Me and Jo haven't updated in a while, sorry about that. We have many excuses that I'm sure you all don't want to hear, so we shall go forth with the chapter. We hope people are still interested in this fanfiction and thank you to everyone who has followed this story whether since the beginning or just recently.
Thank you to Gingiie666, cartoonstar, stars fall at midnight, iridescent bookworm, Girl-in-the-tiger-kimono, I-think-me-needs-help and Mina Hoshi for reviewing.
Hikaru's POV
"Hikaru! Stop fidgeting!" Kaoru looked up from his newspaper, glaring at me. He's at the other end of the large plush sofa to me, and every time I move his face frowned.
"I'm sorry Kaoru. I just can't seem to get comfortable on this sofa. Is it new?"
"No Hikaru." He sighed, obviously exasperated. "We've had this sofa since we were five, its vintage! What's going on with you?"
The problem… the problem. The problem was that I was nervous. Well, not nervous, but anxious and terrified. Haruhi had called this morning from Tamaki's phone and said she was going to be coming round this afternoon and that we needed to talk. At this point, I dropped my phone into the tank of tropical fish in mine and Kaoru's room. I texted her (from my new phone, that's 2 new phones in one week!) that my phone cut off for some reason, and that I'll see her later. I decided that I don't want to think about what she's going to say, though despite that all I've done since this morning was think about it.
I thought it could go one of two ways: worst case scenario would be that she said she didn't want to be with me because Tamaki meant more to her and she loved him and our relationship was just a crazy holiday fling and that we should forget about it. Then our friendship would become awkward and I'd never talk to her again.
But I was hoping for something a little better than that. The best thing she could say would be that she said our fling in Greece had really meant something to her and that she didn't want it to end and that she had broken it off with Tamaki so she could be with me. Then Tamaki probably would never talk to me, but we weren't that close anyway… He wouldn't just chuck me out the Host Club again right?
Kaoru sighed and finally put down his newspaper, looking me in the eyes.
"Hikaru are you alright, you haven't spoken much since Greece?" Trust Kaoru to know something's wrong, he probably already knows what's going on, but hasn't mentioned anything.
"Not really… Kaoru, something happened in Greece." I sighed leaning my head back against the sofa, and massaging my temples, ever since we'd got back my head seemed to be constantly beating like a drum, as if my body was purposely trying to annoy me.
Kaoru suddenly smiled out me, his big smile that I only ever see him do when it's just us two, his smile that doesn't hint at being fake or cheeky, it's his brotherly smile, and it seemed almost sad.
"Hikaru, I know something's going on with you and Haruhi and I thought something might happen for a while now," his smile grew a little sadder, "I've known, I think perhaps before even you did that you liked her."
I stared at Kaoru for a while unsure what to say or think before I shuffled over and leant against his shoulder, smelling his familiar smell, similar and yet distinctly different to mine.
"I don't know what to do Kaoru…" I muttered, "I don't know if she likes me as much as I like her, I don't know if what happened in Greece even meant as much to her as it did to me, I don't know if she still wants to be with Tamaki and I kind of can't help but feel like Greece was a dream, like it never happened."
Kaoru chuckled, and I sat up, poking my tongue out at him.
"You sound so melodramatic; I mean since when did we join a soap opera?" I scowled back in reply. "But seriously Hikaru just go after Haruhi if you want her, although why you had to do it once she started going out with Senpai I don't know, and if she rejects you I want you to promise me you won't give up like it's the end of the world, we can all meet someone we really truly want to be with, no matter how many trials it takes."
"Now who's being melodramatic?" I asked my twin, not avoiding any opportunity to tease him after his attack, "Anyway why are you suddenly giving speeches about love and whatnot, what made you such an expert… unless oooh!"
"What?" asked Kaoru, feigning innocence.
"You met a girl didn't you?" I said grinning, why I hadn't seen it before I'm not sure, I must have been too wrapped up in my own thoughts, and although Kaoru was shaking his head his cheeks turned an interesting shade of pink. "So what's her name? Where'd you meet her? How pretty is she? What's she like?"
