Chapter Twenty Five

One Person's Craziness

"No, I'm sure, Kaoru," I said into the phone, holding it with my shoulder as I shoved my ruined duvet deeper into the bins. They refused to go in any further and I sighed, resigning myself to climbing onto of them.

"And you won't just tell me what's wrong?" He asked. I jumped from the wall into the giant bins, stomping the fluffy mass down.

"Trust me, you do not want to know," I muttered. "Look, it's not like the other times I've cancelled on you guys. It's just… something's come up that I need to sort out. I'll catch up with you tomorrow." As much as I wanted to meet up with the club that afternoon, the destroyed apartment had other ideas. We couldn't go anywhere until we made it inhabitable again and that basically meant throwing out almost everything in there. I lost my balance and fell back into the wall with a clang.

"Watch yourself," Yuri said, dumping another bag of destruction on the porch.

"Yes, thank you for your brilliant advice," I replied with a roll of my eyes, struggling to my feet.

"You're sure you're alright?" Kaoru asked. I could hear his sighing. "You sound stressed."

"That's not really any different from normal," I said honestly, clambering down the side of the bin. There was a small laugh.

"I'm getting nothing out of you, am I?"

"Have you talked to Hikaru yet?" I steered the conversation in a completely different direction. I picked up the bag in the pause that followed and swung it into the bin. Yuri lobbed another one over my head, bouncing it off the wall into the corner. I discreetly high-fived him, suitably impressed.

"No…" Kaoru said reluctantly. I sighed.

"Kaoru, what exactly do you think is going to happen? He's your brother, for god's sake!"

"He could hate you."

"Well, let that be my problem, not yours," I told him, taking the first ruined cushion from Yuri to dispose of.

"It's not that easy!" Kaoru protested. I shook my head, throwing the cushions one by one to their doom. I didn't really understand the problem that he was happening but then again, I'd never had siblings and I'd definitely never met any as close as the twins. I decided to trust him on this.

"Okay, okay," I placated him. "Just… it's kind of weird, you know. It's got to be weird for you too. Do you guys even have any secrets from each other?"

"Some," he murmured so quietly his voice barely made it out the speaker.

"It'll be okay, Kaoru," I told him. I almost heard him smile.

"Whatever you say," he said softly and I went said slightly red. Yuri made a retching sound and I aimed a half-hearted kick that he easily dodged. He laughed , throwing a handful of fluff at me. I turned to scold him when something out in the car park clattered to ground.

We stood perfectly still. Nothing moved except for the can that rolled across the ground and clanged against the next car. We stared at it and took half a step backwards, ready to bolt inside. I steeled myself for whatever happened next. There was someone there. There was someone behind the white van on the other side of the car park. The shadows of their feet moved ever so slightly under the car and I made a fist with my free hand, glancing at Yuri. He shrugged, unsure as to what to do. I could hear my heartbeat and I narrowed my eyes at the van, listening hard in the silence.

"Katya?" Kaoru's voice made me jump a mile and I swore loudly, my hand on my chest. Yuri looked at me in alarm.

"Christ, Kaoru!" I exclaimed, breathing hard. There was a crashing sound and we looked up to see a figure disappear over a fence. Yuri swore, throwing the last few bags in the vague direction of the bin.

"Let's get out of here, Katya." I nodded in agreement.

"Sorry, Kaoru, I've got to run."

"What just happened?"

"I'll tell you when I see you." Not. "Have fun this evening." I hung after his confused goodbye and glared across the car park. Yuri stood next to me, his arms folded.

"Who do you think that was?" I shrugged.

"Anyone," I sighed. "It doesn't matter who it was. What matters is that they were here. Which means this isn't over yet." I turned away, stabbing in the access code with more force than I should have. He slipped in after me.

"It's weird that they didn't try anything," he said. I rolled my eyes.

"Is it? They've been being weird for way too long now." I punched a wall as I passed, stomping up the stairs. "I'm fed up of this crap. If they want to make our lives' difficult, they can damn well come and do it without these coward's tactics. The next time they mess with us, I swear I'm going to beat them inside out," I muttered. Yuri eyed me.

"I really don't know what more they could think of to do," he said as we pushed open the splintered door to the apartment. It looked very bare without most of the furniture in it. Daisuke waved vaguely at us as he plastered in the deep scores in Yuri's walls. I thought about it as I pulled on one of Yuri's old shirts and picked up a paint brush.

"Well, they've kicked the shit out of you and almost killed me. They've followed us around and made our lives miserable. They've sent flowers and they've destroyed our things. Honestly, there are more imaginative things but I'm not sure Jai's going for creative," I said with a certain amount of amusement.

