Darling

Chapter 6

Minori finally tracked Izumi down at the Hitachiins' apartment. Or rather, she called her once she was done shopping, and Izumi told her where she was. Either way, two sets of duplicates sat together for the first time in a month, in the living room of the third apartment on the seventh floor of the most expensive high-rise in New York.

"How's my favorite ex?" Minori asked Hikaru in greeting, "Or, are we still dating?"

Hikaru sighed, "No, we've been broken up for three weeks."

"Three weeks?! Well, I think it's time we got back together, then!" Hikaru could only snort and roll his eyes.

Kaoru laughed, "Hope you don't mind if we leave you two alone for a minute." He stood with Izumi, and the two went into the kitchen—for what, one could only guess.

"I can't believe that I thought you had anything in common with Kaoru," Hikaru mused, as he watched his brother and The Harpy disappear through the kitchen door.

She smiled winningly at him, "Well, I guess that would follow, considering how alike you and Izumi are."

"I'm nothing like that troll!"

"I do hope you're not calling her ugly," Minori scrunched up her nose, "Because she and I are identical." Hikaru stretched his arms over his head, ignoring her.

"Do you think I'm ugly?" she asked, reaching to poke him in the side.

He flinched away, slightly ticklish, "Wha?! No! Shut up!"

"… Do you think I'm pretty?"

He jumped up, trying to end the conversation, "Hey, you two! Don't be doing anything in there that I wouldn't do!" And he ran off, deciding that fighting with Izumi was better than having Minori ask him embarrassing questions. He heard her giggle behind him.

"Oh, get over yourself," Izumi muttered, as she and Kaoru returned to the living room, each carrying two glasses. Izumi handed one of hers off to Minori, while Kaoru gave one of his to Hikaru, and the four sat together once more, with Hikaru and Minori on the couch together, and Kaoru and Izumi side by side in the armchairs.

"Have you discussed what you came to discuss?" Minori asked her sister after a minute, earning a pained moan from Izumi. "Yeah, that's what I thought," Minori mumbled, shaking her head, "What Izumi was supposed to ask, is what she should have asked in the first place." Izumi glared at her sister, but eventually turned her attention to Kaoru.

"Um," she said, drumming her fingers on the armrest, "Do you guys want to make this public? Because if one of you does, the other will get the attention whether he wants it or not, so you should probably agree."

There was a quiet moment, as Hikaru and Kaoru looked at each other as if they were capable of communicating telepathically (which probably wasn't a stretch). With nods toward each other, Hikaru started.

"Actually," he said, "We were thinking…"

"Since we spent Christmas with your family," Kaoru picked up where his brother left off, "It only follows that you should get to meet ours, too."

Hikaru continued, "And with Kyouya's wedding coming up…"

"It's only logical that we should visit our parents since we're in Japan anyway," they finished together. Izumi and Minori blinked at them, half because of the offer that had just been made to them, half because of their perfect unison—which they should have been used to by now. With a (slightly less telepathic-esque) look between them, Izumi spoke first.

"Well?"

Minori shrugged, "It sounds like fun." The sisters then turned, one toward Hikaru and one toward Kaoru.

"Okay," they said in unison, only for both of them to retch a moment later.

"I think they're rubbing off on us," Izumi commented, a shiver running down her spine. Minori's look of horror was the only answer she received.

For three days, Natsumi did not leave Makuno for more time than it took to go to the bathroom. Hunny spent nearly that long trying to pry Natsumi from her mother's bedside, but eventually, the sound of food and a nap began to appeal to her enough to get her to leave. The girl stood by the door, trying to will herself to be strong, but the tears flowed freely, regardless of her feeble attempts to stop them.

"I don't want her to be alone," the girl finally sobbed, slumping against the doorframe, and pressing her face into her hands.

He felt his heart nearly jump into his throat, as a pain spread across his chest in sympathy for his wife. A few hard, painful swallows allowed him to speak again, as he pulled the woman against him, stroking her auburn hair gently. "She won't be alone, Natsumi," he promised, "I'll stay with her until you come back."

Reluctantly, she nodded, drying her eyes as best she could, and stood once more, seemingly unable to look him in the face. It was painful for her, but she tore her gaze away from her dying mother, and stepped out of the room for the first time in nearly seventy-two hours.

