Sensitivity

"You've got to be kidding me."

"..No."

"Why? What the hell, Kaoru?"

"I... I don't know. She left for the store yesterday, and I told her to come home before dinner, but... she didn't."

Hikaru stood above his brother with his arms crossed. Because of this incident, he wasn't giving his little brother any special treatment or was giving him any sympathy. "You're a jackass."

Kaoru flinched, tightening his lips as he stared at the table. "I... didn't do anything."

"Exactly." He grumbled, his voice like thunder. "Why would you even let her go anywhere anyway, period?"

Kaoru crinkled his nose, placing his hands on the table as he stood up. "I came here looking for her, I didn't ask for a lecture, don't you think I-"

"You know what happened to Haruhi, why the hell would you even let Mokoto out of your sight? Damn right I'm lecturing you." Hikaru huffed, his brow narrowed. "I can't believe this."

Glaring, Kaoru just stood there, his face turned away. "I tried to go with her, but she wanted to shop by herself. How was I supposed to know that she wasn't coming back?"

"Oh, bravo, Kaoru. Your wife intentionally left by herself, took your car, and your money, how stupid do you feel now? Maybe you should have watched her better."

"Mokoto's not an object, I've never had to watch her before. Just because Haruhi left, didn't make me feel like I should start watching her. She's human like everyone else, what did you expect me to do?"

"I don't care who you're married to, woman can be trusted-"

"Woah, just because you don't like, or trust Haruhi anymore because of what she did, doesn't mean you should make false accusations towards Mokoto. She wouldn't just up and leave for no reason."

"And your reason?"

"She just wouldn't."

"Oh please."

Kaoru scowled, pushing his chair out to stand up straight. "Yes. Just because you think Haruhi left you, doesn't mean Mokoto would leave. You're being unreasonable, Hikaru."

"I'm being unreasonable? Even if she didn't just leave you, you should have been keeping an eye on her anyway, knowing full well that the same thing happened to Haruhi last year. You're the one who was stupid to let her go anywhere by herself. Not considering the possibility that the same thing might happen to her."

He rubbed his fingers together, still glaring at his older brother. "I know what I did wrong, don't act like I don't. I was up all night trying to find her. People don't just assume their wives will go missing. That doesn't happen on a regular basis."

"Apparently it does in this family." Hikaru muttered under his breath, turning his back to his twin. "If you're so worried about her, get out of my house and go look for her then."

Kaoru opened his mouth, ready to argue about the fact that he had just lectured him for almost an hour, but he decided against it. "That's what I've been doing all morning, but I stopped here to-"

"I'll call Kyouya, for him to tell his guys here in the local areas to look for her. We're-"

"But Hikaru, they're too busy looking for, Haruhi."

With a deep hidden emotion in his eyes, Hikaru turned to his little brother again. "We're never going to find Haruhi. Might as well look for her instead, because later if we don't find her, you're going to wish you tried harder."

"...Hika-"

"Hikaru, why are you yelling down here, and making so much noise." A voice came from the other side of the door of the kitchen. "You're making that new maid girl nervous, and twitchy."

Kaoru's eyes widened at the familiar sounding voice and looked at his brother. Hikaru sighed and turned to look for his phone in his blazer. The second the door was pushed open he turned around swiftly on his heel and stared opened mouthed at, Haruhi's strange lookalike.

He blinked owlishly. "...Kagami?"

"Kaoru..." Kagami returned his strange look. "I mean... Mister Hitachiin. I'm sorry, I didn't know Hikaru was having company today."

"Yeah, neither did I." Hikaru replied quietly to himself, referring to both of them.

Kaoru was still confused, and his mouth dropped to his chin as he noticed that her hair was wet and she wore a robe. "Wh-... What are you doing here?"

She raised her eyebrow. "I could ask you the same thing."

Kaoru glared then looked at his brother, pointing his finger at her. "What is she doing here?"

The realization of why Kagami was there made Hikaru's blood hot and he looked at them both with an irritated glower. "Don't argue." He snapped rather harshly, making them both flinch.

