So... it's been over a year since I actually wrote anything for this story. And I am so so sorry about that. Other stories have been in the works, had work to do, etc. etc... so I apologise that this has taken so long to write. But, good news is that this story hasn't been abandoned! So I'll be writing for it! I promise! ^_^

Anyway, enjoy the chapter, guys!

Sick... Again

Atchoo!

Kaoru groaned as the sneeze practically woke him up from a deep sleep, causing his head to start throbbing mercilessly. He reached over blindly for the tissues that should have been there, on his beside table, and groaned when he felt nothing but an empty box and a load of old used tissues.

Ever since they got back from Spain, Kaoru had been nothing if not sick. The first couple of days back, he was fine. Eating well, sleeping well, nothing wrong with him at all. Not even a temperature.

Then the cold had hit him full-force. He hadn't been expecting it at all.

First came the runny nose. It wasn't really that bad – he'd only needed a couple of tissues to clear it up, and then he was fine for a couple of hours. Yeah, sometimes it ran in the middle of classes, but it wasn't all too bad.

Then the sneezing started. It was pretty much a day or so after the nose running started, but, again, it didn't bother him all too much. He kept tissues on hand, and he was fine.

It was another two or three days before the coughing started, and that's when it all went downhill. It ended up keeping him up all night, made his throat sore, and at times it made it hard for him to breathe. And then the fever came along, and he couldn't even curl up in his covers at night without feeling as if he was overheating or being cooked alive.

That, and he couldn't even wear his uniform anymore without feeling suffocated.

Kaoru groaned again as he pulled himself out of bed, rubbing his eyes and stumbling to his feet. He stumbled around a little in his room blindly, searching for his night gown, before pulling it off his desk and shrugging it on. He yawned again as he stumbled over to the door, pulling it open slowly and padding out of the room.

It didn't take him long before he reached Hikaru's room, and he knocked on the door timidly, sniffing a little. "H-Hika...?" he asked quietly, waiting for an answer. When he didn't get one, he pushed the door open and quietly walked in, shutting it behind him. He walked quietly over to the bed, before tapping his sleeping brother on the shoulder. "Hika...?"

Hikaru opened one eye, groaning a little and turning over in bed to face his little brother. "Whaaaat...?" he grumbled.

Kaoru sniffed again and rubbed his nose. "D-does your bathroom have any tissues...? Mine are all done..."

Hikaru sighed, before turning back over in bed and curling up. "Go and check," he stated simply. "But it should."

Kaoru just nodded as he shuffled over to the bathroom, sniffling. "Thanks, Hika…" he mumbled quietly, before opening the door and walking in.

"Kaoru, are you sick?"

The younger male twin coughed into the tissues in his hand, answering the asker's question rather quickly.

Andrea and Katie sat around a table with Kaoru in class, whilst Hikaru had gone off to get the group some supplies to do their classwork. They were in Literature now, and had to come up with some ideas before having to write an essay by the end of the week. And it was only Monday. Outside the classroom, it seemed to be raining a little - although, it was pretty much getting into winter now, so that was to be expected.

"Maybe you should go home," Katie suggested softly, giving the younger twin a sympathetic look. After all, he was usually the one that took care of everyone else when they were sick, and he always worked his butt off in school - he needed a break, and he needed to get better.

Kaoru shook his head stubbornly, stifling a few more coughs before he could answer her. "No... I can't," he answered raspily, before clearing his throat and speaking again. "I can't go home. Not now."

"And why not?" Andrea asked him, a slight frown on her face. "You're ill – you have a cough, and I'm assuming you have a fever as well. You need to go home and rest it off."

Kaoru gave her a look. "Do you really think I'm going to leave you two here alone with Hikaru all day?" he asked, as if the answer was obvious. "No. I won't. I'm staying in school, okay?"

"You won't be missing out on any work, though," the black girl pointed out again, frowning. "Come on, you're better off at home."

"I need to take care of my brother."

"And you're not doing very well at that by keeping yourself at school, are you?"

