Chapter One

Over the next four years, I saw Hitachiin Kaoru being swept in and out of the hospital like it was no one's business, all for different reasons.

I broke my wrist.

He hit his head on the door frame.

I got into a fight.

He's talking to himself all the time. Sometimes, he doesn't come out of his room for days at a time. All he does is sit in the closet with an old blanket.

Kaoru tried to break a mirror; a piece split his hand.

All reasons seemed rather gruesome for a ten year old to have sustained, but I never questioned what his reasons were. In fact, I never talked to him, instead opting to watch as he continued to break his bones and mar his face.

His main doctors never seemed to be able to diagnose whatever mental issues his mother and father were looking for, nor any physical disabilities. They simply said that he was prone to massive mood swings and fits of unprecedented rage. They referred him to a shrink, to be seen three times a week.

Once I started following him to his appointments, I had to admit to myself that this Hitachiin Kaoru boy must have something I wanted; why else would I be following him around like some sick puppy, or taking a special interest in the goings on of his life? Of course, I convinced myself that he was just an interesting case to study; one I had been watching from the beginning.

Hitachiin Kaoru became my test subject, so to speak.

It was late one night; the hallways were cast into relief by the dimmed lights. The only sounds in the I.C.U (Intensive Care Unit) were the beeping sounds of monitors, the whooshing sounds of artificial lungs, and the occasional coughing fit. I sat, religiously writing in a simple notebook, blocking out the distracting noises so as to concentrate on my equations. It wasn't until someone spoke next to me that I realized I was not alone.

"He remembers you."

Calmly I looked up from my writing and found myself face to face with one Hitachiin Kaoru. He wore a hospital gown and gauze bandages around his forearms. What was more, he was smiling.

"He and I remember you from then," he said again, pointing at me. "He says that you were standing there with your father," he paused, as if expecting me to say something. When I didn't, he continued, "I couldn't see you, but if he says you were there, you had to be."

I hadn't heard him speak since that day, sum years ago…I now saw why he was not deemed at physiologically stable.

"And…who are you?" I asked, wondering if this question would even make any sense.

If possible, Kaoru's grin grew even wider. "'I' is Hikaru," he said, "'He' is Kaoru."

"And who are you?"

"I is he," he walked around the nurses station desk and walked up to me. Reaching out, he touched my notebook, and looked up at me. "What's you name?"

I yanked my notebook away from him and knitted my brow. A silence stretched between us as Kaoru continued to look at me expectantly and I stared down at him from my seat upon the station's table. He was a short boy, I realized, under average height, I expect. I wonder if that has anything to do with the stress he must feel all the t—

"What's your name?" Kaoru asked again, this time extending a hand to tug on my sleeve. "His' is Kaoru, but I's is Hikaru. He and I want to know yours."

And there he went, speaking with improper nouns and misusing the words. I made a small mark on a fresh page of my notebook before answering him.

"My name is Ootori Kyouya."

He smiled and cocked his head to the left, which caused his messy bangs to flop listlessly. "Can he and I call you Kyouya?"

I nodded before returning to my notebook. Another short jot on the page I had labeled 'Hitachiin Kaoru/Hikaru' and I turned to a fresh one, where a list of children that went to my school with influential parents lay incomplete. Immersed in the world of names, numbers and memory, I barely noticed when Kaoru took a seat next to me.

"Will you play with us?" he asked lightly, poking my arm gently, as if testing the water. "We're bored and there's nothing interesting for him and I to do in the hospital."

I glared slightly at him. "No; I have work to do."

He shrugged and slipped off the desk. "Okay," he said, walking down the hallway and back the way he came. I watched him leave and found our eyes locked when he turned upon entering a room; the only one with an open door.

"Bye-bye, Kyouya!" he called softly, sending a smile towards me. "You're our best friend."

I know that shouldn't have mattered, coming from a clinically insane child who appeared to be hurting himself and referred to his brain-dead brother as 'I' and himself as 'he', but hearing him say that…truly touched me…

MWAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAAHAHAHAH--is shot

Okay, so love? Hate? In-between? Please review!! It makes up for my horrible lovelife!!