"She's called Ami and I met her at the hospital and she pretends to be really scary." I laugh at my brother's reply.
"What does she look like?"
"Well she has long black hair and pretty blue eyes and a nurse's uniform-" I wiggled my eyebrows at that and Kaoru gave me a 'don't go there' look.
"So what do you know? We've both fallen for peasants! What will mother say?"
Kaoru snorted. "Mother will not care; as long as she can dress them up like dolls I think she'll be fine."
I glanced quickly at the clock, and nearly had a heart attack as I noticed the time.
"Kaoru, Haruhi's supposed to be here any minute!"
"I'll clear out then," He muttered, I open my mouth to protest, before realising this was one of those things I just had to do alone, "I'm going out, good luck, don't say anything too stupid."
I smiled and hugged him tightly before watching him go off, probably to stalk that girl he fancies. Without Kaoru the room feels empty and too hot and I began to pace around. Eventually I leaned out of the window for a bit of air. I breathed in deeply, thankful for the cool breeze caressing my cheeks, helping me to calm down. I stare out across the city, looking at all the classic oriental buildings scattered amongst the tall modern skyscrapers that shape the skyline.
Bzzzz….Bzzzzz…..
My phone rang from my pocket and I pulled it out at arm's length, out of the window so I could see who was calling. The glare of the sunshine hit my screen reflecting into my eyes and almost blinded me, causing my hands to slip from the phone and the phone to tumble into the street below.
All I could do was watch it fall, but then I saw someone strolling beneath me towards my apartment block, right underneath the falling phone. I panicked, worried that my phone would hit the passing pedestrian and I'd get sued for thousands!
"Hey! Whose is this phone?" I heard Haruhi's voice from the street. Oh my God. I'd hit my possible future girlfriend on the head with a phone. Tamaki would kill me if she gt injured.
"Haruhi?" I screamed back down.
"Hikaru, I could've guessed! I caught your phone, I'll be right up." I laughed, glad that Haruhi was okay and that I didn't have to buy another phone. I fixed myself a drink of tea, and offered one to Haruhi once she came up, who declined.
"So I told him, 'I'm sorry Tamaki, I just can't do this anymore, I have to study!" She did hand gestures to emphasise her point, and had wide eyes and a loud voice. She wasn't really acting like herself, but after a break up with The Womanizer, she was probably shaken up. "But you know, I was thinking, we could now date in secret."
I coughed tea down my jumper making her chuckle, also making her look seriously sexy.
"What?" I spluttered, finally, "I love what we have Haruhi, and I'd love for it to continue, but I don't just want us to be secret, I want us to be a proper couple."
"We will be a proper couple, just without anyone knowing…" Her sexy face drooped, her smile wilted into a frown.
"We can't hide forever just because you're afraid of Tamaki." I grasped her hand in mine, showing that I supported her. But I couldn't just be something in the background of her life. "I think this could be special Haruhi."
"And I do too but…" she hesitated, "It's not that I'm afraid of Tamaki…"
"Are you ashamed of me?" I am shocked and I stare into her beautiful round eyes, trying to pry the truth out of her.
"I just think that we shouldn't shock Tamaki," I gave a puzzled look, she continued, "Be honest with yourself Hikaru, this was just a heat of the moment thing, it might not go anywhere, so I think we should just see if there could be something between us before we tell everyone. Just try this out. You and me."
She had a point. Not the best argument, but if it meant I could be with her, then I'd go with it I supposed.
"So…we're a couple now?" I ask, still not quite knowing where she was going with it all.
"If that's what you want, then yes. We are a couple."
I moved towards her closing the gap between us, my trousers slightly squeaked on the leather sofa, making me cringe. She bowed her head in thought, but I lifted up her chin with my hand and got her to look me in the eye.
"It's definitely what I want." I leaned in further and touched my lips to hers.
Haruhi's POV
Earlier that day I gathered all the members of the host club, except Hikaru and Tamaki, at my apartment, I felt I needed to be honest with them.
