Hikaru X Kaoru

The last part just came to me. Don't know whether it's good or not but I like the twist.

A week later Kaoru was rubbing the back of his neck and sighing in frustration. He was getting tutoring to relieve some of the stress but it felt like the more time he spent with Kyouya the more stressed out he got. Leaning back in his chair he looked up at said tutor. "I'm taking a break."

Kyouya shrugged. "It's your grades that are on the line. Plus you'll pay me for my time either way."

"You talk like I was failing."

"If you'd kept going this way, you would have. Then where would you be?"

"Not here."

Kyouya stood and looked at the clock hanging on the wall. "You only have half an hour left so you might as well leave now."

"No. The car won't be here until then so it's fine. I'll just continue to study."

"I can have someone take you home."

Kaoru shook his head. "It's fine. I'll wait." He couldn't go home. Haruhi was there. The thought touched more than one sore spot. Hikaru and Haruhi had been spending more time together. It was part of the game of course, to get them to fall in love. But he hadn't planned on it working so well or so fast. He'd spent more time away from his brother in the last week than any other time in his life. Slowly it was digging away at him. The thought he kept clinging too was that he'd be happy and move on as soon as his brother was happy. He just prayed he was right.

"I thought you were going to study, not visit your own little world."

Kaoru looked up at Kyouya. "I'm sorry." He bent his head over his math book and continued onto the next problem. As Kaoru focused on the book Kyouya gave him a considering look. The Kaoru he knew would have tossed out a smartass comment and not give it a second thought. This Kaoru that he'd been seeing for the past week wasn't the one he knew and frankly it was freaking him out. Keeping his mouth shut he just watch Kaoru do his work.

A few hours later Kaoru was standing in his rooms staring at the door connecting him to Hikaru. He'd never hesitated walking through the door before but lately he felt as if he was intruding when he visited his brother. Something he'd never felt before. A smile that held little humor appeared. It seemed as though he was feeling a lot of new things recently. Shaking his head he turned and started back towards the couch when he heard a noise behind him.

Whirling around he waited for the door to open. When the door stayed shut his face fell. "I guess I've stopped being important to you." His voice was hardly above a whisper. "No matter what, you'll never stop being this important to me."

A tear slid down his face. Angrily he wiped it away. Then another fell and another. Not wanting his brother to hear, if he bothered to listen, Kaoru fled to the safety of his bed and did something he'd only done one other time in his life. Locked the door to make sure Hikaru couldn't get in. Not that he'd try. That thought caused a sob to break past his lips. In a moment he was full on crying. Something he couldn't remember doing before.

When Kaoru opened his eyes there was a pounding in his head. No, it wasn't in his head, it was at the door. Turning his head he looked at it with little interest. "Kaoru!" It was Hikaru's voice. "Kaoru, what's wrong? Open the door."

Kaoru sat up and started to throw his legs over the edge of the bed then changed his mind and lay back down. "I was taking a nap Hikaru." Knowing his face would be stained with tears and his eyes would be red he didn't want to open the door.

"Are you feeling okay?"

Kaoru closed his eyes. "Yeah, I'm fine, just tired."

"Are you sure?"

Kaoru let out a humorless chuckle. His twin was practically ignoring him, avoiding him, and now suddenly he was worried. "Yeah."

"Okay."

Kaoru listened for a long moment before he heard footsteps receding. Closing his eyes he threw his arm over his eyes. There had once been a time when an excuse that he was taking a nap wouldn't have worked, Hikaru would have busted down the door to make sure his little brother was okay. Who knew? Maybe this type of separation was a good thing. They could both separate and grow without needing the other person.

Kaoru didn't want to not need him. The catch was, he wanted Hikaru to need him just as much.

"Wrong formula."

Kaoru frowned at the problem at hand. "It's the same formula I've been using."

"Yes, but this is a different type of problem. You have to go back to the formula from last chapter."

Kaoru frowned. "Oh." Erasing the problem he started over. When he finished he looked back at Kyouya.

"Very good. I wasn't sure if you would remember it or not."

"Um, duh! You made me do twenty more problems than I needed too. I'm pretty sure that problem shows up in my dreams."

Kyouya flashed a rare grin. "That's what you get for questioning my methods." Kaoru reverted back to third grade for a moment and stuck out his tongue. In return Kyouya replied a parent like way. "Do that again, and I'll bite it off."

Kaoru was shocked. Kyouya never said things like that. Normally he would reprimand him for being childish. Wanting to know what he'd say next Kaoru squeezed his eyes shut and stuck his tongue out again. His eyes flew open when he felt teeth on his tongue. Kyouya's eyes were mere inches from his face. Shocked he tried to pull back was unable to with his tongue caught between Kyouya's teeth.

Suddenly there were two tongues in his mouth and he was almost positive that he only had one tongue. Then the other tongue was moving in his mouth hitting places that made his eyes drift shut. Kaoru let himself sink into the kiss. He let his tongue rove into Kyouya's mouth mimicking what the older boy was doing to him. Kaoru sighed with the kiss. Suddenly his eyes popped open. What was he doing? Pulling back he leaned against his chair and stared at Kyouya who was also trying to get his breath back.

"Wh- what the hell was that?"

Kyouya just stared at him for a long moment. "It was a kiss," he said at last.

"B-but why did you kiss me?"

Kyouya shrugged. "I don't think I need a reason."

"The hell you don't. What was that?"

Sighing Kyouya shrugged his shoulders. "What I'm about to say doesn't leave this room." Kaoru nodded slowly. "I'm in love with Tamaki."

Kaoru nodded more slowly. "Alright. What does that have to do with me?"

"You're going to be my substitute."