The redheaded male scowled at her, before huffing, although the huff turned into a coughing fit very quickly.

Andrea got up and moved around the table so that she was standing beside Kaoru, and she rubbed his back gently. "Hey, hey, try to breathe," she told him softly, although there was a hint of amusement in her voice.

Kaoru seemed to catch the amusement in her voice, and as soon as he stopped coughing, he turned to glare at her. "I can breathe, thank you very much," he croaked.

"Sure you can, Kaoru." The black girl stood fully, crossing her arms. "Kaoru, you're going home."

Kaoru opened his mouth to argue, but Andrea cut him off before he could even speak.

"I don't care whether you need to take care of your brother – he's not a baby, and he's got his girlfriend to take care of him. He's not useless, and neither are we. Stop implying that we aren't fit to take care of him."

Kaoru looked a little taken aback. "I-I... I wasn't..."

"Yes you were. Now get up and go home."

The redhead sighed, before sneezing and reaching for his tissues. He cleared his runny nose as he reached for his books, and began to pack everything away. Andrea helped him as he did so, getting his bag ready for him and handing it to him when he was done.

"Get your coat and stuff, we'll get Hikaru to call your chauffeur when he gets back."

"You'll get Hikaru to do what?" Hikaru asked as he reached the table, his hands filled with supplies. He placed everything down on the table, and then raised an eyebrow when he realised that Kaoru was getting ready to leave. "Where are you going?"

"Home," Kaoru answered quietly. "I... I feel really ill..."

Hikaru paused, watching Kaoru for a few moments, before glancing at Andrea. "Was this... your idea?"

Andrea nodded. "He's really sick... he can't spend the rest of today in school."

Hikaru glanced between the black girl and his twin brother, a small smirk on his face. From the slight pout on Kaoru's face, and the triumphant look on Andrea's, he had an idea of exactly what happened. "Sure, that sounds like a great idea."

Kaoru whined. He actually thought that Hikaru would be on his side for this one, but clearly not. Maybe this was payback for when he was ill...

Hikaru patted his younger brother's shoulder. "If you feel really bad, maybe you should go home. There's no point you staying here if you feel that bad."

Kaoru nodded a little, before beginning to head to where the teacher sat to inform him that he was going home.

Hikaru sighed and sat down at the desk, glancing between his girlfriend and her best friend. "You think he'll be okay?" he asked them quietly.

The girls both nodded.

"He'll be fine," Katie answered.

"He's been working hard, and he probably needs quite a bit of rest too," Andrea added, before reaching for what Hikaru had set out on the table. She frowned slightly at him. "Hikaru! You didn't get enough! Go get more!"

Hikaru glared at her, before getting out of his seat, grumbling as he went to get more supplies. "Baka Andrea..."

Kaoru was kept in bed for the next couple of days, without leaving the room except to use the bathroom, or get more tissues. And for every day that he stayed in bed, Hikaru visited his brother and took care of him, bringing him food and making sure that he was comfortable.

That was, until Hikaru got sick as well.

It wasn't that bad at first. Hikaru only thought it was a small stomach upset, and so he put it off as so. After all, if it was just a small stomach upset, it would go away, because he'd probably just eaten something bad.

That idea was literally flushed down the toilet when Hikaru found himself waking up, a day or two later, to throw up, his forehead beaded with sweat and his body temperature definitely showing signs of a fever.

At the sound of retching, Kaoru awoke and padded over to Hikaru's room. He was still ill, of course, but the sound of his brother being sick was enough to drag him out of bed.

"Hikaru...?" he asked quietly.

He was answered with a small whimper, before the retching sounds started again, and Kaoru leaned on the wall.

Great. Hikaru was sick too. Who was supposed to take care of them now?

His question was answered the following morning, when he woke up feeling a warm, damp material on his forehead. His eyes fluttered open a little, and he smiled weakly at who he saw standing beside his bed.

"...Mum...?" he whispered.

Yuzuha smiled at her youngest son, running a hand through his hair softly. "Hello, Kaoru."

