Hikaru

I used my free hand to cover my lighter as I tried to light my cigarette in my mouth. I groaned in annoyance as my lighter wouldn't work, which was causing me to become even angrier then I was. After a couple of more tries I was finally able to light it. I put my lighter back in the pocket of my jacket and huffed out a puff of smoke, not taking my cigarette out of my mouth.

I leaned against a wall at the side of the school, watching other students walk around, talking to friends or participating in club activities. I sighed before taking another drag of my cigarette, trying to clear my mind of what just happened. I knew visiting the Host Club was a bad idea, I should've just stayed in the library until school closed then hopefully by the time I got home mom would've been passed out in a dunkin slumber.

"I knew if I followed the smell of smoke I would find you." I looked to my right and saw Haruhi walking up towards me, a slight smirk on her face. "You really need to work on your anger."

I glared at her and grabbed my bag. "Fuck off."

I turned to walk away by Haruhi grabbed my arm. "Hikaru, don't leave."

I ripped my arm from her grasp and faced her, scowling at her. "What's with you and touching me? I don't know about you, but I don't like being touched by anyone."

"Sorry…" She apologized as she pulled her arms away. "I should be more careful, especially after…" She looked up at me with doleful eyes. "You know…"

I rolled my eye and dropped my bag before leaning back on the wall. "You don't have to fucking pity me because of what my mom does to me."

"It's not entirely that Hikaru…" I looked back over at her forwarding my brows, her expression was soft with a twinge of sadness in it. "I know this whole bad boy persona is an act."

"What do you mean by that?" I hissed.

"Kyouya told me about that night when we were on the ski trip and Kaoru told him everything." My expression slightly softened, but soon hardened again and I faced away from her again.

"Fucking Kyouya." I grumbled as I took another drag of my cigarette.

"He was just telling me so I would know what's going on with you."

"Well, he has no right to tell anyone about "my" personal life," I gave her a side eye, "and neither do you."

"We just want to help you."

"This is a thought, maybe I don't want your fucking help."

Haruhi glared at me. "You really are ungrateful are you?

I just shrugged my shoulders and took another drag. Haruhi's expression hardened and she snatched the cigarette out of my mouth.

"What the fuck?!" I snapped, glowering at Haruhi as she threw my cigarette on the floor and stepped on it, putting it out.

"You're stopping this stupid act right now, and I don't care if I have to beat the niceness out of you!"

I looked at Haruhi wide eyed and just stared at Haruhi in silence as the air grew tense around us. She was a bit confused about my reaction and why I was staring at her like that, then suddenly realized what she said and covered her mouth.

"I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to word it like that." She let her hands fall to her sides and sighed. "What I'm trying to say is that I know you're not this mean, tough guy who everyone is scared of. It's just an act. I want to get to know the real you, and if that means I have to hang around until you trust me, I'll do it."

I just remained silent as I stared at her, feeling all types of different emotions. A part of me was annoyed that she way trying to pry into my personal life. She knew nothing about what I was going through aside from what Kyouya and I told her, and she thinks she can fucking try help me. Pathetic….but, yet...I also felt grateful that she was concern and cared about me...it feels like it was a long time since someone actually had beside Kaoru.

It felt like a weird trance as we stared at each other, as if I were a wild animal being calmed down by looking into their trainer's eyes. She then slowly reached up with both hands and removed my sunglasses, revealing my black eye. She then moved her right hand up to my face and I tensed up as it hovered over my left cheek. She slightly pulled her hand away, then looked back into my eyes and saw the slight fear in them, which she's never noticed before.

"Not everyone is going to hurt you." Haruhi said in a comforting tone. "I want you to trust me." She hovered her hand over my cheek again, seeing me tense up again. "Just try and trust me."

She put her hand on my left cheek and at first I grew even tenser by her touch, but by the way her expression looked, and by how comforting her eyes were, I soon grew calm. I let out a small breath of air that I was holding in and soon grew calmer as I began leaning my face in her hand. Her hand was soft and warm, and it felt safe. It felt like no one could hurt me.

