October 1

"Hikaru's speech and actions are ten percent more ornery than Kaoru's." Haruhi answered three girls, who were eagerly awaiting an answer for how Haruhi could tell the difference between the twins. I sat watching them from my table, smiling with my head in my hand and my pen paused above my notebook page. I'd watched the twins play this game for the past few weeks, and I still didn't understand why. Honestly, it wasn't that hard to tell them apart if you took the time to get to know them. The way they looked made it hard (of course), but the way they acted, responded to things, and carried themselves were polar opposites.

Kaoru then started giggling at his brother, bursting into laughter soon after. "Sorry, Hikaru!" He taunted, with no malice behind it. His brother sighed, seemingly frustrated.

"Well, I just don't mask anything, and always express myself honestly," Hikaru stated indignantly. "So Kaoru is the one who is more spiteful." Kaoru stopped laughing at once, looking over at his brother. I saw a glint in his eye as he spoke- either they were baiting each other or they were baiting Haruhi.

"Don't go spinning this. Hikaru, I'm the one who's always going along, playing your selfish games, right?"

"I may be the one to suggest them," Hikaru retaliated, "But you're the one who gets into them, Kaoru." Both boys had a wicked glint in their eyes, and that was never a good sign. "If you don't like them, then just stop. What are you, stupid?"

"You're too stupid to see it for yourself, Hikaru. Like how, even as you were calling her a toy, you were so quick to make some sort of pass at her," Kaoru spat back. "Hikaru, you really are in love with Haruhi, aren't you?" Hikaru's eyes widened, as did Tamaki's, who was now screaming from halfway across the room at Kaoru's words. My eyes widened- I was kind of shocked. It wasn't hard to see that Hikaru liked Haruhi, but I wouldn't have assumed that Kaoru would bring it up in front of her like that. It was so unlike him, unlike them. In the space of time I'd been here, they had never fought.

"Hey, you've got it all wrong! You really are an idiot, Kaoru! For one thing, how is it that I would fall for that little tanuki?" I was taken aback by the insult, but Haruhi didn't react. She just watched as Hikaru and Kaoru kept throwing insults at each other. Everything from 'you're such a pest' to 'your mother wears too much makeup' was yelled from one boy to the other.

"We're through!" They both screeched, turning their backs on each other. Haruhi blinked, surprised. I, for one, was smiling through my surprise. Sibling rivalries were, in my opinion, some of the more interesting dramas to follow, and now one was happening right in front of me. In fact, that gave me an idea for a book.

*

"Mitsukuni, don't," Mori instructed stoically, holding back his blonde counterpart from approaching the twins. I was sitting at lunch with the host club because Sachi was absent, and Haruhi and I were regaling the tales of math class to the rest of our friends. They all listened intently as we recounted every object that they'd thrown at each other- chairs, tables, books, scissors, pencils, people.

Just as we finished our story, the twins came back- it was still a little shocking to see them with such brightly colored hair- and sat down. Hikaru looked over at Haruhi's lunch immediately.

"Haruhi, would you like my pudding?" He asked, setting the plate in front of her.

"Huh?" She eyed it, looking up at Hikaru.

"I'll feed it to you..." He said, reaching for the spoon. Kaoru smacked his hand away, causing his brother to yelp.

"See how you're so in love with her? We're here for all of five seconds before you start flirting. The host club starts after school, in case you weren't aware." Kaoru said with impressive levels of snark. I huffed as Kaoru picked up the pudding and threw it at Hikaru, and their fighting began again. Honey-senpai, unable to stop himself or be stopped by Mori-senpai, ran toward them and ended up being thrown across the room. Everything on the lunch menu- which was fancy food, mind you- was sailing between the two of them. If they were strong enough to pick up the tables, there wasn't a doubt in my mind that they would throw them, too.

As their fight began to die down and food was thrown less and less, I sighed with relief. Next to me, Haruhi grinned.

"Finally." She whispered. I giggled, nodding my agreement. But we spoke too soon- Kaoru spitefully picked up a plate of potatoes and threw it. Hikaru dodged it swiftly, but the same couldn't be said about me. I didn't expect it, so I just watched as the plate of food landed face-down on my notebook, covering the two open pages in potato gravy. I heard Haruhi gasp, and the twins froze, but all I could do was sit there and look at it.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw everyone staring at me. The twins (most notably Kaoru) were looking at me in fear. I just kept my eyes on my notebook, watching as the pages of my book began to crumple. Eventually, I put my pen down on the table, planted both of my hands on the lunch table, and slowly rose out of my chair. I knew he didn't intend to ruin my notebook, but I couldn't stop myself from sending a sharp glare at Kaoru. He visibly shrunk back, and I knew he felt bad, but I was overwhelmingly upset and didn't stop to reassure him.

"Next time you want to argue in the lunchroom where the rest of functioning society is trying to eat, leave me out of it." I stated, and I know they could hear the anger through the fake calm in my voice. Hikaru hadn't looked too bothered, but even he looked like he felt bad at that point.

"I'm sorry, Kaiyoka, I didn't mean to," Kaoru began, bowing his head, but I just shook my head. I picked up my things, being very gentle with the ruined book, and I began to walk away from the table. As I retreated, I heard Kyouya pull his head up from his computer to make a comment to the twins.

"You two have such a way with women." And I just barely heard Kaoru respond,

"Yeah."

*

The twins, of course, being the twins, kept it up throughout the duration of the host club. They'd thrown Honey once more, every object in the room that didn't have a person in or on it, and were getting dangerously close to throwing a guest. But before that could happen, Haruhi finally snapped. She'd finally gotten sick of their bickering, and it didn't help that they'd upset Kaiyoka (who was now sitting at her table with headphones on, listening to instrumentals to drown out the noise), so she didn't have anyone to joke about it with.

"ENOUGH!" Haruhi stood up, glaring at the twins. "I am sick and tired of your bickering. You'll never stop if you're not told when to! If you two don't shut up and stop throwing things, you can forget coming over to my house!" She yelled. The twins, grinning at each other, slung an arm around Haruhi, who was frustrated out of her mind.

"So if we stop bickering, you'll let us come over to your house?" They asked, empty, sickening grins on their faces. Haruhi, at this point, was too far gone in anger to care.

"Yes! You can come over." They high-fived quietly.

"So will you shut up?" She said forcefully. The twins nodded.

"Of course! Now that the plan's worked, and all." They walked away side by side, laughing and talking as if nothing had happened, leaving Haruhi to stand and wonder what she'd just done.