The room is silent. Tamaki had just slammed his fist down on the table in a moment of rage. Everyone was stunned. This is getting way more intense than one of their usual fights.

Tamaki lurches up from his seat, the chair screeching loudly against the wooden floor. He pivots to face Haruhi. "Okay. Fine. I get it. It seems you refuse to admit that you were wrong. See if I care, then." He wipes his mouth on his sleeve and begins to walk away. "I'm going to bed. Kyoya, would you show me to my room, please?"

Standing up as well and dabbing his mouth with a handkerchief, Kyoya too stands up. "No problem. Well, excuse me, everyone."

The two men leave the hall, leaving their friends in a stunned and awkward silence. Haruhi huffs, grabs another crab leg to devour, and is about to break it when she falters.

"Maybe he's right." Her expression darkens. "Maybe I do need to learn a way to protect myself."

Her thoughts venture to the events that transpired earlier on, at the beach.

"We just wanna show you girls how to have a good time."

"Private? Does that mean we're alone?"

I couldn't stand there and watch those local bums do that to those girls. I had to do something.

"So that's it. He got to you, huh?"

Haruhi's thoughts are interrupted by the voices of the twins.

"Well," says Hikaru, "it wouldn't hurt you to learn martial arts or something."

"But it's not like we're going to force you to learn it." Kaoru chews on some crab meat.

With a glance at each other, they speak in unison again. "Besides, that's not the real issue here.

Haruhi looks at Hikaru, and finds herself feeling a twinge of an unexplainable emotion when he breaks the eye contact. "To be honest," he says, his voice at a lower volume than before, "we were all a little worried, about how recklessly you acted.

Some more than others, he thinks to himself.

Haruhi is confused. "What do you mean? I didn't cause you guys any trouble or anything."

The twins just look at each other and shrug, neither one of them wanting to bring up the fact that Tamaki dove into the water to rescue Haruhi. For some reason, she seems to have forgotten that major detail.

Honey, however, is quick to point it out. "That's not true, Haru-chan."

The corners of Haruhi's mouth twitch. The sound of Honey's voice is so adorable, she finds herself smiling almost every time he opens his mouth, even if he is clutching her with a death grip of a hug and squealing her name at the top of his lungs, as he loves to do often.

"I think you should apologize. 'Kay?" Honey smiles. "You made us all worried. Especially Tama-chan. I think you need to apologize to him the most."

"So you… you were worried about me? But why?"

Honey can do nothing but sigh in response.

"You're hopeless!" come the voices of the twins. Even Mori pitches in on that opinion this time.

"You think?" Haruhi hangs her head, fighting to keep away the tears that are threatening to show up. "Guys, I'm really sorry."

At once, Honey and the twins rush over and squeeze her with love and a chorus of "Aww" and "You're so cute." Mori is munching on a considerable amount of crabmeat and can only grunt a consolation from behind them.

Suddenly, Haruhi shoves them off of her and dry-heaves rather violently.

"Is something wrong?" Everyone asks in a shocked unison.

"I'm not feeling so good."

"You must have eaten too much crab," Hikaru teases.

Honey immediately scurries away toward Mori, not wanting to be in the path of any potential projectile vomit. "Be strong, Haru-chan!"

Kaoru grabs her hand and hoists her up from the chair. "Let's get her to the nearest restroom! Hurry!"

Geez! Slow down, Kaoru! Running is making it worse!

"Here," Kaoru gently pushes her into the bathroom and closes the door behind her to give her some privacy.

Haruhi sinks down to the floor and grips the toilet bowl, peering into the water and trying to steady her suddenly tumultuous stomach. It is no use; this time she regurgitates her dinner. After a couple more bouts of dry-heaving, she stands up and walks over to the sink to clean herself up.

As she wipes her face with a dry towel, she thinks to herself, "Well that was a waste of a good meal.

With a sigh, she opens the door and, to no surprise, finds Kaoru has disappeared. He has likely gone back to eat more food.

The low rumble of thunder echoes through the corridor, and Haruhi flinches. She needs to find her way back, and soon, or else her next problem might be a wet dress. So she runs in the direction she thinks the dining room would be, with such speed that one of her slippers nearly falls right off of her foot. She eagerly opens the first door she comes across, but is surprised when there is no greeting, and no noise of any kind.

I was in such a hurry. I ran into the closest room I could find. Where am I?

"Are you okay?"

Huh?

Haruhi looks in the direction of the voice and immediately feels her cheeks grow hot. There sits Kyouya, drying his hair in an armchair. Behind him is an opulent and large window. Moonlight shines brightly throughout the room, accenting every crevice—even those on Kyoya's body.

Beginning to get flustered, Haruhi bows deeply. "I apologize, sir," she blubbers. "I didn't mean to intrude."

