"Kaoru?! Kaoru?!"

"…Hm..."

I heard my older brother sigh with relief. I felt his hands on my face, his thumbs making circles on my cheek bones. His warm breath was on my forehead, making me sweat. I knew he was there, but I couldn't see him. I could only feel him, hear him, smell him, and breathe him in. My eyes were fighting to open, to see him. My fifth sense was tingling, needing to be filled.

Suddenly I was cold. Hikaru's breath was gone, he wasn't talking, and his hands were no longer on my face. I was lost in blackness, without my other half. "Hikaru! Hikaru where'd you go? Please Hikaru, please come back! I can't do it, I…I can't…"

"Kaoru? Can't do what? Are you okay Kaoru?" My eyes flew open, and met an identical pair inches away. I blushed and looked away. What had just happened? Was I asleep, awake? He had heard me…begging for him…did he get it now?

"Uhm, no Hikaru…wait, where am I?" I'd only just seen the bright lights above my eyes, the strange blankness of the white walls. My fingers played with the light blue, extremely itchy fabric on top of me. I couldn't see anything past Hikaru except a big yellow wall of cloth.

"We're in the hospital, Kaoru."

"Hospital? Why, is somebody sick?"

Hikaru frowned, "You broke your ribs Kaoru. Why didn't you tell me? We could have gotten them patched up before you hurt yourself more."

It would have been simple, 'I didn't want to bother you Hikaru, you were already so busy, and I was fine.' Curse me. "I wasn't feeling any pain, I didn't know." I forced a smile, the one I forced in the Host Club.

He stood up and stared down at me, "You didn't know? You weren't in pain? Why are you lying to me? Kaoru you've been in a daze all morning, why didn't you tell me!?"

I looked away, searching for something to say. I heard him grind his teeth, heard him take a step back, saw him drop my jacket on the floor, and suddenly, felt his hand across my cheek.

It was a sharp pain, and it lingered there. He looked at his hand, then at me before running out the door.

I thought I might have seen a tear or two, but I was still in shock. Hikaru had hit me. He'd never hit me before! We'd never even argued…I could feel my own warm tears sliding down my stinging face.

As I reached up to wipe them away, I saw a window on the right side of the room. Glancing to the door every few steps I made my way across the floor. I was on the second story, above a tree and some bushes. Leaning out, I estimated how far away the tree was. Could I make it, if I jumped? I heard a thump in the hallway and slammed the window shut. I watched as a nurse in all white, just like the hospital, set a tray of food by my bed. Hadn't she noticed me by the window? She patted the lump of blankets on my bed and left the room.

That's when I saw my jacket on the floor again. I bent to pick it up and saw that there were spare clothes with it. Finally I realized I was in a hospital gown, backless, open fabric. Blushing at the thought of me being out in public with this on, I pulled on the orange army pants and grey sweatshirt. They smelled like tears.

My eyes filled up again and I wiped the sign of weakness away. Hikaru had hurt me, that bastard.

With the door locked and the window open again, I attempted to stretch out to the tree, avoiding my ribcage. The nearest limb didn't look like it was strong enough to hold my, so I stretched farther. Now my knees were on the window sill, reaching farther. I just grabbed the branch when I heard the screech of tires.

"Waaa-oomf!" I spluttered as I fell and hit the ground below. I was about to get up when I heard a familiar voice.

"Kao-Chan? Why would he be hanging out a window?"

"Who knows, senpai, but it looked exactly like him. Or Hikaru."

"Those two dopple-gangers must be up to something."

"Well wouldn't it be logical to go check the bushes instead of standing here."

The Host Club? Damn, where do I hide? I peered around the corner and saw a tiny patch of trees. Was it my imagination, or were they calling to me? I shook my head and dragged myself through the twisting, sharp twigs and branches of the near-dead bushes. I could hear their footsteps in the gravel behind me, and became panicky. I dug my nails into the earth and pulled harder. Finally I was out, and into the welcoming trees.

I watched them from behind the biggest one I could find. I almost felt guilty; they had been searching those bushes for at least thirty minutes. Then I heard the roll of thunder, and finally noticed the gray sky, which was getting darker. Haruhi was clutching to Tamaki's jacket like her life depended on it. They decided to call it quits when the first drop of rain hit Usa-chan. After their car left I sighed, where am I going to go? Turning to the rest of the trees, I decided I'd have to find shelter for the storm in the thicker part. I headed into the darkening forest.

It was strangely bright in the morning. I looked for any sign of what time it was, but I couldn't see the sun through the leaves. It smelled of rain, and I remembered just why I was here, under this forsaken rock in the middle of a forest. My hand felt the wrap around my abdomen as the tears came flooding back. Against my will, I actually broke down.

I cried.

It was pathetic, a lonely, skinny, hurting, half-boy crouching over a rock in the middle of nowhere, just crying.

It was more like sobbing. I'm not sure how long I was there, but when I finally regained control and stood up I could feel something in both my pockets. Reaching into my right one, I pulled out a watch. The watch Hikaru had given me after I'd slept in on my birthday.

More tears tried to force their way through but I wiped them away. In my back pocket was my wallet. Inside it was a fifty, a twenty, two tens, and seven ones, plus my credit card and ID. At least my brother was smart enough to give me something. The watch went on my wrist and my wallet went back into the pocket it had been in.

Now I actually looked at the time, 10 am. Figure its time to get moving then. After I figured out which was towards the hospital, I headed the opposite direction. It was almost an hour till I heard the sounds of human life. Peering out from the last tree, I saw a throng of people with bags and carts, rushing to stores I'd never heard of. I steppe out fully and a few people cast glances at me and continued hurrying along.

Today was a Sunday, didn't people take Sundays off?

I had started walking towards the crowd when I spotted something that made me stop dead: Haruhi Fujioka.

AUTHORS NOTES

Sorry for not updating in FOREVER! I had to think of something to move this along though, and what I had originally didn't work at all.

DISCLAIMER: obviously this is Bisco Hairori's (or whatever...)