Disclaimer: I do not own OHSHC… If I did… life would be sooo much easier. Onward to the story.
Chapter 3: Scratches and Worries
"Well, there it goes." Hikaru shrugged his shoulders. "Like I said, it didn't want our help." Kaoru looked at the woods, hoping it would return. "All that work for nothing." Haruhi placed a hand on his shoulder, "I'm sure it will be okay, though." Kaoru nodded, "Yeah, I was just hoping we could keep it as a pet when it got better." Hikaru looked at his younger twin, "Guinea pigs, yes. Giant mutant wolf-dogs, I don't think so. Kaoru, that thing was a wild animal. It could've hurt you." His eyes stole a glance at Haruhi's scratch on her arm, "Are you sure your arm is okay, Haruhi?" Haruhi smiled at to reassure him, "I'm fine, it's just a scratch. Let's get home." She hopped in the backseat of Hikaru's car and put on her seatbelt. The twins got into the car also and began their ride back home. Kaoru just stared out the window, hoping he could one last glimpse of the animal, but it never appeared.
The trio had made their way back to the apartments back on campus. Hikaru had dropped Kaoru and Haruhi off in front of the main doors while he went to go park his car back in the garage. Kaoru walked in and headed up the stairs, with Haruhi following close behind. "Kaoru, I know you're worried about the dog, but I'm sure it'll be okay." Kaoru sighed, "Yeah, I guess. I dunno, Haruhi. It's just that I think it was beginning to trust me." Haruhi looked down; she had never really been in this situation before. "Well, when we get up stairs, how about we bond with Abby? I'm sure she'll trust you." Kaoru knew that this was an attempt to cheer him up, "Sure, we could do that." It had worked. He smirked, "But Hikaru gets excluded because he had all the time in the world to bond with her."
"What? That's not fair!" The two looked down the staircase to see Hikaru making his way up. "You heard that from all the way down there?" The older twin grinned, "Well, you should know that we have excellent hearing for 'damn rich bastards.'" Haruhi mentally cursed herself for speaking under her breath. 'I wonder if he had heard anything else.' She thought to herself, making sure it wasn't spoken. They waited for Hikaru to catch up with them, then continued their walk to their floor. They finally reached their floor, when they someone's door open with a silhouette in the doorway. Room 25G.
"Dad, I'm leaving to find her now. I'm sure she's fine. I love you, too, Dad." Persephone walked out in sports shorts and a tank top, brushing her now poker-straight hair, her bangs flipped over the other side. She closed her door and began to walk down the hall towards them, obviously heading to the staircase. "Hey, I didn't know there were other twins on this floor. Pretty awesome, I would love to chat. But I'm busy at the moment."
The trio looked at each other; Kaoru was the first to speak up, "Hey, Persephone, is everything alright?"
She looked at him with a confused look, "Excuse me?" Her hair wasn't the only thing that was different from this morning, her eyes were now a reddish-brown color, instead of their normal cerulean blue. She also had a tough demeanor about her, not as sweet as she was earlier. "You've got the wrong twin, Buddy. I'm Astrid and I'm currently looking for Persephone."
"Twin?" The three friends said simultaneously in disbelief.
"Why do you look amazed? Obviously, you two are twins," She looked at the boys and then her eyes shot over to Haruhi, "and its looks like you hang out with twins. Anyways, Nice to meet ya, see ya around." She left through the door that led to the stairs but stopped and turned to them. "Wait… You know Seph! When did you see her last?" Hikaru looked at her with a confused looked, "She was hear earlier this morning. Our guinea pig ran out and she caught it," Kaoru picked up his brother's sentence, "She introduced herself to us, told to come over later and chat. That was it. Is something wrong?"
"No, I'm sure she's fine and stuff. It's just that she didn't tell me where she was going, and my dad is freaking out." She moved her bangs out of her face, her cell phone ringing loud and clear as a bell. She flashed her phone, "Dad. Well, I gotta get going. I'll see ya later." She hurried down the stairs.
"Twins. Who knew?" Haruhi looked over at her well-known twins. "So, they're identical twins, but not identical at the same time?" Hikaru scratched his head in question. "They look so much alike, just different hair styles and eye color." Kaoru looked at his older brother, "Why couldn't we be like that, Hikaru?" Hikaru took his brother's hands and held them, giving him a sincere look. "I don't know, Kaoru. But if we were like them, where would we be now?" Haruhi rolled her eyes, she couldn't believe that they both participated in the brotherly love act still.
