A/N: Apologies for the super-late update. I've been crazy-buzy with contests and tests and my other fics. Anyway, thank you to everyone who reviewed my story--you all deserve a big bowl of ginger ice cream, specially made by... well, you'll see. This is a bit of a slapdash job, and written when I was in a clearly emo mood. Anyway, it isn't as funny as I would have liked it to be, but I hope that you like it all the same!

Anyway, without further ado, I present to you Chapter Two.

Chapter Two: Realizations and the Shadow's Heart

Apparently phase one of the plan involved maple syrup and Tamaki.

No, they didn't drench Tamaki in maple syrup and leave him in Kyouya's bed. Although that would have been a nice plan, in retrospect…

Kaoru checked his watch from the other side of the room. The whole day he had been acting the part of Hitachiin Hikaru so flawlessly that even Haruhi hadn't been clued in. Yeah, his brother had gotten mildly pissed off at him for flirting with Haruhi, but he explained that it was part of his I'm-actually-Hikaru disguise.

Hikaru had done splendidly so far. In fact, the barely suppressed jealousy that he had shown when Kaoru had been touching Haruhi had only helped their act. They were wearing each other's clothes, watches, shoes… not that it made much of a difference, since they were exactly the same. And then Kaoru had managed to cover up the bruises with concealer, while Hikaru created new ones on his body (in just the right places) with some of their costume makeup.

Sometimes Kaoru caught sight of himself in the mirror and actually thought that he was Hikaru. But he had more important things than an identity crisis on his mind.

Kyouya didn't even blink as he frowned at the sticky goop all over his hair. Slowly, his hand moved to still the dripping. "Hikaru…"

"I'm Kaoru, sempai," he said in the best imitation he could pull off. "And I'm sorry, it was an accident."

An 'accident' that was magnificently orchestrated by somehow tripping over Tamaki's teddy bear (hence Tamaki's part in 'phase one') while the fake Kaoru was carrying a bottle of maple syrup for cooking class.

Actually, their original idea had involved a rather more elaborate setup, including blenders, painter's easels, a rather old bust of some dead guy, and a lot of string. And Tamaki. He always seemed to get involved in their plans. Unfortunately, their plan relied heavily on getting Kyouya to trip over something—and being was something that the Shadow King would never ever be. So they had settled on Hikaru doing the tripping. It lacked the finesse of their usual plans—or rather, their typical botching of their intended finesse. This time, it was simple, and carried off perfectly.

And in any case, Hikaru was imitating Kaoru so well that Kaoru almost believed that he was looking at himself. "I'm re-really sorry, sempai," he stammered.

Haruhi nodded. "Hikaru's over here with me," she said, obviously exasperated at the way Kaoru was incessantly tickling her. "Stop it, Hikaru," she muttered, batting at Kaoru's hands.

"For once you're wrong, Haruhi," Kyouya said. "This is Hikaru. That is Kaoru."

"Better get your eyes examined, sempai," Kaoru said with a smirk in true Hikaru style. "But it wasn't Kaoru's fault. It was milord with his huge, clumsy feet in the way as usual."

Kyouya scowled at him. "You can fool everyone else, but you can't fool me," he said dangerously. "But I take what you said to mean that you were planning all this from the very beginning. The two of you are going to have to offer compensation for this later." He glared. Now he would be late for the host club opening, seeing as he had to scrub off all the gunk that was on his shoulders.

When he left, Haruhi looked at the two of them. "Is it true?" she asked softly. Her eyes widened when she saw Kaoru's expression of inner turmoil plastered on what she thought to be Hikaru's face. And Hikaru's I-just-got-sucker-punched look was all over the person who had claimed to be Kaoru. "I didn't realize." She bit her lip. She had thought that telling them apart would be easy by now, but it looked like when the two of them really made an effort, they could still trick her.

