Of How Far He Will Go

by KageNoNeko

Summary:

Haruhi said some misguided words and now she is injuried. Tamaki goes all the way for her. Along the way, things change between the two of them.

Chapter 1

Breathing heavily, she was holding her handkerchief to the deep cut on her right hand trying to stem the bleeding. Her current predicament, her bleeding hand, was the result of some misguided words said to some upperclassmen, who just happened to be from several yazuka families. After those words had fallen from her mouth, she regretted it because she had to begin a full-out run and it wasn't all that pretty.

<<<Flashback>>>

She was late for the host club, and running into some upperclassmen was not the plan, especially when they turn out to be yazuka. After some misguided words, she had to run away from them. They chased her through the hallways on the first floor and cornered her. With no other choice, she ran out the slightly open window, cutting her right hand when the glass gave way to make room for her flight. Once on the ground, she pulled out her handkerchief and wrapped it around her hand before she ran into the maze to lose the upperclassmen chasing her.

>>>End Flashback<<<

So, here she was lost and bleeding without anything better than the handkerchief to stop the bleeding (she really wasn't crazy about using her uniform). Now she was wishing that her senpai's concern, which he had labeled to be the same as what her dad's concern would be, would make him come find her before the bleeding got any worse.

 

;_;

Tamaki, since the moment the twins step into the third music room without Haruhi, was concern about the only female host. When two of Haruhi's regulars came by and asked to speak to Kyoya alone, he grew even more worried because of those two girls' faces. He was pacing the floor, and when Kyoya was done talking with the girls, he stopped to look at the Shadow King's face. "Tamaki, go fetch several reusable water bottles and fill them up. We have a little mission to go on," said Kyoya sternly.

"Kyo-chan, what is this mission?" Honey asked as Tamaki had left to go to get the water bottles.

"Honey-senpai, Haruhi was cornered by some yazuka and escaped through a window on the first floor," said Kyoya as Tamaki returned with three water bottles. "Her regulars left as soon as they saw her escaping out the window, so I really don't know her condition or anything."

Tamaki mouth dropped upon hearing what Kyoya said. "What do you mean, Kyoya?" Tamaki asked.

"We are going to make sure Haruhi isn't hurt and take care of the yazuka that was chasing her. Tamaki, put those in this bag," said Kyoya as he held up a duffel bag with the Ootori family logo on it. "A basic first-aid kit is in here just in case. We are going to the window that Haruhi escaped from."

;_;

When the six host club members came upon the window, they were horrified and stunned. The glass was broken, and on the glass was blood, a huge amount of, possibly Haruhi's, blood. It took awhile before Kyoya shouted his first commands to the group. Hikaru and Kaoru ran off to find Kassonova, or Bossa Nova as they called him, when Kyoya commanded them. Then he ordered Mori to stay with him and gave Tamaki the duffel bag. "Go find her and stop thinking your concern for her is because you are her father. You are not, Tamaki. Think of her in a different way! She needs you to stop calling her 'daughter,'" said Kyoya to Tamaki before turning to towards the boy-like senior. "Go with him, Honey-senpai. He will need you just in case the yazuka are around. Call when you find her."

"Kyoya...."

"Yes, Tamaki."

"If I'm not her father, why do I feel like I need to protect her like a father does?"

"You need to figure that out on your own. Now, go! Haruhi may need your help, and every minute counts," said Kyoya urging them.

Tamaki waved to Kyoya before he followed Honey to a nearby door and into the outside world.

;_;

Tamaki was running with all his might to keep up with Honey-senpai, who had found a trail of blood on the ground. The blood trail was so faint that Honey had almost missed it but was able to follow it. As they were following it, Tamaki was thinking about what Kyoya had said and was so caught up in these thoughts that he almost didn't notice that Honey had stopped. Now stopped, Tamaki looked at the ground where Honey was looking and saw a large bloody spot. Tamaki called out her name and was relieved when he heard Haruhi's weak cry out to them. Both ran towards her, and once they saw her with the handkerchief soaked in her blood, Tamaki called Kyoya. "We found her," said Tamaki as he slowed down to talk to Kyoya and Honey reached the injured girl.

"How is she?" Kyoya asked.

"Her hand is bleeding," said Tamaki calmly.

"Tamaki, stay calm for her. She will need it. Now put me on speaker phone. You and Honey-senpai will need to have both of your hands free," said Kyoya through the phone as Tamaki reached Haruhi.

Tamaki sat down next to Haruhi before he switched Kyoya to speaker phone. "Go ahead Kyoya," said Tamaki.

"How bad is it?" Kyoya asked, his voice coming from the phone now laying on the ground.

"I've been trying to stop it with my handkerchief," said Haruhi weakly.

"You sound absolutely terrible, Haruhi," said Kyoya with the most concern in his voice. "I will get Mori-senpai to bring you more water. You will be needing it. Tamaki, get out everything in the duffel bag. Once you are done with that, you will hold her and help her drink the water. Honey-senpai, take the first-aid kit and grab the gauze. Use the gauze and place as much pressure on the wound. Once the bleeding slows, you will remove the gauze and start cleaning it with hydrogen peroxide. Then put gauze on it again and then wrap it. Any questions."

"No," said Tamaki as he finished unpacking the supplies.

"Kyo-chan, we should do fine," said Honey-senpai taking the first-aid kit.

"Haruhi?" Kyoya asked.

'What...?" She asked trailing of.

"Don't fall asleep. Speak up if you don't feel well. I will be still on the phone, but you three will be mostly on your own. Mori-senpai should be able to reach you within an hour and should have the nurse that did your physical exam, Haruhi," said Kyoya before the phone became silent.

Tamaki looked at Haruhi and gave her a smile before unscrewing the cap on one of the water bottles. As Tamaki slid behind her, Honey removed the bloody handkerchief (causing Haruhi to cringe in pain) and placed the gauze in its place, putting pressure on it. While Honey was holding the gauze, Tamaki was helping Haruhi drink the water and allowed her to lean her back against him causing the words that Kyoya had said to him earlier to come back to him.

When he unscrewed the second water bottle, Honey removed the gauze and began to clean her hand. As the cleaning progressed, she didn't vocalize her pain and kept drinking the water offered to her, but Tamaki noticed her left hand was digging into the ground and took it into his hand. Honey-senpai began to wrap her hand once he finished cleaning her hand. Then Tamaki unscrewed the cap on the last water bottle.

By the time Mori reached them with the nurse, Haruhi had finished off the last of the water that had first been brought, and blood was starting to seep through the bandages on her hand, but it wasn't as bad as when they first found her. While the nurse looked at her hand, Mori unscrewed the cap off of the water bottle and handed it to Tamaki. Then Tamaki thanked Mori before helping Haruhi drink more water. As she drank more water, the nurse unwrapped the bandages and wrapped her hand in fresh bandages.

"That should slow the bleeding down, but it's not stopping," said the nurse before looking at Tamaki. "She needs to go to the hospital. They should be able to stop the bleeding."

"Thank you," said Tamaki before getting up and offering his hand to Haruhi. "Here, I'll help you up Haruhi."

"It might be better if you carry her," said the nurse gaining Tamaki's attention. "She hasn't lost enough blood yet to be called anemic, but she may if her wound starts bleeding more profusely."

"I just want to sleep," she muttered from her position on the ground, not noticing the hand that was being offered to her. "Ran too much."

"Then do you feel lightheaded or anything different?" The nurse asked Haruhi.

"Just tired," she said as Tamaki knelt beside her.

"You probably can sleep for a few minutes, but you will have to deal with them waking you up every few minutes," said the nurse.

"How long?”

“Probably five minutes at the max before...,” said the nurse as she noticed that Haruhi had fallen asleep when Tamaki had drawn her into his arms. “That didn't take long.”

“Haru-chan's probably really tired if she had to run from the school to here,” said Honey-senpai as Tamaki began shifting Haruhi into a better position.

“Yeah, she probably is,” said Tamaki as he stood up with her in his arms.

<<<<<<>>>>>>>>

The noises around her and an ER doc examining her hand kept her awake since she had arrived at the hospital. Her overwhelming desire for sleep was still as demanding as ever, but she was also curious about what the doctor was going to say about her hand. When the doctor left for a third time to check the blood tests without telling her about her hand, she tried to sleep for the first time since she had entered this hospital. However as she tried to sleep, she couldn't get comfy, and no matter how many time she tried to find a spot for her to be more comfy in, she couldn't.

As she turned on to her side away from the door, the door opened, and someone came in and sat down in the chair behind her. During the turn, she caught a hint of blonde hair and knew who had entered. "What, senpai?" She asked, her tiredness evident in her voice.

"The nurse asked for one of us to give you some company for a while, and Kyoya threatened me if I didn't do it," said Tamaki, mentally adding 'with the twins being the ones to choose the next five cosplay themes.'

A slightly awkward silence followed because for once Tamaki didn't want to be his usually talkative self and Haruhi was too tired to talk. It was only broken when the doctor returned with another doctor causing Haruhi to roll over on to her back. "Doctor Takahashi, here," the ER doctor said gesturing to the other doctor, "will be looking at your hand and will determine how to sew up your cut. I have your blood tests results, and I'm quite concerned about your blood count. You might be needing a blood transfusion depending on what Takahashi needs to do to your cut."

The other doctor, Takahashi, went to her right side and unwrapped her hand for the second time that night. Haruhi closed her eyes, and Tamaki moved his chair closer to her and took her other hand into his, lightly squeezing it to make sure she knew he was holding. After a few minutes, Dr. Takahashi wrapped her hand in fresh bandages and let out a sigh. "You have choices," he said. "It's too deep for me to do it here. The anesthetic wouldn't last long enough. It's either general anesthesia or regional."

"What's regional?" Haruhi asked.

"You'll be awake for it and your whole arm will be numb until we are done. Personally, I would choose regional because there's less side effects," said Dr. Takahashi. "Also we will allow one of your friends to be with you while we are fixing up your hand."

"I would prefer that instead of being asleep," said Haruhi softly.

"Well, then, I will let the ER doc do what he needs to for you and will leave to get ready," said Dr. Takahashi before leaving.

