Hello my beautiful people ! I am sorry it has taken me so long to update, however the next chapter (which is incredibly long I might add) has already been written ! So I'm giving you kids a week to enjoy this little appetizer, and then the main course chapter will be served next week ! So I apologize for the shortness, but I wanted to split the chapter up a bit since it was 25 pages and just short of ten thousand words. ANYWAY, enjoy, review, all that jazz.

Disclaimer: I still own nothing, sadly that fact is never going to change.

Chapter 13

I expected it would be just another Friday with the host club. After our adventure at the resort things had been pretty relaxed and, to be honest, I was kind of enjoying it.

"Ready for the beach?" Asked the twins excitedly.

I shot them a look of confusion.

"The beach?" I asked.

Although I had expressed interest in going to the beach, I hadn't thought they'd actually been listening.

"Yes, you said you wanted to see the ocean!" Hikaru said.

"So where to, the Caribbean? Fiji?" asked Kaoru, bouncing on the spot.

"Look I don't have any money to afford that kind of thing..." I said, not relishing the idea.

"We can see about lending you some money. With compounded interest, of course." Kyouya-senpai smirked at me.

Always looking for personal gain. Glad some things never change.

"We even have a swimming suit for you!" The twins said, regaining my attention.

They pulled out, seemingly from nowhere, a mannequin with a swimsuit on it. It included a pink ruffled bikini top and matching bottoms. Not at all suited to my tastes, not that I had been wearing bathing suits recently.

There was nothing they could say or do that would make me put on that swimsuit. Not only was it obnoxiously pink, but it would have revealed my scar for the entire host club to see.

"I like this kind of swimsuit better!" Honey-senpai said, pointing to another swimsuit among the many Kaoru and Hikaru seemed to be in possession of. This one was a navy blue one piece with some added frills at the side.

At least it wasn't pink.

"No, no!" Hikaru and Kaoru cried together.

"You see, Haruhi pretty much has no chest. So a one piece would reveal the weakness of her figure. See the frills cover up that washboard chest of hers." They explained, with the utmost sincerity.

It stung a little bit, to hear them speak about my body like that. However, they may have had a point.

Really, what did it matter anyway? It's not like I have any romantic interest in them, so who cares?

'You do.' Whispered a mocking voice in the back of my mind.

I promptly shut down that train of thought, and shot Kaoru and Hikaru a scathing look.

"Thank you, It's not like I'm standing right here or anything." I said, my voice dripping with sarcasm.

"ARE YOU SEXUALLY HARASSING MY DAUGHTER, BASTARDS?" Yelled Tamaki-senpai, rampaging in.

His face grew pink as he yelled at them about treating their sister with more respect. I guess I was the sister?

Over the ruckus I heard Kyouya-senpai.

"Is it my fate to be saddled with three kids at only 17?" He sounded exasperated.

Was Kyouya-senpai cracking jokes? I was startled into a laugh. He shot me a somewhat crooked smile, and I couldn't help but smile in return. Ordinarily, Kyouya-senpai was distant, but every once in a while he would show me just a glimmer of another side to him. I tried not to read too far into it, but I liked that he chose to share that part of himself with me.

"Of course we are still going to the ocean!" Tamaki-senpai broke into my thoughts, answering a question posed by the twins I presumed.

"Its settled then." Said the twins, matching smiles and all.

"I have no objections." Stated Kyouya-senpai calmly, his reserved demeanour back once again as he noted something down in that little book of his.

"Then lets go to the beach!" Tamaki-senpai announced happily pointed dramatically upwards.

I had assumed that going to the beach would mean a break from hosting duties. I had assumed incorrectly. Kyouya-senpai had decided to make this a field trip that included as many guests as possible.

This was typical of him, combining pleasure and profit to suit his needs.

I was comfortably lounging in the sand, watching Tamaki-senpai charm the gaggle of girls surrounding him. I couldn't hear the words he was saying, but from the look on the girls faces it was something soppy and romantic.

However, the scene became a lot less romantic when one actually observed the line up of girls waiting for their chance at Tamaki-senpai's attentions. It was sad really.

In all honesty I couldn't complain about these girls. I had been subject to that spellbinding gaze Tamaki-senpai could project with those violet-blue eyes of his and knew better than some that it wasn't an easy thing to resist - and I wasn't even half in love with him, unlike these girls.