"It's true," Kaoru said, covering his mouth with one hand. He felt like he was going to be sick. Haruhi couldn't distinguish between the two of them, so they thought that their joke was faultless. And Kyouya had seen through it instantly.

Hikaru nodded slowly. "That damn Shadow King sees everything," he muttered, shoving his hands into his pocket, dropping the pretense. "You think that maybe he just put some kind of tracking bug on one of us so that he can tell us apart or something?"

"Kyou-chan watches," Hunny burst in. "He watches everyone and everything, and he memorizes it all. That's why Kyou-chan knows that Hika-chan is Hika-chan and Kao-chan is Kao-chan."

"I guess that makes sense," Haruhi agreed. "But you know, you guys acted so perfectly that I couldn't tell at all. Okay, maybe there was something just a little bit off about it, but on the whole it's like you're each other."

"It was easy," Kaoru said with a shaky laugh. "God knows that I've known Hikaru all my life."

"Yeah, but you're you, and I'm me," Hikaru pointed out. "And this discussion is getting way too philosophical for me." He punched his fist into the air. "Phase one has backfired. Now the question is whether we should commence with phase two or just give up the game."

"Give up the game?" Kaoru echoed.

"Yeah," Hikaru said. "I mean, if Kyouya-sempai knows who's who even when Haruhi doesn't, there's no point in trying to do anything more. It would have been okay to mess with him when he didn't know which one of us was which, but now…" He shrugged. "I don't know, maybe this is actually even better—we're growing, aren't we? I guess it's just because we're so different, that's all."

Different. Yeah. He didn't want to be different. He wanted to be with his brother. His twin. He didn't want to be just Kaoru. Frankly, the thought of it scared him. He felt a brief flash of hatred for Kyouya for destroying their last defense against the rest of the world. He had taken his brother away from him in a way that Haruhi never had. Haruhi could be accepted into their world. But Kyouya rejected their world, carelessly tramping all over it without a thought for how they might have felt. Kaoru wondered whether it would be as though their world had never existed at all.

But he would remember, at least.

He slumped in his seat for a moment before getting up. "I just need some aspirin," he said, answering Hikaru's unvoiced question. But then he realized that Hikaru wasn't looking at him at all, and hadn't been asking—not even unconsciously.

Kyouya emerged from the dressing room, his hair still damp from washing out all that maple syrup. Honestly, he would kill those twins, if he had anything to say about it. It was lucky that he always kept a spare uniform for emergencies. Then his mind registered the fact that there was someone else in the back with him. "Tamaki," he said. "What are you doing here?"

"Just checking to see how you're doing, mother," Tamaki said. "Those devilish twins—"

"I'm fine," he interrupted. He ran a hand through the wet black locks. "It was nothing that couldn't be fixed. Lucky for them." He took a seat and removed his glasses with a sigh. It was amazing what a difference it made, just to remove his glasses. It made him look a little more vulnerable. He looked up. "You knew that it wasn't all that important, Tamaki. So why does it matter so much to you?"

Tamaki frowned. "It doesn't," he said carelessly.

"Tamaki…" Kyouya wondered whether the maple syrup had made his brain sticky or had affected his mind somehow, because his mouth seemed to be moving of its own accord, ignoring the warnings that he was silently screaming at it. "I…" He had kept it a secret for a while now, and now it was threatening to burst out of him. His voice was so soft that the king barely seemed to hear it. "Tamaki, I lo—"

"I'll be going back now, mother," Tamaki said. "I want to check on our beloved daughter—she can't be left too long with that evil Hitachiin." Then he looked anxiously at Kyouya. "Do you think that she likes Hikaru?"

"She likes us all," Kyouya deadpanned, not knowing whether he ought to be relieved or annoyed that Tamaki had interrupted. "Even you, hard as it may be to believe."

Tamaki didn't know whether to be offended or happy. "No, I mean… as a lover."

Trust Tamaki to use that word. "Lover would hardly be an appropriate term unless they were involved in a full-blown physical relationship," Kyouya said. "And I'm sure that they haven't gone that far."

