Genres: hurt/comfort, romance

Rated: K+

Characters: Kaoru Hitachiin, Hikaru Hitachiin

Pairing: Hikaru/Kaoru

Summary: Kaoru has Asperger's Syndrome. Hikaru is more than just his protective twin brother.

What He Knows

Kaoru does not know about many things.

Kaoru does not know why his mother and his father fight so much. "He needs special care," his mother says. "He is a normal boy," his father says. When they do, there is noise and screaming and pain in his eardrums. When they do, Kaoru runs to his twin brother, Hikaru, and hides in his warm embrace, silent, until they stop.

He does not know why the children at school hate him. Kaoru does not want to talk to them, he'd rather read his science textbook, but the boys laugh and kick him and spit, saying, "Look at the new Albert Einstein," and snatching the book out of his hand. Then Kaoru is unable to move, terrified, until Hikaru comes to save him.

Kaoru comes home from school everyday at four o'clock. He finishes his homework quickly. His bedtime is at nine o'clock. Hikaru is different. He plays sports and procrastinates. Sometimes he needs to sleep later than Kaoru does, but they share a bedroom and Kaoru is a light sleeper. Some mornings, he finds his brother sound asleep, sprawled on the couch, homework half-finished.

Kaoru does not understand why there are some days when Hikaru simply hugs him tight and cries into his shoulder.

Sometimes, Kaoru worries that Hikaru will leave him—that his brother will find a pretty girl and go away. After all, many girls and boys vie for his attention at school and there is bound to be one whom he likes. "Kaoru, you mean the world to me. Nobody will ever be more important to me than you," Hikaru replies softly when Kaoru asks him this, and then Kaoru feels like the happiest person on Earth.

He does not know much about love, but he knows that he loves Hikaru more than just a brother.

When Kaoru finally tells the therapist, "I love Hikaru the most. I am going to marry him," the therapist raises an eyebrow. His mother breaks down into hysterics. "It's wrong," they say. "You can't." Kaoru is silent. Later that night, though, Hikaru kisses his forehead and strokes his cheek, and looks at him with fierce adoration in his amber eyes. He tells him gently, "Love is never wrong. I will stay by your side for the rest of our lives, okay?"

There are many things that Kaoru does not know about. What Kaoru does know, however, is that his brother Hikaru loves him and forever will.

That is the most important thing of all.

The end