The Forked Path

* Hi here's another to add to the story. I have about 20 chapters which I need to edit thoroughly still but I'll leave you all with these first. Do feel free to R&R and vote :)


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Chapter 2

“I noticed a disgruntled looking Hikaru trudging out.” Kyouya stated.
Quickly composing myself and irritated with Kyouya’s sudden appearance I retorted menacingly.
“I dare you to even try poking yourself into this.”
“Come now, Kaoru. I don’t poke myself into ’everything’. I only become a prying person when it involves something that would potentially affect the club’s business and with you acting unusually snappy, I expect its not good news for the club’s financial standings. You know me better than to care what problems you have. All I want to know is how much those problems will cost.”
“Hmph, figures”.
“Exactly… figures”.

With that he approached me. Bending to my height he whispered into my ear, “But I should tell you this. When it comes to you and Tamaki, figures aren’t always the only thing that matters to me”.

With that, he exited the room. The entire sequence of him coming and going was so brief it chilled me like a haunting ghost. At that point I felt really sick. It was horrible, first fear then disappointment, then pain and then anger and now what? I picked up my bag and ran out of the dressing room and out of the hall. I didn’t care if people were staring at me as if I had lost my mind. I needed to escape as far away from this as I could. I ran like crazy and all the time I felt like I was in the sea, drowning and trying frantically to swim upwards for air. I reached the main road, took a turn and headed into the building’s alleyway. Then it happened.


Coughing and spluttering, I chucked out all the rich gourmet food I had consumed for lunch. *Funny how all that rich food just ends up in mush. I guess it doesn’t matter what you ate, its just crap in the end*. I took out my silk handkerchief and wiped myself clean. Walking a few steps away from the mess I had just created, I sat down chuckling at the thought I just had, panting heavily and feeling as if I had just ran a 10km marathon. When I was calm enough I called for the driver and proceeded to go home. I had had enough for the day. My mind was finally tired and willing to call it quits, not to mention I was cracking lame jokes and laughing to myself. Concluding that I had gone partially mad, I forced a complete shut down on my brain. I didn’t think anything on the way home or as I walked into the mansion towards our room. All I wanted to do was to sleep and just wake-up from this horrible nightmare.

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It was evening, I could tell from the way the sky glowed orange and purple. I couldn’t see the setting sun since our room faced eastwards, but it was definitely evening. *Does this mean Hikaru’s back?* I slowly turned myself to face away from the window only to find Hikaru curled up next to me on my left, which was his usual side of the bed. He had changed out of his grass skirt and orchid garland and was now wearing his blue sleeveless top. *He fell asleep with his top on*. I quickly pushed the thought away, trying not to pamper myself with the notion that he fell asleep watching me, especially not after the news I shared with him. It was then that I noticed the beautiful sight before me. With the vermilion glow that filtered through the windows, he looked radiant and warm. *Like an orange soaked in sugary syrup*. It was almost irresistible and I suddenly found myself mustering all the strength I had to stop myself from kissing and licking his skin just to taste it.

I swallowed.
*Okay. This is not a good time for those thoughts and definitely not a good time to get hard!*
I scrambled off the bed and ended up stumbling clumsily off it. Hikaru got up with a start.
“What the fuacchh… hey are you alright???!!”
I had landed face first on the floor with my bum sticking into the air. Despite the throbbing pain from the bump on my forehead, I set up instantly and burst out laughing half because of the way I landed and the other half due to the way he changed that sentence so abruptly. It was hilarious coming from Hikaru, the anger and concern merged into a single sentence not to mention a sleepy face and messy hair to accompany it. It was the kind of muddled expression that only he could do whilst being incredibly cute at the same time.
“Oh Hikaru…”, I breathed a sigh and halted my laughing.
“That was a classic!” He looked at me, puzzled at first and just as suddenly as we both stopped, we both broke into laughter together again.
“The way you fell.. haha.. that was spastic.”

It was nice, we were both kids playing together once again and totally oblivious to all that had happened during the day. *Maybe it was a nightmare*. Slowly, the laughing died out and we sat smiling and staring at each other, me on the floor at the edge of the bed whilst he leant over sitting-up and looking down on me. For a brief moment there I thought I saw a sad glint in his eyes. His keen senses picked up my observation and quickly Hikaru turned away to avoid staring straight at me. Again I was left crushed.

