Duet chapter 13
Title: Duet
Rating: G for now, may go up ^^;
Warnings: spoilers for the end of the anime
Progress: 13/?
Summary: In need of a performing arts credit for her transcript, Haruhi seeks piano lessons from Tamaki. The result is a bit more bonding than either of them ever expected. How can you focus on school when you're falling in love... and what complications will arise when a member of the Suoh family is willing to give up everything for a commoner?
This chapter is somewhat epic XD it seems like the last chapter, but it isn't. <3
Given the events of the previous afternoon, it was quite understandable even to Haruhi why she found herself simply standing outside the gate of Suoh mansion 2 at 5:15 on Thursday, steeling herself for the upcoming piano lesson. If things had ever been awkward between them, she was sure that previous awkwardness would pale in comparison to this lesson. She could not imagine a comfortable way to go about this.
“Why in the world did he kiss me?” she asked aloud. It was the same question she had lay on her futon asking herself the night before until she finally managed to fall asleep. Whenever she thought of that warm pressure of his lips against her cheek, her face burned and she felt irritated with herself for getting so caught up in it. “It just doesn’t make any sense…” she leaned up against the ivy-draped pillar on the left side of the gate. She glanced at her watch, wondering how long would be appropriate for her to stand outside gathering her bearings. She was fifteen minutes late already and she couldn’t see any way they could get through this lesson without it being painfully awkward.
“I know,” she said finally, snapping her fingers. “I’ll just pretend it didn’t happen.”
“You can’t do that with everything, you know,” a nagging inner voice reminded her, and she brushed it away.
“Watch me,” she muttered, pressing the intercom button. “It’s Fujioka Haruhi. I’m here to see Tamaki-senpai,” she said clearly into the microphone, and the gate swung open to let her in as usual. She walked up the path, soaking up as much of the relaxation of the sunny grounds as she could before she reached the house and knocked on the enormous front door. It opened within seconds and she found herself being stared down by Shima. Her face didn’t brighten at the sight of Haruhi, but Haruhi had never actually seen her smile. Somehow, however, she felt that she and Shima had some kind of understanding, and this comforted her in her agitated state.
“Good afternoon, Fujioka-chan. Tamaki-sama is in his music room as usual. You can feel free to join him.”
“Thanks, Shima-san,” Haruhi turned to head up the stairs and then turned back to face Shima, who was still standing and staring at her. “Um… Shima-san?”
“Yes?”
“Has Tamaki-senpai been… acting any different since yesterday?” she asked a bit timidly, and Shima gave her a telling look.
“Whatever happened between you two yesterday has certainly had an impact on him, if that’s what you mean,” Shima answered. “He has been in his room since last night pacing and muttering. I’m not exactly sure what to make of it.”
‘Does he regret it?’ Haruhi couldn’t help thinking. She stood still for a moment. “Does he seem… upset?”
“Quite,” Shima said with a nod. “And a bit afraid, if I’m any judge of his behavior.”
Haruhi clenched her fists, shaking her head and feeling a bit embarrassed. “I… really shouldn’t have come,” she said. “I guess I was silly to think I could pretend nothing would be different…” still muttering to herself, she turned and rushed for the door.
“What shall I tell Tamaki-sama?” Shima asked as Haruhi grabbed the knob.
“Whatever you want,” she told the elderly woman in a rush as she ran out, shutting the door behind her. She set off quickly down the path to the gates before Tamaki came down and discovered that she had been there. She couldn’t help feeling rather stupid for her actions. Of course things were going to be different, she reminded herself as the gate opened to let her out. Of course he would be all in a panic and affected over what he had done. It was a significant and embarrassing thing to do and she supposed she would be deeply affected as well if she had been on the other end of the kiss. Not that she wasn’t affected now, she realized, and her cheeks burned. Her heart ached every time she remembered that moment.
“It was silly of me to come over and act like everything was fine. I guess I should just give him some time to calm down. I should have realized that it was a bad idea when he spent the whole day avoiding me. Oh well…” Haruhi shrugged dismissively and tried her best to forget about it. “I’m sure he’ll be back to normal soon enough…” she was used to his eccentricities. Sighing, Haruhi ignored the odd feeling in the pit of her stomach and headed for home.
