me what to do. Hikaru cornered me one day and told me that I needed to break up with Yasu and I was stupid if I didn't." She gave a mirthless laugh, "Not exactly the best way to get me over to your side. I stayed where I was."
Was Hunny blind to all of this? He had no clue that Hikaru had confronted Haruhi like that. Starting to feel like he let her down in more ways than one, he encouraged her to continue.
"Soon Kyoya and Kaoru joined the call to arms. Finally, you and Mori were also saying things to me about Yasu. I had convinced myself that you were wrong and that he loved me. That I was with who I needed to be with and you were all just jealous. Yasu listened to me and lent me his shoulder to cry on when I needed it. He seemed to support my need to become a lawyer and never pressured me about our relationship. It was the little things that he would try to control at first. Who I hung out with and the amount of time we were apart. He used school as the excuse as to why I didn't need to be around all of you and I fell for it because school was so important to me. He said that none of the hosts understood why school was so important to me because none of you had the same struggles to pay for school and keep my scholarships, and he was right about that one fact, but he used it to manipulate me. I know now that I was wrong about him. You know pretty much what happened next."
"Is that everything?"
"No."
"What else?"
"After you and the other hosts were out of my life, things got a lot worse. You know that. He started to pressure me to further our relationship. He said that now that we were engaged, it was natural to take things to the next level. It brought back to mind Tamaki and it made me want to hold out that much more. More and more I wanted to get away from him. I had to bide my time though. It wasn't easy. There were a few times that I thought he would force me. He would feel me up and force his hands on me, but it seemed that he was always interrupted. I was never happier to have intrusions in my life as I was during those moments. I needed out, but I didn't know how to get out. The day he came to my apartment when I was packing, he attacked me and he threw me on the b-b-bed. He was yelling at me as he started to rip off my clothes. I wasn't able to do anything until he had to shift his grip in order to start taking off his own clothes and that is when I attacked him. After he was down, I grabbed a jacket or something and ran and called the police. I was s-s-so afraid," Haruhi said crying again. "The police told me that I was lucky to get away when I did. Yasu couldn't believe that with my injuries that I would be a threat to him. I guess he was wrong."
Hunny couldn't believe what he had just heard. Haruhi had been lucky, but that didn't make her any less of a victim. He looked down at the bundle in his arms and it made him want to cherish her and love her even more. "Yes, I guess he was wrong Haru-Chan," Hunny croaked and started to wipe away the tears that were falling from her eyes away.
"I'm sorry I didn't tell you all of that. I just wanted to forget all about him and I am ashamed that it got as far as it had."
Hunny shifted under her and brought up both of his hands to her face. He held it gently and looked her in the eye, "There is nothing for you to feel ashamed up. Tamaki, Hikaru, and Yasu are the ones that need to feel ashamed, Tamaki and Yasu more than the other. You did nothing wrong. Is that what you dreamed about tonight?" When she nodded her head, he pulled her tightly to him and kissed the top of her head again. "They were immature assholes and you deserved better than that. Tamaki should have known better. You are a wonderful woman and you deserve to be treated like a princess."
Haruhi clung to Hunny and once again was burying her face into his chest. She wondered if this made a difference to him. If knowing how messed up she was with her past relationships, did he still wanted to be with her? She wasn't sure how to vocalize the words though. Yes she heard what he had said about how she should have been treated, but that didn't mean he could still be that person for her. Starting to pull away from his embrace, she felt him tighten his grip and pull her back.
Hunny knew that she was trying to get away from him, but wasn't sure why she was trying to pull away. Did she not want him anymore? Did she think he didn't want her any longer? If that was the case, it would take a lot more than that to drive him away. He let her pull back enough so that he could look at her in the eyes again, "Haruhi I was serious when I said that you should have been treated like a princess and you still deserve that. I still want to be that person if you want me to be."
"You do?"
Leaning forward and giving her a small kiss on the lips, Hunny said, "I do."
Before she could stop the word, it was out of her mouth and she was blushing, "Why?" She didn't mean to question him.
"Because I love you and have since we were in high school. Just because you have had to deal with some hard things in life, does not change how I feel and what I want. The boys that you dated previously didn't know what a jewel you are and didn't know how to treat you. I want to show you the way you should be treated and what it really means to love you. I know you don't have the same feelings for me, but I hope that one day you will and even if this doesn't work out for us, I love you and want to take care of you. That does not mean I don't want you to concentrate on school or to give up any of your dreams. If anything, I want to make all of your dreams come true," he said patiently.
Smiling at the man before her, she leaned in and kissed him, "I care about you to."
Soon enough the couple decided it was time to get some more sleep when Haruhi was suppressing her yawns and Hunny's eyes were drooping. Haruhi asked Hunny to stay with her; she wasn't ready to be alone and he agreed. Cuddled up together, they both surrendered to the darkness and Haruhi's nightmares were kept at bay for the rest of the night.
It was early in the morning that the couple was pulled out of their slumber with an incessant ringing coming from the nightstand next to Hunny. He grabbed the phone and hit the talk button before thinking about it. He hated being woken up when he wasn't required to get up early. "Hello?" He growled into the phone.
"H-H-Hunny?" A screech sounded on the other end of the line.