"Wh-what are you doing here...? I... I thought you were on a business trip...?"

"I came home as soon as the maids told me that you and Hikaru were both sick," she told Kaoru softly. "After all, I couldn't leave both of my babies at home feeling all poorly when I'm parading all over the world." She grinned slightly at him, giving him a small wink, before tucking the covers around him more. "Now, you get some rest, okay? I don't want you to be awake or out of bed for the rest of the day – you need to sleep."

Kaoru frowned slightly, shifting and pushing the covers away slightly. "B-but... Hikaru..."

"I'll take care of him, alright? After all, that's why I came home – to take care of my boys."

Kaoru opened his mouth to protest, but as soon as he took in a breath he began to cough, his eyes closed tightly. Yuzuha took this as an opportunity to kiss Kaoru on the forehead, tucking him in again (more comfortably this time) and brushing some stray strands of hair back from his face.

"You get some rest, okay sweetheart?" she told her son softly, before getting up. "Now, I'm going to check on your brother, and I expect you to be asleep by the time I get back, okay?" Her tone had gone from soft to stern, although they retained their motherly undertones.

Kaoru sighed, but closed his eyes anyway. Yuzuha was a Hitachiin – she wasn't going to let him get away with anything. Not without a fight. "Yes, mother," he mumbled quietly.

"Good." Yuzuha smiled as she exited the room, shutting the door softly behind her.

Katie sighed as she sat at her desk, tapping on the table boredly.

She was in Physics, sitting at her table all alone. Andrea had been called out of class to do something for the club – something along the lines of discussing budgeting with the Headmaster – and so, with the twins both off sick, Katie was left on her own, at a table meant for four, to study the one part of Physics that she hated the most.

Lenses.

"Why did they leave me to suffer through hell on my own...?" she groaned, her head falling onto the desk in front of her.

She didn't know how long she'd been sat like that, but soon enough she heard her name being called, and she sat up sharply. Only to find that the teacher had asked her a question.

Because the whole class was staring at her.

"Um...?" she mumbled, biting her lip nervously and blushing. "What was that... sir...?"

The teacher sighed, rolling his eyes. "Miss Brigden, I know that the Hitachiins and Miss Mante aren't in class at the moment, but if you could please concentrate, that would be very kind of you," he told her, irritation seeping into his voice.

Katie stared down at her desk in front of her. "Sorry."

"Now, if you could please come up and draw the refraction lines for this lens...?"

The redhead stood from her seat and walked up to the blackboard, ignoring the hushed whispers she heard as she passed some of the tables.

"I can't believe Hitachiin is still dating her..."

"I thought he'd be done with her by now..."

"What does he see in her that he doesn't see in me?"

"I'm so much prettier than her..."

That last one got her to frown, and she stopped right before the board, turning with a raised eyebrow towards the culprit. But, instead of saying anything, she turned back to the board with a huff, deciding to just do as she was told so that the class could go on.

After all, she'd memorised the face. She'd just tell Andrea about it later.

She didn't manage to see Andrea again that day until it was time for the Café Club to start, where she met the girl just inside Music Room Three – their old club room – as they usually did. In fact, that was where everyone met to get changed and ready before they all took their stuff down to the commoner's mall. It was only when they got down there that they got their uniforms on.

The black girl was sitting on one of the couches, a coffee table pulled up towards her as she looked over all of the documents that she'd been given earlier on that day.

"Hey," Katie greeted as she moved to sit beside her best friend.

Andrea looked over at her best friend. "Oh, hey," she greeted with a grin. "How were lessons and stuff without me?" she asked curiously.

"Boring. You left me to do lenses in Physics on my own."

"Oh, baby, I'm so sorry..." the black girl cooed.

"You're not sorry."

"Not really. I didn't have to do lenses."

"Meanie."

"Mwahaha."

"So what have you got here?" The redhead turned their attentions back to the papers spread out on the coffee table in front of them, some of them graphs and tables, the others proper typed up documents and... were those permission slips?

