"Tamaki doesn't understand what he talks about sometimes." Kyouya nearly stopped her heart when he spoke from the bottom of the stairway. "What do you mean?" Haruhi struggled to keep an even tone; she hadn't even pondered yet how he even knew what was said. "My only goal is to profit from my decisions, I am the third son of my family. The goal is always to be three steps ahead." She was already feeling on edge by the weird way Tamaki spoke to her and now she was coming face to face with Kyouya.
"Excuse me if I seem rude, sir, but what good does helping my father do?" Haruhi dared, almost wincing at his dark look. "There is a fundamental difference between Tamaki and I." She felt the cold radiate from him as he moved to stand right next to her. "It would do you well to remember that." He left her there, feeling her stomach plummet to her feet. She ran all the way back to the kitchen, desperate for someone she could handle.
"You look like you've seen a ghost." Toru chuckled while having tea with a few of the other staff and the old woman. Many of them she didn't recognize, all of them radiated the same otherworldly aura as the masters of the Castle. She hadn't noticed it before, but she stuck out like a sore thumb as she was the only one not in traditional japanese clothing. "It's just a bit cold." She said feeling her muscles unwind. Just being here with Toru and the old woman relaxed her clenched jaw.
"Well, take a cup of tea with you to bed." Toru offered to pour her a cup as the old woman got to her feet. "No…thank you." Haruhi felt weird, she just wanted to lay down. Perhaps it was because she'd been awake for so long and desired sleep. Yea, I'm just tired.
"Come child." The woman drew her from her thoughts. "It's going to get busy for you taking over the position, best get a goodnight sleep." Haruhi followed without a word, she felt the fatigue in her whole body. She just wanted to lay down, to collapse in bed and sleep for a year. Her feet were killing her. The dress was stuffy, and the sleeves suddenly itched on her wrists.
"Wow!" Her room was enormous, with its own four poster bed. "Many different maids have been here." Hikaru's voice surprised her, they sure were great at popping up anywhere and everywhere without warning. Remembering to bow she did. "Sorry, didn't mean to frighten you." Kaoru's smirk told her he wasn't, while they leaned on either side of her door frame. They were definitely dangerous but not in the same sense that Kyouya was, she just knew they'd be a handful.
"We'll be counting on you to entertain," Hikaru grinned. "Sleep well, Miss new Head Maid." They turned in unison leaving her alone with her thoughts. Many thoughts. The old woman had slipped away with the two. Finally closing her door, she felt the relief of stripping off each piece of the uniform she'd been wearing. Careful to fold them so that they wouldn't wrinkle she set them aside.
Her bag was placed on the dresser where a large mirror stood in front of a tray of things like soaps and lotions. A note on the mirror told her she had clothes prepared for her in the wardrobe signed Hitachiin, if she wasn't as exhausted that might've worried her more.
With a stretch and a sigh, she pulled open the wardrobe to find it filled with clothes of all sorts. "What is this?" annoyed she pulled the frilly sleepwear on glaring at her reflection. This is ridiculous, how can I sleep in this! Too tired to think further on it she made sure the door was shut tight before crawling under the sheets. She was spent.
A loud clattering sound stirred her awake. Haruhi waited in the loud silence to hear if it had actually been a noise or she'd been dreaming. But it happened again, and she shot up her heart pounding. Curiosity being her enemy she crept toward the door opening it just a bit to hear what might be going on. She wondered if it was the day staff, not that anyone could tell the hour as thick curtains darkened the entire castle.
"Sh! c'mon I didn't work my ass off to get us into this castle for you to ruin it all in one day!" The voice was not far from Haruhi's room in the direction of the main foyer, hushed and eager. "Sorry, wait where are you going!" a second voice confirmed that the two were not the masters of the castle but in fact staff. "Down to the Vault you idiot!" Haruhi quietly snuck out from her room hoping to see where the voices were going.
The mention of a vault had drawn her curiosity, not in the vault itself but the fact they were going to look for it. Where did they go? Deciding on a plan of action she moved along the wall to see the light of whoever had been talking going down one of the upstairs hallways. She dashed as quietly as she could up the stairs, keeping low to avoid being spotted.
