Chapter 14: The Thomas Bunt Society

Hikaru, Haruhi and Kaoru were searching for pads on the fourth floor of the Hitachiin Mansion.

"I can't let you use the tampons after all!" Hikaru was freaking out as his plans for torturing his brother had completely backfired. He had totally forgotten to think about the reality of Kaoru actually using a tampon if he was in Haruhi's body.

"I'm going to kill you Hikaru…" Kaoru was incredibly annoyed at his brother. Not only was this whole TOM business freaking him out, but his brother had no sympathy at all. The fact that Hikaru's plans backfired on him held very little comfort and did nothing to relieve his present problem. He could feel the blood trickling out and it was simply horrifying.

"You bastard," Haruhi was muttering under her breath. Not only had Hikaru wasted money on buying tampons, but the shops had all closed by this hour and Kaoru having TOM was a serious problem – not something to be joked about.

"Kaoru," Haruhi asked "So this is the maid's floor. Surely one of them has pads handy."

"So this is why we're on the fourth floor," Hikaru muttered. Haruhi ignored him.

"Since you're in my body, just go up to them and ask for one. That's the only thing I can think of for now."

Face grimacing, Kaoru stumbled off. This was a guy's worst nightmare. But this wasn't a dream, it was reality.

Haruhi sighed. She was alone with Hikaru now in an empty corridor.

"I-"

"I-"

They looked at each other with mouths open, having simultaneously started to talk.

"You go first," Haruhi replied directly.

"No you go," Hikaru muttered quickly and averted his eyes.

"Fine. I'm glad you're back to normal."

"What?" Hikaru whipped his head back to stare at her. It was a statement that felt out of the blue. He expected her to be angry or annoyed. But Haruhi was suddenly smiling at him.

"Although normally you are a real prat and mess up things with your stupid pranks, I prefer you like this than when you're moody and depressed."

"…" Hikaru's brows furrowed defensively. "My pranks are good." He winced at how childish he sounded. Haruhi tried to muffle her laugh.

"What did you want to say?"

"Um," Hikaru gripped his fingers together. I'm getting nervous again just talking to her alone! But I need to talk about this. "I'm not being jealous or anything," he began slowly. "But-" he hesitated. "But I seriously think that Tom guy is fishy."

Haruhi frowned. "I think you're right." Haruhi's face became thoughtful. "The symbol on his car is the same on the machine gun that swapped my body."

"His face is too smooth," Hikaru retorted angrily. "He was asking for your contact details. I mean what sort of strangers do that?"

"His accent is German isn't it?" Haruhi pondered out aloud. "Didn't Kyouya say that the machine is from Germany?"

"And," Hikaru said suddenly, "He said you were a cute girl. If I ever meet him again-"

"Maybe Kyouya knows about this," Haruhi silenced Hikaru with her gaze. "Let's stop worrying about it for now. We can ask Kyouya tomorrow at school."

"Yeah," Hikaru mumbled.

"Pss!" Hikaru was walking down the corridor back from the bathroom when he saw a brown eye beckoning him from behind a creaky door.

"What is it, Kaoru?" Hikaru began in a bored voice.

"Shh!" Kaoru whacked his hand across his brother's mouth. He nodded knowingly at Haruhi curled up on the living room sofa with a book in her lap. She was still completely oblivious to the twins whispering behind her back in the shadows.

"What are you planning," Hikaru whispered. He stared at his brother in puzzlement.

"I'm okay now. After I found some pads and Haruhi fixed me up," Kaoru whispered in reply. "But think Hikaru. Haruhi is here. This is what you call opportunity knocking on your door."

"I don't want to do anymore stupid things," Hikaru angrily replied. "I really like her and I don't want to mess up anymore than I have."

"If you're going to just sit and wait, nothing is going to happen," Kaoru stressed sternly.

"Well," Hikaru whispered explosively, "What do you want me to do?"

"ARgh!" Kaoru winced. Haruhi had grabbed him by his collar and was looking murderously down at the pair of them.

"What are we planning?"

"Nothing," Hikaru mumbled.

"Let's have some fun!" Kaoru cheerfully cried.