"Don't be silly. It's just me."

Slowly, Haruhi looks up at him. She finds that he is not paying attention to her.

He's right, I guess. It's only him. I guess it's okay to….

Haruhi gingerly steps forward into the bedroom, hands timidly clasped together in front of her. "Kyoya-senpai"

Her breath catches in her throat when he looks up at the mention of his name. So she starts again.

"Senpai, I'm sorry. I really didn't mean to make everybody worry about me today.

Kyoya stands from his armchair. "Thanks, but I wasn't especially worried." He takes a long swig from his bottled water; it's coolness counters the heat radiating from his skin because of the hot water from his bath. Satisfied, he continues with a chuckle. "Although, I did have a hard time separating Kaoru and Hikaru from those two punks. They almost beat them half to death."

Haruhi is unsure of how to respond to that, but she feels her eye twitch as she imagines the pummeling those two buffoons likely received. She feels more relaxed however, now that Kyoya has made a joke. Her nerves are eased.

Kyoya begins walking in her general direction. "And because of you, I had to send each of the girls a bouquet of flowers to apologize. They've been looking forward to this trip and we don't want to disappoint them."

Yikes, she thinks to herself. I don't need to incur any more money on my debt as it is. "I'll pay you back for the flowers, senpai."

Kyoya is leaning against the wall now. He raises an eyebrow. Casually, he brings his hand up to the light switch on the wall. Haruhi doesn't seem to notice. His fingers dance on the switch, tempted to slide it down.

"Each bouquet cost me fifty thousand." He pauses. "That's a grand total of six hundred thousand yen, Haruhi."

Haruhi is silent.

I wonder…. Kyoya's thoughts make him curious to see what would happen if he were to use this situation to his advantage. Slowly, his fingers slide down the light switch.

Haruhi is again perplexed. "Uh… why'd you turn the lights off?"

With a deep breath of exhalation, Kyoya leans down to become face level with Haruhi. "If you want to, you can pay me back with your body."

He leaves her no time to react, for he immediately seizes her by the wrist and drags her to his large bed. She yelps, startled. Her breath is knocked out of her lungs when she lands on the bed. It's not that the bed is hard or uncomfortable—Kyoya has thrown her down with such force.

What the hell is going on?!

Kyoya stares down at her. "Surely you aren't so naïve that you actually believe a person's sex doesn't matter," he mutters so softly, she can barely hear the words. His next words, he makes sure to say loud enough, though. "You've left yourself completely defenseless against me."

So that's it, she realizes inwardly.

"You won't do it, Kyoya-senpai." She shifts her weight beneath him. "I know because it wouldn't do you any good. You wouldn't gain anything from it."

"Hmm. You're right." He pauses. "You're a fascinating young woman, Haruhi. A beautiful one, too."

He leans in a takes a deep breath near Haruhi's neck and she shudders involuntarily partly because of the tickle and partly because of the low rumble of thunder that again echoes through the walls.

"You smell so good, Haruhi," he breathes against her neck, causing her to tense up.

"If you're trying to prove Tamaki-senpai's point, I get it now. You can get off."

She pushes her hands against his broad and bare chest. He doesn't budge.

"Get off, senpai. This isn't funny."

Kyoya scoffs. "This was never meant to be funny. Don't you get it? Or are you more dense than I thought?" He grabs one of her hands and brings it to his crotch, pressing it against him. "Do you get it now?"

He rubs her hand against the roughness of his jeans, and she is shocked to feel just how large he is. She gasps in fear and disgust, trying to pull her hand back, but he holds it firm, rubbing it up and down. All the while, he is looking straight into her eyes, enjoying what he sees there. Ever so slowly, a raw fear is materializing itself onto her features, and it thrills him.

Haruhi opens her mouth to scream, but just as she gets in a deep breath, Kyoya slaps a hand over her mouth.

"Uh-uh. Not happening." His eyes glint in the moonlight.

Suddenly, there is a blinding bright light that fills the room. Haruhi's eyes widen. Her energy is renewed and she squirms beneath him, desperate to get away from both him and from the impending thunder.

In a couple of seconds, the thunder claps violently enough to shake the small furniture in the room. The claps are the worst ones for her to bear, because they are louder and more volatile.

Haruhi shrieks into Kyoya's hand, and tears begin to streak her cheeks.

"What's this?" Kyoya asks, as he wipes away her tears with his thumb. "Afraid of electrical storms? I wouldn't have guessed that about you." He deftly repositions her so that her head is now hanging off the bed, in the direction of the enormous window.

The blood begins rushing to her head, and her vision blurs. Haruhi opens her mouth to scream now that it is free from his hand again, but nothing comes out because of the sharp angle of her neck.

