Gomenyo. D: It took forever to write this. I was working on other projects. My attempt at writing Twin fluff. D: Hard. My sister says it's not even fluff. But n-eways, enjoy. It'll get more romance based after this...

Warnings? Some little suggestiveness. Little. Sorta. And well, swearing.

And the twins don't belong to me! D: That sucks, really.

It's a common fact: if you are filthy rich, you show it.

In the Hitachiin's case, their estate definitely shows it.

The western mansion is of pure elegance, designed by one of the top architects in the world, made from the finest materials in all of Japan. Three floors of ornate doors and flawless windows, decorated hallways, furnished rooms of many themes. Three small tea gardens and a large sanctuary of flora endows the a impression of peace outside the mansion. There's an aroma of serenity and sincerity in the air, wafting with the scent of homeliness to its occupants.

Of course, all these and the grassy lawns are taken care of by a full legion of twenty servants, hired by the very lax owner to keep it all in check.

The Hitachiin Estate (Number One) is currently owned by Hitachiin Yuzuha, who's bathing in the blessed sunlight of an early retirement. As head of the family, she orders everyone and anyone who's in her home.

Incidentally, up until their twentieth birthday, Hitachiin Hikaru and Kaoru lived there. Since they were young, they occupied the second room on the western corridor on the second floor and spent their childhood days exploring the excessively large mansion and wreaking havoc onto the well-arranged gardens.

No one knew exactly when it happened but it happened.

As you can see, the Hitachiin twins… don't live there anymore.

If anyone asks either one to recount the tale, they pass it off as "too boring" or "Oh, did you see Kaoru anywhere?"

But if they don't live at their Hitachiin Estate (Number One), where do they live?

"Well-" Hikaru starts, going into a thinking pose..

"-it doesn't have a name yet-" Kaoru taps his chin thoughtfully.

"-but okaasan likes to refer to it as-"

"-Hitachiin Estate (Number Two)!" They flash a happy grin, Hikaru's arm habitually falling onto Kaoru's shoulders.

And they ask again: "What is Hitachiin Estate (Number Two)?"

They stop laughing and give them a serious gaze, before replying in sync,

"It's ours."

And technically, it was.

Located in the midst of a piece of land with the absence of people. Under the ownership of the twin Hitachiins for only five years, only recently have they decided to begin arranging everything.

During those five years, only one of the twins actually cared about how it looked.

Three guesses to who it is.

"Ne, Kaoru, don't you think we should start working on renovating this place?" Hikaru drawls (absolutely uninterested) in the pancakes in front of him. He looks over at his twin, who's quietly sitting right next to him, drawing little circles into the table.

The old, mahogany table that the twins hate because it's so old and ancient. Even the porcelain was obviously old.

"…" It doesn't seem like he heard him. Kaoru blinks once, and glances at the bored expression on an identical face, "Not really."

"Datte! It's so old and boring! Why do you like it?" Hikaru complains, shooting accusing glares at his brother, "You can't be my twin."

"I didn't say anything. I don't really care," Kaoru taps the tabletop with his fingers, staring distantly at the peeling walls. Hikaru fumes. Kaoru takes his concentration off the old-styled wallpaper and blinks at his brother, "You can't be my twin. I mean, are the Hitachiin brothers supposed to like interior designing?"

"Kaoru," he pinches his twin's cheek, a comical expression of anger apparent.

"Fine, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," he replies, not really sorry, "Now let go of me."

Hikaru sighs and stabs a fork into his breakfast. He feels ignored.

"Ano ne, Hikaru."

"What?" he asks around a bite of pancake.

Kaoru thinks for a while before stating, "If you really want to design the interior of the mansion, go ahead."

"Alright!"

"By yourself," he adds bluntly.

"What?! What about you?" The elder twin glares at the calm half.

Kaoru raises his fork thoughtfully, "I'll handle the exterior designing."

"WHAT?!"

"You know, perfect split of the work."

Kaoru punctuates it with a smile.

It isn't the first time they didn't do something together.

This is the exact thought that Hikaru was thinking as he scans pages and pages of pieces of "antique furniture." Dropping that completely, he swivels his chair towards his very new computer (bought only several days ago, actually- he has a habit of changing computers every two months), and presses onto the internet browser.

