"Argh!" Hitachiin Hikaru yelled. He slammed his head on the grand piano. His brother cautiously looked up from the book he was reading.

"Hikaru?" He asked timidly.

"What?" the older boy shouted. Kaoru winced. Hikaru lowered his voice to a frustrated growl. "Is there something you wanted, Kaoru?"

Kaoru gulped before carefully asking, "Do you want to give up?"

Bad move. Hikaru immediately jumped to his feet. "Of course not! I'm going to beat Tamaki if it kills me!"

Kaoru looked skeptical. "I don't think you can win no matter how hard you try. You can't learn how to play the piano in a week, you know."

"Yes I can." His twin replied stubbornly. Kaoru rolled his eyes.

"Okay, let's say you did. You learned how to play the piano in a week. Even if you somehow managed that, you still wouldn't be able to beat Tamaki in a competition." Kaoru said gently.

Hikaru turned his head away from his brother. Kaoru sighed; there was no persuading Hikaru when he had his mind set on something, but he had to at least try. If not, then Hikaru would get angry at Kaoru when he lost the bet. "You remember how good Tamaki is, right? Don't you remember all the times he's played for us? Do you honestly think you can beat him at his level?"

"Yes." was the single reply.

Kaoru rubbed his eyes in irritation. "Hikaru…"

"No, Kaoru. I will beat Tamaki in this if it's the last thing I do! If I practice all week, he'll have to admit that I'm better then him at everything."

Kaoru twitched. "So that's what this is about? I thought it was something important, like you guys set a big amount of money on it or said that the loser had to wear a dress. Instead, here you are, doing this out of pride?"

"It's not out of pride! It's…" Hikaru trailed off. Truthfully, he was doing this out of pride, but Kaoru should never know that. He racked his brain for some amazing lie.

"Pride." Kaoru stated. Hikaru cursed inwardly; he knew Kaoru was ready for another big speech. He wasn't disappointed. "Hikaru, shouldn't you just let this one incident go? You are so much better then Tamaki at other things. I mean, there's acting, fashion, games, you know Tamaki would lose to you at all these things." Although he's rather good at acting now that I think of it.

"You both have your own talents, but this time you guys are competing on one of his specialties. You have a very low chance of winning, no matter how hard you try."

Hikaru scowled. He knew his sibling was right, but he just didn't want to admit it. Kaoru silently put his book down.

"Hikaru…" He wrapped his arms around the other teen. "I want you to tell Tamaki that you give up." Seeing his twin was about to protest, he place a slender finger on the other's lips. "You'll only be embarrassed when the two of you compete and he wins. Please, just say you'll end this competition."

Hikaru was silent.

"Hikaru…"

"I can't, Kaoru." Hikaru finally spoke. "Even if I'll probably lose, I still want to try. I'm not going to be labeled a coward. Besides, even if everybody else is on Tamaki's side, you'll still be with me, right?"

Kaoru smiled. "Right."

Hikaru smiled back. "Then that's all I need." He pecked his twin on the lips. "Now go back to your couch and read some more. I'm going to try this again."

Kaoru nodded, plopping himself back onto the expensive sofa. The sound of slow, learning notes filled the room once more. Sighing softly, Kaoru turned back to his book, hoping, by some miracle, that Hikaru wouldn't be disappointed next week.

Written 2/12/07