"I think it might be a good ideal for me to give you the blood transfusion before your cut gets sewed up," said the ER doctor. "I'll go and tell the nurses what will be happening next. One of them will come back and start the IV for the transfusion."

The doctor bowed and left the two alone in the room. A silence in the room, however, did not have a chance to develop. "Haruhi," Tamaki said softly, "I'm going to tell the others what is going on, but do you want me to stay awhile or leave now?"

"Now. I want someone to be there later."

"No Kyoya," Tamaki said as stood up. He then went over to her and began to pull up the sheet so that it would cover her upper body more so than just her legs. "No Hikaru," he said causing her to smile slightly.

"He isn't good without his brother."

"You're right. I guess I should get going. See you later," Tamaki said before leaving the room.

;_;

When the anesthesiologist had finished getting her right arm numb with the medicines, he helped her lay down on the operating table before he started to talk to her about things while doing some things nearby. He told her what she should expect (the possibility of being given a sedative), what she needed to speak up about (pain control), and how long the numbing medicine was going to last (at the minimum of twenty-five minutes to a maximum of forty minutes). Once he had placed a nasal cannula on her, she closed her eyes tightly, and as he was getting up, he noticed. "I'll tell your friend that you need some distractions. Would that help?" He asked.

"Please do so," she said softly.

The anesthesiologist nodded and then went off leaving her alone. She was so focused on trying to block out everything that she didn't realize that Tamaki had sat down near her until he started to run his fingers against her left side of her chest. It made her relax enough that she opened her eyes to look and see Tamaki before closing her eyes again. As he continued to do that, she remembered how her mom would do it to help her to get to sleep, and those memories of her mom made her forget where she was until Tamaki squeezed her shoulder. She opened her eyes, out of her memories, and saw Tamaki smiling at her before the anesthesiologist got her attention.

"Dr. Takahashi is almost done and wants me to administer a sedative. Giving you a sedative now will make sure you don't remember too much when the medicine that's numbing your arm wears off. I'll be trying to give you the right amount of pain medication so that you don't feel too much pain. So are you okay with me administering the sedative now?" The anesthesiologist asked.

"I don't care," she said softly.

"Okay. When I give you it, you will be a little drowsy and may fall asleep. That's all normal," said the anesthesiologist before disappearing from her eyesight.

As the anesthesiologist was busying himself with other things, Tamaki began to run his fingers against her left side of her chest. He leaned down and whispered a promise that he would try to stay by her side as long as possible. After he told her that, her memories were all crammed together and trying to remember them was difficult. She could remember clearly Tamaki picking her up at the end of the surgery (not of him laying her down again), the rest of host club coming to visit her, and the red bag--blood--hanging next to the clear IV one. She knew she felt pain but couldn't remember how bad it was or that she had moaned slightly. As the sedative was starting to wear off, she was napping in an attempt to regain her energy that had been spent through running, but before she slipped off to sleep for one of her naps, she noticed her injured hand was in a brace.

:-:

*She smiled into her pillow, wondering if she should go to that other place that was further away to do the dry cleaning there. When she heard a chuckle and her pillow happened to move at the same time, Haruhi became fully awake and aware of her surroundings. Wiping drool from her mouth, she glared at her senpai, who was covered by a nice soft blanket and happened to be the pillow that she was using. Under her glare, he stopped laughing and quickly began to explain himself. "You did something cute, and I couldn't help it. I don't think you realized it, but you did mumble in your sleep."

Haruhi, embarrassed, looked away from Tamaki and saw her surroundings for the first time since she woke."Where are we?" She asked realizing she was somewhere that she had never seen before.

"At my mansion. The sitting room," said Tamaki. "Dinner will be soon. The chef is making sure there is enough iron-rich dishes for you."

"Oh," she said as she looked around until her eyes saw a piano sitting in the room.

"Would you like me to play something for you?" Tamaki asked her.

"I wouldn't mind," she said as she leaned back against the back of the couch they were sitting on.

"How are you feeling?" He asked as he got up and started to make his way to the piano.

"I'm not as tired as I was before."

"Good," he said as he sat down at the piano. "Do you have a preference for what I play?"

"Play what ever you want," she said before he went ahead and started.

The music that soon came from the piano was energetic and fast pace, but at the same held a sorrowful quality to it that made Haruhi want to cry. The battle to not cry became a losing one that she gave up and laid down on her side before facing the back of the couch, finally allowing herself to cry silent tears. With her tears, she began to reflect upon all that happened today, even though today wasn't over yet, and the words she had said without a thought that had caused this.

Tamaki had finished the song and got up, catching sight of Haruhi with her back turned away from him. Curious, Tamaki went up to her and saw her face with tear tracks on it. It jerked his heart to see her like that, but he knew that the song he played stirred many emotions and memories in people. "You're not immune to that song. Everyone who has heard it has cried," said Tamaki as he took out his handkerchief, remembering something. "Ah your handkerchief, the twins picked up and are going to try to clean it for you."

Not paying attention to what Tamaki said, Haruhi closed her eyes, fully resigned that Tamaki will try to wipe her face of the offending tear tracks. As he gently touched the back of her head and began to wipe her face, her surprised caused her to tense up enough that he noticed. He started to whisper nothings to her, and she was merely content to allow him to do so (she was quite surprised that she was doing so). When he was done, she opened her eyes slowly and glanced up at him, not sure if she should glare at him for choosing the piece that made her cry or not.

Tamaki, watching her, was amused by her facial expression as they seemed to be changing from one thing to another, but he didn't have the chance to make a comment about her changing expressions because Shima came in to announce that dinner was ready. Tamaki answered in a way so that it was known that he heard before helping Haruhi to her feet. Following Shima, he leads her and would cast some glances back making sure she was still able to keep up. A few times, he would go back and ask her about how she was feeling. She would always reply that she was fine, but her annoyance at him for asking it so often was apparent.

When they reached the dinning room, Tamaki took the head of the table while Haruhi was given the seat on his left and the others took their seats arbitrary. As the food was brought out, food that had the extra iron that Haruhi needed was placed the closest to her, and the boys tried to encourage her to try everything which wasn't too hard to do. As they were getting closer to the end of their meal, thunder decided to sound its cry

Before Haruhi had time to react fully to the sound, Tamaki was standing next to her, pulling her upper body against his chest. "You need to keep eating. If you do that, we will make sure you won't know about the storm," he said holding her against him.

She nodded slightly and tried to continue eating, but when thunder sounded again, she froze up. The next few things happened fast, but eventually, she ended up on Tamaki's lap with the twins whispering into her ears and the other three host club members were sending her smiles of encouragement. However, none of that made her comfortable again to stop her fears from having reign over.

Eventually, Tamaki took notice of her fear-ruled state and began to run his fingers against her chest causing her to finally relaxed. At least, she was able to continue to eat between moments of thunder and found comfort in all of them being around her, but she found focusing on Tamaki gentle grip around her waist and his body snug against hers the most comforting of all. When she was done eating, she just wanted to go and hide from the storm that was continuing outside, but the boys took her underneath the table, and Tamaki asked Shima to get some blankets before he went under with them. They all hugged her except Kyoya who gave her a pat on her head. At least, being around them made it so that the storm didn't seem all that scary, and she only jumped in fright when thunder let out its loudest of roars.

When the blankets came, they all fussed over her (Mori and Kyoya not so much) and wrapped her tightly in the blankets, so that she couldn't move at all. Then the warmth of the blankets started to get to her and make her sleepy that she closed her eyes when the boys started to move her to another one of them. As the multitude of arms became one set, she sighed lightly in bliss before trying to get closer to the owner of the arms that were around her. With a full stomach and the warmth, she found herself falling asleep, but Tamaki, and maybe Kyoya, warned her that they were going to be waking her up every two hours to check on her before she was able to tune out her surroundings and fell asleep.

;_;

He was massaging her hand while waiting for her to wake up. Kyoya had decided after they had put her in bed the night before that Tamaki would be the one to clean her hand in the morning. He tried to argue out of it but couldn't, and he had to accept the fact that he was going to have to inflict pain on his "daughter" (however, at the moment, he was having one of the many periods of doubt about her being his daughter). Tamaki gazed at Haruhi and then at the night stand that held all the objects that would be needed to clean her hand.

Upon the night stand was fresh bandages, cotton balls and tips, a cloth, a hydrogen peroxide bottle, and a sealed plastic bag with a cloth in it. The cloth inside the bag was like the many other cloths in other similar bags that Dr. Takahashi had given them before they had left the hospital the previous night. Dr. Takahashi told them that they were to have her put the cloth in her mouth whenever they were cleaning her wound and instruct her to bite it when she felt pain. When she would bite it, Dr. Takahashi stated, the cloth would release some pain medicine that would be effective within a few minutes. When he had explained it, Tamaki didn't understand how it would but only cared about it being able to work, for Haruhi's sake.

When she awoke, she felt much better than what she did last night and all the times her friends had woken her up to give her an iron-rich snack and pain medicine if she needed it. Before opening her eyes, she tried to stretch but found she was bundled up in blankets again, and someone was massaging her injured hand. "Haruhi," he said lightly causing her eyes to open and register that it was only her highly "respected" senpai massaging her hand.

"Tamaki-senpai," she started, trying to debate what to ask.

"Haruhi," Tamaki said butting in before she could decide, "I'm going to be cleaning your hand, but would you like to see it before I clean it?"

"Please, let me see it."

He nodded in agreement and began unwrapping the bandages from her hand. When the last of the bandages was pulled away, an ugly red line was revealed with small black lines going across it. "Does it hurt at the moment?" He asked.

"Not at the moment, but...."

"Dr. Takahashi gave us something to help make you don't feel pain too much while cleaning it," said Tamaki as he laid her hand on the bed and reached over to the night stand to pull out the cloth that was soaked in pain medicine from its sealed bag. "This cloth will be in your mouth, and whenever you feel pain while I'm cleaning your hand, you're suppose to bite it."

"Senpai, you better not do anything," she said bluntly, but not too blunt so that he wouldn't go to his corner of woe.

"Then are you allowing me to put this cloth in your mouth?" He asked.

"Yes, senpai."