She had only gotten a block and a half when she was pulled from her distracted thoughts by a hand that grabbed hold of her arm and squeezed. Tightly. She had been so deep in thought that she had not even noticed someone near her until this moment. As the strong hand pulled her into the long alleyway that separated the grounds of one house from another, she blinked in shock. Thinking on her toes, she slipped her hands nonchalantly into her pockets and opened her phone just a bit, fumbling around until she found the 4 key. Tamaki’s number in speed dial. She hit it and pressed send clumsily, but it only had time to ring for a few seconds before there was a hard tug on her arm that wrenched her hand out of her pocket. The phone snapped shut and Haruhi got her first look at the person who had so forcefully yanked her into the small space. He couldn’t have been much older than she was, but he was enormously tall. She felt dwarfed.
“Okay, rich boy…” her would-be assailant said, glowering down at her. “Give me the money you have on you, and I’ll let you go.” it occurred to her that she had been too preoccupied to change out of her Ouran uniform before the lesson, and she cursed silently at the fact that it had gotten her into this situation.
“I don’t have any…” Haruhi explained, heart thumping a little as she tried to think of a way out of this situation. Tamaki was so close… maybe he had gotten her call and would somehow know to come for her. She could only hope he would be his usual, overly-concerned self when it came to her.
“Don’t lie to me,” Haruhi slammed hard into the fence on one side of the small space as she was pushed and she coughed a bit as the air was knocked out of her lungs. “You go to Ouran Academy. I recognize the uniform. I know you Ouran boys are rolling in cash. So give me every last yen note on you and I won’t hurt you.”
“Okay…” Haruhi reached into her pockets once more and quickly opened her phone, calling Tamaki again as she pretended to fumble for the money that truly wasn’t there. “But I really don’t have anything. I’m just a scholarship student.”
“Oh yeah?” the boy sneered. “Don’t lie to me, pretty boy. You rich kids are all the same!” he elbowed her in the gut and her hand slipped, letting the phone snap shut again. Cursing slightly, Haruhi glared up at the boy.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked. “Do you really want to hurt someone for something as stupid as money? It’s not worth it, is it?”
“Don’t tell me what’s worth what. You don’t know anything,” the attacker hissed at her, shoving her against the fence again. Haruhi glanced out into the street, biting her lip nervously. She was so unaccustomed to feeling helpless, and it was odd for her to feel out of control of the situation. She felt, for the first time in her teenage life, simply like a helpless child. It was with a pang that she was called back to the time at the beach, when Tamaki had reminded her that she wasn’t invincible. For the first time, she understood what he had been getting at.
‘Tamaki-senpai… if you got that call… please hurry…’
XXX
Tamaki stared at his phone, puzzled. Several minutes ago he had received a call from Haruhi but it had cut out after the first ring. Had she accidentally dialed his number? He stretched and glanced at the clock. 5:30. She was late. Guilty, Tamaki got up and started pacing.
“Oh, look what I’ve done!” he wailed. “I didn’t talk to her today because I was so embarrassed, and now she didn’t come to her lesson! She probably thinks I hate her! Oh, how did I cause this terrible trouble!? I don’t even know why this has all happened!” he covered his head with his hands but was almost immediately pulled from his melodrama as his phone went off again.
“Haruhi!” he shouted, darting for his phone where he rested on top of the grand piano. It was indeed the adorable ringtone he had set to ring when Haruhi called him, and it filled him with hope. It wasn’t too late to redeem the situation. “Hello? Haruhi?” he asked. There was no answer. All he heard was the sound of rustling as though the phone was pressed against cloth. He heard Haruhi speak, and she sounded far away. Someone else was speaking as well, something vague about money, and their voice was rough and menacing. Then Haruhi gave an alarmed squeak and the line cut off.
“H--Haruhi?” Tamaki asked, lowering the phone and staring at it in horror. “Is she alright? Did something happen?” Tamaki ran for Shima’s room downstairs, taking the steps three at a time. When he reached her door he burst in, his eyes wild with worry.
“Was Haruhi here?” he asked loudly.
“Yes. She left several minutes ago in a rush,” Shima said, looking up from the book she was reading and sliding her reading glasses down so she could look at him. “Why?”
“I just received a rather disturbing phone call and…” he swallowed. “What if she’s hurt?” he had never felt such an all-encompassing dread, and his heart felt sick. It was as though he was about to lose his insides. “You said she left a few minutes ago?”
“Yes.”
“Then she couldn’t have gone far!” Tamaki turned and darted out of the room.
“Shall I have a car come around, Tamaki-sama?” Shima asked.