It reminded me of how mom's hands used to felt when we was younger, when she use to comfort us when we scared or sad, but now...mom's hands were rough and cold. Instead of comforting us, they were hitting us…

I soon grew tense again, my heart began to pound loudly in my chest and I felt like I couldn't breathe. I grabbed Haruhi's hand before taking it off of my cheek, feeling all those feelings go away.

"I don't trust you quite yet." I muttered before letting her hand go and leaning back up against the wall.

She smiled. "You said not yet. So that means you'll be able to trust me in the future."

I rolled my eyes again and muttered under my breath, "We'll see," before I sat down.

She sat down, but kept a slight gap between us to make sure I was comfortable. "We need to start working on you stopping that bad boy act," I just rolled my eyes for what felt like the umpteenth time today and I grabbed my pack of cigarettes and put one in my mouth, but before I could light it, Haruhi took the cigarette out of my mouth and the pack out of my hand, "and the first thing is to get you to stop smoking."

I glared at her as she had a smug smirk on her face as she held up my box of cigarettes up, as if taunting me.

"I don't know if you forgot about this, but I'm rich. I could literally buy truck loads of those and it won't even put a dent in my wallet."

"Yeah, it may not put a dent in your wallet, but it'll put a huge dent in your health."

I grumbled under my breath as I put one leg to my chest and laid the other one out straight as I laid my arm across it as I look out at the field. "Whatever."

Another awkward silence surrounded us. We just sat next to each other for a couple minutes, not saying a word to each other. Haruhi began to shift a bit from the awkwardness, she then would look over at me then quickly away before I would notice as she twiddled her thumbs.

"So, are you-"

"Don't you have a fucking club to go to?" I interrupted her, giving her an icy glare.

"Kyouya let me leave early."

"I highly doubt that. We both sadly know that Kyouya wouldn't do anything like that."

"Well, this is a bit of a different circumstance."

I hardened my glare at her then looked away from her again. "Yeah, sure."

I began playing with my lighter, flicking it on and off as I opened and closed it. She just continued to look at me, she knew that she could get through the thick protective layer I had around me that I wouldn't let anyone in besides Kaoru if she just tried hard enough. She knew she knew she could break through it, she just needed a little more time. Then suddenly an idea popped into her head.

She let out an exhausted sigh and leaned her head on the wall. "I really need a ride home."

"There's a train." I replied, not looking at her.

"But the last train left a few minutes ago."

"Actually the last train leaves at six. You've got about half an hour to kill till then."

She glared at me. "Oh my God! Can you just give me a fucking ride?!"

I looked back over at her, cocking an eyebrow. "And why should I do that?"

"Because it would be the right the right thing to do, to help a...friend." We both slightly cringed at the word but wasn't as bad if she said it yesterday. She saw that I wasn't buying her excuse and huffed. "Also if you take me home you won't have to go back to your mother so soon."

I flinched slightly by the mention of my mother. I really didn't want to deal with her in her drunkin state right now, especially after what happened yesterday. Maybe if I took her up on her offer I could go off to somewhere close by after I drop her off until a time I know mom would be asleep.

I sighed and ran my hand through my hair, feeling my stress start to build up.

I closed my eyes and rested my head on the wall on the wall. "Fine, I'll give you a ride home."

Haruhi's smile returned. "Great," she got up, wiping the grass off her clothes, "let's go."

"Can I at least have my cigarettes back?" I asked, looking up at her with an exhausted glare.

"Nope," she said as she crumpled up my package of cigarettes in her hands, "I wasn't joking about you stopping." She put the crunched up box in her bag. "Now come on, let's go."

I groaned and slowly got up, rubbing my temples as a sharp headache began to form. I really needed that cigarette, especially after a day like today. I guess I'll get one when I get home.