"Well, apparently there was something that Renge didn't check when she decided that we should start up a club," Andrea said, sitting back with an annoyed expression on her face.

Katie raised an eyebrow. "What's that?"

"We have to get permission of the school to use public property, and permission slips." She proceeded to wave them around in front of Katie's face. "We need permission slips, because we're doing an after school club that's off campus. I didn't even think private schools needed these!"

"Well, it makes sense really," Katie mumbled.

Andrea just sighed, her head falling into her hands. "We also need to document every single one of our earnings, which we have, but part of it needs to go into the school funds."

"How much of it?"

"About a quarter. Which means that, if we want to be able to afford rent and pay for all of our resources, our pay needs to be cut by about 10 to 20% to accommodate."

Katie groaned. "Why didn't Renge tell us all of this before?"

"I don't know! She's meant to be club president! Why the heck didn't she appoint an accountant?!"

"Don't ask me! Ask her!"

"Ask who what?"

The two girls turned to see AJ standing at the door to the music room, staring at them both with her bag hung over her shoulder. From the way she stood there, it was easy to assume that the girl was innocent... but she was most definitely not. Not at all.

"We need to ask Renge why we haven't had an accountant," Andrea explained as she began to rifle through the documents on the table. "We owe the school a bucket-load of money, need to pay rent, and I've just realised that we may need to cut our pay to solve all this."

AJ blinked at the two, before sighing. "Well, this the type of thing that Renge would do, isn't it?" she pointed out, as if it was obvious. Which it was. Renge may be the club president, but Katie had been nominated as the manager for a reason. Maybe she should have been nominated president as well.

"You're not helping," Andrea groaned as she leaned back into the couch, slapping her hand against her forehead. "Why did we have to let that idiot deal with everything! We would've been better off even letting Kaoru deal with the money!"

Katie winced. "That's a bit mean..."

"Yeah, well, I'm going to speak to her next time I see her. And we're going to have a long talk." The black girl stood up, gathering all of the papers together and shoving them all into a large brown envelope before heading over to the changing rooms. "Now let's get changed and head out. We're set to open for the after-school tea time shift in about half an hour. Come on."

The other two girls nodded and they followed Andrea over to the changing rooms, where they kept their clothes to change into. It was after this that they would wait for the others and then head down to the cafe.

"Thank you for visiting! We hope to see you soon!"

AJ gave a wave as she saw off their last customers for the day, smiling before turning the sign on the door to say 'Closed'. It had been a fairly long afternoon, with the girls, Satoshi and Yasuchika working for about three or four hours straight – no Hitachiins meant that they were low on staff for the day, and they now had to make up for it.

As soon as the waitress announced that they were closed, Andrea emerged from the kitchen holding a brown envelope. She made a beeline for Renge, who was standing by the door with Aoi, talking about how they could advertise the café even better for next time. When she realised Andrea was standing there, not looking very pleased, she paused her conversation with the taller girl.

"What is it?" she asked the black girl, raising an eyebrow.

Andrea held up the brown folder. "We need to talk."

"Now?"

"Ye–"

"Later," Katie interrupted as she walked out of the back rooms, already pulling her coat on. She'd already managed to change out of her work uniform. "You guys can argue or discuss or whatever you want on this topic later. At our next meeting, which we'll have tomorrow."

Andrea raised an eyebrow at Katie. "And why later?" she asked.

"Because we're going to go and see the Hitachiins. Tonight. All of us. And before you say anything, AJ," the redhead spoke, holding her hand up to stop the brunette from talking, "they're our friends, our coworkers. We haven't seen them in a while, and it'd be nice to lay off the homework and pay them a visit, don't you think?"

AJ's mouth clicked shut as the thought about that, before giving in and nodding. "Fine. But just tonight."

Satoshi smirked and slung an arm over the girl's shoulder. "Awww... come on, AJ. It'll be fun! The Hitachiins are awesome! You'll love it!"

She rolled her eyes at Satoshi, but was smiling anyway. "Yeah, yeah..."

