AN/ Alrighty, this is not my story. This was written by a friend of mine who doesn't have an account. It is her first story, and I think it is good for her first one. Anyway, enjoy!

Disclaimer: she does not own Ouran High, if she did the twins would be shmexing up in the closet

The ease of youth and knowing someone so well that you could finish the other sentences was slowly disappearing with the ebb and flow of reality, this time the reality of high school. Two steps from entering the real world, together or otherwise. The desires of childhood having long left the both of them, leaving two boys only with what they'd always had, their own private Eden only for themselves.

When the devil first came into the garden and tempted Eve, he came in the guise of a petite brunette going by the name of Fujioka Haruhi who, while not evil, could tempt with the ease of the Evil One himself, even if unintentional.

With the gate of the garden slightly open, they experienced looks into the real world.

With the last push, he watched his brother and Haruhi walk together, perfectly in tune with each other, just as his brother and he had once been. While slightly sad at the fact that he was being left with only part of his body left out of the Garden, no one around to help him the rest of the way out, he was happy he could shove his brother out of the self made prison.

Most would have thought him bitter, hating the girl for taking the one that knew him best away from everything he had once known, this was the way it had to be.

The next two and a half years rushed by, one twin experiencing the joy of life outside of his brother, the other still caught in limbo; one joining sports and teams the other left with arts and solitude.

With all the activities, the first time the two really saw each other outside of the Host Club that had been established 3 years before, was when they both sat down with each other to start filling out University applications.

When Kaoru heard Hikaru enter the room and his feet falling across the carpeted floor, he continued to write out the required essay, only looking up when a stack of papers was dropped on the desk in front of him, followed by Hikaru slumping into the chair opposite.

Kaoru smiled at him when his twin looked up. When Hikaru continued to look at him, no through him, his smile became strained.

"Let's talk; we haven't done that in a while. How's school been?" the indifferent shrug that followed stung a bit, but what could he do? He couldn't force his twin to talk to him. When he looked up again he realised what he was looking at. The smile that Hikaru gave to people he didn't quite like but had to put up with. Tolerate, that was the word he would put to the face Hikaru was giving him.

Such a small thing, where had he gone wrong? Where had the connection failed? Was it him? What clubs would he have to drop to get back the connection?

"I'm kind of busy here Kaoru, these have to be into the university by next week." Biting his lip, Kaoru moved on, feeling his undernourished heart lose the last piece of love from his brother that he kept close in times when he felt lonely. The life of solitude that had been pressed on him after his brother had left, and the minimal connection with other humans warranted an empty heart.

Hikaru had learned from Haruhi a long time ago that riding the subway was a great way to people watch. Seeing what was going on with people, pondering what they were thinking, analysing emotions, he'd gotten good at that one, and generally getting to know what was going on with his fellow human beings.

When he made his way onto the train to head downtown, he gazed at everyone around him. That woman was late for an appointment with her doctor to find out whether she had acquired HIV from her boyfriend. That kid was sad because that night her mother had yelled at her again for not doing well enough on her last math test, 94 was never good enough. That man was scared because he was coming out and introducing his parents to his boyfriend.

When the train abruptly stopped, a voice came over the speakers placed along the trains.

"There will be a short stop in our trip in order to fix a small problem in the electrical system, we are sorry for the inconvenience." That automatically translated into someone having jumped off a bridge in front of the high speed trains.

'Poor guy, guess whoever the family is didn't care enough about him to even notice what was going on.' The train continued on, and so did the world, and Hitachiin Hikaru was now a single child.