Haruhi

"Did you make sure to pack a lunch?"

"I'm sure that they have food inside the house."

"Are you sure you don't want me to walk you up? It's understandable to be intimidated on your first day."

"I'll be fine dad. I'm not a child anymore."

Ranka sighed as he placed down his fork. He had woken up early so he could make sure he could have breakfast with Haruhi before her first day of work. Just like he did with every other first days she had since she was little. "I know, it's just that this is such a big step towards your future career and it's just bringing up old memories of me dropping you off at school when you were a kid and being worried about you even though I knew everything would be alright."

Haruhi gave her father a reassuring smile. "I really appreciate the concern dad, but I'm not a child anymore. I can take care of myself and conquer any obstacle that comes at me and a spoiled rich kid isn't going to change that."

Ranka let out a small chuckle. "I wish I had as much determination as you. You really are your mother's daughter." Haruhi couldn't help but smile at that compliment. "I guess I'm mostly worried about your new patient. Since the last time, we visited him you almost ended up with a broken nose."

Haruhi involuntarily twitched her nose as she remembered when Hikaru's elbow made contact with it. The doctor said she was lucky that her nose didn't break by the sheer amount of force Hikaru used. He obviously didn't mean to hurt her, it just happened in the moment without him realizing it, but fuck did it hurt and it left her with nasty bruise for at least two weeks.

"I should be fine," Haruhi said. "Kaoru is going to be there as well as some of the other staff. So I'm not worried."

"Well, if you think you'll be ok I'll try not to worry as much. However, I am worried about that Hikaru boy."

"And why is that?"

"Because he doesn't know what's going to hit him once you step through those doors." He said. "You won't put up with any of his shit."

Haruhi couldn't help but laugh. "I'd learned from the best."

…

Haruhi stared up at the towering dark wooden doors in front of her as she could now feel her stomach began to churn. Have those doors always been that tall? She was now starting to feel nervous. Not from having to deal with Hikaru, but because this all could make or break her career.

She took a deep breath in and out to try and calm her nerves. "I can do this. He's nothing I haven't handled before."

When she finally built up the courage she knocked on the door and once her knuckles hit the hard, slick wood she knew there was no turning back now.

Within a matter of seconds, as if they were just sitting by the door waiting for her, the door opened and she was greeted by a smiling Kaoru.

"Great, you came right on time. Come in."

Once Haruhi entered the house, Kaoru began leading her down past the living room towards the kitchen.

"So uh, where's Hikaru?" Haruhi asked as she sat down at the counter as Kaoru poured her a cup of tea.

"Still sleeping."

"At noon?"

Kaoru nodded as he leaned on the counter. "Yep, since he's been on lockdown he's been pretty sleeping the day away. Granted, I wouldn't be so hard on him today since he got discharged from the hospital today at six in the morning, and the medicine they gave him makes him drowsy."

Haruhi gave a slight nod as she took a sip of her tea, finally noticing Kaoru was dressed a little too formal than usual. "Going somewhere?"

"Yeah, since Hikaru can't do anything until he's clean. I've been doing both our jobs. It's overwhelming sometimes, but it has to be done."

"When are you leaving?"

"In about an hour but don't worry, I'll be sure Hikaru is on his best behavior before I leave." As if on cue, the sound of sluggish footsteps were heard as Hikaru entered the kitchen.

"Well, speak of the devil," Kaoru said as he stood up and faced his brother. "Did you have a nice nap sleeping beauty?" Hikaru responded by glaring at his brother before making his way over to the coffee pot. "I'm going to take that as a no."

Hikaru just ignored him as he poured himself some coffee and grabbed a piece of toast before making a B-line towards the hall.

"No, no, no." Kaoru chased after his brother and grabbed him before he could leave the kitchen. Once he got a hold of Hikaru's arm he turned and led him over to the counter where Haruhi was sitting at. "Now I promised Haruhi that I'd make you play nice so you're not an asshole to her after I leave."

"If she's as good of a nurse as you all keep claiming she is she wouldn't need your fucking help." He grumbled. He was then met with a well-deserved slap on the back of the head and Haruhi had to hold her teacup over her lips to hide her smile. "Ow!"