“No!” Tamaki shouted over his shoulder. “No time, no time! Need to… need to find Haruhi!” he was going mad with worry now and he bolted out the door and into the warm spring air. It had started raining, and he rushed for the gate in the downpour as it grew heavier. “Let me out, let me out! I have to find my Haruhi!” he shouted at the intercom and then bolted out the gate before it was even fully open, a series of horrific scenarios rushing through his head, each worse than the last.
“Oh Haruhi… please be okay,” he gasped, running as fast as he could in the direction he knew she took to get home. “Please…”
XXX
“You should really just calm down…” Haruhi was beginning to see that reason wasn’t going to have any impact on this boy, but she couldn’t help trying. “You don’t have to hurt me, you know…”
“I won’t hurt you if you give me your money, remember?”
“I don’t have any,” Haruhi told him sincerely. She was starting to become less and less afraid and more and more indignant. It bothered her immensely that people like this existed; people who thought they could take whatever they wanted without bothering to work for it. It was pure injustice.
‘This is the kind of person you used to put away, mom…’ she found herself thinking. At the thought of her mother, she thought for a moment what it must be like to die. She wondered if there was anything after. If there was a heaven or there was reincarnation or if it was simply blackness. That idea seemed the most logical, and it scared her far more than this punk did. However, it seemed to her to be a bad idea to be thinking of death in this situation; she wasn’t going to die, she thought calmly. This boy was unarmed and he only wanted money. There was no reason to panic. Slowly, she calmed herself completely.
“I told you, don’t lie to me!” the force of his shove knocked Haruhi to the ground this time, and she slammed her bottom on the concrete rather painfully. Looking up at him, the raindrops splattered her face, and she felt strangely calm through all her terror and anger. The first thunderclap sounded just as a voice cut through the air.
“Haruhi!” the familiar sound killed nearly all of the tension that the situation had built up, and she breathed a sigh as she saw Tamaki’s lithe form appear at the entrance to the alley. Somehow, though she wasn’t out of the woods yet, just seeing him made her feel that everything was going to be okay. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Haruhi breathed. Her attacker was looking between she and Tamaki and he seemed at a loss for what to do.
“Get away from her,” Tamaki, who had been frantic a moment ago, was suddenly eerily calm. He stepped toward them, holding out his hands. “You don’t want to hurt her. We can all just walk away from his, okay? It’s all going to be fine.” there was a pause as he reached into his pocket and drew out his wallet. Pulling out its contents, he held out his hand and closed his eyes. “I’m going to give you this, okay? You can take it and you can go, and when I open my eyes you’ll be gone and we’ll just say this didn’t happen. Alright?”
Haruhi watched the thug’s stare fix Tamaki with confusion, and then a kind of abstract interest. Slowly, he moved forward and took the assorted yen notes from Tamaki’s hand. With one glance back at Haruhi, he turned and headed for the exit to the alley, still looking slightly baffled. As he disappeared from sight, Tamaki opened his eyes and stared at Haruhi with an impossibly tender gaze.
“That was pretty amazing…” Haruhi said when she could find her voice. “You just dealt with him so calmly. I’ve never seen anything like that…” Tamaki’s eyes glistened and now that the spell of silence seemed to be broken, he rushed across the distance between then and crouched beside her, pulling her swiftly into his arms.
“Are you okay?” he gasped, his eyes wet as he surveyed her and then pulled her close, crushing her against his chest with more tenderness than usual. “Did he hurt you?”
“No, he didn’t. Not really. I’m fine, really, senpai. You don’t need to worry. I’m okay. I’m really okay.”
Tamaki started weeping softly then, cradling her in his arms and rocking her just a bit. “I was so scared… that you weren’t going to be okay…” he gasped. “Oh Haruhi, I’m so happy you’re okay. I’m so glad.”
Haruhi took the time to relax now, even with the rain beating down on them. Slowly, she let her cheek rest against his chest and took in the soft thuds of his heartbeat. Her own heart ached and sped up slightly, and she could feel her cheeks burning. She realized at that exact moment exactly how perfectly content she couldn’t help feeling whenever she was close to him, how the soft, warm sound of his heart beating made her glad she was alive. There in that rainy alley in the middle of a spring day, one fact rang true that made time stand still for a moment. Haruhi was left speechless at the fact that made her heart thunder in her chest and her hands shake. It was almost incredible to her that it had taken her so long to realize this simple feeling that had awakened long ago and had made itself known in its own cryptic way in that moment they had spent in the air together before plunging into cold water. This was what Kaoru had been talking about. This was where all those ridiculous, corny lines in movies and shoujo manga originated. This was… this was…
‘This is what love feels like…’
Rating: G for now, may go up ^^;
Warnings: spoilers for the end of the anime
Progress: 13/?