"So I need to tell you guys something," I had said, finally summoning up the courage after a silence and more exclamations over my so called commoner dwelling. "Whilst I was in Greece-"
"Haruhi we all know you're having an affair with Hikaru, I had a girl keeping tabs on you during your stay," said a slightly amused Kaoru. "It was obvious," He added as an afterthought.
I took a moment to wonder who the girl was, briefly considering that creepy stalker Hikaru had gained, before noticing the expressions of the people around me. None of them even seemed concerned, except Mori who was glaring at the floor.
"Mori are you alright?" I asked, wondering what could be upsetting the usually calm Mori.
"It's because you haven't had anything to say in this whole fanfiction, isn't it?" Asked Kaoru fearfully.
Mori shook his head, looking at me as he spoke "I'm worried."
"Takashi is worried about what's going to happen now Haru chan has to pick between Tama chan and Hika chan," Clarified Honey.
"Yeah," Cut in Kaoru, who was lounging on the sofa "If you break it to Tamaki then you'll probably scar him forever, after all he broke the spell he has with the host club so he could go out with you."
He received many a strange look from this statement.
"Never mind. And if you dump Hikaru then he might never trust anyone again. You're the first person to come into our world Haruhi, what if you're the last?"
What have I done? I thought, with all the guilt of the past few weeks coming to the surface again.
Kyoya what do you think?" I asked the shadow King who was scribbling on his clipboard. "What are you writing on there?"
Kyoya quickly turned the clipboard upside down onto the table next to him. "Oh, this and that," He said vaguely, "The main problem at hand here is your situation, usually I wouldn't care either way, but I personally think you should choose Tamaki."
"What about Hikaru!" Interrupted a defensive Kaoru, who did not see why his twin should lose out.
Kyoya continued as though Kaoru had not spoken "Tamaki will have no one to turn to if you break up with him, he shall take it very harshly and may disband the host club, where as Hikaru has Kaoru to rely on."
"But doesn't Tama Chan have you?" chimed in Honey.
Kyoya raised an eyebrow, "Can you really see me comforting anyone?"
Haruhi tried to picture a sympathetic Kyoya who was hugging a crying Tamaki and saying gently 'there there', but it didn't quite come together.
There was a silence before Honey had spoken up softly "Maybe you shouldn't think about what everyone else wants Haru chan, but what you want."
"What a ridiculous notion!" Said Kyoya from behind his clipboard, who clearly did not consider my opinion too important.
I ignored Kyoya and thought. What did I want? I loved both the boys for different reasons. Something drew me to Hikaru, but the thought of anything hurting Tamaki made me shrivel up inside. But thing was, I had already been selfish enough creating this mess, I needed to think of something that would leave both of them happy.
And that's when I thought, why not?
"If I can't pick between them. I'll just have to date both of them!"
I heard Kaoru say something along the lines of "For an intelligent girl, she comes up with really stupid ideas" but I was already too caught up in my idea to listen.
I had already talked to Hikaru and I feel bad about lying to him, but after talking to the host club I see I can't choose between them, and it wouldn't be fair on either of them. So now I just had to get Tamaki to agree to pretty much the same thing.
Kaoru's POV
The hospital towered before me, white, spotless and foreboding. It wasn't that it was a large; in fact it was rather small seeing as only the rich could afford to go there, it just had that atmosphere to it. Or maybe it was my imagination. I began to wonder why I was here of all places. But I really did have no one to talk to; Haruhi, Tamaki and Hikaru were all involved. So for the first time in my life I couldn't talk to my twin about a problem. Kyoya was bias, because although he denied it, he was very fond of Tamaki. And Mori and Honey preferred talking amongst themselves. I needed an outsider's opinion and I was very limited when it came to that.
So taking a deep breath in, I walked into the hospital trying to decide how to play it: calm and arrogant? No, that would just drive her away. Humble and kind? Yeah right. I had no chance to make up my mind as my feet betrayed me and I was already in front of the desk at reception; I cleared my throat to catch the receptionist's attention.
"Hello, I am Kaoru Hitachiin." I made sure put an emphasis on the surname. "And I would like to visit a nurse called Ami, though I'm not sure what her last name is."
