Oh. My. Goodness. I can't believe it's been so long since I updated D:

I was supposed to do it a week ago, but I've been grounded, and actually had to sneak on to post this chapter

And even better, I'm going to Jamaica for 10 days, SO I'm not entirely sure whether or not I'll be able to update. I'll definitely keep writing though.

Also, I'm probably going to rewrite this chapter, because I wrote the whole thing on my iPod "Notes" so I'll bet it's full of typos, and I think I left out a few things. .

:( Oh well.

Disclaimer: Don't own Ouran or anything like that. Too bad...

Kyouya had been sitting in class 2-A for quite some time. He enjoyed the solitude before school, before the classroom became loud and crowded from all the other second years. It was during this time that Kyouya could get a little extra work done, or on a bad day, catch up on some sleep. That was rare though, he wouldn't allow his image to be tainted. But today, Kyouya was a bit beyond caring about his image. All he really wanted to do today was rest. He still wasn't over how his brothers had acted this morning. It just wasn't like them. Kyouya could handle the taunts, the looks, but it had gotten so physical, it caught him by surprise, and it had scared him. But at the same time, it hadn't felt bad, in fact it actually felt... Good?

Kyouya groaned and put his head on his desk. Now really wasn't the time to think about this.
Luckily, at that moment Tamaki came bounding into the classroom with the same eccentricity as always.
Kyouya had never been so relieved to see his friend; he quickly pushed all thoughts of his brothers and focused his attention on Tamaki.

"Good Morning Kyouya!"
Kyouya pushed his glasses up slightly and smiled politely.

"Hello Tamaki, how are you this morning?"

"I would have been perfectly fine, but I saw those devilish twins outside with Haruhi! They're going to corrupt my poor innocent daughter, I just know it!" Tamaki stared dramatically off into the distance, worrying needlessly.

Kyouya gazed distractedly at the blond, wondering absently when Tamaki would realize his true feelings for Haruhi. It was so obvious to everyone except him and her. The thought made Kyouya chuckle quietly to himself, but the laugh hadn't passed
Tamaki. He whirled around, looking exasperated.

"Mother! There's nothing funny about those two getting to our precious Haruhi, so why are you laughing?"
Kyouya just smiled. "You'll figure it out in time Tamaki. Now, about that payment you owe me..."

Kaoru's POV

Kaoru had been scowling at his desk for about 30 minutes straight. Even worse, Hikaru hadn't even noticed. The two Hitachiins were almost always perfectly in sync, finishing each others sentences and such, but Hikaru hadn't looked his way once, not since early this morning.

Kaoru stole a glance at the older twin. Hikaru was busy trying to flirt with Haruhi, who as usual, wasn't paying him any attention, at least not in the way he desired.
Kaoru sighed softly, folding a bit more into himself. He'd just begun to wonder how it could get any worse when a voice shook him out of his thoughts.

"Hitachiin Kaoru! Please stop disturbing Ms. Fujioka."

"Oh right, sorry Sensei." Hikaru replied.

Kaoru shot a deadly glare in his brother's direction. Hikaru responded only with a half heart shrug and a smirk as if to say "What can I do? We're identical."
Kaoru resumed staring at his desk. How could he have fallen for someone like this. For someone so selfish? Why couldn't he bring himself to call his brother out.
Because he was afraid. Afraid that if he did anything to Hikaru, he might lose him forever. He couldn't imagine life without his brother, without his other half. The worst part was, Hikaru could easily live life without him.

The more Kaoru thought about his older brother, the more depressed he became.
'I wonder what I would have to do, to get him to care again. Half the time he acts so intimate, the way we used to, when we were younger. Before SHE came along.'
Kaoru shook his head. No. This wasn't Haruhi's fault, she was his friend, he couldn't think of her like that, as an obstacle. She hadn't purposely put herself between them. Hell, she didn't even KNOW she was coming between them.

Kaoru hadn't realized the tears welling in his eyes until they were moments away from spilling. He wasn't the only one who'd noticed, Haruhi was looking at him, her gaze filled with concern.

"Hey Kaoru? You don't look so good, maybe you should step out for a bit."

Kaoru looked up at her and nodded.

"Yeah I think I will. Thanks"
Kaoru excused himself from the classroom and made his way to the bathroom.

Kyouya's POV

It had been a boring class, moreso than usual. Kyouya's dad had given him almost the exact same lecture 2 years ago. It really wasn't any fun to learn the same thing twice, he would've much rather been in German or perhaps English. Languages were much more interesting and provided a bit of challenge, exactly what Kyouya needed at this point. Actually, he'd take any form of distraction rather than learn derivatives again.

