Chapter One:
Emi had never heard worse news than what she was hearing now. It felt as if her heart, no, her soul had been ripped from her being and shredded into billions of tiny pieces. She clutched at her chest and tried desperately to regain the breath that seemed to allude her. No, she thought. It can't be… Emi's knees sank to the ground, she found that her legs were no longer able to support her. How could something so terrible happen to her? Surely this was a dream, surely this couldn't be real. But the stinging of tears behind her eyes, the raging ache of her heart, were the proof that she was awake. She leaned her head back against the wall and stared up at the miniature chandelier that hung above her head in the hallway. Odosa and two policemen sat in the other room and she could faintly hear their spoken condolences as they stood to take their leave. Emi raked shaky fingers through her hair and bit her bottom lip to keep it from trembling. She could taste the blood on her tongue. Emi watched as her odosa silently escorted the two policemen to the door and saw that they were thanked for going to the trouble of delivering him the unpleasant news. He hadn't noticed Emi's presence in the hallway and once the door was closed, he leaned his head against the wall and let out a shuddering cry of remorse.
Emi kept her eyes focused on a scuff mark on the floor that the police officers had left behind. She was hopelessly trying to convince herself that this happening had never occurred, but the mark was blatant proof of their visit and of the news that they had to give.
"Emi," her odosa gasped once he had collected his composure and turned to find her kneeling on the floor. Emi didn't look up or respond to him in any way. She simply pulled herself up onto her feet and made her way up the stairs to her bedroom. But she couldn't bring herself to turn the knob, or even touch it for that matter. It was a room that they shared, her and her twin sister. She didn't want to go in and see the messy bed sheets and the impression that her sister had left on the mattress. Emi's odosa followed her up the stairs and stood behind her silently, waiting for his daughter to speak. He wanted her to say something, anything. The silence was almost unbearable.
"We leave for Tokyo on Friday, right?" Emi finally spoke, her voice devoid of any emotion. Emi's odosa couldn't find the right words to say so he simply responded,
"Hai."
It'd been a week since the death of Emi's twin sister, Chizuru, and she was finding it hard to cope. Emi couldn't seem to sleep in the large, king sized bed because of the missing presence beside her. Emi and Chizuru had shared a bed ever since they were born and when that other presence was suddenly gone, Emi found it hard to close her eyes at night. Emi and her odosa had come to Tokyo in order to have an engagement conference with the Hitachiins and deal with the required formalities. Emi had been the fiancée of Hikaru Hitachiin ever since birth, and Chizuru had been engaged to Koaru Hitachiin. But what was to be done now? One of the Leis was gone and Emi surely couldn't marry both of the Hitachiin twins. Her odosa's business relied on the marriage of his daughters to the Hitachiin brothers and now it was all falling apart. He would lose his daughter and his company within the same year if something wasn't done to prevent the Lei corporation from being bought out by the Grand Tonnerre Group, it was something they couldn't afford.
And so here they were, anxiously awaiting the arrival of their conference counterpart. Emi had seated herself at the cushioned seat beside the window and was staring out at the busy world below them. Tokyo sure had a lot of people. Emi realized that she was glaring down the busy bodies below and clenched her hands into tight fists. Why couldn't it have been one of you? She found herself thinking furiously when the door to the conference room was suddenly opened and in stepped Hitachiin-sama and his two sons, Hikaru and Koaru. They entered with smiles on their faces, it was apparent that they were unaware of their situation. Emi's odosa quickly gathered himself onto his feet and gave them a bow, something in which they returned. Their smiles soon dripped off their faces though once they felt the darkened aura of the room.
"Lei-san, is something wrong?" Hitachiin-sama asked out-right, stepping further into the room to proper stand before Emi's odosa. Lei-san struggled to find the words to explain his situation and soon gave up on sounding professional when he explained the death of his daughter.
"Chizuru… She had an accident," Lei-san began. Wide eyes greeted him as he gave a ragged sigh and collapsed onto the couch. Lei-san ran a shaky hand over his face and took in a deep breath to calm the emotion rising in his throat.
"What happened? Is she alright?" Koaru spoke up, his voice seeming loud in the quiet atmosphere of the room. Lei-san shook his head and clutched at his hair.
"No… No, she's not alright. She –" Lei-san couldn't find it in him to say the words out loud. Emi made it easy for him and uttered two, painful words that made everything much more real to her than anything else.
"She's gone," she said, her voice soft and muffled by the collar of her hoodie.
"What do you mean… 'she's gone'?" Hikaru asked, placing his hand on Koaru's shoulder. But Emi didn't answer his question, she simply turned her head to meet his eyes and they understood.
