"Ehhh?" Honey squealed, hugging his stuffed bunny closer to him. "Who's that? And anyway, Haru-chan is Haru-chan(spring), not anything or anyone else."
The taller boy sighed, eyes shut in exasperation. "Honey-sempai..."
"Mitsukuni," Mori muttered, placing a hand on his chin, eyes looking firmly at the twin. "I dont think Kaoru meant it that way."
Taking it as a prompt to explain, Kaoru continued, "Hikaru and I met Kousaka-san the other day at the country club,"
The younger twin shuffled in his seat, hands nervously fiddling the letter, unsure how to continue.
"She mentioned that Haruhi's mother was a lawyer." he said, dryly.
"Right, but what's wrong with that? Haru-chan had told that to us long ago," the senior was bemused, the lad was to him, behaving all jittery over nothing. Honey nibbled onto another slice of that delectable strawberry chiffon cake.
"Yes," he bit his lower lip and hesitated. "But did she ever mention that her mother was from Ouran, and that she used to bring Haruhi to the park near Ouran's elementary school?"
The ginger's words came out in a frenzy, like a sudden cold wind. The gush forcefully pushed out the relaxed air that was previously around the duo. The blond was nonplussed, swallowing his cake hard. Mori was as always, still a face of calm, though Kaoru could see it in his eyes - both their eyes in fact - that this bit of information was indeed new to them. There was a tense silence in the air as the seniors digested the nugget that was given, uncertain where the twin was leading.
"Well," Mori spoke up, mind clicking puzzles into place, quickly slicing through the sudden tension. "She does stay near the district and that area is part of public grounds."
Kaoru shifted again, uncrossing and crossing his legs. The room remained silent save for the faint sound of fabric rubbing against fabric. "Right."
"But she never went back there after that winter."
"When was that?" Mori asked, his face still expressionless.
Kaoru looked at them for a few moments, an wry expression on his face. Then he spoke, answering them in a voice that they could barely make out. "10 years ago,"
"The same period as when this girl used to come up to us to get us to play with her." He paused, grabbing the glass and swallowing a gulp of water before continuing.
*I'm sure most of you know this but "haru" is the season spring, so Honey was more or less making a pun on her name.
A/N: I cant believe I'm actually writing this again. I know it was meant to be a short story, but I somehow (as always), dragged on and procrastinated. So here's the 4th chapter, fresh out, short and unbeta-ed, so lets hope it's still relatively alright. Heh. I'll try to churn the rest out quickly. Maybe another 2 more chapters to complete it.