The receptionist raised her eyebrows, and sighed. "You cannot visit a nurse whilst she's working, and I cannot give out any of her information, it's confidential."
"It's urgent." I nodded, trying to seem as serious as possible.
"Sorry sir, I cannot support your stalking, please leave before I call security."
"Hey! Who are you calling a stalker?" I was preparing myself to explain the exact situation with as much references to my world famous mother as possible, when I spotted Ami out of the corner of my eye. "Don't think this is the last of me!" I narrowed my eyes at her before half running to Ami, trying to reach her but still trying to seem cool.
"Ami!"
She turned around, and for a moment I was worried that she would yell at me and call me a stalker, but instead she broke into a smile. "Ahh look who turned up, like a bad penny."
"Yeah it's me," I rubbed the back of my neck awkwardly, even though I choose to come see her I felt suddenly shy and awkward, I tried to banish that as much as possible, "where are you headed to now? If it's your lunch break I could treat you to something?" I trailed off.
She looked at me suspiciously and I tried to look as innocent as possible. "Eh, why not."
I simply smiled at her, choosing not to start any banter. I'd found myself thinking about her a lot since I left the hospital, which made me nervous but I was trying not to let that show. I took her to one of the less expensive restaurants I'd eaten at before with the family, but still she looked nervously at the price list.
"Are you sure this is alright? I don't want to feel indebted to you or anything."
"It's nothing," I said waving an arm. And it really was, it was strange sometimes to think of what it would be like to have to worry about money. We ordered the food, with her glancing at the clock every few minutes.
"I have to be back on shift in an hour," she explained, "so have you been staying out of trouble without me to help?"
I smirked. "Who me? Getting into trouble, never."
"Right," She answered, mirroring my smirk, "so why did you ask me out to lunch?" she balanced an elbow on the table and leaned into her hand sending me a suspicious look, "is this a date?"
I thought it over, wondering why Ami insisted on thinking everyone had ulterior motives, even if I maybe slightly did. "Only if you want it to be."
"Let's just stay friends for now," I nodded, if that was what she was comfortable with, it was nice to have an actual name for our relationship. "I mean I know you're secretly in love with me and all that but-" I stuck my tongue out at her childishly, and she kicked me under the table in retort.
"So how are things with Hikaru?"
I picked up my glass of water and smiled into it, it was almost as if she could read my mind. "I kind of came to you about that for advice actually. All my friends are involved with the situation, and I wanted someone else's opinion, and the only person I could really think of was you." And with that I went onto describe the whole affair and the delicate structure of the host club in between bites of food.
At the end of my babble I looked to see if she was still listening and she was, she seemed pretty interested actually. "Sorry for unloading that on you." I said sheepishly.
"It's fine, I have to listen to a lot of stuff as nurse, and I guess we're friends now so, friends share," I smiled at that, it was so long since I'd had a friend out of the host club, and I'd definitely never had a friend I didn't share with Hikaru, it was a strange thought. "That girl, Haruhi, needs to make up her mind though; it's not fair to lead other people in a relationship even if you think you're protecting them,"
She had that strange tone to her voice that she got sometimes, like she was talking from past experience, I figured it was best not to ask seeing as she could get so defensive.
"I think you should confront Haruhi and get her to choose, get Tamaki and Hikaru to agree that whoever she chooses they'll try not to create too much tension at this club thing, you sound like you're all good friends so you don't want to let this come between that."
I took on board her advice and started to consider how I'd use it to put a plan of action into place when Ami saw the time and a stream of profanities came streaming out her mouth, causing her to receive glares from nearby scandalised diners.
"I'm going to be late for my shift!" She said standing up abruptly, I quickly paid and we left in a hurry. "If I run I may get there on time." She muttered.
"Wait, before you run, here's my phone number." I took out a business card from my pocket, I always carried them around, you never know when you might need one.
She gave me a look I'd seen before, from both her and Haruhi, a 'damn you rich people' one.
"Thanks for the meal, I had a surprisingly good time." She reached up and gave me a quick hug, just long enough for me to smell the waft of apples. Next thing I knew she was racing down the street and I had a stupid smile on my face.