I grabbed my bag before pulling out my keys and began walking towards the parking lot with Haruhi following close behind. The parking lot was never really full because most of the students here had private drivers that took them everywhere. We use to be like that until about last year. When Kaoru and I got our licenses mom let our drivers go so we can save money. We didn't really have any help anymore, maybe a maid or two would visit, but it was rare.

The sound of girls giggling caught Haruhi's attention, she looked to where it came from and saw two girls standing next to a tree, trying their best to silently get my attention by twirling their hair and biting their lips in a seductive manner. When I didn't even glance at them their faces fell, then their eyes traveled over to Haruhi, who was following close behind me. Soon their hurt expressions turned into scowls as if they saw something disgusting and then stormed off.

"Wow, no wonder Tamaki senpai wanted you in the Host Club. Girls attract to you like a hungry animals to a carcass. Especially with your bad boy look"

"Hmm, what a beautiful phase. I always thought of myself as a fucking piece of meat." I hissed.

She rolled her eyes. "You fucking know that's not what I meant so don't be snappy with me."

I huffed, feeling my headache getting even stronger. "All they want is sex." I said in a slight annoyed tone. "It's really annoying."

Haruhi chuckled. "The other guys at school must be irritated by that."

I hummed a laugh as a small smirk appeared on my lips. "Oh you have no idea. A lot of guys want me to give them "tips" so they can try and get laid"

"And what's your response?"

"I either just ignore them or walk away, but if I want to have a little fun I just say some random bull shit and watch the next couple days in amusement as they try and follow it."

"Like what?"

"Well, there was this one kid in freshman year and he wouldn't stop bothering me until I helped him get laid because he believed that I already fucked about every girl in the class."

"Will did you?"

"That's beside the point," I narrowed my eyes at her, "and you already know the fucking answer to that."

"Well, I don't know the entire answer. You did say you liked to stay a mystery." She said innocently.

I rolled my eyes. "Anyways," I said, getting back on topic, "the guy would follow me everywhere, including the fucking bathroom until I agreed to help him. After about a week I was sick of it and told him that his style and act was the reason why he couldn't get laid. So I gave him advice on what to look like and how to act."

"Which was?"

"I told him that he needed to "pimp" out more. Wear more flashy things, like get a grill so he could look like a rapper. I also told him he need to speak vulgarly to girls, that's what turned them on. Tell them you want to do stuff to them." My smirk reappeared on my lips. "Then the next day he did it. Followed everything I told him," I snickered, "and the reactions were priceless. He got slapped about fifteen times."

Haruhi cocked an eyebrow. "Really? He just followed your tips that easily? Not even questioning why you didn't even follow them?"

I shrugged my shoulders. "He was desperate. He would've done anything just to fuck some girl." I snickered. "It's ridiculous."

Haruhi smiled, seeing that I was actually enjoying our conversation, she was going in the right direction. Hopefully she could go even further before the day was over.

We walked up to my black mustang and I unlocked it. Haruhi looked at it in awe.

She touched the hood of my car with her finger tips. "Wow, this car is beautiful. It must've cost a fortune."

"Eh," I replied as I shrugged my shoulder. "It wasn't that expensive." I opened the door and leaned on it as I looked at her. "It was only around 30,000."

She scoffed, looking back towards me with a glare that looked like I offended her. "Not that expensive? My dad's used minivan didn't cost half of that."

"Are we going to compare the prices of my and your dad's cars or are we going to get going?" I asked with slight irritation in my voice.

Haruhi made her way to the passenger side and we got in. I started up the car then looked over at Haruhi as I held out my hand towards her. She looked at it, then up at me, cocking an eyebrow in confusion.

"Sunglasses." I demanded.

Haruhi rolled her eyes at my tone. "God, you don't have to be rude." She took my sunglasses out of her pocket and handed them to me. I put them on and put my car in reverse.

"You're welcome."

"Whatever." I grumbled, pulling out my phone and handing it to her. "Put you address in."

She did what I said and handed it back to me. After I hooked my phone up to my car so I could follow the directions I backed out of the parking spot and left the parking lot.

