CHAPTER 4
JUST WORK IT OUT

It had been two weeks. Two long and arduous weeks since Haruhi was admitted into the hospital. The wound in her back had healed – not completely, but enough – and the twins had packed her some clothes and pajamas, along with all her bathroom supplies. It had been really awkward, but Hikaru and Kaoru had forced themselves to stuff every single thing into a plastic bag and haul it over to their home, where they dumped it in her new bathroom and asked the maids to set everything up. Then, without further ado, they had driven back to the hospital and watched as Haruhi was strapped into a wheelchair while the rest of the Club looked on.

"Do they really have to do that?" Tamaki asked.

"She can't sit back on her own, moron," Kyoya answered unashamedly.

He still looked uncomfortable, but watched silently as the nurses instructed the Hitachiin twins on her care from now on. Tamaki was still not liking the idea that she was going to be staying with those two devils of all people. He would have offered first, but Hikaru had beat him to it. Kyoya was obviously sensing his best friends' jittery nerves, so he tried changing the subject in that calm and cool manner that he always used when discussing business.

"We're both going to be busy arranging the details so that she can stay in Ouran-"

"Yeah boss, don't get your boxers in a twist," the twins said at the same time, grinning from ear to ear. Together they were more destructive than when they were apart. The changes that came over their personalities were actually quite amazing. Kaoru would turn more level headed, while Hikaru didn't seem to know what to do with himself. Kyoya silently wondered how in the world they were going to fare after one of them was married. He suspected that Kaoru would be fine, probably even better off to be honest, but his brother was a different story.

"…remember to have someone massage her arms and legs in the morning and at night, or at any part of the day that you can. Haruhi has to keep her blood flowing. If you can feed her these pills and then give her clean bandages every day, then she should be fine. By the way, boys, it might be easy to forget that she's around if you get too engrossed in your studies or an activity, so make sure to-"

"Forget? That'll never happen," assured the twins. The nurse nodded, but looked slightly doubtful anyway despite their answer. She pressed a piece of paper into Hikaru's hands, pointing to it with one finger.

"Everything I just said is explained in full detail on there. Try not to lose it, and if you do, send for a copy immediately from the hospital. We can have another made in minutes, so it's no big deal. Just make sure to do what this says and nothing should go wrong."

The word 'should' was emphasized by the nurse, but Hikaru pretended not to notice. He stuffed the paper into his pocket without another word – much to the nurses' annoyance – and shrugged. The time to go had come, and he was carefully watching Haruhi, hoping she wouldn't slip out of the wheelchair even with the straps holding her there firmly. He didn't mind her staying at his house (apparently he didn't mind it a little too much, which made Tamaki slightly suspicious) and was eager to leave the building. They departed – Kyoya demonstrating his charm as he profoundly thanked the nurse for all the time she had spent on those two idiots. His demeanor changed as soon as they were out the door though, him saying that he knew of many other hospitals that would have take much better care of Haruhi. But, after all, what could one expect from something as lowly as 'commoners care'.

Haruhi seemed a little disgruntled at that statement, but chose not to argue with Kyoya. He could be very set in his ways and might frustrate her to no end if she brought up why he had to use the word 'commoner' as if it held some particularly disgusting meaning to it.

"Hikaru!" she shouted, choosing to smile at the eldest twin instead of frowning at Kyoya. "I wanted to thank you, but-"

"No problem," he quickly interrupted, failing to even turn toward her. In fact, the poor boy seemed to wilt under her appreciation. To him, giving her a place to stay was such a small thing and would never make up for the situation Haruhi found herself in. "It's no problem, really."

The doctors had told the Club before they left that there was a small chance that Haruhi might regain movement in her upper body with extensive therapy, but he said there was almost no hope at all for her lower half. The way he had spoken – as if it were trivial and he had more important things to deal with – made Hikaru want to punch the guy into the nearest wall. It was a good thing the other Host Club members had been there to cluster around him and make sure he stayed five feet away from the doctor at all times.

His mind snapped back to the present as Kaoru caught up with him. A friendly grin was on the younger twins' face as he walked shoulder to shoulder with his brother. "You okay?" Kaoru asked. "You seem a little…"

"I'm fine," Hikaru answered, gritting his teeth. "Besides, should you really be worrying about me? This list is like a mile long. I don't know what half the words on here even are; let alone how to carry out the instructions. What does, 'intrepid attitude likely to hinder' mean?"

"Uh…"

"Exactly."

"No, no," Kaoru said, waving his hands while laughing slightly. "I'm sure we can figure this out. Hmm… I think 'intrepid' is something between adventurous and fearless. So… 'adventurous attitude likely to hinder' would basically mean that she's going to hate sitting still and will probably make it hard for us to do stuff for her if she insists on trying to do it herself."

"But she can't even move!"

"Which makes it worse," answered the younger twin, nodding thoughtfully. "She'll want us to help her do the whole therapy thing, probably thinking it'll work for her and she'll regain movement. Haruhi isn't dumb enough to think that she'll get all her limbs working again in a short amount of time, but she's stubborn. You know that. Just look at how long it took for you to force some soup down her throat."

"So… basically we're just going to… uh…"

"Show her that she can rely on us. But don't talk about it too much around the boss. I think he might have an aneurism if he sees your hand against her face again."

Hikaru couldn't help the light red that spread across his face, and Kaoru watched his brothers' reaction curiously. Then, he grinned. "You liked it, didn't you?" He asked, about to open his mouth again and start the teasing. Hikaru elbowed him and scowled.

"I didn't! Well, maybe a little. But not… that much."

He stomped off before Kaoru could answer, feeling eve guiltier than he had before. Any small bit of comfort he gave her would still never be enough.

Aww! *Pats Hikaru* R & R PLEASE. PLEASE. PLEASE.