"So Haruhi, you love being with us?"Hikaru and Kaoru asked her simultaneously, each standing on the either side of her. Hikaru at the left and Kaoru at the right, like it has always been. Or was it the other way around? It didn't matter, what mattered was that they were always be by her side. "Of course, without you guys, life would be so boring." She smiled and opened her apartment door, "If it's okay with you guys, I'm going to take a quick shower. You guys should, too."
"With you? It would be…" Hikaru started but Haruhi had interrupted him, "Yeah, don't push your luck." She went into her apartment and closed the door. The twins looked at each other, Kaoru being the first to speak of the two. "You're not over her yet, are you?" Hikaru looked at him and sighed, he knew he couldn't lie to his brother. "Nah, I thought I was." He walked across the hall to their door and unlocked it. Kaoru wanted to tease his brother and relight the fire that he had had once for Haruhi. 'And so, let the prying begin.' Kaoru snickered to himself.
"Hikaru, you do know she's not with the Boss anymore, right?" Hikaru raised an eyebrow, "And your point?" he plopped down on his couch and looked at his twin, who was sitting on the armrest of the couch. "Well, I was thinking you could… you know… give it another shot and ask her out again." Hikaru rolled his eyes, he knew this subject would be brought up, one way or another. He got up and headed towards the bathroom, "I don't want to talk about it, Kaoru. I'm not asking her again." He grabbed a towel out the closet and went into the bathroom, closing the door behind him. "But.." Kaoru started but was interrupted by Hikaru's voice, "Things are fine just the way they are right now." The younger twin heard his brother turn on the water to take a shower. An attempt to drown out anything else that he had to say. Kaoru sighed, "It doesn't matter how many times you fall, but it's about how many times you get back up, Hikaru." Kaoru hoped that he had heard that last comment, hopefully to get him thinking.
Hikaru stood in the shower, letting the water pour down like it was raining. He had heard Kaoru's last statement. 'What does he know? My heart still aches after she turned me down the last time. There's no way in hell she'll ever think of me other than her friend. I kinda think I like it better this way because I can still be close with her without getting my heart broken again.' He shook his head out of his thoughts and washed his hair and body. He turned off the water and dried off with his towel. 'Maybe I should try one more time, since Tamaki isn't in the way anymore. I might actually stand a chance this time.' He smiled as he felt his confidence build up again. He wrapped his towel around himself and opened the bathroom door. He headed to his room and had put on some jeans and a blue shirt with some logo in the middle of it. He walked out into the living room, where his brother was sitting on the couch, drawing a doodle on some paper. "Kaoru… I think I'm going to give it another shot." Kaoru looked up at him and smirked, "Not if I beat you to her heart first."
Hikaru just stood there with a confused look on his face, "Wait, didn't you tell me to try again? Why did this turn into a competition all of sudden?" Kaoru got up and pinched his older brother's cheek, "Aw, you're so adorable when you think someone is going to steal Haruhi from you." He laughed and walked off to bathroom, grabbing a towel on the way to the bathroom. Hikaru laughed nervously, he still couldn't tell if his brother was serious or not. He ran his fingers through his wet hair and began searching for his hair dryer. 'Where the hell is it?' He thought to himself while searching everywhere in the apartment. "It's probably in the bathroom with Kaoru. I'll just borrow Haruhi's." He said to himself out loud and headed across the hall, knocking on Haruhi's door. He could hear Haruhi coming to the door.
"Who is it?" She asked through the door, while struggling to put another t-shirt over her cami.
"Um, it's Hikaru. Can I come in for sec?" He asked her, waiting for her to open the door. Haruhi had finally pulled on her shirt and opened the door. "Hey." Hikaru looked at her, "Hard time with your shirt?" Haruhi looked at him, "How do you figure that?" He looked at her and smirked, "Shirt's on backwards." She looked down at her shirt and indeed, her shirt was on backwards. She blushed with embarrassment, and quickly fixed her shirt. "Thanks, Hikaru." Her chocolate eyes were staring at the floor, obviously still feeling quite silly. "Who knew that even Haruhi Fujioka, an honor student, could make mistakes like that." She looked at him, "Well, I am human, you know. What did you come over for?" He pointed to his dripping, wet brownish-orange hair, "Well, my hair is wet and Kaoru is the shower and I need the hair dryer, but as you see the situation won't allow me at my place."
