Day Two: My Brother's Keeper

"Morning, Kaoru," Haruhi said with a cordial smile as the young man walked into the room with a yawn. He waved a hand at her in response, covering his mouth with the other while it simultaneously clasped his bag. "Are you alright?"

"Tired," he replied, sitting down next to her. The girl gave him a knowing look.

"You and Hikaru stay up playing… video games… again?..." Haruhi blinked; at the very mention of his brother's name Kaoru had stiffened, shoulders straightening instinctively the way one might see stags prepare to fight for dominance. Haruhi shot him a confused look. "Kaoru… where's Hikaru?"

"How should I know?" he demanded sourly. "I'm not his keeper."

Haruhi gave him a stern look. "You two aren't pretending to fight again, are you?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

"Kaoru, where's Hikaru?"

"And please, don't speak his name to me ever again."

"Kaoru!" Haruhi said, half reproachfully half horrified.

"Haruhi!" the red-head replied in a mocking voice. Haruhi's eyebrows furrowed.

"What's going on?"

Kaoru snorted. "Hikaru and I had a little disagreement last night."

"Little? Little wouldn't make you act like this," she deadpanned. Kaoru snorted again.

"Yeah, well, I thought he should stop being an asshole. Stop taking things for granted. That loyalty was important." The boy shrugged. "He seemed to disagree."

"And?" the girl prompted. Kaoru shrugged.

"I left."

"You left?!?!"

"Yeah. I stayed with a friend."

"A friend," she repeated, looking at Kaoru with a certain amount of exasperated disbelief.

"A friend."

"I can't believe-"

"Settle down class!" the teacher called, walking into the room. Haruhi shut her mouth, but continued to glare at Kaoru, the younger twin obstinately ignoring her.

When Hikaru ran into class ten minutes later, the only sound besides his panted apologies and the teacher's stern reproaches was a single derisive snicker from the seat next to Haruhi. When Hikaru noticed his brother however, his eyes widened and he breathed a heavy sigh of relief. Haruhi half expected him to run across the room to his twin. But all he did was set his jaw resolutely, avoid the eyes of the other students, and move to a seat on the other side of the room.


"You're making us lose money," Kyoya said as his pen flew across his paper, his math homework standing no chance against the blows of his pen. Kaoru watched with a certain amount of envy, ignoring the Demon-King's statement.

"I always hated math…"

A corner of Kyoya's mouth turned up as he flipped the page over, eyes skimming problems for a few seconds before his writing utensil touched the page. "I know."

Kaoru shuddered in response. "You're such a stalker, Senpai."

Kyoya let out a startled laugh. "Stalker?"

"Nevermind," Kaoru replied quickly, out of habit. Kyoya was not fooled at all by this fake show of fear, however, and simply gave the younger boy knowing look, chuckling slightly.

"I don't stalk people. Accessing information is simply easy for me."

"Uh huh," the boy said, smirking back. The two looked at each other for a few moments before turning back to their homework. Kaoru was lying on his stomach, kicking his feet back and forth slowly, the way a lazing cat might flick its tail. The movement was distracting and Kyoya looked down at the boy, clearing his throat to try and catch his attention. This failed miserably.

"Kaoru…?" he ventured instead. The boy looked up at him, and Kyoya raised an eyebrow and indicted his feet with a glance. The red head favored him with an apologetic grin.

"Gomen."

Kyoya went back to doing his math homework. There was only one problem left, in any case. X to the root of Y, over-

A flash of skin in the corner of his eye caught his attention; Kaoru's foot, kicking once more. He boy was sucking on the end of his pen, face set in concentration as he glared balefully at the last math problem on the worksheet in front of him. Kyoya leaned over to look.

"You have to divide, not multiply for that one." He looked at it closer. "But you can simplify more than that. Look at your denominator."

The boy looked at the problem before groaning at his own stupidity and fixing his mistake. He then studied the problem, a crease between his brows. He glanced at Kyoya, then back at the page. "But for all the other ones-"

"Doesn't matter. Look at the circumstances, not the pattern."

The boy looked at the problem. "Oh… yeah. Thanks."

The pen came out of his mouth as she scribbled away. His feet continued to swing lazily. Kyoya closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose.

"Not to imply that I am in any particular hurry to see you go, as you amuse me, but how long do you plan on staying here?"

"I amuse you?"

"Answer the question, Kaoru."

The boy shrugged.

"Hikaru already apologized to you."

The boy stiffened but remained unresponsive.

"Seventeen and a half – counting that time you walked out in the middle of his little monologue – times, to be precise."

"Yeah, well, maybe he should keep trying."

Kyoya's mouth twisted into some semblance of a wry grin. "Not everyone knows you to be so twisted, Kaoru. You might ruin your image."

