"See you later, Kaoru."

"Ah! Hikar-" Kaoru was cut off as the door slammed shut behind his brother. "Never mind..."

"Did he do it again?" the voice on the other end of the line asked. I sighed, falling back onto the bed and adjusting the phone against my ear. "Forget him, Kaoru. Let's go out somewhere, get your mind off it."

"You're right, Ryo. How about that new movie?"

"Sounds great. I'll meet you there in an hour, 'kay? And Kaoru… really, don't worry about it. It'll all be fine, I promise."

I hung up the phone, stuffing it into my pocket and throwing on the closest jacket before storming downstairs and out into the driveway, not bothering to signal for a family car. I didn't want to be around anything that reminded me of my twin. As I walked off our estate and headed towards the theatre, I silently scolded myself for taking out my anger on Ryo. Ever since Hikaru grew away from me, went out on dates with Haruhi, became colder to me, Ryo had been there. I met him one day, walking to the Host Club after classes, and he had become a friend to me. I could talk to him about Hikaru, unlike the members of the Host Club. Kyouya would only worry about his profits, Mori rarely spoke more than a sentence to anyone but Honey, Tamaki was too aloof to trust this on, and there was no way I could talk about it to Haruhi. Though I partly resented her for stealing away my brother, I didn't hate her, and I didn't want to sabotage Hikaru's chances with her. Honey was my closest friend of all the hosts, but he was still a member of the club. I couldn't risk it getting out.

As it started drizzling rain lightly, I reached back to pull up my hood, only to find that the jacket didn't have one. I sighed, bowing my head and thinking back to earlier that day.

I sat on our bed, playing a video game while Hikaru mulled over what to wear that night.

"Hikaru, what are you making such a fuss about? It's just another date. It's not like you usually worry about what to wear."

"This isn't just any date," he responded, turning to look me in the eyes. "I'm going to ask Haruhi to be my girlfriend tonight."

I dropped the controller, staring horrified at my brother. "You're what?" I asked, hoping I had heard him wrong.

"I'm asking her to be my girlfriend," he replied lightly, turning and adjusting his collar in the mirror, making a face and unbuttoning the shirt again.

"B-but you can't do that, Hikaru!" I said, trying to hide the desperation in my voice.

"And why is that?" he asked angrily, turning and looking at me, eyes burning with anger.

"Well… that is…"

"You know what Kaoru? We've been together all our lives, maybe it's about time that we gained a little independence and tried out the rest of the world!" With that, he stormed out of the room, returning only briefly to get dressed before he left for his date.

I was shaken out of my trance by my cell phone ringing in my pocket. I pulled it out, seeing it was Ryo, and answered. I barely brought it to my ear before I heard his worried voice asking where I was, if everything was okay. "I'm fine Ryo, I'm almost there."

"Okay, but hurry. It's about to start and all the good seats will be taken…"

"It's Tuesday night, who's gonna be at the theatre?" I asked lightly, approaching the theatre, seeing Ryo standing outside under an umbrella from a distance. I hung up and put on a soft smile, approaching him and giving a cheery greeting.

The man before me was a year older than me, standing a good 5 inches taller. His soft features and sea green eyes lit up briefly as he saw me, but as my wet, disheveled state sunk in, his expression turned to one of worry. He quickly thrust his umbrella into my hand, his carefully tousled caramel hair collecting drops of rain as he placed his hand on the small of my back, leading me into the theatre's entrance and towards the men's room. I glanced around briefly, taking in the familiar tall ceilings, marble floors, carved columns, gold decorations, and flowery scent attempting to cover up the smell of popcorn and other, fancier, delicacies.

"What were you thinking walking here?" Ryo questioned me, taking a soft white towel from the counter and drying my hair off with it before replacing my jacket with his. "You aren't feeling sick already are you?"

I smiled softly, a genuine one this time, as I shook my head no. "Don't worry about me, Ryo. I'm fine. Lets go get our tickets."

He smiled back at me, flashing his flawlessly white and perfect teeth at me before we headed out to buy our tickets.

As we entered our theatre, Ryo sighed in relief as he saw only a few people spread across the recliners in the back. He lead me to the middle of the room, choosing a rather comfortable looking loveseat with a small table holding a hot teapot and two cups, along with a plate of small sweets. I popped one into my mouth as he poured me a cup of hot tea, insisting I drink it to warm up. I got comfortable on the plush couch, sipping my tea, noticing it was perfectly sweetened for my taste. Ryo seemed to remember even the littlest things.

