My stomach did a flip and I dashed behind a trashcan. I watched her as she browsed the roadside stalls, stopping to examine a flower stand more closely. She picked through the multi-colored roses until she found the ones she was looking for. Standing up, she reached her hand into her bag and pulled out two dollars, which she handed to the elderly woman on the other side of the wooden counter. Then she reached down and plucked out the roses she had found. An orange and a blue. Smiling, she set them gently on the top of her bag.

My fingers clutched the sides of the trashcan. Orange and blue, me and Hikaru. Those were our colors. What was she trying to do?

I shook my head and peered around the can again. Haruhi was gone. Carefully, I stood and glanced around again. A few people gave me weird looks or held onto their children tighter, but there was no sign of Fujioka. I sighed and reluctantly joined the crowd.

As I walked down the street packed with commoners, I looked at all the stalls and signs in search of something to eat. Maybe something Italian, if a dinky little market like this had some. I passed a vegetable stand and glanced at the people in front of it. There was a little boy in a bright blue tee and cherry red baseball cap, and a woman about thirty and a plain pink shirt and floral skirt. Then there were the two girls with long black hair, identical in height, one wearing a green blouse and green plaid skirt, while the other wore the same thing in red. When they turned around, their faces were like mirror images of each other's. They were twins, identical twins.

Like Hikaru and me…

My eyes threatened to tear up again, and I could feel my throat start to tighten. There was no way I was going to break down here.

I bolted through the people and down an alley. My eyes were stinging and about to spill over. My heart was pounding and my hands clenched into fists. I hit the brick wall at the end of the side street, hard. There, in the dark and dank little corner, I crumpled to the ground and cried.

"Excuse me? Sir?"

My eyes flew open and met with beautiful, concerned green ones. The girl then stood up and offered me a hand. I took it and she helped me up.

Smiling, she said "I noticed you back in the market earlier. You must not be from around here, you seemed pretty lost. I thought I would come find you so I might be able to help." She looked me up and down, "You don't look so good Sir. Don't you have a home?"

"Not one I would like to go back to at the moment," I confessed. Then I recognized the severely slashed bangs, deep black hair, and red outfit. It was one of the twins from earlier. "What about you? Where's your family?"

"Oh they went home already."

"You're out here alone?" I inquired.

"So are you." she stated plainly.

She had a good point. I looked closely at her face, "How old are you?"

"Now…I'm…fifteen. I'm fifteen now." she smiled, looking at her watch. "My sister was fifteen half an hour ago."

"Happy birthday." I mumbled, also looking at my watch. It was already 5 pm. "Now if you don't mind, I have to go."

She gave me a weird look, "I thought you said you had nowhere to go."

I stopped dead, realizing she was right. Where was I going to spend the night? I hadn't seen any hotels nearby, and I wasn't going to room with some random commoner. I didn't want to crawl back under that awful rock, and I wasn't going to go to the hospital. And I definitely wasn't going to my house. I started to panic, thinking frantically of what I would do. But she cut into my thoughts.

"You could come and stay with me."

My mouth dropped open, "Excuse me?"

She smirked and rolled her eyes. "Not like that. I mean, my family owns a hotel a few miles away. You could get a room there."

I blushed, "Oh…yeah, that sounds like a good idea."

She smiled and her eyes lit up, "Its family movie night, maybe you can watch with us!" She turned and started running down the alley.

"Hey! Hey wait up!" I called after her, but she just turned around and kept running, backwards.

"Hurry up or I'm going to leave you!"

I rolled my eyes and started to chase after her. Soon enough, I was in front of her, stopped and waiting for her to catch up.

She panted and grinned, "You sure are… fast, Sir. You… knocked two miles… off the trip." She bent over and caught her breath, "Maybe we can walk from here?"

I sat down and looked at her, "After we rest for a second." I looked around and spotted a fountain. "Here, come get some water." I dragged her over to the fountain and placed my hands in the water.

"I wouldn't drink that."

"Neither would I. This isn't for drinking." I took my hands out and put them on my forehead and neck, "It's for cooling down."

She looked at me for a few seconds before doing the same thing. "What's your name, Sir?"

"Kaoru. Kaoru Hitachiin. And you don't have to call me 'Sir'. I'm only a year older than you."

She tapped her lip, "Hitachiin, ey? My friend knows a Hitachiin. He went to the hospital recently, broke his ribs somehow. He has a twin brother, too."

"Heh…what a coincidence..." I looked away, "What's your name?"

"Kaori Akita."

Kaoru…Kaori…

"Nice to meet you Kaori. Are you rested enough now to go?"

Kaori grinned, "Kaori and Kaoru." She laughed.

It's like she read my mind.

"Yes, I'm ready to go. Oh, by the way, my friend, the one who knows a Hitachiin, she's also staying at the hotel. Her name is Haruhi. Haruhi Fujioka."

My jaw dropped.

Oh. Crap.

AUTHORS NOTES

Maybe NOW I will update weekly. I've been extremely preoccupied lately, sorry.

Disclaimer - Bisco