Hitachiin Kaoru did not know where he was when he woke up. All he knew, was the feel of cool metal against his cheek, an incessant throbbing in his head, and the feel of cotton in his mouth. He was not, however, bothered, until he sleepily reached out with his hand and did not encounter the warm body of his brother. Only then did the panic set in.
Kaoru sprang into a sitting position, causing himself to become lightheaded.
"Hikaru?" He croaked. His throat was dry and sore. He couldn't see very well in the dim light of the stale, dusty room.
"Kaoru? Oh God, Kaoru, you're awake?"
Kaoru still couldn't see his brother, but he could sense his presence, and therefore was not alarmed when he felt a cold hand grasping his own.
"Hikaru, where are we?" Kaoru tried to follow his brother's arm into his familiar embrace, but encountered cold steel. His heart began to beat faster.
"I don't know Kao. You've been out for a really long time. Is your head ok? You got hit pretty hard."
Kaoru's eyes had begun to adjust to the dim lighting and he could just make out the fox-faced profile of his older brother regarding him worriedly through the bars of his cage.
"What happened? I don't remember anything…"
"Kaoru, he knocked you out. Hit you on the head with a baseball bat. A fucking baseball bat! Just turn around so I can see your head ok? I was terrified you were dead. You've probably got a concussion at best. I tried to wake you up, but I couldn't from here. I don't know what he's planning Kaoru, but he's obviously a psycho. We need to come up with a plan before he gets back. So, when he opens the lock, you jump out and I'll-"
"Wait, wait, Hikaru, you aren't making any sense. Who is he? What's going on?"
"I don't know who he is, I just know he's certifiably insane. Take a look at the walls."
Now that Kaoru's eyes had fully adjusted to the light, he pressed his face closer to the cage bars to see what the rest of the room looked like.
It wasn't very large, perhaps 10'x10', but every square inch of wall space was covered in Hitachiin brothers merchandise. The silly, outrageous products that time to time, the twins had helped to design to up their sales at the host club.
The implications of this fact seemed ominous.
Kaoru took a deep breath and raked his hand through his hair. "Okay… Okay. So… let's not do anything rash. This guy is probably just a psychotic fan. If he's just an obsessed fan, he probably won't hurt us. We just need to play along until they find us. No doubt Kyoya's police force is already on the case." He tried to sound a lot more assured by this than he really was, but he knew he couldn't fool his brother and the tremor in his voice was a dead giveaway.
"Kao, come here." Hikaru's voice was soft and welcoming, and Kaoru crawled towards his brother, allowing the elder to cradle him as best he could with the hard metal between them. Hikaru smoothed back his brothers hair and tried his best to comfort the younger boy, but the honest truth was that the twins were terrified. They had no idea where they were, who had kidnapped them and what that person's intentions were, and they had no idea if help was on the way. They could die here. They could die today.
At that moment, a loud banging and scraping noise filled the small room. A metal door slid open and a middle aged, balding man peeked his head in. The man had almost cheerful looking black, squinty eyes and puffy cheeks. He smiled a toothy smile at the twins as he noticed their position.
"Ah! Kaoru-kun is awake! I'm so sorry I hit you Kaoru-kun. I meant for it to be Hikaru-kun, but I guess I still have trouble telling the two of you apart. In any case, it still worked and I was able to get your older brother to come along willingly to stay by your side. I guess the two of you really are inseparable"
Kaoru was astonished that this man was their kidnapper. He didn't seem menacing in the slightest. He looked over his shoulder to see his older brother bestowing a signature Hitachiiin-glare upon the man still peeking his head through the door.
Noticing Hikaru's hateful gaze, the man stepped fully into the room (which left very little space considering he was a very large man and the room already held two cages containing teenage boys) and knelt down in front of Kaoru's cage.
"There's no need to look at me like that, Hikaru-kun. I plan to make it up to Kaoru right now, don't you worry. I know how protective you are of your little brother!"
The man brandished a key from his back pocket and began to unlock the padlock on the front of Kaoru's cage. Kaoru let out a squeak and squirmed back into the farthest corner of his cage. Hikaru's grip on Kaoru's arms tightened almost painfully.
"You don't touch him! Don't you dare touch him, you bastard!" Hikaru kept screaming obscenities, gradually becoming more explicit and more frantic as the man opened the cage door and reached inside.
Kaoru let out a yelp as the man's meaty hand enclosed around his slender ankle. The boys' socks and shoes had been removed, and he found the man was easily able to overpower him as he was ripped away from his brother and dragged out of his cage. As soon as he was out, his usually calm and composed nature flew out the window, and he began to kick and scream relentlessly as the man pinned him to the floor.
