Chapter 3
Anyone who knew us both could see
You always were the better part of me
I never wanted to be this free
And all this pain... does it go away?
And every time I turn around
And you're nowhere to be found
I know I've got a long, long way to go
Before I can say good-bye to you
I've got a long, long way to know
Before I can say good-bye to all I ever knew - to you
- "Long, Long Way to Go," Def Leppard
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Walking into the apartment strongly reminded him of the first day the Host Club stepped into Haruhi's house so many years ago. He thought that it must be hard for Kaoru to live in such tight spaces, though this place was bigger than he remembered Haruhi's being. It was also a lot more modern and Western, of course; the stainless steel of the full-size dishwasher and range playing off flecks of silver in the granite countertops. There also hadn't been a strange (or so Hikaru considered him), Swedish man standing in Haruhi's kitchen, putting away the groceries like he had lived there for a long time.
"I'm home!" greeted Kaoru, closing the door after his two guests and their suitcases.
"Welcome back," returned Börje with a friendly enough smile for them all – even Hikaru's perceivably dirty look – before turning back to his task. After stepping across the hardwood floor, Kaoru opened the curtains to let in more light and a moderate view of the city.
"Make yourselves at home," he offered the others. As Haruhi placed her briefcase of files down on the coffee table, she offered a stereotypical yet honest compliment. "Thanks, but it's mostly Börje." Nevertheless, he let his cheeks redden at the praise. At the sound of his name, the indicated Swede glanced over from the kitchen to share in a silent look.
"What took you so long?" he then asked, switching to English, though more out of curiosity than admonishment. "I thought you were coming straight here."
"We stopped for lunch and to pick up their suitcases on the way," explained Kaoru, gesturing towards the guests and their luggage. "They're staying for the night – is that okay?" In response to Kaoru's hopeful grin, Börje eventually agreed to the arrangement, although his expression – not quite as pleased – revealed his true uncertainty over the matter. Having included Haruhi on the guest list, it occurred to Kaoru that he had yet to introduce her and his roommate, and so promptly did so. As they faded into a light, cordial conversation, Kaoru stole his brother's attention with a more serious inquiry. "Hikaru, when mom told you where I was, did she give you the condition, too?"
A shiver ran up Hikaru's spine as the memory restarted in his mind. "Y-yeah..." he stumbled, having hoped that in the joy of their reunion that one detail would have been lost. Unfortunately, the critical stare that Kaoru was throwing him now spoke just the opposite.
"You haven't done it yet, have you?"
"Don't rush me! I'll get to it."
Folding his arms across his thin chest, Kaoru grinned as if he had just won a game. "Okay. Remember, you promised." Casually walking away, he offered to show Haruhi the room in which she was to stay for the night.
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It wasn't the first time Yuzuha walked into her son's studio to see Hikaru passed out on the table, tears on his face smearing the charcoal lines of his sketches. Technically the area belonged to both of the twins, but the younger one hadn't been around in quite some time. It was for this reason that there lay a half-empty glass of vodka on the table and dark circles under Hikaru's eyes. Sighing, Yuzuha made her way over to gently shake the sleeping figure. Gradually, his hazel eyes slid open as he mumbled a series of vague apologies and excuses.
"Hikaru, you should get to bed," she advised as she always did as this time.
"I would, but I can't sleep – not without Kaoru," he argued once again, hoping that one day it would convince his parents to answer his plea. For emphasis, he reached for his glass of vodka; a motion upon which Yuzuha frowned but did not comment.
"This is getting too far out of hand. It's time for me to do something about it." After waiting for him to finish his drink, she took the cup from his hands, placing it out of his reach. "I talked to him today, desperate for him to understand that neither of you are getting anywhere with this arrangement."—His eyes widened in hopeful anticipation.—"Finally, I managed to convince him to let me direct you to him, but only on one condition."
"Anything – I'll do anything." Ignoring the stipulation, he latched onto her shoulders, drunk on both relief and alcohol. She hated to see that joy fade with the requirement with which he was about to be presented.
"He said you have to ask that Fujioka girl to marry you. Ha-ru-hi... was that her name?"
The next time Hikaru talked to Kyouya, he asked if there was any way he could obtain Haruhi's number.
