Thank you so much for the reviews everyone!
I usually thank each person but I'm sharing a computer with someone right now and she relly needs to use it right now haha. I'll send out the thank you reviews a little later.
Oh and someone did ask me if this is a real condition and yes it is! (But I am changing it a little so that's why it is called mutated CIP).
This is a short description from the website: For patients with this disorder, cognition and sensation are otherwise normal; for instance patients can still feel discriminative touch(though not always temperature[1]), and there are no detectable physical abnormalities.
Anyways I hope you guys will enjoy this chapter too!
And yes the rating will stay M because... well.. you guys should know why if it involve twins hehheh
It's been around one week ever since Kaoru was diagnosed with congenital insensitivity to pain and to be honest, the younger twin thought it wasn't as bad as he thought. The condition didn't give him any physical pain so it did not make any huge difference in his life…yet. Speaking of his life, Kaoru slowly learned to not expect his twin brother's visit any time soon. Kaoru thought it would still be fair for Hikaru to know that he at least went to the hospital for a "check up" so a short text message was sent. He hoped that Hikaru would show a subtle concern but the only text he received was a simple word: okay. When they were back in Ouran High School, Kaoru remembered the times when even receiving a small antibiotic shot would cause Hikaru to give him floods of doting.
"And I thought Hikaru was annoying that time," Kaoru faintly smiled as he finished his last essay project.
It was once again Friday night and Kaoru thought it would be best to just spend his free time at his apartment. It wasn't like Kaoru did not have any friends. In fact, Kaoru was invited to several parties since it was the start of the short but sweet winter break but he thought it would be better to stay safe until he would learn more about his condition.
'I guess I should just watch a movie on the television,' Kaoru yawned a little and moved to the couch to sit down. When Kaoru turned on the television, he noticed that his smartphone was ringing.
"Hello?" Kaoru answered as he looked for a good movie channel.
"Good evening to you."
"Oh, well this is kind of surprising," said Kaoru, "I didn't expect to receive a call from you, Kyoya senpai."
"Just because I am in graduate school, it doesn't mean I don't have time to call the old host club members," said Kyoya. "I was wondering what you are doing tonight?"
Kaoru blinked a couple of times and there was a few seconds of silence before he replied back.
"Ah no… Don't take this the wrong way Kyoya senpai but I'm a little surprised that you of all the club members are asking me that. Isn't that Tono's job or something?" Kaoru chuckled a little.
"Hmmm I guess it's better to be straight when it comes to you," Kyoya cleared his throat, "I heard from one of my medical doctor staff that you were diagnosed with CIP?"
"?! W-Wait a minute, ha?" Kaoru's eyes went wide open. "Don't tell me your medical people are in this university too?" Kaoru face palmed himself. There goes the plan of keeping his condition a secret.
"I don't see what the point of keeping this a clandestine is. Did you not inform the others about your health condition?" asked Kyoya.
"Well it's not like I'm dying Kyoya senpai," Kaoru rolled his eyes. "I don't see the point of making a big deal out of this." Kaoru reused the same word that Kyoya did.
"Don't tell me this has anything to do with you getting mad and not talking to your brother," Kyoya managed to hit the perfect spot and Kaoru tried not to act like his words affected him.
"Kyoya senpai, don't be ridiculous," Kaoru laughed, "Anyways why did you really call me?" Kaoru wanted to change the subject before things got too awkward between them. Not to mention, it was weird for the younger twin to learn that Kyoya of all people found out about his medical condition.
"Records the doctor sent over to me was in fact interesting. It is not every day to find a patient who developed a mutated version of CIP. Don't you think?"
Kaoru thought it was a little creepy for Kyoya to say that so bluntly but there were times even Kyoya was a little callous which Kaoru learned to tolerate.
"So in the end you want to my condition, right?" said Kaoru.
"That and I doing some little catching up. Tamaki will be joining us and he has a lot of questions about Hikaru and Haruhi are doing these days as well."
"Hahahaha, of course he will be interested it. It's a little sad that Tono is still into Haruhi even after their relationship didn't turn out well," said Kaoru.
"Would you want me to pick you up? I could send over my limo there since it is closer than your house. It would save more time for your limo driver."
"Yeah Kyoya senai, why not," said Kaoru. It would be fun to meet Tamaki and Kyoya since they did not hang out that much after the graduation from the Ouran High School. "Just send the limo over around 35 minutes. I need to get a little ready too."
