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Kaoru came downstairs, his hair wet and wearing his pajamas. It was a little after nine o'clock and their mother would be getting home any minute. He figured that Hikaru would be sitting at the table eating something. Kaoru thought that sounded pretty good, so he made his way to the kitchen. On the stove there was a pot of boiling soup. The aroma of it drifted into Kaoru's nostrils, and before he could wait for anyone to serve him he found a bowl and served himself. With a spoon in his mouth and the hot bowl in his hands he made his way to the dining table. When he entered the room he was only momentarily surprised to find his dear bother asleep at the table.
Kaoru sat acrossed from his sleeping brother and ate the soup slowly, savoring each sip of the warm liquid running down his neck and filling his stomach. The phone rang in the distance and a young maid answered it. Only a moment later she entered the dining hall with the phone saying, "Master Hitachiin, your mother would like to speak to you."
Kaoru, without saying anything to the young maid picked up the phone, "Hello, Mother. This is Kaoru."
"Kaoru sweetie! I'm going to be a bit later than I had originally expected. You see..." his mother went off on some long explanation of why she was going to be late. Kaoru half-heartedly listened while he placed one hand on the outside of the warm bowl. He shuddered as the heat transferred from the bowl to his body. Distantly, the question, "How was your day, Kaoru?" brought him back to Earth.
"Oh um," Kaoru wasn't planning on telling her that Hikaru and he had skipped school, "It was fine. Nothing special."
"School can be like that sometimes. Let me talk to Hikaru." she ordered.
"I would, but he's asleep right now. You know... busy day."
"I see. Well, I'll be home late tonight! Ta ta!" his mother said.
"Yeah, bye." With that said, Kaoru gave the phone back to the young maid standing in the background. "Thanks" he said when she took the phone away and brought him another bowl of soup.
She bowed a graceful bow in return, "Your welcome, Master Kaoru."
Before starting in on his soup again he watched her leave the room in momentary curiosity.
Spontaneously an old memory came back to Kaoru as he stared into his bowl of steaming soup.
It was a number of years ago; Kaoru and Hikaru were probably about nine or ten years old. It was during the summer and their mother sent them off to summer camp. Kaoru remembers it as one of the worst memories of his life.
It was a week long, a whole week! Neither Hikaru nor Kaoru wanted to go, but their mother signed them up and made them do it. The twins had to be signed in between one and three o'clock and their mother insisted on them being there as soon as they possibly can.
"This is it you two!" their mother was saying to them, "Are you excited?" both of the twins shook their heads. "Perhaps a bit nervous?" The twins grip tightened on one another's hand. Their mother smiled at them, "You'll have fun, I promise. Maybe you'll make some new friends!" The two young boys exchanged a look of doubt with each other as their mother kissed them good bye and left them in a dirty cabin with an overly chipper councilor named Kaoki.
"Now that the parents are gone," Kaoki was saying to the twins, "Let's set up your bunks!"
The twins gave a look of disgust to each other and said in unison, "Bunks?"
"Yeah! We all get to sleep in bunk beds!" he said, overly happy. "Now, let's get out your bedding. We happen to have a nice set of beds right over here." he told them as he pointed to the right corner of the room.
Kaoru closed his eyes and whimpered while the twins forced themselves to follow the older man to the bunks. "Where are the blankets?" Hikaru asked after observing that on each bed was a thin mattress with a green plastic covering.
"Each of us here at camp brings our own blankets and sleeping bags. Pillows, too!" Kaoki replied.
The twins exchanged looks of shock, "We didn't bring any." Kaoru said innocently with a look of horror on his face.
Kaoki gave them a skeptical look, "You didn't bring any bedding?" the twins shook their heads. "Uh... that's not a problem! I'm sure we'll find something for you two to use!" he exclaimed with a smile. At this moment a few other boys were entering the cabin and Kaoki went to greet them.
Hikaru and Kaoru were left standing by a set of dirty bunk beds with their suitcases by their sides. Each gripped the other ones hand in nervousness. Finally the two boys got the courage to sit on the dirty beds.
"Why would Mom do this to us?" Kaoru asked Hikaru.
"She wants us to make friends." he replied.
The two boys sat next to each other, hand in hand, silently. Kaoru was trying to blink back tears but eventually his bottom lip started to quiver and he couldn't hold on. His sniffles alerted Hikaru that something was wrong. He looked over at his crying bother and scooted closer to him and clenched his hand even tighter.