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Hikaru's eyes shot open to see the empty half of a sleeper sofa next to him. He instantly sat up and sent his gaze around the room in near panic. Luckily, the space was relatively small, and so it did not take long for him to pick out his twin's frame from behind the glass doors. Frowning because it was probably cold outside, Hikaru stood up and made his way to the balcony. The sound of the door sliding open turned Kaoru's head, revealing a surprised expression and a cell phone in the process of being flipped closed.
"It's freezing out here," Hikaru commented, stepping over. Stuffing his hands in the pockets of his pajama pants, he regretted not grabbing his coat on the way out as Kaoru had.
"It's Scandinavia," said individual replied nonchalantly with a cough. Hikaru shivered, thinking of all the things his twin had done in the past 12 hours that he had never seen before – from the painting to the roommate to the Swedish. It was almost unbelievable to Hikaru that this was really Kaoru, because the Kaoru he knew didn't do these things. But it had to be Kaoru, because Kaoru was Kaoru, and Kaoru was standing right next to him on the balcony of his Stockholm apartment, running a hand through cropped, blond hair.
Even if Hikaru could have found something to say, the door opening once more would have interrupted him before he could get the first word out. A moment later, Kaoru found himself scooped up into another's arms, the cell in his hands captured in those of Börje.
"Come; you're going back to bed," ordered the Swede, marching back into the apartment regardless of childish protests. After lightly yet unceremoniously dumping Kaoru on the sleeper sofa, the other then returned to his own room without another word. Once Hikaru had recovered from his initial shock at the sudden interruption, he too came back inside, sliding the door closed behind him. Gingerly, he approached the melancholic form of his twin, sprawled across the covers.
"Kaoru...?"
Hazel eyes blinked sideways at him. "He gets really upset when I do stupid things," he only partially explained. The older twin's frown deepened. Although he had to agree that seeking fresh air in the middle of the night hadn't been the most intelligent decision on Kaoru's part, it had by no means warranted such a powerful reaction. "Don't worry about it."
"If you say so..." His little brother's smile was so reassuring in of itself that Hikaru regretted his inability to trust it this time.
After returning his jacket to its proper place by the front door, Kaoru took the other's hand in his own on his way back to bed. "Come on, let's go back to sleep." Together, they climbed underneath the sheets, though neither of them really wanted to sleep and lose sight of the other from their vision. Eventually, however, jet lag overcame one, and pure exhaustion overcame the other.
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Hikaru's eyes shot open. The blankets beside him were neat, organized, and – most importantly – void of his twin once again. He instantly sat up and glanced around the room in search of the missing brother. Kaoru was not to be seen, but the sunlit environment that did enter into his vision quelled his fears of the unhealthy cold. The smell of eggs and bacon wafted up his nose. A look towards the source revealed Börje located in the kitchen, crisply dressed save for the dish towel slung over his shoulder and stirring food in a frying pan before him with a spatula. On the bar side of the counter, Haruhi sat with her own plate of breakfast. At the sudden, rustling noise, the two glanced up and spotted the second guest having woken from his slumber.
"Good morning, Hikaru," greeted Haruhi, sipping at a glass of orange juice.
"Note for you," the man added in his heavily accented Japanese, indicating a pad of paper that lay beside her plate. Twisting his brow in frustration, Hikaru stood up from the makeshift bed and grabbed the paper.
"Mornin', Haruhi," he muttered as his gaze fell upon the words:
Good morning, Hikaru! I hope you slept well. Börje's so very nicely making you breakfast, so please eat it. I have to go into the studio for a short time this morning, but I'll be done by about 2:30. Maybe I can show you and Haruhi around the city some more if you'd like. Feel free to explore on your own, but try not to get too lost. :P
Love, Kaoru.
P.S. Channels 263 through 268 are in English, so you might try them if you're bored.
Hikaru lowered the piece of paper just as his European breakfast was placed in front of him. He sat down on the barstool and tried to eat it without looking too sour at being left without his brother so soon and with some strange person he thought said brother didn't even know well enough. At least things seemed to have cleared up since the incident the night before. Unfortunately for Hikaru, the Sunday morning left Börje with nothing else to do but stick around the house as the two Japanese guests occupied themselves; Haruhi with her work, and Hikaru with aimlessly flipping through channels 263 through 268 on the television.
