#schc

That evening, Haruhi was stressed, and made her way to bed rather early, but sadly she couldn't quite get to sleep, laying on her side with her eyes wide open. She couldn't stop thinking about that girl that had disappeared, that and the fact that she'd seen Mr Hirano just that afternoon. She tried not to think about what that man might have done to the girl, as revenge for Kyoya having escaped Shin no less.

Luckily, her knight in shining armour came to help her sleep; Takashi silently entered the room, stripping to his boxers and getting into the bed. He wrapped his arms around her, resting his chin on the top of her head. He was incredibly warm, and Haruhi felt herself shuffle closer into his embrace, he smelt like the charcoal from the fireplace. They'd both had a wonderful day and this was just the cherry on top, she turned to face him, gazing up into his eyes, "hello you~" she chuckled lightly, placing a quick kiss over his lips, smiling at his content hum in response.

Haruhi knew that Takashi had noticed how worried she was, the way he held her so close, so gently, he clearly wanted to make her worries disappear. She adored him so much, staring up into his eyes as she leaned in for another quick kiss, "love you," she murmurs, finally feeling sleepy.

"I love you too," Takashi responded, his deep voice rumbling and growly from his exhaustion, it sent a shiver down Haruhi's spine. She smiled and curled in on herself, letting him hold her close- she usually hated being held, it made her feel weak, but with Takashi it was different, he was protective and respectful, it was wonderful.

She woke up and it was dark, Takashi was fast asleep. It was incredibly quiet- no wait, it wasn't quiet… Haruhi could hear sounds, sounds that sent shivers down her spine. She could hear the wet sound of something eating, the crunch that she hoped wasn't bone. She slowly got out of bed, her breath hitched as she gripped the doorknob, nervously opening the door, not even sure what she wanted to see.

Stepping out into the hallway, she saw it. There was no mistaking it for anything else, that was the exact same beast she'd seen back at the summer camp, it's jet black fur almost entirely concealed it in the darkness, if it wasn't for the moonlight coming through the window that made its fur look almost green and the crimson blood on its muzzle, then Haruhi might not have even seen it. It was gorging itself on one of their guests, nose-deep in the girl's ribcage, it's enjoyment clear from its long, wagging tail. It hadn't noticed her lately, but she felt like she was going to be sick, the sight was awful.

Then the beast noticed her, turning to look at her, it seemed surprised to see her, pausing and tilting its head. Haruhi froze, terrified of the creature, she tried to recount what happened with Shin, there was no doubt it was the same creature, so it must be Shin, right? It shifted it's position to face her fully, lifting one paw to its mouth in a gesture that seemed to tell her to be quiet about what she'd seen.

Haruhi nodded, silently swallowing vomit as she hurried back inside her room, tears she didn't know she had spilled down her cheeks, she sank to the floor, resting her back against the door. She couldn't take her mind off what she'd seen, it was horrific, and that beast didn't seem to realise how figuring it's- his actions were. Haruhi ran a hand through her hair before wiping the sweat from her brow, she definitely wouldn't be getting any sleep that night.

Tamaki was sure he’d had a wonderful dream, he remembered blinking his eyes open to see a mess of fur and two big silver eyes blinking at him, the entity licking his cheek gently like how Antionette kissed him so often- but this friend was bigger than her. When he woke up he barely remembered his dream, only remembering when Antoinette gave him good morning kisses. He smiled softly, but frowned at the memory of such a strange dream- why couldn’t he contextualise the entity?

It didn’t matter much, though, Tamaki was happy to lean over and give Kyoya a little forehead kiss, the darling stayed asleep luckily, just snoring softly. The sun streaming through the window laned in Kyoya’s hair, giving him a shimmering halo- Tamaki’s shadow king, Tamaki’s queen. He traced a finger along Kyoya's arm, feeling the boy shiver in response, that made Tamaki smile, he was the only one allowed to see Kyoya in such a vulnerable situation, and he was the only one trusted to protect him like this. The thought filled the king with a sense of pride, he adored Kyoya with his whole heart and would sacrifice anything to keep him safe- he thought back to when harubhi told him she’d seen Mr Hirano, that man wasn’t going to even get close to Kyoya, not if Tamaki had anything to say about it.

Heading downstairs, he found himself the first one awake, he figured he might as well do something useful, so he started to make breakfast. He didn’t understand the first thing about cooking but one thing he did know how to make was scrambled eggs, and he also knew how to make something look good. So he grabbed some eggs and began working on making breakfast for everyone, adding herbs at random, his only guide was how it looked and smelt- tasting it every now and then. People began to make their way downstairs, commenting on the smell, the twins came down rather quickly so Tamaki put them to work making the coffee whilst he focussed on the eggs. He knew that just eggs alone wouldn’t be very good so he got to work on making toast, sliding a slice of ham between the toast and the egg, just to add a little variation. He finished the egg off with a little garnish of basil and a small rose just for decoration- he hoped he wouldn’t have to warn them not to eat the rose.

