The Eleventh Day

Everyone was staring at the twins. Kaoru didn't even noticed; he was barely even awake.

"Didn't you sleep last night?" Hikaru finally questioned.

Kaoru closed his eyes and almost nodded off just thinking about the word sleep. Kaoru shook his head slowly and thought about the nightmare he'd been cursed with the night before. He really shook his head as he thought about it again.

I can still feel his hands around my neck. That sad and mournful look he gave me, Kaoru thought as he slowly looked at Hikaru. Hikaru wasn't looking at him, he was glaring at the people who looked at them oddly. Kaoru laughed at how protective his brother was; Hikaru hated people thinking odd of Kaoru. He hated people just for thinking about his brother in the first place. It must've been a dream. Look at him now. He's not sad in the least.

"What's this I hear?" Haruhi asked as she sat down next to Kaoru.

Hikaru scowled, "Haruhi? Why don't you and I switch seats and I switch with Kaoru?"

Haruhi and Kaoru shared a glance and nodded.

So that's what happened. Hikaru sat next to Kaoru, and Haruhi didn't. Hikaru liked that.

"So, what was it that you were wondering?" Hikaru remembered.

"Oh? I was wondering if you really carried Kaoru to school this morning," Haurhi remembered herself. "I don't know, it sounded weird."

Hikaru smirked and turned around and looked at Kaoru, who sure enough, was asleep. Hikaru leaned in closer to him and blew on his hair.

"Kaoru, we're at school. You could put it on my record, but the point is that you'll get in trouble for the time being," Hikaru whispered in Kaoru's ear.

Kaoru groaned and he shook lightly.

"Hikaru?" Kaoru whispered as his eyelids began to raise. "What? What's going on?"

"You fell asleep again."

Kaoru whined and he put his head on his desk.

"I can't stay awake, Hikaru," Kaoru whimpered. "I just can't."

Kaoru frowned as he stared into Hikaru's eyes.

Those eyes, that face, how do I know that in my dream it wasn't really me who was Hikaru and the other person was me? No, that couldn't be, they responded to Hikaru's name, and he called me Kaoru, Kaoru tried to figure out what was going on. Why does it hurt me whenever I look at him? Imagine his touch?

Kaoru blushed and he remembered that there was more to last night than just a nightmare. Oh no, that bath, how did it finish?

"Hey, Hikaru, was I asleep when we were finishing the bath?" Kaoru whispered as quietly as possible.

Hikaru could barely heard the words, but he didn't need to. He knew what Kaoru was worrying about.

Hikaru laughed and nodded. Kaoru blushed and asked with his eyes, What the hell did you to me?

Oh, nothing too bad. I just finished washing you.

Where did you touch me?

Let's think, I had to dress you and pull you out of the bath tub and finish washing you, where do you think I touched you?

EVERYwhere.

Righto.

Kaoru blushed and looked away. "I can't trust you now."

Hikaru laughed and smiled at his brother, his eyes glinting. Kaoru smiled, just like he used to smile at me. Just like his eyes used to shine. Just like he was before Haruhi.

Kaoru frowned and didn't look back at his brother. Kaoru couldn't help but feeling betrayed.

Hikaru's hands suddenly felt around Kaoru's neck and Kaoru spazzed and fell out of his chair.

"What the-?" Hikaru scowled.

"Kaoru-kun? Is something wrong?" The teacher asked. "We begun class awhile ago."

Lex stared in amusement. What was wrong with these twins now?

Kaoru's heart pumped and he couldn't focus on what anyone was saying, but he could feel them staring, but that didn't matter. The hands, those adoring hands, had tried to strangle him. He swore they did.

"Kaoru-kun?" Some girls wondered, nervously. "You okay?"

"Hikaru! What did you do?" Haruhi snapped quietly to Hikaru.

"I don't know, I just my hand on his neck."

Kaoru felt so tired, so drawn out. So tormented.

This time a female wasn't the torturer.

It was Hikaru.

Nurse's Office

Hikaru walked in at lunch time and sat by Kaoru's bed and stared at him.

"He hasn't woken up yet," The nurse replied as she walked out from her office. "But he's been moaning a lot."

"Nightmares?" Hikaru wondered.

"Maybe, but that kid is sick," The nurse explained cautiously. "What happened in the classroom?"

"I just... touched his neck and he freaked out," Hikaru replied truthfully.

"Have you ever tortured him by the use of his neck in the past?"

Hikaru thought about, sure he teased Kaoru a lot, but he never did anything wrong to Kaoru's neck. In fact, Kaoru seemed to enjoy it when Hikaru touched him anywhere a great deal. Did Kaoru like Hikaru as more than a brother? Hikaru liked Kaoru as a brother, maybe a bit more, but surely not as a lover! Right? Hikaru shook his head so he could back to the concept at hand. Kaoru did seem really jumpy in the tub though. He spazzed out when Hikaru first crawled into the tub, but then he began to relax again. Was something bothering Kaoru?

"No, he never cared before," Hikaru replied, mournfully.

The nurse sighed, "He needs to go home. Where are your parents?"

Hikaru's heart stopped and he stared at Kaoru's distorted and pained face. Kaoru didn't want his mom to leave, did Kaoru have a sense for when something bad was gonna happen? Hikaru responded coldly, "Germany."

The nurse frowned and shook her head. "You got a babysitter?"

"No."

"When's your lunch?" The nurse nagged, worridly.

"Now, but Kaoru's more important."

The nurse smiled sadly and walked away.

"Kaoru... what's wrong with you?" Hikaru sobbed.

At Club

The Club was closed for the evening.