After more clicks, he scrolls down the lists and lists of modern tableware and simple yet sophisticated cups. Due to their fortune, he has a very big budget to spend on renovating this… Hitachiin Estate Number Two. Only, without Kaoru, he's at a lost of what to do.

They are sharing the ownership of the estate, co-owning, co-living, living together, etc, etc. And since the twins have the same tastes in décor anyway, why is Hikaru even "at a lost of what to do?"

"Problem?" comes the smooth voice of his brother, who's working next to him, currently leaning on the back of his swivel chair, waiting for his plans and order forms to print out. Hikaru sports a glare opposed to Kaoru's carefree smile.

"Please, Kaoru! I'm dying without your help!" he whines, his head meeting the hard old wooden desktop. Kaoru only smiles slyly.

"What's your problem then?"

"Well…" the elder wants to and yet doesn't want to tell him anything.

"Don't know what theme to put it as?" Kaoru's eyes lidded, a suave smile on his face. Hikaru nods furiously. Kaoru taps his cheek with a finger, "Want me to give you ideas… or tell you which one to choose?"

That set Hikaru on a ramble, "I was thinking of each room a lively color, each corridor and floor having some sort of pastal-ish color, or, we could do the neutrals and put black, brown, whites, and grays, and maybe some olives… And then, maybe we can have some western styled, or Japanese-styled rooms! What about China?! And then, we can also have the commoner's sort, like Haruhi's apartment. Does she even live in an apartment anymore? Yeah, we can have themed and colored rooms or something! But then, I'm thinking the entire house could be a mess with all those… things…"

"Do whatever," Kaoru dismisses the thought, shuffling through the papers, "It doesn't matter. Just don't put pink in our room."

Fwoosh.

"Oh," Kaoru moves his eyes to the door, "I'm going to get started, I need some certain people to call."

Slam.

'You're not going to help?!'

Gloom clouds' settling on stoned Hikaru. He debates whether to shakes his fist at him, or grab him to help him. He does neither as he leans back into the chair again, feeling lonely with the absence of the brother who was almost always besides him.

Actually, Kaoru's becoming more independent of himself, so independent that he doesn't deserve the name of "uke" or "little brother" anymore. What he is, though, mature, professional, and a deep thinker. He's confident in himself, and now has taken to the habit of ignoring Hikaru again. Hikaru, himself, doesn't want to be ignored anymore.

And so… he develops the brilliant plan of…

"Keep Kaoru's attention!"

That is not so brilliant, now that he looks at it.

And so… whenever Kaoru ignores him, he does his own work proficiently and excellently, in order to prove "Hah, Kaoru! I can do this anyway!"

Which was probably the younger twin's intention, anyway.

And thus…

In times like these…

Hikaru tries to bother Kaoru as much as possible. (Because being alone was bothering him in the first place.)

"Yes, if next week Monday would be of any convenience… Yes, right away, sir. Don't worry, I'm paying for it. Yes. Yes," Kaoru rolls his eyes at the comment that came over the phone, "-of course I know how much it costs."

Hikaru peeks over Kaoru's shoulder, causing the latter's eyes to cross.

"Yeah, of course, we're stinking rich, what kind of person do you think we are?" Hikaru voices into the receiver.

Kaoru's eyes narrows, and pushes his brother off of him, waving the phone at him in the process, "Hikaru, shoo! I'm trying to have a decent conversation!"

"… Excuse me?" the voice says from the phone.

"Well, Kaoru! He was insulting our wealth! What else should I say?" Hikaru fired back.

"Uh…"

Kaoru frowned, "Look! I spent forever to get a contractor that could take on the enormity of our home! Don't ruin it!"

"Hitachiin-san?"

"How am I ruining it? We can just offer a bunch of money, get the supplies and leave the designs to him!"

The twins are neck-to-neck in an argument, when a voice tumbles from the forgotten phone lying on the ground, "Hitachiin-san, I think I'll take up on your offer."

"Eh? Really?" Kaoru scoops the phone back to his ear, "Alright, next week Monday, yes, I'll have all the supplies you'll need, just email it to me."

He nods once and then twice, then he clicks the phone closed. Barely a second later Hikaru bursts out into fits out laughter.

