Author's Note: Sorry this chapter took so long. It's been a busy 2017 so far and then I couldn't get this chapter right. I actually rewrote it twice. I decided there was no way I was writing it a third time so I hope this suffices! Let me know what you think and thank you for your patience!

Meanwhile...

There was crackling in the distance.

"A fireplace," the blond explained as they peered into the blaze all at once. "A great affordable alternative to universal heating for commoners!" He scooted closer to where the girl with chestnut colored hair huddled near the fire. "Right Haruhi?" His voice lilted.

Haruhi sighed, brown eyes slanting away from the hearth and toward him. "We have heating in our apartment, senpai," she reminded him in a clipped tone. "And besides, everyone likes fireplaces." Her gaze returned to the flames, licking at the edges of their prison, lively and bright. A smile blossomed on her lips. "It doesn't really matter if you're rich or poor."

"True…" he agreed softly, his own gaze fixed on the twin flames reflected in her eyes.

Tamaki's eyelids parted and the red tinted darkness phased into the image of a fireplace burning just a meter or so away from where he lay. His weight pressed against something soft and cushioning, a rug he realized. Likely shaved from some poor beast's hide. But it was comforting nonetheless. The gentle crackling of the wood soothed him, the fire's warmth exuding a protective cloud around him. He didn't want to move let alone think.

The memory from just the other night of the Host Club and the fireplace resurfaced and beckoned him back into its folds. Haruhi turned to him from the hearth, her features soft. But this time instead of wild, lustrous flames, her eyes reflected nothing but darkness, pupils swallowing first the irises, and then the white whole. Her mouth opened in a soundless scream that somehow unnerved him in its silence while piercing through his illusions of safety all the same. The scream filled the air around him, filled his throat and lungs until the warmth of the fire seemed to suffocate him and the rug rose up to trap him in its skins. The crackle of the wood popped and snapped loudly in his ears egging at him, practically roaring "Get out!"

Before he had the chance to gather his bearings, he was scrambling away from the ground and rising to a crouched position. A spasm of pain so great he nearly crumpled to the rug again seared through his back. He recalled Hikaru's shadow hurling him against the wall with so much force he'd seen white. Had he broken something?

Teeth gritted, he fumbled blindly for a wall aside the fireplace. Grasping the mantle, he pulled himself to a half hunched position. Damn, it hurt. Nearly gasping through the pain, he started to move away from the fireplace with no particular lead other than wherever Hikaru's bastard of a shadow took Haruhi and that certainly didn't seem to be here.

The mantle eventually ended and there wasn't much to hold on to after that. His hands fumbled clumsily at the stone walls, but couldn't manage enough friction to hold. Back burning and knees buckling, he stumbled forward, landing face first upon the rug where he started.

The pain seized him so fiercely that he couldn't form a cohesive thought, only able to curl his knees into his torn, dirt tinged white tank top until he found a position that didn't make him want to scream in agony. Once found, he lay as still as possible heaving labored breaths into the dusty hide. Only then did he notice a light overhead in the darkness. He hadn't been facing this direction before…

The sconce shone dimly from the front of the room. A shadow passed over it and the numbness that seized him at the sudden movement proved a welcome distraction from the pain. He didn't have to suffer the trouble of arching his aching neck up. The memory of his last moments of consciousness slowly, but surely returned to him and he was quite certain of the identity of the stranger in the dark.

Kyoya," He grunted into the rug's fur, teeth gritted. "You bastard."

Soft rustling. The thing was moving toward him.

"You won't be able to stand in that condition," the hauntingly familiar voice warned him. "Even if you somehow reached the door, you'd never make it back down the stairs."

The clap of footsteps on stone.

"At least not alive."

Tamaki let out something between a growl and a cry, anger and hopelessness curdled into one anguished noise.

"Do you even know where you're going?" the voice asked with too much composure, a hint of mockery poorly concealed in its tone.

"Ha— Haruhi," he stammered the name that had been flipping over repeatedly in his mind all night.

Dry laughter. "That's your problem."

The footsteps closed in.

"You don't think, Tamaki."

Tamaki's heart jumped in his chest as a shadow fell over him. He raised unwitting eyes to survey it, his breath immediately ceasing upon contact.

Kyoya's discerning grey eyes had always possessed the power to root him fearfully to a spot on one of the Shadow King's worst days. But if they'd been off-putting on particularly stressful evenings in the third music room under the waning sun's glow or within the bustle of a lively commoners market, they were absolutely terrifying here cloaked in darkness and flame.