By the end of the conference, it was concluded that Emi would marry one of the brothers, but deciding which one was the problem, so they left it up to Emi herself to decide. She would be staying with the Hitachiins for the rest of the year. Her odosa thought it would be good for her to get away from the house, from the memory of her sister, and so he agreed to let her stay at the Hitachiin manor in order for her to grow closer to the brothers so that she could make a sound judgement on who she desired most to marry. He also hope that the company of the brothers would provide some sort of comfort to her silent suffering. Emi had never been one to share her problems or feelings with others, at least not to anyone other than Chizuru. She'd agonize for days without saying anything until Chizuru had badgered the words out of her, and even then it took several hours just for her to get out the entirety of her sorrows. Emi's odosa sincerely wished that she would open herself up to the brothers, hoping that the connection of the Hitachiin brothers to each other would inspire the will of connecting to similar beings. It was a foolish wish, but he wished nonetheless.
And foolish it was. Once Emi had settled in at the Hitachiin residence, she isolated herself in the guest bedroom and refused to come out except for meals. Hikaru and Koaru attempted several times to lure her from her makeshift cage, but to no avail. It was on the third day of her seclusion that Hikaru and Koaru gave up on the gentle approach. With one sound kick, the door to her bedroom fell to the floor. The Hitachiin brothers entered the room without so much as an, "Excuse me." Emi pulled the blankets down to uncover her eyes, and stared blankly at the angry expressions that greeted her. She knew this was coming, the Hitachiin twins weren't known for their patience.
"Do you want to play a game?" Emi spoke before they could assault her with their raging lecture. Hikaru and Koaru quickly closed their mouths and gave her a curious stare.
"What kind of game?" Hikaru asked suspiciously. Emi sat up in bed and let the blankets fall away from her scantily clad form.
"A guessing game, of the sorts," she said, brushing her bangs back from her face. Her fierce gaze met his then and Hikaru found his mouth going dry. The Hitachiin twins raised their eyebrows in question.
"How do you play?" the Hitachiin brothers asked in perfect harmony. Emi felt a sharp stab in her chest. Her hand reached up and covered the whole of her heart.
"If I can guess which of you is Hikaru and which of you is Koaru, will you do something for me?" Emi asked, her voice coming out weaker than she intended. Their eyes widened in surprise.
"No one's ever been able to tell you two apart, right?" Emi continued, pushing them to play the game. "Why don't you give me a shot?"
The Hitachiin twins glanced at each other with uneasy expressions, but they both agreed to go along with Emi's game.
"You have to give a reasoning…" Koaru began.
"As to which of us is which," Hikaru concluded. Emi nodded and stared intently at the two boys that stood before her. It took her only a single moment for her to see the difference of the two boys before her. Or rather hear the difference.
"Hikaru," Emi pointed to the twin on the left. The twins widened their eyes at her answer.
"Your reasoning?" They pushed for her answer. Emi shrugged and fell back against the pillows.
"Koaru's voice is slightly higher in pitch than Hikaru's. It's so slight that it's hard to tell the difference, but it's there. When Hikaru's not around, Koaru is rather normal and well behaved while, Hikaru, on the other hand, becomes noisy and bad mouthed. Also, Hikaru's speech in general is much more blunt in content," Emi explained. She'd done her observations a long time ago. Emi had wanted to know everything there was to know about her fiancée, which included being able to tell which twin was which. "It's easy to tell which of you is which when you recognize the two of you as individuals instead of two parts of one whole. You may be twins, but you are two different people," she concluded, rolling over onto her side. The twins were silent for a long while before they decided to ask her what it is she wanted from them.
"What is it you want us to help you with?" Hikaru asked, his heart beating loudly in his chest. He was sure Emi could hear it from across the room. Emi sighed and closed her eyes.
"Sleep," she said.
"Sleep?" the twin repeated in question. Emi nodded and clenched her hands into fists around the bed sheets.
"I can't sleep alone…" Emi mumbled, tears of embarrassment building up behind her closed eyelids. The Hitachiin brothers understood what she meant then, for they too found it difficult to find slumber when the other was missing. Hikaru and Koaru pulled their shirts over their heads and smoothly climbed into bed to surround Emi with their presence.
"Is this better?" They whispered softly into her ear as their arms wound around her midsection. Emi relaxed in their grasp as she gave her reply.
"Hai."
In what seemed like no time at all, Emi drifted into a deep, comfortable sleep nestled warmly between the bodies of the Hitachiin brothers.
(A/N: Odosa is how you say "father" in Japanese. I will be using bits and pieces of Japanese here and there, such as "hai" which translates into yes or okay, as well as a few other phrases. This story takes place after the last episode of the Ouran High School Host Club anime television series. Please enjoy!)
