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Lolita

"It's been forever since I've had sushi, I hope it's good."

"It should be, this place is exclusivly for us 'rich bastards' as Haruhi would say."

Lolita laughed at that, while Kaoru smiled. The tension between them after that accident seemed to have evaporated or something, not a trace of it was left. They now sat in a very nice sushi restraunt, waiting for their orders.

"I'd have to agree with him on that one."

"Why would you say that?"

"Well, despite the fact that my parents make a lot of money, I don't think of myself as rich."

Kaoru pondered a moment.

"What do your parents do anyway?"

"Hehe, well as I said before, Oka-san is a costume designer."

"Oops, forgot."

"It's ok, and Richard is a well known and liked playwrite."

"Richard?"

Kaoru was confused.

"Richard's my dad."

"Then why don't you call him that? Why call him by his name?"

That didn't make much sense.

"Well, I guess he just never enforced it when I was little. It doesn't seem to bother him."

"That's still odd."

"Well… maybe he got tired of hearing Cassandra saying it all the time, he didn't want me doing the same thing."

Lolita smiled and laughed softly at her own joke.

"You talk about this sister of yours a lot."

"Half sister, to be correct. I talk about her a lot cause that's all people back at home want to talk about. I'm expected to be just like her, only because we share a dad. It's insane."

Lolita sighed as her expression changed.

"It can't be that bad."

"It is, she was the best at everything when she was in school. And now, she's the top actress on the stage, every director oka-san works with won't stop talking about Cassandra. I really wish Richard had been smarter than that and not have even thought about marrying Annabelle… That's Cassandra's mom."

"I'm guessing it wasn't a happy marriage?"

"Worse… a publicity stunt. Annabelle used to be just like Cassandra. They're clones of each other I swear!"

"Hehehe, sounds like it."

Just then their food arrived. They continued to chat a bit while they ate, but it soon drifted to silence. After all the food was gone and the bill had been paid, they decided that they'd walk around for a bit before getting back to work. It only seemed fair.

"It's been a while since I've been in Japan. It's nice to see not much has changed."

"So I'm guessing you live in London most of the year?"

"More like all the time. Oka-san usually only takes jobs that she can drive to, but she thought it'd be nice to see obaa-san and ojii-san."

Lolita skipped along the sidewalk, a smile on her face, as she looked at everything around her.

It made Kaoru want to smile, but he fought it!

"Oh! Lets go in there!"

Lolita pointed to a book store, and Kaoru sighed. As soon as they entered, he lost her in the shelves. Shrugging, he figured he'd look around too. Scanning the shelves, he found titles he recognized and some he didn't. Most seemed to be old books, ones people would consider classics. He paused his scanning when a title caught his eye, and he gentely pulled it from the shelf. Looking the book over, he opened it to read a bit. It didn't really seem to be that intresting but, it passed the time.

"What'd you find?"

Kaoru jumped a bit at Lolita's voice.

"Lemme see!"

Next thing he knew, the book had been taken out of his hands. Glancing over, he found her to be reading the same page he had been just a moment before. She then snapped the book shut and looked at its cover.

"Lolita eh? You probably wouldn't like this book. A bit too taboo, even for you."

"Huh?"

"Hehe, I've been wanting to read it ever since someone at my other school told me about it. I wonder if it'll be any good."

Lolita then added the book to the small stack she had been carrying. He then followed her to the counter so she could pay for her books. After, they left the store, Lolita carrying a small bag.

"What kind of things do you like Kaoru?"

"Huh? What do you mean?"

Lolita rolled her eyes.

"Well it's obvious you don't like books, and none of the classes we have together seem to sway you. So what kind of things do you like? You know, for fun?"

Kaoru thought about it for a bit, not sure how to answer. No one usually asked about just one of the twins, always both, so he was caught a bit off guard. Usually he'd just agree with whatever Hikaru said, because it was essentially true. Although, he really didn't like the way Hikaru liked to play with people, it didn't seem right.

"Well, its usually only me and Hikaru doing things for fun, and that usually involves the club. But… I know I don't like one of Hikaru's games."

"Which one's that?"

"The way he plays with people, I don't like it. But I go along with it anyway."

Lolita pouted a bit.

"That seems kinda silly, why would you play a game you don't like? That can't be fun."

Kaoru shrugged.

"That's just how Hikaru and I work, we've always been like that."

"You two must not have many friends then, huh?"

Kaoru paused.

"Yeah, we don't. I guess you could say that tono and the others in the club are our only friends. We never needed them when we were younger, we always had each other. And since no one could tell us apart, we didn't see any point in trying to befriend anyone. That's just how things were, until Haruhi came around and told us apart for the first time."

Silence reigned between them after that, and it made Kaoru a bit uncomfortable. Had he said something wrong? Was she disgusted by how he and his brother used to be? Why was he worried?

"At least you had each other, you weren't alone."

This caught Kaoru by surprise, what had she meant?

"When I was little, I used to wish that the girl looking back at me in the mirror was real, so I wouldn't be alone. Silly huh?"

Lolita smiled a bit, but Kaoru could tell it was fake.

"What do you mean?"

"When I was little, I was usually all alone. Oka-san would be working, Richard too, and Cassandra wasn't exactly desired company. The kids in my class tended to avoid me, ignore me. It hurt, sometimes it felt like I didn't exist. So, I'd always sit infront of full length mirror in my room, and talk to my reflection. Sometimes I imagined that she was real, and would talk to me too. It made it a bit better."