Kaoru continued to give her dirty looks from the side until his attention was pulled by his twin.

"Kaoru... Have you called mom? Maybe she's seen her."

He just shook his head. "I've asked everyone. No one's seen her."

Kagami looked over at Hikaru with wide eyes, looking shocked. "Wait... Mokoto's missing?"

Hikaru merely blinked before going off to the other room to make a call, barely registering what she said. Kaoru watched his brother walk away, then, taking his chance, he stepped closer to Kagami, his nose curled in annoyance.

Because he didn't look past the fact that neither he nor Hikaru mentioned Mokoto's name while in the room with her.

How could she have known?

"I don't know who you are, or what your whole plan is here, but I don't like it, or you." He said with attitude, his voice like a growl. "I want you to know, that my brother's married. Whether Haruhi's here to verify that or not, he is, so stay away from him. He might not see it, but I know exactly what you're doing."

That was harsh, especially for, Kaoru.

Being completely dumbstruck, she blinked her wide brown eyes and held her hand to her chest, over her robe. "I... don't know what you're talking about."

"Bullshit. You know exactly what I'm talking about. Stay away from my brother."

"I think your brother's a big boy, Kaoru."

"I don't care how old my brother is. Haruhi's missing, and you can clearly see that it's eating him away inside. He's still suffering, and you're taking advantage of his depression."

She raised her brow. "Taking advantage of his depression? And what? you think I like him being upset all the time? Thanks to her leaving, all he does is yell and swear at everyone. He's always in a bad mood no matter how nice you are to him. He's fired three of his maids since she left and he's picked up drinking. Don't stand there and tell me I like it."

Kaoru stood there, speechless at the part 'picked up drinking', but he didn't let her know he was surprised. "Then why are you here this early in the morning? Did you spend the night?"

"As a matter of fact."

He clenched his fingers. "Don't you think that's a little disrespectful? Spending the night as a married man's house? You're taking advantage over his grieving, and you know it."

She huffed, holding the soft fabric of her robe between her fingers. "You say that to me, that you know everything, but you don't. As Hikaru told you before, you need to stay out of his business."

"I'm not talking to my brother, I'm talking to you. And if you're with Hikaru, that automatically makes it my business. Leave him alone. He doesn't want you."

"Says you. I didn't plan on staying here over night, last night. But Hikaru was upset and didn't want me to leave." She boasted, and he noticed her tiny smirk. "You should have seen him, he was so upset about their anniversary that he was crying. I came around right before he might have done something stupid. He didn't want me to leave him alone."

Kaoru's brow twitched, getting more irritated. He didn't believe a word she said. "Whatever happened between you two last night is the past now. From now on, stay away from him. You don't need to be here every second of the day with him."

"That isn't your decision to make now, is it? This house is in Hikaru's name. If he doesn't want me to leave, then I don't have to."

"I don't care who's name the house is in, I don't trust you with my brother, and he's too sucked up in his own grief to realize what you're doing to him."

"Hikaru was drunk out of his mind last night." She snapped, clearly offended. "He had the maids leave early, and he was completely alone. He drank through two bottle of wine by himself. He thought I was Haruhi. I tried to tell him otherwise, but I gave up. Hikaru was drunk, but after awhile he was happy to be next to me, because he thought he was laying next to his wife again."

Kaoru didn't reply, so she continued.

"I'm not taking advantage of him, and if that's what it looks like, I'm sorry you're mistaken. Sure, I may be attracted to Hikaru, but I want Haruhi to come home just as much as everyone else does. Because I know Hikaru would never be as happy with me, as he was with, Haruhi."

"I don't like watching him suffer like this," she added for good measures. "And if I could do something more to help find Haruhi, I would, but I can't. I'm taking advantage of Hikaru, unless that's what you consider comforting to be."

Kaoru looked at her, his face loosing all expression. He looked at her deep scold and resisted the urge her smug look off her face.

"My brother might be able to see it, but everyone else can."

"...What?"