"Be nice!" Kaoru scolded.

"You already know my head fucking hurts you asshole!"

Kaoru just shrugged, not really caring as he took a sip of his own coffee. "If you didn't lie and actually tried to stay clean then your head wouldn't be hurting would it?"

"Fuck you!"

"Oh, we're using naughty words. How scary."

That comment seemed to anger Hikaru even more as Haruhi noticed his body begin to stiffen. She had a flashback of the dinner last month of how Hikaru's body reacted the same way before exploding, and since he was irritated more easily due to withdrawals it wouldn't take much to set him off like that again.

'I guess I'm not just helping Hikaru deal with his addiction.'

As Hikaru and Kaoru continued bickering, Haruhi finally had enough.

"Stop it both of you!"

Both men froze and looked over at Haruhi, shocked as she gave them stern looks. As if she was a teacher who was done with their students bull shit. Her glare first landed on Kaoru, who almost flinched under her glare.

"Kaoru, I get that you are upset with Hikaru but pestering him is not going to do anything other than irritate him further. From what I saw at the dinner you and your family are the ones who usually indicate the fights. If you guys truly want Hikaru to get better you all need to approach him calmly and respectfully. Not by saying witty remarks that you know will get under his skin."

Kaoru just nodded, too in shock to really say anything other than, "Yes ma'am."

Her attention then turned over towards Hikaru, who finally seemed to snap out of his own shock and soon scowled at her as she started scolding him.

"Hikaru, I get that you're in a lot of pain right now, but realizing your own frustrations on others isn't going to help anything. I've heard of your poor reputation at the rehab center with you throwing shit and cursing at people, which will not happen with me or there WILL be serious consequences. You got that?!"

Hikaru just narrowed his eyes at her and she did the same. She wasn't going to back down. He might be far taller and stronger than her, but that didn't scare her one bit. She was not going to put up with the shit he did with the other nurses. Kaoru had told her all of Hikaru's tricks, so he won't be using those to get anything out of her.

Hikaru just let out a huff before grumbling, "Whatever," under his breath as he took a bite of his toast.

Kaoru looked between the two again in shock by the interaction between the two then soon smiled. Seeming pleased by the outcome of it.

"Well, I guess I don't have to be as worried as I thought. You seem like you got this under control." Kaoru looked at the time on his watch. "Shit, I have to get going before mom gets mad that I'm late. Haruhi you're in charge, and Hikaru," he pointed at him. "Behave yourself."

"When do I not?"

Kaoru hummed out a laugh before lightly ruffling his brother's already mussed hair. He then walked over to Haruhi and leaned down to whisper in her ear. "If he gets too out of hand, call me."

"I should be fine," Haruhi replied as she caught Hikaru's eyes again in an intense battle. "He should be the one worried."

…

While Hikaru finished up breakfast, Haruhi began the preparations for the first activities she had on her schedule. As she beamed while volunteering at the rehab center. Everything is almost scheduled based. It helps keep the patients always busy so they have less chance of thinking about satisfying their addiction. Usually, the schedules are meant for the entire day from when the patient wakes up to the time they go to sleep, but today she wants to just get to know Hikaru more. Find out his likes and dislikes so she can plan out more things to do in the future, and who knows, maybe they'll start to get along. However, she did make notes that he does manipulate, so she'll have to watch out for any tricks that he might throw at her.

Once Hikaru was done eating and Haruhi had finished up making the plans for the day, she was glad to find Hikaru sitting on the porch like she requested and sat across from him. He didn't seem to notice her as he texted away on his phone, probably complaining to one of his many celebrity friends that he had to put up with Haruhi being his nurse.

After a few moments of Hikaru still not acknowledging her, she cleared her throat to grab his attention. Which he just responded by moving his eyes up to look at her.

"Are you ready to get started?" Haruhi asked.

"Yeah, sure." He grumbled as he looked back down at his phone. "Whatever."

Haruhi glared at him but continued to ask him first a few questions in hope that he'll actually start listening to her. "So Hikaru, when was the last time you used anything?"

He just shrugged a response.

"So you don't know?"

This time he didn't even give her a response. Haruhi could actually feel her anger boiling up.