"So what exactly is this movie about? I honestly hadn't heard much about it, but I thought if you wanted to see it, then it must be-"

"Shh!"

Ryo frowned and turned to the back of the theatre to look for the voice, but the lights dimmed and he gave up. I giggled softly and smiled up at him. "You'll see."

His expression softened at this, and he turned towards the screen as I did. The screen lit up with color as the film started. I honestly didn't know what this movie was about, either. I just wanted out of the house. It seemed to be a zombie movie. Not my kind of film. Cheesy, unrealistic,

"Aaah!" I jumped back and screamed as a zombie popped out from a corner and made a high-pitched, horrifying sound. Ryo chuckled and looked down at me, ruffling my hair and putting his arm around my shoulders as I hid behind my hands. However, this startled me even more, and I shot forward, my teacup rattling onto the floor, unharmed.

"Ah, let me-"

"No, I've got it," I cut him off, bending forward to retrieve it and place it on the table, eating another few small cakes, biding my time, not sure what to do if he tried that stunt again.

"You know what Kaoru? We've been together all our lives, maybe it's about time that we gained a little independence and tried out the rest of the world!"

I had recently suspected Hikaru was trying to break away from me a little bit, but now it seemed he was completely serious. Maybe, since he would now have a girlfriend, I should try something new as well.

I leaned back into the couch, glancing sideways at Ryo to see him looking at the screen again, rather expressionless. His big hands were resting lightly on his toned thighs, and I slowly reached my hand towards his, hesitating and pulling back slightly before I touched it. I heard him chuckle softly and looked up at him to see him smiling at me, locking his eyes on mine for a moment as I felt heat rising on my cheeks and looked away swiftly, focusing my gaze intently on the screen as I felt his arm around my shoulders once again.

"Kaoru, what's wrong?" Hikaru asked as I sat crying on the bed. "Did you have another nightmare?"

I nodded softly, wiping my eyes as my brother put his arm around my shoulder, telling me in a soft voice everything would be okay.

I shook my head softly. No thinking of Hikaru. You won't get that kind of attention from him anymore. You need to explore the world. With that thought, I relaxed a little into Ryo's half-embrace, allowing myself to explore the feeling. It was warm and comforting, but not quite in the same way… Another blood-curdling scream out of nowhere surprised me, causing me to jump and break my train of thought as I moved closer to Ryo, who squeezed my shoulder softly.

A similar series of events followed for the remainder of the movie, and by the end I was practically curled into his side. I was all too eager to get back out into the lit lobby and breathed a soft sigh of relief.

"Would you like a ride back to your place, Kaoru?"

"Ah, no, I couldn't," I replied.

"Are you sure? It's dark out there… wouldn't want a zombie to snatch you up," he laughed.

That was all the convincing I needed.

On the way to my estate, we talked about the movie, school, anything that came to mind. When we arrived after a short time, I politely asked Ryo if he would like to come in. To my surprise, he said yes.

"Are you hungry? Thirsty?" I asked as the maids took our jackets to dry them.

Ryo flashed a devilish smile. "No, how about you show me your room? We could play some video games or something." I was slightly confused at his devilish grin, as I had never seen such an expression on him before. It must have showed. "If you don't mind me kicking your ass, of course."

I smiled and laughed, leading him to Hikaru and my room.

He looked around slowly, eyes landing on a pile of clothes by the mirror.

"Ah, sorry, Hikaru made a mess of it…" I hurried over to the pile, gathering up the clothes, smelling Hikaru as soon as I picked up a good pile of them.

I rolled over in our bed, looking at Hikaru's sleeping face, brushing a strand of hair from his face. I scooted closer, taking in his scent.

"If you like the smell so much, why don't you try out my products?" he laughed out lightly, startling me.

"Kaoru? Do you need help?"

I was shaken from yet another trance, shaking my head no quickly and throwing the clothes into a corner.

"What would you like to play Ryo?" I asked, heading over to the TV to rummage through our games.

"Hmmm…" Ryo wrapped his arms around my waist, resting his chin on my shoulder and looking down at our selection. "How about this one?" He removed an arm and picked up a popular fighting game.