He smiled brilliantly at her before she rolled her eyes and then opened her mouth so that he could put the cloth in it. Once he had done that task, she closed her mouth gently on the cloth, and he wrapped her fingers in some sort of cloth so that she couldn't move them too much. When he started to open the bottle on the night stand, she turned her head away from him and closed her eyes before he started to clean her wound. It didn't take long for her to be biting down on the cloth against the pain. When the pain finally receded to a dull ache, she noticed that with his hand holding her hand in place, he was rubbing his thumb lightly against hers. She relaxed and somehow lost track of time that she only noticed how much time had went by when Tamaki was shaking her and her hand was back in the brace.

"Did you fell asleep?" He asked her once she looked up in his direction.

As she was about to open her mouth to say something, she remembered that she still had a cloth in her mouth and needed to take it out. As she was about to remove the offending cloth, Tamaki had already taken it out without her feeling it much. "No, I did not," she said after realizing the cloth was no longer in her mouth.

"We have an hour before breakfast is ready," he said as he unwrapped her from her blanket prison. "Is there anything you want to do since you can't go to school today?"

She looked away from him to try hiding her slight unhappiness about not being able to school, even though the doctor had ordered her not to go to school. "Maybe I should get dress and call Dad," she said more quietly than her usual loudness.

"He would probably like to hear about how you are doing," said Tamaki with a gentle smile.

"Then get out senpai, so I can get dress," she said.

"Ah, yeah, I should,” Tamaki screeched loudly, falling back into his father persona, “and I will wait outside, my daughter. I don't want you to get lost!”

As he dashed out of the room and shut the door behind him, Haruhi rolled her eyes as she gathered her clothes for the day.

;_;

Waking up the next day to her senpai shaking her awake, she tried to talk only to find she could not even talk. Tamaki, with a hurt look on his face, began telling her how he had been awoken by her screaming in her sleep several times. However, when he checked on her, he told her, the screaming had stopped. At school, her inability to talk brought her much sympathy of her classmates, who decided to crowd around her and voice their sympathies. During one of the breaks between classes, she had to go to the bathroom, but all the girls wanted to follow her to help. With several of her written confirmations that she would be able to handle going to the bathroom alone, the girls allowed Haruhi to go alone but promised to go looking for her if she took too long. However, now that she was a few paces away from the private bathroom that she had just used, the bullies who had chased her before spotted her and began chasing her. As she ran and ran as fast as she could, she was wishing the girls had come as she was starting to feel out of breath.

As she neared her classroom, she saw two of her guests and was relieved so much that she couldn't stay up on her feet. Rushing to her as she was falling, Sakurazuka and Kuragano, her regulars, reached her in time to slow her decent to the ground. Sakurazuka-san and Kuragano-san then helped her roll over on to her back as someone from their class grabbed the twins. Her memories after being rolled over to her back weren't much except she did remember Tamaki. He had picked her and whispered to her that a doctor had been called to check on her and that someone was going to be watching her in the third music room.

:_;

When she woke at lunch time, Tamaki was crouched next to the couch she was laying upon and running his fingers against the side of her chest. She smiled slightly and pushed herself up to a sitting position. "Are you ready to eat lunch?" Tamaki asked. She nodded, and Tamaki help her to her feet before he began talking again. "Oh, my dad, he will be back to watch you before I leave. He went to talk to your dad. I don't know why. Oh, everyone in my class..."

When she heard Tamaki say that the chairman, his dad, was going to talk to her dad, she slowly tuned out Tamaki and began to remember what had went on between her and the chairman. He had only asked one question: What did she feel for his son? Being unable to talk, she wrote down what she felt about Tamaki, which was making her confused because they were so foreign to her. After he had read it, Yuzuru folded up the paper that her response was on and slipped it in to one of his pockets. He gave her smile and replied with an “I thought so,” before he went back to his table with his work on it. His behavior had given her weird vibes, and even now, as she thought about those vibes, she couldn't help, but wonder what he was doing with that piece of paper that held her response on it.

When Tamaki placed some chopsticks into her hand, she realized that she was sitting once again before a tray of excellent food. Excited like always when she would get food that her classmates could afford, she moved her lips in the way how they would move if she was able to utter the traditional greeting. However, as she began to eat, she noticed that Tamaki wasn't eating. She raised her eyebrows in his direction, hoping that he wasn't like the twins and could read her actions.

"Kyoya is bringing up my food. I wanted to make sure that you got to eat."

She nodded in thanks before continuing to eat, but when his stomach growled, she quickly rummages through her plate for something that she didn't quite care for and offered it to him. He smiled before taking the piece of food she had offered right when Kyoya entered silently. After putting the two trays he was carrying on the floor, Kyoya taking a quick picture of the two on his phone and emailing it to both of the doting fathers of the host club before picking up the trays again and walking further into the room with Tamaki's and his food. "Tamaki, were you spoiling your lunch?" He asked.

"I can never refuse an offer for food," said Tamaki as he took the tray of his food from Kyoya.

"You can't refuse, huh?" The shadow king said as he sat down his tray before looking at Haruhi. "How are you doing then? The guests have all came up to me to ask about you and have told me that they will be getting you something to help with getting your voice back."

Once Kyoya finished, she stopped eating to think about what he said about the guests and the question that he asked. She appreciated that the guests had asked about her and such, but she didn't think much about it because she was thinking about how to say that she was somewhat okay to answer Kyoya. Finally, she found something that would work from another cultural to communicate that she was okay. Doing the gesture that required her to rock her hand back and forth caused Tamaki's eyes to light up with understanding while Kyoya's face remained completely blank with glasses hiding his eyes completely. "What are you trying to say?" Kyoya asked.

"Were you trying to say okay?" Tamaki asked quickly after Tamaki and received a nod.

"Ah. You should probably finish eating. Drink your milk as well, Haruhi. It should help with your voice to return quicker," said Kyoya before he started to eat.

She did as was suggested and enjoyed her food savoring every single bite that she put in her mouth. As soon as she finished, she found she had nothing to do since Kyoya and Tamaki were still eating. Out of boredom, she decided to pick up her chopsticks with her left hand, remembering a memory from a time before she was small. As she grasped her chopsticks with her fingers, the door of the third music room opened noisily drawing her attention to Yuzuru, who had opened the doors. Looking at Yuzuru, she suddenly noticed that he was holding a dark green blanket with a piece of paper. Recognizing the blanket, she got up and began to go towards him without out questioning why Yuzuru had the blanket. However, as she was half way to him, her legs began to give out beneath her. Immediately, Tamaki appeared by her side and scoped her up. "The doctor doesn't want you to be walking by yourself," he reminded her.

"Son, carry her here so I can give her these things," said Yuzuru as soon as his son was done talking.

Obeying the command, Tamaki carried her over to his father, and Yuzuru handed Haruhi the two items he had before ruffling her hair. After she nodded in thanks, Tamaki took her back to the couch and sat her down on it. Once he made sure that she didn't need anything, he left her to go back to Kyoya and his father to finish his lunch and to chat. She watched Tamaki walk away before she unfolded the paper and read it.

It was from her dad, telling her several things. For one, he was allowing the host club to sleep over if that is what she wants (he had also put in that there was rules, and Yuzuru was going to tell Kyoya and Tamaki that). Another was that he accepted that she didn't understand what she was feeling for Tamaki. When she finished reading it, she spent a few moments thinking until Tamaki came up to her and began to wipe her face with his handkerchief. When she looked at him, questioning him with her eyes, he smiled at her. "You didn't notice that you were crying?" He asked her. Then she nodded for the affirmative before Tamaki asked another question. "Is there anything you need?"

She shook her head no and was surprised when Tamaki gathered her into his arms and began to rock her gently. As he continued to rock her, she began to fall asleep slowly, and the last thing she remembered was him holding her as he draped the blanket over her. It made her smile at how much he was willing to do for her.

;_;

Only a full 24 hours had pasted since she was sipping various drinks that the host club guests had brought to help soothe her throat. When club had ended yesterday, the boys took her home after they had packed their own things. Once at her apartment, they tried to help her with her chores, but the only two that were helpful were Honey and Mori (only because they listened). Together, they ate dinner that Haruhi had fixed from the odds and ends that were on hand.

When Haruhi was about to attempt to wash the dishes after dinner, the boys all stop her, worried that she would get her injured hand wet. Relenting to their pleas, she chose Honey and Mori to wash the dishes, giving them handwritten instructions on how to do it. While they were washing the dishes, she watched to make sure they were washing the dishes correctly before she left to see what the others were doing. By the time that Mori and Honey had finished the dishes, everyone was getting ready for bed. The boys had set up their sleeping spots, and Haruhi with Mori's help set up her futon and her dad's. Then they went to sleep.

While getting ready for school in the morning today, she had been bombarded by her dad with his attention, which wouldn't have been annoying except the host club was around. She, however, did allow her dad to cuddle her and mention how much he missed her and such once the host club was out the door. After her dad handed her her bento, she left and joined up with the rest of the host club to go to school.

When Haruhi came to the cafeteria, Tamaki was waiting for her with a present that he handed to her before leading her to one of the tables. Once he left to get his lunch, Haruhi sat down and had several of her regulars coming up to her wondering what the present that Tamaki had given her was. With their encouragement, she carefully opened the present to reveal a white board with a package of markers of several different colors. Then the girls all began to encourage her to write something on her new whiteboard. She thought about what she was going to write before she wrote about how much she appreciated them bringing her drinks to help her throat get better. Until the time Tamaki returned with his lunch, the girls talked to her before she ate her food. Then after lunch, the rest of the day passed by smoothly.

However, during host club hours, as she was with her regulars, Sakurazuka took noticed of sweaty forehead and stated her observation loudly enough for the rest of the host club to hear. Tamaki, the first to arrive, stripped the brace off her hand to reveal her bandages that were not hiding the seeping puss. With one directed question by Tamaki, Kyoya advised that she should be taken back to the hospital so that the doctor could treat her with some medicine for the puss, a tell-tale sign of infection. Haruhi, scared, tugged her arm out of grip that Tamaki had on her since he got to her before scurrying under the very couch that she had been sitting on. She didn't want to go to the hospital, but most of all, she didn't want to go to stay there. As Tamaki began to try to coax her out, she began mutter loudly “no” in a hoarse voice. However, with the girls trying to encourage her and Tamaki's promise that Kyoya would make sure to talk to the doctors, they finally was able to get her to come out.

