The Twenty-Fifth Day

Kaoru was gone.

"Mom! Mom! I can't find Kaoru!" Hikaru complained as he dashed down the stairs into the kitchen, his upper body still naked. Their mother blinked at him, but didn't say anything. "Mom! I seriously can't find Kaoru!"

Mrs. Hitachiin shook her head and stood up and walked over to her son and hugged him.

"What?"

"I don't know where he is darling, I've been looking for him, too," She replied, quietly. "What happened yesterday?"

So, Hikaru explained the story.

"Haruhi and I walked out of the room and began talking to eachother, and she was explaining how she was all worried about Kaoru and everything, and I got a bit upset with her. We went up to see Kaoru and Haruhi walked over to him and began to completely ignore me, so I naturally started getting mad.

"'Get out of my room,' Kaoru had hissed at me. It was really weird. It's like he didn't want to see me at all.

"So I told him that I didn't want to and that it was OUR room, not just his. Then he started saying that no, it was infact his room, and that I'd have to find another room because he decided that he didn't want to sleep in the same bed as me. I got mad and I started swearing at him, calling him a traitor and everything. Kaoru stopped talking to me after that. After a bunch more of yelling, Kaoru finally spoke up. Now, for the whole time I was yelling and blowing up, Haruhi and Kaoru just sat there, listening. That's all they were doing.

"'You're the traitor, get out of my room. I can't stand you anymore. You talk too much, you're too selfish, and I can't stop thinking about you, get out of my life,' That's what Kaoru told me. I can never get that out of my head. There's no way I could even try to. It hurt so much, to hear him say that he never wanted to see me again, that he didn't want me in his life is basically everything he said in that sentence. 'I hate you.'"

All the while, his mother just kept staring at his face.

"Last night?" She budged.

"We made up," Hikaru shrugged. "So I don't know why he's gone. Maybe he's with Haruhi?"

"I just called, he's not there."

"Milor-"

"Not there."

Hikaru stared at his mother in awe. His brother was no where to be found?

"The Nekozawa's?" Hikaru thought quickly.

She blinked and stared at Hikaru with open eyes.

"Nekozawa... nekozawa..." She kept whispering under her breath. "I don't know the name."

"They're really religious, they came from Russia, and they worship cat idols," Hikaru explained, trying not to laugh at how ridiculous they all sounded from his description. How could Kaoru get along with those people? "Nekozawa Umehito loves the dark and can't be in the light without his protective wig and cloak. The youngest, Nekozawa Kirimi, hates the dark, but the two siblings love eachother a lot."

She nodded this time and was looking through something on her cellphone, then dialed a number, and was waiting, listening to the ringtone. Hikaru could even hear the ringtone as he sat there, staring at his mom, both of them waiting for something to happen.

"Oh yes, hello. Is Kaoru Hitachiin there?"

Hikaru waited, nervously. It didn't even matter if Kaoru was at the Nekozawa's, just that he was safe.

"Oh great! Could you send him home? We need to talk. Thanks, bye."

Hikaru leaned forward, awaiting an answer. His mother sighed and replied, "Yes, Kaoru was there, and he's gonna be in so much trouble when he gets home. Dissapearing before seven in the morning! What kind of child have I raised?"

Hikaru and his mother waited... patiently, if you call pacing back and forth in anticipation, patient.

"Tadaima," Kaoru's voice came, full of annoyance.

"You better be!" Their mom scowled as she stormed over to Kaoru. "What did you think you were doing?"

"I was going out to see a friend, and I knew you'd say no if I asked this early in the morning. Personally, I think you should be less worried since it was a friend of mine and not Hikaru. I'd be pretty worried if I were you and we just ran off in the morning. You overreact," Kaoru scolded, that annoyance becoming more evident and he started to storm off towards the stairs, but his mother had a question for him before he left off into his room.

"Why didn't Hikaru know where you were?"

"We don't HAVE to have the same friends, ma."

Yes, Kaoru was going to be a tough case to get through before he moved out of the house. Kaoru seemed to be at the breaking point of "moving out" right now with the way things were. Hikaru was worried about him, why was his brother acting like this? Why did he go outside, disobeying their mother, to see NEKOZAWA?

"I'll talk to him," Hikaru responded as he ran up the stairs and into his old bedroom where Kaoru sat. It was obvious now, that Kaoru's ankle didn't hurt anymore and he could've went back to school anytime this week. "Kaoru?"

Kaoru grunted and curled up a little tighter on his bed. "What, tattle tale?"

Hikaru blinked and raised an eyebrow before he went to sit down next to his brother. He looked into Kaoru's eyes, trying to see anything despite that anger and annoyance that burned so bright in those crystaline and angelic eyes that Hikaru used to love to stare in so often when they were younger.

"What happened?"

Kaoru sighed and explained it slowly, "I didn't want to be here. So I ran off outside and I stopped at the park when my lungs were about to burst. Umehito found me there and he took me off to his house to warm me up and get my breathing back to normal. So I hung out there for awhile and we talked and played around. That's all that happened."