'Calm down Haruhi. You don't want to get arrested for murdering your patient on the first day. Keep calm.'

"What were the last drugs that you used?"

Again, nothing. He was just typing away on his damn phone! She had enough of it and reached over the table and snatched it away from him.

"Hey!"

"From now on, no phones during our sessions together unless I give you permission to use it."

"You can't do that!" Hikaru protested.

Haruhi smirked as she placed his phone at the side of the table. "Actually, I can. Your brother put me in charge. So I can do whatever I want to get you to listen."

He raised an eyebrow at her, his own smirk starting to spread across his lips. "Whatever you want, huh? I didn't know you were the dominant type."

A wave of disgust washed over her as she finally understood what he meant and rolled her eyes. "That wasn't what I meant and you know it. So get your mind out of the gutter." She took out her own phone and placed it next to his. "Now that we both won't get distracted, are you ready to start again?"

Hikaru let out a huff but didn't protest as he leaned back in his chair with his arms crossed. "Fine, let's get this fucking over with."

Haruhi began asking all the basic questions again. How Hikaru felt that day if he had any cravings, etc. To which Hikaru just responded dryly with, "Yeah, no, I don't know," and nothing else. It was annoying the living shit out of her, but at least she was finally getting answers out of him. However, once she was done asking all the basic questions and was about to go over the schedule she planned out for the day, Hikaru stood up from his hair.

"And where do you think you're going?" Haruhi asked.

"Back to bed," Hikaru replied as he stretched his arms over his head.

"But we're just getting started. We still have the whole day to get through."

"I've had a long and painful past few days and with the medication they prescribed me it's wearing me out."

"But I made a schedule of everything I planned for us to do today."

Hikaru just gave her a shrug, not caring at all as he shoved his hands in his sweater pockets. "Not my problem and all I'm going to do is sleep all day, it's not like I'm leaving the house to go anywhere."

He began walking towards the door and Haruhi shot up from her chair. "You know that's not how rehab works, Hikaru."

He turned to her, a devilish smirk on his face. "This isn't rehab babe. It's my house."

And with that, Hikaru headed inside. Haruhi couldn't describe the amount of anger she was feeling at the exact moment, but she really needed to hold herself back from chasing after him and throwing her planner at him before making him cooperate with her, but if she did it wouldn't end well for either of them so she just sat back down in her chair. He did have a slight point though. He was just going to sleep all day, which was better than him just leaving the house to who knows where.

She let out a sigh as she looked down at the schedule she wasted her time on making that day.

'I wonder if all the other nurses' first days were this difficult?'

Since Haruhi technically was free for the next few hours, she decided to get some studying done for her upcoming classes in the fall and to also help her deal with Hikaru a lot better than she did today. She was going to allow him to sleep for a few more hours, but after that, she was going to make him work with her.

…

Four quiet hours passed by and Haruhi really didn't know what else to do. She had done all the studying her brain could handle that day, wrote a rough draft of the schedules for the upcoming weeks, and even had an hour-long phone conversation with a fellow nurse so she can give Haruhi some tips on how to deal with stubborn patients. Every thirty minutes or so she would check up on Hikaru, seeing if he was alright and if he was actually sleeping, which she relieved that he was.

When 5:30 came along, she began to feel a little hungry. Kaoru had mentioned that they had a chief but if Haruhi wanted to cook anything she was more than welcome to, especially since the chief had the day off today.

She gathered all the ingredients from the fridge and cabinets that she needed and began preparing dinner for her and Hikaru if he would be awake to eat it. He might be a pain in the ass, but she shouldn't let him starve throughout the night, even though she might be tempted to if he makes any snarky comments about her food.

As she was chopping up some vegetables, she heard footsteps dragging their way into the kitchen. She turned to see an actual well-rested Hikaru make his way into the kitchen.

'Shit, I guess he really did need that nap.'

His eyes fell on Haruhi once he noticed her and stopped in his tracks. She was preparing herself for the insults he was going to throw at her for cooking in his kitchen, but instead of scowling at her as she expected, he just raised an eyebrow.

"What are you making?"

