"I know! Let's play a game!" Hikaru said as the Ouran High Host Club sat on the beach, worn out from their volleyball match with their guests. Kyoya had allowed the Host Club to use his summer residence for vacation, but not for free. His private beach was overrun with the girls who frequented their club. The boys had been kept busy entertaining them all morning. At the moment, To give the boys a much needed break, Haruhi was keeping the girls entertained with a sandcastle competition.

"We call it the "who can find Haruhi's weakness?' game!" The Hitachiin twins exclaimed in unison, before anyone could agree or disagree with the game.

"What an awful sounding game." Tamaki grimaced.

"Yeah, you are probably right." The twins replied. "She would only show her weakness to someone she was close to, and all." They winked at each other as they got up and walked away.

Tamaki was none too pleased with their insinuation. "Fine." He snapped. "What are the rules?"

The Hitachiin brothers turned around with huge smiles on their faces. "That's more like it! The deadline is tomorrow at sunset. Whoever finds out what her weakness is first, wins."

Ever the strategist, Kyoya added: "I will give whoever wins a prize." He pulled from his bag three Host Club trading cards with Haruhi's image on them. Instead of being dressed in her boy uniform, Haruhi was dressed in three cute girly outfits. All three boys' jaws dropped at the sight of these pictures. Tamaki, however, was skeptical and stared at the cards in Kyoya's outstretched hand. He guessed they were probably photoshopped. There was no way in hell that Haruhi would have allowed her photo to be taken in those outfits!

"We're in on this too!" Honey exclaimed. Although Mori made no indication he was in on this too, it was assumed by the others present that he would join in the fun.

"So then, everyone is playing." Kyoya said as he waved the cards around, making it difficult for Tamaki to verify their validity.

"But, Kyo-chan," Honey said in Tamaki's place, "How is it that you have those photos?"

"I have my sources." Kyoya smiled slyly, "Let's just leave it at that."

And so the Host Club spent the afternoon trying to find out what Haruhi's weakness was. The Hitachiin twins tried to scare her with stories about ghosts in a cave; which failed dismally. Honey-senpai tried to scare her by enclosing the two of them into a dark van. This backfired poorly and left Honey in tears. Mori-senpai tried to scare Haruhi with a sharp harpoon. Haruhi just found it to be a confusing play on words as a harpoon is called a mori in Japanese.

"This game is useless. I'm getting bored." Karou commented to Hikaru as the sky began to turn shades of orange and purple. "How can she ever be a heroine with all the things she is not afraid of?" At that moment Tamaki came over carrying a bucket.

"Sir, what are you doing?" Hikaru jumped up, and quickly took a step back when he saw what was inside the bucket. "Rat snakes?"

"Yes! Having this many rat snakes in a bucket has to be scary, right?" Tamaki asked, gingerly holding the bucket away from him.

"Anyone would find those unpleasant." Karou commented, "But that's not a weakness."

"Does Okinawa actually have rat snakes?" Hikaru asked, "Where did you even get those from, sir?"

Tamaki smiled, a twinkle in his eyes. "Would you like to hold them?" He teased, and brought the bucket towards the twins.

"No!" They shouted in union and ran down the beach. Tamaki pursued them, holding the bucket out carefully. They would have continued on this way for some time if one of their guests hadn't run towards them shouting.

"Tamaki-sama!" She shouted, running up to him. "It's Haruhi-kun! There are some boys on the beach who aren't supposed to be here. They were bothering us up there and Haruhi tried to stop them!" She pointed to a cliffed part of the coast where they could just make out a young man backing Haruhi closer to the cliff's edge.

Blood pounded in Tamaki's ears as he passed the bucket full of rat snakes to the girl and took off towards the cliffs at top speed with the twins in close pursuit.

He reached the top of the cliff just as the boy was clutching Haruhi by her shirt, close to the edge.

"You should just go swimming in the ocean like a good boy." The bully said as he pushed Haruhi off the cliff.

Haruhi! Tamaki screamed in his mind, as he pushed past the boy and dived into the water after her.

The events that followed were a blur for Tamaki. He remembered rescuing Haruhi and bringing her back to the beach. He remembered performing chest compressions until she coughed up water. He remembered holding her until Kyoya's secret police whisked her away to be brought back to the house.

What he didn't remember was the walk back. Kyoya, telling him that they had taken the ID cards from the boys and they had been asked to leave. That their guests had all been safely returned to their hotel for the evening. That the Otori family doctor had been called and would check up on Haruhi. He hadn't felt much like dinner and retired to his room while the others enjoyed their meals, content with the knowledge that Haruhi was safe.

That evening, Tamaki sought out Kyoya. He was still on high alert and needed to process the day. He did not want to bask in his corner of woe tonight. Knocking on Kyoya's bedroom door, he heard his friend's calm voice tell him to enter.