At one point Kaoru was whipping his tears away, inhaling and exhaling shaky breaths. Kaoki looked over when he heard the troubled breathing and ran over to the twins. He kneeled down in front of Kaoru and started comforting him with false reassurement. Eventually, more to get Kaoki away from him Kaoru stopped crying.
Finally all of the kids in the cabin showed up. They then were forced to sit on the floor and introduce themselves and then name off an animal that started with the same letter as your first name. Kaoki sat next to Kaoru and made the game start a crossed from him and go to the left. This meant that Kaoki went before Kaoru.
Kaoru was really confident with this game. He planned on saying "Kaoru Kangaroo", because kangaroos are cool. He wasn't really listening for most of the game but then he heard Kaoki shout out, "Kaoki Kangaroo!" Kaoru looked to Kaoki in frustration. Kaoru couldn't say kangaroo now because the guy right before him said it! It was Kaoru's turn and he frantically tried to think of another animal that started with the letter K. everyone was staring at Kaoru expectantly. Suddenly, Kaoru remembered when his parents went to some park in America and they brought back a picture of a bird telling him that it was killdeer. That starts with K! "Kaoru Killdeer!" he yelled out.
Only Kaoki and Hikaru understood what a killdeer was. All the other boys were confused and were saying things like, "Deer starts with D!" and, "He said 'Kill'!" and, "You're not allowed to combine words!" Kaoki then explained to them that a killdeer was a type of bird and made the game move on with "Hikaru Hippo" next.
After one game was done another game was introduced. Kaoru was getting sick of the dumb get-to-know-each other games. His stomach rumbled with hunger and after what felt like hours of games a trumpet sounded in the distances and Kaoki jumped up exclaiming, "That's the trumpets everyone! It tells us when we're allowed to go to the mess hall for meals. Let's go in a single file line."
All the boys walked in a straight line with Hikaru and Kaoru at the back. Kaoru turned to Hikaru and asked, "Why is it called the mess hall?"
Hikaru shrugged, "It must be really messy!" The apprehensive twins fidgeted as they walked with the other camp members to the mess hall. When they got there they realized that it really wasn't all that messy but by no means was it clean.
"We're all going to sit together at this table over here." Kaoki exclaimed pointing to a small table with plates of uncovered food on it.
Kaoru would have been put off by the uncovered food but he was too hungry at the moment. He sat next to Hikaru and some other rather large boy.
There was a pitcher of what looked to be apple juice in front of Kaoru, "That looks extremely satisfying" he thought to himself.
Kaoki then announced with a smile, "Everyone has to have firsts before anyone can get seconds and remember we pass to the right, because it's the right way to go!"
He started serving himself and then passing the food to the right. Hikaru and Kaoru stared in confusion at the food being handed to them. The food was beginning to back up at the twins. People started wondering why they weren't getting any food and why the apple juice wasn't being passed around. Kaoru and Hikaru then realized at the same time what was going on. They had to serve themselves! The twin then quickly and rather awkwardly placed the food onto their plates and started passing. It was disgusting. The twins then took notice of what they had just served themselves. It slightly resembled pot pie. Hikaru was very honestly gagging at the sight of it. A few boys stared at him. After about fifteen minutes of staring at the food Kaoru worked up the courage to take a small bite. It was hardly bearable. Hikaru refused to touch any of the food. With each morsel that Kaoru swallowed he washed it down with nearly half a cup of apple juice.
After what seemed like a revolting dinner, dirty books were being handed to the boys. Kaoki placed two books in-between the twins and they both retracted from them as if he had just put a big bug there instead. From behind them somewhere a piano started to play and everyone started singing. Kaoru and Hikaru looked to each other, embarrassed with the behavior shown by their cabin mates.
They all left the mess hall the same way they arrived. They later had to go to the campfire where they played more games, sang more songs, and sat on more gross surfaces. It was very late and everyone was tired. Back in the cabin they had to change into their pajamas all in the same room and then go to the bathroom to brush their teeth.
The bathrooms were the sickest that either of the twins had ever seen. There were bugs crowding around the lights and spiders outside the doors and mud being trekked in by all the boys. Kaoru had the terrible urge to go to the bathroom but the line was long and the rooms were sick. He voted against it. Maybe tomorrow he'd work up the courage to go. The twins quickly yet efficiently brushed their teeth in a semi-clean sink and then ran back to the cabin in the dark. Hikaru and Kaoru stared at the sleeping bags that Kaoki found them.