Haruhi leaned up against her doorframe, "So, you wanna borrow mine, right?" He nodded. She smiled, "Fine. Come in. I'll get it for you." She went into her bathroom, while Hikaru walked in and plopped down on her couch. She soon came back with her hair dryer and handed it to him. "Here, I know it's probably not as expensive as yours, but it should get the job done." Hikaru noticed that her hair was still wet, she hadn't been out of the shower for too long. "Don't you need it still?" Haruhi looked at her hair, "Does it look like I care if I need it or not?" He suddenly got up and got an extra chair out of her kitchen and set it the living room. "Sit." Haruhi gave him a confused look, "Excuse me?"
Hikaru went over to her and led her to the chair, "I'm going to blow dry your hair, alright?" Haruhi sat down, "Okay, if you say so." He turned on the dryer to a medium setting and began to dry her hair. He remembered the last time he dried her hair. They were on a mountain ski trip with their first-year classmates. He and Haruhi had become roommates for the trip, while Kaoru shared a room with the class president. HE had caused Tamaki to go into "trauma" and was trying to figure out how to help him out without helping him out.
Flashback.
"Haruhi… Have you finished taking your bath?" Hikaru slowly opened up the door to the room that he and Haruhi were sharing. He had just came back from taking a bath himself.
"Yeah. Hi, Hikaru. Thanks, I was able to enjoy a nice long bath." She gave him a genuine smile of thanks.
"You'll catch a cold if you don't dry your hair thoroughly." He warned her, he was in a irritated kind of mood.
"Yeah, but ever since I cut it short, air drying has worked well. And the heater is on." She said reassuring him that she would be okay. She then plopped on her bed and sprawled out. "Ahh… that was a nice bath…"
"DON"T GO TO SLEEP WITHOUT DRYING YOU'RE HAIR! IT'LL GET DAMAGED!" Hikaru suddenly jumped up and began yelling and ranting about, startling Haruhi in the process. "WAKE UP! USE AN IONIC HAIR DRYER! FORGET IT, I'LL DO IT FOR YOU MYSELF!" Haruhi jumped up from the bed and threw up her hands in defense, "Understood! I get it! Stop yelling at me!" Hikaru grabbed a chair and demanded that she sit down and she didn't argue with that.
"Geh… you're unbelievable." He mumbled to himself, obviously talking about Haruhi. He began to blow dry her hair. "Sorry…" Haruhi apologized to her angry friend. After a few seconds of drying, Hikaru had calmed down again, looking at Haruhi's brown in his hands.
"Haruhi, you know… about the Boss…" He was suddenly cut off by Haruhi, "WHAT? DID YOU SAY SOMETHING? I CAN'T HEAR!" The whirring of the hair dryer was making it hard for Haruhi to hear. There was a click of the hair dryer and the whirring had stopped.
"I don't know… I want your advice." Hikaru had said softly, a lot softer than earlier. Haruhi quickly turned around to face him. "Oh! Right! I'm listening. I'll help if I can." She got up from her chair and pointed to it. "Did you want to sit down?" Hikaru looked at her quizzically, "Why are you so excited?" She looked at him as if waiting for important news or something along those lines. Hikaru sighed and looked down at the floor.
"For arguments sake, if you knew that your friend had a big problem…and you also knew that once you solved that problem for your friend, you were sure to find yourself in a bad situation as result of it… What would you do?" He looked up to see Haruhi thinking really hard about the question and realized she would be searching for an actual answer. "I'm sorry, there's no good answer." He put his hand up as a cue for her to just forget it.
Haruhi looked at him after a sudden idea had come to mind. "I would solve my friend's problem… then find a way to keep from ending up with a new problem." She explained to him. "That's not possible! I wouldn't be stumped if there were such a solution!" Hikaru was becoming irritated again. "Then… why don't you wait and see?" Haruhi questioned him again. "If I wait, my friend's problem is likely to be solved!" He sweatdropped at her terrible advice she was giving him.
"But if it does get solved, you'll be in trouble, Hikaru?" Hikaru had just about enough, he couldn't hold it back anymore, "But… He's someone I owe a lot to, Haruhi!" He looked at ground and sighed. "Um…" Haruhi was back to thinking again. "Nevermind. Forget it." He climbed in his bed to lie down. "Let's just forget about and go to sleep. We're going skiing again tomorrow."