Kaoru only tapped a pencil on his sheets of papers, checking off a box on the sheet.

The elder blinks in confusion- why wasn't Kaoru laughing either? Did Hikaru get him angry…? "Eh, Kaoru… Sorry?"

There's silence. And then, a smirk widens.

"Have you ever noticed that we sound the same over the phone? Tomihara-san…"

Oh, does that guy think Kaoru's a maniac now?

"He can't even tell us apart," Kaoru concludes, with a hard tap on his papers.

"Want to play a prank on him?" Hikaru suggests happily, practically grabbing his brother by the shoulders, his playful eyes glittering.

It only takes a second of thought.

"No, I have other things to do," -a shot- Kaoru peers at Hikaru, who had his face in his, "Shouldn't you get started on yours too?"

"Oh, right," he mutters dejectedly. Hikaru mulls, it isn't normal for Kaoru to ignore his shenanigans, much less try to get Hikaru to do his own thing.

There has been only one other time, he remembers, for just the first quarter of their second year, they joined different clubs. The actual ones he's not going to bother and screw up his head to remember. He himself had joined the… something club… just to mark a new beginning (or something), he would try to become a great older brother! And then, he suggested doing something different.

And… of course, after that two months, Hikaru quitted it because he had missed his brother too damn much. He was saddened when he found out he couldn't be involved in two clubs with the same timeframe at the same time.

And that's why he's stuck inside pointing all the idiots where he wanted a red room, a brown room, a traditional room, and Japanese-styled room, and ordered the mansion "assistants" (as Kaoru had kindly put it) around to remove all the ancient stuff and put it into the attic.

"Hikaru, you stripped the entire mansion bare," Kaoru deadpans, looking at the plain plaster wall of the lobby room. Hikaru was off in a little corner, finger and tapping the walls and jotting down more notes.

"Well, I have to make it the best as possible. I don't want any wallpaper on it. We're going to apply a paint-base and then color the biggest room of the house a warm fuzzy-"

"I'm not very interested, Hikaru," Kaoru resigned, walking up the strangely creaking stairs. He stares at the concrete based stairs, "… Hikaru, are you going to fix the flooring too?"

"Mmm-hmm!" he nodded, a pencil in his mouth, as he measured something with a measuring tape.

Kaoru turns his indifferent eyes back on the blankly white halls again.

In truth, he really didn't care what Hikaru did on his spare time, nor did he care about any exact details, as long as Hikaru has something to do. Kaoru just wanted Hikaru to do something he liked to do and leave Kaoru to do what he liked to do.

Once on his bed (at least, Hikaru didn't remove their room's things), he runs over the sheets of paper he held in his hands. He has calculated, and calculated again what the entire cost of remodeling the outside would be, so he decided to be conservative (unlike Hikaru) and keep the mansion in a relatively erect state. Relatively, he might have to close down one of the older shacks in the backyard, though. He turns the pages, and pencils in some notes, poking the eraser end to the side of his lip.

"Kaoru!" a sing-songy voice bombards him as well with weight equal to his own. He's sure he's crushing his papers. He doesn't have time to tell him to get off, when Hikaru jumps onto the bed, carrying loads of dust and sand to his brother.

"Hikaru, go take a shower!" he complains reflexively, pushing Hikaru off the bed, "What have you been doing- rolling in dirt?"

"Technically, yes," Hikaru says, blatantly happy, trotting over to the shower, blissfully unaware that he's obeying Kaoru's command. "Today, we have good progress, now all I have to do is call all those house designers and tell me if I did a good job or not-"

"Just take a shower, Hikaru," Kaoru repeats, looking over the crumpled papers, and sighing. He hears a whistle and then the door slams.

He lowers his eyes again to his papers.

Remove the dead plants from the gardens and consider the five plots of land.

Kaoru remembers back in the when, he had taken some gardening classes; personally, he likes being in control of life other than his own. Not only that, but the beauty of crisp green plants inspire him. So one should be called Inspiration, full with green vegetables! If it's successfully, maybe he should try eating the fruit of harvest… But, that's too much trouble to take care of… Maybe just stick to green plants, Kaoru.