Summary: In need of a performing arts credit for her transcript, Haruhi seeks piano lessons from Tamaki. The result is a bit more bonding than either of them ever expected. How can you focus on school when you're falling in love... and what complications will arise when a member of the Suoh family is willing to give up everything for a commoner?
This chapter is somewhat epic XD it seems like the last chapter, but it isn't. <3
Given the events of the previous afternoon, it was quite understandable even to Haruhi why she found herself simply standing outside the gate of Suoh mansion 2 at 5:15 on Thursday, steeling herself for the upcoming piano lesson. If things had ever been awkward between them, she was sure that previous awkwardness would pale in comparison to this lesson. She could not imagine a comfortable way to go about this.
“Why in the world did he kiss me?” she asked aloud. It was the same question she had lay on her futon asking herself the night before until she finally managed to fall asleep. Whenever she thought of that warm pressure of his lips against her cheek, her face burned and she felt irritated with herself for getting so caught up in it. “It just doesn’t make any sense…” she leaned up against the ivy-draped pillar on the left side of the gate. She glanced at her watch, wondering how long would be appropriate for her to stand outside gathering her bearings. She was fifteen minutes late already and she couldn’t see any way they could get through this lesson without it being painfully awkward.
“I know,” she said finally, snapping her fingers. “I’ll just pretend it didn’t happen.”
“You can’t do that with everything, you know,” a nagging inner voice reminded her, and she brushed it away.
“Watch me,” she muttered, pressing the intercom button. “It’s Fujioka Haruhi. I’m here to see Tamaki-senpai,” she said clearly into the microphone, and the gate swung open to let her in as usual. She walked up the path, soaking up as much of the relaxation of the sunny grounds as she could before she reached the house and knocked on the enormous front door. It opened within seconds and she found herself being stared down by Shima. Her face didn’t brighten at the sight of Haruhi, but Haruhi had never actually seen her smile. Somehow, however, she felt that she and Shima had some kind of understanding, and this comforted her in her agitated state.
“Good afternoon, Fujioka-chan. Tamaki-sama is in his music room as usual. You can feel free to join him.”
“Thanks, Shima-san,” Haruhi turned to head up the stairs and then turned back to face Shima, who was still standing and staring at her. “Um… Shima-san?”
“Yes?”
“Has Tamaki-senpai been… acting any different since yesterday?” she asked a bit timidly, and Shima gave her a telling look.
“Whatever happened between you two yesterday has certainly had an impact on him, if that’s what you mean,” Shima answered. “He has been in his room since last night pacing and muttering. I’m not exactly sure what to make of it.”
‘Does he regret it?’ Haruhi couldn’t help thinking. She stood still for a moment. “Does he seem… upset?”
“Quite,” Shima said with a nod. “And a bit afraid, if I’m any judge of his behavior.”
Haruhi clenched her fists, shaking her head and feeling a bit embarrassed. “I… really shouldn’t have come,” she said. “I guess I was silly to think I could pretend nothing would be different…” still muttering to herself, she turned and rushed for the door.
“What shall I tell Tamaki-sama?” Shima asked as Haruhi grabbed the knob.
“Whatever you want,” she told the elderly woman in a rush as she ran out, shutting the door behind her. She set off quickly down the path to the gates before Tamaki came down and discovered that she had been there. She couldn’t help feeling rather stupid for her actions. Of course things were going to be different, she reminded herself as the gate opened to let her out. Of course he would be all in a panic and affected over what he had done. It was a significant and embarrassing thing to do and she supposed she would be deeply affected as well if she had been on the other end of the kiss. Not that she wasn’t affected now, she realized, and her cheeks burned. Her heart ached every time she remembered that moment.
“It was silly of me to come over and act like everything was fine. I guess I should just give him some time to calm down. I should have realized that it was a bad idea when he spent the whole day avoiding me. Oh well…” Haruhi shrugged dismissively and tried her best to forget about it. “I’m sure he’ll be back to normal soon enough…” she was used to his eccentricities. Sighing, Haruhi ignored the odd feeling in the pit of her stomach and headed for home.
