D/C: I don't own OHSHC.

Hello!! Wow, it's been so long since I last updated, ne? I'm really sorry about that, but I had exams and I only just finished! So, it's summer now and I have a lot of time on my hands to write...until at least the seventh book of Harry Potter shows up. Hehe. Well, thank you all for the nice reviews you've sent me, and now, without further ado, I'll leave you to read the forth chapter! Enjoy!!

Chapter 4:

"Aaaa-choo!!"

Kaoru couldn't help but wince when his brother sneezed; it was probably the hundredth time that morning. He looked down anxiously at him; Hikaru was lying in the bed, wrapped tightly up to the chin with heavy blankets, but despite that, he was still shivering. His nose was red and he looked extremely pale and weary. Kaoru couldn't understand how he could've developed a cold so quickly...he looked extremely fine yesterday.

"I'm sorry, Kaoru..." he mumbled, as he reached out to pull a tissue paper out of the box which was lying next to him. He blew his nose on it. "I won't be able to come with you to the classes today."

Kaoru managed a weak smile. "Don't be silly; you don't have to apologize for that. I mean, you didn't ask for this cold, did you?" he said gently, at which point Hikaru shook his head vigorously. "It can't be helped. Do you want me to stay home with you?"

It was rather childish, but the two of them had never done something, or gone somewhere without the other. No matter how hard they tried, they couldn't break out of the tight bond which linked them together...not they wanted to, anyway. When they were together, they felt safe. They felt like no one could harm them in any way as long as they had each other. Kaoru admittedly relied more on his brother than the latter did with him, but that was always the way it had been...especially since Hikaru was the oldest of the twins.

"No, that's alright," Hikaru replied. "You can go ahead. I don't want you to miss your classes."

That is so unlike you, Hikaru. Kaoru knew how selfish his brother could be, and normally, he would throw a fit if Kaoru didn't agree to stay home with him. Over the last couple of weeks, Hikaru had changed a bit, and Kaoru had a mild idea to what his source of change was.

"I'll just have Haruhi keep me company," Hikaru continued, quietly.

Bull's eye. Kaoru had to strain to appear indifferent in front of Hikaru's statement. He forced a smile onto his face. "That's a good idea; I'll call her for you, then," he told him, in a falsely cheery voice. He gave his brother a small wave. "I'll see you in the afternoon. Get better, okay?"

Without waiting to hear his brother's reply, he quickly darted out of the room, as his control over his facial expressions was starting to reach its breaking limit. Kaoru wasn't really the type to get jealous, but this was the first time some one came in between him and his brother...and that had rather shaken him.

And the fact that he, too, had taken a liking to Haruhi didn't make things any better.

He was too busy trying to sort things inside his head, he didn't notice the some one just coming round the hall, and he directly walked into her. China plates and miso bowls came crashing to the floor, and they both fell back amongst the heaps of broken table ware.

"It-itai!"

Kaoru, who had managed to get a good deal of food on his clothes, looked up to see Haruhi on the floor across from him. She, too, was covered in food. Ramen slithered through her hair, and miso stained the front of her white apron. There were also some bits of sauce on her face. He took one look at her messy figure, and couldn't help the loud laugh which escaped his lips.

Haruhi, on the other hand, apparently torn between her humiliation and her desire to yell herself hoarse at Kaoru for not looking where he's walking, plopped down on all fours and started to collect the broken glass. She looked rather red in the face, which Kaoru found rather adorable.

Still laughing, he staggered up to his feet, and then leaned down, grabbed both her hands and pulled her up. He pulled a stray noodle out of her hair. "Leave it, Haruhi-chan," he told her. "I'll get some one else to do it. It's not your job to do the cleaning. Here, take my handkerchief and wipe that sauce off your face."

Still looking rather humiliated, Haruhi accepted the handkerchief he was offering her, and started dabbing at her face. "But I'm the one who spilled everything," she protested through the process. "So, I should be the one to clean it up."

"No, no, I'm the one who caused you to spill it," he corrected her. "Don't worry about it. Look, you missed a spot..."

"I...I did? Where?"

"Right over there."

"Here?"

"No, right there."

Almost automatically, Kaoru reached out and started to wipe the bit of sauce which stained her pink lips with his fingers. He barely registered what he was doing until the heavy silence fell on him like a 2-ton weight. Blushing embarrassedly, he quickly drew his hand away and looked away from her.

"Um...I guess you'd better go and change now," he stated.

"Yes, I should," she agreed, appearing utterly oblivious to the current situation. "You should change your clothes, too, Kaoru-sama, and then give them to me so I could wash them."

"Right, okay."

With that, he turned and ran down the corridor away from her.

"Take care of Hikaru, Haruhi-chan."

"I will. Good luck at university today, Kaoru-sama."

Haruhi waved silently as the limo pulled away from the mansion, and stood watching it for a few moments, before turning around and walking back inside. She still wasn't able to understand what had happened back there with Kaoru. She had been too bothered by the fact that she'd broken some valuable china whose price might be cut off from her pay to notice anything, anyway. But the curiosity to know the reason behind the stiffness and awkwardness with which Kaoru treated her after that incident was beginning to eat at her.

She tried to recall exactly what happened, but couldn't really think of anything that was out of place. Finally assuming that he was just acting that way because he was worried for his brother, she hurried back to the bedroom.

She knocked lightly at the door, and walked inside. "Hikaru-sama? Are you awake?" she called out.

"Yeah," came the feeble reply, and she had to strain not to roll her eyes; honestly, making such a big deal out of a cold. "Come in, Haruhi-chan."

And when did they start calling me Haruhi-chan, anyway? With a soft sigh, she made her way towards the bed. Hikaru was still lying there, wrapped up tightly in his blankets. "How are you feeling now, Hikaru-sama?" she asked.