"I don't know," Yuri said, pushing the skeleton of the sofa against the wall so I could stand on it. "The flowers were kind of a weird touch."

"They didn't seem like his style," I agreed, applying white the recently stripped wall. "Maybe he's branching out." He shuddered, holding the paint bucket up.

"Don't say that. He's terrifying enough as he is." I couldn't really argue with him. The long-sleeved , high-cut shirts I was having to wear even in the increasingly warm weather spoke for themselves. When Jai did things, he did them gleefully and without mercy. I had thought him just a thug but he'd proved me wrong again and again. He was completely fucking ridiculous and I was pretty sure psychologists would have a field day with him. I painted in silence and knew the next few days would be the most deadly of all. There's one thing everyone who ever exacted fear knew.

Anticipation was always worse than the actual event.

"Wh-where shall I put these?" I twisted to look at the tiny girl in the door way. Her face, hidden by gently curling hair, was red, as it had been since she'd arrived. I looked at Yuri, smirking, as he put down the pot of paint and hurried over to relieve her of the box she carried.

"Thank you, Sayuri," he smiled. She gave a small smile, clasping her hands together. Yuri, it seemed, had been holding out on me. His girlfriend Sayuri had turned up only minutes after he'd called to cancel their date, with a box of freshly made cookies and a rather unhealthy dosage of chronic shyness. Yuri assured me the stammer she was exhibiting was only because she was around people she didn't know. Apparently she'd overcome her kind-of-fear of people to come and help Yuri in his time of need – I liked her. I would mock Yuri mercilessly but hopefully I would eventually be able to joke with her without her face turning into a tomato and having to explain that I was kidding. She didn't really understand my sense of humour.

"Do-do you need anything else?" Sayuri said softly. Yuri shook his head, his hand lingering on her arm. I bit back so many, many jokes and focussed on painting on the wall, repeating the phrase 'privacy is to be respected' over and over until it kind of lost meaning. It wasn't unfair for me to tease him, exactly. If he'd have just told me, I wouldn't need to. It was the secretiveness that was just begging to be mocked and mocked mercilessly until I ran out of energy.

"We'll be fine, Sayuri. Why don't you head home?" He said gently. She fiddled with the sleeve of her jumper.

"Are you going to have to sleep here?" Yuri frowned and exchanged a glance with me. We hadn't really thought about it but the fumes of the plaster and the paint would surely not be good for us.

"We'll find somewhere to crash," I suggested. Sayuri ducked her head lower and I couldn't hear what she muttered, the colour of her face reaching new levels of bright.

"No, no, we couldn't," Yuri said, obviously surprised. I forgot about my wall and leaned back trying to listen in. She was speaking so damn quietly that I couldn't hear whatever counter-argument she proposed. In my efforts, I leant too far back and landed on the floor heavily, the paintbrush narrowly missing my face. Yuri completely ignored me. I felt half offended.

"What can't we do?" I asked impatiently, rolling to my feet, almost sighing as Sayuri retreating into herself. Her social anxiety must be a bitch to deal with at school.

"Stay at Sayuri's tonight," Yuri shot over his shoulder. I frowned as I sat back on my feet. That wasn't a bad idea.

"Do you not want to?" I asked. He shot me a glance.

"What? No, it's not-"

"Is there some kind of Japanese thing where staying at other people's houses is frowned upon or something?"

"Well, no…"

"So what's the problem?" I folded my arms. She raised her eyes to look at him hopefully. Yuri looked at her and gave a heavy sigh. Between the two of us, we had whittled him down.

"We don't mean to impose-"

"You won't," she said quietly, gripping his hand. She gave me a tiny little smile and I winked back, making her look away quickly. I had to admit that as timid as she was, Sayuri was completely adorable.

I slipped into the music room, tired out of my mind. We'd stayed up really late trying to finish the apartment and hadn't quite managed it. Massively grateful to take up Sayuri's offer, we'd staggered across the neighbourhood, covered in white paint, and surprisingly made it there without any hassle. Sayuri lived alone and it was kind of weird, as she could barely speak to me without going bright red. She seemed oddly uncomfortable around me. Her cooking, though, was absolutely amazing and our compliments seemed to please her immensely. I didn't even have time to make Yuri feel uncomfortable with my mockery before we'd passed out on her living room floor, shattered. I'd woken up once, with that horrible sinking feeling a nightmare leaves you, and it took me a long time to get the dream out of my head to get back to sleep.

