Fic: A Secret Place
Title: A Secret Place
Author: demi_rabbit
Fandom: Ouran High School Host Club
Character(s)/Pairing: Kyouya and Kaoru, with mentions of Hikaru (it may not really be KyouKao...They are in preschool, and Kaoru's kinda preoccupied and angsting over Hikaru and imaginary friends)
Summary: He wasn't weird...just...under a table with animal crackers and talking about an imaginary friend he didn't need but wanted.
Genera: General/Friendship
Theme: #018 - The Bridge To The Other World
Warnings: None.
Author's Notes: ENJOY!! Done for/prompted from/X-posted to 100_fairytales Semi-inspired by that Oh My, My, My fic, but different, so not exclusivly. Thank you to my wonderful beta Cassandra Starr from FF.net.
Hitachiin Kaoru was not an odd child, at least not when he was paired with his equally rambuncious twin brother. The two were terrors in the pre-school classroom, drawing on walls, knocking over block towers, forcing other children to eat paste and not sleeping (and making sure others couldn’t either) during naptime. No, Hitachiin Kaoru was not an odd child...He was just strange when on his own.
Not that the other children hadn’t bothered to ask (“Where’s Hika-kun?” “Is he sick?” “Which one are you?” “Alone?”), but currently no one knew where the other red headed twin was or why, in his absense, the other had drapped blankets over a coloring table and crawled into the fort, not to remerge-not even for lunch time. Whispers had started, and currently several little girls with pigtails and braids were crowed aroud Ootori Kyouya, asking him what he thought was making the younger boy act like he was.
“Ootori-kun, have you talked to Hitachiin-kun?”
“Do you know why he’s acting so weird?”
“It’s sort of scary, don’t you think?”
“Do you think he’s okay?”
Kyouya looked up from the book in front of him on the table and pushed his almost too-big glasses farther up the bridge of his nose. “I haven’t talked to Hitachiin-kun.”
“Ohh, but he’s scaring us!”
“And he’s so cute.”
“He’s actually pretty sweet, if not weird, without his brother.”
“I wonder if-“
He tired quickly of this childish banter and stood up, closing the book with no marker and strolling away casually. There were only so many things he could do not-the reading corner was occupied by giggling girls, the chess boards were all in use, and the blocks held no interest for him, being boring and usually played with by snot-nosed D-class children. He would not play dolls, and he would not dress up to put on a play for an audience of stuffed animals.
Without even realizing it, Kyouya found his feet carrying him to the covered table that was serving as Kaoru’s fort. He was two feet from the tent when he realized this-it was usually the drawing table-and made to turn around when a voice sounded.
“You can come in.”
He paused, looking back at the blanket before lifting a corner and peeking under. Sure enough, the Hitachiin was huddled under the wooden underside of the table, his hair barely brushing his roof. He had a couple of large beanbag pillows and a box of animal crackers, but he was not touching either of the objects, instead being curled up and watching him with illuminated amber eyes.
“What was that?”
“I said you can come in.”
“Why are you even in there?”
“To protect me from the monsters.”
This was something odd, and it made Kyouya feel superior and curious at the same time. And, agains this better judgement, he crawled under the open flap of blanket and joined Kaoru under the table. It was dark, sure, but the blanket was of the knit varaiety, and allowed small portions of light to filter through, dappling their faces and reflecting off of Kyouya’s glasses.
“Monsters?” He rose an eyebrow and settled himself on a pillow. “There are monsters here? It’s a pre-school, Hitachiin-kun.”
“Oh, I know, Ootori-kun. But they are still monsters.” He pulled a jumper that didn’t appear to be his to his chest and hugged it. “Usually they leave me alone when Hikaru’s here, but they always try to get me when he’s not...”
So this one was Kaoru. “Funny, I didn’t see any monsters out there,” He humored him.
The red head shook his head back and forth. “But you were talking to some. Those girls. Don’t the monsters have good desguises?”
“N-“ he started, but then it set in what the younger boy was saying. He chuckled. “Interesting logic, Hitachiin-kun.”
“Not logic. Fact. Do you have an imaginary friend, Ootori-kun?” Kaoru asked, offering Kyouya the box of crackers. He accepted it, but did not eat any.
“No. They don’t exist anyway, so I see no reason to have one.”
“But you want one?”
“No.”
“Yes you do.” He smiled. “I, on the other hand, don’t need one. I have my brother. But...” And here he faultered. “But I want one today...”
Something else clicked. “Are you lonely, Hitachiin-kun? Why not favor a real friend instead of a fake one?”
And Kaoru shook his head. “I don’t want a real-life friend. They’re never as real as the fake one’s anyway. I only need Hikaru-no one else.”
“That’s rather twisted, isn’t it?”
“What do you know?!” And suddenly he was on the defensive, crossing his arms tightly across his chest. “No one else cares for me the way Hikaru does, and no one else cares for Hikaru the way I do.”
If you never give anyone the chance, than isn’t that even stupider than your theory, Kyouya thought, but said nothing of the sort, choosing to allow Kaoru to wallow rather than try and broach the strangly exclusive world that the twins had obviously built. “If that's the way you see it...I hope Hikaru get’s better soon.” And he made to remove himself from the fort, leaving the box of crackers in front of the pillow he had used.
“Wait, how did you know he was sick?” kaoru called softly after him, almost whispering to avoid detection by the ‘monsters’.
“If you two are truely as close as you say you are, then there would be no reason for him to leave you for any reason other than his inability to actually come to school, now, would there?”
There was silence for a moment, save for the whoosh as fabric swung back into place, obscuring the door to the table-made-fort. And then Kaoru chuckled lightly.
“If I did have an imaginary friend, Ootori-kun,” he said in his normal voice, “I think I’d make him smart...And I’d name him Kyouya.”