Upon getting into the hospital, Tamaki had stuck to her like glue and had his eyes blindfolded when she need to get into the hospital gown. He even held her and whispered words of comfort while the doctors were checking her hand. Then Dr. Takahashi, the one who closed up her hand, declared that she needed surgery tonight to stop the budding infection in her hand from spreading. Having a reason to cling to Tamaki, she held on to him tightly as the nurses asked her questions that she responded to with a written message on her whiteboard. After the last question, the nurses left before returning to start an IV and giving her some medicine to make her relax.

While the minutes slowly ticked by before surgery, the nurses kept trying to get Haruhi to relax more than what she was without more medicine. However, when they noticed that Tamaki was getting her to relax, the nurses had him dress in scrubs and hold her until it was time for her to go to the operating room. Haruhi remembered that Tamaki had carried her all the way there and laid her on the operating table. As the anesthesiology was busy preparing things around them, Tamaki held her in a hug even though she didn't even ask for him to do so. Laying her down when the anesthesiologist was ready, Tamaki kissed the back of her left hand before the anesthesiologist mentioned something about them not taking her to the recovery room after surgery. However, she couldn't remember that as clearly as Tamaki running his fingers along the side of chest, making her relax instantly.

;_;♥

When she woke, she kept her eyes closed and enjoyed the feeling of Tamaki running his fingers against her side. She must have smiled because Tamaki stopped running his fingers along her side and began to rub above her eyes. Turning her head, she opened her eyes to see him and only him with his smile of encouragement to keep her eyes opened for now. As she looked around the room, she didn't see any of the others, but once her eyes returned to Tamaki, he took her left hand and gave her his widest of smiles. "The others are eating and Kyoya's waiting for your surprise to come," said Tamaki.

She merely raised her eyebrows in response to the question before yawning.

"Tired?" She nodded. "Dr. Takahashi had you brought up here instead of the recovery, and once the nurses had you all settled, they allowed us all to come in. Me and Kyoya stayed because we had eaten earlier. Once he had heard about your surprise when he checked his email, he told me and left to wait for it."

She closed her eyes and tried to get somewhat comfortable, but was unable to do so. Tamaki saw this and lifted her head before he nudged her put her head on his shoulder and fluffed her pillow. Once he laid her back down, she was more content to lay there and rest. When she felt Tamaki shaking her shoulder softly, she realized that she must've had a little nap. Opening her eyes once again, she noticed Tamaki was on her right, and right where he was when she had fallen asleep was someone else. She turned her head to look to her left, and the sight caused her eyes to widen.

A familiar old teddy bear was sitting in the lap of her grandma, and behind her grandma was her grandpa smiling at her kindly. Both of whom she hadn't seen since her mother's death. "Hello, kido," her grandpa said to her.

She smiled in greeting and turned her eyes back to the teddy bear. "You want this?" Her grandma asked as she picked up teddy bear.

Haruhi tried to reach out with both hands, but once she started to reach with her right, she was stopped by Tamaki's hands being wrapped gently around her wrist and elbow. "I forgot to tell you that you can't move your right arm too much," said Tamaki causing her to look at him and then at her injured hand. She frowned slightly at the sight of a plastic tube sticking out from the bandages before Tamaki continued to speak. "The physical therapist is coming tomorrow to help you get use to using your left hand for things. Dr. Takahashi didn't think you should be using your right hand too much. Oh, but you do need to move your fingers every so often. You have a drain in your hand right now."

She raised her left and made a gesture that she knew he would understand. When he saw it, he went off to get her white board while her grandma brushed her hair off of her face. "Is he getting you something for you to write on?" Her grandma asked.

She nodded yes before continuing to wait. As she waited watching Tamaki, her grandma laid the teddy bear next to her left arm, causing her to look away from Tamaki towards her grandparents. Her grandma and grandpa smiled at her, but she didn't fully see it because she saw Kyoya near the doorway, and he was giving her a genuine smile that she wasn't about to forget. As she was about to smile back, a nurse came in, and the effect was immediate.

She had withdrawn somewhat judging by her behavior, but once Tamaki came over to her and began to run his fingers along her chest, she relaxed and wasn't so withdrawn before the nurse came over. "I'm going to check you over and then help you sit up. We'll talk after that if you want food or not," said the nurse before starting to check out Haruhi.

When nurse finished checking her over, she had Tamaki helped Haruhi sit up and then showed her how to operate the bed. Before leaving, the nurse told Haruhi that she could get up and walk around her room and said some other words that were meant to calm Haruhi as well as tell her that she could have food anytime she wants. As the nurse was leaving, Tamaki handed Haruhi her white board and the package of markers. She took them both with her left hand and laid them down next to her. Without any help, she opened the package of markers, pulled out a marker, and uncapped it by using her fingers on her right hand to keep it still.

Once the marker was back in her left hand, she began to write something. "How long was I asleep?" The board read.

"The surgery was only an hour and a half long, but would've been longer if you didn't come today," Tamaki answered. "However, your nap was only 35 minutes long. Your handwriting isn't too bad with your left."

"I'm slightly ambidextrous."

"Can you remember when you first found out that you were slightly ambidextrous?" Her grandma asked and received a nod in answer. "I remember you were helping me cook and you had used your knife with your left hand. Although, I did have to help you to keep the pieces that you cut even."

When they saw that she was writing, everyone became silent and waited for her to finish. "Will you tell the nurses that I will be wanting food in a little bit?"

"Of course, I will,” said her grandpa before he left the room.

"Maybe you should rest some more before your food gets here," her grandma said once her grandpa left.

"I would have to agree with her," said Kyoya. "The others will be coming soon, and I don't think they will want to see you sleeping then."

She nodded before giving up her white board to Tamaki so he could put it on the night stand next to her bed. Once Tamaki had placed her white board down, he and her grandma tucked her in and encouraged her to sleep. Not too soon after that, she fell asleep, only to awake twenty minutes later when the boys had finished introducing themselves to her grandma and grandpa. Soon after that, one of the nurses brought her food, and each of the boys took turns feeding her. Then her grandma and grandpa had to say good but promised her to come visit her tomorrow. Not long after they left, visiting hours was starting to get close to ending, and the boys were needing to leave. As each one gave her a hug, Tamaki had noticed she was holding on to a little longer than usual and decided to slip out to use the phone.

By time he came back, Haruhi was alone and curled up in her blankets. Tamaki swiftly sat down next to her and noted her confusion. "Haruhi, you don't mind me staying with you tonight?" Tamaki asked.

She merely nodded and allowed Tamaki to run his fingers through her hair. As his fingers continued to run through her hair, she felt content to fall asleep.

<><><><>;_;

Tamaki awoke abruptly in the night upon hearing a hoarse scream and looked over to Haruhi who was screaming in her sleep. Quickly he went to her side and shook her awake. Once awake, she flew into his arms like she had when he had opened the doors of that wardrobe. "Everyone dead," she said as her voice was starting to give out.

"So that's what your dream is about?" Tamaki asked as he began to rub her hair when a nurse came in.

"I heard a scream. Is everything all right?" The nurse asked.

"She had a nightmare," said Tamaki as he hugged Haruhi close to him being mindful of her right arm.

"Does she want any medicine to help her sleep through the rest of the night? There are medicines that can help stop the nightmares for tonight," said the nurse.

"Haruhi, do you want to have some medicine?" She shook her head no. "Are you sure? If another dream causes you to scream, I think you wouldn't get your voice back anytime soon." She nodded her to answer his question and then made the gesture for him to get her white board. After he handed her her white board, he spoke again to her. "What is it that you want to write?"

In the silence that followed was the squeaking of makers as Haruhi wrote down what she wanted to say. Both the nurse and Tamaki were patient in waiting for her to finish writing. "Senpai, I want to know if everyone is all right," she wrote.

"Anything else, dear?" The nurse asked as Tamaki began to call someone.

"I would like for senpai to hold me," she wrote.

"I'll make sure the other nurses know that you requested it," said the nurse before she left.

Haruhi wiped the white board clean and raised her eyebrows towards Tamaki on the phone questioning him. "Kyoya is probably still up," said Tamaki as he gestured to the clock that read a little after one in the morning.

Her face immediately frowned, but when Tamaki began talking to Kyoya, she smiled slightly. Before too long, they had called everyone, and everyone told her that they were fine and bid her goodnight (for Honey-senpai, Tamaki had gotten a hold of Chicka-kun to check on his brother). Knowing that everyone was okay (minus her father because she insisted that he needed to worry about other things), Haruhi was able to think about sleeping and took the stuff bear her grandparents had left with her into her left arm while Tamaki grabbed his blanket and other stuff from his cot in her room to come sleep with her. Once Tamaki laid down on her bed next to her, he suggested for her to lay her head on his chest so that she could hear his heart through the night and knew he was okay. She did so, and he ran his hand through her and wrapped his free arm around her before she fell back to sleep. Seeing her asleep, Tamaki allowed himself to get back to sleep as well.

:_:<><>-

Every day that she spent at the hospital started with her eating breakfast and then her dad coming to visit her. He would talk to her before the physical therapist would come and worked with her to build up the coordination she had in her left hand to a level that allowed her to feed herself without help. Then she would have lunch and her grandparents would come, allowing her dad to eat and come back to say good-bye to her. Then a nurse would come and give her some sedatives before Dr. Takahashi would come to look at her hand while a nurse was cleaning it.

After her hand was re-bandaged, Dr. Takahashi had her walk to a special room where she would get the pressurized oxygen treatment. She was told that it would help her hand heal faster, and that she would be allowed to do anything inside the plastic tube that was where the treatment was going to take place. After the hour long treatment, her grandparents would walk with her to her room before she would fall asleep for a quick nap (on her first full day there, she didn't have a nap, but had a doctor who knew about how she could deal with her nightmares explained a process that worked to get rid of her nightmares). Then after her nap, her grandparents would talk to her until the host club would show up, and her grandma would pull out some snacks for them all to eat. After dinner, her grandparents would leave, and at the end of visiting hours, everyone except for Tamaki would leave. Once she was asleep, Tamaki would then leave after giving her a kiss on the forehead.