"Your lies. You try so hard, it's pitiful." He spat, clenching his jaw. "You came out of nowhere once Haruhi goes missing, and you moved right in with my bother. Don't except me to believe you're here just to comfort him. If Haruhi doesn't come back, you'd have Hikaru all to yourself without having to worry about anything, and you'd have juiced him up by the time everyone gives up looking for her, that he wouldn't be able to tell you to leave. He'd be too comfortable around you."

She just rolled her eyes. "That just shows how much you know, doesn't it? At least I know the truth, you decide whether you want to believe it or not."

Kaoru was silent as he watched her leave. His nerves were still on overload after all his worrying about Mokoto, but tried to control himself enough to not follow her.

Why didn't he trust her? Why didn't he want to believe that she didn't want anything else other than to take over Haruhi's life? Why didn't he believe her? Why did he think she was lying? He didn't know her personally, he didn't know what she was capable of, maybe she really did care about his brother like she aid she did, but not romantically.

Alone now, Kaoru stood there in the middle of the kitchen. The location of his wife was just as unknown as Haruhi's. He didn't know what to look next, and dog only knew when he'd see her again. Not only was his wife missing though, so was his unborn baby.

That's what scared him the most.

"Come on, Haruhi." He whispered to himself. "You can come home now."

"Yes, sir."

"...Hmm, mm, yes sir."

"Yes... I know-... no I'm not giving you attitude... okay, sir."

"...We'll be sure to, okay. Good day, sir."

Hanging up his cellphone, one of Hikaru's private detectives sighed and threw himself against the drivers seat of his car. His shaggy dark ash hair shadowed his ears.

He pulled his black shades down from his eyes and turned to his side. "Guess what pouty said?"

Clearly referring to their boss, Hikaru, his partner turned his head and raised his brow. "She's dead again as we should stop looking?"

"Close. Guess again."

"Could we not play this game?"

"But it's so boring. We've been sitting here for hours." He pouted at his partner, slumping over the steering wheel. "Obviously she isn't anywhere here, but he still has us stationed in the same area. Not only that, but we're not even supposed to be looking for her anymore. At least that's what he said."

"What?" His partner, not interested, almost exclaimed, spitting out his coffee. "Why? What did he tell you? Damn it Ichiro, I'm not going to allow you to use the receiver anymore.

Ichiro sighed, pressing his lips into his wrist boredly. "You're not my mother, you can't band me from using the receiver. He tol me distinctly that we're not supposed to be looking for her anymore. Someone instead-... why did he say? Uh... Mokoto, I think."

"His brother's wife?"

"Is that who she is? Anyway... She's missing, as he asked to stop looking for Haruhi, and look for her instead. Kaede?... Are you listening?"

Kaede pinched his nose, after putting his coffee away. "He wants us to look for someone else, instead of his own wife? Has he gone mad? We've already come so close so many times, she's practically under one of our noses. We've got all this personal information on her, and we're just gonna drop that? What did he give us for that other chick?"

Ichiro tapped his forehead against the wheel. "How much trouble do you think we'd get into if we don't'?"

"We'd get fired."

"Lets don't and say we did."

"Pouty will ring our necks."

Kaede shook his head and looked out the passenger window. "But whatever, I have high doubts we'll find Haruhi anyway. It's only been almost two years, so why not? how long has Mokoto been missing?"

"Since yesterday."

He slapped his hand over his face. "Why can't he tell us to find someone, who's only been missing for a few hours? Do you know how far someone can go in twenty-four hours? This is exactly why we don't have Haruhi. He waited four days before he had any of us looking for her."

"I guess we don't have any choice on the matter." Ichiro shrugged, turning the key and starting the engine again. "He said to look in the most populated towns in Kyoto, which is the closest anyone would want to go. That, or Hiroshima."

"Doesn't he know that in a twenty-four hour time period, someone could have boarded a plane and could be half was to America? What? does he want us to do next? Fly to Bali? Mokoto will end up just like Haruhi, if she's gone missing so unexpectedly like this."