"You are such a moron! This isn't it." Once at the top she slipped behind a wall support trying to keep from breathing too hard. "I'm sorry! This way, I'm sure!" the other person whimpered softly. Haruhi froze, watching the glow get closer and closer. She gripped her nightgown covering her mouth and pressing herself as close to the wall as she could. The two emerged from the hall walking past her and continuing on down a different hallway. Haruhi collapsed to the floor gasping for breath, she didn't know what she would've done if they saw her. She didn't know the layout of the castle yet.
There was only one place up here Haruhi knew where to go. Careful to stay against the wall she dashed down to Tamaki's study hoping that he'd still be awake. She shoved into the room. "There's someone trying to get into the vault!" It came out breathless and rushed but it made Tamaki drop his papers on the desk and move right for her. She got scared for a minute until he passed right by her "Go get Mori."
He left her alone, but she didn't have time to think. Oddly enough, she would have to ponder it and many other things later, the hallway was completely empty when she left the room after Tamaki. Gathering the long night gown, she started to run again down the stairs and towards Mitsukuni's room. As if he'd known Takashi emerged from the room silently and looming.
"Morinozuka-sama…Suoh-sama needs you, the vault!" She barely made it two steps closer when he lifted her off her feet and raced back to where she'd run from. Scared at how quickly she felt they were moving she gripped his neck to steady herself clamping her eyes shut. When he finally stopped, and she could get her bearings they were somewhere without windows. Takashi let her down gently, positioning himself in front of her, she felt winded and struggled to get her bearings.
"NO!" the meek sounding girl swung some type of knife wildly at the advancing lord of the castle, the other woman wielding a gun. Haruhi was horrified as it looked like Tamaki was bleeding from his arm. "Stay back!" The woman with the gun gritted her teeth aiming at Takashi. Like a ripple all of his muscles tensed, and he held a hand back as if to be sure Haruhi was still behind him. It didn't comfort her any, because he could be shot.
"Now, now ladies, there is no need to go this far-" "SHUT UP!" The gun shot rattled off the walls so loud it hurt her ears. Panic taking over Haruhi grabbed Takashi, but the woman hadn't shot him she'd shot above them. "See now that's just rude." Even in this situation Tamaki was insufferably strange. "I guess you just figured you'd sweep in the day, grab the cargo and bolt? Good plan if I do say so myself." Takashi was like a rock not moving at all while the other man prattled on.
"I said shut up!" Haruhi felt the hard floor, she didn't feel it scrape across her skin when Takashi shoved her aside as another loud shot rang out, she didn't know why the gunshots were so loud. "Tamaki what are you doing?" The voice came from above, it was Kyouya from a landing near the stairs. Focusing on getting to her feet in the moment of pause Takashi moved and in one swift motion the gun clattered uselessly to the floor and the other girl screamed crumpling to her knees sobbing. "I'll call my team." Kyouya stated casually as if they weren't just faced with weapons intent to kill.
"Bring them back to the main entrance." Tamaki turned on his heel to walk up the stairs where Kyouya was already on his phone. Takashi glanced at her tilting his head as if to ask if she was ok, scanning her body. "I'm fine." She mumbled feeling a bit self-conscious of the gown. Nodding he hefted up the one girl before disarming the others knife and hefting her over his shoulder as well. The one who had shot at him was struggling, swearing while the other was still crying. "Haruhi"
Kyouya looked down on her motioning to the weapons on the floor. "Bring those, be sure not to hurt someone." A little afraid she reached for the gun, it was heavier than she'd imagined. Inscribed on the side was a flourish of odd symbols she didn't recognize. Uneasily she walked up following the group back to the entrance. Something she realized was very far from where they had just come from. How did we get there so quickly? She furrowed her brows. Pausing a moment to glance back she felt the heat of Kyouya's eyes on her back. She pushed her questions aside.
When I first wrote this chapter I had made a number of changes, of course I revealed the plot really fast when I first published it but much like the anime were it took the characters a moment to discover Haruhi's secret I wanted her to be the one over the course of a few chapters to discover the secrets of the castle. (I wont spoil it for new readers)
Some good news, I've decided to stick to Tuesday releases until I run out of content from my old laptop, then I'm looking at every other Tuesday. If I don't stick to a semi schedule I'll start to procrastinate. The best news is I likely have at least 10 more chapters of already written content in need of a few touch ups, so it'll be awhile before I move to 2 week updates.
I hope you've had a good week, I know things often get busy just remember to invest some of your busy into yourself. Have a break, no matter what you're doing you deserve a few minutes to yourself.