Kaoru stopped walking and just stood there, trying to understand what she had said. He was having trouble grasping what she was talking about, because he'd never been alone. Thinking about it now, thinking on what she said, it made his heart feel heavy.

Lolita noticed that no one was walking along side her, so she turned to see Kaoru just standing there, looking sad. She walked back over to him and stared at him a moment.

"What's with the long face? You're not sad are you?"

Kaoru snapped back to reality and frowned.

"No, why would you say that?"

"Well, its just you looked so sad just a second ago, so I was just wonderin'."

"Must have been seeing things."

"Must have… We should head back and finish our project, can't let Hikaru win can we?"

Kaoru smiled and nodded in agreement.

"Nope, if we do, we'll never hear the end of it!"

Kaoru sighed as he watched the scenery fly by from the car window. Turning to sit straight, he looked down to the portfolio sitting next to him. It took them all weekend, but they had finished the project. Kaoru smiled, he'd actually worked on this one. If they did bad, he'd get part of the blame, and if they did well, he'd get part of the praise. He'd earned either one, unlike Hikaru, who was probably making Haruhi do all the work. The sun was setting as he rode back to his house, he couldn't believe how fast the time went by. Before he knew it, they had everything organized and ready to be presented, and his mom was calling for him to come home. Kaoru wondered if Hikaru got the call too, or if he managed to wiggle his way out of family dinner to finish the project before him. He smiled, Hikaru would do that.

'At least you had each other, you weren't alone.'

He couldn't get what she said out of his head, no matter how he tried. She'd didn't mention it at all today, so why did it bother him so much?

'When I was little, I used to wish that the girl looking back at me in the mirror was real, so I wouldn't be alone.'

Why would she do that? He didn't understand! Why did she look so sad when she said those things? Why, why, why, why?! Kaoru shook his head to get his thoughts back in order, but they refused to. His mind was stuck on the puzzle before him. He sighed and willed his mind calm as the driver came over and opened the door for him.

After putting his stuff in his and Hikaru's room, Kaoru headed down to the dinning hall, for dinner. Upon entering the room he was jumped by his mother. After, they sat down with his dad and ate dinner quietly.

"Mom, do you know anyone named Tsukine Niyama?"

"Hmmm the name rings a bell… Oh! Tsuki! Yes I remember her, why?"

"The friend I went to see today, she's her mom. She asked me to tell you she's in Japan."

"Really?! Wonderful, it's been forever!"

Soon dinner was over, and Kaoru headed back up to his room. To his surprise, it was quiet. Hikaru wasn't back yet. He sat on the edge of the bed, not liking the silece one bit. It was so empty, he wasn't used to it. After a while, he grabbed his phone and called Hikaru.

"Yo?"

"Hikaru…"

"Yeah Kaoru, what's up?"

"You almost done at Haruhi's?"

"Not sure yet, Ranka's got me doing stuff around their house while Haruhi works."

"That sucks."

"Yeah, I'll call when they let me go."

"Ok, bye."

Kaoru hung up before Hikaru could respond. Looking over at the clock, he saw it was close to nine. How long had he sat there in the empty silence? Shaking his head, Kaoru decided he should get ready for bed. He grabbed a pair of sleep pants before heading into the shower, his miind still heavy with questions that had no answers. Even the warm water spraying against him didn't help ease his mind. Something was wrong. Coming back out and sitting on his side of the bed, Kaoru checked his phone. No missed calls. Flopping down on the bed, he wondered what was keeping Hikaru. Sure he'd be the first to admit that they needed to start growing apart, but slowly… not suddenly like this. His heart ached, and he didn't know why. Curling up into a ball as he threw the covers over himself, his mind kept trying to figure out what he was feeling. The room felt so empty, so cold. His whole body felt heavy, like it was weighed down by this new feeling.

The clock struck 11, and Kaoru was still laying there, thinking. Wondering what was keeping Hikaru, wondering what was making his heart ache, all of it. His eyes began to feel heavy, sleep was trying to place its hold on him. At least he could stop thinking. His eyes began to drift shut.

'At least… you weren't alone.'

Kaoru shot up in bed at that thought. He had an epiphany! What he was feeling right now, was loneliness. This is what she had been talking about! It all made sense! This ache in his chest, was there because he was alone. Thinking back on what Lolita had said, he began to understand, if only a little bit. Smiling, he laid back down and resumed his previously inturupted journey to sleep. He may not comprihend all of what she said, but now he had an idea, and from that idea he could imagine. Imagine what it may have been like to only have a reflection. It made him sad, and he silently promised to make sure that she'd never have to resort to that again.

Little did he know, two other boys were thinking similar thoughts, they would make sure she was never alone at all.

A/N: Holy crap… I wrote this and the previous chapter in one day! Sorry if Kaoru seems a bit out of character here, but I don't imagine he or Hikaru had ever been alone before, so I don't think that either of them would recognize loneliness. Also, I had musical insperation to write these last two chapters "Heaven Sent" by Hinder… really good song, I recommend you listen while you read. ^.^ And what's this?! Two boys! We know Kasanoda… but who's this mysterious third boy out to take our Lolita's heart? You'll have to wait and see. Xp