Ichiro stuck his tongue out, pulling the car in reverse to exit the coffee shop they stopped at. "He's paying us double for this sudden change of plans though, so I'm not complaining. I thought he'd want us to find his wife more than for us to find someone else's wife though."

"He probably knows it, too."

"Knows what?"

"That we're never going to find her."

The car fell silent. It wasn't until a few moments after they pulled out of the driveway of the café that Ichiro replied.

"This is probably why we haven't found her yet." He complained, his brow furrowed. "Everyone's so negative. Everyone, for the past few months, has been saying this. God is watching Kae. We haven't found her yet because he wanted us to think positive."

"...Uh, no. Everyone's saying this because it's true, and god doesn't care about this sort of thing. It's not his fault we lost her."

"Whatever, we just need to have a little more faith. For all we know, she could be bunking in one of these little towns, and we'd never know."

Kaede opened his mouth to reply, but the phone ringing on his partners waist interrupted him. They both flinched at the suddenness and Ichiro reached to grab and answer it, but Keade grabbed it off his belt instead, giving him a look that said 'you're driving' but Ichiro wasn't going to protest anyway. He didn't want to talk to their boss.

But this time it wasn't, Hikaru.

"...Hello?"

"Wherever you are, turn around."

"...Excuse me?"

"Stop what you're doing and listen to the directions I'm going to give you, write them on paper. It'll be a long drive."

Kaede cringed at the sound of Kyouya's voice on the phone and switched the phone to his other ear, obeying by grabbing a pen and paper from his bag with his other.

"Mister Ootori, I'm sorry, but Mister Hitachiin asked us to-"

"I don't care what he asked you to do. You're looking for Mokoto, aren't you?"

"Well now we are, which is still a little weird." Keade sighed, laying his elbow on the door handle."Mister Hitachiin gave us specific orders to go to Kyoto and-"

"Perfect, not that, that matters to me, but do what I say anyway, I'll take responsibilities for what you do and listen to him complain." Kyouya said on the other line, in a firm and solemn tone. "I've done some research lately-"

"What kind of research?"

"That's classified. Just do what I say." Kyouya growled, obviously he was at a loss of patience before calling. "Get down to the border of Kasagi, in Kyoto, stay put there and call when you get there. I'll give you the exact directions of where I want you to look."

"Um..." Keade muttered hesitantly, afraid to say anything in fear of pissing him off further. "What exactly are we doing? Where are you taking us with these 'directions'?"

Kyouya took a deep breath, causing static to buzz through Keade's ears.

"Looking for, Haruhi. What did you think?"

"...But Mister Hitachiin said-"

"I don't give a damn what he said about Mokoto, I've finally found something, be smart and listen to what I tell you. This might have something to do with Mokoto as well."

"...But Mister Ootori-"

Keade was cut off of the phone beeping in his hear. He pulling it away to find that Kyouya had hung up on him. He gave his partner an odd sideways glance before shaking his head, and sighed.

"I hate being bossed around al the time."

Ichiro nodded in agreement. "Pouty?"

"No, the one who needs anger management."

"...ah."

"We're going to Kyoto still, but not where Mister Hitachiin said. We're going to Kasagi, on the other side of Kyoto." Keade huffed in annoyance, placing the phone on the center console. "It's hardly populated. It's going to be a long trip, too. Over five hours. We'll be in here awhile, might as well get an early lunch."

Ichiro sighed heavily, and laid his head back against the headrest of his seat. "Another day in the life of a detective. I hate my job."

"I hate take out."

"I hate being in the car with you after having take out."

"...Just drive."

"Wanna play a game? I spy with my-"

"No... Just... no."

Five hours and thirty-two minutes later.

"I'm starving, are we there yet?"

"You're the one driving, why are you asking me?"

"You're the one with the GPS."

"Well the red dot is blinking and it says we're right on the location, Mister Ootori gave us, but... There's nothing special here, and I'm not seeing any brunettes, or-... any woman in general."

"Kea, it's called being a wasteland. This place is practically in the middle of nowhere. Can we go home?"