Game no. 1: The Classic Truth Or Dare

The three friends were sitting cross legged in a circle on the rug of the living room. In the far corner, a fire crackled merrily. Haruhi's face was like stone. Why am I playing a game with the twins?

Kaoru was grinning like a Cheshire cat.

Hikaru was not.

Hikaru felt brown eyes focus on him. He groaned inwardly.

"Truth or Dare Hikaru?"

He didn't want to answer questions. Last time he had to answer a question from Kaoru, it was about Haruhi. And Haruhi subjects were not ones he wanted to confront right now in some childish game.

"Dare."

He regretted it the instant he said it. Why couldn't he have said "I don't want to play"? Then he and Haruhi, having the same opinions, could overthrow Kaoru. He dragged his eyes towards his brother. If you make me do something, I will never forgive you, his gaze seemed to say. Kaoru smiled slightly. He cocked his head.

"I'll make it easy for you Hikaru. I'll give you two dares and you can choose which one to do."

Hikaru, knowing his brother, knew this was not easy at all. He stared moodily into the adjacent fire and found, to his surprise, Haruhi also staring into the fire, her eyes seemingly far away.

"Dare number one," Kaoru continued. "Pole dance for us."

"WHAT?" Hikaru spluttered.

"Dare number two," Kaoru raised his voice slightly. "Cross dress for a whole day at school."

"No," Hikaru replied flatly. He heard a coughing sound and turned to see Haruhi with her hands covering her mouth. What? Did she actually want to see him cross dressing? He blushed at the thought. Idiot. Haruhi wasn't like MOE obsessed girls aka Renge.

"Then," Kaoru pointed at him. "You're a coward."

Hikaru scowled. "I'll think about it." Kaoru opened his mouth to protest. "You never put down any rules. I can do this dare in the future. I don't want to play this game now." He glanced at Haruhi. "Majority rules."

--

"Ooooh," Kaoru pulled out a worn cardboard box. "I remember how we used to play this Hikaru."

"A board game," Haruhi peered over Kaoru's shoulder with interest. "They aren't bad-"she paused and narrowed her eyes. No, I should be more careful.

"What is it?" Hikaru asked Kaoru cautiously.

Kaoru showed them the contents: a colorful spinner and an instructions manual.

"Twister?" Haruhi frowned.

"It's missing the floor mat," Kaoru replied cheerfully. "So let's improvise."

Game no 2: Twister with no mat

Haruhi upper body equals green

Haruhi lower body equals blue

Hikaru upper body equals red

Hikaru lower body equals yellow

Kaoru equals spinner.

The spinner spun and landed on green.

"Left leg on green," Kaoru called.

"So what is it that I have to do?" Haruhi wrinked her nose is puzzlement. "Put my left leg on Hikaru's upper body?"

"Yep."

The spinner spun again and landed on blue.

"Left hand on blue."

"Right hand on green."

"Left foot on red."

You could imagine what the results were. Kaoru spun the spinner blindly and chuckled. This was the best game ever. One last spin and he would slip away to let leave them alone-

"Kaoru."

He opened his eyes. Both Hikaru and Haruhi pounced on him and the next thing he knew was darkness.

"Um, are you sure this is okay?" Haruhi pondered dubiously.

"Yes," Hikaru replied aggressively, while putting his brother onto the spare bed in that room. "I only knocked him out with a sleeping drug."

"I never thought you would refuse to play a game," Haruhi sighed. "I never knew I'd cooperate with you against Kaoru."

"Do you think I'll let my brother get me to put my hands all over you?" Hikaru demanded angrily. The words blurted out from his mouth before he could stop them. Shit, what did I say?

"Uh-" Haruhi opened, then closed her mouth. Hikaru didn't say anything. He kept him mouth shut tightly closed. The silence between them was too awkward. Haruhi blinked uncertainly.

"Hikaru."

No answer.

"Hikaru,"

"What?" he mumbled, with his back to her.

Haruhi smiled. In an attempt to break the silence she said: "We make a good team, don't you think?"

Hikaru only blushed more furiously.

Meanwhile, Kaoru was utterly terrified.

Everywhere was dark around him. The ground was trembling with some insane force that it made his legs go like jelly. There was a roaring rushing sound in the distant blackness coming closer and closer. It sounded like air passing through a hollow tube.

