Most people would be shocked if they found out they had almost run over a possible long lost twin they had never heard of or seen before.
"Nah, he's uglier than me."
Hikaru is not "most people".
"Are you serious?" Aoi snapped, standing up and shoving the I.D. in his face, arguing, "You look exactly the same, you're the same height, same weight, and even your names are similar!"
Hikaru narrowed his eyes, countering, "But his last name isn't Hitachiin, he's just some poor kid, and I'm pretty sure I would know by now if I had a twin."
"Of course he has a different last name, he's probably adopted. And if you grew up without him and your mother never told you, then there's no possible way you would know!" She rubbed her temples, the I.D. still in her hand, asking, "Is this just you're way of dealing with the shock, or something?" Hikaru stayed silent, focusing on the still unconscious look-alike.
All his life, he had been alone. His mother was a top fashion designer and constantly traveling, and his father, well; his father didn't have much presence, so if he had been around he hadn't noticed. The maids and butlers who took care of him were practically robots, only doing what they were ordered to, and nothing more. Hikaru had no attachments to the world, and grew up thinking the people around him were play things, something to keep him entertained.
His system of thinking to keep himself from getting hurt meant the world was split up into only two parts: him and not him. Him being Hikaru, and not him being everyone else, who he couldn't care less about.
But a twin? Where would he fit? Technically, he was an exact copy of Hikaru, but he still wasn't Hikaru, and therefore he didn't fit in either group. It messed with his cynical view on the world, and Hikaru didn't like it.
"I don't care. Let's just drop him off at wherever he lives and pretend this never happened."
Aoi stared at him, watching as Hikaru made his way back to the limo. His voice seemed so tense and serious for once, almost angry. She didn't know how he wasn't the least bit excited about this, or at least wanting to get to the bottom of whether this really was a twin that was separated at birth. She sighed, looking at the student I.D. "Kaoru Ikeda," she whispered, looking at the unconscious boy. "Well, Kaoru Ikeda, you're going to help Hikaru become human."
After loading Kaoru and his bag into the car, and Aoi calling a few of her higher-ups to figure out his address, the three were on their way to a commoner's apartment complex, the car ride silent and tense.
Hikaru switched between staring out the window bitterly and staring at Kaoru in disgust, who had been lain on the seats across Aoi and him. Aoi bit her lip, not putting it past him to roll down his window and toss Kaoru back into the street.
"Ugh…what happened…?"
Aoi and Hikaru's eyes widened as they watched Kaoru slowly rise up into a sitting position, rubbing the back of his head. When Kaoru realized he wasn't at home or on the road, his eyes widened as well, and he looked between Aoi and Hikaru. "Where am I?"
"Where you don't belong."
"Hikaru…" Aoi warned, managing to silence him with a glare. She turned back to Kaoru, telling him, "We, uh, seemed to accidentally hit you when you walked into the street. You look fine, though, and we're taking you home."
"Oh." Kaoru had almost said "thank you", out of habit and politeness, but figured he didn't want to give them the idea that he actually enjoyed almost being run over by limousines. He stared at Hikaru in amazement, realizing something.
Hikaru took notice after an awkward minute, and glared at the other boy, growling, "What?"
"We really do look exactly the same."
"Hardly; I'm fabulous and you look like you just rolled out of bed."
"Concerning that," Aoi told Kaoru, deciding to ignore Hikaru all together, "I was wondering if, perhaps, Kaoru, you knew if you were, um… well, not of your mother's and father's-"
"-Adopted? Yeah, I am. So?" It was a rather touchy subject for him, although his parents had told him several years ago, when he was entering middle school; it was partially responsible for the empty feeling he had. At the young age, he had taken the news rather hard, although he had already suspected it, considering no one else in his adopted family had red or auburn hair or amber eyes. Still, the idea that his own mother didn't want him hurt, and whenever the subject was brought up he got rather defensive.
Realizing where Aoi was heading with this, Kaoru's stunned expression returned. He trailed off, "You don't think…?"
"I'm fairly certain at this point, actually."
Kaoru opened his mouth to protest, but closed it, realizing there was no arguing with the inevitable. Their names, height, weight, face; everything lined up perfectly.
They were twins.
Aoi sighed, telling the two, "I'm going to ask Mrs. Hitachiin, Hikaru's mother, to confirm this. Kaoru, I realize this is a lot, but try not to let this get in the way of your everyday life."
The limousine came to a halt, signaling that they had arrived at Kaoru's apartment. He slowly picked up his school bag and opened the door, revealing a few neighbors milling around outside, whispering about the high-class vehicle. Before Kaoru could close the door, Aoi held out a business card, saying, "My name's Aoi, by the way; I'm Hikaru's personal assistant. Here's my number, in case you need anything. We'll notify you when we confirm if you really are related."
Kaoru took the card, reading the simple name, number, and fax. He looked back at Aoi, mustering up a half smile. "Thanks." Not knowing what else to do and wanting to go back to normal life, he closed the limousine door, ignoring his neighbor's gossiping and heading up the stairs to his apartment door.
"Thank god that commoner is out of here," Hikaru muttered. "He was starting to foul up the air."
"How can you say something like that about your own twin?" Aoi was genuinely shocked at his outburst, not sure how he could be so cruel to the young man who could be a close relative.
Hikaru, on the other hand, didn't see him as such. Kaoru messed with his system, and was therefore just a glitch, a fluke. "I don't like him, and it's clear he doesn't like me. Even if we are twins, there's no way in hell I'd want anyone else to know."
"…Do you want to know?"
He hesitated in answering. Aoi seemed uncharacteristically gentle, and it made him uncomfortable to have someone try and get close to him, to understand what he was feeling. He had set up these mental and emotional walls, and now there were threats of them tumbling down. "I don't care," he finally decided, hiding his uneasiness, "Ask my mom if you want, I doubt she'll admit to it."
Aoi frowned, but didn't press the subject further, knowing she wasn't going to get anywhere with it. He was so anti-social, to the point where he was downright cold to his own twin brother.
Whether he liked it or not, she was going to fix that.
Kaoru flopped onto his bed, thankful that his parents were both still working. It would give him another hour or two to decide if he wanted to broach the subject, and if yes, then how. Honestly, he wanted to pretend none of this ever happened. Life wasn't going to be simple if he was related to that conceited singer.
Still, he might leave him alone. It was clear Hikaru wanted nothing to do with him, and Kaoru was willing to comply. They would find out if they were twins, tie that up and never speak to each other again, going on pretending they had never met.
However, for once, the empty feeling wasn't haunting him. It was lightening, to the point that Kaoru noticed. He sighed, rolling onto his back and covering his eyes with his hands, blocking out the rest of the world. He didn't want to think about this. On one note he was happy, to know that he had a twin, someone he could be close with.
But why, of all people, did it have to be Hikaru Hitachiin?
And then they never spoke to each other again. The End. /brick'd
I'm glad that so many people like this story so far, and I'm really honored with all your compliments. On that cheerful note, I'm going to be attempting to update all my stories on Monday, every week. I think it'll be good practice and force me to write more.
Until next time, read and enjoy!