I stayed there watching him for a moment, admiring the ease with which he portrayed himself. I was pulled out of my musings by a splash of water on my face.

I looked up, prepared to yell at the twins for their devilish behaviour, but was surprised to find a few of the girls had been the culprits.

"Haruhi why aren't you swimming?" Giggled one of the girls.

"I like watching more." I smiled at them.

"Do you want to watch together?" Another girl asked imploringly, a look of hope on her face.

I knew it was time to pull some charm out of my ass.

"Why, you go on. We don't want those cute swimsuits to go to waste." I said smiling, head tilted, eyelids drooping slightly.

I felt kind of stupid, but if the blushes on the girls faces were any indication, I had been successful. What did Tamaki-senpai know?

Speaking of Tamaki-senpai, I could feel eyes on me, and I wasn't surprised at all when I turned around to find Hikaru, Kaoru, and Tamaki-senpai staring at me. They sometimes did that when I played the part of the host especially well. It was almost comical, the expression on their faces, though I couldn't identify what exactly that expression meant.

I turned away and tried to enjoy the view.

I hadn't been to the ocean in years. The last time we'd come I'd only been a kid.

Even though I was much older this time round, the immense landscape stretching before my eyes made me feel just as insignificant and small. I felt that I could watch the ripples and waves crash towards me forever, caressing the sand of the beach only to retreat once again. Still, no matter how many times the waves left the beach, they always came back. It was almost romantic, the pull that this enormous entity submitted to. It was eternal, unchanging, and beautiful in its magnificence. Calming.

I stayed like this for a while, not moving. That is, until Honey-senpai decided to come running up to me.

"Haru-chan! Do you want to go shellfish hunting?!" He shouted eagerly, childlike enthusiasm written all over his face as he hopped around.

I couldn't help but smile, "Honey-senpai I don't think that you'll find many shellfish, it doesn't seem to be that kind of beach.." I trailed off as I looked at the bucket he had already collected.

"What the hell?!" I exclaimed out loud, eyes wide.

Myriads of different shellfish seemed to be appearing from nowhere. No, wait, they were coming from one specific area. I made my way around a collection of large rocks, to see Kyouya-senpai and his family's police force shipping out buckets of shellfish.

Kyouya-senpai met mine and Mori-senpai's questioning gaze easily.

"My family's police force stopped by, they wanted to make it up to Honey-senpai from the water park." Kyouya-senpai said. Referring to the incident where his police force had tried to attack Honey-senpai.

Although one would assume with his childlike stature and demeanour that he would have been hurt, it was quite the opposite. He descended from a long line of professional fighters, and was frighteningly adept at the art.

Honey-senpai and I spent a while collecting shellfish together, which was fun. It was nice to joke around with someone so light hearted and happy. Honey-senpai's happiness seemed contagious, and I found myself smiling more than I had in ages. Mori-senpai was there too, of course, never far from Honey-senpai. Naturally, he didn't say much, but I think that he was enjoying himself too.

"Looks like we're going to be having an excellent dinner tonight." I grinned.

I had always loved seafood.

"Well looks like everyone is happy." I heard Tamaki-senpai say to Mori-senpai.

"Senpai!" I yelled, "Look at all the seafood we collected!" I said, Honey-senpai's childish nature rubbing off on me.

I felt almost free, free of the burdens that plagued me in every day life. Even better, I felt like a kid again. I had been forced to grow up too quickly, after everything, but now I was just letting myself enjoy the sun and the warm ocean breeze.

Tamaki-senpai rewarded me with a stunning smile, which I returned.

"I'm so proud! Look at my little girl!" He said.

I continued to grin impishly, not at all deterred by the patronizing tone in his voice.

"Haruhi, isn't this crab...crabtivating?" He asked playfully.

My new found mirth bid me laugh at this statement, "Oh yeah," I said smiling at his silly pun.

"You're so cute," He said, boyish exultation plain on his face.

A look of shock replaced his face when a large centipede started crawling out of the crab he was holding. Oh boy.

Once the girls saw the reason for his distress they ran screaming, as did Hikaru and Kaoru. Tamaki-senpai seemed terrified, so I decided I needed to deal with it.

I simply grabbed the centipede, brought it over to a rock formation and flung it out of the way.