Keade gave Ichiro a sideways glare, but decided not to argue and turned to look out the window. Because of the weather, the leaves on the trees were dark green and were on the verge of turning brown. The area they were at in Kyoto was dark and wooded. Houses were brown, old a rickety. A few people were on the streets they were driving on, but they had really one saw three or four doing nothing. An old man was sitting in a rocky chair asleep beside his food stand, but that was it.

Kasagi was a small town. An old small town the Ichiro described as 'a wasteland'.

"Actually, now that I think about it," Ichiro grumbled, his brow narrowed close to his eyes as he stared out the windshield. "This looks like a perfect place to runaway to, if you're running away from your husband. I mean, it's not bad, but I don't even want to get out of the car and look anywhere. This place does not look fun."

Keade didn't reply as his eyes searched their surroundings outside his window. They drove past more dark, old looking buildings, and everything looked the same. He wouldn't doubt that if he asked, that they might be driving around in circles.

Then the GPS started beeping angrily against the dashboard that both the men looked at it. After the automated voice told them that they had reached their destination. Keade shut it off and looked out the window again.

He sighed. "I don't see what's so special about this place, it looked like the rest of the town. What does he want from us? There's nothing here but a bunch of building. Does he want us to go in them? How does he even know their here? How doe she know that they aren't in the other five hundred other ugly buildings we passed by?"

"What I want to know is that, Haruhi and Mokoto are married to the sons of Japan's most famous fashion designer, so why would they leave the lives of luxury for a place like this? It couldn't have been willingly. I certainly wouldn't come here willingly."

"Well lets get out and look around then," Keade poked his partners arm and unlocked his own door as Ichiro parked their car in a small five car parking lot in front of a small grocery store. No one looked like they were in there. "Let's do a quick runaround so we can go home."

Ichiro was about to open his mouth, but before he could, the phone buzzed at his side with a text message and he froze, his hand on the door handle.

He grabbed it and looked at Kyouya's name which was laminated on the screen. he rolled his eyes and 0opned it to reply.

Kyouya: Are you there?

He replied with a simple, 'yes'.

Kyouya: There's supposed to be a large, tall, building off to the side. With a weird red and black sign.

Ichiro looked up and turned his head, looking out the window, looking for the tall building. He narrowed his eyes at the tallest one and laid his cheek on his fist as he replied again, with 'Yes, but it looks like a really big old cafe'.

Kyouya: Go there. And when you do, act normal. You're undercover now."

He made a face, wanted to reply saying that he didn't want to, and that he wasn't that hungry to go inside a lace like that, but instead he replied with a 'Okay, fine', and opened his door.

"Kea," he whined as he stood up, stretching his legs after their long ride. "we have another order from the big man."

Keade clicked his tongue and threw his head back. "Why?"

"He wants us to go over there, and check out that café."

"Did he know you were hungry?"

"He knew that I didn't want to go there. I don't want to be here period."

"Lets go there then, the sooner we do, the sooner we tell him we did, and the sooner we can get a hotel and go to sleep. We'll go home tomorrow. Too tired to make that trip again."

Ichiro nodded, stuffing his hands in his pockets. "He said act normal. We're undercover."

"We're detectives, when are we ever not undercover?"

Ichiro pulled out his sunglasses. "Well if we're going over there, I'm getting coffee."

After arguing about what style of attire was considered, most undercoverish, the men got to the entrance of the large building that was on the other side of the street, four buildings down. They looked at the sign again and questioned the whole building with critical eyes. 'Kasagi Café' is what it said, and it sounded normal enough.

The door was around the corner, around a drop off sidewalk that looked like a ramp. Neither of them wanted to go inside, but their job called for it and they reluctantly walked inside.

The inside was suspiciously nice. With dark polish and red and black accents. There was silver crystal ball lights on the ceiling and the whole room looked inviting, and indeed it was. Everything was inviting.

"Welcome masters," a high pitched female voice said softly, making them flinch. "How can we help you today? Perhaps a table?"

Ichiro looked down at her in her knee high red dress and black apron. He raised his eyebrow in confusion.