"How do you know?"

What a stupid question. "I just do," Kyouya said. And there was no point questioning him any further on that, because Kyouya basically knew everything anyway—never mind that he didn't explain how or why.

"You know, mother, I think that I'm… I'm in love with Haruhi."

Kyouya went cold. There it was: the final stroke that undid any last hope he might have had for himself. "I see," he said, nodding. "I anticipated this." And he had, only he had denied it, tried to search for evidence pointing to the contrary—even if it was just a smile in his direction or the way that Tamaki relied on him. But damn it, that was all friendship and nothing more. "You'll have to work hard for her to take notice of you, but I believe that it's possible. Of course, you have a lot of competition. Hikaru is just one of us, and I believe that it would be difficult not to be attracted to Haruhi."

"You mean that you like her yourself, mother?"

The Shadow King wanted to laugh at the irony of it all. "Not at this point in time, Tamaki."

Tamaki was relieved. "That's good. I think that if you ever fell in love, you would have whoever it is under your spell somehow, because you never give up." He cracked a smile. "You succeed at everything you do, after all. You always get what you want."

"That's just your assumption. I assure you that it's quite the opposite," Kyouya said, getting to his feet. "Now go on ahead, the club will open in a while." He hesitated, unaware of how innocent and lost he seemed with his dark eyes exposed that way, the uncertainty creeping into the tunnel-like depths. "Tamaki, I…"

"Yeah, what?"

Rational thinking kicked in at just the right moment. "I wish you luck with your endeavor," he said dryly, destroying the vulnerable expression on his face. "Now hurry up."

"Don't you want me to wait for you?"

Kyouya clenched his fists. "It would be very pointless," he said. "Go on."

Kaoru watched the interactions from the sidelines, so absorbed that he completely forgot about the aspirin that he now clutched in his hand. He watched the Shadow King gaze at Tamaki as the blonde sailed away, obviously not realizing that something was very wrong.

"Damn it!" Kyouya burst out, his fist flying before he could control himself. He hit the wall with a sickening crack, and Kaoru winced as he saw the Shadow King spill his own blood out of mindless rage. He laughed darkly to himself. "So, 'I always get what I want'. So, I 'don't want you to wait for me'. Moron! How could I fall in love with a fool like that?"

Kaoru bit back a gasp, his eyes riveted on the dark-haired figure as the Shadow King composed himself, his posture straightening as he combed his hair to glossy perfection. Kyouya… and Tamaki?

All the anger that he had been feeling towards Kyouya suddenly disappeared. Pain. That was something he knew enough of. And apparently Kyouya was human and vulnerable enough to succumb to it too, hard though it was to believe that the 'man-of-steel' Shadow King was weak in any way.

No, he wasn't angry at him anymore. If anything, his heart went out to the older boy.

Suddenly Kyouya's eyes hardened, and he slipped his glasses on again. "Who's there?" he called out.

The redhead figured that Kyouya had a right to know that he had overheard the whole thing. "It's me, sempai," he said, slipping out. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to eavesdrop. I just came to get some aspirin, but you were talking aloud…"

Kyouya inhaled sharply. "I see." It wasn't the Hitachiin's fault. At least he knew that much. He was proud that he could still think logically, even though he was emotionally distraught. "Kaoru, would you mind not mentioning this to anyone?" His tone made his request sound suspiciously like a threat, even to his own ears. He looked away. "I just… that was very foolish of me. I don't normally talk to myself."

"You were under some strange circumstances, sempai," Kaoru said softly. "I think I understand why you did what you did." He took hold of Kyouya's hand. "You're bleeding, sempai. We should bandage this."

"It's all right, I can do it myself," Kyouya said, but Kaoru was already pulling out the first aid kid. He remained blank-faced when the antiseptic was applied, although it probably hurt. "I don't want your pity, Kaoru," he said flatly.

