Chapter 10

So sorry guys I know its been a while ! Hope you enjoy, as always let me know what you think :)

I can't believe that I was so careless. I practically begged them to see the stupid scar. Damn it all. I hate the position I've been put into. The position I put myself into.

How am I supposed to face them again?

Slowly I unfurled myself from the curled up position I had been in for the last hour.

This has to stop. All of the vulnerability, the opening up, it has to stop. Now.

I have grown attached. It's almost like I forgot.

But this was why I left everything I had ever known, left my home behind. I hated the way people treated me, I hated them trying to understand, trying to make me happy again. How the fuck was I supposed to be happy after everything?

The host club hasn't done a bad job. But I'm broken, and no amount of charming smiles and ridiculous antics is going to fix me.

I'm done.

Done pretending, done smiling, laughing. I'm Done feeling. I thought maybe it would be ok, but it's not, it's hard. And I don't want to deal with it anymore.

I'll go back to the way I was the first couple of weeks upon being with the host club. I'll shut down.

I did it once, I can do it again.

Its been a week now. I'm still trying to reacquaint myself in the practice of indifference. I feel sick all the time now, unable to eat, or sleep half the time.

It's funny how easy it is to feel, and how hard it is to train yourself not to. I guess most people wouldn't want to. But I'm not really "most people" anymore.

I studiously ignored the twins, and for once they didn't press the matter. I could almost feel them retreating from me, back into their own world.

I'm a little surprised at their easy acceptance, and more than a little hurt.

Wait, no.

I don't care.

I'm not hurt, because to be hurt you have to have exposed yourself. I won't make that mistake anymore.

I should've learned my lesson the first time. But I won't make that mistake again. I won't.

I felt something like dread as I made my way to the host club. Outside the door I paused a

moment to compose myself, put on my face of indifference.

No one paid me any special attention as I entered, but I didn't care.

"HIKARU, KAORU" Tamaki-senpai yelled, startling me.

"I left you in charge of the club website because you promised to take it seriously!"

"We are doing it seriously…we stayed up all night last night finishing it." They replied, trying to defend themselves.

"We created this masterpiece of Haruhi."

Before this would have caught my attention, and I would have been disturbed by the picture of my head and I think Tamaki-senpai's body mounted on the website. As it was, I merely walked on to where I would be receiving my guests.

Honey-senpai came over and they all started talking about the picture.

Me, I focused all my energies on one of the tea cups we often use. Until I heard the twins call my name. Without meaning to I looked away from my teacup and into their mischievous golden brown eyes. I felt my resolve softening, and immediately looked away.

"Haruhi, can we go to your house and play? We seem to have nothing to do…" They said it with all the presumed arrogance of the young and privileged.

"No." I said quickly.

There was no chance in hell they were getting near my house. I didn't want them invading my personal space.

Much to my relief, no one has yet mentioned anything about my scar, or my running off.

I don't know what to make of it. Are they simply going to forget the whole incident? Or will they bring it up when I least expect it? It's hard to tell with these boys, they always manage to pull off the unexpected.

"Then can we spread rumors about you being a girl?" They asked.

I found myself dumbfounded that they were acting so indifferent.

Wasn't I supposed to be the one who was in control here?

Yet here they were, keeping the world at arm's length. We had been making headway, but I killed any of that progress with my own attempt at distance.

KAORUS POV

I know that Haruhi needs distance now. But it's just so damn hard to keep her out; out of our thoughts, our actions.

The rest of the world is easy; Hikaru and I have kept them out forever. It's been only the two of us our whole lives, and the one person who I think we really could have accepted won't have us.

It hurts.

But what hurts more is watching her suffer when we try to become friends, to help her. It never seems to help for long.

So we're keeping the world away again, including Haruhi.

The last week has been insufferably boring. Hikaru and I have been hatching a plan together. It's not perfected yet, but I think it'll relieve our boredom, at least for a little while.