"RUN!!" Kaoru screamed. He could barely hear himself, such was the magnitude of this external sound. But no matter where he ran, the noise followed him like a phantom.

Then suddenly, something white arose in front him. It gleamed like bone. Hot wind was blowing into his face. Kaoru could feel the sticky warmth creeping up his face. It made his mind go crazy with terror.

He stumbled backwards, his feet desperately finding a way to escape the nightmarish vision. Yes, he was making progress! His feet spun faster and faster. Away from the beast! Away from it! Away!

Smack. His foot misplaced and he felt himself fall into darkness. He had tripped on something white and ribbed. He could feel the bumps on under his hands. Bones. Rib bones.

He looked up and saw the white rim emerge again. It aimed for his face. It sucked at it. It pulled at skin and Kaoru screamed a soundless scream. His arms and legs went wild. He was running once again. He was running away from a…

Giant vacuum cleaner intent on killing him.

With one big effort, Kaoru wrenched himself awake from the dreadful nightmare. He was lying on the spare bed near the living room. He breathed deeply and wiped at his sweated forehead. Thank God, it was only a dream. What a dream to have! What happened? Why was he asleep?

He opened his eyes gratefully.

Haruhi hovered above his bed. Her expression was scarily stern. "Kaoru, you haven't been cleaning my body well lately have you? Hygiene during TOM is vital."

She bent down and pulled something enormous out. "Since you're in my body, cleaning it would be a massive problem. There's only one solution. Have you heard of dry cleaning?"

This has got to be a joke. Kaoru's body went in a cold sweat. Haruhi was holding a massive dry cleaning machine – the cousin of the horrifying vacuum cleaner.

Her expression? It was dead serious.

It was a normal Ouran high school day the following morning. Rich girls and boys loitered around the beautiful grounds in bored fashions. By the time it was afternoon, Hikaru was making his lone way to the Physics labs for his second to last lesson of the day. His face was of annoyance.

"If you're going to call me a coward one more time Kaoru because of me not doing that stupid dare-" he was muttered non stop under his breath.

Suddenly, a man slid out from the shadows.

"Kyouya!" Hikaru was startled. "Y-" he stopped in mid sentence. Kyouya's face was still and serious.

"This body swapping fiasco isn't over yet," he seemed to emanate cold anger. "It's much more sinister and complicated than I had first surmised."

"What do you mean?" Hikaru asked, his eyebrows twitching. Why was Kyouya acting so angry?

Kyouya turned a dark eye towards him. "A month ago, the Souh family took a new servant into their household. He was German."

"I don't understand," Hikaru said slowly.

"When did you see Kaoru and Haruhi last?"

"Only a-" Hikaru was about to say, a minute ago, when he realized the truth: that Kaoru hadn't pestered him since recess. He felt his body go cold.

"Do you remember?" Kyouya asked. "The machine came from the Souh family attic. The machine gun is an experimental object from world war two."

"I don't know anything about history," Hikaru said in frustration. "You know I'm a science person."

"During that time, scientists from Germany were creating numerous things and illegal experiments on humans were made," Kyouya explained darkly. "Everyone thought that these experiments stopped when the war ended. However behind the daily workings of the modern era, some organizations have continued these experiments. "

"Illegal experiments on humans," Hikaru echoed. He felt his mind go in a chill.

"Sometimes these had profane irreversible effects on the humans experimented," Kyouay replied seriously. "Have you ever heard of the Thomas Bunt society?'

"Tom?" Hikaru's skin prickled.

"The organization's symbol is a Y with a circle inside the V. It's the same symbol on the machine gun. They must have been researching about swapping bodies between potential spies and enemies. I believe someone suspicious has been following you guys in the past couple of days."

"Where are Kaoru and Haruhi?" Hikaru asked suddenly. Anxiety and fear started building up inside of him.

Kyouya stared at him. "They were missing from school around 1 O' clock."

A/N: I'm sorry for not updating in two months. Times have been very busy and I got extremely distracted. I hope you like this chapter. Thank you to all my reviewers and readers. You've give me some awesome encouraging comments and I'm really happy that you guys still stick to this story which I have been struggling for more than half a yr I think, lol. This chapter, I esp thank rini anointed436 for contributing to the ideas.

lu.e3