"I'm not pitying you, sempai." Kaoru finished it by wrapping the bandage neatly around his bloody knuckles. "I'm sympathizing with you."

"You mean because of Hikaru," Kyouya said, nodding. "You get what I mean."

"Yes," Kaoru said evenly. There. He had admitted it. What did he have to lose? Kyouya wouldn't tell anyone—and he had everything to gain: Kyouya could trust him. He understood.

Kyouya sighed. "I don't want to go and face them right now," he admitted.

"Then let's not," Kaoru suggested. He tugged at Kyouya's hand. "Let's go somewhere else, where we don't have to see them." He saw the doubt in the Shadow King's eyes and knew that he was calculating the benefits. "There may be no profit in it, but at least we don't have to get hurt watching them… at least, not now."

They heard Tamaki's laughter from outside. "Haruhi, my precious daughter!" Then there was Hikaru's voice, saying something like, "Eh, milord, that's sexual harassment!" The two behind the curtain both clenched their fists and tried to block out the noise to no avail.

Kyouya's expression tightened. "Let's go."

"Where are you?" Hikaru roared into his cellphone, causing some of the customers to let out frightened little gasps and scuttle away from him. Tamaki was doing the same, panicking because Kyouya was nowhere to be found as he kept dialing and redialing the Shadow King's cellphone number.

"Kyaa! They're probably together!" the girls squealed. Renge already had an evil grin plastered on her face as she planned her next doujinshi, devoted to 'Kyouya and Kaoru's budding relationship'.

Kaoru winced and held his own phone away from his ear. "You're too loud, Hikaru," he said, unaware that his brother had put him on speakerphone. The customers flocked around Hikaru, trying to hear what the younger Hitachiin was saying. "There's no need to yell at me like that."

Besides, he had Hikaru on speakerphone too, and Kyouya was listening to every word.

"You're not answering the question, idiot!" But some of his anger was slowly ebbing away. Tamaki had been filling his head with nonsense about how it was possible that Kaoru or Kyouya had been kidnapped, or some other whatnot. At worst, Haruhi had volunteered the possibility that Kaoru might have been knocked out cold somehow (getting hit on the head or some other way of sustaining a head injury), and he had gone into protective-older-brother mode.

"Well, I'm skipping club activities today," Kaoru returned. He hadn't been answering Hikaru's calls for the past half hour—nor had Kyouya deigned to answer Tamaki's—but eventually Kyouya decided that they better at least let them know that they were safe, reminding Kaoru of the incident where they all went to see Haruhi by helicopter over the summer when Tamaki thought that something had happened to her. The host club king was prone to overreacting.

"And why would that be?" Tamaki burst in.

Kaoru was silent a moment, watching Kyouya pour them both some tea. "Hikaru… do you have me on speakerphone?"

Hikaru blushed guiltily. "Yeah, but it's just the rest of the host club," he lied, gesturing for the girls to stay silent. "They're worried about you too."

Kyouya chuckled from the background, too low for them to hear. "And what about me?" he whispered to Kaoru, causing the redhead to laugh. "Don't I get a mention?"

"What're you laughing about?" Hikaru asked suspiciously. "And you haven't said anything about why you're not coming to club."

"And have you seen Kyouya anywhere?" Tamaki added.

Kyouya finally decided to step in. "I'm afraid that Kaoru's absence is my fault," he said into the phone, his voice coming out in a rich purr. Kaoru covered his mouth in shock and tried to take it back from him, but Kyouya shook his head and gestured that he would take care of it. "Kaoru and I are busy taking care of something."

The girls flushed and looked ready to explode with a barrage of 'Kyaa!' fireworks, but thankfully Hunny and Mori managed to keep them quiet. "What do you mean, busy?" Hikaru and Tamaki cried out at the same time.

"Busy in a way that is none of your business," Kyouya said coolly. Did he really have to justify running off to have tea with Kaoru in the Ootori mansion? "We realize that this is inconvenient for the club, but surely you can do without us today."