When Haruhi sat down at the breakfast bar, she looked incredibly spooked, not to mention how tired she looked. She’d commented on how impressed she was that Tamaki knew how to cook, but her voice was shaky, hollow. Tamaki sighed, leaning on the counter, “are you alright? You look like you’ve seen a ghost,” he chuckled to himself, but he was genuinely worried about her.

“I have.”

Tamaki forze, what? There was no way he’d heard that right, she’d actually seen a ghost, right? He chuckled, but he knew it was obvious he didn't find it funny in the slightest, “what do you mean?” he hoped to god she was joking.

Haruhi had leant in, eyes as wide and panicked as she’d ever seen them, “I saw one of the girls die last night,” she was whispering, her voice hushed and shaking, Tamaki felt a shiver run down his spine at the thought that another girl had vanished,”I saw the monster, and I swear to god it was the same one from the camp, senpai…” she paused, and tamaki felt his heart sink as he realises what she’d been implying, “senpai, I saw Shin.”

He felt sick, he felt faint, he felt like he was about to cry, the only thing he could utter was, “where..?”

She confirmed his fears as she sighed, not meeting his eyes. “Right outside your room, in the hallway…” Haruhi’s eyes were filled with sympathy and fear, but tamaki could see nothing but Kyoya's eyes when they were in that hedge maze, he had been so scared- he remembered every time Shin had wronged poor kyoya, and felt nothing but rage. He didn’t even respond to her, tearing upstairs as fast as humanly possible, running to his room as fast as his legs would take him. He threw the door to his room open, rushing to Kyoya’s side.

The boy was still asleep, unaware of the grave danger he was in, Tamaki sat on the edge of the bed, stroking Kyoya's hair gently. He was so beautiful when he was asleep, but that was beyond the point, he was in danger, if Haruhi was right and Shin was still alive, then that meant bad news for Kyoya. Tamaki would protect Kyoya, he silently swore to him that he’d never let Kyoya get hurt- he would do everything in his power to keep Kyoya safe, and Tamaki had a lot of power. So it stood to reason that Kyoya was safe and well protected, but Tamaki couldn’t help but worry about him, what if Tamaki wasn’t smart enough to protect him? What if Kyoya accidentally walked into the danger? What if-

No. Tamaki couldn’t be obsessing over hypotheticals, he had to be alert at all times, keeping Kyoya safe, he watched Kyoya slowly stirr, waking up. He smiled softly as he saw Kyoya's pupils dilate at the sight of his king, “well good morning, how's the love of my life feeling?” he cooed down at his sleepy boyfriend, happy to see his loving words counteracting Kyoya’s regular bad mood. He leant in, kissing the tip of Kyoya’s nose, giggling as the ravenet swatted him away.

“Oh fuck off idiot…” he groans, clearly not meaning a word of it, Tamaki could see the adoration in his eyes, it filled him with an overwhelming sense of pride- that was his boyfriend, Kyoya’s eyes were for him. He smiled even more when he felt Kyoya’s hand find his own, the other boy sat up, yawning. “Morning, fool…” Kyoya’s insults were nothing if not terms of endearment, Tamaki knew that by now and it was the sweetest thing. He would really hate to tell Kyoya what Haruhi had said- though he had been planning on it, Kyoya was simply too sweet and Tamaki didn’t want to upset him.

Umehito had a second guest to entertain, the beast itself had dragged down part of a corpse, setting it at Umehito’s feet and staring at him expectantly. He was impressed by the creature’s intelligence, Souh-san had it well trained- aside from the whole eating people thing of course. It wasn’t that much of an issue to resurrect the girl, he even got the touch the creature’s fur, it was so fluffy and soft, Umehito had to wonder if it was conditioned.

This morning he was simply sitting there with the girls, drinking tea and discussing things, Umehito had told the girls the monster was just Souh-san’s exotic pet, he’d left out the part where it had killed them both- he felt like that might upset them. They seemed enamoured with the idea of Souh-san keeping such a creature, going on tangents about fantasies of the guy as some sort of beast tamer, umehito had to admit the image was entertaining, but he couldn't imagine it going as well as the girls imagined- although the beast was living evidence he was wrong.

The hosts had gone out again, this time all the occupants of the lodge had left for town, he thought they were also going sledding, which sounded like a lot of fun. He took the girls upstairs to relax for a whole, they lamented not being able to go with the rest of the group, but were happy to sit and read instead. Umehito had noticed that Souh-san was taking his dog with him, but surely he couldn’t have taken the beast- although there was no one left to watch it. So he wandered around the lodge, trying to figure out where the creature was kept.