Give Compliments

It was officially the first day of winter.

Well, according to the calendar, the first day had actually been a week ago, but today was the first day the Hitachiin twins deemed it cold enough to wear coats.

Therefore, no matter what some rubbish calendar said, today was officially the first day of winter.

"Ne, Hikaru, why do we even bother with coats if we only walk from the car to the school?"

"That's three minutes of avoided chill, Kaoru, and you know what Tono always says. Wrap up because… 'cause… uh… well, you know."

"'Wrap up because even the handsomest of gentleman are affected by the harsh winds of winter'?"

"Yeah. That. And anyway, Mom wants us to promote the new winter range, doesn't she?"

"Great. Now I feel like a walking doll."

"At least it's not girl's clothes… Ah! There's Haruhi!"

Hikaru instantly dropped the conversation to wave madly at the short brunette, who was just crossing the school's elaborate entrance. Haruhi blinked blearily at the two and, after a short pause, waved slowly back.

"Come over here, Haru!" Hikaru yelled to her, a puppy-style grin splattered over his face as he carried on enthusiastically waving an arm.

"Ow." Kaoru mumbled, rubbing his ear and giving his brother an eye roll. "Don't yell right next to my ear like that, Hikaru."

"Heh, sorry Kaoru." Hikaru sniggered, tracing a finger delicately around the rim of his ear for the benefit of a few host club customers who had been peering over (they all fell into mad giggles of moe).

"Uh. Do you want me to walk on?" Kaoru went on, glancing pointedly at Haruhi. He looked almost weary as he blatantly ignored the older twin's prompt for their usual 'brotherly-love' dramatics.

Hikaru frowned at him and thoughtfully shoved his hands back inside the deep pockets of his (expensive) coat; Kaoru seemed to be acting rather subdued today.

In fact, Hikaru realized with a jolt, he's been acting weird for a few days now. Eh, I thought he just quiet because… wait. Actually, I don't know. Why don't I know?!

Shocked at his own lapse in his 'big brother duties', Hikaru was about to demand to know what was wrong when Haruhi appeared next to them, bundled up in a (cheap) coat and (an even cheaper) scarf.

"Good morning, Hikaru. Good morning, Kaoru." She mumbled into the scruffy fabric of her scarf, glancing at them both before averting her eyes and becoming very interested in a loose thread on her coat.

"G'morning." They chirped back as one (Hikaru decided that if Kaoru could 'chirp', then his 'big brother duties' could wait until that night before he wrestled the truth out of him).

As Kaoru absentmindedly picked the thread off Haruhi's coat (a habit), Hikaru blinked at her, having suddenly remembered why he had been so enthusiastic to see her in the first place.

The reason was, of course, the list.

'Give compliments.'

However, now he thought about it, it wasn't as easy as he first made it out to be. The challenge wasn't actually giving the compliment (all of the host club members regularly launched themselves at her and yelled about how 'cute' and 'pretty' she was) but giving Haruhi a compliment she would actually take seriously (as a consequence, Haruhi now ignored them whenever they told her how cute she was).

Frowning, Hikaru gave Haruhi a critical look, trying to find something different about her today that he could compliment.

Her coat?

But he instantly scrapped that idea as he looked disdainfully at her musky coat that was frumpy in all the wrong places. As the son of a top fashion designer, he didn't think he could live with himself if he had to compliment it.

This would be so much easier if I could just say she looked cute… 'cause she does… Ah! Quit blushing you moron!

As Hikaru mentally insulted himself, Kaoru was picking another loose thread from the offending coat, giving her a chiding look which she promptly ignored (her argument; the coat was warm and what else do you want a coat for?).

"Your nose looks cold, Haruhi." Kaoru randomly observed as the three made their way to the school building (Hikaru was now going through an internal list of what coat's in his mother's winter line would look good on Haruhi).

"Well, yeah." She paused to bury her face in the scarf again. "I got up too early so I decided to walk to school instead of going on the train…"

"…That sounds kinda dumb. You worrying too much about that test again?"