He watched her walk like the living dead all the way down the hall, until she turned the corner to the area where the elevators were located. Once he was sure that she had gone down to the cafeteria to get some food, he approached Makuno's bed, sitting gingerly in the chair where Natsumi had recently been sitting. It really wasn't fair, he thought, looking at the frail old woman's deathly pale features. Makuno and Natsumi were two of the kindest souls he knew; both more than willing to help those in need, and always trying to think the best of people. Makuno didn't deserve to be in this kind of pain, and Natsumi didn't deserve the sadness of watching her in this kind of pain. The worst part was how unusually helpless it all made Hunny feel, to know that there was an unavoidable storm coming toward the two women, and there was nothing he could do about it.

"Makuno-san," he murmured, as the woman tiredly opened her eyes. This was nothing new, as she did it every few hours, but never responded to any stimuli, showing the doctors just how far gone her mind was. He grasped her hand, like he had watched Natsumi do so many times, and exhaled shakily, feeling his pulse speed up unexplainably.

"Makuno-san," he whispered once more, not expecting a reaction, "You have to pull through this. I know they're saying that it's impossible, but you have to try, because…" He trailed off, not really knowing what to say, and feeling a little stupid for speaking to someone who couldn't actually hear him.

It wasn't until she turned her head to him slightly, staring at him with unseeing eyes—eyes that looked so dead, that he would have thought she was just that if the heart monitor beside her wasn't still beeping rhythmically—that he found himself able to continue.

"Because," he tried again, shaking with an unknown emotion that was very unpleasant for him, "I'm in love with your daughter, and I hate seeing her sad about something that I can't protect her from… So, please… Please try to get better."

He felt her grip of his hand tighten for a millisecond, and wondered if it was just what was left of her brain short-circuiting, or if fatigue was making his brain short-circuit. Her eyes still looked at him lifelessly, her hand still felt corpse-like in his grasp, and her skin was still as white as a new sheet, but he could have sworn he saw her mouth moving like she was trying to say something. He didn't know if he was dreaming, or if it was actually happening, but either way, he couldn't decide if he should be terrified or amazed at the impossible movement he was seeing. The woman was supposed to be brain-dead, after all, and squeezing his hand for that instant was one thing, but trying to form words was a whole new thing altogether.

Paying closer attention, she seemed to be saying a few words, over and over again, like some kind of mantra. Something, something, something. Something, something, something…

"… Natsumi." He had finally figured out the last word of the statement, as he set to lip-reading the rest of it.

Something, something, Natsumi. He watched her mouth the words over and over, her mouth being the only thing that changed as the rest of her body lie as still as it had since he'd first seen it.

Suddenly his eyes snapped open and he sat upright in a flash. Looking around, the ill woman was as she had been when he had sat down with her. With a groan, and a stretch of his aching muscles, he looked around. So it was all a dream, he thought, glancing at the clock in the now dark room. Natsumi had been gone for a little more than four hours, which wasn't that long, considering how long it would take her to eat, and then get some sleep. She might have even gone to the hotel to get her rest, which meant that she could have decided to take a quick shower, too. There honestly wasn't anything to be worried about.

He looked at Makuno again, thinking about his dream, and still trying to figure out what the woman could have been telling him. Subconsciously, his lips formed the shapes that dream-Makuno's mouth had, and in a rush his voice said the words for him as he figured it out.

"Go save Natsumi," he whispered to himself, the hair on the back of his neck standing on end. "Save her? From what?" he asked the unconscious form in the bed, almost forgetting that the woman wasn't actually the one who had told him to save Natsumi in the first place.

He took a deep breath, sitting back down. It was crazy to get worked up over a bad dream. That's all it was, after all, just a dream. Even so, he found a shiver running down his spine and a cold sweat covering his body. I'll just check the waiting room, he decided, standing up, She'll be there napping, and then I can put that dream out of my head. With one last glance at Makuno, he promised to be back in a minute, as he went down the hall to peek into the family waiting room.

The room had a few couches for people like Natsumi, who didn't want to leave their loved ones' sides while they were in the hospital, to sleep on. He looked inside, and saw a woman reading, while a child rested his head on the woman's lap, but no Natsumi. With a polite smile to the woman who looked up at him, he turned to go, trying to fight off some of the unease.

Okay, he thought to himself, She's not there, but that doesn't mean that she didn't go back to the hotel room. He went back to Makuno's room and sat in the chair next to her bed, trying to convince himself that he was just being a little paranoid. He sat quietly, trying to assure himself that Natsumi was fine, but there was this bad feeling that he just couldn't seem to get rid of.

"I promised her I'd stay with you," he said to Makuno, even though she couldn't hear. And just like in his dream, she squeezed his hand, and he jumped up, taking it as some kind of cosmic sign.

Hunny started by calling his driver to ask about Natsumi, but the driver told him that he hadn't seen Natsumi since they'd arrived three days ago. With that knowledge, he surmised that she almost had to still be in the hospital.

