Chapter Text
The next year passed much too quickly for Haruhi.
She didn't know where it went, all she did was take one day at a time and, before she knew it, she was on a plane heading back to Australia after a lovely month home with her father. She was prepared to start her final year at Brekleys.
In many ways this was the most important year because this was when you had to decide where you were going to go after graduation. Where you were going to spend the next chapter of your life.
And, with this in mind Haruhi began preparing applications and sending them out all over the world. She sent applications to universities in Australia, Japan, the USA and even the UK. Not that she could apply for them all at once. They all had different start times and deadlines. So, in between applications she continued to practice taekwondo and study, while avoiding the Koenig Twins' more extreme plans and plots.
She managed to get through three months of the school year before trouble found her.
Her rather peaceful existence was interrupted when she rounded the corner of the Foreign Languages building to find Kyle Styles and three of his cronies surrounding a small blonde boy that Haruhi vaguely remembered seeing at of the Freshman football games Chiye and Masaye had dragged her to last year.
"You little French f**! I saw you! I saw you flirting with her! Touching her! She's MINE! Do you understand?!" Kyle yelled.
Haruhi froze where she was, she didn't know what a f &$ was, and from the French boy's expression she didn't think he knew either, but they both knew it wasn't a good word.
That didn't stop the little French boy from widening his stance and tensing his arms as he responded, "First, I wasn't flirting, I was just being nice. Second, even if I was flirting, Danielle isn't your property! She can do what she wants!"
Kyle threw back his head and let out a laugh, the same laugh he used to let out when he bullied Haruhi two years ago. Calling her slant-eyed leech who was no better than a w****. Asking who she had to f*** to get into Brekleys. He'd stopped after she became friends with Chiye and Masaye. Though that hadn't stopped him from giving her nasty looks.
Apparently he'd only stopped bothering her.
Haruhi wasn't much of a do-gooder. But, she wanted to be a good lawyer, one that helped people. And there was no way she'd turn and walk away from this bully. As Haruhi saw Kyle reach up and slam the French boy hard into the wall as his cronies grabbed the boys arms and held them down her eyes narrowed into slits. Apparently they didn't believe the French boy knew some sort of martial arts, like they had with her.
Taking a big step away from the Haruhi opened her mouth and called out, "Kyle Styles, just what do you think you're doing?"
Kyle stopped his punch just a few centimeters from the French boy's nose and turned to look at Haruhi. "Look what the cat dragged in, the ch*** w****! Does she want what we're going give him? What? Are you his girlfriend or something
Haruhi widened her stance and got into a solid fighting stance. "Kyle, let him go."
Kyle let out another laugh, "I'm not afraid of you, little b**** ! We've been taking wrestling. Tim, Dane, go get her. We'll teach them both a lesson."
Haruhi almost laughed at his boast about wrestling. As long as she made sure they never got to close, which taekwondo encouraged, she'd be safe.
The boy who was just standing there, as well as one of the ones holding the French boy's arms down turned and rushed her.
Haruhi tucked her arms in close to her body and waited. It was over in just a few well-timed kicks.
One of the boys lay on the ground, holding himself between his legs and silently screaming; the other was doubled over, trying to catch his breath. Haruhi stepped around them and walked towards Kyle.
"Let him go Kyle."
Kyle did, but only so he could turn to face all of his attention on Haruhi. She resisted the urge to roll her eyes as he pulled his fists up in a boxing position.
When the fight started she didn't aim for his torso, rather, she kicked him in his thigh, right over his knee. No bones were broken, but his leg crumpled under him. As he fell she aimed a kick at his stomach, making him double over as he fell.
When she looked up from Kyle to the fourth and last boy she realized that he was long gone. She could see him running away as fast as he could.
The French boy was watching her with such a look of awe on his face that Haruhi felt herself turn bright red in embarrassment.
"That was amazing!"
Haruhi turned even redder, "Whatever, come on, let's get out of here before they get back up."
She started walking off, knowing that he would follow her, and she wasn't wrong.
"Where are we going?"
"To find the nearest teacher."
"What? Why?"
"Because, I just hurt those boys, they're going to try and make up a lie to say I attacked them. We need to tell someone first. Otherwise we'll look guilty."
The French boy was quiet as he thought about what she had said. After a few moments he replied, "That's actually really smart. How'd you know that?"
"I'm going to be a lawyer one day, I need to know how people think. And I know we'll look guilty if we try to hide what we did. By the way, I'm Haruhi Fujioka, what's your name?"
"Oh! I'm Zackarie Roux! Thank you very much for rescuing me back there!"
Haruhi looked at him closely as they went inside the foreign languages building. "You're not angry at me for rescuing me?"
Zackarie frowned, "Why would I be? I wasn't doing a very good job of rescuing myself, was I? Anyways, you have some sort of special training, that I don't have. Anyways, I'm sure I'm better than you at other things, like football or French, right?"
Haruhi chuckled, she liked him, "Right, Masaye and Chiye have given up trying to teach me how to kick a ball, I'm hopeless."
Zackarie's eyes got as wide as saucers. "You're friends with Masaye and Chiye Koenig?! They're amazing players! And, their dad! He's amazing! Only Lionel Messi is better than he is! Can you introduce me to them? Please? I've been trying to figure out how to meet them without looking like a creepy fan!" He paused, and then his eyes somehow got wider, "Wait! No! You can't introduce them to me! Then I will be a creepy fan!"
Haruhi chuckled as she knocked on Ms. Stork's door. "Zackarie, you're okay. Just sit with me at dinner and I'll introduce you. They'll want to meet a guy so chill that he doesn't mind a girl saving him."
Zackarie's eyebrows went up in disbelief at the statement, but he said nothing as Ms. Stork called, "Enter!"