“We better clean up before dinner”. I finally broke the uncomfortable silence, whilst trying hard to ignore all the troubling thoughts.
*At least, he was still next to me when I woke up, whatever the reason was.* I decided that I would have to end my train of troublesome worries at that and leave them for later, but for now, we had to compose ourselves for dinner with our parents. Mother had always insisted we had to be fashionably dressed for dinner. This consisted of various themes she’d come up with as part of her way of generating inspiration. Tonight’s theme was the 1930’s Shanghai Tang. When we were done, both of us were in white Mandarin collared suits with a black shirt on the inside. Looking at each other as a mirror for ourselves, we said in unison “Man, the girls would kill for this”. Giggling at our little interlude, we headed for dinner.

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Dinner had gone by as usual beginning with our parents asking us about our school activities. This was followed by the highlight of the evening; our mother’s stories. Mother had always been highly interested in our lives, trying to be as involved as she could by exchanging the different types of ideas she had for us and our club from dressing us in cute mascot animals to wearing nothing but jockeys. Sometimes she was really helpful but at other times her ideas were just too strange for acceptance by anyone in society. But I guess it was her eccentricity that attracted our father leading him to fall madly in love with her. She was indeed a strange beauty. He would sit listening quietly and laughing at all the interesting stories she had to share from the mad apprentice designer she hired, to her philosophies on fashion and art. Dinners were always anything but quiet at our household and it was always warm, even if the one doing 80% of the talking was just her. We then adjourned to our rooms after dinner as usual.

“Kaoru…” Hikaru called me gently from our bed. I had been sitting at the desk trying to design some new fashions for mom. I turned to face him.

“Hmm?” I acknowledged his address, trying my best to brace myself for yet another disappointment and let down.

*Oh how many times in a day do I have to go through his rejections???? Hasn’t heaven let me suffer enough? He’s going to say something like we need separate rooms, I’m sure of it!*

“About today and your statement…” I swallowed nervously and anxiously waited.

“I wanted to ask, why didn’t you trust me? As in, did u think I would reject you as my brother after that? Or were you afraid that I’d be ashamed and tell mom and dad?” I almost floored. I couldn’t believe he was accepting my preference. Even if he wasn’t returning my affections it was at least better than what I had imagined and not half as bad!

“I… no. That’s not why I didn’t tell you.”

“Wait a minute. Maybe it was, I WAS afraid he’d reject me.”

“Then why, Kaoru?”

“Shit!” I could see him tearing. I had just hurt him.

*How could I have hurt him?!* I rushed to his side and hugged him.

“I’m sorry, Hikaru. I didn’t tell you and you’re right. Once I came to realize it, I knew I no longer deserved to be by your side. I became afraid, I was afraid to lose you. I was scared that you’d distance yourself from me and that you’d no longer want to be next to me every minute of the day and that would’ve killed me.” I started sobbing into his shoulder uncontrollably.

*I know you won’t accept the love I have to offer but if this is the closest I can get to you I’ll accept this! I don’t need anymore! Just don’t stay away!*


“Kaoru, I should apologize.” He wrapped his arms around me.

“If I had given you the opportunity to think you are any less worthy to be my brother just because of who you choose to love then I’m deeply sorry.”
I looked up at him. I felt guilty because I did not tell him, the ultimate truth that would surely make him revolt in disgust. After all, how could anyone tolerate incest let alone welcome it?

“Please don’t be Hikaru. You really shouldn’t apologize. There are things, no, there are many things that we shouldn’t keep from each other and we don’t need to because we share a deeper bond than many people around us could only dream of. Still, there are things that people can never accept, no matter how deep a bond can be.”

“What do you mean?”

I freed myself from his embrace and wiped my face with the sleeve of my silk night robe, which was now hanging off my right shoulder revealing its pale bare form. Forcing a smile I said, “Maybe there will be one day I can explain. But for now, I’d like to thank you for accepting who I am.”
At first he looked at me worriedly, but after being convinced by my skillful acting, he smiled and said, “I understand and you’re welcome.”

“Perhaps we should turn in, its been a long day.”

“Mmm..” Hikaru agreed and proceeded to undo his robe, which bared his slender but well toned chest whilst I did the same.

We both crawled into our bed and under the blanket we shared. After I had switched off the bedside table lamp, I felt Hikaru grab me from behind. Locking me into a spooning position, he said, “I don’t want to see a sad smile anymore. For tonight, I just want to let you know that everything’s alright.”
My heart skipped a beat and if Hikaru hadn’t fallen asleep and began his even rhythm breathing, I would’ve been awake the whole night pondering on just that sentence. Instead, I found myself being lulled to sleep in his warmth and comfort. *I couldn’t fool him…*