"You kidnapped my brother!" Hikaru yelled into the phone.

Kaoru felt a shiver run down his spine. Finally, Hikaru was paying attention to him. "He didn't kidnap me," he replied. "I was the one who invited him to skip club."

Renge let out a barely-suppressed screech of delight. Kaoru was the one taking the lead in their relationship? Did that mean that he was the seme, or was it just that he was the perfect uke leading on Kyouya?

"And he agreed?" Tamaki said, obviously hysterical. "I knew that you were under the spell of those devilish twins, Kyouya!"

The Shadow King smiled darkly. "Yes, perhaps I am under a spell, Tamaki, but not of the kind that you think," he said. And with that, he ended the call. He glanced at Kaoru. "I apologize, I shouldn't have hung up without letting you at least say goodbye to your brother."

Kaoru sipped his tea and shrugged. "It doesn't really matter." He was silent a moment. "It's been a while since he paid attention to me like that."

"Tamaki was upset too," Kyouya agreed. The phone began ringing again. They looked at it, then at each other, and by silent agreement neither of them moved to answer it. "They care about us quite a lot right now. But in the end, they'll both go back to Haruhi, won't they?"

"I want to hate him for it," Kaoru said softly. "But I can't." He looked up at Kyouya. "What are we going to tell them? We have to give them a reason why we skipped club."

"Of course we don't," Kyouya said matter-of-factly. "Why should we explain ourselves to them? Just because we love them?" He sighed. "I lie to Tamaki all the time." It was the first time he had been candid about his feelings for the host club king to anyone. He smiled a little to himself. It was stupid to the extreme, but he trusted Hitachiin Kaoru.

But then, that night and the next day were nightmarish. Kyouya blocked Tamaki's calls after the blonde king refused to let the matter slide, and was even pushed to the point of telling security to bar the young Suoh from entrance to the grounds. Fuyumi almost made the mistake of allowing him to come in, but Kyouya stopped her just in time to growl out a warning that scared even his sister, who was usually unflappable even in the face of his wrath. He was just glad that his father wasn't home; otherwise he would have had to come up with a very, very good explanation of why he was locking out the Suoh heir (and no, having a broken heart was not a good explanation).

Kaoru, on the other hand, wasn't so lucky. Hikaru was his brother, after all, and therefore couldn't be avoided easily. He got through the evening only by counting on Haruhi to pull through for him, and she did so with understanding after he secretly asked her to restrain his brother a little (although perhaps she was still doubtful about what was going on with him and Kyouya). Tamaki had even turned to her and Hikaru for help with the complaint that 'mother was shunning him' because of 'that devilish younger Hitachiin' and when he had been over, had yelled at the younger Hitachiin until Haruhi finally succeeded in knocking him out cold. He bore their complaints with fortitude, refusing to speak about the matter and keeping his headphones planted firmly on his ears.

The customers were worse when they went to the club during a free period just before their lunch break. They couldn't be ignored—they would have lost profits, and Kyouya would not allow that to happen. But instead, Kaoru had devised the strategy of gently telling them that he wasn't ready to air out what was going on to the public, and Kyouya answered that since Kaoru wasn't comfortable with telling them, he would defer to the redhead's wishes. That only made the girls swoon all the more, but the rest of the host club watched them even more closely when they fed that line to their adoring customers. There was already a new fan club made just for the new Kyouya-Kaoru pairing, headed of course by Renge.

"Kyou-chan," Hunny said softly. "Don't break his heart now, all right?"

Kyouya nearly jumped a mile, but he curbed that particular, embarrassing impulse. "May I know whom exactly you happen to be pertaining to?" he asked.

The senior offered him a simple smile. "Kao-chan. He's already hurt over Hika-chan, so…"

The Shadow King wanted to tell him that he was mistaken, but all he said was, "Don't jump to conclusions too soon, Hunny-sempai." It was better that they supposed and speculated, better that he didn't do anything to confirm or deny one way or another. Otherwise he had to be prepared to admit that Kaoru had coaxed him out of club activities to help him deal with a pathetic, broken heart.