"I'll be right back, Makuno-san," he called back to the sleeping woman as he grabbed his coat and darted out of the room, down the hall to the elevator. He would start in the cafeteria and retrace her steps to the best of his ability.

She wasn't in the cafeteria; the workers there told him that they hadn't seen her since a few hours ago, which was about the time he had sent her there. He hurried to the front entrance to speak to the receptionist, who told him that Natsumi had left a few hours ago, as all people who came and went after nine o'clock had to sign in and out to keep track of visitors. Natsumi had signed out at 9:04.

This greatly bothered him, because it meant that she had left the hospital, in the dark, without a ride. Trying to be rational, he called the hotel to see if she had come in, but if she had, no one had seen her do it. He grasped the first pen and signed out, only taking a moment to compare their times. She had signed out three hours and thirteen minutes before him, and for all he knew, she was still out there.

It was thirty degrees outside, and he shivered, pulling his jacket closer to his body. There was nothing along the main walking route to the hotel, and when he got there, she wasn't there. He took an alternate way back to the hospital, but didn't find her along there, either.

Taking a third, longer route back to the hotel again, deciding that if he didn't find her this time, he was going to call the cops. These sidewalks were practically void of human life, making it easier to search, but at the same time, it made him more nervous.

"Natsumi!" he called for what was probably the hundredth time that night, "Natsumi!" He paused, shivering from the cold and from the fear that something really bad had happened to her, and that's when he heard it.

"Mitsukuni?" a voice called back to him, "Mitsukuni, is that you?"

He followed the voice, ending up in an even more deserted area, feeling relief flood him when he finally saw her. "Natsumi," he yelled, running toward her, "I'm so glad I found you!"

"Stop, Mitsukuni!"

He froze instantly, taken aback by how demanding her tone had been, and assuming that it was important if she was being so unlike her over it. "Why?" he asked, still not moving.

"There's ice there," she pointed to a spot that didn't look icy at all, "Be careful."

He nodded, relaxing and approaching her cautiously, kneeling in front of her when he was finally close enough. "What happened? How long have you been here?"

She looked away, obviously feeling too embarrassed to look at him at the moment. "Well," she muttered bashfully, "I was taking a walk to some of the places that my mother and I used to go, and I was on my way to the hotel, when I heard something. I came here to see what it was, and I slipped on the ice, and I think I twisted my ankle." She looked at him then, "I tried calling for help, but there wasn't anyone around. Oh, Mitsukuni, I'm so glad you came."

He reached around to hug her, "I am, too." He didn't get far hugging her when he felt something shift between them. Looking down, he saw something fuzzy in her arms. "Natsumi, what is that?" he asked slowly.

She held it up for him to see, "A kitten. It turns out, this is what had made the noise, and he looked so cold and lonely…"

He resisted the urge to gush about how cute it was, and tried to put on an angry face for getting herself hurt over a cat and making him worry, but he couldn't quite get it done, and settled for hugging her once more. He honestly didn't know if he should thank Makuno, or his own subconscious, or Kami, or some other deity, so he settled for being thankful in general, as he held her almost possessively against him.

"Besides your ankle," he asked after a few minutes, "Are you okay?"

She nodded, "Yeah, just a little cold."

He quickly wrapped his coat around her and picked her up, carrying her back to the hospital. A little cold?! He could see his breath! Plus, further inspection showed him that her lips almost looked blue.

They finally reached the hospital a few minutes later, where she was taken to a room to get her ankle checked on, and he was ordered by the hospital staff to do something with the kitten that didn't involve bringing it in with him.

"See that this cat gets veterinary attention. We'll be taking it home with us," Hunny told his chauffer, who grumbled that it wasn't actually his job to do things like that for the young Haninozuka, but obeyed anyway, liking his employer too much to argue about it.

Even without life-support, Hoshiyama Makuno lived for five days. Her inevitable death sent Natsumi even further into depression, which continued even once they were back in Tokyo. The entire Hoshiyama staff as well as the Haninozuka family had attended the funeral, where Natsumi had managed to keep herself from crying until she and Hunny were alone.

In the generous estate that housed Hunny and his melancholy wife, he sat with his cousin for the first time in more than a week. Natsumi refused to leave her room, and she had barely eaten anything in the two days since their return home.

"I'm worried about Natsu-chan," Hunny intoned, staring at his untouched cake and petting the nameless kitten, which he referred to as Neko-chan. Neko-chan seemed very fond of Usa-chan, as the kitten curled up next to her on his lap.