Kyouya gazed out the classroom door, hoping to find something to amuse him, at least for a little while.
Coincidentally, it was at that moment that one of the Hitachiin twins walked by.
'Ah, they must be pulling a prank of some sort. This could be amusing.'
"Excuse me Sensei, may I be excused for a moment?"
Kyouya gazed charmingly at his teacher over the rims of his glasses and flashed an award winning smile.

"Um well, I suppose you may, but only for a little while Mister Ootori."
Kyouya nodded a polite reply and left the room.

Once outside, Kyouya glanced around, searching for the wandering twin. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw a flash of auburn hair heading into the bathroom at the end of the hall.
Kyouya was perplexed. Even when they were playing pranks, the twins were inseperable. So why were they now?
His curiosity peaked, he follwed the younger boy into the bathroom.

"Alright, what are you up to?" Kyouya asked with mild interest.

The younger boy whirled around angrily.
"Up to? What the hell are you talking about? I'm not up to- Oh, Kyouya-senpai, sorry."

"Kaoru? What are you doing out of class?"

Kaoru looked down sheepishly glancing up at Kyouya through his bangs.

"Oh, I just needed a break I guess. Wait, you called me Kaoru? How do you know I'm not Hikaru?" He asked defiantly.

Kyouya stepped closer until he was just inches away from Kaoru. Despite the two being almost the same height, Kyouya had a distinctly larger build than Kaoru. He took Kaoru's chin in his hand and stared directly into the younger twin's topaz eyes. Kaoru leaned back slightly and flushed at the contact.

"You know," Kyouya began, "Despite what you may think, you and your brother are very different. And YOU are definitely Kaoru."

He stepped back, crossing his arms and looked at Kaoru expectantly. "Well, am I right?"

Kaoru looked back at him and nodded slightly.

"Yeah, you're right." He turned back toward the sinks and stared into the mirror.

"Although, I've got no idea how you could have possibly figured that out. And it's not like it matters anyway, Hikaru's growing apart from me, there won't be any need to tell us apart anymore, it'll be obvious."

Kaoru felt the tears welling up in his eyes. He didn't even have the energy to be embarassed about the fact that he was about to cry in front of Kyouya, the Shadow King.
He slid down the wall, now sitting on the floor, his head in his hands.

"God, I'm such an idiot." he whispered.

Kyouya stared down at the younger boy. He was suddenly struck by how vulnerable Kaoru looked in that moment. Without his brother by his side, he looked helpless, lost, alone. Kyouya was overcome by a strong feeling of sympathy. He sat down across from Kaoru, propping his arm up on his knee and gazed at the smaller boy.

Kaoru had tears running down his face, his topaz eyes were rimmed with red. He was in obvious misery, and Kyouya wanted to know why.
He pushed his glasses up on his face, and spoke quietly.
"Kaoru, there's something going on here, and I know to you, I may just be the 'Shadow King', but I am a person too. If you need to talk to someone, I'm here for you."

Kaoru glanced up, and for a moment, topaz met black and a mutual understanding passed between them. For some reason, Kaoru knew he could trust Kyouya. He gave Kyouya a small smile, but as quickly as it had appeared, it vanished. He stood up slowly.

"But why would you want to know any thing about me? I'm not even worth getting to know. If you know Hikaru, you know me as well. I'm just a lesser replica of something great."

Kyouya stood as well and gazed fiercely into Kaoru's eyes. He approached the young twin until there was barely any space between them.
"Kaoru, do you really believe that, that you're just a replica?"

Kaoru hesitated, still shocked at the growing intimacy of the situation. He was sure it was unintentional, but Kyouya was awfully close..
"I-I don't know, that's just the way it seems. He's always better at everything than I am."

Kyouya sighed," I know it's hypocritical of me to say, but you can't think of yourself as worthless, you're special Kaoru, more than you know."

It was Kaoru's turn to inquire.
"Hypocritical, how so?

Kyouya turned away, looking... embarassed? Kaoru hadn't thought he'd ever see an emotion like that make itself evident on Kyouya.

"Kyouya," He began.

The older boy glanced back at Kaoru, but only for a second.

"Its, nothing... Just, don't be too hard on yourself, okay? I'll see you after school."

He walked out of the bathroom, leaving Kaoru with nothing but his own thoughts.

'I guess I'm not the only one with secrets...' Kaoru gazed thoughtfully in the direction Kyouya had left.
He sighed, remembering Kyouya's words:

'Don't be too hard on yourself, okay?'

"I'll try Kyouya, for you."

Mehhhhh. I'll definitely need to work on this some more. My writing skills have deteriorated.

I'll do better, I promise!

Please review!