Haruhi just blinked a bit, taken aback by the way he just spoke to her. From all the other times she had met him at the hospital he was always rude to her. So when he spoke to her normally she almost thought this had to be Kaoru playing a trick on her because there was no way Hikaru would be nice to her, but as she studied him more it actually was Hikaru himself.

"I'm cooking dinner for us." Haruhi smiled. "Care to join me?"

He shrugged his shoulders, seeming a bit shy even more to Haruhi's surprise. "I don't know, I'm not really the best cook."

"I can show you. It's not that difficult." She motioned him to come over. "Come on."

Hikaru seemed a little hesitant at first, either not wanting to be close to Haruhi, or he was just nervous to do something he wasn't really familiar with, but to her delight, he made his way over to her to help.

"So uh, what are we making?"

"Curry," Haruhi replied. "You like curry, right?"

He gave her another shrug. "It's alright I guess. I like it spicy though."

"We can arrange that." Haruhi slid over some vegetables to him on a cutting board. "Mince these while I prepare the rest of the ingredients."

"Uh, alright."

Haruhi left Hikaru to work on that as she began preparing everything else for the curry. When a few minutes passed by she checked up on Hikaru and saw that he did a decent job at mincing the vegetables.

"Nice job." She smiled as she walked back over to him. "It's a little big, but we can work with it."

Haruhi tossed the vegetables in the pan to let them simmer and gave Hikaru another task to do. Throughout cooking together, Hikaru was very cooperative with her. He didn't snap at her, give her any attitude or any insults, unlike this morning. It was as if he was a different person. Not really the outgoing person she had seen in the interviews that her father had forced her to watch last night, but he seemed like he actually was a nice guy like Kaoru always claimed. She just had to catch him at a good time.

"So, how are you feeling right now?" Haruhi asked as she gave him some plates to set the table with.

"Better I guess." He answered as they made their way to the dining room. "My withdrawals are still bugging me, but they're not as painful as they were this morning."

"I can tell."

Hikaru looked down at her and she cursed at herself for making that comment. They were doing so well and getting along and her fucking smart mouth of course had to ruin everything. However, instead of snapping back like she expected he just made a small hum noise in response, but she couldn't help but notice the small smirk on his face.

"I guess I was a bit of an asshole this morning."

"A bit?" Haruhi almost laughed. "You're lucky I had enough willpower to not throw a fucking chair at you when you left."

His smile only grew at her comment and she got excited that she was finally breaking through a layer of the wall he had up, but soon his smile fell when the front door opened.

"Ooh, something smells amazing." Kaoru's voice rang through the halls.

"We made dinner," Haruhi called out.

"We?"

Kaoru entered the dining room and was bewildered to see his brother standing next to Haruhi in front of a set dinner table. "Woah, did I accidentally enter a parallel universe or something? Didn't Hikaru hate you before I left?"

"Oh fuck off," Hikaru grumbled as he sat down at the table.

"What? You can't blame me for being surprised." Kaoru said as he took a seat next to Hikaru. "Since the day you met Haruhi you despised her. You were literally dreading today all day yesterday and now you two are friends."

Hikaru rolled his eyes. "I wouldn't go that far. We just cooked dinner together."

"Uh, yeah it is. You don't just go from hating someone one moment to cooking right next to them the next. Either you're up to something or that medication the doctor gave you is really working."

Hikaru's glare hardened and he opened his mouth to retort, but Haruhi spoke up before he could.

"Let's just drop it, ok," Haruhi said as she served everyone their food. "We are all getting along pretty well at the moment. I don't want to ruin it."

"You're right, I'm sorry." Kaoru apologized as he loosened his tie. "I was just shocked about the sudden mood change, but I'll drop it."

A faint smile spread across Haruhi's lips as Kaoru stopped. She had been in a similar situation with family members while interning and they would always fight the nurse by saying they weren't doing anything wrong or they were just teasing, but Kaoru seemed to be actually listening to her which meant to her that he actually did want his brother to get better.

Once dinner was finished, Hikaru retreated up to his room while Kaoru stayed down with Haruhi for her last remaining hour.

"Want anything to drink?" Kaoru asked as he walked over to the bar

"What do you got?"

"Whiskey, gin, vodka, anything you like." He smiled.

"Hmm...maybe some sherry. I just want something light tonight."