Andrea sighed and lowered the folder, before turning to head back to the back rooms. "Fine, fine. Let's get changed and get going. The twins are probably waiting for us as we speak."

The maid merely blinked at the girls and boys that stood at the door, before raising an eyebrow at the group. "So... you are here to see the masters?" she asked slowly.

Katie nodded. "Yup."

"Is there something wrong with that?" Andrea asked curiously.

"The masters are resting," the maid informed them. "They are not expecting visitors."

"So, what, we're not allowed to give surprise visits?" Aoi asked, a disbelieving frown on her face.

"Well, I am not sure whether I am permitted to–"

"Who's at the door?"

The maid turned, blinking, before stepping aside slightly. "Mrs. Hitachiin, some friends of the boys–"

"Yuzuha?" Katie looked past the maid to see the famous mother of the Hitachiin twins. As usual, Yuzuha looked as stylish as ever. Her red hair had grown out a little, but was still in its usual pixie cut style, and she wore a plain blouse with a pair of dark jeans. Even at home, Yuzuha Hitachiin managed to look as stylish as possible.

The redheaded woman smiled when she spotted the group at the door and approached them. "Hello, girls... and boys," she greeted, leaning on the doorframe and actually looking very casual for once – almost tired, even. "How are you?"

"We're doing well," Andrea answered for them all, leaving the others to nod and smile in agreement.

"How about you?" Katie asked. "Are you well?"

Yuzuha seemed to pause for a fraction of a second, before smiling at the girls. "Oh, I'm very well, but I'm assuming you're not here to see me," she replied, a slight tease in her tone as she glanced at Andrea and Katie.

Katie flushed a faint pink. "Haha... yeah..."

Andrea smiled nervously. "So, um... can we see them...?"

Yuzuha smiled softly and nodded, before shooing the maid away and moving aside for the group.

The group of teens walked into the home, smiling gratefully at Yuzuha, before waiting in the corridor for her to close the door. Once she had, she turned and began to lead the group upstairs, to the twins' rooms.

"So, how have the boys been doing?" Katie asked as the group headed up the stairs.

Yuzuha sighed, her smile fading at the mention of her two sons. "Well... I'm not too sure. Kaoru... well, Kaoru, I suppose, is stabilising. He's been asleep all day, so I wouldn't know how he's been feeling. Hikaru, on the other hand..."

Katie bit her lip. "Getting worse?"

"It seems so..."

They reached the upper landing, and began heading down the corridor, when AJ stopped.

"Hey, I have an idea," she said, smiling slightly. "How about we take care of them for the night? We can have our stuff sent over by our maids and stuff, and we can help Mrs. Hitachiin take care of the twins?"

The others turned to stare at her in shock. It wasn't random for AJ to come up with ideas on the spot, but she was suggesting that they don't do their homework and skip school.

"AJ... we have school tomorrow..." Yasuchika pointed out slowly, not exactly sure whether AJ knew that or not.

AJ huffed. "I know that, because I'm not stupid, but it's only Friday tomorrow," she pointed out. "We have few lessons tomorrow – few that are important, at least. We're better off not going in for the day. We can just skive."

The others glanced at each other, before a smile spread on Aoi's face.

"That, my small genius friend, is a brilliant idea!" she agreed, throwing her hands up in the air.

Andrea frowned. "Are you sure? I mean... our attendance..."

"Our attendance doesn't matter," Aoi interrupted. "It's only for one day, after all. What damage could it do?"

"We could even make an excuse that we decided to dedicate a day to the café!" Satoshi exclaimed, his eyes wide with excitement.

"We are not using that café as an excuse," Yasuchika snapped. "We can take the day off, but no making up excuses."

"So, should we do it?" AJ asked, looking around.

They all turned to Andrea and Katie, who had been standing there watching... and then Andrea turned to Katie.

"Well, what do you think?" the black girl asked. "It's up to you, and I'm with you whatever you pick."

Katie blinked, before looking between the others. What to do, what to do...