She had only gotten a block and a half when she was pulled from her distracted thoughts by a hand that grabbed hold of her arm and squeezed. Tightly. She had been so deep in thought that she had not even noticed someone near her until this moment. As the strong hand pulled her into the long alleyway that separated the grounds of one house from another, she blinked in shock. Thinking on her toes, she slipped her hands nonchalantly into her pockets and opened her phone just a bit, fumbling around until she found the 4 key. Tamaki’s number in speed dial. She hit it and pressed send clumsily, but it only had time to ring for a few seconds before there was a hard tug on her arm that wrenched her hand out of her pocket. The phone snapped shut and Haruhi got her first look at the person who had so forcefully yanked her into the small space. He couldn’t have been much older than she was, but he was enormously tall. She felt dwarfed.
“Okay, rich boy…” her would-be assailant said, glowering down at her. “Give me the money you have on you, and I’ll let you go.” it occurred to her that she had been too preoccupied to change out of her Ouran uniform before the lesson, and she cursed silently at the fact that it had gotten her into this situation.
“I don’t have any…” Haruhi explained, heart thumping a little as she tried to think of a way out of this situation. Tamaki was so close… maybe he had gotten her call and would somehow know to come for her. She could only hope he would be his usual, overly-concerned self when it came to her.
“Don’t lie to me,” Haruhi slammed hard into the fence on one side of the small space as she was pushed and she coughed a bit as the air was knocked out of her lungs. “You go to Ouran Academy. I recognize the uniform. I know you Ouran boys are rolling in cash. So give me every last yen note on you and I won’t hurt you.”
“Okay…” Haruhi reached into her pockets once more and quickly opened her phone, calling Tamaki again as she pretended to fumble for the money that truly wasn’t there. “But I really don’t have anything. I’m just a scholarship student.”
“Oh yeah?” the boy sneered. “Don’t lie to me, pretty boy. You rich kids are all the same!” he elbowed her in the gut and her hand slipped, letting the phone snap shut again. Cursing slightly, Haruhi glared up at the boy.
“Why are you doing this?” she asked. “Do you really want to hurt someone for something as stupid as money? It’s not worth it, is it?”
“Don’t tell me what’s worth what. You don’t know anything,” the attacker hissed at her, shoving her against the fence again. Haruhi glanced out into the street, biting her lip nervously. She was so unaccustomed to feeling helpless, and it was odd for her to feel out of control of the situation. She felt, for the first time in her teenage life, simply like a helpless child. It was with a pang that she was called back to the time at the beach, when Tamaki had reminded her that she wasn’t invincible. For the first time, she understood what he had been getting at.
‘Tamaki-senpai… if you got that call… please hurry…’
XXX
Tamaki stared at his phone, puzzled. Several minutes ago he had received a call from Haruhi but it had cut out after the first ring. Had she accidentally dialed his number? He stretched and glanced at the clock. 5:30. She was late. Guilty, Tamaki got up and started pacing.
“Oh, look what I’ve done!” he wailed. “I didn’t talk to her today because I was so embarrassed, and now she didn’t come to her lesson! She probably thinks I hate her! Oh, how did I cause this terrible trouble!? I don’t even know why this has all happened!” he covered his head with his hands but was almost immediately pulled from his melodrama as his phone went off again.
“Haruhi!” he shouted, darting for his phone where he rested on top of the grand piano. It was indeed the adorable ringtone he had set to ring when Haruhi called him, and it filled him with hope. It wasn’t too late to redeem the situation. “Hello? Haruhi?” he asked. There was no answer. All he heard was the sound of rustling as though the phone was pressed against cloth. He heard Haruhi speak, and she sounded far away. Someone else was speaking as well, something vague about money, and their voice was rough and menacing. Then Haruhi gave an alarmed squeak and the line cut off.
“H--Haruhi?” Tamaki asked, lowering the phone and staring at it in horror. “Is she alright? Did something happen?” Tamaki ran for Shima’s room downstairs, taking the steps three at a time. When he reached her door he burst in, his eyes wild with worry.
“Was Haruhi here?” he asked loudly.
“Yes. She left several minutes ago in a rush,” Shima said, looking up from the book she was reading and sliding her reading glasses down so she could look at him. “Why?”
“I just received a rather disturbing phone call and…” he swallowed. “What if she’s hurt?” he had never felt such an all-encompassing dread, and his heart felt sick. It was as though he was about to lose his insides. “You said she left a few minutes ago?”
“Yes.”
“Then she couldn’t have gone far!” Tamaki turned and darted out of the room.
“Shall I have a car come around, Tamaki-sama?” Shima asked.
“No!” Tamaki shouted over his shoulder. “No time, no time! Need to… need to find Haruhi!” he was going mad with worry now and he bolted out the door and into the warm spring air. It had started raining, and he rushed for the gate in the downpour as it grew heavier. “Let me out, let me out! I have to find my Haruhi!” he shouted at the intercom and then bolted out the gate before it was even fully open, a series of horrific scenarios rushing through his head, each worse than the last.
