Playboy

Summary: The twins still like to play games. Most of all, they like to break their toys. Twins/Haruhi, Hikaru/Haruhi

a/n: I've had this idea brewing for a long, long time now. It was going to be a oneshot, but now I'm inclined to make it into a three-part story. As you'll soon find out, the twins have fallen a long way. So I'm stretching the bounds of IC-ness, but hopefully it can be forgiven. ) There are spoilers for latest manga chapters in the next couple of chapters, just so you're warned. You can catch up on the FRoP website if you need to.

Twins/Haruhi to a great extent, and heavy Hika/Haru. My love for Kaoru shines through, though, so I have to give him ample Kao/Haru time.

Sadly, this may never be finished. D: This was written months ago – I've been super-busy lately, and I have to finish a few of my other fics before I feel completely comfortable with another multi-chaptered one.

Reviews might change my mind. ;) (Just don't count on it.)

Our act hasn't changed much.

Oh, sure, it's not the same. We're not in middle school anymore; it's no longer tearing up love notes and laughing at their tears.

As Hikaru breathes a kiss onto her lips – eyes locked solemnly on hers, mouths not-quite-touching – I ache for something I can't quite name. No, I can. I can name it. It has a name. Haruhi.

I almost forgot.

The girl is glittery-eyed. Putty in his arms. Breath shallow, heart probably beating madly. We have that effect on them.

Our act has changed, but they truth is they're still the same. All of the faces – from middle school and from now – blur together. Each face is wet and salty when we're through.

I open the door all the way.

There's just enough dim light in the hallway that it illuminates the room when I open the door fully.

My girlfriend looks up.

My twin's smirk surfaces.

She looks up at Hikaru, eyes wide, and her mouth puckers and eyes water. He unceremoniously removes his arms from her waist.

Without his support, she melts weakly to the ground.

She's nothing more than a puppet, I convince myself at her pathetic slump, nothing more than a plaything.

Her bottom lip is quivering. I start to feel sorry for her.

"Kaoru…" she says quietly, little more than a whisper. "Kaoru… I'm… I'm sorry… I really… I didn't…"

She knew very well what she was doing.

I'm not sorry anymore.

"How could you?"

I try to make my voice as strangled and choked as hers, and am pleased when it comes out sounding as such. "How…?"

Hikaru stands silently, still smirking just a bit. I turn to him.

"Hikaru, what were you doing?" I try to sound crazed, disappointed with my twin to the highest degree.

"I told her it was me," he responded quietly, and only I can hear the insane mix of smugness and sorrow in the undertones. I turn back to the girl.

"So you let him come on to you? Even though I'm your boyfriend? What kind of girl are you? Do you think we're the same person? Do you think we won't care?"

She looks like she's about to burst into tears any second, and the only thing that's keeping her from doing so is her pride. Her foolish hope that maybe, just maybe, I'll forgive her and she can be the girlfriend of a Hitachiin again, despite what she has just done. What will people say? What will the talk be? What will they think of her? These fears aren't singular to her, but she's especially susceptible. I know. I know her well, because over the years I've learned how to observe.

"You slut."

And I know just what to do to make the tears spill over.

And sure as rain, a single tear slides down.

Now she chokes down air, unable to get sufficient oxygen. Unable to get her breath past the lump of shame in her throat.

I know it's not for me that she cries, nor for her own actions. She only regrets being caught. She doesn't care about Us. She is one of Them. There is only Us and Them.

(And Her.)

Her sobs resound through the walls, even as I exit her apartment without a word. I pretend to be disgusted, and am either so engrossed in my act that it takes me over… or I really am. I'm not sure anymore; what's real and what's not blurs with the faces.

Her name is Aiko. And if I remember it in two months, it will be a miracle.