The few days that followed Hikaru's return to school brought no feeling. The cold spells disappeared, the pain was dull and easy to ignore, there was no emotion to be shared between the twins. By the end of day three, Hikaru had had enough. He went to his father's bathroom and collected what he was looking for before going back to his own and jumping in the shower.

He needed to feel something. Anything. It was impossible to feel happy, the host club had tried and failed non-stop to cheer him up. Anger took too much energy. It was surprising that misery never even became a thought. So Hikaru turned to pain.

He ran the water as hot as it would go, letting it run over him as he sat on the shower floor. It stung slightly, but he got used to the heat in a matter of seconds.

Hikaru turned the razor blade over in his hands for a few minutes, contemplating. He could recall judging people in the past for doing exactly what he was about to do. But the emptiness was consuming him. He brought the sharp edge of the metal to his ankle and slowly dragged it across his skin, barely scratching it. The mild sting felt nice. He lined up the razor again and made a second, deeper cut next to the first, hissing as the stinging intensified. He watched as small beads of blood pooled and dripped onto the shower floor, swirling and melding with the water as they danced across the tile and slipped down the drain. He continued, cutting deeper and deeper, feeling the pain move further and further up his leg until he had bleeding cuts from his heel to halfway up the side of his calf. He was in pain. He felt guilty for doing such a foolish thing. He felt something. And that was all he cared about.

Hikaru stared at his leg until the bleeding stopped and the water had run cold. He hadn't noticed that he was shivering, which was fine by him. The more feelings the better. He turned the water off and hauled himself off the floor, wrapping a towel around his waist and heading into his room, relishing the stabbing pain of guilt in his stomach and the stinging discomfort in his leg.

Hikaru made sure to put on long pyjama pants, following through on his reasoning for choosing his legs over his arms: they were easier to cover. He fell into bed, thinking of Kaoru, missing him, feeling guilty about him. The negative thoughts comforted Hikaru enough to fall asleep quickly and easily, but he had no dreams. By the time his alarm went off on Friday morning, Hikaru was convinced he hadn't slept at all.

Hikaru contemplated staying home, but figured he could survive one more day at school. It wasn't as if he did much anyway, he just mindlessly wandered to his classes, Haruhi making sure he didn't lose his way, and sat, pretending to listen while he doodled mazes in his notebook. In the past, he'd never found himself planning out how a maze would work, they just simply came together and had accessible pathways. But now, he found all of his mazes to be impossible, with no path. Unsolvable.

Club was cancelled again at the end of the day, and Hikaru was dragged to meet with his friends in music room three. He plopped onto a couch, the emptiness becoming nearly unbearable yet again.

"Hikaru." Kyoya nodded as he sat opposite the blank faced red head. The rest of the club bustled about, pretending not to eavesdrop. "On Sunday, we will find out for certain if Kaoru is with the group we are suspecting."

"I know." Hikaru had been counting down the days until the ransom note would show up in his mailbox.

"If you do receive a ransom note, do not touch it without the use of gloves, and bring it directly to my residence so we can take it to the forensics lab."

"I will." Hikaru nodded.

Kyoya paused for a moment before speaking again. "Are your parents aware of the situation?" He asked, already able to infer the answer. He knew they weren't home. They were hardly ever home.

"No." Hikaru huffed. "My mom hasn't answered her phone and the one time my dad picked up he hung up on me before I could say anything."

"Well keep trying to reach them."

"I have been, every day."

"Keep at it until you get a response."

"I will." Hikaru pushed himself off of the couch and headed for the door.

"Where are you going, Hikaru?" Tamaki called after him.

"Home." He said back, not bothering to glance at the rest of the club, who stared after him, expecting him to cry out or collapse as he usually did. It seemed like the universe just didn't want Hikaru to leave rooms. But, he left the room and made it to the front of the school where his ride was idling.

In the car, Hikaru pulled out his cell phone, dialing his father's number. The call went directly to voicemail, as expected, so he tried his mother again. It rang three times before Hikaru's heart fluttered at a voice on the other end.

"Hello dear, you caught me at a good time, I'm between shows." His mother said cheerfully. "How are things?"

"Mom…" Hikaru's voice cracked, and tears suddenly poured from his eyes as he heard the voice of a family member. It wasn't Kaoru, but just hearing another Hitachiin was soothing.

"Hikaru, what's wrong?" alarm was evident in her voice just as despair was evident in his.

"Mom, Kaoru… Kaoru's been kidnapped."

"WHAT?!" his mother shrieked. "We're getting the first plane home! I'll see you soon."

With that, she hung up, leaving her broken son to listen to a dial tone.