"Does that mean that you and Kao-chan aren't involved?" Hunny probed.

Kaoru tugged on Kyouya's arm. "Sempai," he said, effectively rescuing him. "Want to have lunch together?"

"I usually have lunch with…" He paused. Kaoru widened his eyes (he had Bambi Eyes to rival Tamaki's Puppy-Dog Eyes) and pretended to move a little closer to him to make the sudden hesitation a little more normal. It was kind of like his acts with Hikaru, but a little more difficult because he couldn't judge how the Shadow King would ask. "All right," he agreed. He really wasn't ready to face Tamaki right now.

"Eh, you don't want to eat with us today?" Haruhi asked Kaoru.

"No thanks, you have a good lunch with Hikaru," Kaoru said.

"Also not ready to face Hikaru?" Kyouya asked softly.

"Nope, not when we're so 'different', as he says," Kaoru returned. "And besides, I thought that you would need some help with milord."

"Thank you," Kyouya said, relieved.

"What would you have done if I hadn't stepped in all of the sudden?" he asked.

"I would probably have had to endure that idiot chattering about Haruhi. Or watched while he chased Haruhi around the cafeteria." His face twisted. "Or I could have just skipped lunch."

"Not good, you're already thin enough as it is," Kaoru pronounced. "You should eat more. You look good with a slender frame, but it isn't as appealing when you're all skin and bones."

Kyouya smirked. "I get all my required nutrients. I am an Ootori, after all, and we're in the medical business."

"Come on then, let's eat," Kaoru said, pulling at his arm. "And you have to buy me lunch because I saved your neck."

"He's buying him lunch!" Tamaki said in disbelief. "Mother would never do that. Usually he's the one who gets the lunch bought for him!"

"That's because he's a tight-fisted asshole," Hikaru decreed, stabbing moodily into his steak and buttered vegetables. Haruhi sighed and picked at her food. Her appetite wasn't exactly helped by the fact that she was sitting next to a hysterical host king and a homicidal twin.

"Don't talk about Kyouya like that!" Tamaki said angrily.

"Hikaru, try to control yourself a bit," Haruhi said, placing a gentle hand on his shoulder to stop him from mauling the expensive beef. Those poor cows died in vain… "You're overreacting. He and Kaoru are just having lunch, that's all."

Kaoru put down his tray of food. "Don't you buy lunch, sempai?"

"No, I have it delivered by my guards. Our chef makes the lunch according to my preferences." Kyouya went beyond even the typical Ouran opulence; most of the students simply bought their food from the cafeteria or brought it to school themselves. He, on the other hand, could afford to have it brought to him everyday. He had a dish of finely sliced sushi with extra wasabi, a glass of tonic water, and oddly enough, a bowl containing a single scoop of creamy yellowish ice cream that was still cold.

"Okay, I get the sushi," Kaoru said, using his chopsticks to place a bite of his chicken into his mouth, "and I understand the tonic water perfectly. That's so Ootori Kyouya. But ice cream? I thought you didn't like sweet stuff."

"I don't," Kyouya agreed. "Here, try some." He handed Kaoru an extra ice cream fork (for he was too refined to use spoons; how common). His guards always delivered multiple silverware sets, just in case Tamaki wanted some of Kyouya's food.

Kaoru tasted it. "Wow, that's genius. Ginger ice cream," he said, licking at the remainder on his fork. It was sweet and tangy at the same time, the two contrasting flavors bringing each other out. "It's good."

"Thank you. I made it myself, but don't let that fact get out," Kyouya said, helping himself to some of the sushi. Being a good cook wasn't exactly in keeping with his image of cool, although his justification was that if he were ever stuck out there without his guards, without any way to survive, he had to learn how to cook. And if he was going to cook, he was going be damn good at it.