"Shhh… shhh pretty thing! Be quiet! I'm not going to hurt you; I promise. I'm just going to check to see if you're ok." Kaoru struggled against the larger man, but was no match as both his arms and legs were restrained by meaty arms, and he was lifted onto a lap.
"Let me go! Let me go!" He screamed in his attackers face. The man only gave him a gentle smile and petted his head with his large sweaty hands.
"Shh… just a moment Kao-kun; I know you want to be with your brother, but we have some business to take care of." The man had a soft and surprisingly timid voice. The man restraining the boy leant down to press a kiss on the pale temple in front of him. Kaoru turned his head away, disgusted, and found himself looking into his brother's eyes. Hikaru's eyes were wide and terrified- looking, his hands were holding onto the bars of his cage so tightly that his knuckles had turned white.
Kaoru managed to free one arm and he reached out toward his twin, fingers outstretched as far as possible. Hikaru, too, reached out his hand. The brothers tried to reach each other, to hold on to comfort one another as they always had, but before their fingertips could touch, the man stood up, taking Kaoru with him, the boy clutching on for dear life, afraid he'd be suddenly dropped onto the concrete floor. As the man turned to leave the room, Kaoru realized he was going to be separated from his brother and he began panicking, shrieking his brother's name wildly and flailing. The man carried him out of the room with little effort and before the door shut on him and his tiny cage, the cage next to him empty, Hikaru heard a swift cracking noise and his brother's cries were silenced.
"No!" He screamed, but the metal door had slammed shut with a screech. Hikaru didn't stop screaming for his brother, even though he figured that no one was listening anymore. He cried and gasped until his voice was raspy and he could barely manage a whisper.
It wasn't until the light through the small, dirty window on the ceiling of his cell had dimmed that the door opened again. When it did, Hikaru lept to his feet, despite feeling completely drained from all the screaming he'd done earlier. When that man opened the door, he swore he would kill him, or die trying. But when the man came through the door, he was holding Kaoru and all murderous thoughts were buried under Hikaru's concern for his brother's life.
His younger brother was dangling from the man's arms. His head lolled backwards over a meaty arm and his limbs swayed as the man maneuvered himself and the boy into the small room. The man laid Kaoru down on the floor, with so much care it was almost as if he were putting a small child to sleep, and when he looked up into Hikaru's eyes, Hikaru saw tears there, welling up.
"I didn't want to do it Hikaru-kun. It hurt him so bad. I didn't want to, but I couldn't tell the two of you apart. I didn't know… I didn't know he would scream like that."
Hikaru's blood ran cold and the murderous rage in his heart resurfaced. "You- you! What did you do?! What did you do to my brother?! I'll KILL you!"
"He'll be fine Hikaru-kun, but you'll have to take care of him from now on. I don't think he'll be very happy with me when he wakes up."
"I'm not happy with you now you bastard. Open this door RIGHT NOW. Open it!"
"I will, Hikaru-kun, I will. I just need you to back up for a second. I don't- I don't want to hurt you too!" The man wailed.
Hikaru decided that as long as the man decided to open the door, he would listen, for now. He just needed to get to his brother as quickly as possible. He backed up as much as he could and watched with rage-filled eyes as the man unlocked his cage door. Before he opened it though, he stepped back, took a brief, regretful look at Kaoru, lying helplessly on the floor, and backed out through the metal door, closing and locking it behind him.
Hikaru burst through the cage door, skidding to his brother on his knees and lifting the younger boy's head into his lap. He bent the upper half of his body over his brother, trying to shield him, although he knew it would do no good know. He listened for the sound of his brother's breathing and when he heard those precious breaths- shallow and inconsistent, he let out a sigh of relief. He clutched his brother tightly to him, and started shuffling backwards into the cage. He had hated it when he was stuck there without his consent, but now he realized that if the man came back, he didn't want to make it easier for him to get to them. He half dragged, half carried his brother to the very back of the cage, laying him against the back wall and shielding the younger's body with his own. Kaoru's body was unresisting and fit easily into his arms with the state he was in. Hikaru buried his head in his brother's neck and let out a dry sob. He wanted to cry, but the tears just wouldn't come. He figured he was still in a state of shock. He clutched his brother tightly to him, slightly rocking him, praying that they would get out of this alive. He waited for sleep to take him, but sleep never came, and the Hitachiin brothers spent their first night in their cell together, but also alone.