Then she caught Yuzuha's eye, and noticed the tired look on her face. She'd just come back from a fashion show (something that had to be tiring) only to find that her sons were extremely ill, and was probably working non-stop to make sure that they were comfortable, and had a chance of getting better soon. And Katie was sure that if she didn't stop worrying, she would get sick herself.

"We're staying," the redhead announced, sending a smile Yuzuha's way and feeling relieved when the woman smiled back.

AJ grinned. "Great!"

"But we'll do things our way – Andrea and I are leading this, even if it was your idea, AJ. We'll take ideas, but we'll decide what to do."

Satoshi frowned. "Who made you in charge?" he asked.

"My boyfriend, my rules. Don't like? Get out."

Andrea smirked. "Atta girl."

The others laughed at that.

"So, what first, captain?" Renge asked, tilting her head to the side. The self-designated president smiled at the surprised look on Katie's face. "Well, you're in charge now, so I have to listen to your orders, right?"

Katie blinked, seemingly confused, before smiling.

Yep, this was going to turn out well.

As agreed, no one returned to school until Monday, the group staying over on Friday and Saturday to help take care of the twins and Mrs. Hitachiin.

At first, on the Thursday night, it didn't seem like everything was going to turn out as they'd hoped. For the whole night, Andrea and Katie seemed to be kept up – Katie because of the retching Hikaru, and Andrea because of the continually coughing and sneezing Kaoru. The two girls had decided to give the others a break, allowing them to cook dinner and help out Yuzuha for a few hours before heading off to bed. As soon as AJ woke up at three a.m. and realised what they were doing, though, she decided that they would have a duty rota, each person taking a shift with the twins for a couple of hours to make sure that they were all rested and okay.

The whole of Friday ended up pretty much the same, with each of them taking turns to take care of the twins and help out Yuzuha, as well as do some cooking. At around midday, Renge left to put a sign up at the café, announcing that it wouldn't be opened for the weekend due to a staffing shortage. The twins were fed soup, which Kaoru managed to keep down but Hikaru managed to throw up about an hour later. By the end of the day, Katie was sure she'd ended up changing Hikaru's clothes an bedsheets numerous times... with the help of the maids, of course.

Saturday was considerably better, in that Kaoru no longer tried to cough up his lungs. His nose was also a lot less runny, and he managed to get out of bed that day and walk around the mansion a little. He was still a little under the weather, and so was banned from seeing his brother just in case he got worse again, but Andrea was glad to see that his condition had improved greatly. By the end of the day, he was helping out with some of the tasks that his mother had set them, feeling relieved that he wasn't just stuck in bed all day doing nothing whilst his friends cared for him and his family.

Over the night, something fairly miraculous happened – Hikaru threw up only once. And, even then, it was because he'd eaten a slice of toast before bed. He'd managed to keep it down for about three or four hours before his stomach decided to retaliate. By the morning, his fever had also reduced slightly, and he claimed to feel a lot less weak than he had been earlier that week. He still wasn't strong enough to be up and walking, but him vomiting a lot less put a whole lot less strain on Katie and AJ – the two girls that had been nominated to take care of the poorly elder Hitachiin twin. By the end of the day, Hikaru had managed to hold a whole conversation with Satoshi and Yasuchika without having to excuse himself to go to the bathroom, managed to keep food down for nearly six hours, and now no longer cringed at the smell or sight of food.

By Sunday morning, both boys were well on their way to recovery, with Kaoru feeling far better and actually being allowed to see his brother. That day, the group spent the whole time in Hikaru's room, watching movies all day and generally keeping the two boys company. Even Yuzuha thought that this was a good idea, and popped in every once in a while to sit with them and just cuddle her boys close to make sure that they were okay. That night, they all ended up falling asleep on Hikaru's bed, lying haphazardly on top of each other with Katie cuddling with Hikaru, and Andrea unintentionally curling up beside Kaoru.

And it was safe to say that, when all of the teens woke up on the Monday, none of those that were well enough to go to school regretted being an hour late.

In fact, they didn't really care.

So... I hope this was a good enough chapter! Please review!