The young Hitachiin smirked. "You care too much about what other people think," he pronounced, reading his mind. "But it's delicious. You should market this stuff."

Kyouya pushed the ice cream towards him, for once not calculating the profits if he really did try to market his homemade ginger ice cream. "I have extra," he said, snapping his fingers. Impressively, a guard emerged out of nowhere and put down another bowl in front of him before vanishing as unexpectedly as he had appeared.

"Now that's good service," Kaoru said, laughing as the rest of the cafeteria looked a bit stunned but carried on with their business. It was Kyouya Ootori, after all.

The Shadow King couldn't help smiling a bit. "Yes, well, they were trained that way. And they know well enough to always have a second portion, in case something arises." He frowned when he remembered the many times that Tamaki happened to knock over his food. With an inward snort, he ate some of his sushi.

"You're thinking too much," Kaoru said.

"And you are a messy eater," Kyouya said. The boy had gotten some ice cream at the corner of his lip, and he pulled out a napkin and impatiently wiped at the spot.

"He's touching my brother," Hikaru said in a low tone. "I will kill him and bury him ten times over."

"Mother has fallen into the clutches of that greasy devil!" Tamaki wailed.

Haruhi sighed and buried her head in her hands, trying unsuccessfully to ignore the pair on her left and right.

"They're making a scene," Kaoru commented, forking more ice cream into his mouth. It really was delicious, and he left his chicken basically untouched.

"I know. And if you make me go to the trouble of paying for your food, you should eat it," Kyouya said, taking the chopsticks and expertly picking up one of the pieces of chicken. He held it out to Kaoru, who unexpectedly just opened his mouth and leaned forward—Kaoru seemed to be enjoying the fact that he was enraging his brother. Kyouya deposited the chicken in his mouth. "You're too lazy," he scolded as Kaoru chewed.

Kaoru smiled. "Actually, it's kind of fun having someone feeding you. Plus it's just a refreshing change, having Hikaru watch me like that instead of the other way around."

"It's an illusion. All of it is," Kyouya said. "For me, anyway. Who knows, maybe Hikaru really does love you back the way you want him to. But I've already realized that whatever protective instincts that idiot is displaying right now when I'm with you are just friendly." He probed Kaoru's eyes with his own. "Until you find out the absolute truth, you can't give up, can you?"

"No." Kaoru sighed. "But I don't know what I'll do once he tells me. I'm just waiting for the moment when he says, 'I'm in love with Haruhi'." He looked up at Kyouya. "You remember the time that I set them up on a date?"

"Yes. I asked you that time whether you minded that his feelings would turn into love."

"I told you that he was too dense to realize it at the time. But even then, I think that I knew that he would realize them eventually." Kaoru lowered his eyes in a bizarre reminder of his typical uke-act. "I knew."

"We both did," Kyouya said softly.

For the rest of the week, for the official club activities, Hikaru kept Kaoru imprisoned by his side. But Kaoru didn't really think it was fair, especially not when Hikaru also kept Haruhi there with him. Besides that, he felt virtually ignored when the two of them got together. The only time Hikaru paid attention to him was when he tried to escape.

Then again, Kyouya was faring even worse. He had to listen to Tamaki's mindless jabbering and endless strategizing of how to steal Haruhi's heart. It was driving Kyouya insane, and he was actually contemplating quitting the club. But if he did, he was afraid that Tamaki would see through it and find out the real reason why he was so vexed whenever Tamaki brought up the subject of Haruhi.

Kaoru tried to wriggle away again, only to find Hikaru's hand clamping painfully down on his arm. "You're not going anywhere," Hikaru said dangerously.

Kyouya had finally had enough. He stood up, ignoring Tamaki's wail of, "Wait, I'm not finished yet!" and headed over to the twins. "Hikaru, release Kaoru. You seem to be forgetting that he's still bruised."