I took the game from him, feeling blood rush to my face again as I turned to slide the disc into the system. I heard him softly pad towards the bed and sit on it. I gave myself a few seconds to pull myself together, grabbed two controllers, and turned to see him sitting on the edge, leaning back on his hands, grinning that sly smile at me again. I approached him, handing him a controller and turning around to hit start before I was going to sit next to him. Instead, as I hit the button I felt his arms wrap around my waist again and pull me down to sit on the edge in between his legs.

"Ryo?"

"Lets make a bet. Winner gets the prize of their choice." He brought the controller around in front of me, putting both his hands on his, trapping me in his embrace and hitting start.

I was caught off guard, and he got a good hit on my character, throwing him off the edge before I knew what was happening.

"If you want to win, you better step your game up, Kaoru."

And step my game up I did. I got into the game, laughing and feeling comfortable again, but in the end, that first kill helped Ryo win.

"Not fair!" I laughed, "I wasn't prepare-"

The next thing I knew, I was laying on my back on the bed, Ryo holding himself up over me.

"Ryo! Wha-" I was cut off again as his lips crashed down onto mine briefly.

"You're my prize," he responded, smiling his sly grin once more at my blushing face. "Don't be a sore loser, Kao-kun."

His lips crashed down onto mine again, and he kissed me fiercely. I let out a small sound of defiance, but he mistook it for pleasure, and he ran his tongue across my lower lip, asking entrance as he ran a hand up my side. I refused to open my mouth for him, and he pinched my side, causing me to yelp. He wasted no time, sliding his tongue into my mouth quickly. He tasted sweet and minty, like Hikaru's toothpaste. Hikaru.

"…maybe it's about time that we gained a little independence and tried out the rest of the world!"

I gave in, kissing him back tentatively, snaking my arms around his neck and closing my eyes, trying to lose myself in the long kiss. I felt him smile softly against my lips before he removed them, blowing in my ear softly, causing me to get goose bumps and arch my back softly into his torso. From there, Ryo placed feather-light kisses down my neck, stopping to suck softly, sliding a hand down my chest to my inner thigh and rubbing softly.

At this, my eyes shot open and I pushed my hands up against his chest. "Ryo, stop!"

He pulled away from my neck, a stern look in his eyes, removing both my hands from him with one of his big ones, pinning mine above my head. He planted his lips on mine once more, crawling up slowly to rub his thigh in between mine, sliding his tongue into my mouth once again, and rubbing it against mine. I tried to fight out of his grip, but I was no match for his strength. At this, he let a deep half-moan half-growl out.

A loud slam sounded on the other side of the room. Ryo broke the kiss, and we both looked over to see Hikaru standing in the doorway. I made eye contact with my twin, his fiery eyes meeting my scared ones. "Hikaru!"

And then he was gone. I heard his footsteps run down the hallway. Ryo turned back to me, and I took his off guard moment to knee him in the stomach. He collapsed to my side, and I ran out of the bedroom, heading down the hallway Hikaru went down.

"Hikaru? Hikaru, where are you?"

No response.

I ran frantically around the house, checking all of our old hiding spots along the way, still calling out his name desperately. I came across our twin maids in the foyer.

"Where's Hikaru? Did you see him?"

They kept their emotionless expressions and pointed out the doorway into our large backyard. I ran out of it full-speed, calling out to my brother, checking everywhere I could think of, pleading for him to come out. After some amount of time running around, my legs were too tired to carry me any further. I sat down on a bench by the fountain and large rosebushes. I let my head fall into my hands, tears welling up in the corners of my eyes as I heard a snap of a twig in the bush behind me.

I turned around staring into the bush intently. As children, we would play in them, tearing up our clothes on the small thorns. But they had grown so tall and thick. The thorns were bigger and sharper. The leaves were so thick you couldn't hope to see into it. Surely he couldn't be in there. I sighed and called out to my brother one last time, voice cracking from tears that now flowed freely down my face.

"Hikaru…" I got up slowly, sullenly walking back into the house, wiping my eyes before asking the maids if Ryo had left. To my relief, Ryo had left in quite a hurry once I ran out after Hikaru.

I dragged my tired legs back into our room, hoping Hikaru would try to sneak in later. I didn't even bother changing out of my clothes, crawling into bed and staring at the door for what must have been hours, letting tears flow until I had no more to cry.

Damnit, Ryo! I thought I could trust him. But he ended up tearing my brother away from me even faster. How could I ever fix this…?