Everyone had returned and before Hikaru and Kaoru had worked up the courage to get into the sleeping bags an old man with a megaphone came to their cabin and told everyone that they had five minutes till lights out. Hikaru and Kaoru finally got into their sleeping bags with Kaoru on bottom and Hikaru on top.
It took Kaoru quite some time to fall asleep. He heard one or two other boys cry out for their parents which was making Kaoru more homesick himself.
The next day Kaoru woke up to the sound of a trumpet. He moaned and rolled over. Kaoki was dressed and happily encouraging the other sleepy boys to wake. Kaoru put the pillow over his head. His back hurt from the uncomfortable mattress. Something was wrong with the sleeping bag. Kaoru's eyes scrunched up in confusion and he sat up in the bed. Suddenly it hit him. His moist legs... the wet sleeping bag... the sick scent of ammonia...
"Time to get dressed you two!" Kaoki said to the twins while walking in their direction. Kaoru could hear his brother scoff at the councilor. Kaoki seemed to take note of Kaoru's wide-eyed, fearful expression. "What's wrong, Kaoru?" he asked with a concerned voice. Kaoru couldn't think of anything more embarrassing than telling the people around him that he had wet his bed. He started to cry.
"Kaoru, what's the matter?" Kaoki moved to sit on the bed with Kaoru. It was about five steps away from the bed that the councilor realized what happened. A sick look of dread could be scene on his face which was abruptly replaced with a look of importance. He went away from the Hitachiin's beds and to the other boys telling them to get up and get dressed.
When everyone was dressed and lined up outside Kaoru was pulled aside by Kaoki. "Go to the infirmary." he said. "There they'll wash your sleeping bag."
Kaoru stared at Kaoki for a moment. All of the boys in line were staring at Kaoru thinking, "Why is he so special?" Kaoki then said to Kaoru, "Go now during breakfast."
Kaoru looked to Hikaru. Hikaru seemed to understand what Kaoki wanted. Kaoki also seemed to understand what the twins wanted. "You'll have to go with a buddy." he said. At that point Hikaru ran towards his brother and grabbed his hand. They watched as the line of boys marched towards the mess hall for breakfast.
They spent the rest of the day in the infirmary. At the end of the day Kaoru climbed into his freshly washed sleeping bag with embarrassment. After all of the lights went out and everyone seemed to be asleep Hikaru climbed into Kaoru's bed.
The next morning they were made fun of because they slept together and held each others hands when they walked.
The rest of the week didn't get any smoother. Especially after Kaoru's bed broke, they lost the skit contest, the twins got stuck on the ropes course, their cabin had to clean the bathrooms every night (because each morning their cabin was the dirtiest out of the four), their cabin was mooned by the older boys, Hikaru and Kaoru got lost in the woods and Kaoru got his finger cut by a fishing hook.
The day arrived when the parents came to pick up the children. As soon as the twins saw their mother they both burst out in tears and ran into her arms. She was extremely apologetic once she heard about their horrible week.
Hikaru moaned and looked up from where he slept to Kaoru. "When did I fall asleep?" he asked.
"Sometime when I was in the shower. There's still some soup in the kitchen if you'd like some, it's really good." Kaoru replied.
Hikaru called for soup and after a while Kaoru asked, "Hey Hikaru, do you remember that summer camp we went to when we were little?"
"The week of Hell?" Hikaru answered with a question.
"Yeah, that one."
He nodded, "What about it?" Hikaru asked.
Kaoru paused, "What about it?" he shrugged, "I don't know. I was just thinking about it." he paused again, "Kaoki was... kind."
"Ok." Hikaru didn't see what his brother was getting at, so with a yawn he announced, "Well, I'm going to head up to bed. Tamaki'll kill us if we don't show up tomorrow, and Kyoya'll start handing out fines."
"Oh," Kaoru said, "Alright." and followed his brother up the stairs to their bedroom.
The twins changed into more appropriate sleeping wear and slipped into the same bed: Hikaru's. Neither of the twins fell asleep right away. Instead they lay facing each other, with the touch of the others breathe.
Whoa... did I just... update?!... ALERT THE MEDIA!!! Anyways, I hope everyone liked this chapter. Saddly, a lot of the stuff that happened to Kaoru and Hikaru at summer camp is actually my first camp experience (save for the bed wetting and the getting stuck on the ropes course. Sad, no?). Like always, please review.
This is WHPIAR... signing off.