Title: Reckless Wonders
Anime: Ouran High School Host Club
Pairing: HikaKao
Chapter 6
After Hikaru had composed himself enough, he left the house. He didn't know what else he could do. Kaoru wouldn't come out of the bathroom, and he didn't have a key to get inside. He just needed to talk to somebody… anybody.
He ended up wandering to Haruhi's house by foot, and didn't even remember the trip by the time he had gotten there. He was surprised at himself. The trip had to have been more than a half hour by car, so it probably took him double that time to reach her apartment. He walked up the stairs and knocked on the door twice. Ranka answered the door. He was already wearing his make up and dressed, so he recognized him.
"Oh! Hello… um… which one are you—"
"Hikaru. The one that isn't at home heavily bandaged."
"Oh, my… is Kaoru okay?"
"Nothing happened." He lied. "I just need to see Haruhi."
"Oh, I see… but that's surprising. I thought you had a club activity today. She said that she was going there, so I assumed that's what it was for."
"She's at school?"
"Yes. She left a few minutes ago and should already be there." Their conversation ended, and Hikaru left for the school. A few minutes later, he was there. He opened the door quietly and found it to be dark. He looked around the room with his eyes until he found her on the far right side of the room.
"You're in your uniform?" he asked. She jumped a little bit.
"Hikaru!"
"Hi…" he waved once, not smiling.
"Yeah… I put it on just in case anyone from school saw me."
"Ah…" he said. He walked over to her. "I talked with your dad. He said you were here. Why?"
"I have a lot on my mind, that's all…" she was looking at the pocket knife. It still had Kaoru's dried blood on it, and a few droplets were dried on the floor from the first slice he made. He knelt down beside her.
"Pocket knife?"
"Kaoru's." she said sadly. His eyes widened when he saw the blood on it. He remembered seeing some marks on his right wrist, but had though it was part of the injuries from his attackers, not himself. His mind went to their conversation from before.
"I shouldn't have let him stay behind." He was genuinely concerned, she could see that. She frowned even more. "No… I feel like
"Why didn't you say something?" he asked, his anger not showing only because he was in too much shock.
"I'm glad I was there to stop him from cutting one more time. I knocked it out of his hand and forgot about the knife until just now. I came to clean up the mess so the others wouldn't be drawn into this."
"Why… why is he doing this?"
"Hikaru," she said, looking him in the eye. "I want you to agree with me when I say this: he needs you. He needs you more than a brother can ever need another brother. You need to keep him… no matter what."
"Haruhi—"
"We need to make sure that he knows you and I are just friends."
"Huh?"
"It's what Kaoru would want. Besides… feelings like that would just mess things up, don't you think?"
He frowned at her, feeling slightly hurt.
'Do I like her? Did I want to be more than friends?' he wondered.
"So, you won't let yourself like me, or anyone else in the Host Club?"
"Huh?"
"If somebody else in this club were to approach you and decide that they couldn't live without you, would you tell them what you just told me? That it would only mess things up?"
"Hikaru?"
"Or did I just get friend zoned only to see you get ask out by somebody else?"
He was seriously thinking about it, now.
"Hikaru…" she said softly.
"Haruhi, I've never tried making a promise with somebody else, before. My brother and I used to have two worlds: Us and Everyone Else. I promise that you can be in our world… as a friend."
"Hikaru…" she smiled a little bit. "I'm glad."
"But I can't help but be curious and wonder if I'm wrong…" he said. He leaned closer to her.
"H-huh?" she said.
"Don't hate me." He said. He kissed her. Her lips were soft, but the fact that he felt nothing in the kiss—not because she wasn't kissing back or because she didn't return those feelings—told him what he needed to know. He was fine with being just friends. He broke away. "Promise me that you won't hate me for being curious, and I'll be your friend. Nothing will ever change that." He said seriously. She touched her lips. It was small… but she had felt something… something miniscule. There wasn't a word in her mind that could explain it. It bothered her, though. She needed to brush it off, though. She was right. Kaoru deserved his brother… no matter how wrong it seemed.
"It's a deal." She said, smiling at him genuinely. She extended her pinky to him, and he looked at it for a moment, almost unsure of what to do before finally hooking his pinky with hers, and shaking their hands twice.
They both went their separate ways, one of them feeling like a weight had been lifted from their shoulders, and the other feeling like a tiny weight had been added. Hikaru took the pocket knife with him after they cleaned up the floor, and he started to race home when a thought came to his mind.
'There's an unlocked window in the bathroom. I can get in there by climbing up a tree!' he ran faster and faster, running out of breath, but not caring about it. He wanted to hold his brother close and tell him that everything was alright. He had given up on Haruhi. Just what did she mean by what she said, though?
"Hikaru," she said, looking him in the eye. "I want you to agree with me when I say this: he needs you. He needs you more than a brother can ever need another brother. You need to keep him… no matter what."
He started to climb the tree, nearly home to his brother. He brushed his worry aside as best he could. Whatever she meant, he supposed she was right, Kaoru needed him, right now. He needed him more than anything in the world.