Chapter 4

Kaoru and Haruhi stared at each other for a moment, silent and wide-eyed. At more tremors, Kaoru happened to glance to the side and gave a start.

"Run!" he shouted, pointing. Haruhi just watched as the twin began running toward it, then finally looked for herself and immediately began running after him. There was a break in a far-off hedge and beyond it the outside garden could be seen. There were numerous paths branching off from their trail, and just as they passed each one, a blocking hedge sprang up.

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"Nekozawa!" Renge cried, hopping up and down, "Stop them! The game can't end yet!" The Black Magic Club president snapped out of his intellectual conversation with Bereznoff to watch. Almost without thinking, Nekozawa stretched his hand out, uttered some magic words, and smiled wickedly when a bright flash came from the edge of the maze.

"NO!" screamed Renge. Her scream was so fierce it made Bereznoff hide. Nekozawa was immediately hit over the head with Renge's giant, white fan.

"You turned Haruhi and Kaoru into mice!"

It was true: two rodents, red and brown, were scrambling for the exit, mere feet away.

"Actually, they're rats," the president corrected, only to be promptly hit with the fan.

"There is no moe with animals!" Renge cried helplessly. Nekozawa uttered more words, a hedge instantly blocked off the exit and the bright light returned.

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The next steps (the human) Haruhi and Kaoru took sent them face-first into the leafy wall. They both stumbled back, holding their noses. Kaoru gave a frustrated shout and kicked the hedge, only to let out another louder, more painful cry. He felt a hand on his shoulder.

"It's okay— we'll just go back," Haruhi said soothingly. But when they turned around, they found themselves facing another wall. The long path they had just been sprinting down was gone— blocked off— and now the only choices were left or right. Both hosts heaved similarly desperate signs, then faced each other and started playing rock, paper, scissors.

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For the past minute or so, Tamaki had been on his own, separated from Hikaru. Alone, whatever level-headedness he may have possessed completely vanished. He ran up and down every path he came across, took any turn, and nearly tore his hair out every time he came to a fork in the road, all the while babbling incoherently. This continued for about five minutes.

Then, upon taking a fortunate turn, he ran into Kyouya… literally. He ran into him so hard that he knocked him to the ground. Once Tamaki's eyes cleared and he saw who was beneath him, he scooped his perturbed friend into a bear hug.

"Oh, Kyouya! I thought I'd never see you again! I've been lost for days and I haven't even seen Haru—"

"Get off me!" the vice president shouted, pushing Tamaki away.

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Nekozawa arched a brow as Renge bustled around her balcony, one hand firmly over her nose, the other hand rummaging through all her different bags.

"Tissue, tissue…" she half-muttered, half-giggled. In all the nearby balconies, girls were fainting right and left and one girl nearly fell over the edge.

"What's going on?" Nekozawa asked. Renge finally found a tissue and plugged up her nose.

"Moe!" she giggled, "Beautiful, beautiful moe!"

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"Get off me, you idiot!" Kyouya repeated when Tamaki was still kneeling over him. The King shrugged.

"What? No one's around." At that, Kyouya pushed him to the ground and jumped up, a murderous look in his eye.

"I'm just happy to see you!" Tamaki laughed nervously. He relaxed his defensive position on the ground when he was sure Kyouya would not hit him. "So is anyone with you?"

"No, I've been on my own for a couple minutes," sighed the vice president, pushing his glasses back in place. Tamaki popped up.

"So we're gonna find the way out together!"

"Clearly." Kyouya side-stepped the president's attempted hug and continued down the path.

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"This is boring already," sighed Kaoru as he and Haruhi rounded a corner in the path. This path looked identical to all the others: dull, dim, and depressing.

Haruhi, who was far less impatient, merely voiced her thoughts: "I can't believe the school garden was actually big enough to hold this maze." She arched a brow when Kaoru suddenly, inexplicably started laughing.

"Is that all you've been thinking?"

The girl did not know if she should feel offended or not. "Yes."

"It's just you looked so serious before… like you were contemplating something important," grinned the twin. "But then again, you've always been full of surprises." He gave Haruhi a little nudge with his shoulder as they walked, making her grin too.

"I can say the same for everyone in the club. I think I'd die if we ever actually had a normal day for once." Kaoru laughed, but was swiftly quieted when after another couple of steps, she nudged back.

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Renge was positively beside herself in a giggle fit. On the balcony next to hers, Nekozawa and Bereznoff were looking harassed,

"Now what?" the club president hissed, glaring. (Bereznoff had long since had enough, and now would not even look at the manageress.)

"Kaoru and Haruhi," she finally gasped out between giggles.

"Two guys can't walk straight and you nearly have a heart attack?"

Renge recovered in a surprisingly fast amount of time and waved her hand as if dismissing him. "Now, now. I'll tell you when you're older."

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Haruhi shivered and held her arms tightly. This had not gone unnoticed, and she soon had Kaoru's blue school jacket around her shoulders.

"Oh, you don't have to…" she quickly sputtered, but the twin was obviously not going to take it back. They walked on down the long, lone path for awhile, then took the only turn it offered only to find a dead end a short distance away.

Haruhi turned to go back, but Kaoru stopped, leaning against a leafy wall. He ran a hand through his spiky red hair and issued a sigh that sounded as if he had the weight of the world on his shoulders. The girl neared him and put a comforting hand on his arm.

"It's not your fault we're in here," she told him firmly.