It stared down at him, a cobra set to strike. Its gaze pierced the blond with a burning intensity that he could barely stand, the rest of its features disjointedly lifeless and cool. A small, breathy whimper was all Tamaki could manage, the shadow's words already evaporating along with his ability to process them.
The demon went on, tone still frustratingly composed. "Do you think you'd be here now if I had come for you right away?" it asked, every refrain laced with condescension. "If I hadn't planned and planted a bait that I knew both you and Hikaru would leap for?"

With those words, new courage bloomed in Tamaki's chest. "Don't call her—"

His protests ended in an agonized groan when the demon's foot pressed into his side, the toe of the house shoe, pushing into his ribs.

"Thank you for doing exactly what I thought you would by the way." It sneered at the reaction it had garnered. "I can always depend on you to do exactly what I predict you will." It stooped down onto its knees and kneeled over the panting blond, Kyoya's dark mane falling into its piercing eyes. Cool fingers brushed against Tamaki's chin before slipping through his bangs and cradling his cheek as though it were porcelain. It willed their two gazes to meet until Tamaki faced him, fearful and questioning.

"Does this mean you…" Tamaki started tremblingly, pausing as if searching. "... love me?" he squeaked.

The movement was minuscule at best, but the whites of the demon's eyes expanded slightly lips tugging downward a fraction of a centimeter.

"I mean!" Tamaki stammered, his cheeks exploding in a faint shade of red. "Am I Kyoya's person?! His most important—"

"An idiot like you?" Kyoya's eyes ceased to taunt him from behind the glass, the curve of the demon's lips rigid, nose wrinkled as if it smelled something rancid.

"Ah…" Tamaki swallowed hard. "I'm sorry," he stammered though he wasn't sure what he was apologizing for. Was the suggestion that Kyoya cared for him really that much of an insult? He supposed Kyoya did constantly deny that they were anything but the sons of two competing businessmen. Constantly denied that their partnership was based off of anything but practicality and material gain. Constantly denied.

Denial. Could shadow demons be in denial? His own certainly seemed to be… confident about his feelings for Haruhi. His cheeks colored with the memory. Perhaps Kyoya didn't care so much about him after all. Maybe he really was just after money. Tamaki was the most wealthy of the bunch after all. He started to tell him that he'd brought plenty of it when the demon's lips moved again.

"Yes."

Tamaki blinked as the cool pad of its thumb pressed against his lower lip. "Yes?"

"Yes, he does and yes, you are," It answered in a vaguely irritated tone before pulling away to stand. He turned back to the dimly lit area at the front of the chamber and toward a writing desk, a mess of papers strewn over its surface. "It's embarrassing, you know." It adjusted the glasses on the bridge of its nose before picking a sheet of parchment from the pile. "Being wrapped around the finger of the less intelligent son of your father's business rival." The paper clenched in his fist. "Working so hard for him and receiving nothing in return." It turned to sneer at him, its features ghastly in the firelight. "Being cursed at and abandoned in the darkness for a mere commoner."

"A mere commoner?" Tamaki asked, the anger quickly flooding into his voice and then his limbs as he shot upward, the pain immediately stabbing him in the back. He contorted backward, hissing, and the demon watched him, tilting its head in amusement, but not the least bit surprised.

"I figured that part would catch your attention."

Tamaki struggled to right himself to a position that didn't agonize him. He felt foolish and predictable under the demon's gaze. And somehow guilty.

"S- Sorry I yelled at you back there…" he stammered, eyes drooping to the rug. "I…" What was he doing? This wasn't his best friend! He'd never gotten a chance to apologize to the actual Kyoya. The actual Kyoya would be a memory if he didn't escape from this monster. "Stop trying to confuse me!" he snapped, head shooting up, amethyst ablaze. "I might have messed up this time, but Kyoya doesn't work for nothing! He gains a lot from the Host Club!"

"Kyoya is weak," the shadow cut in casually as if it were the truest thing in the world. The cobra returned, slinking behind the glass, dark energy growing and pulsating out and around him, a fog possessed. "Why else would he sacrifice so much to keep an idiot like you happy?"

"Because that's what friends do!"

"Do they?" The demon raised an eyebrow. "Do you drop everything to actualize every one of his foolish whims?" It moved toward him, the parchment crinkling in its trembling fists. "Work tirelessly into the evenings to make sure his ridiculous plans go off without a hitch?"

Tamaki's muscles tensed, a pressure building deep within him. A pressure so uncomfortable he fought to press it back down, but it endured.

"Spend an entire vacation seeking out his ailing lost mother?"

