Title: Double Take
Author: Hitachiin Hikaru
Fandom:Ouran High School Host Club
Rating: "K" for Chibi!twins cuteness
Genre: Family/Hurt/Comfort
Disclaimer: I don't own part of Ouran High School Host Club, including characters, cities, towns, scenarios, titles, or anything else about it you can think of. I just want to express my creative intent with this fic.
Summary: Kaoru finds a strange thing in one of the guest rooms. It's thin and flat and hard, but for some reason it looks exactly like Hikaru. [Chibi!twins [One Shot [R&R Please
A/N: What can I say? I adore the twins!
Hide-and-seek is tailor-made for big houses. There were so many rooms, vases, crevices, beds, closets, and basically everything one can image to hide in or behind that it could take hours to find whoever was 'it.' And when Kaoru and Hikaru played, things were always ten times harder than usual; being the crafty, albeit adorable, toddlers that they were, they were soon left to play with only each other because no one could ever find them in decent time.
Currently Kaoru's legs were sticking halfway out of the linen cupboard's top shelf, buried in towels, washcloths and bathmats. A large array of items were stacked hazardously on top of each other: a chair, three couch cushions, a ceramic vase from the sitting room down the hall, and his mother's (priceless) glass jewelry box. "Nope," the five-year-old grumbled, leaping back out from his shelf onto the stack and climbing carelessly down. He was too busy looking for Hikaru to notice the loud, shattering crash that erupted behind him as the items toppled down the stairs.
Hikaru was always better at finding great hiding places than Kaoru: Squeezing himself behind one of the many vast bookcases in the library, sitting on top of the topiary outside, climbing up the ivy lattice attached to the side of the house, and his best, Kaoru thought, was when he had found it in his head to crawl into the oven during dinnertime. Kaoru admitted he would have dreamed of looking there, and would probably not have found him if Cook hadn't turned it on. Hikaru shouted something fierce about how hot it was and they were both covered in burns by the time Kaoru managed to tear him out. Remembering that moment fondly, Kaoru turned the corner and glanced into one of the many unused bedrooms that dotted their home.
A flash of orange caught his eye and he grinned in triumph, leaping through the door and pointing at his brother, shouting valiantly, "Gotcha, Hi-chan!"
As he watched the grinning Hikaru, he noticed that he was pointing too, as if he had found Kaoru. Frowning, he walked closer and gave him a mad look, his arms crossing over his tiny chest. Hikaru looked angry too, probably because Kaoru had found him so quickly. "Hi-chan, go count," he said when his brother didn't make any move of deciding to do it himself. Reaching out to tag him, his fingers pressed against Hikaru's who had extended his arm as well. But his hand was cold and his fingers still, making Kaoru pull his arm back, frightened.
Hikaru looked scared too, biting his lip and glancing around as if trying to figure out what was going on. It seemed like there was a window between them, Kaoru realized. Examining, he saw a door to the right and smiled, running to it. Hikaru had to be on the other side! He seemed to have noticed too, because there was no Hikaru in the window any longer. After a few attempts jumping up to it, he managed to grab onto the knob and twist it, flinging the door open. He expected to see his brother standing before him, laughing at how silly they had been. But he wasn't there, and Kaoru felt a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.
When he returned to the window, he saw that Hikaru was disappointed too.
"Can you hear?" he shouted to the window, trying to get Hikaru to listen to him. But he didn't reply, looking more and more worried by the moment, his ocher eyes widening in fear. Kaoru didn't like seeing him like that, so he did everything he could think of to get the window opened. He banged on it with his little fist, tried to pull the bottom of it up, pulling it away from the wall; and with every new exploit Hikaru caught on immediately, helping his brother to open it. But nothing they did seemed to succeed even when they both work together.
Looking back into the window, he saw that Hikaru was crying, fat tears rolling down his cheeks, and Kaoru felt a sharp shock to his heart at the sight. Glancing around the large room, he grabbed a metal, heart shaped box from one of the end tables, feeling desperate to save his older brother. "Don't worry, Hi-chan! I'll get you!" he shouted his voice breaking in fear that he might not be able to rescue his brother.
Hikaru heard a loud crash and pushed open the door to the dumbwaiter he had situated himself on to hide, his eyes wide in concern. What was that Climbing out and hoping nothing bad had happened to Kaoru, he ran up the stairs to the next floor, clambering along each step with difficulty in his haste. At the top he nearly ran into his mother as she sped by, muttering, "Another crash! What broke this time?" She was heading towards the source of the noise and Hikaru was hot on her heels.
"Kao-chan!" he called trying to get his little brother to call out to them so he'd know he was okay.
As they passed a few bedrooms, a loud cry could be heard reverberating off the walls and the two of them headed into a far room where they finally found Kaoru, his arms over his head as he huddled on the floor. Shards of glass were scattered all over the ground, a few pieces still stuck in the ornate frame. His mother, stepping carefully around the glass, knelt next to Kaoru, who looked unharmed. "Kaoru?" she said softly, remembering the name that Hikaru had called. "What happened?"
Not noticing his brother in the door, he sobbed, "Me and H-Hi-chan were playing hide-and-seek a-and when I found him h-he was stuck in that w-window!" He pointed to the frame. Hikaru blinked in confusion. "B-But he didn't get out s-so I tried t-to broke it b-b-but… I broked Hikaru, too!" Kaoru's voice shot through three octaves at the end of his explanation. His wails were louder than ever and ignoring the shards, Hikaru walked over to his brother and hugged him tightly, making Kaoru gasp in surprise.
"I'm not broke, Kao-chan," he informed him. Kaoru looked utterly bewildered.
"Then… did you get out of the window when I smashed it?" he asked, the last few tears drizzling down his cheeks.
With a sigh their mother lifted up both of her sons and carried them to the room's bathroom. Placing them on the counter, the two of them gazed into the glass. "Mommy!" Hikaru exclaimed, looking excited. "There's four? What are they called?"
She smiled. "No, there are only two of you." She tapped on the glass. "This is a mirror, Hikaru, Kaoru. It show's whoever's looking in it. See?" Pointing to the mirror, she said, "That's still Kaoru and that's still Hikaru." She was mildly sure she was pointing to the correct boy, but their surprised glances to each other told her she was wrong again. "Well, you know."
For a long time after their mother left the room, they were glued to the mirror, trying to wrap their brains around the fact they looked exactly alike. Kaoru always assumed that Hikaru looked one way and he looked different, as different as their mommy looked from their daddy.
In bed that night, after determining that their hands, heights, and feet were all exactly the same as well, they continued to talk about it, unable to understand. "We're 'twins,'" Kaoru told Hikaru. "That's what mommy said."
"But," Hikaru contradicted, holding his brother's hands tightly, "you've always looked like that."
"And you always looked like that."
"So we're always the same?" They were silent.
"I guess so. Maybe that's why mommy mixed us a lot." More silence.
Hikaru looked determined. "'Kay. If we look the same, then I should be just us. Like… people who don't look like us aren't us. Right?" Kaoru nodded very slowly. Hikaru smiled. "Okay Kao-chan, then you and me'll be together forever. We know I'm me and you're you, if they don't, then they can't be with us."
Kaoru asked, "So we're broken up from everyone? 'Us' and 'them'?"
"Yup."
"'Kay, Hi-chan." Kaoru knew his 'twin' could never be wrong. He was the big brother after all, and he knew what was best for them. Best for 'us.'
A/N: For those of you who don't know what a dumbwaiter is, it's that cart that can move things from floor to floor in a large house or in a kitchen via a thin metallic shaft.