Kaoru jumps off the bed, and slides into Hikaru's computer desk (since that's more updated -Kaoru himself doesn't bother going on the computer that often- and much more closer to the bed.) He only has to hit the keyboard and the computer boots up, very convenient. Kaoru types in things into the search box and clicks. He taps the mouse again, to show another webpage full of greenery. Ivy and vines…

Oh yes! He always wanted to plant grapes! Too much work again… But vines and ivy! One should be a writer's garden (but Kaoru only writes English poetry) and he can… well, put lighting to it. A airy sanctum, that refreshes the senses… And then, he can drink tea… Oh, the wonders…

Well, that's one down.

"Oh, you're going to add plants too? Should we put some in the house?"

-comes the annoying voice of his very (un)respectable elder brother. His eyes blanked and he turned to stare at the playful glint of his twin's. The misty air around him, and the taunting aroma of strawberries…

Wait. Strawberries…

"Hikaru, did you use my shampoo, again?!" Kaoru almost has half the mind to yell at him, but he doesn't.

Hikaru only chuckles, in an amused way, and points, "You should say that for yourself. Using my computer, are we?"

Kaoru simply frowns and pushes his half-naked brother off of him, stomping off to his bed, and falling into the sheets flat on his face. Even into this age, Hikaru still has that indecency and openness to just wear a towel into their own room, not like Kaoru has any problems with it.

But, he thinks, he should have some maturity to at least wear a shirt and boxers to sleep.

Someone like Hikaru isn't that all reserved like himself, Kaoru painfully realizes.

As Kaoru relearns it for the fifth time that week. It's only Saturday.

The first question out of his mouth, as per usual, is always,

"Where do you have your hands now, Hikaru?" Kaoru asks, almost menacing. But Hikaru doesn't know the glare he's sending him, because he's facing the opposite way, and mostly because the elder twin is still half-asleep.

"Kaoru, it's always around you," he mumbles, not even conscious of what he's saying.

Kaoru frowns, "We have things to do, Hikaru. Let go."

"Like what?" he murmurs, blinking open his bleary eyes as Kaoru sits up on his side of the bed. But he can't get off because Hikaru's being intimate and has his head on his lap now.

"Like remodeling the entire estate! We can't give ourselves a week break and leave the company to swim on it's own! There's so many home reports that I had Aya-san send us, and it's not really good," Kaoru sighs, and pushes his brother off of him (he's been doing that quite a lot). Hikaru pouts, and instantly shoots his gaze to the clock that has the weight of testifying for him.

"It's only seven, Kaoru! Plus, it's a weekend too!" he whines childishly, sticking his head to the light brown sheets. "I've already gotten all the rooms painted and the flooring done for each of the twenty-seven rooms in this house! We just need our room to be done and all the furniture to arrive, anyway!"

"Fine, you sleep; I'm going to work."

"What?!" Hikaru erupts from the bed and trails Kaoru to the bathroom. "Let me help you!"

"Definitely not."

"Please!"

"No."

"Kaoru, pleaaaase," Hikaru begs, his hands placed together and he was on his knees, for the millionth time that day, and Hikaru's beginning to get on Kaoru's nerves. (But maybe that's his intention.)

This time, he receives no answer. Instead, Kaoru's ignoring him to the fullest, charting the sides of the walls, walking away from his twin. But, Hikaru doesn't like leaving it that way; he never did.

Well, if begging doesn't work. And then it hit him.

Kaoru had a hobby back in high school… Gardening. Hikaru remembers now; Kaoru pushed him into the architect club while he joined gardening.

"Kaoru, lemme see," he plucks the papers out of his hands, resulting in Kaoru's fingering of air and a small vein popping up. Hikaru doesn't notice this change, "Kaoru, you're remodeling the five garden plots too?"

"Yes," he grits his teeth crossing his arms as Hikaru scans the papers.

He blinks, "Wow, talk about over-achiever."

"Is that a bad thing?" he retorts. Hikaru looks up.

"Nah," he says calmly, "You're just pushing too much on yourself. You haven't even gotten started on your beloved plants."

Hikaru waves a pencil in the air, and writes some things down on the pages. "Here, I'll help you with removing those twenty-century stones and ask people for the concrete stuff, while you choose what you want to do with these gardens, 'kay?" he punctuates it with a small smirk.

Kaoru's gaping mouth closed into a small sort of smile, "Alright."