Before Haruhi came we would play cruel jokes all the time. But lately we've been so distracted by her, so distracted that we forgot to play our role. We play a specific role in the host club, and if we vary from that now, everything will go to shit. Maybe the rest of the club doesn't see it, but we need to be together now more than ever.

This club is all Hikaru and I ever had.

And I'll be damned if I let it get away.

So for now we'll play the part, even if it doesn't hold quite the same appeal for us as it used to.

Now, let the games begin.

HARUHIS POV

Out of nowhere Nekosawa-senpai appeared from the shadows, trying to frighten us with tales of voodoo dolls and curses. I found it all a bit silly, I mean I know that he didn't like the light but he didn't need to be all creepy about it.

Tamaki-senpai wholeheartedly believed in what Nekozawa-senpai was saying. He started telling the story of how he stepped on Nekozawa-senpais Beelzenef, a creepy puppet doll he carried around.

"After that my exam papers were filled with nonsense, and when I looked around the room it was no one that I knew." He continued in horror.

"That's because you were so disturbed you walked into the Greek exam." Kyouya-senpai said.

"No, it was a curse!" Proclaimed Tamaki-senpai in that obnoxious way of his. "And a few days later I woke up and my legs felt heavy as lead!" He continued.

"Yes, because we ran a marathon the day before." Finished Kyouya-senpai.

It was almost enough to make me laugh, I mean how stupid can you get? But I stamped out my emotions and walked away, getting ready to receive my guests.

I heard the twins trying to scare Tamaki-senpai by telling him of curses from Nekozawa-senpai. When Tamaki-senpai realized that it was a joke he gave them a long lecture, for which I mostly tuned out, and then gave them cleaning duty.

The twins seemed bored lately, and much more withdrawn. They weren't as quick to smile, and they were even more cruel than I had ever seen them.

I try not to think about it, but it gives me this pain to be so detached from them, from all of the host club really. The point of pulling away was to avoid my pain, but I can never really avoid it for long. It's always there, and it always hurts. I'm trying my best to shut it all out, but it's hard, and I'm tired of it.

I tried to snap out of melancholy when I saw a few girls making their way over to me.

"So Haruhi, we know that Hikaru-kun is the one with the right part, and Kaoru-kun is the one with the left part, but is there any other way to identify them?" One of the girls asked.

I felt a smile playing at the corner of my lips, and it took all of my energy to remain pleasantly detached.

"Well, Hikaru's speech and behavior often reveals more evilness than Kaoru's" I said, no malice in my voice.

I snuck a glance at the twins and saw that they were shocked, and Kaoru was trying to muffle his laughter.

"Sorry…Hikaru" he said in-between laughs.

"Really if we're talking about evilness, it should really be you we're talking about. I mean you're the hypocrite here." Said Hikaru, no teasing present.

"Don't spout nonsense Hikaru, it's always been me tolerating your stubborn ways." Said Kaoru.

"Even if I am the brain behind our operations, you were the one who planned every execution Kaoru." Replied Hikaru.

I was starting to get a bad feeling about this.

"You're so silly, and not to mention pathetic, I can't take it lying down. You're the one who came up with the toy concept." Continued Hikaru.

"Hikaru you actually like Haruhi right? I mean it's so obvious your always touching her." He said cruelly.

"WHAT?" Yelled Hikaru.

I felt myself going a bit red, of course Hikaru didn't like me, and there was no need to be embarrassed.

It sounded like it was going to be an ugly fight.

"Why do you have to say stuff like that? You really are an idiot." Snapped Hikaru.

"Yeah there are certain things in this world that you can say, and things that you can't!" Growled Tamai-senpai joining the fight.

Me, I just stood there dumbfounded. All of this because of one passing comment that I made? I tried to control the urge to go over and shake them into understanding, but no. I don't care, they can fight about whatever they want, and it doesn't concern me.