This routine was pretty much the same except on the second full that she was in the hospital when two of her regulars visited her when her grandparents were out. Kimiki Sakurazuka and Momoko Kuragano had brought her a card signed by everyone in their class. Then Sakurazuka told her that she was sorry for scarring her, but Haruhi quickly wrote down that it didn't matter because if no one had noticed, her hand would have been far more worse. Reading that explanation, Sakurazuka hugged Haruhi before allowing Kuragano to also hug Haruhi. After the two girls had hugged Haruhi, Sakurazuka and Kuragano began telling her about all that was happening including that Kyoya decided to let them know about her being a girl. Then they began talking about random things.

"Haruhi-kun," Sakurazuka began at some part of their conversation, "when will you be able to use your right hand again?"

"Probably sometime after they close it up," she wrote.

"Close it up? What do you mean by that?" Kuragano asked as she looked at the bandaged wrapped hand that had a tube coming from it.

"They left it open so that they can better treat the infection," she wrote on her whiteboard.

"Then how are you going to be keeping up with school work until then?" Kuragano asked.

"I can still use my left hand even though it will be painfully slow," she wrote.

Then Kuragano looked at Sakurazuka and began to whisper something to her, perking Haruhi's curiosity about what they were talking about. When they stopped whispering to each other, the two girls turned towards Haruhi and grinned widely. "We will be able to help you to make sure it will not be painfully slow to keep up with your school work," said Sakurazuka.

Haruhi thought about it and rose her eyebrows in confusion. "Don't worry Haruhi-kun, it will be a gift from all of us," said Kuragano.

"You will get it tomorrow after school, but we have to go and get it for you," said Sakurazuka before they bid good-bye to Haruhi.

;-;

When Kuragano and Sakurazuka had returned to see Haruhi the next day with gift in tow, Haruhi's grandma was there and introduced herself to the two girls from Ouran before they placed the gift on the over-bed table. When the girls moved the table to be closer to her, Haruhi carefully began to unwrap it because she wanted to have the wrapping paper intact as much as possible. Once Kuragano and Sakurazuka realized that she wanted to keep the wrapping paper, the two of them helped Haruhi unwrap the gift.

Once the paper was of it, the gift was revealed to be a laptop. "That was good thinking Kuragano-chan and Sakurazuka-chan," said Haruhi's grandma.

"It was something that we thought of instantly when Haruhi-kun said that it was going to painfully slow to keep up with school work," said Sakurazuka before looking at Haruhi. "Haruhi-kun, would you like for us to show you how to work it?"

When Haruhi nodded, the two girls took seats on the bed beside her and began showing her how to use it. Eventually, the two girls stopped showing her things and allowed her to take full control. After a while, Haruhi was slowing down, and the two girls noticed this and took her to a video website after they connected the computer to the Internet. When the host club arrived, Kuragano and Sakurazuka were grinning happily with Haruhi between them trying her hardest not to laugh. Eventually, when the club members had sat down, Haruhi was silently laughing, doing her best without making a noise to strain her vocal cords any more than they were.

"I should be going," said Haruhi's grandma after awhile, "but I will take you laptop Haruhi to keep it safe for you."

"If one of us take it for safe keeping, we wouldn't be able to give it back to you until after class tomorrow," said Tamaki.

Haruhi nodded to show she understood and began shutting down the laptop. Her grandma then gave her a good bye hug before picking up the laptop and leaving for the night. Eventually Kuragano and Sakurazuka had to go, and not too much longer after that, everyone else had to leave, but Haruhi grabbed hold of Tamaki's shirt when he past by her in reaching distance. Upon seeing her eyes, he became wrapped around her finger, ready to do her bidding. "You want me to stay until you are asleep?" Tamaki asked as the others turned around to watch from the doorway silently.

Haruhi nodded as she tugged again at Tamaki's shirt. Tamaki gave her a smile and hugged her before he went to the others. "Hey, boss, are you going to stay with her?" The twins asked.

"Yes, but I don't think that is all she wants," said Tamaki before walking to the nurse station.

"Hey, Kyoya-senpai, do you think she is going to get him to stay all night with her?" Hikaru asked.

"Tamaki can't resist Haruhi acting cute. So he would stay with her. Plus, it is not often when Haruhi will go along with it," said Kyoya.

"Let's leave them be," said Hikaru before he left and the others followed.

;-;

Since the day she had gotten her laptop, Haruhi had managed to get Tamaki wrap around her finger so well that on most days he would stay with her for the whole night. However, today was the day that she was going to have the surgery to close up the wound on her hand since the infection was gone. Because of that, Tamaki couldn't stay because he promised to be with her through the surgery like the last time when they had her awake to repair her hand. Instead of Tamaki staying with her until she fell asleep the night before, Tamaki had appointed Mori-senpai to do it, and Mori-senpai had done what Tamaki told him and asked her every so often if he was doing something wrong. She would mumble her one word answer to him since that was all her voice was capable of doing for the moment.

Now that it was morning, she was in Tamaki's arms and watching the sunrise with him to make the wait for the surgery go by faster. Her dad and grandparents were going coming but would arrive closer to the time the nurses would be getting her ready for the surgery. "Haruhi, are you happy that you get to leave this afternoon?" Tamaki asked.

"Yes," she said clearly, but quietly.

"You don't have to talk if you don't want to," said Tamaki.

"I know," she said barely making her voice above a whisper.

"Aren't they going to give something to help your voice come back faster?"

"Whiteboard."

Tamaki rose to his feet and put her in the chair he was sitting before walking towards the nightstand to pick up her whiteboard. When he walked back to her, he gave her the whiteboard before picking her up again. By the time he sat down, Haruhi had started to write on her whiteboard.

“They are going to later today, but they said that it wouldn't help bring it back faster, only that they are giving it to me so I don't lose it completely again,” she wrote before a nurse came in.

"I need to start getting you ready for the surgery," said the nurse. "Is there any questions you have?"

"No," she said quietly.

"Your doctor wanted to tell me that as soon as you get back to here after your surgery, we will be allowed to give you the medicine that will help you keep your voice," said the nurse. "Your friend can carry you back to bed if you want, but I need you in bed so I can get you ready for the surgery."

Haruhi tugged at Tamaki's shirt, and he got up and carried her back to bed while the nurse pushed the IV stand. Once Tamaki laid her back in bed and covered her up, the nurse began to do normal things like taking her blood pressure and listening to her heart. However, when the nurse accidentally tugged at the IV, Haruhi pulled back her hand that the IV was placed in. "Did that hurt?" Tamaki asked as he took her right hand and squeezed her fingers.

"Yes," she said quietly.

"Let me see how bad it is. I probably will redo the tape on it and rub on some numbing medicine to make sure it isn't too painful," said the nurse before gently taking Haruhi's other hand and looking at the IV. "Doesn't look like I pulled it out, but I will get some fresh tape and the numbing medicine."

As the nurse was leaving, her dad and grandparents came in causing Tamaki to move to sit on the bed. "How are you doing today?" Her grandma asked after giving her a hug.

"Okay," she whispered.

"It is good to hear that you can speak somewhat," said her grandma.

"I'm only allowed to speak single word stuff," she wrote on whiteboard as the nurse returned.

"I see you have more visitors," said the nurse before walking over to Haruhi's bed. "Let's get this IV taken care of. It will hurt a little when I change the tape."

Haruhi cringed slightly, but her dad sat down next to her and hugged her while the nurse took off the tape from the IV, rubbed some cream around the IV, and then put fresh tape on it. Then the nurse left once she was assured that Haruhi wasn't in too much pain. Then her grandma pulled out her laptop and handed it to her. As the three elders of the room talked, Haruhi was checking her email when Tamaki switched from her right to sit right beside her on her left, instead of by her feet. When she saw that one of the teachers had emailed her, she turned her laptop to Tamaki. Tamaki upon seeing it made a promise that he would make sure that someone would pick up her assignments for her.

All too soon, it was time for the surgery.

Before they had left her room, the anesthesiologist gave her a light sedative, and now in the operating room, Tamaki was holding her up as the anesthesiologist was getting her arm to go numb. She kept her eyes closed and concentrated on the things that Tamaki was whispering into her ear while the anesthesiologist was doing his thing. As soon as he was done, Tamaki and the anesthesiologist helped her lay back down. Then the nurses unwrapped her hand as she watched before they strapped her arm down so that she didn't move it.

As they were putting up the drapes, she tensed slightly, but Tamaki started running his fingers against her side to make her relax. Then the doctor started working on her hand and occasionally asking her to move her fingers to determine how to best to fix it up. As the doctor worked, she took naps occasionally during the surgery, but then other times, Tamaki talked about what his cooks could fix her while she gets to stay at her place. Before she knew it, the surgery was done, and Tamaki had picked her off the operating table and laid her down in her bed. He left her sight, and she didn't see him until he showed up in her room.

He gave her a quick hug and tucked her in before giving her a kiss on the forehead and leaving for school. However, Tamaki didn't see that she touched the area that he kissed and let out a sigh as a blush was trying to appear on her face. The nurse that was messing with the IV bag turned to her when she sighed and asked, "Do you love him?"

"Eh...it's not quite that," she said in her normal speaking voice and then realized that she wouldn't be able to speak any more.

"You don't have any pain?" The nurse asked.

"No, but I don't think I will be able to speak any more. I should have whispered instead," she wrote on her board.

"I should give you your medicine to help your voice," said the nurse before she left and then returned a few minutes later with a glass. "Drink this. It might taste bad."

Haruhi took the glass and drank the liquid in it quickly leaving little time for her taste buds to revolted to the terrible taste. "Thank you," she whispered before dad and grandparents came in to see her.

Once her dad and grandparents had hugged her, and she was given pain medicine, she went to sleep with her grandma running her fingers through her hair.

Chapter 2

Tamaki, carrying a glass full of medicine for Haruhi's throat, ran into Kurugano and Sakurazuka at the entryway of his mansion carrying school work for Haruhi in their casual clothes. Being a good host, he took them to a sitting room where Haruhi was laying on the couch by a piano. Tamaki went over to her and nudge her awake. Once awaken, she took her medicine for her throat and then noticed the two girls. "Kurugano-chan, Sakurazuka-chan," she said in a whisper.

"How long ago did you get your voice back, Haruhi-kun?" Kurugano asked.