"Of course not. It's Hikaru's. He's the one who stepped on the stupid puppet in the first place," he replied quickly.

Haruhi was silent for a moment. "Well… then wait. What were you thinking just now? You looked so forlorn."

"Oh, I just realized that the cafeteria has served nearly the exact same lunch for the past two days."

Haruhi paled, eye twitching.

"That means," continued the (unobservant) twin, "that I'll have to take it upon myself to put more variety in my diet."

Haruhi, for as much as she wanted to laugh, could not, because her want to knock Kaoru upside the head for thinking such a mundane, trivial thing at a time like this was stronger. And she continued to stare. Kaoru gave a lighthearted laugh upon seeing her expression, pulled her closer as he pushed away from the wall and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Thanks for caring, though," he smiled with a wink.

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Girls were screaming with delight, crying in one another's embraces and fainting in a rather undignified manner. In the furthest balcony over, Nekozawa's jaw was so wide Bereznoff could have fit comfortably inside. The puppet, however, was busy covering his eyes with his paws.

"What was THAT?!" screamed the president. He looked to Renge for an explanation, only to find her sprawled out on the floor of her own balcony; she had already fainted.

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"Who do you guys do that so much?" sighed Haruhi with a half-confused, half-demanding expression. It was faces like those that made Kaoru want to endlessly rub his cheek against hers.

However, he refrained. Instead, with his hands behind his head, he began leisurely walking away. "Because," he responded in the "cool twin" air he and his brother had perfected, "it's fun… and you're our friend."

"The other guys in the club are your friends, too," Haruhi responded as she followed after him, "and you don't do that to them."

"Yeah, but they're not cute." At Haruhi's faint blush, Kaoru started laughing (that trademark twin laugh) and turned the corner as the two started to backtrack.

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Renge jumped up from her fainted state with such a scream that Bereznoff hid under the president's cape.

"WHAT DID HE SAY?" she screeched, leaning so far over the edge of her balcony that Nekozawa thought she would tumble over. In fact, he was impatiently expecting it. Renge pulled a pair of binoculars from somewhere in her dress and watched the scene below with freakish, precise balance.

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Haruhi stopped to tie her shoe once Kaoru had rounded the corner, and was suddenly aware that his laughing had stopped. The girl shot up and around the corner and noticed someone in a blue jacket far down the trail. She looked down at her shoulders to double check: she still had Kaoru's jacket. A pang of regret flashed through her mind before she took off in a wild sprint. The other person was running in her direction shouting Kaoru's name.

Hikaru would have passed Haruhi by had she not caught his arm to stop him. He tried to pull away.

"Kaoru! I saw him— let me go!"

"Hikaru, get a grip!" Haruhi shouted and yanked him back. His arm went limp as he stopped trying to escape and she released him. Hikaru paced a little, punched a hedge, and finally collapsed against it and slid to the ground.

"I haven't seen him at all since we've been split up," he began softly, "and…"

"You're scared?" Haruhi offered gently. Hikaru gave a nod so quick that the girl was not sure if it was really meant as a nod. He propped his elbows on his knees and covered his face with his hands.

"Here," chirped Haruhi. She took her cell phone out of her pocket and pressed a speed-dial button. Hikaru peered through his fingers without trying to look obvious.

"Hello, Kaoru," Haruhi said. "What happened? …Yeah, I just thought of this now."

"Let me talk to him!" the (moping) twin suddenly cried, jumping up.

The twins' conversation lasted a couple of minutes, ending with "I love you," and by that time, Hikaru was looking considerably brighter. He handed the phone back saying, "Kaoru's cold; he wants his jacket back."

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"This is unbelievable!" Nekozawa shouted, shaking a fist. "They get service down there?!"

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Haruhi and Hikaru walked along at a leisurely pace. Hedges were springing up and sinking all around them, but that did not scare the two into running. They chatted about times they had gotten lost as children, and Haruhi added a story of when she lost a pet rabbit, only to find the neighbors had caught it and eaten it. She quickly quieted when Hikaru started tearing up. And they walked on in silence.

Awhile later, Haruhi stopped and sighed. "This is getting us nowhere. We need a plan. What would Tamaki-sempai come up with?"

"It'd be a safer bet to ask Kyouya," smirked Hikaru. "Personally, I'd wait for Nekozawa to get bored and let us all go."

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Nekozawa sighed as he stared at his empty tea cup.

"I'm bored. No one's suffering for their injustices like I though they'd be. Hikaru and Haruhi are chatting it up, Tamaki and Kyouya are… acting like some old married couple, Kaoru's just wandering around, and Mori- and Hani-sempai are playing 'I spy.'"

"It's entertainment," twittered Renge, binoculars still pressed firmly to her face.

"It's boring. So I'm going to add something extra." He began chanting, and Bereznoff happily clapped his paws.

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Just as Haruhi took out her cell phone, a roar was heard all throughout the labyrinth and Haruhi and Hikaru exchanged wide-eyed, frightened glances.

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I am SO SORRY that this took forever… and I'm not the happiest with how it came out, but I wanted to give you guys an update, as short as it may be. There was an insane amount of Nekozawa and Renge in here… so I hope you like their banter.

I'll try to get an update in here soon… I've got less than three weeks of school left, including finals, so when that's over with, I'll have plenty of time to write. Until I get a job that is. Oh, the complications of growing older. LOL. ANYWAY. (holds up a sign): "Will strive harder for reviews." XD;