I walked across the room, and kept my gaze fixedly on the clock, just waiting for when I could leave.

"Why would I like someone who is like a little fox," Cried Hikaru.

A fox? What the hell does that even mean…I don't care, I don't care. It was becoming my new mantra.

"WHO IS THE LITTLE FOX? How dare you look down on my child." Yelled Tamaki-senpai in a rage.

Oh goodness, this was getting even more ridiculous.

"This is amazing! There's a love quadruple surrounded Haruhi, and it's a quagmire plot because two of them are twins brother!" Cried Renge in delight, appearing from nowhere.

I though she went back to France, but apparently not. She seemed way too excited over their fight, which really had nothing to do with me. And I didn't care anyway.

"You'd better stop while you can; your mathematical results are way lower than mine anyway!" Yelled Hikaru, getting in Kaoru's face.

"Hikaru you should work harder in your language abilities, fatty."

"Shorty!" Hikaru rebuffed in anger.

They do realize they look the exact same right?

Some of the girls still milling around were now crowding around to hear the fight.

"I hate how you burrow into my blanket every night!"

"I only did that because I thought you were lonely!"

"Do you want to fight or something?"

"You're despicable!"

Back and forth they kept going; it was dizzying. But ridiculous fighting like this was so typical of siblings; my heart gave an unwelcome pang at the thoughts. Sibling fights, I hadn't thought about siblings for a while. I willed myself not to cry.

"Fine well then we might as well SEVER ALL TIES!" They screamed in unison.

This is not good. Even when the twins aren't fighting they're trouble, so what happens when they are fighting?

I don't care. That's what happens, I thought managing to keep away my tears.

Maybe if I repeat that enough it'll start to actually be true.

I don't care.

I grabbed my stuff and quickly changed for work. Just a couple weeks ago I had been opening up to the twins, coming out of my shell. It was stupid, but I hadn't been able to help myself.

I didn't realize how much I had craved contact and friendship until I had taken it away from myself again.

But I suppose this is my way of punishing myself. If it weren't for me, a lot of things wouldn't have gone down.

So I try to pretend like I don't feel any of it, but I do. I feel guilty. And because of that guilt I shouldn't be allowed to have friends, especially not friends like the twins, or any of the host club really.

I arrived at work early as usual, and was surprised not to see Shigure around. He was always here; he even lived in the apartment upstairs. I started on my duties figuring he just had an errand to run, but now its been more than an hour and I'm worried.

Just as I was about to go upstairs and see if he was there, he strolled through the door looking disheveled and very tired.

"Shigure are you okay?" I asked.

I was lucky it wasn't very busy so that I could have a chance to talk to him.

"No, not really." He said tiredly. "Could we talk after closing?" He asked.

"Of course," I said, wondering what had kept him so long.

The rest of the night passed by slowly, I was so preoccupied with Shigure that I completely messed up someone's order. They were very nice about it, but I tried to pay better attention after that. Finally the last table left and everything was cleaned up.

"So you wanted to talk?" I said approaching Shigure cautiously, not wanting him to change his mind.

"Yes, I think you should know what's going on." He said wearily.

Poor guy, he has been tired and skipping meals a lot lately. I was glad I was going to get to know why. I know it's unfair of me, I want him to confide in me but I can't bring myself to confide in him.

"So as you know I've been kind of…distracted lately." He started hesitantly.

"Look if you don't want to tell me I understand, no pressure." I said, who was I to pressure honesty?

"No, no. I do." He said quickly.

"So, I have a complicated family dynamic I guess you could say." He started

"Asshole father who cheated on my mom, so my mom packed up and moved me here. But my dad had another kid, five years younger, my half-brother. And I guess my dad has gotten himself in a lot of trouble, so my brother is going to come live here with me." He said in a rush not making eye contact.

"Have you had any contact with your brother?" I asked, trying to focus on Shigure's problem, and not to think about more mentions of siblings.