Haruhi looked at Tamaki, and Tamaki understood what that look meant. "Two days ago, but if she talks above a whisper, she loses her voice fairly quickly," said Tamaki to the two girls before looking at Haruhi. "Do you want me to be here?"

Haruhi shook her head no before Tamaki ruffled her hair and left. "Was there anything interesting today?" Haruhi asked a little below a whisper.

"Not much," said Kurugano, "but are you able to talk above a whisper Haruhi-kun?"

"If I do, I can't talk afterwards for awhile," Haruhi said in a whisper.

"Oh, I think Tamaki-senpai mentioned that," said Sakurazuka.

"I think the twins are starting to miss you in class," said Kuragano.

"I can imagine," she said in a more quite whisper.

"Haruhi-kun, do you need something to help your throat? I could barely hear you that last time," said Kuragano.

Haruhi nodded and then picked up her whiteboard. "Shima-san and Tamaki-senpai are the only ones that know what the doctors want me to drink between doses medicine that will help," she wrote on her whiteboard.

"I will go find one of them," said Kuragano getting up before leaving the room.

"Are you doing anything with your grandparents this weekend?" Sakurazuka asked after Kuragano had left.

"Friday after classes, I will be going to see them and staying with them. Grandma offered dinner to the host club, and they accepted," she wrote on her whiteboard.

"I remember someone had mentioned that you hadn't seen them since a year after your mother's death," said Sakurazuka.

"Yes. My dad had called them when he found out that I was needing to stay in the hospital."

"Do you know why he called them?" Sakurazuka asked.

"He knows I don't care for staying in the hospital," she wrote.

Sakurazuka couldn't help herself and pulled Haruhi into a hug. When she felt the surprise radiating off of androgynous host, she realized that she needed to do something else and placed her hand on the back of Haruhi's head. Haruhi relaxed instantly and returned the hug as Sakurazuka began to lightly stroke her hair. "You don't have to hide what you're feeling Haruhi-kun," said Sakurazuka as she felt Haruhi begin to shake, slightly. "You can cry. I will try my best to help you when ever you need a good cry."

Hearing those words, Haruhi started to cry silently while Sakurazuka comforted her. Eventually, her tears run out, and she hugged Sakurazuka in a silent thank you. Sakurazuka handed her handkerchief that she blew her nose on. Wordlessly, Haruhi and Sakurazuka began to play various games on her whiteboard.

;_;

When Kuragano returned with Tamaki in tow, Haruhi and Sakurazuka were still playing games on the whiteboard. From the doorway, Kuragano could tell that they were fully involved in what they were doing. However, she knew that Tamaki had to change Haruhi's bandages and that would disturb the two. Tamaki, as Kuragano watched, walked right up to the two and took up a seat beside Haruhi to watch wordlessly. "Haruhi, I need to change your bandages," Tamaki said softly when Sakurazuka began to erase the whiteboard.

Haruhi didn't hesitate to hold out her right hand to Tamaki, but once Tamaki began to unwrap the bandages, she pulled back her hand when the bandages tugged at her skin. Noticing she had pulled back, Tamaki gently took hold of her arm before he continued to unwrap the bandages as gently as he could. Eventually, she pulled her arm back again so hard that she rammed her arm into Sakurazuka. Upon feeling it, Sakurazuka turned to look at Haruhi and noticed what was the matter. "Tamaki-senpai, you should look at the bandages," said Sakurazuka as she gently took Haruhi's injured hand and showed the palm of her hand, which were covered with dark blood.

Tamaki looked at her hand and began to press gently on the bandages covering her palm. "Did they change the bandages?" He asked after looking at her hand for awhile.

As soon as Haruhi shook her head no, Tamaki looked at her hand once again. "Is it bad?" Kuragano asked after she came over.

"I wasn't expecting the dried blood to be there," said Tamaki.

As Tamaki was about to pull at the bandages again, Shima entered the room with a bag and glass of tea for Haruhi. "Master, the doctor called and said you might need to cut the bandages to be able to get to the gauze," said Shima as she placed the bag and glass on a table. "The doctor also said that some seepage of blood should be present today and is nothing to worry about."

"Thank you Shima," said Tamaki.

"Everything you need is in the bag," said Shima before she left them.

Tamaki went to the bag and began to pull things out of it which happened to be everything he needed to continue to changing Haruhi's bandages. "Haruhi, if want your tea, Sakurazuka-chan and Kuragano-chan can help you," said Tamaki as he continued to pull out more things from the bag.

Sakurazuka turned to look at Haruhi before she asked her question. "Do you want your tea now, Haruhi-kun?"

Haruhi shook her head yes, and Kuragano went and grabbed the glass of tea and handed the tea to Haruhi. While Haruhi was drinking the tea, Sakurazuka held her right hand making sure that Haruhi didn't move that hand and get the lose bandages caught on anything. "Haruhi-kun," Sakurazuka began, "would you like to be held?"

Haruhi took her final sip of tea, emptying the glass of tea, and thought about it. "Please do," she whispered.

Sakurazuka instantly brought Haruhi into a hug after she heard her speak, but once Tamaki got up, carrying a pair of scissors, Sakurazuka switched places with Haruhi before wrapping her arms around Haruhi. Kuragano then took Haruhi's right arm, gently patting it before holding it. "Haruhi, I'm going to start cutting the bandages," said Tamaki before he took the scissors to the bandages.

As Tamaki cut the bandages, Haruhi relaxed and didn't even flinch when he had to tug at the bandages because, before he did so, Kuragano would rub her arm slightly while Sakurazuka would hug Haruhi tightly. Finally the last of the bandages came off, and Tamaki got up to dispose of the bandages. Kuragano let go of Haruhi's arm before Haruhi moved her arm to look at her hand. "Did you not get to see it, Haruhi-kun?" Kuragano asked.

"She was fairly out of it at the end of the surgery," said Tamaki as he was finding the stuff that he needed to bandage Haruhi's hand.

"Why was that the case?" Sakurazuka asked.

"The doctor had given her a sedative at the end of the surgery," said Tamaki as walked back towards them.

While they were talking about her, Haruhi had zoned out, ignoring what was going on around her. Once satisfied at how her hand look, she began thinking of all the things that she wanted to do once she was able to do them. She jumped slightly startled from her deep thoughts by Tamaki dabbing some peroxide on to her hand. "Does the peroxide hurt, Haruhi-kun?" Sakurazuka asked.

Haruhi shook her head no but then realized that no one could see her. "No, it did not," she said quietly.

"Then did I startled you?" Tamaki asked as he was finishing up cleaning her hand.

Instead of speaking, she yanked her hand slightly out of Tamaki's hand and tapped her pointer finger on his hand. Tamaki instantly understood and turned his hand palm up. Haruhi then drew with her pointer finger a y, knowing that Tamaki would get it.

"I'm sorry that you did," said Tamaki before he ruffled her hair and grabbed the bandages. "Do you want to watch me wrapping your hand again?"

Haruhi hugged Sakurazuka in a thank you before she made her way out of Sakurazuka's arms. Sitting next to Sakurazuka, she faced towards Tamaki and held out her right hand. "Haruhi-kun, can I hold your arm so you will not get tired of holding it up?" Sakurazuka asked once she was settled.

Haruhi nodded and allowed Sakurazuka to wrap her hands around her arm before Kuragano sat down on her other side. As Tamaki began to wrap Haruhi's hand, they sat in silence until Tamaki finished. "It's done. I'm going to go ahead and get your brace for your hand," said Tamaki before getting up and heading to the table.

"Why does she still need a brace?" Kuragano asked.

"When I move my hand," Haruhi said quietly, "I can pull the stitches out."

"Does that hurt when it happens, Haruhi-kun?" Sakurazuka asked.

"Yes," she said before she raised her voice slightly more. "Tamaki-senpai."

"Yes, Haruhi," he responded when he found her brace and started to walk back.

"When will I be able to get my next dose of pain medicine?" She asked quietly, now that she had Tamaki's attention.

"It should be about any time now," said Tamaki before he placed her brace on. "Is it too tight?"

She shook her head no right before Shima came with her medicine that she took. While she was taking her medicine, Shima asked the two girls if they were planning on staying for dinner. Both answered yes before Shima left. During their wait for dinner, Sakurazuka and Kuragano caught Haruhi up on what had been going on in class, academically and otherwise. After dinner, Tamaki played the piano for them before Sakurazuka and Kuragano left for the night. Once Haruhi was all dressed for bed, she had Tamaki play her one more piece on the piano before he picked her up and tucked her in for bed. He did not leave her until she was fast asleep.

;_;

By the time she had entered Music Room Three, Haruhi was tired and glad that there was no school tomorrow. Even though it had been two days since she had been released from the hospital, her pain was still needing to be controlled by medicine, which made her sleepy. However, it wasn't all that bad. The teachers had been understanding and had given her permission to take naps during class as long as she had someone who had agreed to keep notes for her. During homeroom, everyone came up to her asking her questions so often that she had to resort to writing the answers down most of the time. At lunch, a bunch of her regulars to the host club came to her at lunch while she was waiting for Tamaki to get her food. The group of girls around her were all happy when they heard that her voice was slowly coming back and all left her when Tamaki had finally brought her food.

When club began, she was sleeping on one of the couches, and one of the boys would come over to check on her. Most times it was Tamaki who was checking on her, and it was him who was checking on her when she woke up. However, he didn't get a chance to talk to her for very long because all of her regulars came up to her and began to chat with her because her voice wasn't giving out all that quickly when she would talk quietly. At the end of club, she was far more awake than what she was when she had entered the room. Then Tamaki came up to her with her bag and handed it to her. "Everyone is leaving to get change," said Tamaki once Haruhi took her bag. "We need to get going too."

"Is everyone going to stay long?" Haruhi asked quietly.

"I don't think so," said Tamaki as they began to walk out of the school. "I can stay as long as you like."

"I wonder if it is still there," Haruhi muttered to herself so quietly that Tamaki almost didn't hear her.

"What was that, Haruhi?" Tamaki asked.

"Oh, my mom," she said looking down at the ground talking only loud enough for him to hear, "hid two pictures at my grandparents'."

"Pictures of who?"

"I don't recall what she said."

