Open Shutters

Prologue: The Red String of Fate

The red string of fate, commonly believe to be the tie between, two people, two lovers, two soul mates; it is a connecting life line of inevitability. But is it true? Could there be one simple cosmic plan, destiny, fate, inevitability? Romantic notions indeed, but what if fate were more like life, caught up in the stream of change, constantly evolving and morphing. Fate is not a straight and narrow path, rather it is a twisting mountain road with many turn offs, and an infinite amount of choices and decisions each altering your fate, your destiny.

So is this red string, rather than a single beating heart line, it is searching, hunting for its compatible mate. It becomes tangled by life changes, the destination, the people, the experiences, and the discoveries; these are thing things that alter your fate. A single chance meeting, though insignificant at the time, could alter your fate drastically and in turn, twist together two red strings, binding their fates.

Top floor South Wing…

The heavy clump of feet in shoes too big for them echoed of the high walls, Haruhi released a heavy sigh. 'Darn it, four libraries and this place is still too crowded.' She wandered around with no particular destination in mind; she simply wanted a quiet place to study… a spiral stair case swirled before her, Haruhi let her eyes trail up it, her vision a bit strained from wearing a prescription belonging to someone else. She mounted the stairs without a backwards glance. 'Is everybody here just coasting? I mean if you're not going to study just go home.'

The unused Music Room at the end of the Hallway…

Haruhi's feet halted as the gilded doors of Music Room # 3. Her eyes glided over the gilded sign hanging unobtrusively in the silent hallway. She'd happened to stumble across some documents that marked this classroom unused. And to her luck, this end of the school was quiet, nearly oppressively so, as if someone had dropped a sound proof booth over the whole area. From what she'd seen of this school so far, she wouldn't be surprised if they had.

Her hand reached out to take hold of a smooth golden handle, 'Maybe there won't be anyone in here,' she thought hopefully.

Her hand was closing around the smooth metal, her shoulder pressed against the door, when the door lurched forward propelling her across the hallway and into the opposite wall. Her head hit with a thunk, impulsively she reached back to rub her head just as a pair of red heads tumbled out the music room doors right where she'd been standing. They linked arms, jeering, -or what she guessed was jeering from her vantage point- at the rooms other occupants whom were hidden from Haruhi's sight.

"You doppelgangers!" an angry voice shouted out of sight, "You destroyed our antique vase!"

"We'd planned to sell it at auction for close to 8 million yen," a cool voice commented just beyond her vision.

"Pfft," the pair waved their arms dismissively.

Haruhi had to suppress a gasp behind her hand; that was more money than she could ever hope to see -and that was if she was really lucky-, and these rich bastards were talking about it as calmly as if they were discussing the weather.

"Yeah, yeah, yeah," The identical red-heads chorused, flapping an arm through the doorway.

"We'll pay you back."

"In full…"

Haruhi could hear their devious smirks in every word they spoke, it had taken her a moment but she recognized them; they were in the same class as her, they sat near the back always hunched over talking to each other. What were they doing in that unused music room?

Using the wall to steady herself, Haruhi rose on wobbly feet. Whatever they were up to she'd nearly stumbled into it. It was a good thing they'd come through that door when they had or who knows what she could've fallen into. Haruhi slid along the wall and away from the continued argument without either of them noticing her.

Haruhi didn't spare the supposedly empty Music Room or its strange occupants a second glance. She merely shrugged her bag higher and her shoulder and made a deliberate trek down the stairway she had come. 'Maybe I'll go home and study after all…'

A/N: Very short, I know, this is merely a set up for the universe in which this is set. As you may have deduced, in this AU in where Haruhi never made it into Music Room # 3 that day, altering her destiny. The rest of the story is set a few years later. A majority of Haruhi's thoughts are taken directly from the Manga. Why? Because I like it better, that's why. Chapter one is much beefier and that's when things really start to happen. :D Hope you enjoy my new story.

Nic