"Don't talk about my mother!" Tamaki cried, but conflict roiled inside his mind, dizzying him, drying his mouth and tongue. Was his friendship with Kyoya really that lopsided? Is that why Kyoya always seemed at least semi-annoyed with him? The demon seemed pleased at his outburst.

"Whatever power you have, it's been working." It stopped just short of him, unfolding the parchment in hand. "But now it's time I cast a spell of my own."

"A spell?" Tamaki narrowed his eyes at the parchment. Peculiar, yet oddly familiar symbols marked it. His breath caught, the pieces clicking into place. "The showroom." He recalled the scattered texts, slanted tables and relics cracked and shattered on the stone. "It was you."

"The rest of you seem to be forgetting that we're standing on a black magic gold mine," it replied, smoothing out the parchment he'd been crumbling just moments ago. "Of course I was the only one listening to that moron ramble on."

Tamaki swallowed hard. He'd been too busy falling victim to the twins' pranks and worrying about Haruhi to catch the bulk of Nekozawa's lecture on the the "dark arts", but it sounded like the perfect ammunition for a shadow demon. But even so…

"Why?" he blurted. "All you need to do is…" The words crumbled the moment he realized what he was about to say.

"Mark you?" The shadow kneeled down on one knee, grey eyes piercing into him and holding him in place. Before he could move to stop them, cool fingers reached up to caress his chin, willing their eyes to meet. "Would you let me?"

Tamaki felt the ground part beneath him, the rushing sensation of falling. "No," he managed to croak out, almost a plea as he doubted he could stop the shadow from doing much of anything in this condition.

"I didn't think so." The fingers fell from his face, the stilling gaze releasing him. The blond fell forward onto the rug, palms first.

"I could force you." Kyoya's shadow went on. "But you'd never forgive me. And besides," He felt the fingers briefly combing through his hair. "I'll need your obedience for later."

"Later?" Tamaki asked, finding his voice again.

"Once I've secured this body, I'll need to attend to my father and brothers."

"Attend to?" Tamaki nearly whimpered.

"Once that's done, we'll merge Suoh and Ootori into one corporation. A super conglomerate."

Tamaki's throat tightened, heart storming in his chest.

"Don't worry," the demon assured him, "I'll let you be president, but only because you make an excellent frontman." It ran a corner of the parchment so roughly against his cheek, he worried it might break the skin. "Beautiful, charming, empty-headed and pathetically gullible."

Tamaki pushed its hand away still struggling to gather his breathing. If he didn't escape, the Shadow King's reign of terror wouldn't just end with him and Kyoya. It meant to damn both their families to hell.

"Force will only go so far to keep a mouth as big as yours quiet," it explained dryly. "I'll need something stronger if I want your silence."

"I'm not giving you anything!" the blond shook away from the parchment, leaning backwards so that his weight pulled him farther from the demon. He scrambled off of the rug and onto stone, crowding himself in a corner where cobwebs swept over his back. He couldn't stand, but he could crouch. If he could just crouch out of here, he could escape this bastardization of his best friend and get back to reason he'd come here in the first place…

"Where's…" he grunted, breathing labored, bangs curtaining his eyes. "Haruhi?!"

"With Hikaru's shadow I'm guessing," Shadow Kyoya shrugged with so much nonchalance that Tamaki could have burst. "Maybe after he's done with her, I'll retrieve her myself."

Tamaki gritted his teeth, the burning in his blood unbearable.

"A commoner wife would ingratiate me to the public after all."

"You…" Tamaki growled.

"I'd let you have her whenever you wanted." It sneered, pushing him, goading his control to its breaking point.

"SHUT UP!" Tamaki flew at him, the pain in his muscles and joints forgotten, numbed by pure rage. The next moments phased together so swiftly that he barely registered the parchment and Kyoya's glasses falling toward the ground. Suddenly his back meshed with the animal skins, the air gusting from his lungs. Before he could make a desperate gulp for more, cold steely claws found their way around his neck and clamped down in an unrelenting grip. The demon's knees pressed into the fur on either side of him, caging him in.

"Ky—" he attempted to get out, but nothing made it past his lips save for ugly strangled noises, a frantic whimper escaping every other second. Pressure built in his head and behind his eyes and stars began to bloom into his vision like bright white insects squirming in place. Soon the scatter grew to a swarm and an accompanying buzzing noise filled his ears.

"Is it fun being an idiot?" the Shadow King snarled, its teeth bared. If its eyes had been intimidating under the glass, that was nothing compared to the cobra unsheathed. Bottomless black pupils enlarged, swallowing the grey and then the whites of its eyes, sucking Tamaki into a silent, dark vacuum.

"Being so unaware of everything around you that you'd blindly lead your friends to their death?"