"Maybe we can find them, Haruhi," said Tamaki recognizing the expression that adorned her face because he saw it that first time he had visited her house.

"That would be nice, senpai," said Haruhi.

;_;

Haruhi looked at her grandparents' place realizing nothing had really changed since she had last been at her grandparents. It was still a small house with a secondary unused house (at least it was when she last visited). As she walked the path up to it with the boys, she noticed the tile roof was a slightly different color than what it was last and the walls looked freshly painted. Once inside, her grandpa helped her carry her bags to the guest room while her grandma showed the boys to the main room of the house. As soon as she reached the guest room, a tatami room, the cleaned off desk and the shelves of many different books including ones pertaining to law were still in their place where she had last seen them. The guest room, as she had always known from the books, was her mother's room when she was still lived here. Giving her thanks to her grandpa, she made sure he knew she would be able to handle putting her bags away before he left her alone.

When she finished putting her bags in the guest room, she went to the kitchen to be greeted by a hug from her grandma, which she hugged back after a few minutes. As soon as her grandma pulled back from the hug, she was given a glass of the medicine for her throat, and her grandma shewed her out of the kitchen saying that she should be with her friends. While walking to the main room, Haruhi sipped occasionally from her glass as she heard the boisterous voices of the host club, mainly the twins, coming from the main room. She didn't really try to focus on the voices while she was plodding towards the main room, but when the twins began accosting Tamaki about him being her "father," she listened. "H-h-hikaru, K-k-kaoru, you can't mean I'm not Haruhi's daddy," Tamaki stuttered out.

"Tono, you sure are not acting like one," Hikaru scolded loudly.

"Hikaru, he is too delusional to realize that he sure doesn't act like a father," said Kaoru, his voice indicating he was shrugging with his eyes closed.

"I'm not delusional, Kaoru," Tamaki yelled making Haruhi stop and truly decide to listen instead of continuing to walk to where the boy were talking from.

"Tono's delusional, Tono's delusional," the twins jived in unison.

Hearing the twins continue to tease Tamaki and Tamaki yell at them, Haruhi felt glad that her grandma had not treated her like how the twins were now treating Tamaki. In the days at the hospital, she had spent a lot of her time with her grandma, and after seeing how she interacted with Tamaki, her grandma began to badger her about him. It was an embarrassing conversation that eventually lead a lot being said, and her realizing that maybe her feelings towards her senpai were beyond the normal waters of friendship. "Haruhi?"

Thoughts jarred from just the call of her name, Haruhi looked towards her grandma, who had called out to her. "Yes, grandma?" She responded before she took a sip from her glass.

"Why are you still out here and not with your friends?" Her grandma asked concerned.

"Hikaru and Kaoru were teasing Tamaki-senpai," she said quietly.

"About what?"

"His 'father' persona."

“His 'father' persona?”

“Yeah, he calls himself,” Haruhi began before pausing to take a sip from her glass, “the father of the club and--”

“I understand,” said her grandma cutting her off. “You might have to do something to make him realize that he is wrong. Um...have you actually thanked him for being with you all those times in the hospital?”

“No, why?”

“You should go ahead and give him a thank you hug,” said her grandma causing Haruhi's mouth to drop open in surprise. “Oh come on you can give him a hug. It's not that bad of a thing.”

Haruhi closed her mouth and glared at her grandma. “Why are you saying that?” Haruhi retorted back.

“You don't like him being teased?” Haruhi nodded before her grandma continued. “Well, I think you could help him by giving him a nice hug as a thank you for what he has done for you. Don't you think so?”

“Well...,” said Haruhi looking away from her grandma before look straight back at her. “Why would hugging Tamaki-senpai help him?”

“That's something for you to find,” said her grandma before sighing. “I'm very much sorry if I'm pushing you too much to do something.” Her grandma smiled a sad smile. “Me and your grandpa didn't realize the true love that was between your parents. I might push you more so because of that regret.”

“True love? How did you know it was such?” Haruhi asked quietly before taking a sip from her glass, realizing that there was something imperfect about her grandparents.

“I guess I could tell you if you want to know what you are looking for. True love will make you do stupid things like go against the wishes of people like your parents,” said her grandma. “We didn't approve of your father since he was so much younger, but your mother still married him. I'm sure that if she was here today, that she would be a much better advice giver than me on this subject.”

Hearing what her grandma was saying brought her to tears that she wiped away as best as she could. “Why would mom give me better advice than you grandma?” She asked before drinking the rest of her glass in one huge gulp.

“I'm sure you heard this too much, but you do look like your mother very much. The phrase 'daughter like mother, mother like daughter' applies to you perfectly because I had a feeling that your mother had fallen for someone long before I heard her talk about your father. To put it bluntly, I really don't think she knew she was in love for quite some time after she met him,” said her grandma smiling at her.

Haruhi's mouth floundered open like a gaping fish. The implications of her grandma's blunt statement made sure no oblivious mind were to miss what was being truly said. “You are implying,” said Haruhi as she felt her cheeks began to burn with embarrassment, “that I....” She paused and then whispered quietly, “I'm in love with Tamaki-senpai.”

“Are you?” Her grandma said with a gently smile.

“Um...I don't know for sure, but those boys are different,”said Haruhi with her head bowed.

“Beside Tamaki-kun, those boys are more than happy to go the extra ways for you,” said her grandma. “I am just implying because I don't know for one hundred percent that you are in love with that idiot.”

A soft giggled bubbled forth from Haruhi's lips when she heard her grandma say Tamaki was an idiot. “I will go...hug him,” she said yawning after saying go.

Her grandma pleased took her empty glass from and headed back to the kitchen before Haruhi went off on her embarrassing mission. As she padded down the hallway, she wonder about what she would find, but once she reached her destination, she looked into the room and was relieved. Tamaki was sitting the closest to the doorway, and the twins and everyone else was talking with her grandpa about everything that was the host club. Taking a breath, she rushed to Tamaki, sat down next to him, and threw her arms around him quickly. Surprised, Tamaki went stiff on her before he relaxed and hug her back. “What's the matter Haruhi?” He asked quietly so the others didn't know she was there.

“Thank you, senpai, for everything,” she said with the top of her head resting against his chest.

“Haruhi, you don't need to thank me,” said Tamaki as he noticed Haruhi's silent yawn. “Do you need to take a nap? I'll hold you if you want.”

Haruhi nodded yes and allowed Tamaki to pull her into his lap and nudge her head on to his shoulder. As soon as Tamaki began to rub her back, she began to try to get closer to him for warmth and eventually ended up having to settle for her legs to straddle him slightly before falling asleep. When Tamaki noticed she was asleep, he didn't stop rubbing her back until her grandpa took notice of Haruhi. “Well, look at who decided to sneak in without telling,” said her grandpa to the group before looking at Tamaki. “Do you need my help? We don't want your legs going to sleep on us now do we?”

“Um, my legs are falling asleep, sir,” said Tamaki.

“No need to be formal with me, my boy,” said Haruhi's grandpa as he stood up and walked over to Tamaki. “You can call me grandpa since you're great friends with my granddaughter. Now, let's get you better situated with her.”

As Haruhi's grandpa began gently nudging her legs to be around Tamaki a little more than they were already were, Tamaki, unable to stop himself, pulled Haruhi as close as possible. Looking at Haruhi as she continued to sleep, Tamaki's eyes softened as what the host club members have been telling him all along began to sunk in finally. His affection wasn't not fatherly in all the little bit, but it was true love, the kind that men and women shared to each other traditionally. Tamaki revealing in this revelation blocked out the rest of the world, focusing on Haruhi and the fall and rise of her chest that happened at every breath that she took.

“Now stand up and sit down slowly with your legs out in front of you,” said Haruhi's grandpa startling Tamaki out of his thoughts and constant focus on Haruhi.

Tamaki did as he was told, and once he sat down again, he realized that holding Haruhi was a lot more comfortable than before for more than one reason. Her head, although leaning against his, didn't feel all that heavy, and it was leaning just right that every breath that she exhaled touched the back of his neck softly and soothingly. With every breath, he felt her chest get closer to his, and he couldn't ignore that her arms were still wrapped against him. He allowed his eyes to lose focus and listened to his other senses. However, all of his other senses were so enchanted by Haruhi that he didn't hear the snide comments that the twins mentioned about him. A single hand touch his shoulder and gave his shoulder a squeeze, returning him to full awareness of all that wasn't Haruhi.

“Tamaki-kun, would you like to have your tea here or in the kitchen?” Haruhi's grandma asked.

“Oh, um...,” Tamaki replied.

“You can have your tea while holding her or have it while she is laying across your lap,” said the elderly women.

“I don't think I could drink my tea and hold her,” said Tamaki.

“Stand up and follow me,” commanded Haruhi's grandma.

Tamaki did as he was told and followed Haruhi's grandma with the said girl still in his arms.

;_;

The smell of food gave her clues to where she was, but she really didn't want to alert those around her that she was awake. Remaining content with her eyes closed, Haruhi stayed as still as possible to appear asleep, but when she heard footsteps come close to her and smell of food grew stronger, her eye open up quickly. “I knew you would wake up to try something,” her grandma said holding a plate underneath some chopsticks holding a piece of something that Haruhi had never seen before.

“What is it?” She asked in a whisper as Tamaki sat her up.

“You should be able to figure it out,” her grandma said as she held out the chopsticks with the piece of unidentifiable food.

Haruhi, deciding that her grandma was probably right, leaned and took piece of food from her grandma's chopsticks. As she chewed, the flavor of the food was bountiful and brought back memories she had long forgotten. “Is this the chicken that you had that one time?” She asked.

“Yes,” her grandma said as she went back to tend to the food.

As Haruhi began to relieve memories of food and family, she only stopped thinking about those memories when Tamaki rose to his feet and began to walk away. “Senpai?” She questioned.

“I just realized that it's time for your medicine,” Tamaki said pointing to the clock that hung in the kitchen.

“Oh, it is,” she said when she looked at clock before Tamaki walked out of the room.

“He can stay until you go to bed,” said her grandma as she tended the food on the stove.

Haruhi snapped her head towards her grandma with a look of surprise mixed with shock. “What?!”

“I think it would be nice for you and him to have time some time alone,” she said turning around to look at Haruhi.