From the look on Shigure's face I knew he didn't want my sympathy, so I wouldn't give it to him.

"No not really, not ever actually." He said. "I just hate my dad for doing this to me,

messing up my whole life. Again." He said frustration emanating off of him.

"Maybe this could be an opportunity?" I said, posing it as a question. "I mean, you don't even know the guy, maybe he hates his dad as much as you do." I continued, trying to bring a less depressing perspective to the whole thing.

As much as I might try to pretend like I don't care, I want to try to help Shigure. He's always been there for me, and I can't afford to alienate him. I still need to pay my rent, but it's more than that. I can't find any more excuses to be close to the host club, because sooner or later the truth will come out. With Shigure I don't have to worry about that, he won't pry, he won't invade my privacy. And I know that the host club probably would if given the chance. They haven't mentioned my scar, but I know that they think about it.

But maybe they don't, maybe I've been trying to forget about them, when they couldn't care less. I tried to mentally shake all those thoughts out of my head and focus on Shigure.

It was kind of nice, having someone else's problems to focus on instead of my own. I know that, that sounds harsh, maybe even cruel, but getting out of my head for just a few minutes is bliss.

"Maybe, but I just don't know. And I hate that, I like to be in control of a situation." Said Shigure, frustrated.

"Well, you can't change it right?" I asked.

"I guess not." He conceded.

"Then make the best of it, I mean the guys what, sixteen? Seventeen? He'll be out of your hair in no time; in the meantime I'm sure he's freaking out even more than you are in this situation." I said pragmatically.

"It amazes me how you can give advice like that." He said, giving me a funny look.

"What do you mean?" I asked confused.

"Well, you go around punishing yourself, but you tell me to make the best of things? Just seems kind of hypocritical" he explained with honesty.

I don't know what to say. I mean he's right, isn't he? But stressing about taking in a half-brother you never met is a lot easier than what I've been through. I don't want to make his problems seem like no big deal, they are a very big deal.

"I guess my issues are different than yours." I said finally. Perhaps even grudgingly, Shigure was supposed to be the one who didn't pry. And from the sheepish look on his face, he knew that.

"Look I'm sorry, you should probably get home, it's late and you have school tomorrow." He said tiredly.

"It's okay, good luck with everything." I said subdued, but not insincerely.

With that I made my way out, playing Shigure's words over and over again in my head. I was a hypocrite, and I knew that. But him saying it aloud, that made it real.

I spent a long time just staring at my ceiling, thinking about the way I had treated all the people here who had tried to be kind to me. The host club, Shigure, I was horrible. I had lashed out at them, and pretty much done everything I could to keep them at arm's length. I hadn't been able to sleep for the last week, and I couldn't bring myself to eat more than a few bites anymore. I feel guilty, guilty for what I've done, and what I continue to do to keep everyone away. And all this talk of siblings today had done nothing to improve my mood, it made me miss them even more.

"I just don't want to do it anymore." I said quietly to myself, a tear escaping from my eye.

I don't want to run and hide, to push people away, to live in this constant hell.

But this is my punishment, so I'll bear it in silence.

It's what I deserve.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next morning I went through the motions, same as every day. Get up, brush teeth; get changed for school, etc. Shaking off my melancholy from last night I acted as if everything was normal, and predictable.

So I was not ready when Hikaru came into class with flaming pink hair.

"Hikaru?" I said, still shocked from the sight of his hair.

"Morning, I can't stand it when people mistake me for that Kaoru." He said spitting out the name Kaoru like it was poison.

"So from now on I'll be the pink one." He said with his usual sardonic smile.

Then another surprise; because right at that moment Kaoru came in with bright blue hair, even when their fighting they have the same ideas.

"Haruhi, I had the most horrible nightmare last night, even though I was so glad to be sleeping alone." He said shooting a look at Hikaru.

"I dreamt that I died my hair this hideous shade of pink, what a disgusting thing to do, I would've looked like an idiot." He said never taking his eyes off Hikaru.