Haruhi

The whole drive to Haruhi's apartment was silent. The only sound that filled the car was from the radio. Haruhi would steal a couple glances of him, trying to figure out what to talk about to get through to him. He was starting to warm up when they were talking about how most of the girls lustfully wanted him, but for some reason when she brought up the price different on his car and her dad's, it turned him off from the conversation. Well, car prices wasn't really the best conversation to try and break the ice with someone, so I guess she didn't really blame him for backing out of that conversation.

She sighed and looked out the window. This was a lot harder then she thought. She knew that Hikaru and Kaoru were different, but she thought if she brought up anything her and Kaoru enjoyed talking about, maybe he would enjoy it as well. Kaoru did say they liked similar things. It was worth a try, maybe the mention of Kaoru will lighten things up.

"So, how's Kaoru doing in New York?" Haruhi asked, looking over to Hikaru.

He just shrugged his shoulders. "He's doing good."

Haruhi waited for more of an answer, but he didn't give one. She cocked an eyebrow.

"Really, just "doing good?" Nothing else?"

"Nope?" He responded, popping the P at the end.

"So he's not doing anything exciting, like seeing a Broadway show, like the trip had planned?" Hikaru just ignored her, making Haruhi agitated. "God, you're such a dick!"

He just snickered and looked over at her. "You just figured that out?" He looked back at the road. "Took you long enough babe."

Her glare hardened at my smirk. "I'm not your babe, and so you know I'm trying to get know you, but you're making that really hard to do."

"I think you learned enough about me today." He rolled his eyes over to her briefly before looking back towards the road. "Also what's with you wanting to get to know me? You never wanted to before. In fact, you wanted nothing to do with me."

"Well, I didn't know the whole story behind why you were a jerk, but now that I know that it's an act and Kyouya actually conforming that you're a pretty nice guy, I want to get to know that guy. Not the guy right now next to me with a protective wall around him because afraid he's going to get hurt."

Hikaru glared at her. "I'm not afraid of getting hurt."

"Then prove it. Try to open up to me."

Hikaru's glare softened and he just looked at Haruhi for a bit before looking back towards the road. The rest of the ride was silent. When the car pulled up to Haruhi's apartment complex Hikaru killed the engine. They sat in the car silently for a bit longer until Haruhi unbuckled her seatbelt.

"Thanks for the ride."

"Uh yeah, no prob-"

"Haruhi?" A cheery voice called out. Hikaru and Haruhi both looked up at the apartment complex and saw what looked like a woman with reddish brown long hair and wear all kinds of different shades of purples from the skirt, to shirt, and sweater, and they had a face full of makeup that looked decently done standing up on the balcony. "You're home early."

"Oh, it's my dad." Haruhi said nonchalantly.

"Dad?!"

Haruhi looked over at Hikaru and saw the surprised look on his face, which didn't faze her. "Kaoru didn't tell you? My dad works at a transvestite bar. He works nights so he must've just finished getting ready." She opened the door and got out of the car, keeping her hand on the hood of the car. "Hey dad, Kyouya senpai let me come home early today. By the way this is Hikaru." Haruhi introduced by motioning to his car. "He's Kaoru's twin brother."

"Hikaru? I think I've heard you mention him before. With a couple of other choice words if I remember correctly." Ranka smiled. "Why don't you invite him for a bit? I'll love to meet the boy who's been giving you such a hard time. Maybe he can even stay for dinner."

Haruhi looked over at him in the car. "Well?"

"Nah, I'm good."

"Come on, I promise it won't be that bad, and what are you going to do if you refuse. I know you're not going home. So just give it a chance."

Hikaru stared at her for a bit, contemplating whether he should or not. What was he really going to do if he refused? He wasn't going to go home until late at night. He was most likely going to go to a cafe or somewhere similar to past the time and grab some dinner, but if their offering…

He huffed and unbuckled his seatbelt. "Fine, but only for ten minutes, thirty tops."

Haruhi smiled. "Perfect"