Flashback Ends.
"Hikaru, is something wrong?" Haruhi's voice had shaken him out of his thoughts. "Yeah, I'm fine. Sorry about that." Haruhi smiled and laughed a bit. "What's so funny?" Hikaru questioned her as he finished up drying her hair. "Nothing, I was just thinking is all." Haruhi turned to him and smiled, "Do you remember what happened the last you dried my hair?" Hikaru was caught off guard, "Uh…sorta kinda."
"You spazzed all times type of hell out. That's when we had a shared a room because Kaoru chose to room with the class president. I wonder why he did that?" Hikaru grumbled to himself, "I wonder why sometimes, too." Hikaru turned off the hair dryer, fixing Haruhi's hair for it would fall right. "There. You're done." She stood up, her chocolate eyes meeting his golden amber eyes. "Thank you so much. What would I do without you, Hikaru?" He smiled at her, "You would be a mess, that's for sure."
A squeaking noise came from Haruhi's room, of course the squeaking was coming from Abby. Haruhi looked at Hikaru, "I take it that's a squeak for food?" Hikaru shrugged, "Yeah, that or either that she wants to be picked up and played with." Haruhi went into her fridge and pulled out a carrot, "Think she'll want one of these?" They both walked into her room where the little cavy was located. As soon as she sensed someone entering the room, the small guinea pig began squeaking up a storm. "At least she knows we're here." Hikaru nodded in agreement. She opened the cage to play with the small cavy, who happily jump into her hands. She placed the carrot on the bed and place Abby right next to it, who began to munch on it.
Hikaru felt a strong vibration in his pocket, he took out his phone and looked at the I.D. and frowned his face, "What could he possibly want now?" He pressed the green talk button and answered phone, walking out of Haruhi's room.
"HIKARU! WHERE'S MY DAUGHTER? I NEED TO SPEAK TO HER!" Hikaru held his phone away from his ear. Just as he was about to put to the phone back to ear, Kaoru came into Haruhi's apartment. "I just came over to tell you that the Boss is going to… oh. I see you already answered it." He stood next to his brother. "Now what were you saying, Boss? Something about Haruhi?" Hikaru spoke into the phone in a calm voice, hoping it would calm him down also.
"I NEED TO TALK TO HER!" Tamaki wasn't calming down for anything. Hikaru glanced up at the ceiling, "Look Boss, she's busy right now. Tell us and we'll pass on the message." Tamaki was silent for minute. "We?" Kaoru face palmed himself, "Is he serious?" Hikaru nodded. "Yeah, We. As in me and Kaoru." Tamaki cleared his throat, "Tell her that…Why do I Have to tell you guys?" Hikaru was growing irritated at his friend, "Because you called my phone, idiot!" Tamaki was silent again. "We're coming back next week and we're hosting a dance. I was going to see if Haruhi would dance with me while I'm there. Hopefully, she'll take me back, you know? I miss her a lot." Hikaru's expression turned sad, "Yeah, I'll pass it on and text you with an answer, alright?" He could imagine Tamaki giving him a sincere smile right now, "Thank you, Hikaru." Hikaru had hung up the phone, this is tough decision for him. To tell Haruhi, an open opportunity for Tamaki to win her over again. Or not to tell her, but that would sure get him hated. Kaoru looked at his brother, "So, What are you going to do?" Hikaru looked at his reflection and smiled a little bit, "I'm going to be a good friend and tell her, of course." Kaoru could see the pain through his brother's golden eyes.
"But tell her after we visit Persephone and Astrid tonight, alright?" Hikaru nodded in agreement, walking back to Haruhi's room. "Hey, we should get ready to visit the twins soon." Haruhi was examining her scratch and picked Abby and held her close, "Yeah, we should be. Hopefully Astrid found her by now. It's been a while." Hikaru scratched the back of his head and looked at her. "I know I've been asking this a lot, but are sure you're okay? That's a pretty bad scratch." She smiled, "I'm fine. It just stings a little, but nothing major." She and Hikaru walked out of the room and met up with Kaoru in the living room. "So, are we heading over now?" The two nodded. The trio headed out of apartment and headed across and down the hall to room 25G.
Hmm… What about that scratch? I'm trying to keep everyone in Character… Really hard. Just read and Review, please. It'll help me post chapter's faster :). Thank you, love bugs. Ciao for now.