Guilt sprouted in his chest and sent tendrils creeping into his throat and guts until he wanted to scream or vomit. Unable to do either, he simply thrashed against the icy grip around his neck, trembling hands clawing in vain.

"So weak and selfish that you depend on others to think for you, to anticipate your every whim?"

The hold tightened on the last word and the swarm of white began to go dark, one star at a time. It was so angry… Hot tears clouded Tamaki's eyes, shielding him from the hateful gaze on his best friend's features. Did Kyoya really hate him this much? If what Nekozawa said was true, their shadows' feelings reflected their deepest and darkest. So that meant buried down somewhere…

"Whose going to save you now?" the taunt distracted him from his thoughts and he struggled to face the shadow from beneath the haze of dark fog and tears.

"Ky…" he forced through the unbearable pain in his throat, expecting the delicate tissue that held his voice together to snap and crumble at any moment. With the last of his energy, he raised his trembling hand to where the demon's face should have been.

I'm sorry, he thought it, unable to speak.

I'm going to die here. The blackness encased him completely and then he was falling. We're all going to die here and it's my fault.

The claws dragging him under suddenly withdrew and a piercing light appeared overhead, shredding through the dark. He surfaced quickly as if something willed him back into a pain so raw and intolerable that he wanted to submerge again. For as much as he wanted to breathe for the last eternity or so, the much desired oxygen burned terribly as it reentered his throat, lungs alternating between feeling as if they would burst or collapse as he heaved and sputtered against the rug, blond tresses soaked and matted with sweat.

Familiar hands cupped his face and he immediately cringed, jerking away in panic.

"No—!"

"Tamaki," it spoke soothingly, a sharp contrast to the heavy, growling tone it used just moments ago, fingers massaging softly through his bangs. "Forgive me."

The glasses had been placed on the bridge of his nose again, grey eyes showing the faintest hint of remorse before the fire's glint obscured them.

"You…" Tamaki started, his breathing still noticeable, but quieting all the same. He wasn't even sure what he meant to say, he was so exhausted. Too exhausted to think, to move, to resist as the demon leaned in to press a chilled kiss against his lips.

The chills curled and twisted painfully up his spine, a distant impulse to fight prickling at the hairs of his back.

But what was the point? He'd already screwed up so much already, he probably deserved this. Kyoya— the real one— would have navigated this so much better than he had. He couldn't blame his shadow for hating him. Fresh tears glassed over his eyes as the demon released his lips only to trail a line of hungry kisses along his bruised neck.

You might as well surrender, he told himself, the voice so defeated that he almost didn't recognize it as his own. Any attempt you make to help just makes more trouble for them.

Teeth brushed over his collarbone and he winced, his resolve sharpening. If Kyoya's shadow was like this, what was happening to Haruhi? He couldn't just not try.

You can't fight him, his own defeated voice replied.

He pushed weakly with his aching arms against the demon's shoulders to no avail.

Your poor judgement is the reason you all ended up here in the first place.

He tensed against the shadow, shoulders quaking.

Now they won't make it out of this alive because of you.

His breathing must have increased as the demon shushed him gently, cool breath against his ear.

Just stop trying, the voice in his head advised. When has it ever worked for you?

That wasn't right. He'd been successful. With his grades. With his classmates. With the girls at the Host Club. He made them happy. Didn't that mean something?

What about your grandmother?

His throat squeezed shut. "I'm…" he whispered.

Trying? his own voice mocked him. Is it working?

His throat clogged with thick emotion, the demon's hungry kisses an afterthought against his numbing skin.

It'll never work, will it? it asked sadly. She won't accept you. How can she?

He trembled uncontrollably, now a child again wrapped alone in a comforter too big for him, his mother sick with a disease acquired after childbirth weakened her immune system. A disease she'd acquired because of him. His father unable to remain in the country because of him. His grandmother with her harsh words condemning them both because of him. Whispered words in shameful tones about him. Because of him.

Because he was a mistake, a bastard, a stain upon his family's name. Because if they could do it over again, if they could go back, he probably would never have existed.

He was never supposed to be here.

You were never supposed to be here.

Something inside of him splintered and he felt as if he were falling again.

Let go.

His limbs fell limply against the rug, tears streaming, mind drifting away from the room, so far removed from the demon, he barely registered its presence.

"Tamaki."

Kyoya's voice whispered in his ear and he blinked, the room slowly slanting into focus again. But the Shadow King wasn't looking at him. Across the dimly lit room, unmoving in the fire's light crouched a hunched figure. It glanced up at once, violet flickering maliciously. Tamaki winced, sinking back into the demon's arms.