"Didn't want to be here?" Hikaru wondered aloud.

"After... yesterday," Kaoru hushed his voice. "I'm... sorry."

"Where were you planning on going?" Hikaru wondered again, a bit of concern evident in his voice. "Kaoru?"

Kaoru wouldn't look at Hikaru. Hikaru wasn't sure if he should take that a good sign or a bad sign. Where DID Kaoru plan on going? Somewhere where he'd never see his family ever again? Somewhere where he'd freeze-

Hikaru shook his head, he didn't want to think of Kaoru as suicidal. Not Kaoru, he'd never go that far.

"Nowhere."

Now Hikaru was really worried about his younger brother. Why would Kaoru want to go nowhere?

To die, something said in Hikaru's mind. Was that Kaoru? Or himself? Or... someone else?

Hikaru tried to wrap his arms around Kaoru, but Kaoru pulled away and sat, curled up into a ball on his bed. He shook his head and hid it in his knees, wanting Hikaru to leave. Hikaru tried to touch his brother, but he was afraid that maybe it would be cold and lifeless. He couldn't believe he was thinking like that, Kaoru wasn't one of those emo freaks. Kaoru was his twin brother, and if Kaoru was emo or suicidal, Hikaru'd know, right? Maybe Kaoru was suicidal, maybe Hikaru did know. Maybe Hikaru just didn't want to believe it, so he denied it's existence, the possibility.

"With Nekozawa?"

"He's not as bad as you think," Kaoru snapped, raising his head out of his knees to glare at Hikaru.

"Nekozawa? He's a freak, Kaoru," Hikaru continued to bash, unknowning what to do, he just wanted to hear Kaoru's voice. Even if it was bitterly tipped and hurt to hear them, for Hikaru knew they were meant to hurt Hikaru. Hikaru's words were ice tipped too, so he was just getting what he deserved.

"No he's not."

"Nekozawa... he's like, a freaky russian for one, he worships a CAT! Come on, Kaoru, a cat! What can a stupid furrball do? They're afraid of living cats? That's just idiotic, and that black magic crap, who the hell does he-"

Kaoru leaped onto Hikaru and wrapped his hands around Hikaru's throat.

"Shut up, you don't know him!" Kaoru spat, tightening his grip.

Hikaru winced and Kaoru's eyes opened wide and he quickly removed his hands and scooted back up to the bedframe.

"Just, shut up, Hikaru."

Hikaru sat up and blinked a couple times to make sure this was real. Had Kaoru just... assaulted him?

"You're crazy," Hikaru finally realized what all his thoughts were trying to tell him. "You're insane."

"I am not!" Kaoru snarled. "I'm just different, and you don't like that."

"You're crazy!"

"I AM NOT!" Kaoru snapped as he reached out and missed Hikaru because he stood up. Hikaru stared down at his brother, he couldn't believe this. His brother was psychotic, and if he was psychotic, why the hell wouldn't he be suicidal?

"Mom!" Hikaru shouted as he dashed out of the room. He stumbled down the stairs and fell at the end, but quickly rited himself before his mom could help. Sure, he hurt really bad, but he needed to get this out before Kaoru assaulted him again. "Kaoru's insane! He just tried to kill me, and I think he likes black magic and horror movies, and he's suicidal, and everything! He tried to run-"

"Liar!" Kaoru shouted as he completely skipped the stairs and hit the middle of the stair case with his feet and he landed on top of Hikaru. Kaoru moaned along with Hikaru and he wasn't even in the mood to do anything about the pain in him and his anger towards his brother. "He's a liar! He's just jealous that I have friends!"

"You're a liar!" Hikaru snapped.

"You are!"

"YOU are!"

"Stop it!" Their dad scolded. "Would you two?"

"Dad!" The two asked as they looked up to see their father. Kaoru blushed slightly as he was in a kind of uncomfortable position that Hikaru must've not noticed. Kaoru's legs were wrapped around one of Hikaru's legs and Hikaru was sprawled out on his back under him and their heads were right next to eachother and Kaoru's hands were ontop of Hikaru's. "Dad, we're sorry."

"You're in tenth grade! You shouldn't act like this!" Their dad continued.

Everyone blinked, their dad had never talked this much to the kids. Kaoru and Hikaru rarely knew their dad could talk, of course, their mom knew that before she married him, he just didn't like to talk unless he needed to.

"Sorry dad."

"You better be, worrying your poor mother with your actions," He scolded again and looked at their mom. "Let's let them figure this out."

"HE'S INSANE!" Hikaru shouted as they were about to leave. "He's crazy!"

Kaoru slapped his hands onto Hikaru's mouth.

"You're a DAMN LIAR!" Kaoru shouted.

"When will you two stop fighting?" Their mother scowled.

"When he gets mental help!" Hikaru shouted once he started getting Kaoru's hands off of his mouth. "He's seriously psychotic!"

"LIAR!" Kaoru yelled, tightening his hands on Hikaru's mouth, leaving fingernail marks. "You a dirty damn liar! I can't wait until you die or we move apart! I can't STAND YOU! I wish... you'd die! I hope you really do go to hell!"