"Morning," I said, collapsing into a chair. Haruhi looked at me.

"Good morning." She tilted her head and gave me a funny look. I raised an eyebrow – what was up with her?

"Did you have a good evening?" Kyoya asked, without looking up. I looked at him and sighed.

"We were redecorating," I said. He gave me a puzzled look but I really couldn't be bothered to elaborate. I leant on the table, my chin on my arms. Honey put his head on the table to stare at me.

"You look tired, Kat-chan." He gave a secretive little smile and I rolled my eyes. He seemed to be enjoying his insider knowledge way too much but it wasn't like that had anything to with my weariness. I stuck my tongue out at him and he giggled, hugging his bunny tight. Mori gave him a look and I wondered if the tall silent host was in on the secret. I closed my eyes. It seemed odd to think of Honey keeping anything from Mori.

Then again, it seemed odd to think of Kaoru keeping anything from Hikaru.

"Morning, m'lord." I smiled to myself as Hikaru's voice accompanied the opening of the door. I looked up as he took a chair and frowned.

"Where's Kaoru?" I asked without thinking. The look he gave me was filled with… something. He knew, I realised. Everyone knew. That's why they were all looking at me like that. He probably told Hikaru when everyone was together last night. That sounded to me like the worst plan anyone had come up with ever. I was dating a moron.

"Don't you know?" Hikaru said moodily, staring at the window. I sat up straight.

"No," I said slowly. "No, I don't know."

"Oh. I left without him. I assumed he was meeting you." The tone of his voice stung. Hikaru was obviously not pleased with being kept out of anything involving his brother. I looked at Haruhi, who shrugged, looking lost.

"Hikaru…" I started but he looked at Tamaki.

"What's on the agenda today, boss?" He asked, ignoring me completely. I sank back in my chair. Kaoru had been right. I was pretty sure Hikaru hated me. Tamaki folded his arms.

"Hikaru, you are being very ungentlemanly." We all looked at the king.

"Tamaki, it's fine," I said quietly.

"It is not," Mori corrected me, looking pointedly at the twin. Hikaru squirmed under the tall host's gaze and put his elbows on the table sulkily.

"I know," he muttered. "I just don't like Kaoru keeping secrets."

"You realise he only did because he knew you'd do this, right?" I told him. Hikaru put his head on the table.

"Yes," he said grumpily. "But I didn't even see him this morning. Like he was avoiding me." Honey grinned.

"You're silly, Hikaru-chan," he laughed. "Kaoru-chan was just worried about you being mad at him."

"I know, I know." He lifted his head and gave me a half-hearted smile. "Sorry, Katya."

"Don't mention it, idiot." I waved my hand and he grinned properly. I relaxed. We were fine. Tamaki clapped happily.

"Excellent!" He exclaimed. "Now, Kyoya, what's down for today?" I put my head back on the table and closed my eyes as they began to rattle through the day's points, struggling not to fall asleep. My mind began to drift until everyone was rudely interrupted by Hikaru's phone bursting into familiar song. He fumbled with it, almost dropping it in surprise, and flicked it open.

"Where are you, Kaoru?" He said immediately, displeasure clear on his face. We waited, watching him. He took the phone away from his ear and looked at it. Nothing happened. He looked at me, his face falling.

"You said he wouldn't be mad at me," he muttered. I frowned.

"He isn't," I said. Hikaru put the phone back to his ear. I watched him apologise to his silent brother for a moment, wondering why Kaoru was being so childish. Maybe his brother not understanding him had thrown him for a loop. I looked at the window, thinking.

A cold shiver ran up my back and I shot to my feet.

"Give me the phone." They looked at me. Hikaru stopped talking and frowned.

"What-"

"Hikaru, give me the fucking phone." His eyes wide, he tossed me the phone and I pressed it to my ear. For a minute it was completely silent and then I began to hear breathing on the other end.

"Kaoru?" I said. Nothing happened. I sank down into my seat, my heart pumping wildly. I wanted to be wrong. Everyone was staring at me. I held the phone tight and squeezed my eyes shut, trying to organise my thoughts in a way my fear didn't make sense.

"Not this," I muttered into the phone. "Don't fucking do this." They all looked at me like I was insane.

"Katya," Hikaru asked. "What the hell is wrong?"

"Katya?" I looked at Kyoya and took a deep breath. I didn't know how, but I knew I was right. The silence was killing me. I slammed my hand down on the table, making everyone jump.

"Say something, you bastard!" I yelled into the phone. There was a moment of utter silence.

"That's not very nice, English."