Hikaru? Kaoru's head snapped toward the source of his name. Hikaru stood in the shade of a covered walkway, staring at his brother. His expression was unreadable. However, Hikaru only needed one glimpse of Kaoru's face before he was rushing forward, wrapping his brother in his arms, murmuring soft words of comfort.
The older Hitachiin led his brother into one of Ouran's gardens and sat him down on a bench. Kaoru had his head buried in his brother's shoulder. No tears came. It was more than enough to have the support of his brother, his twin, his mirror image. The two sat together, Kaoru leaning on his brother and Hikaru rubbing Kaoru's back soothingly, for quite some time.
"I'm sorry, Hikaru," Kaoru said shakily. Hikaru looked at his little brother. The way Kaoru bit his trembling lip in an effort to mask his internal uncertainty… It was adorable.
"Your intentions were good, Kaoru," Hikaru reassured the younger boy. When Kaoru did not answer, Hikaru took hold of his brother's chin and directed his twin's eyes into his own. Kaoru's cheeks tinted pink at their close proximity.
"Kaoru, I'm not mad at you. Please, I forgive you. Won't you forgive yourself too?" Hikaru's amber eyes were so strikingly serious, the only thing Kaoru could do was nod. "But Kaoru, tell me… Why did you do that?"
The younger Hitachiin swallowed hard, then spoke, "You seemed so down yesterday, I couldn't bear to see you so upset. I thought maybe if you had someone to cheer you up, then maybe you wouldn't be so depressed."
Hikaru sighed. "Kaoru, you're an idiot."
The younger twin's eyes widened in surprise. "What?"
"You're an idiot. Think about that advice Nanami gave you a little while ago."
Kaoru thought hard about his big brother's clue, trying to decipher what he could be getting at. Nanami suggested he talk to Hikaru… Wasn't he doing that now? How did this help him? "I don't understand, Hikaru."
The older Hitachiin brought his forehead forward to rest it against Kaoru's temples. "Kaoru, why would I need anyone else to cheer me up when I have you?"
Surely he doesn't really mean that, Kaoru thought, bewildered. But he said it so seriously… Could this be what Nanami meant? That I needed to come to my brother with this, and that would make things alright? Damn you, Hikaru, why must you be so confusing?
"H-Hikaru…" Kaoru found himself unable to finish his sentence. Silence took over their conversation.
A few minutes later, Hikaru spoke up. "Kaoru?" The younger boy looked up.
"Promise me you won't try something like that again?" Hikaru's mournful gaze found that of his brother's. Subconsciously, Hikaru reached out and traced the curve of Kaoru's cheek with one hand.
Kaoru swallowed, his cheeks burning. "I promise."
"Good. If I find you emotionally injuring yourself in order to make me happy ever again, I might have to," Hikaru leaned in closer, within nibbling distance of Kaoru's ears, and finished in a tone which sent shivers racing up and down his baby brother's spine, "punish you."
He never stops, does he? Kaoru knew his face must've been brighter than his hair. Hikaru's breath was warm and ticklish on his ear. The younger twin's breathing was shaky. He'd never felt so unsettled in all his life, which was strange. In having endured years and years of his older sibling's implicative teasing, nothing had bothered him quite as much as this moment here. It was a nice kind of bothered.
The clock tower struck three-thirty. Had they really been out here for an entire hour? The Hitachiin twins had a moment of simultaneous panic. "We're half an hour late for Host Club! KYOYA'S GOING TO KILL US!"
Sprinting to Music Room #3 was no easy feat in long, expensive pants and dress shoes. Plus, there were multiple flights of stairs and the complicated labyrinth of hallways to contend with, meaning an additional ten minutes had passed by the time the identical gingers burst through the doors.
The entire Host Club stopped and fell startlingly silent when the twins arrived. Tamaki and Haruhi turned around in their position on the couch to look at them. Kyoya stopped typing and stared at them. Mori looked slightly surprised. Honey paused, a bite of cake halfway to his mouth. Heck, even the Usa-chan seemed to have turned its attention toward the Host Club's Mischievous types. And that's not to mention the multitude of girls paying rapt attention to the twins.
"What?" Kaoru asked as Hikaru wondered aloud, "Did we do something?"
"'Something' would be one word for it," Kyoya said mysteriously, giving his signature smirk before returning to his computer. A light shade of red spread across both of the brothers' cheeks as they abruptly realized why everyone was staring. That little scenario on the bench had probably been more intimate than most of their club performances. And it was just now that the twins realized they'd been in full view of the Music Room #3's windows the entire time.
I wonder if he knew, and was just acting… The Host Club sprang back into action, all the Hosts going about their normal activities. Hikaru and Kaoru walked over to their usual couch and sat down. Three girls were already waiting for them. Naturally, it was Nanami, Akari, and Yuna.