"...Why would I want a table..."

The maid blinked and stood up straight after bowing. "A table sirs, to eat at?"

Keade elbowed him in the side. "No... We're not here to eat."

She looked at them questionably and looked around, then back at them. "I'm sorry sirs, we don't serve our food to go."

"No, we didn't come here for food period." Keade shook his head, cursing Kyouya's name for making them come here. Remembering what he had told them on the way over there. "Your boss though... We'd like to see him."

Her friendly expression changed and she looked almost sad. "Your the man who's has an appointment with him? He's been waiting for you. You're a little early than when you said you'd be here."

Both men nodded, not knowing what she was talking about.

She nodded to herself back and turned around, gesturing them to follow. "He's in the back speaking with everyone. He said just one man though, he wasn't expecting two."

Neither of the men said anything about that and just followed her. She led them through the back door which was behind the counter that was scattered with teacups and plates. Then led them down a long hallway with doors. Ichiro raised his brow at Keade, silently mouthing if they could leave, because he didn't want to be there, but Keade didn't reply.

She took them around the corner and opened another door, taking them inside.

From the outside, they wouldn't have been able to guess that the building was this large. It didn't make sense to either of them, so they didn't say a thing. Ichiro wanted to complain that he was still hungry, but it didn't seem like the place or time to say that out loud.

Keade was going to ask her where she was taking them, but his words died in his throat the minute she opened the door, because they were greeted with a strange large room with tables and chairs. Woman were talking in hushed voices and the whole place was eerie, and made the men shiver in their clothes.

The waitress woman who had been with them, suddenly disappeared around the corner and left the same direction they came, leaving Keade and Ichiro alone in the room with the other strangers. They looked around, obviously lost and clueless until something touched Ichiro's shoulder.

He jumped and held his hands up in a fighting stance. Though Keade pulled his arm down when they saw that it was just an elderly man.

"Can I help you, gentleman?"

"The blinked, silent for only a few moments.

"Yes," Keade grumbled, gently pushing his partner away as he was giving suspicious glowers towards the man. "We uh... We're looking for someone."

The man's face lit up. "What kind?"

"...What?"

"What kind? Do you have a specific type?"

"...Um... of coffee?"

The man chuckled, his forehead creased with wrinkles. "No, woman."

Ichiro held his hand up. "No thanks, I have a girlfriend already."

Keade pushed his back again. "No, we're looking for a specific girl, just one. Well-.. maybe two, but has a woman come in here or have you seen a woman named Haruhi? She's been-"

The old man's eyes widened, but the second they did, he changed his expression before they could notice his shock "...Haruhi?"

"Haruhi Hitachiin."

He turned around, looking over at another, much younger man who was standing in the corner. Ichiro and Keade hadn't noticed him until just then.

"I'm sorry, I don't know who you're talking about, but I assure you, there are other woman here who'd fit you more nicely."

Ichiro ignored that after giving him a dirty look. "I'm not even going to ask what you mean by that, but if you happen to just see her," he reached for a picture that was in his wallet. "let us know, she's-"

The man raised his graying eyebrow and looked down at his vest that he opened, to pull out his wallet, and at a glance, he was a badge that read 'NPD' detective. "Again, sorry to disappoint you, sir, I've never heard of that name before, and if you're not interested in our services, I'm going to have to ask you to leave."

"What sort of services are you providing here exactly?"

"If you're not a paying customer, then I'm afraid I can't answer that."

"But-"

The man glared, now obviously annoyed. "I apologize sir, but I'll ask you one more time to leave before I have someone help you. I am not entitled to answer your questions. Haruhi Hitachiin isn't here, nor has she ever been. Now please, if you will... see yourself out."

Ichiro and Keade didn't argue anymore and left the building without another word to the man. But they couldn't help but feel that despite the mans words, the building had some sort of connection to their investigation.

Keade slammed his door shut to the car. "Now we have to listen to Mister Hitachiin ride our hinds for not doing what he said, and admit to Mister Ootori that we didn't find her."

Ichiro didn't reply.