They were both sitting on either side of me, and I felt hopelessly trapped in the middle.

They proceeded to push each other out of their chairs, rather violently.

It was starting to freak me out, this fighting of theirs. The tension in the air was palpable, like two evil dragons facing off against each other. I wasn't a newcomer when it came to fights with brothers, but this was definitely out of my element.

Throughout the entire morning they played pranks on each other, each one more vicious than the last. And of course being in all the same classes with them, I was dragged around the entire day, being pulled in-between them.

It was hard to distance myself from their fight, especially when I just wanted to make them realize how stupid they were being. But it would blow over, it had to.

At lunch I found myself being dragged to the cafeteria, a place that I never ventured. It's not as if I could afford the food, and even if I could I didn't need any extra time with the host club.

I observed Hikaru and Kaoru trying to order their food, even when they were fighting they were perfectly synchronized. It took them a full five minutes to finally order different lunches from each other.

"So it's these two causing the racket, I should've known." Said Tamaki-senpai, flanked by Kyouya-senpai, Mori-senpai and Honey-senpai.

"They really are the disgrace of the club." He said sadly.

"HARUHI!" He yelled noticing me for the first time.

"It's so rare to see you in the cafeteria." He said smiling.

I did my best to focus just beyond his eyes; I didn't need to see the puppy dog-like excitement there.

"I was dragged by the two of them; normally I eat my lunchbox in the library." I said quietly, hoping to extricate myself from the situation quickly.

I ended up being pulled down to a seat by Hikaru, pouting over his lunch.

"Haruhi will you switch lunches with me? I was trying so hard not to order the same thing as Kaoru that I ended up getting something I don't like." He asked.

It was amazing how he could be so irritating, and yet at the same time I felt bad for him.

"Sure," I said.

He pushed his tray over to me, and I knew at once that I wouldn't be able to stomach the rich foods in front of me.

It was one thing to have started eating vegetables, rice, and soup. But I still couldn't always keep my food down, especially when I was having a bad night. Lately most of them had been bad, and although I was trying to keep myself healthy, lest Kyouya-senpai should get on my case again, I hadn't been thoroughly successful.

Speaking of Kyouya-senpai I saw him looking at me. I met his eyes, only to turn away first. He knew, of course he knew.

"You know this isn't a very big portion," Hikaru said.

He said it jokingly, but I could see the worry in his eyes. I didn't want him to worry, that was the point of me backing off.

I was spared from commenting when Tamaki-senpai came over, and instead of fixing things ended up rousing the twins against each other.

It ended with the vice principals face in his bowl of soup. The entire host club was then given the duty of cleaning the cafeteria that day. I ended up doing most of the work, since I was probably the only one who hadn't grown up with servants to clean for me.

After our cleaning duties were done, the host club -minus Hikaru and Kaoru- made our way to the music room.

Tamaki-senpai was completely worn out from the cleaning, not that he contributed much anyway, and had no problem voicing these complaints out loud. Kyouya-senpai commented that if things persisted then ratings for the twins would go down.

But what really struck me was what Honey-senpai said.

"This is the first fight between Hika, and Kao-chan." He said sadly.

"Is it really?" I asked, unable to keep my curiosity from getting the better of me. What kind of siblings don't fight?

"I've known them since kindergarten; they were always playing alone by themselves." Honey-senpai said.

"Yes, I've only known them since junior high, but they looked odd near other people. It seemed they didn't want other people close by." Tamaki-senpai said, more thoughtful than I'd ever seen him.

"So maybe this fight is a good thing, they are expanding their world. Best to just leave them all alone." He said making his way out.

Right as he said that he tripped over a wire that sent many objects hurling towards him. No doubt a trap one of the twins set for the other.

"I"LL PUNISH THEM BOTH!" yelled Tamaki-senpai, clearly unwilling to let them work it out by themselves anymore.