"Oh-my-gosh that was so adorable!" "So is that what you were planning, Kaoru?" "You're such tricksters!" "Wow, you two really love each other!" "Why didn't you do that in the club room?" "Hikaru, how are you going to punish Kaoru?"
The twins were confronted with so many questions at once, it was impossible to remember it all. Kyoya suddenly appeared behind the twins, and whispered so that the girls wouldn't hear, "You're very behind schedule today, boys. But you're lucky I was able to tap into a nearby microphone and broadcast the conversation in here. You've made nearly twice as much profit as usual. Keep up the good work."
"Uh, would you guys mind repeating the questions one at a time? Sorry," Kaoru said, rubbing the back of his neck with one hand. The younger twin was distracted with reliving the memory of Hikaru's warm breath on his ear and his seductive voice promising to punish Kaoru if he ever dared to pull a stunt like that again.
"Is that why you were asking about Hikaru today, Kaoru?" Akari asked, taking a dainty sip from a steaming teacup. This week they'd gotten a new shipment. Each host had gotten cream tea sets personalized with a repeating motif of their respectively colored roses.
Hikaru answered for his brother. "Yes. Poor Kaoru, he sometimes gets so insecure about himself. You'd think he'd know by now that he will always have my love."
"Hikaru!" Kaoru protested, blushing again. Despite the fact that they were putting on their show again, Kaoru thought perhaps he'd noticed a hint of sincerity in his brother's response. It's Hikaru, baka! When is your brother ever sincere?
Damn, he's too cute when he blushes, Hikaru thought. "Kaoru, we've been over this. You know I just can't help myself when you start blushing!"
"AAH! So that's why they did it in the garden!" The girls screamed in unison. They had huddled together, hands clutched to their chests in an effort to internalize the moe. Haruhi, who was walking by at the time, thought to herself, Jeez, think you could rephrase that a bit?
"But Hikaru, there's so many people! You're embarrassing me!" Kaoru stammered, shrinking under his brother's heavy gaze.
Hikaru grabbed Kaoru's chin, pulling his baby brother's face toward his own. "Nothing could stop me, Kaoru. I'm sure I could manage to… distract you."
The observing girls burst into nosebleeds, clutching their faces and screaming with elation. Kaoru opened his mouth to protest once more, but found he could say nothing. The Hitachiins' breath mingled with one another's. When they had given their customers sufficient time to recover their composure, the pair sat up, ready to answer more questions. A glance at the clock showed them their next customers would be arriving in a few minutes.
"So, Hikaru… How are you going to punish Kaoru?" Yuna asked shyly, hiding her face behind a few locks of platinum blonde hair. Kaoru felt heat rising to his cheeks. Dammit, not again…
Hikaru chuckled. The elder Hitachiin was wearing his "I'm planning something" face, which was always a dangerous situation. "Well, that would require Kaoru to be naughty again. I'm sure he wouldn't do that." Hikaru shot a pointed look at his younger twin.
"But, if it were to happen again…" Hikaru's smile would've encouraged the devil himself to take cover. Kaoru shivered involuntarily. Before his mind could imagine too many dark possibilities, Hikaru had pushed Kaoru lightly onto his back. The younger twin found himself pinned beneath his brother, staring into golden eyes that mirrored his own.
Perhaps if you'd been paying better attention, Kaoru, you wouldn't look so surprised now. I can't imagine what you must be thinking… Hikaru took one hand and ran it from his brother's auburn locks across his collarbone and chest until he paused just above Kaoru's hips and squeezed lightly. His younger brother's eyes widened in shock, and his face turned redder than Haruhi's roses instantaneously.
"Let's just say that I would get to have a lot of fun," Hikaru said, his voice deep and low again. Kaoru squirmed a little, beginning to grow uncomfortable with so much attention. Hikaru was making him nervous, and the dizzy feeling in his stomach was growing incrementally worse with each passing second.
Though they'd previously been unaware that such a thing was possible, the three girls sitting on the couch across from them exploded into insanely powerful nosebleeds. Mori appeared with a mop and bucket, wiping away the stream of red the three girls had created along with a subtitle box reading "Nosebleeds of Extreme Moe."
When it came time for them to leave, the three girls still had not entirely recovered from their ordeal, pressing tissues daintily to their noses and even going so far as to leave Kyoya with astoundingly large tips as they scuttled out the door. The Shadow King looked over at the mischievous twins and nodded, visibly impressed with the two gingers' performance for the day.
Hikaru reluctantly backed off, even offering a hand to help pull his brother back up into a sitting position. Chuckling, Hikaru reached out to run his fingers through his little brother's silky hair, straightening the rumpled strands. As their next customers sat down, both Hitachiins were wondering the same thing: How much of that wasn't just an act?