Even if Mori had been a more talkative person, he probably still wouldn't have known what to say. All he could think of was, 'give it time,' but he supposed that Hunny had heard that piece advice more than enough times. He supposed that Hunny didn't need advice as much as he needed someone to listen, anyway, and Mori just happened to be one of the best listeners a person could find.

Since his return from London, Mori's life had been very much business as usual, minus his little blond cousin. Even with his—now unemployed—girlfriend, Mori was quite lonely without having Hunny around.

"She's supposed to be getting better. Why isn't she getting better?" Hunny suddenly burst, "She won't even draw, or anything!" Mori responded by nudging Hunny's plate a little closer to him, and Hunny accepted the gesture appreciatively by eating the piece of cake in record time. It seemed to calm him somewhat.

Izumi and Minori had agreed to go to Japan and meet Kaoru and Hikaru's parents, and then attend the wedding (Minori squealed with delight at this news). What they hadn't known, was the exact amount of time before they left, which turned out to be not long. Actually, it was like an hour. With much scrambling (and much falling down and cursing on Izumi's part), the girls actually managed to be ready in time for takeoff.

Now here they were, fourteen hours later, standing in front of the Hitachiin mansion.

"Well," asked the male twins, in sync as per usual, "What are you waiting for? Let's go inside." Both female twins could only stare in wonder at the large house. Seriously, who needed something this big?!

Minori was the quickest to recover, masking her awe with a 'comparative surveying' kind of look. "It's impressive," she complimented, feigning nonchalance as she followed them to the front door. Izumi kept her head tilted back, staring upward at the structure before her, and followed her sister mindlessly. It wasn't long, however, until they were met with a whole new scene to stare at.

The interior was all marble floors, and high ceilings from which extravagant chandeliers hung, and beautiful wall hangings, all outlined with intricately carved woodwork. The two of them may have been famous now, but riches weren't quite as abundant as some might have thought, and their family still lived in the house that they had grown up in—which was a perfectly adequate house, nice even, by most people's standards. Compared to this, however, their home was a shack.

The four of them were greeted by a butler of sorts, who hung their coats up for them, and then led the group into a sitting room. This room was even nicer than the foyer, and Minori and Izumi couldn't help but feel a little out of place. The girls looked at each other, conveying their discomfort to one another, before small smiles crossed their faces. They found comfort in knowing that neither was alone in her feelings.

After a few minutes, a woman entered the room, dressed quite fashionably. Her grin was that of Hikaru and Kaoru, the girls noted, giving away her identity.

"Hikaru, Kaoru," she greeted happily, "Or… Kaoru, Hikaru…?" Yes, for all her ability to sense new trends from a mile away, she was not perceptive enough to differentiate between her sons.

Kaoru and Hikaru corrected her gently, before moving on to introduce her to the raven-haired duplicates beside them.

"This is Izumi," said Kaoru.

"And this is Minori," Hikaru added.

"Meet our mom," they said together, both gesturing toward the woman in question.

She looked at the girls, obviously cataloguing who was who for future reference, before giving them a smile that only a cold-blooded killer couldn't return. "I'm Hitachiin Yuzuha," she said, "Feel free to call me Yuzuha-san."

"Where's Dad?" Hikaru asked, looking around as if the man was lurking in the shadows somewhere (which wasn't exactly unlikely).

"He got called off on business," Yuzuha explained, "Apparently it was an emergency. Hopefully, he'll be back before you have to leave for America." Both of her sons nodded in understanding. She then leaned toward Minori and Izumi, grinning like the Cheshire cat, "Maybe you can still get a chance to meet your future father-in-law…"

"Mom!" Hikaru snapped indignantly, as matching blushes crept over his and Kaoru's faces. She giggled to herself, moving out of the Shigemiwa twins' personal bubble, and sitting on an elegant sofa across from them.

As the three Hitachiins took a few minutes to catch up, Minori took that time to look around, but not at the décor, like one might have guessed. First, she studied Hikaru, noting how he slumped a little like he didn't care, but his eyes were trained on his mother, and he couldn't seem to keep himself from smiling at her. Minori resisted the urge to chuckle, Mama's boy…

Then she looked at Kaoru, who was acting like one would expect a son to, smiling and telling stories about his latest adventures with polyester fabrics. Lastly, she glanced at her twin, who was still blushing, staring at her lap with a faraway look in her eyes. Minori had to keep herself from laughing again. She's probably already deciding what she's going to name her kids, she thought, closing her eyes and relaxing. With a final dreamy sigh, jetlag caught up with her, and she involuntarily dozed off.