"An apology's not going to cut it!" Kaoru snarled, tossing down his pen. He stood up suddenly, and Kyoya watched him pace.

"Well what do you want from him then?" he asked, voice still calm. Kaoru wasn't listening.

"If he still gives a fuck about her that way then it doesn't matter if he apologizes, now does it? The issue's still there, isn't it?" Kyoya remained silent. "Isn't it?!"

Kyoya sighed. "Tamaki may be under the mistaken impression that I am your mother, Kaoru, but I am not equipped to deal with breakdowns. Either sit down and speak to me like a sane person or sit down elsewhere and calm down before you come back."

Kaoru glared down at the older boy for a few moments, quivering with anger. Kyoya met his gaze evenly, and finally hazel eyes closed, Kaoru heaving a sigh that took all the presence from him. He settled next to Kyoya on the bed as though he was naught but substantial as a feather. Kyoya noticed now how pale he was, how dark the circles under his eyes were. Kyoya had the tendency to sleep deeply, but he'd seen the evidence of Kaoru's anguished tossing and turning when he'd knocked the alarm clock off the desk, turned over, and seen the boy knotted in the sheets. It had taken them eight minutes to untangle him that morning, even combining their efforts. As he looked now, Kyoya could see that Kaoru was exhausted. What he didn't understand was why he was putting himself through all of this. After all, Hikaru had chosen him, hadn't he?

"I don't understand you," Kyoya said, putting the last of his math homework on the bedside table. He knew he could finish the rest in the limo; it was the last piece of homework they'd had left, in any case. "Hikaru made it very clear that if it came down to it, he chose you." He paused thoughtfully. "Well, to those of us who knew the circumstances, that is. He was very careful while speaking. I applaud his tact."

"Yeah, that's my brother, King of Tact," Kaoru snorted derisively. Kyoya gave him a mildly reproachful look and he turned away.

"You're obviously suffering, Kaoru. What are you doing? What do you think will come of this?"

"Him realizing that I'm not behind him all the time," Kaoru said, voice dripping with anger and malice. "Maybe after this he'll think to look back once in a while; make sure I'm still there. I'm not his keeper, born second to watch him wherever he goes. Obviously he's forgotten we're twins, not… I don't know, servant and master. Or rich brat and babysitter. I'm not obligated to be with him at all times."

"So you're punishing him," Kyoya said flatly, giving the younger boy a stern look. Kaoru shrugged again, nonchalance peppering his anxiety and throbbing-heart visage. "For how long do you plan to punish him, then?"

Kaoru shrugged. "For however long it takes." He turned to Kyoya suddenly, eyes burning with something so deep and strong that it took the older boy's breath and tucked it deep down into the lower recesses of his chest. It took him two seconds to find it, and Kaoru took advantage of his momentary confusion to capture raven-haired hair in his fingers and lean forward, crushing his lips to the older student's.

Kyoya struggled for a grand total of one and a half seconds before Kaoru's tongue slipped between his lips and he stopped thinking anything at all. It had been so long since he'd kissed someone…

And soon too long since he'd taken a breath. He pulled back, breathing heavily. Kaoru's eyes were dark with satisfaction and a certain amount of desire.

"What are you doing?" Kyoya demanded, pulling out of his grip.

"Don't tell me you didn't enjoy that."

"I'm not going to let you use me to piss off your brother," Kyoya snarled angrily, onyx eyes sparking dangerously in the darkness. Kaoru laughed.

"Such vulgar language, Senpai…"

"Kaoru," Kyoya said warningly, and the boy gave him a withering look.

"You been pining away over Haruhi for so long you forgot how to have a platonic relationship or purely physical sex, Kyoya? They don't have to go together, you know." he goaded. Kyoya started, marginally shocked. "Oh come on, no one in the fucking club can truthfully say they're not in love with her. Or at least a little bit. But you're not going to do anything because she's obviously Tamaki's, and I'm not going to do anything because the person I'm really in love with is smitten with her too and can't see that she's obviously meant to be with someone else! So what's stopping you?"

"This is absurd," Kyoya muttered, but his heart wasn't in it.

"People like us, we don't get the girl." Kaoru said. "We have to compensate."

Kyoya shook his head wordlessly.

"God, Kyoya, do something unprecedented for once! Do something without over-thinking it and planning too much! We're pathetic and we need to cope; get over yourself! Do-"

And then Kaoru couldn't talk anymore, because his mouth was too busy doing other things.

A/N: Yeah, just to be clear, they don't like each other that much XD. And I know this is very different from my usual writing so I suppose I must apologize for that, but I hope you enjoy it in any case. Thanks for the reviews I've already recieved! And more, which can be anything from flames to compliments, would be greatly appreciated!