And…

That's…

How…

Hikaru finally succeeds.

And that's also how… he finds himself shouting at the servants again, and still can't find any time to spend with his brother.

That's the only thing he wants. Why can't Kaoru see it?

It's times like these when Hikaru wonders why he's even pining away for attention from his brother. He means, it's been so long since becoming adults when they actually can begin to date, so he can actually just go out and possibly just take Aya-san out for coffee, or something, besides peeking from the patio at the twin who's calmly relaxing on a chair outside writing some things and typing more things into the laptop.

Just why is he so desperate?

They hadn't done anything together since they graduated from college. No Hikaru and Kaoru quality time at all. Just random short ten minute things.

And those aren't enough!

'Damn, damn, damn. These plots are too small… I can't do anything substantial with it…' Kaoru poked his cheek with the eraser edge of his pencil. 'If I put that there… wait, I'm only going to order four of those… and there's no way I'm starting from seeding… Aw, come on, they're out of stock?!' the younger twin sighs and leans back into his chair. There's no way he can go anywhere with the missing items.

And he's back to the drawing board… for the fifteenth time.

He types mechanically on his laptop; he's finished with four, and… the last… well.

"Hmm?" Kaoru looks up, noticing the sudden disappearance of his laptop. Suddenly he feels the impending presence of a certain twin by his side.

"Let's… do it together. Please?" the elder twin asks softly, treading on the words quietly, holding Kaoru's laptop under one arm. The two twins stare each other down a while.

Kaoru purses his lips into a frown, "Aren't you supposed to do the-"

"Finished."

"What about-"

"Done long ago," Hikaru reads his mind.

Kaoru is not in the least unnerved by this sudden acquisition of the ability to read his mind.

"And then the-"

"Having the servants fix it up," he reports concisely.

Kaoru rolls his eyes, "They're assistants. Not servants."

"Maids," he compromises.

"Well, then, go play," Kaoru massages his temple, the sunlight's getting to him.

Hikaru's the one who frowns now, "I'm not going to "go play" without you. Don't act like a mother hen, Kaoru."

"You don't want to go on that online site and "kill off everyone" again?" Kaoru raises a brow, but returns his eyes back down to his papers. Hikaru makes an annoyed noise, and sighs.

"Tch, no, it's only fun if you're around."

"Then-"

That snaps the last of Hikaru's patience.

"Kaoru," in an instant, Hikaru has his hand, rather, his fist crunching the front of Kaoru's shirt. Kaoru's eyes widen; this was one of the few times that Hikaru had ever resorted to violence to get his point across. Hikaru's voice deepens into a low growl, "Listen to me. When was the last time that we've ever spent some quality time away from the company and by ourselves?"

Kaoru only stares.

"Why are you trying to alone time by yourself? Why are you making me do something alone?" He's almost shouting this. His fist shakes; Kaoru doesn't know what to do. Hikaru's rightfully furious, "Kaoru, can't we just spend some time as brothers…?"

"Not as feigned lovers or cooperation heads… But you know… as brothers?" Hikaru really hopes he's not sounding as desperate as he seems.

Kaoru just stares. Not really thinking anything.

And then, there's silence.

If there was any awkward moments between the twins, it would be the above example. Where neither twins know how to reply or go on.

And somehow, somehow, it works out. Probably because of Kaoru's quote of "Hikaru first."

Kaoru nods, "If that's what you want…"

"Yeah," Hikaru confirms, not caring that he's pushing his wants on his brother again, "Together."

And then, Kaoru finds it amazingly easy sailing afterwards. Hikaru seems to know what search engine would work best, how to contact the seller and force more out of them (aka, haggling, which Kaoru doesn't really like doing) and his innate sense of placement. Coupled with Kaoru's more sensible reason (such as and not limited to, Hikaru's buying of fifty of each item) and styles of designs…

Well.

"Operation: renovate Hitachiin Mansion in one week, complete!" Hikaru waves his arms exaggeratedly in the air. Kaoru only sweat drops as the banners and multi-colored sprinkles fly around the mansion.

"We didn't make a plan out of that."

"I did!" Hikaru puffs his chest out proudly.

Kaoru, now finally looking through the entire lobby, drops his jaw, "Hikaru… how can you do that in a week?"