"Hey." Tamaki said, opening the door leaning against its frame. Kyoya looked over and raised an eyebrow in response. "I'm worried about Haruhi."

Kyoya gave a soft snort. "I wasn't particularly worried about her." He responded, a tone of indifference in his voice. He stood up from where he sat at his desk and picked up his water bottle. Kyoya took a slow gulp of water. Tamaki knew when Kyoya was in a mood, but he needed his friend to reassure him that everything would be okay.

"It was difficult to stop Hikaru and Karou from beating those punks half to death though." Kyoya took another sip from his water bottle, while Tamaki imagined the twins beating up the boys who dared to touch their Haruhi. "Also, there was the trouble I went to in sending bouquets to each of the girls by way of an apology, after looking forward to coming along on what should have otherwise have been an enjoyable trip. The bouquets cost 50,000 per person, which comes to 600,000 altogether. Not to mention the dangers posed to my security team…"

"Is that all you think about?" Tamaki cut in, "Is everything a profit or loss to you?" He crossed his arms. "Haruhi isn't some investment plan! You didn't need to send flowers! You didn't need to worry about the twins!" Tamaki was fuming, how could his friend be so cold?

"Didn't I?" Kyoya asked, staring him down. "It's my beach after all. My guests. It's my name that gets sullied if I don't make good choices." He took a deep breath. "Haruhi made a poor choice. Last I checked she is not a black belt in any martial arts like Haninozuka. She should have asked us for help; not confronted those men herself."

"She didn't have a choice!" Tamaki shouted at him. "She was there and someone needed to do something! If it wasn't for Haruhi taking action, none of the girls would have made it away to get help! Things could have ended far worse! Just imagine how that would have looked for your precious name!" Tamaki slammed the door shut on his way out. He didn't need to hear more of his friend's reasoning. It was all self-centered nonsense.

Making his way back to his bedroom, Tamaki sat onto the edge of his bed. The worry in the pit of his stomach wouldn't go away. He couldn't believe how unfeeling Kyoya had been. His friend had always been there to support him in his struggles. What changed? Was it possible that Kyoya was really so unfeeling in this situation?

A roar of thunder interrupted his musings. At the same moment, a shadowy figure raced across the room towards the bed, and ran directly into Tamaki. His arms enveloped the figure by reflex, just as a flash of lightning revealed Haruhi's frightened face only inches from his own.

"Haruhi?" He asked, his heart racing as she trembled in his arms. "What's wrong?"

She stared at him for a moment, eyes wide. Then seemed to realize where she was. "I'm sorry, senpai. I must have taken a wrong turn coming back from the bathroom. I didn't mean to bother you. I'm sorry." His arms fell to his side and she turned to leave.

Thunder clapped, louder now. In an instant, Haruhi was back in Tamaki's arms. This time he didn't let go.

"Haruhi, are you afraid of thunder?" When she didn't respond right away, he held her at arm's length and repeated the question. This time he received a slight nod. "You know it is okay to be afraid of thunder, right?"

"It is?" Haruhi whispered.

"Absolutely. It's a loud, sudden noise. It's natural to feel afraid of it." Then he had an idea. "I know, why don't you sit here and I'll turn on some classical music. That way we can drown out the noise." Tamaki walked across the room and turned on a lamp, while Haruhi sat down on the bed. Moments later, Gershwin's I've Got Rhythm bounded from the room's surround sound speakers. Haruhi didn't even hear the next clap of thunder when it came.

"Thank you." She said as Tamaki sat cross legged on the other end of the bed.

Tamaki grinned. "How are you? Really, I mean. Today was…intense."

Haruhi frowned. "I'm okay. I had dinner with the guys this evening. They seemed to think that I had done something wrong. They kept asking me to apologize for putting myself in danger."

"That's ridiculous! How dare they ask you to apologize for something that was out of your control. It's not like you went out of your way to pick a fight with those guys. You shouldn't have to apologize for their actions."

"It's okay, senpai." Haruhi smiled at him, her head tilting to the side. Tamaki was confused by this sudden role reversal. She was the one who needed comforting, not him. Or did he?

He realized that he was still staring at her, and blushed. From now on, I'll be there. His deep blue eyes read, I'll do all I can not to take my eyes off of you. Abruptly he broke eye contact, grabbed a pillow, and threw it on the floor next to the bed.

"Senpai?" Haruhi questioned.

"Just go to sleep." Tamaki said as he stood up from the bed. "I'll be here on the floor if you need me." Turning off the light, Tamaki made himself comfortable.

"You know I could just go back to my room." Haruhi said from the bed.

"You don't know where it is." Came the reply. "Now go to sleep."