“Oh Haruhi… please be okay,” he gasped, running as fast as he could in the direction he knew she took to get home. “Please…”
XXX
“You should really just calm down…” Haruhi was beginning to see that reason wasn’t going to have any impact on this boy, but she couldn’t help trying. “You don’t have to hurt me, you know…”
“I won’t hurt you if you give me your money, remember?”
“I don’t have any,” Haruhi told him sincerely. She was starting to become less and less afraid and more and more indignant. It bothered her immensely that people like this existed; people who thought they could take whatever they wanted without bothering to work for it. It was pure injustice.
‘This is the kind of person you used to put away, mom…’ she found herself thinking. At the thought of her mother, she thought for a moment what it must be like to die. She wondered if there was anything after. If there was a heaven or there was reincarnation or if it was simply blackness. That idea seemed the most logical, and it scared her far more than this punk did. However, it seemed to her to be a bad idea to be thinking of death in this situation; she wasn’t going to die, she thought calmly. This boy was unarmed and he only wanted money. There was no reason to panic. Slowly, she calmed herself completely.
“I told you, don’t lie to me!” the force of his shove knocked Haruhi to the ground this time, and she slammed her bottom on the concrete rather painfully. Looking up at him, the raindrops splattered her face, and she felt strangely calm through all her terror and anger. The first thunderclap sounded just as a voice cut through the air.
“Haruhi!” the familiar sound killed nearly all of the tension that the situation had built up, and she breathed a sigh as she saw Tamaki’s lithe form appear at the entrance to the alley. Somehow, though she wasn’t out of the woods yet, just seeing him made her feel that everything was going to be okay. “Are you alright?”
“Yeah, I’m fine,” Haruhi breathed. Her attacker was looking between she and Tamaki and he seemed at a loss for what to do.
“Get away from her,” Tamaki, who had been frantic a moment ago, was suddenly eerily calm. He stepped toward them, holding out his hands. “You don’t want to hurt her. We can all just walk away from his, okay? It’s all going to be fine.” there was a pause as he reached into his pocket and drew out his wallet. Pulling out its contents, he held out his hand and closed his eyes. “I’m going to give you this, okay? You can take it and you can go, and when I open my eyes you’ll be gone and we’ll just say this didn’t happen. Alright?”
Haruhi watched the thug’s stare fix Tamaki with confusion, and then a kind of abstract interest. Slowly, he moved forward and took the assorted yen notes from Tamaki’s hand. With one glance back at Haruhi, he turned and headed for the exit to the alley, still looking slightly baffled. As he disappeared from sight, Tamaki opened his eyes and stared at Haruhi with an impossibly tender gaze.
“That was pretty amazing…” Haruhi said when she could find her voice. “You just dealt with him so calmly. I’ve never seen anything like that…” Tamaki’s eyes glistened and now that the spell of silence seemed to be broken, he rushed across the distance between then and crouched beside her, pulling her swiftly into his arms.
“Are you okay?” he gasped, his eyes wet as he surveyed her and then pulled her close, crushing her against his chest with more tenderness than usual. “Did he hurt you?”
“No, he didn’t. Not really. I’m fine, really, senpai. You don’t need to worry. I’m okay. I’m really okay.”
Tamaki started weeping softly then, cradling her in his arms and rocking her just a bit. “I was so scared… that you weren’t going to be okay…” he gasped. “Oh Haruhi, I’m so happy you’re okay. I’m so glad.”
Haruhi took the time to relax now, even with the rain beating down on them. Slowly, she let her cheek rest against his chest and took in the soft thuds of his heartbeat. Her own heart ached and sped up slightly, and she could feel her cheeks burning. She realized at that exact moment exactly how perfectly content she couldn’t help feeling whenever she was close to him, how the soft, warm sound of his heart beating made her glad she was alive. There in that rainy alley in the middle of a spring day, one fact rang true that made time stand still for a moment. Haruhi was left speechless at the fact that made her heart thunder in her chest and her hands shake. It was almost incredible to her that it had taken her so long to realize this simple feeling that had awakened long ago and had made itself known in its own cryptic way in that moment they had spent in the air together before plunging into cold water. This was what Kaoru had been talking about. This was where all those ridiculous, corny lines in movies and shoujo manga originated. This was… this was…
‘This is what love feels like…’