But as I watched them run from Tamaki-senpai it dawned on me.

If this was their first fight, then they don't know how to call it quits. Shake hands and call a truce so to speak. Their fight was rather childish right now, so it shouldn't be too hard to convince them to give it up.

I raced after Tamaki-senpai, with the rest of the host club close behind.

As we got near to them they started yelling at each other again.

"I'm so sick of people thinking I'm you, I'm so fed up. Goddammit Kaoru I HATE YOU!" Hikaru screamed at his brother.

"Well I don't want to look like you at all, I'm so sick of having you as my brother. I don't care if you hate me, because I HATE YOU TOO!"

Hearing this brought back unwanted memories, about stupid fights, things that I couldn't take back. I tried to control my memories, but they wouldn't stay back, I couldn't just let them fight like this. It made me sick to my stomach to hear them, before one of them could utter another word, I stepped out.

"HEY!" I yelled, unaware that I was about to speak to them until the words left my lips.

They both turned to look at me, confused.

"This has gone way too far," I continued angrily. "It's one thing to pull stupid pranks on each other," I said shaking with barely suppressed rage.

"But to say that you hate each other," tears started filling my eyes before I could stop them,

"You say that now, but what if you can't ever take it back." I said, voice breaking.

"Here you are causing all this trouble, well you know what GROW UP." I shrieked, unable to get a handle on my emotions I let them fly.

"I get that siblings fight, I do okay I get it, but what if you say all these things you don't mean, and then you wake up and you can't take them back okay? WHAT THEN GUYS." Tears were sliding down my face now, "Now I want you two to make up, right now." I ordered, wiping the tears from my face.

"And I don't ever want you two to say those things again, whether it's some cruel joke or not. Do you think it's funny to say things like that? Do you think it's humorous to pretend to fight?" I said accusingly.

The entire host club looked at me with such shock, and such confusing; except in Kyouya-senpais case, he looked sympathetic.

"Don't look at me like that." I said to him, voice breaking, trying to hold back more tears.

"Haruhi—" He said reaching for me, but I back away, away from all of them.

As I caught the Kaoru's eye I saw him mouth, "We're sorry." And I knew that they were.

But their fighting had brought up such painful memories that I couldn't stand it. I hated that they had made a mock fight, which I had only realized seconds before I started yelling at them. It clued together when I realized a lot of their fighting had a negative effect on Tamaki-senapai. Before they had said they hated each other, I had tried to tune out the familiarity of sibling rivalry. I hadn't known how much their fight hurt me, until I heard them say it.

I started to walk away from the host club, but then I stopped myself.

I was never going to shut them out, I couldn't. But just because I couldn't shut them out, doesn't mean they need to know everything. I turned right back around, where they seemed frozen in the same spots.

"I can't talk about it, so don't ask." I started, trying to sound strong but failing.

I tried to search for something to say, something that would make sense, but was saved by Kyouya-senpai.

"You don't need to say anything else, let's all go back inside." He said.

I shot him a grateful look, relieved that nobody objected.

Everyone seemed to regard Kyouya-senpai curiously, he wasn't acting as cold as he normally did.

"I don't want to lose any more customers." He said stoically.

I was surprised when the twins each came and grabbed one of my hands.

I squeezed both their hands, unable to get words past the lump in my throat.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

The next day everything returned to something relatively normal.

Except what I was feeling wasn't normal for me, I felt lighter, maybe even relieved. It had been so long since I had just let my emotions take hold of me, just let go. And as weird as it sounds, I was glad that I did it. Don't get me wrong I was really embarrassed about how I acted in front of the host club, but I just hadn't been able to help myself. I felt like we had a sort of truce, where we could be friends even if I didn't share everything with them.

I was coming to terms with the fact that they may find out eventually, but I couldn't handle that being today. Just Hikaru and Kaoru's fight had been so hard to handle, bringing up any more painful memories would be too much.