"You got it."

Haruhi took a seat at a bar stool as Kaoru poured a drink. "Thank you."

"No problem." He took a sip of gin before leaning down on the bar. "So, how was babysitting Hikaru all day?"

"It was...something," Haruhi answered truthfully. "When you first left he wanted nothing to do with me. I even had to take his phone away like a child to get him to answer simple questions and after that, he just left to his room despite my protests. He did sleep all day, so I guess that's better than him sneaking off to do drugs, but it still irritated me."

"That's withdrawn Hikaru for you." Kaoru scoffed.

"But then, after he woke up it was like I was talking to a completely different person. He was laid back and didn't even fight me on anything. He was actually very pleasant company. Well, I guess until you came home that is."

Kaoru let out a small chuckle. "Yeah, we get under each other's skin all the time, but I know that I have to calm down a bit. Especially since he angers more easily because of the withdrawals. But Haruhi, I still want you to be careful." Kaoru warned. "I love Hikaru and want to trust him, but it is strange to me his sudden change of attitude towards you so I want you to keep your guard up. Especially since he also knows I know all of his tricks, so that could've been the reason why his attitude changed back when I got home so I wouldn't suspect anything. I don't want to suspect that he's planning anything, but I just want you to be prepared."

"Don't worry, I plan to."

Haruhi swirled the sherry around in her glass as she noticed Kaoru's demeanor had changed while talking about his brother's withdrawals. It was a touchy subject to talk about, no matter if the person you're talking about has experienced what you're going through. She remembered when her dad's drinking first got out of hand a lot of people were trying to comfort her saying some of their family members were alcoholics as well or similar shit like that, but it never made her feel any better. Sometimes worse because of how many people were dealing with addiction just like her father.

"Tell me how normal Hikaru is. The one who isn't on drugs or suffering from withdrawals."

"Well," Kaoru drawled as he looked up in thought. "He's a sarcastic ass hole who has a short temper and is very lazy."

'Ok, maybe this wasn't the best idea…'

But then a small smile crept on his face as he leaned back down on the bar. "But he's also a kind-hearted person when he wants to be and he's really fun to hang with. He also listens to you whenever you have a problem and tries to help out as much as he can…" Tears began to glisten in his eyes as he remembered all the good times he and Hikaru had together, but when he noticed that he was getting emotional in front of Haruhi he cleared his throat as he whipped his eyes. "Sorry."

"No, it's alright." Haruhi consoled. "It's ok to be upset Kaoru. I know you probably hear that all the time and you're most likely to be strong for Hikaru, but you can't keep holding in your emotions or one day the dam is going to break and everything is going to spill out all at once. I should know because I have my own habit of doing that." She gave Kaoru a sad smile. "I'm not saying you have to let your emotions out in front of me, but whenever you're alone and you're feeling a strong emotion just let it out. Can you promise me that?"

Kaoru looked at the liquor in his glass for a few silent moments before taking a sip. "All I can promise is that I can try."

"Well," she gave his arm a comforting squeeze. "That's a start."

Kaoru

Kaoru walked Haruhi out once they finished their drinks, saying that he'll see her tomorrow, then he made his way upstairs. He stopped when he was about to pass Hikaru's room and quietly opened the door to check on him. Just like he thought, Hikaru was asleep again. That medicine must be really tiring him out.

Once he shut Hikaru's door, he went to his own room, but as the door closed he just leaned his back against the door instead of getting ready for bed. He just stood there for a good minute or two until a sob finally tore from his throat as he couldn't hold it back and let the sobs escape. Tears streamed down his face as he slowly slid down on the door until he hit the floor. Even though Hikaru was fine at the moment, he was scared that he'll just relapse again, and this time they won't be able to get him back. He almost lost his brother once when he almost overdosed and he was scared almost every day now that his brother will use again and he's going to overdose for real and won't wake up. He'd do anything to save his brother from that fate. Even wishing that sometimes the roles were reversed that Hikaru didn't have to go through that pain...but he'd be feeling the pain Kaoru was feeling now.

He looked up at the moon shining through the big window, more sobs escaping his throat.

"Please God, let Hikaru try and stay clean. I don't want to lose him."