"Now Haruhi," began Hikaru, both the twins resting an arm on each of my shoulders.

"I know that most girls aren't the bug loving type, and I certainly didn't think you were." He continued.

"But don't you think you could have been easier on the little guy?" Kaoru finished for his brother.

"Oh come on guys," I said rolling my eyes. "I didn't kill it."

Seeing that the perceived danger had passed, the girls made their way back to the twins and me. I heard them whispering of how brave I was, so manly and still so sweet.

It really was too much. Were they all that scared of a little bug? I had seen terrible things in the world, but a bug really couldn't do them any harm. Not the way that people could.

I immediately halted this train of thought.

Dammit.

I had been having such a perfect day, I should have known it couldn't last.

I didn't want the host club to take note of my distress, so I distracted myself by trying to charm the horde of girls that had surrounded me.

KAORU'S POV

"Well would you look at that," I said to my brother and Tamaki.

"Haruhi is not normal. I thought girls were supposed to be afraid of bugs." Hikaru added.

"Well, she has to be afraid of something," Tamaki mused.

I had an excellent idea for a game just then, and from a glance at Hikaru I knew that he was thinking the exact same thing. We grinned at each other, and then turned to Tamaki-senpai.

"Hey boss, we just thought of a new game to play, its called the 'find out what Haruhi is scared of game'." We said in synchronization as usual.

Obviously this game wouldn't cover whatever had happened to make her so horribly sad all the time. That would be cruel, and neither Hikaru nor I wanted to be cruel to Haruhi. We were thinking more along the lines of little things like bugs, and snakes.

Haruhi really was amazing. She had obviously been through a lot, but she still tried to be self sufficient. She may not look it, but she was pretty tough.

I knew Hikaru thought the same, which worried me. He had pushed her too far, and while it had turned out well for us in the end, I was scared he would keep trying to get closer to her. I didn't think she could handle that right now.

I looked to Tamaki-senpai and saw the exact same expression on his face, but he's still an idiot, especially when his own feelings are concerned, so I'm not worried about that. Yet.

"I don't know, that sounds like kind of an awful game.." He said, uncharacteristically serious.

"Not like that, just something like bugs or the dark." Hikaru said, trying to keep the mood light.

He still seemed skeptical, so Hikaru and I figured that he would need to be convinced. In sync, and without even a glance at each other we turned and started to walk off.

"Ah well, I mean she would only really share a weakness with someone she was really close to." We said in union.

Without even looking, I knew that we had struck a chord with Tamaki-senpai. And exactly as we expected, he accepted the test.

"What are the rules?" He asked, his voice challenging.

"The deadline is sunset tomorrow, whoever finds her weakness first wins." We said, smiling mischievously.

"I have a prize for the winner." Kyouya-senpai said, breaking into the conversation, an evil smile forming.

He produced, seemingly from no where, pictures of Haruhi in what I assumed was the year before we met her.

Tamaki-senpai, Hikaru and I just stared.

She was so unbelievably cute.

Suddenly, with the stakes higher, the game had gotten a lot more competitive, with even Mori-senpai and Honey-senpai deciding to join in.

Tamaki-senpai looked desperate to get those pictures, and I'll admit, I wanted them pretty damn badly myself. In those pictures she looked happier than I had ever seen her.

Her dark eyes were shining, her even darker hair flowing long down her back. It made me sad that we had never seen this part of her, I don't know if we ever will either.

"Where did you get those pictures Kyo-chan?" Asked Honey-senpai.

Kyouya-senpai decided to actually answer Honey-senpai, unlike the ten times that Tamaki-senpai had just asked the question.

"Well, let's just say that I have my sources and we'll leave it at that." He said, dismissing further questions on the subject.

Kyouya-senpai obviously knew what was up with Haruhi. But as certain as I was that he knew, I was equally certain that he wouldn't tell us.

It kind of pissed me off, to know that Kyouya-senpai had a better understanding of Haruhi, but I tried not to let it show. She would tell us when she was ready, if she was ever ready.

Hikaru grabbed my arm so that we could devise a plan, and I put my thoughts of Haruhi's problems on hold, for the moment at least.

Once again I apologize for the lameness but I promise that it is setting up for some better stuff ! Those of you who know the chapter/episode this is know that to be the case. As always tell me what you think and I will update again for you lovelies next week! R&R