I was a little bit scared of how they were going to treat me. They hadn't brought up the scar issue, but this was different. I just hoped and prayed to any higher power to help me, even though it never had before; prayed that they wouldn't treat me differently, that they wouldn't question, that we could all just be.

I was distracted for the day at school, and since our seating arrangements had been switched again I didn't have to directly face the twins. I took a deep breath outside the third music door, trying to calm my nerves.

Finally, I walked in and nothing happened.

They all said their greetings same as normal, and then returned to their customers.

I felt tears come into my eyes, but for once not because I was sad. I could have kissed them, all of them really. As it was I strolled across to an empty table.

On my way I saw that Hikaru and Kaoru still had died hair.

"Now let's play the 'which one is Hikaru' game!" They said mischievously.

"Oh I know," said one of the girls. "Hikaru is the one with the pink hair!" She finished happily.

"That's right they said smiling."

I walked past the twins, and that's when I noticed it.

"Hikaru, why do you have the blue hair today?" I said, a small smile forming on my

mouth.

Both of them just looked at me, stunned.

HIKARUS POV

How did she know?

It amazes me.

Haruhi amazes me.

We switched our hair for fun, to see if anyone would know. But they never know, except for Haruhi.

Even our own mother can't tell the difference, but then comes this girl.

She looked so relieved when no one said anything out of the ordinary today. I was still worried about her, she was way too skinny to be healthy, but I think that yelling at us yesterday had been good for her.

At the time I had been shocked, and embarrassed about what Kaoru and I did. But at the same time I was glad.

I was glad that we finally pushed her to the point where she revealed something, even just a little part of herself. And why she's so damn sad all the time.

I just want to hold her until she's not sad anymore.

But it's me and Kaoru; it'll always be me and Kaoru. There would be us, and those apart from us.

Maybe we can adopt her into our family, and then none of us will have to be alone.

I found myself watching her as she entertained her guests; she actually seemed to put some life into it today.

"Kaoru," I started, trying to put my feelings into words.

"I know." He said.

I didn't need to say anything more; he understood what I couldn't say.

I don't know what it is about Haruhi, but I'm oddly protective where she's concerned. All well, I'll need to think of something better for Kaoru and I to do; something that puts our troublemaking to good use.

I looked Haruhi's way again, and smiled at Kaoru.

"So do you think we really need an invitation to her house?" I said.

Kaoru smiled back, immediately understanding.

"I think an invitation has been implied somewhere." He said.

Haruhi has been trying to keep everyone away, but no matter how hard she tries it doesn't work. So we'll force our way in, and make her accept us.

Her shying away again is not an option.

I won't let her pull away from us again, I can't.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Haruhi's POV

After an almost normal day at school I made my way to work, not worrying about anything.

I walked into the door, and almost ran into someone.

"I'm sorry." I said.

"It's okay," He said, smiling at me.

There was nothing menacing I could detect in his smile, but it gave me a bad feeling all the same. I tried to shake it off, as Shigure approached us.

"Haruhi, I see that you've met my half-brother." He said, trying hard to be nonchalant.

"Hi, I'm Kokatsu," he said, smile still in place.

I thought I saw something like hunger flash in his eyes, but as soon as the thought formed it was gone.

I was probably imagining things, this had been my first good day, but I was still sleep deprived.

"It's nice to meet you, I'm Haruhi." I said, smiling uneasily.

"From what I hear we're going to get to know each other very well." He said pleasantly.

I shivered a little, it must have been a draft.

"Yes, well I should get to work." I said stepping around him.

I don't know what it is, but something about him makes me almost nervous. But that's weird; I should try to get along with him, for Shigure's sake. It must be tough for him. Feeling better for my resolve I started my work.

Little did I know that someone's eyes never left me for the entire night.

Okay so finally got this chapter up ! Don't hate me...I will TRY to update sooner. Review ! And thank you to my awesome beta for getting this back to me so quick :)