"I had the servants take care half of it. Like, you know, I tell them to call people, and run around the mansion screaming stuff, you know, etc, etc."

The younger twin doesn't have time to collect himself as Hikaru's in his face again.

"I wanna see your gardens! I haven't seen them, yet!"

"Well, you know…"

The southern most one, the one right up in front of the mansion was sprinkled with lavender and a western-styled garden, pebbled rocks adorning the trails.

"It's called Melody. If," Kaoru begins, pointing out towards the white arches flowered with vines, "-and when young ladies come, we can always dispose them here."

Hikaru just smiles, and drags his brother to the second plot of garden that he remembered to exist. In the small courtyard in the back.

"Aoi obviously a Japanese rock garden, Hikaru," Kaoru crosses his arms. "You don't need to tell me what it's about."

"There's another one here too, ne?"

"Koi pond; I just wanted a koi pond. We had one back home," Kaoru cut in. "I named it, Memory Pool."

Hikaru nods, understanding.

"Fourth?"

Suddenly, Kaoru sulks off into a corner, "Well, I put my own style at work since I ran out of styles that I know… And it sucks…"

"Sure, just keep telling yourself that-" Hikaru laughs, pushing open the metal gate. Just then, a wind of aromas assault his senses.

"Damn, Kaoru, this is-" he inhales, "Minty. Refreshing! Perfect!"

Kaoru just stalks in with half the enthusiasm that Hikaru has. "I'm pretty sure I screwed up on structure-"

"Are you kidding me!" Hikaru runs over onto a nearby white wooden swing, that falls down from a drooping branch. Bracing himself on the ropes, he jumps eagerly onto the white wood and propels himself happily.

In the background, Kaoru's still muttering about the imperfections. Hikaru tuned him out, until he heard, "I haven't even thought up of a good name for something weird like this."

"Ah! I know!" Hikaru hops off suddenly, sending the swing crashing into the bark, but that's not on Hikaru's mind right now. "Name it-"

"And then, there's the problem with the swing's proximity to the tree, 'causing immense damage to the bark-"

"Kaoru!"

"Yes?" he blinks. They stand in frozen animation, Kaoru waiting for Hikaru to say something.

"Kaoru," Hikaru pipes up cheerfully, "Name it, Kaoru."

"Isn't that being conceited?" Kaoru deadpans.

"No, no, it matches! This garden is full of scents, wonderful ones!" the elder says energetically, "And they remind me of you!"

"Well… kaoru does mean fragrant…" Kaoru thinks, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

"Kaoru and that's that!"

"Fine."

And… then? What about the last one?

"Last one? You've already seen it," Kaoru places his hands in his pockets and sighs. Hikaru's still looking at him like a eager puppy.

It's on the small hill, west of the estate, opposite Kaoru, the garden they both worked together on.

It's… in Kaoru's eyes, absolutely perfect. Blending of the lighting, and the fact that it's on the west only made sunsets all the more wonderful.

The warm red and orange colors… the beautiful wind…

"I love your gardens, Kaoru," Hikaru sighs blissfully, falling onto a bench near the side of the garden.

"Yeah, this one's great. It's nice," Kaoru's eyes lids, and he turns to smile smugly at his twin. "Like it?"

"Well," Hikaru sits up properly, staring almost seriously into his twin's eyes, a tint of playfulness, "Did you name it? I have a suggestion."

"What is it?"

"Sunset."

"Too boring," Kaoru deflects, taking a seat next to his brother. "Mine is better."

"We both had part in it, why can't I name it?" Hikaru frowns.

"I wanted… I wanted to name it," Kaoru says, almost distantly. Hikaru blinks, and balances his head with his hand.

"I wanted to name it Hikaru. It's not illegal, is it?" Kaoru adds, loving the look on Hikaru's face.

"Why are you naming it radiant?" Hikaru turns away from his brother, scoffing, but Kaoru isn't fazed.

"I'm not naming it because it's full of light. I wanted to name it after my wonderful brother who helped me make it," Kaoru amends, smiling. Hikaru softens, then looks down.

"Oh."

"Arigatou, Hikaru."

And that's where the fluff story ends. The one thing that brought them together again, that showed their inner feelings was that. Simply…

Garden.