At what price,love?

Chapter 14

Haruhi went through her first day back at school in a fog. Part of her felt like she shouldn't even be there, but exams were coming up and if she didn't get through them, she would never complete her second and now final year at Ouran. At the end of the day, her arms filled with notes to copy borrowed from her classmates, she went out to the car the Shidos had sent for her. She looked back at the school. What she really wanted to do was go back in there to Music Room 3, curl up in Kyoya's arms and just be with her friends. But it would make for a pretty dismal Host Club session if she did. She bit her lip. She wasn't going to be a burden, wasn't going to drag them down; she been virtually on her own after her mother died, this wasn't that different. But it was. If she could just get to the car without crying...

Waiting between her and her haven was someone she really didn't have the strength to deal with now. Kyoya's brother's wife. What was her name? Haruhi couldn't think straight.

"Fujioka-san," the woman bowed. "I need to apologize for my behavior the other night. What I said was unkind and uncalled for. I had a bad day and I took it out on you."

Haruhi nodded, but it was really more acknowledgment than acceptance. It dawned on the woman that this girl had had an exceptionally hard day herself. Vagaries weren't going to be enough. "You must understand, Yuuichi and I had an arranged marriage, but it has been a good marriage. It has brought great merit to both of our families and both of our families' businesses. We are compatible and have much respect for each other. But he has never looked at me the way Kyoya looks at you."

"What do you mean?"

The woman gave a sad smile. "He respects you and admires you. He is proud of your accomplishments. He does not worry that you might overshadow him; he wants you to succeed. He enjoys your conversation and your company for its own sake. He wants to protect you and lay the world at your feet. But what he really wants to do is take you to bed. I have never had a man regard me with all those things at one time, and I know that I never will. And I was jealous. So when my mother-in-law heard those unflattering things about you at her day spa, rather than alleviate her fears, I exacerbated them. It was an unworthy action on my part and I regret it deeply." The woman bowed again and departed.

~oOo~

The next day, Haruhi kept looking at Kyoya trying to see whatever it was that woman had seen in his eyes. But Kyoya looked at her the way he always did. The woman must've been mistaken.

~oOo~

Hikaru flicked a piece of lint off his shoulder in annoyance. As weeks went, that one sucked. The one after wasn't so hot either. Yeah, the harridan had gone back to Osaka without Haruhi, but she'd left behind a curfew which Shido-san and Fuyumi determined to honor. Being alone just gave her extra time to dwell on her loss. And every time Haruhi had started to bounce back even a little, something came up. The third day memorial, the seventh day memorial. She'd had to skip the Ouran fair and the ball because she was in mourning. She's had to miss all the Host Club meetings as well. It was so not fun, they cancelled the final cosplay. The final cosplay ever. The final Host Club meetings ever. Without Tamaki's brilliant ideas and Kyoya's financial genius it wasn't really viable; and without Haruhi, it would be just the twins or they would have to recruit new members. And the entire rest of the world was filled with idiots.

Haruhi did get to go to graduation and to dinner with them all afterwards. The Rationalization King (aka the Shadow King) said to her with that deadpan voice of his "You have to eat Haruhi. I fail to see how it makes any difference in the grand scheme of things whether you eat with us or alone."

Tamaki almost blew it when he looked at her with those big violet-blue eyes of his and followed up with, "We promise we won't have any fun."

"We certainly won't have any fun if you're not there," Hikaru said.