Kaoru sat in a corner, shaken.

"What did you do to him?" Tamaki complained.

"I don't really know," Hikaru replied, quietly.

Kaoru sighed and felt like crying and pulled his legs up to his chest and buried his face into his knees.

"I don't know."

"I don't know what came over me, Hikaru, I'm sorry," Kaoru answered, calmly and hurt.

"You were jumpy last night too, it all happened when you went into the bathroom. What happened, did the scorch on your feet make you sensitive?" Hikaru tried to snarl at Kaoru but couldn't.

Kaoru shook his head.

"Wait, what happened between you two last night?" Kyouya asked, curiously.

"Oh, Kaoru and I took a bath together," Hikaru responded. "Before that though, I don't know. I came and the carpet in the hall was all drenched with burning hot water. Kaoru's feet were scorched and the skin was peeling when I opened the door. Maybe he fell asleep or something, but he was really jumpy after that."

Kyouya nodded and Haruhi looked at him and frowned. Kyouya responded, "Look, I want to get this out of the way so that the club can go back into order, but we can't just deny Kaoru's health. It is in really bad shape."

Haruhi smiled, a little creeped out. Kyouya read her mind, she was wondering why Kyouya would care about something like this. Now that she thought about it, she thought there was something more to it. Haruhi knew that Kyouya was partly doing this because he cared about Kaoru himself. There was something in the gaze Kyouya had when he stared at Kaoru. Much like empathy or pity.

Kaoru shook his head and trembled, as he began to cry. His face was filled with the warm, welcoming tears that no one could see as he hid his head in his knees.

"Kaoru, really, what's wrong?" Tamaki asked, worried, as he walked over and sat next to Kaoru. He pulled Kaoru into an embrace and Kaoru sobbed.

"I don't know what it was."

Kaoru shook his head, "I just don't know."

Those hands.

Kaoru sobbed and returned Tamaki's hug.

"I don't know!" Kaoru sobbed.

Lex stared at him and frowned. She knew that Kaoru did know.

"Nightmare?" Lex wondered.

Kaoru stayed quiet and he raised his head and stared at the girl.

Is she for real? How can she tell everything that's wrong with me before I even know it myself?

Kaoru shook his head.

"You sure? This looks like a case of a haunting nightmare or something's wrong with you psychologically. My mommy talked to me about this stuff when I started to think that I had voices in my head," Lex continued.

Kaoru closed his eyes and put his head against Tamaki's chest. There was something about him that was like magic.

Magic...

Kaoru cried and nodded his head.

"It was scary," Kaoru whined. "I don't ever wanna sleep again."

Tamaki stood up and pulled Kaoru with him. Hikaru began to run after them but Kyouya and Haruhi held him back.

"Wha-?"

"Sempai only acts like an idiot, remember?" Haruhi explained for her actions.

"Kaoru needs it," Kyouya replied.

Tamaki walked with Kaoru outside and through the Rose Maze.

"Let's see, you cheat on Hikaru with some transfer kid and then you freak out in class and you refuse to respond to anyone?" Tamaki recapped.

Kaoru sighed and shook his head. "I don't know what happened, I just know that there was Hikaru, and his hands. Nothing else rang to me. I didn't hear anything."

"Tell me the dream."

"We were in the bathroom, and Hikaru tried to strangle me," Kaoru responded. "And then we died in the tub, that's just a light overview, really."

Tamaki nodded.

"Why did you spazz out?" Tamaki asked.

"He touched my neck..." Kaoru remembered.

Those hands crawling so slowly around my throat, just waiting to squeeze the life out of me, Kaoru thought morbidly.

"Kaoru?"

"Yes, dad?" Kaoru asked.

"If anything goes wrong, come and talk to me, I don't want you two to get hurt. Especially Hikaru. I see things Kaoru," Tamaki replied. He turned and looked at Kaoru mournfully and finally finished his statement. "I know that you're the violent twin underneath it all."

Kaoru smiled and walked over to Tamaki and hugged him and sobbed.

"Hikaru will never hurt me, right?"

"Why... why would anyone hurt, such a special boy?" Tamaki whispered as he hugged Kaoru tightly.

"I'm not special," Kaoru whined.

"Yes you are, and no one, no one," Tamaki explained finally. "No one...

"Would hurt my son."

Kyouya's POV

Kaoru and Tamaki are talking again. I know they never thought I noticed it before, but I did. Those two talk a hell of a lot, and I think Kaoru's more expressive with Tamaki than he is with Hikaru. Tamaki's more expressive with Kaoru too. They show their true colors around eachother.

This... will be a complication for Hikaru and Haruhi. It will be for me even too. Only...

...I'm still the mom, so it's all okay.

Haruhi's POV

Kaoru had nightmares apparently. That was what Lex-chan was telling me. She's really good at analizing people, she has a special sense that got passed down in both sides of her family. She can tell what goes on with Hikaru and Kaoru, so I look to her when we get home and dad's not back yet. It's kind of scary, Lex-chan analizes them all day long and thing she comes with me to my house and tells me about it.

I wonder when her mom's gonna come back. She probably won't be needing babysitting then, because Lex-chan will take care of her mom and have a supervisor. I'll kind of miss her.

Lex-chan's dad left her when she was little, telling her that Lex-chan was the devil. I think that's why she didn't care when Kaoru was yelling at her. She was probably used to it. She told me that she gets it a lot because she can know what's going on with people. She wanted to help someone for once, so she tried to save Hikaru and Kaoru. I don't think that it worked too well.

I wonder though, when Lex-chan goes...

...will Kaoru get better? Or worse?