"Tamaki!" Hunny said to himself as he looked at the clock and realized that it was just after 8 in the morning. After last night's revelations, he wanted to reach through the phone and choke the other man for how he treated Haruhi. Calling early in the morning was just another mark against him. He looked down and noticed that Haruhi was looking up at him with a furrowed brow and decided he would handle the former king himself, "What do you want? Do you know what time it is? Did it ever occur to you that people are still sleeping at this hour and do not like to be woken up?"
"I'm sorry Hunny! I thought I was calling Haruhi's phone," Tamaki explained nervously.
"Baka! You did call her phone, but that does not mean that you can call her any hour of the day!" Hunny snarled. He looked down and saw Haruhi bury her head in his chest and was shaking. He heard a snort and knew that she was laughing. It was hearing that snort and knowing that she was laughing that helped Hunny to calm down and probably save Tamaki a well deserved tongue lashing.
"Well it's just that usually she is an early riser and I figured she would already be up. I thought that maybe we could have breakfast together," Tamaki said.
"Did you call Kyo-Chan and tell him the plan for breakfast? We are all still sleeping here." Hunny could actually hear Mori moving around, but Tamaki did not need to know that the kendo master was up early as usual.
"Well no, I was thinking that we could have daddy/daughter time and go alone," Tamaki squeaked. His voice breaking as he talked.
"I am going to explain something to you one more time Tamaki Suoh. Are you listening?" Hunny said menacingly.
"Yes."
"Haru-Chan does not want to go anywhere alone with you and I know that she has just cause to feel the way she does about you. You are not to call her until after 9:00 am on any day of the week, you are not going to harass her like you have been doing, and you will do all of this without question because it is what she wants. If I find out that you have been doing otherwise one more time, you will regret it. I don't make idle threats Tamaki Suoh," Hunny declared.
"How do I know that is how she really feels?" Tamaki said finding a backbone and deciding that he needed to speak up. He wondered what Hunny meant by "just cause".
Hunny gave a humorless chuckle, "You are more than welcome to talk to her." He passed the phone to Haruhi and listened to her side of the conversation.
"Hello?" Haruhi said irritably.
"Haruhi, its daddy! Hunny said that you didn't want to go out with me and that I am not allow to call before nine now. What is he doing answering your phone? If you were still sleeping, how was he able to answer you phone for you and give it to you so quickly? What has he done to my daughter?" Tamaki whined.
Haruhi groaned at the irksome whining coming from her friend. She took a deep breath and said, "That's right. No more calling before nine and I will only go out with you if Mitsukuni, Mori, or Kyoya is also present. I have my reasons, but apparently you don't listen to me or follow direction because we have had this conversation multiple times." She chose to ignore the other questions.
"But Haruhi, I just want to spend some quality time with my daughter!" Tamaki didn't miss the fact she didn't respond to his other questions and was curious as to what Hunny was doing in the same room as her if they were still sleeping. Surely nothing happened because she always told him that she was not ready for that, and she and Hunny had just started dating.
"I am not you daughter. As I have told you before, you can take it or leave it, but those are the rules. I have enough to worry about with Yasu getting out tomorrow and I don't need to add you into the mix. This is your last chance Tamaki. I will not be bullied or coerced as I once was," Haruhi said coolly. With the dream and last night's conversation fresh on her mind, she was not going to back down. She didn't feel comfortable with Tamaki alone and she would not put herself in an awkward position again.
Tamaki knew that he had crossed the line yet again, but how was he supposed to convince her he loved her still if she didn't give him a chance? He sighed, "I understand." He would back off for now and hopefully he would get another chance in the near future.
"And you will abide by my wishes?" Haruhi said not quite trusting him.
"Yes."
"Excellent! Because you are a good friend and I would hate to lose your friendship," Haruhi smirked.
Tamaki understood the threat as it was and gulped. "Me too. Do you and Hunny want to go out to breakfast?" He amended his original request.
"No, we are all still sleeping and are supposed to meet Kyoya shortly," Haruhi explained. What she didn't add was that after last night, she wasn't ready to see the former host club king so soon.
"Oh, ok. Well maybe another day. I will talk to you later," Tamaki said sullenly.
"Good bye Tamaki," Haruhi said before she disconnected the call. She looked up at Hunny and heard him chuckle as soon as the line was dead, "What is so funny?"
"Well your hair is sticking up, you growled at Tamaki, and you have a look on your face that says you are pissed off and don't mess with you. To put it simply, you look like a tempest," Hunny explained with another chuckle.
Haruhi smirked and rolled her eyes at her boyfriend as she reached over him to put her phone back on the nightstand mumbling, "I am glad you find me so entertaining in the morning." She turned over so that she could go back to sleep.
Hunny threw an arm around her waist and kissed her shoulder, "I'm sorry Haru-Chan, but you looked so cute and everything."
Turning around with narrowed eyes, Haruhi found herself nose to nose with Hunny. She couldn't hold her glare for long and wound up smiling at him. She kissed him and then said, "Can we go back to sleep now? I am really tired."
Hunny gave her another brief kiss, "Yah, we can go back to sleep now." They both got comfortable and were back in dreamland soon enough.
Yasu was also woken up early that morning by a guard. His cousin had agreed to come to the prison to meet with him. He smiled into the darkness of his cell and stared up at the ceiling. It was just a matter of time now and he would have everything he wanted.