"Oh! Y-yeah! The math test… It's only 15 days away, isn't it? Only two weeks…"

Kaoru raised an eyebrow (both at her stuttered answer and the fact she knew exactly how many days it was until their test) when Hikaru suddenly looked up and made a noise as though he was about to announce something.

They both stared at him.

Hikaru stared at Haruhi and promptly forgot what he was saying.

"Uh… um… N-never mind…"

"…You've been quiet, Hikaru." Haruhi pointed out, unusually soft as they began slowly walking up the entrance steps; usually the older twin would be talking her ear off right now.

He made a weird half-nodding, half-shrugging gesture before glancing awkwardly at her and, feeling so expected to say something, simply blurted out the first thing that came to his head.

"I hate that coat!"

Haruhi blinked.

"What? My coat?" She looked down at it, a genuinely confused frown coming to her face. "Why?"

"It's the ugliest thing I've ever seen." Hikaru stated bluntly, before he could stop himself (Kaoru rolled his eyes).

Haruhi sighed at how fashion-conscious her friends were; it wasn't as if she had a particularly bad fashion sense, but she rated practicality much higher than appearances. Apparently, none of her friends shared the same view. "It's not that bad." Haruhi reasoned.

And, of course, Hikaru immediately had to correct her.

"Yes it is! Where did you get it?"

"Where…? I don't remember the exact shop I got it from, Hikaru. I think it was on sale somewhere last year."

"Last year?! You can't wear a coat after that long!"

"Why not?"

"You just can't!" He stared at her in frustration as she looked uncaringly down it; he suddenly vowed that he would get her better clothes if it killed him; and get her wearing them too. He knew her Father bought her cute clothes… so why didn't she ever bother wearing them?

"I'm buying you a new one." Hikaru stated firmly.

"Please don't-"

"And a new scarf too." He added, on a roll. "That one doesn't even match."

Haruhi sighed again, deciding not to even bother arguing with someone who bought headphones that cost several hundred pounds on a whim. As they got into the inner foyer, she (to the twin's relief) finally slipped it off, tucking it neatly under her arm until they reached the lockers.

Hikaru suddenly remembered he was supposed to be slipping a compliment in somewhere and turned back to Haruhi, mouth hanging open as though he expected the words to come tumbling out on their own. Haruhi glanced over at him again, as did Kaoru (who had now worked out what his brother was trying to do), looking amused.

"Uh…" He began.

I love your eyes. Your hair looks soft and smells of strawberry shampoo. Your hands are small and cute.

But none of Hikaru's observations (he couldn't help thinking that Tamaki would've thought of slighter more elaborate compliments) made it fully formed to his mouth and all that came out was;

"Your hair… smells… cute…"

Haruhi blinked. "My hair smells cute?"

Hikaru's ears began to flush red as he desperately tried to save himself. "Um! Like… nice?"

"Oh." Haruhi paused to consider this (trying not to wonder why Hikaru was smelling her hair in the first place) while Kaoru bit his fist to contain the peals of laughter at his twin's spluttering attempt at seriously complimenting her.

"Thank you... I think." Haruhi answered hesitantly, before, feeling obligated to, glancing back at Hikaru. "You look…" But some reason, she suddenly turned awkward and quickly glanced away again. "Uh, different. Yeah, um, I'm going to my locker now…"

And with that, Haruhi hurried off, leaving a very confused Hitachiin in her wake.

As Hikaru froze, trying to work out whether that was a compliment or not, Kaoru stared after her; he looked slightly surprised and thrown-off, as though he'd just worked something out he didn't know how to react to.

Finally his eyes darkened slightly and a small frown plucked at his lips.

Things, it seemed, had changed. Already.

But Kaoru didn't care. In fact, he wanted things to change. Because change was good. For Hikaru. And for him.

Change was good. Right?

Right.

Hikaru suddenly exploded into his vision with a tragic look of desperation splattered over his face.

"Kaoru!" He wailed, confusion written all over him, "What does 'different' mean? Do I have bed head?!"

Kaoru blinked. "No."

"Do I have spots?"

"None that I can see."

"Have I suddenly turned ugly?!"