Kyoya's hand trails from her neck, down to her panties, wasting no time in pulling them aside. In her efforts to scream out for help, Haruhi can only barely manage a whimper, so she starts thrashing about with all of her might, kicking her legs in an attempt to buck him off of her. Although she does manage to get in a few blows, she ultimately accomplishes nothing but a flaring up his temper.

He growled, a low and throaty sound. "You'll regret doing that, Haruhi."

Mercilessly, he shoves two of his long, slender fingers inside of her. She is not wet, so naturally his nails end up scratching her walls some. In and out he pulls them, slowly at first, until her body realizes that it is time to lubricate itself.

Just as Kyoya is beginning to really enjoy the girl beneath him, he hears footsteps coming down the hallway.

Drat.

He pulls his fingers out of Haruhi, restores her panties to their proper positioning, sits her up and uses his outer forearms to wipe the tears from her face. All this is done in the four seconds it takes for the footsteps to reach his bedroom door.

Sure enough, there is a knock, and Tamaki's tired voice calls out. "Kyoya, do you have any lotion? This sunburn is worse than I—"

Tamaki is cut short by the sight he sees before him. "You bastard—!"

By now, Kyoya is up, with some aloe-infused lotion in his hand already. He pokes an irritated Tamaki in the face with it. "Here. Use as much as you want, you big goof."

With that, Kyoya leaves the room and closes the door behind him, smirking. Haruhi won't say a word to Tamaki. As he walks he continues thinking, and lifts those two lucky fingers to his mouth. Nothing to be gained from it, huh? An interesting thought, in its own way.

Inside the bedroom, it is silent.

Tamaki walks forward to a sullen Haruhi. "What were you doing alone with him?"

"N-Nothing. Really."

"You expect me to believe that nothing was going on? You were alone in his bedroom! And why are the lights out?! DON'T YOU LIE TO ME!" With each sentence, his volume became louder and louder until he was shouting at her.

It takes every ounce of self-control for Haruhi not to burst out crying right then and there. She remains silent, and drops her head in shame.

"Never mind." Tamaki begins to walk away. "You've been through a lot today. I'm sure you're tired." He pauses, and his voice takes on a different tone, one filled with concern. "You should get some sleep."

"Wait! Senpai!" Haruhi dashes off the bed and catches the tail end of Tamaki's shirt.

Just then, there's the flash of lightning and the boom of thunder.

Tamaki turns around, eyebrows furrowed in a mix of emotions.

A flash, a clap.

Haruhi shrieks at the top of her lungs and trembles, whimpering and holding herself.

"What's wrong, Haruhi?" Tamaki is very troubled now.

"It's nothing!" Haruhi replies a little too loudly. She walks toward Kyoya's wardrobe. "Uh, I just remembered: there's some business I have to take care of," she says dismissively as she climbs into the wardrobe and locks herself in. "Excuse me."

"What business could you have in a wardrobe?!"

A flash, a clap even louder than the one before.

Tamaki walks toward the wardrobe, ready to pry it open. "Haruhi, are you afraid of thunder and lightning? Why'd you lock yourself in there? It seems like it'd be scarier locked up like that." He wrestles with the door.

"I'm all right. I'm used to getting through stuff like this by myself."

Tamaki's eyes widen in disbelief. "By… yourself?" he whispers. That's it. That's it right there. "You're always by yourself… all alone in your home. You never call us for help even though we're so close."

Haruhi whimpers at the thought of being saved from Kyoya if only she could have been able to scream for help.

A flash. A boom.

"I get it." Tamaki pries open the door. What he sees before him hurts his heart. Haruhi is curled up, cowering in absolute fear. "I understand now, Haruhi." His voice cracks with sorrow. "I'm sorry I acted the way I did. You grew up without relying on anyone else."

Haruhi slowly lifts her head from her knees, her bangs clinging to the sweat and tears all over her face.

"But not anymore." Tamaki extends a hand out to her. "You can come out now."

Haruhi looks him in the eye and slowly stretches her own hand out to meet his, opening her mouth to tell him what transpired in this room.

A flash. A terrible clap.

With a loud gasp, Haruhi launches herself out of the wardrobe and into Tamaki's arms, finding it hard to control the urge to sob.

Tamaki holds her gently. "You don't have to be afraid. I'll always be here for you, Haruhi. I promise that you'll never be alone again."

Haruhi begins to sob as she clutches onto his shirt with a tighter grip.

Thank you, Tamaki.

I have some ideas about how to continue this, but I'm not super committed to the idea. I may just leave this as a one-shot. As of now, I am leaning towards continuing this with at least 2 or 3 more chapters. But it all comes down to whether or not you, the readers, want more. I'm not going to waste my time writing things done if no one will read them and I can just envision them in my head and leave it at that.

Thank you for reading,

~Of