"If I do you'll be there first, you suicidal fre-" Hikaru snarled through Kaoru's hands.

Kaoru climbed up and pushed Hikaru's face into the carpet.

"You liar!"

"What's going on?" Haruhi's voice came, confused. "The door was open and I heard these scre-"

She blinked at the two boys struggling on the floor, and the parents watching them with sincere concern. They'd never had to worry about this kind of thing before, because the twins loved eachother so much, they'd never fought or got mad. They agreed on everything.

"You dirty lying bastard!" Kaoru snarled as he shoved Hikaru's further into the carpet, like maybe he thought that the carpet could sink farther as he pushed on Hikaru's head. Hikaru's legs wriggled and hit Kaoru's head and Kaoru plummeted forward, hitting his head into the wall. "You bastard!"

"You're crazy!" Hikaru shouted as he finally got his head up, breathing heavily from lack of oxygen. "You almost killed me!"

"I can do better than that if I wanted to kill you," Kaoru growled and leaped back onto Hikaru.

"Stop it!" Haruhi shouted at them. "You idiots!"

The two began to try to pull out eachothers hair now. Haruhi prayed that this was a joke, but it didn't seem likely. It really looked like they were trying to kill eachother. Kaoru seemed to be winning too, which kind of surprised Haruhi and their parents.

"You idiots!" Lex's voice snarled as she walked into the house. "What are you doing now?"

The two stopped for a moment to look at that little devil. Rage filled Kaoru and he began trying to push Hikaru down onto the floor, trying to get a grip on Hikaru's neck. Hikaru's legs flailed and he tried to hit Kaoru's head again, but Kaoru slammed them together with his own legs on the outer.

"You're crazy," Hikaru huffed.

"Only as crazy as you," Kaoru snarled.

"Then I must be pretty crazy."

Kaoru pushed down harder on Hikaru's neck until someone picked Kaoru up and he started lashing out.

"LET ME GO!" Kaoru screamed.

Haruhi dashed over to Hikaru and helped Hikaru up and she set him on the couch, looking over what all Kaoru had done to him.

"Calm down," The person soothed to Kaoru as they set him down on another couch and tried to calm him down. Kaoru was still so furious, he didn't want to calm down. Finally, Kaoru ended up breaking down into tears. "See, isn't crying so much better than hurting him?"

"Noooo," Kaoru cried. "He deserved it! He's trying to get rid of me!"

"Wouldn't you be sad if you accidentally killed him?"

Kaoru sniffled and rubbed a tear from his face.

"I wouldn't kill him."

"What if you did though?"

Kaoru began sobbing again, "Then I'd die too, we're twins! That's how it works."

Hikaru sat with Haruhi and Lex, staring at Kaoru sobbing to the person infront of him. Hikaru felt kind of jealous that this person again, was higher on Kaoru's list. Or maybe, because Kaoru got so mad, Hikaru was actually higher on Kaoru's list? Kaoru never got mad, Kaoru never acted out. This was the rarest thing anyone had seen. Depressingly, the rest of the Host Club had seen it, because they were at the Hitachiin's house to look for Kaoru and when they'd gotten back they witnessed the fight. Their parents told them not to interfere, for they wanted the kids to figure this out themselves.

"It's alright, Kaoru, you're forgiven," The person tried to soothe.

Kaoru pushed them away.

"I want Hikaru!" Kaoru cried. "I don't want you! I want my Hikaru! Where is he?"

Hikaru refused to listen to anyone else's words and he ran over to Kaoru and leaped into a hug. Kaoru hugged him back and sobbed.

"I'm sorry!" They both cried.

Nekozawa's POV

That was one of the wildest things ever.

I go out to walk before the sun comes up, like I usually do. On my walk I ran into Kaoru. He was sobbing and crying and having trouble breathing. He was also frozen to the bone, so I invited him to my mansion until he was better. Kirimi was quite fond of him and was all over him, asking him to tell her stories about princes and shojo and stuff, which Kaoru did a bit of. I was surprised at him. I gave him a Bereznef puppet. He hid it in his pocket after his parents had called.

I followed him, incase I needed to apologize for what I did, or something like that. The next thing I know, the sun is out, so I hid behind a tree. That one guy, Fujioka came up. Only, Fujioka didn't look like a guy. Was Fujioka really a girl? Or just a REALLY good crossdresser?

Anyway, after that, I followed behind him and this little black-haired girl whom I remember quite well... she tried to kill me, how could I forget her?

Well, I came in, and the twins were murdering eachother. No one did anything about it, so finally, when I knew it had gone too far and wasn't going to stop, I picked Kaoru up by his stomach and forced him to sit on a couch and calmed down. Of course, he started crying and sobbing again. So his brother came to his rescue.

I guess everyone knows Kaoru was lying about his ankle now. That's not too big a deal, anymore. After what Kaoru had told me when he was at me house though, about why he was running away, and how he wouldn't have cared if he freezed to death...

I can see that the fight started with good intentions from at least one of the twins.