"…That's not something you ask your identical twin…"

Suddenly adamant that that was the reason, Hikaru proceeded to turn on some unsuspecting girls from the twin's class and randomly demanding to know whether they thought he had suddenly turned ugly or not. And, of course, they all giddily (and with many a batted eyelash) insisted that 'you look as handsome as ever, Hikaru!'.

Kaoru glanced at his watch and, after giving Haruhi's direction a last thoughtful look, slowly hooked a finger under the collar of his panicking brother's coat.

"Come on, Hikaru." He mumbled, tugging him away from the highly amused girls. "We're going to be late."

--That night--

"…"

"…"

"…"

"…Ng…"

"…"

"That's it. Kaoru, what the hell are you thinking about?!"

"Huh?"

"I can't get to sleep if you're just lying there like that; what are you thinking about?"

"I'm not thinking about anything, Hikaru."

"Don't lie. I know when you're lying."

"…"

"Kaoru! Jeeze, tune me in already!"

"…Hikaru… what if Haruhi likes you back?"

"Huh?"

"You'll be spending all your time with her then, ne?"

"What are you talking about?"

"I guess it's just…a weird feeling."

"She doesn't- I mean- Even if that happened, I would never leave you, Kaoru. Is that what you're thinking about?"

"…Ng…"

"Idiot, you're too important to me for me to leave you-"

"But it won't always be like that, will it Hikaru? It'll change."

"…huh?"

"You love Haruhi. A lot, right?"

"…Tha-"

"I'm only your brother."

"…Kaoru, look…"

"It's fine by me, Hikaru."

"Kao-"

"I'm going to sleep now; goodnight, Hikaru."

There was a few seconds of silence.

Hikaru sighed in complete irritation.

Kaoru suddenly felt added warmth to his bed as someone slipped under the covers; the next second his face was roughly grabbed and pulled round to face identical eyes, crinkled with a glare.

"Why are you talking like that? You were the one trying to get me to confess to her a few hours ago."

"I know."

"Then what are you talking about?"

"I dunno…"

"I'll never forget about you, Kaoru. You're my twin. I need you."

"Yeah… I'm sorry…I was just…"

"Just what?"

"Thinking…"

"Then don't think, stupid."

The corners of Kaoru's mouth twitched.

"You do realize that makes no sense, don't you Hikaru?"

"It does."

"What are you doing anyway?"

"I'm sleeping here tonight."

And with that, Hikaru grabbed one of Kaoru's pillows stubbornly and closed his eyes in a very final sort of way. Kaoru felt himself smile fondly.

"I love you, Hikaru."

"I love you too, so stop being stupid."

"And I'll stop that by not thinking, correct?"

"Yeah."

Kaoru laughed softly and finally fell back into bed and into his big brother's arms that opened at just the right second to envelope him.

Hikaru pulled him closer almost stubbornly and mumbled into his hair. "Some things don't change Kaoru. Never ever. I'll still love you even if… uh… even if…" he paused, trying to think of a wild enough example. "If you… shave all your hair off and become a monk."

"…Not likely."

"Good. I'd still love you an' all, but that would be kind of weird."

Kaoru laughed again.

He knew he was being childish; he wanted so badly for Hikaru to be with the one he loved yet the closer they became, the lonelier he felt. But it wasn't as if they had pushed him out, was it? Wasn't it the case that in fact all three of them had become closer? Just in different ways? Change had always been a prospect that had terrified him when he stopped to think about it, but it wasn't really a bad thing, was it?

Change was good.

Well.

As long as some things never changed. Ever.

Kaoru slowly wrapped his arms around his twin, his eyes slowly closing.

He was sure he'd find someone to love like that one day; someone he could have all to himself. But he was in no hurry. He could wait years and years and be perfectly happy as long as his twin could smile too.

That was all he needed.

He had more than enough love, right here, just like this.

Kaoru's such a sweetie :3 I hope you don't mind how I portrayed him :s A lot of fics sort of put Kaoru on this desperate 'I must find lurve!' angsty ranmage when Hikaru gets closer to Haruhi. Not that they aren't good stories, but don't think he'd really be like that :s Maybe it's just me.

I hope you liked! :D And thankyou so much to everyone who has reviewed! You're the nicest, awesomest reviewers in the world! :D