Hikaru let go of Kaoru, still feeling a bit guilty about that incident. Ever since then, Kaoru had taken to sleeping on the floor, or sometimes he napped in the afternoons and kept awake at night. Still, it was hard for Kaoru, and he knew it. "Yeah, but he's still staying here," he said.

The girls looked from Hikaru to Kyouya. "Ah… Hikaru?" Kaoru said, gently prying his brother's fingers off him. "I think we need to talk." He gave Haruhi a quick smile. "You don't mind, do you?" She shook her head. "Ladies?" The girls just shrugged. He glanced at Kyouya, who nodded at him to go ahead.

"Hikaru," he said, pulling his brother into the back area. Hmm. They seemed to be using it a lot more lately. "What the hell is your problem?"

"What do you mean me?" Hikaru shot back.

Kaoru let out a frustrated sigh. "You mean aside from the fact that you've practically chained me to your side?"

Hikaru glared at him. "The second I let go of you, you go running to Kyouya! And it's not that I'm opposed to you having someone in your life, it's just that of all people, why him?"

He folded his arms across his chest defensively. "You don't get it, Hikaru. Kyouya and I aren't involved! It just happens that we actually understand some things about each other."

"You have me."

"You don't understand this!" he hurled back, finally reaching the end of his legendary, supposedly infinite patience.

"And he does?"

Kaoru sucked in a breath. "Yes, he does."

They stared at each other, dazed by the enormity of what Kaoru had just said.

"But… that completely throws the club off-balance, if you go along with Kyouya-sempai," Hikaru said, as though what Kaoru had just said had had no bearing. Or rather, as though he was trying to forget that Kaoru even said it in the first place. "It's always been Mori-sempai and Hunny-sempai, and then Kyouya-sempai and milord. And it's us three—you, me, and Haruhi."

Kaoru felt like giving up the talk and just hitting him, but he didn't. "Things change, Hikaru. If you think that I wanted them to change this way, you're wrong." He looked at his brother and finally asked the question. "Hikaru… tell me what you feel for Haruhi."

Hikaru's mouth opened and closed like a goldfish's. "I… I… er…"

Looking away, Kaoru mumbled, "Tell me, do you love her?"

"I… yeah." Hikaru frowned, staring down at his feet. "I do. A lot. And I think that she sort of-kind of-likes me back, just a bit."

"Have you told her?" Kaoru asked.

"Nope, not yet. You're the first to know, at least." Hikaru flashed him a smile.

Yeah. At least. "Listen, Hikaru, I think that I've known for quite a while now," Kaoru said slowly. "And… and I'm happy for you both. Or at least, I will be when you finally get the guts to ask her out." He offered his brother a tentative smile.

"You mean you're not interested in Haruhi yourself?" Hikaru asked. "You watch her a lot."

No, you idiot. I watch you a lot. It just so happens that wherever Haruhi is, there you are—so I can't really help watching her, can I? "Nah. Not in the way that you think." I'm interested in her as a friend and rival. But then he realized he wasn't a rival, not when he had no choice but to drop out of the game.

He felt as though someone had just knocked the wind out of him—literally. Suddenly he was choking, clawing at his throat. "A… ack!" he managed to cough out as he felt strangely stifled. He couldn't breathe.

"K… Kaoru?" Hikaru said in alarm as his twin started to hyperventilate. "Kaoru! What's wrong?" He raised his voice and began yelling his head off for someone to come help them.

Eh… did I just die from heartbreak? Kaoru wondered vaguely as the world went black.

A/N: Cliffhanger alert! Gosh, I'm sorry I had to rush through writing this chapter, but I still have to memorize a speech for a contest day after tomorrow. And I've memorized basically... nothing, so far. How crappy is that? Anyway, as always, I'm unsure as to when I can update. I have an idea for the next chapter... so I'll ask you guys: do you prefer commoner baking or a phone exchange between Kyouya and Kaoru?

Anyway, as ever, more reviews equals faster updates. Thanks for reading! Please review!