So, I wasn't gonna post this until Thursday, but then I remembered I'm going on a trip with no internet in like five minutes, so you all get it early. The end of this is slightly depressing, but I just reread Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, so can you really blame me? Poor George...

Anyways, enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own Ouran High School Host Club, or the songs Memory or Brigit O'Malley

Chapter Two

The next few hours were a blur of disjointed images as Kaoru hovered somewhere between sleep and wakefulness.

o0O0o

He dreamed of the last thing he remembered before waking up in that room with Julie.

He and Hikaru, along with the rest of the Host Club were at a premiere fashion show. You could walk around and look at all of the different pieces, before seeing them modelled in a show.

They had looked at (read: critiqued) most of the pieces already, laughing and having an all around good time. The show was starting soon, and they were headed towards the entrance of the runway to get good seats.

Hikaru announced that he had to go to the bathroom, so the two of them headed off to the nearest ones. They were really crowded, so Kaoru told Hikaru that he would wait for him just outside the door. He hadn't been standing there for long when he felt a pain in his neck and the world started to spin.

Kaoru stumbled forward a couple of steps before his knees gave out and he collapsed. But, instead of hitting the floor, he felt a pair of arms close around him. "Hikaru?" he muttered groggily , but there was no answer.

He felt himself being dragged down a side corridor as his eyes closed. In his last moment of consciousness, he heard an anguished yell of "Kaoru!" before his world turned black

o0O0o

He was warm and comfortable, and there was a soft, soothing, beautiful voice weaving around him, cascading in gentle waves of sound.

"Sunlight through the trees in summer

Endless masquerading…

A street lamp dies

Another night is over

Another day is dawning!"

He must have made some sort of sound because the singing abruptly stopped.

"I'm sorry, did I wake you?" the voice said, "I'll stop."

He found his voice and managed to string together a couple of words to form a half coherent sentence.

"Pretty voice. Sing," he muttered.

The voice laughed. Kaoru decided that the voice was distinctly feminine. She also had a very nice laugh. He was slightly disappointed when the laughing stopped, and he felt his face form a pout. But then, she started to sing again, a different song this time.

"Brigit O'Malley,

You've left my heart shaken

With a hopeless desolation

I'll have you to know"

Kaoru sighed happily and relaxed into the pillow.

"It's the wonders of admiration

Your quiet face has taken

And your beauty will haunt me

Wherever I go…"

As he began to drift off, the voice continued to sing lulling him into a sense of security, the first he had felt truly safe and at ease since he had realised his brother was gone.

o0O0o

"Wake up, Kaoru!"

He jolted up suddenly. He was in the Club room, next to Hikaru, where he belonged.

"You fell asleep again, Kaoru. Are you sure you're alright?"

Kaoru blinked. So it had all been a… dream?

His brothers voice jolted him back to reality. "Hey! Kaoru, are you sure you're okay? You've been ignoring me for the past five minutes…"

Kaoru finally managed to find his voice, the shock of the situation beginning to wear off.

"Oh! I'm sorry, Hikaru… a lot on my mind, I guess."

"You wanna talk about it?"

Kaoru wasn't sure what to say, where to begin, because really, how do you describe the ache, the gaping hole of hurt inside of him that he had felt when he thought that Hikaru was gone? Kaoru didn't think it was possible.

Hikaru must have sensed his hesitation, or maybe he could just see it on his face, because he said, "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I'll be here if you do though, whenever it might be. I'll always be here for you."

Kaoru felt a sudden surge of love and gratefulness towards his twin. He threw himself into Hikarus' arms and sobbed, in both relief and sadness at the memory of the pain of Hikarus' absence in his dream.

His brother didn't try and make him explain. He just held him, murmuring soft words of comfort into his ear, until he was calmed down enough to explain.

"Oh, Hikaru, it was just awful! I was in a room with a girl called Julie, and they were going to experiment on me, and it was in South America, and-and I was alone, 'cause you weren't there, and it hurt, oh, it hurt so much to be without you, and it was just horrible!" Kaoru burst out, all in one breath.

Hikaru looked at him in shock for a moment before almost brutally crushing Kaoru to his chest again, whispering to his startled brother, "I think I would die if you were kidnapped, Kaoru. I wouldn't rest until I found you, because you mean more to me than anything. I'll never abandon you, I'll never leave you. Never."

Kaoru gave a desperate whimper and clutched the front of Hikarus' shirt even more tightly. He was in his brothers' arms; he was home.

o0O0o

And then the warmth of Hikarus' body was gone, and he was opening his eyes to the drab room and Julies' concerned eyes.

"I'm sorry to have woken you, but you were whimpering and I was worried. Are you sure you're alright?"

But her words were lost on Kaoru, because the gaping hole in his chest had come back, more painful than before in the aftermath of his dream, and tears started to form unwillingly in his eyes. He tried to push them back, because he refused to cry in front of Julie, because crying was showing weakness, and that was something that Kaoru refused to do, not in front a virtual stranger, and a girl no less. No, he had to stay strong, he had to!

Julies' voice was very soft, soothing almost, and filled with sadness so deep and intense, that nobody could fathom it unless they had been in her situation and maybe not even then, when nest she spoke.

"It's okay to cry, you know. I won't think anything less of you if you do. You've just suffered what's probably the most painful loss of your life, and I get that. I was torn away from my twin too, remember. I understand, at least somewhat, what you're going through." She took a shuddering breath, and Kaoru thought that she may have been on the verge of tears as well.

"Let go, Kaoru. Let go of your emotions. You'll only hurt yourself more in the future if you don't."

And the first crystalline tear fell from his eye, rolled down his cheek and hit the blankets below his head.

Kaoru sobbed. He sobbed for his brother and his friends, for Julie and Joshua, for himself and everyone else in this wretched facility. As his anguished cries echoed throughout the small room, he felt a pair of slender arms close around him, and a face pressed against his steadily dampening shirt.

The two of them, Julie and Kaoru, sobbed until there were no more tears then lay there, still intertwined until they fell into a fitful sleep, each wishing that it was another who lay in their arms.