"I'm so tired, Haruhi-chan, I don't think I'll ever get well again," he whined.

Oh, for the love of God!! Haruhi forced a smile onto her face. "Don't say that, Hikaru-sama; I'm sure you'll get better soon," she assured him. "You've had ten doctors come in to have a look at you in the last hour, and they've all given you proper medication. I don't see how you can't get better after that."

Hikaru chuckled. "That sounded incredibly bitter, y'know," he told her.

Haruhi cringed. "It...it did?" she said, smiling weakly.

He watched her thoughtfully for a moment, then he gestured for her to sit down on the bed next to him, and she obliged. "What did you do when you got a cold? What did your parents do to you, then?" he asked her.

Haruhi frowned; wondering where those questions were coming from. After a moment, she sighed and looked away from him. "Mom died when I was still a small kid, so I've always had to take care of myself," she told him. "Dad would be always at work, and he didn't have much time to look after me, and we didn't have enough money to go see doctors and buy proper medications. So, I would stay at home, make myself some hot soup, and get into bed, while praying to God that I'd feel better in the morning."

"You've had it rough, haven't you?" he asked quietly.

She chuckled. "I wouldn't say that," she replied, looking around and smiling at him. "I mean, I did get pretty used to it."

All traces of smiles and weariness had disappeared from Hikaru's face now. Instead, he was just looking absently ahead of him, while toying with silken bedspread. She was just starting to wonder what was wrong, when he turned and fixed her with a gentle gaze.

"Haruhi-chan, could you make some soup for me?" he asked, pleadingly. "I know I'll feel better if you do."

Haruhi couldn't resist; she just reached forward and flicked his forehead. "You are such a baby, Hikaru-sama," she told him, ignoring his cry of protest. She smiled wryly at him. "You just don't realize just how lucky you are. I never had any of the things you have, and I doubt I ever will. You shouldn't take things for granted, you know."

Hikaru obviously didn't like that last comment, for he just scowled and looked away. "You probably think that I'm some kind of brat, don't you?" he said, accusingly. Haruhi opened her mouth to protest, but he cut her off and continued, "Well, I'm not. I've just been brought up this way. It's not my fault whether I have all these things, or not. Frankly, I couldn't care less. The only thing that I care about having is Kaoru, and that's all."

Haruhi said nothing. She only quietly pondered about how Hikaru seemed to treat everything around him as a possession. He always referred to her as "his personal maid", and always talked with Kaoru as if he were his belonging. Funnily enough, Kaoru didn't seem to mind at all; it seemed quite okay with him to be pushed around by his own brother. It seemed to Haruhi as if he got a sense of security from it, as well.

"It's the same with you, isn't it? Don't you only care about having your dad with you to be happy?" he asked her suddenly.

Haruhi automatically opened her mouth to say "yes", but she clamped it shut again. Much as she hated to admit it, she felt like she didn't need her father to be happy. She's been used to taking care of herself the entire time, so she didn't need him. True, it was nice to have him around most of the time, but she also knew that her world wouldn't necessarily end is she didn't have him with her anymore.

Many of her classmates always commented on how obsessed she was with her lessons. So obsessed, in fact, that she never seemed to seek for a social life of her own. Though grudgingly, Haruhi kept silent; they were right, after all. She never really cared about social relationships; all her attentions were focused on studying...studying, and more studying. Her secret ambition was to grow up to be a lawyer just like her mother, but, unlike her mother, she wanted to be a successful lawyer.

She met Hikaru's eye, and saw that he was still watching her intently, and she realized that she still hadn't replied. "O-of course," she said quickly.

But, she said it too late and too quickly to not rouse any suspicions in the boy. "You're lying," he said bluntly.

"You don't know that," she said defensively.

"It doesn't need a genius to tell that you're lying," he told her. "It's quite obvious. You probably don't even miss your dad that much, because I know for a fact that you haven't called him once since the two weeks that you've come here."

Haruhi cringed; he was right in that point. What more, he just made her feel guilty; what must her father be thinking of her now? His own daughter, whom he hadn't seen or talked to in two weeks, what must he be thinking of her? It was her entire fault, after all, she didn't even give him a number at which he might reach her. Feeling consumed by her own feelings, she quickly jumped up to her feet.

"I'll...I'll go and make you some soup now, Hikaru-sama," she said hurriedly, before turning to run out of the room. She had barely moved when Hikaru grabbed her hand and pulled her down again. She blinked. "Hi-Hikaru-sama?"

"Here ya go," he said, and handed her his cell phone.

She stared at him, confused. "Huh?"

"You were going to go and call your father, weren't you?" he deadpanned, and she felt her cheeks flush with embarrassment. He chuckled, took her hand and placed the phone firmly in her palm. "Use my phone. If you try to use the house phone, you will have to go through a whole interrogation process first before you can even punch in a single number. Besides, I want to see you calling him for myself."

Haruhi hesitated. "I don't know..." she murmured.

He winked at her. "Gotcha, you want privacy, don't you?" he asked, and she gave a meek nod. Laughing, he patted her on the head and jumped up to his feet. "I'll leave the room, then. I'll be standing outside, and when you're done, call me back in, okay?"

Haruhi smiled gratefully at him, and watched him silently as he left the room and closed the door behind him. She then looked down at the phone. She took a deep breath, and slowly punched in her father's number. She pinned the phone to her ear and waited for him to pick up.

Then came the definite click of the phone being answered, and she heard her father's voice on the other end, saying, "Moshi moshi?"

Haruhi smiled. "Hello, dad," she said softly.

A/N: Done!! So, what did you think? Was it worth the wait? I hope it was, because I'll be wanting reviews, folks!! I'll try to update soon next time!!

- S. N. B.