"Get out of his mind," Kyoya's voice floated threateningly over head and he rose from his place beside Tamaki. "You'll break him."

Tamaki's eyes widened as his own features faced him cruelly from across the room.

"That was kind of the point," the cutting voice that had only existed in his head up until now spoke, disappointment showing plainly upon its features. "He couldn't very well find my Haruhi in mental shambles could he?"

"Y— You—" Tamaki spoke through tears, his voice trembling.

"Oh come now," his shadow frowned down at him, arms crossed. "I gave you the bait, but you filled in most of the blanks, didn't you?" It shot him a knowing smile and Tamaki's eyes lowered to the stone floor feeling embarrassed suddenly. As if someone knew the dirty little secret he'd tried so desperately to scrub away his entire life. The truth he normally hid even from himself. Now it had settled deep inside his stomach and clung there, thick and viscous. He couldn't stop shaking.

His shadow dismissed him with a half piteous look before turning on Kyoya's. "Where is she?" It glanced from one side of the chamber to the next, searching.

Kyoya's shadow did not respond, simply eying him vigilantly as he moved from one corner to the next. The blond finally turned to smirk at him, fingers rubbing at his chin thoughtfully.

"It's like you to hide her away." It ran its fingers along a stack of texts on the writing desks. "After all, if I succeed, you'd lose your precious golden boy."

"It's like you to be clueless as to where to find her." Shadow Kyoya smirked at the blond's scowl. "And precious?" it frowned, its eyes shadowed beneath the glasses "He's merely a means to an end."

"Is he?" the blond shadow removed a writing quill from the desk, a playful grin on his lips. It spun around just as playfully, a triumphant grin in tow. "I always knew you wanted me."

Kyoya's features chilled, all pretenses at emotion or humanness sinking away.

"Lonely rich boy with daddy issues." It lifted a hand to run its fingers through blond bangs and slip them gracefully down its neck. "Its only natural that you—"

"You forged a bond with him earlier," Kyoya's shadow cut in, stone faced. Thats how you found us and got into his head. I didn't think you'd be smart enough."

The other demon pouted. "And I came to make peace with you." He neared Kyoya's shadow and Tamaki tensed as he reached over him to curl a hand over its cheek. "We'd be unstoppable together."

A bitter smile curved over Kyoya's demon's lips as it picked up and dropped the other's hand from its person as if it were a rodent.. "I'll pass. You'll try to usurp me the first chance you get."

The playful features hardened, the seductive charmer slipping away.

"You'll fail miserably no doubt, but I'd prefer not to make the trouble. Besides," Shadow Kyoya patted Tamaki's head lightly. "He's easier to control."

Shadow Tamaki's posture tensed, arms crossing again. "I hope you realize you've got more to worry about than me and a group of humans."

"I'm prepared."

It shrugged, hands diving into the blue pajama pockets as it turned toward the chamber door. "Then I guess since you wont join me or tell me where Haruhi is, I have no business here."

Shadow Kyoya smirked, a cold glint in its eyes. "You think I'll let you leave?"

Shadow Tamaki returned the smirk and, with a sudden flash of movement, one hand emerged from his pocket and hurled the point of the quill he'd been nursing directly at Tamaki's face.

Kyoya's shadow snapped around and dove down to seize the quill before it could pierce the blond's forehead. When he opening his hand again, it bled black, a deep cut oozing at the center of its palm.

"Just a means to an end?" The words floated about the room and when Kyoya's demon turned back to search for their owner, it had vanished.

The shadow sighed. "I'm letting this human's sentimentality rub off on me."

Tamaki just stared at the place that his shadow last stood, still trembling, all the emotions he'd been whirl-wound through in the past hour ricocheting through him. He was useless like this. Worthless. Stuck, he realized. And he hadn't the first clue of how to escape. Or what he would do if he did. He needed his friends. Haruhi. The twins. His senpais. Kyoya...

As if on cue, Kyoya's shadow held out his arms for him and for some strange reason he obliged, arms folding around the demon's cool form, tears edging along the rims of his eyes. Fingers entwined in his blond tresses as he began to speak.

"Please… Haruhi…" He sobbed, trailing off. "I'll give you anything."

"Tamaki." The Shadow King pulled him closer, cold grey eyes almost sympathetic as it pressed a gentle kiss against his damp cheek. "After tonight, you'll give me everything."

Haha... that was pretty dark. I feel like a bad person ^_^' Heheh...

Anyway, give me your thoughts! Sorry I left the last chapter at a cliffhanger. We'll get back to Haruhi and Hikaru next chapter.