And for the second time with her grandma, Haruhi was left floundering without a single word to say.

;_;

Tamaki was flipping through the pages of a history book he happened to have found in the guest room that Haruhi was staying in while Haruhi's grandma was helping her take a bath. Haruhi had come up to him and asked if he would stay until she would go to bed. Happily, he agree and had been in the guest room since Haruhi went to take her bath. Afer he looked up and saw that it had been almost an hour since Haruhi went to her bath, he turned his head instantly when he heard footsteps to see Haruhi entering. “Did you have a nice bath?” Tamaki asked taking note of her pajamas. “And are those pajamas new?”

“It was nice considering how long I haven't had one,” she said in a whisper. “Grandma got me these since Dad told her that I don't really have a set of pajamas.”

“That is really nice of her,” said Tamaki smiling as he watched Haruhi walk over to the desk that was against one of the walls.

“This desk, my grandma has told me, has a secret compartment,” said Haruhi placing her hand on the desk she had walked to.

“Are you thinking that those two pictures that your mom hid are in that secret compartment?”

“Yes, senpai, but grandma said she didn't know where they are at exactly.”

“Then we can go look and see if we can find that secret compartment,” said Tamaki as he got up and walked over to the desk.

Once Tamaki reached the desk, the two of them pulled out the drawer of the desk, and Tamaki looked around the area the drawer had revealed. Tamaki felt all over the cavern that held the drawer, and once he pulled his hand out, he shook his head and frowned in disappointed. They then put the drawer back in its hole. Then Tamaki crawled under the desk and began his search anew. Haruhi watched but was surprised when suddenly a piece fell from the bottom of the desk on top of Tamaki's stomach. However, the piece that fell wasn't what surprise her.

It was two pictures and a locket that slide down the piece that had fallen.

“These pictures,” Haruhi said in a whisper as she picked them up with the locket, “are from the time that they first met.” She then looked at the locket. “But this locket, I don't know where it is from.”

“Well, why don't you open it?” Tamaki asked placing the piece that fell back to its place.

Haruhi sat down the pictures on the floor and began to run her fingers along the edge of the locket until she found a little latch. Pulling on the latch reveled the locket's inside: a picture of a younger Haruhi and her and a folded up piece of paper that had drifted out once the locket was open. As Tamaki sat down next to her after getting out from underneath the desk, she picked up the paper and unfolded it. “She wrote this...to me,” said Haruhi more quietly at the end.

“Go ahead and read it. I don't need to know what is written unless you want to.”

Without hesitation, she read the letter and felt like she could not describe all the feelings that she felt from that one letter. Never before did she felt so close to her mother in the previous ten years since her death than now. It was as if her mother's voice was reading the letter to her in her head. Instinctively, once she finished the letter, she brought the paper to her nose and sniffed the paper. The smell that her nose picked up was of the air freshener that her mother had used when their apartment would smell stale.

She cast a glance to her senpai as she pulled the paper away from her nose. “Senpai,” she said holding up the paper with the text not facing him, “could you find an air freshener with this scent?”

He leaned forward and sniffed it. “I would be more than happy to find it for you Haruhi!” Tamaki declared loudly.

Well, her grandma was right about Tamaki. “Thank you, senpai,” she said as she decided to see how right her grandma was about Tamaki.

“You don't have to thank me, Haruhi.”

“I feel I need to, senpai, for all that you have done.”

“You've already thank me with your hug earlier.”

“That was for everything else that has happen, senpai.”

“Well if you say so....” Tamaki glanced at the two pictures lying on the ground and picked one of them up. “Haruhi, would you mind if I take one of these pictures, just so I can get frames for both of them?”

She really didn't want to give up either of the pictures even if it would be a short, but having them in a frame would be nice.... “I really don't know senpai. Could you get a frame for them without taking these pictures?

“Maybe if I had the measurements of both of them. Oh...I have these for you tonight,” said Tamaki as he paused for a bit before showing Haruhi a pair of ear plugs.

“I hadn't looked at the weather for today,” she said as she picked up the ear plugs.

“You should get to bed before it arrives. At least, your futon is out.”

The two of them walked over to the futon, and Haruhi got into it before Tamaki tucked her in. He patted her head reassuring her that everything was fine and helped put the earplugs in her ear. As he called his car on his cell phone, Tamaki rubbed the top of her head. Even after he hang up, he still rubbed the top of her hair, and it was making Haruhi fall asleep. Tamaki stopped rubbing her hair when a car could be heard idling outside. Before he rose to his feet and left, he kissed her on the forehead. When the car was moving away, sleep had already claimed Haruhi.

;_;

When she arrived at school after getting the stitches out of her hand at the hospital, everyone swarmed her. They all asked questions about how she felt and her time at her grandparents. In answering each of their questions, she was glad that her voice was back fully and that her grandparents had made her not talk often during her stay with them. Then when she arrived at Music Room 3, she was so tired out that she laid down and fell asleep for the first part of club. Tamaki always made an effort to check on her several time and even covered her with a blanket after she first fell asleep.

When she woke, the guests all surrounded her before Haruhi even had a chance to fully wake up. Tamaki was there in snap to encourage the girls give her some space. Then he leaned down and turned his head towards her. “Do you need anything, Haruhi?”

Instead of a reply, Haruhi ran off, feeling like her face was starting to become extraordinary hot. She was sure that she probably had stun people as she ran into the prep room and shut the door behind her. Slumping down to the ground, she tried to think about what to do next. She really couldn't go back out there. Everyone would just stare at her. As she was thinking of what to do, a knock brought her out of her thoughts and made her realize that she probably move so people could come in. She rose to her feet and walked away from the door expecting that Kyoya was the one who knocked on the door. However, she was surprised when Momoko came in instead.

“Hello, Haruhi-kun. Honey-senpai suggested I should talk to you,” said Momoko after she shut the door.

“Did he say why?” Haruhi asked as Momoko came over to her.

“Not at all,” replied Momoko as she and Haruhi sit down. “Haruhi-kun?”

“Yes?”

“Why did you ran off from Tamaki-senpai like that?”

“Why did my face feel like it was hot at that moment?”

“So, he made you flustered, Haruhi-kun.”

“What?”

Noticing the girl's confusion, Momoko ran her hand over the top of Haruhi's head. Then she began to rub the back of Haruhi after she had flatten a few standing hairs. Momoko felt the tense way that Haruhi held herself lessen as she continued to rubbing Haruhi's back. The confusion remained, but the tenses did not remain. “Haruhi-kun,” Momoko started softly as she continued to rub the girls back, “you will find that love will do crazy things to people. Sometimes it makes it hard to be around the person you love so deeply that you can't be in their presence. Um...it's like, well, it's like you want to express your love but can't all at the same time. Am I making sense, Haruhi-kun?”

“Some what,” said Haruhi before sighing.

A gentle silence lapse between the two with Momoko still rubbing Haruhi's back. Choosing the time to think and let her feelings settle, Haruhi closed her eyes and let her thoughts wander (which for her wasn't something she needed to try too hard to do). Haruhi found the quietness was just right for her. As she stared off into space, she didn't realize that quite a bit of time past until she sort of felt someone changing the small bandages she had over the place where the stitches were at. Focusing herself to what was around her, Haruhi noticed that Tamaki was putting a fresh bandage on her hand. “There,” said Tamaki before looking up to Haruhi, “that should be good until tonight.”

“Senpai, when did you get here?” Haruhi asked.

“So you were staring off for awhile,” commented Tamaki. “Only a few minutes. Besides, Kyoya reminded me that I probably needed to change your bandage even though your probably you could do it yourself.”

“Senpai, it's my dominate hand,” said Haruhi. “How easy do you think I could do it?”

“Oh, you do have a point,” said Tamaki before he held out his hand to her. “Would you like some help up?”

Haruhi nodded, took Tamaki's hand, and allowed him to pull her up to her feet. “Where did Momoko-chan go to?”

“She said she didn't want to encroach upon us being together. We could go and see if she and Kimiko-chan are still around the--”

As she listened to him tell her why Momoko wasn't around any more, Haruhi made the move to hug Tamaki, interrupting him before he could complete his sentence. “Senpai?”

“What is it, Haruhi?” Tamaki asked softly.

She squeezed Tamaki out of nervousness before rubbing her face into him. “I love you,” she muttered somewhat quietly.

Tamaki tense somewhat and was surprised. “What was that, Haruhi?”

Haruhi, not wanting to repeat herself, loosened her arms quickly from Tamaki and step back to look up at her senpai. “Did you not hear what I said?”

“I heard it but couldn't believe.”

Haruhi stood up on her tippy toes and then kissed Tamaki on the cheek before quickly running off in embarrassment to the exit of the room. As she was about to exit the room, Momoko and Kimiko latched their arms on her and pulled her out of that room. “You should go back to him,” said Kimiko.

“Yes, you should,” said Momoko.

“I can't go back there,” muttered Haruhi as she glanced at the door to the room that she had left Tamaki in.

“Stop being so embarrassed about it,” said Momoko.

Before Haruhi had a chance to reply, Momoko and Kimiko pushed her directly into Tamaki, who was exiting the room that she had left him. “Good luck, lovebirds,” said Kimiko before her and Momoko walked off giggling.

“I feel they are a female Hikaru and Kaoru,” said Haruhi, not realizing that Tamaki had his arms around her waist.

“Kimiko-chan and Momoko-chan have defiantly become quite good friends to you,” said Tamaki as he gently tightened his arms around Haruhi.

“Yeah, they have,” said Haruhi completely forgetting about the awkward situation that happened in the room that they were in a little while ago.

“Have they been helpful to you?” Tamaki asked before kissing the top of her head.

“Yes, senpai,” said Haruhi before turning around to look at Tamaki. “And senpai, you can keep doing that if you don't think your my father.”

“Certainly, mon amour,” said Tamaki with a smile from ear to ear, “as long as you love me as deeply as I do to you.”

“I love you,” said Haruhi in a slight whisper.

Then Tamaki flashed her a toothy grin before he gave her a kiss that was so long that the French would be impressed. And on the other side of the room, their friends smiled in happiness knowing that they were together. After how far he went for her, everyone (who knew the pair) knew they would never break apart.