Silent Resilience

Our Little Secret

*Words in quotations and italics are spoken in the Malay language

"Adriel, are you okay?!"

He woke up to the sound of Haruhi's worried voice looming over him. Dazed, Adriel opened his eyes and stared back up at her, blinking in confusion.

He pushed himself to a sitting position with his right arm before looking around.

Seven people surrounded him, Haruhi being one of them. Though his vision was still a bit blurry, he could make out a familiar head of blond hair, no doubt belonging to the one who had been stalking them earlier. Come to think of it, were all of them stalking him and Haruhi?

Though still confused and kind of pained, he nodded. "What happened?"

"I...uh," Haruhi trailed off, still unsure herself as to what just occurred. Awkwardly, she reached over and grabbed his left arm, which still lied on the floor beside them. Handing it to Adriel, she struggled to find the words to describe it. "We fell down the stairs, and I kind of took your arm? Here, you can have it back now"

She placed it in Adriel's lap, careful as to not damage it. He nodded, saying a small thank-you before grabbing it.

It was too much effort to try and reattach it now. Besides, no one else was in the hallway, and their tour was basically over. It was probably best to just bring it home and see if it had gotten damaged in any way. With his left sleeve hanging loosely by his side, he placed the prosthetic arm in his bag carefully.

In his daze, he still hadn't noticed the shocked stares from the group around him. In fact, it was like he barely noticed them at all.

"Why does my face hurt?" he asked, only just now realizing how much his left side seemed to be stinging. His rather casual way of addressing the pain was almost laughable, except no one in that moment was in the mood for humor.

Haruhi racked through her head the moments leading up to this prior, having been in shock for the past few minutes. When she recalled what happened, she turned and faced the tall blond standing a few feet away, a deadly glare on her face.

Not that Adriel could see it. Haruhi was on his left; his bad eye.

"Why were you guys following us?!" she almost yelled, scowling at the people around them. From what Adriel could see, the small group seemed to shrink back a bit at the sounds of her voice.

Not that he could blame them. 'Haruhi's terrifying when he's mad'

"Haruhi, we were worried!" the tall blond cried out as he dramatically dropped to his knees in front of them. "Daddy just wanted to make sure you were okay..."

"Daddy?" Adriel mumbled in confusion. Was this some kind of Japanese thing?

"Why wouldn't I be?" Haruhi retorted in anger. "And quit crying, Tamaki!"

The blond, now known as Tamaki, recoiled back while dramatically crying. He continued to sob in the background as a pair of twins moved into Adriel's view.

"Didn't he attack you or something?" they asked in unison, eyeing the tan boy on the floor. It was incredibly obvious that they were talking about Adriel, but he just politely pretended not to hear.

"No, we fell down the stairs together. In fact, it was actually kind of my fault" Haruhi scratched the back of her head as she turned to face Adriel. "Sorry about that"

"It's cool" he replied with a shrug. "Not the first time this happened"

"Then, you started screaming because..." one of the twins trailed off, staring at the arm in Adriel's bag. It took a moment for him to realize where the twin was looking.