"Of course," replied Kyoya as he hung up his phone.
'Now I have to remind Kyoya senpai not to let anyone know about this,' Kaoru thought to himself. Kaoru knew that deep inside he was slightly acting stubborn by not telling Hikaru about what he was diagnosed. This also proved that Kaoru was in fact mad at his brother for all these years. At the same time, he knew all of the host club members so well to the point where if the news about him having a rare mutated illness gets out, everyone would both freak out and worry dramatically…. expect for Kyoya perhaps.
Kaoru decided to take a short shower before Kyoya's limo arrived.
The younger twin quickly took off his clothing and went into bathroom in order to take a quick warm shower. Little did he know that Hikaru was knocking on his apartment door when Kaoru just started the water.
"Kaoru! Hello?" Hikaru continued to knock the door. "He should be home since the light are on." Hikaru tried to peak into through the window but the curtains were blocking most of the visions. After sighing a little, Hikaru reached to his back pocket and took out an old key that Kaoru gave to him when he decided to move in with Haruhi. A small key sound was made and Hikaru opened the door.
"Kaoru~ I'm coming in little brother," Hikaru shouted but didn't receive any respond. "Where are you?" Hikaru scratched his hair as he started to look around the large apartment. The older twin went to the long hallway and started to open random doors, hoping that he would find his brother until he turned a knob to the last door which was the bathroom.
"Kao…ru…..?" Hikaru slightly regretted barging into the bathroom when he was confronted with Kaoru taking a shower without closing the curtain so his body was literally exposed.
"?!" Kaoru turned around and almost tripped in the bath tub, "What are you doing here!" Kaoru quickly closed the shower curtain.
"Y-You don't have to act all embarrassed like that," Hikaru laughed a little. "It's not like I've never seen you like that before."
"I would believe what you just told me if your face wasn't all red like that," Kaoru countered and Hikaru had to admit, his face was a little flushed for whatever the reason was.
"Um…how come I didn't hear you taking the shower? I would have knocked you know," said Hikaru.
"It's the sound proof wall. Remember? You were the one that replaced all the walls in this apartment when you used to live here," said Kaoru as he quickly turned off the shower and reached out for the towel. "Could you wait outside the bathroom while I get dried?"
"Oh Kaoru, since when did you get all private on me?" Hikaru thought his brother was kidding but when Kaoru didn't banter along with him, Hikaru decided to wait in the hall way.
After a couple of seconds later, Kaoru came out from the bathroom with all the steams coming out. He only had a towel wrapped around his waist since the bath robe was still in the laundry. It's been a while since Hikaru saw… well… some skins and Kaoru really managed to grow fit than before. Kaoru continued to have beautiful light skin tone and built some lean muscles that did not make him look too buff at all. His slight feminine body feature remained but because of Kaoru's nice personality, it actually matched him.
"Um… do you have something to tell me?" Kaoru realized that HIkaru had his eyes glued to him.
"Huh? Oh right, I was wondering… if you have the any sashimi left in the fridge before I have to make a trip to the market," Hikaru stuttered a little.
"Ha?" Kaoru thought Hikaru actually came to visit him because he wanted to see him and not to check some sort of food supply in his fridge.
"Haruhi was about to go to the market all by herself at this hour to get herself a sushi and I told her I would do it instead. Sometimes, I wish she can remember that she's a girl and everyone knows if a girl is walking all by herself at the night time, it's just calling for more troubles"
"Well, we knew that Haruhi is independent from the start," Kaoru shrugged his shoulder, "Why don't you just call your limo and you guys can go to the market together?" Kaoru suggested.
"Eh, I could to that," Hikaru said as he walked behind Kaoru and placed his hands on his twin brother's wet shoulders. "Or I could use this excuse to see my little brother.
'Ah, so half of the reason is he came to see how I'm doing I guess,' Kaoru thought to himself and rolled his eyes.
"Lucky for you, I actually have some in the fridge. I was going to eat it later but you can take it. It's not tuna though… is salmon okay for your girlfriend?" Just then Kaoru was surprised how easily the word girlfriend came out from his mouth and some part of him was actually slightly depressed. But why should he feel depressed in the first place? Kaoru kept denying for some time now but was it really because he missed spending some quality with Hikaru as well when they were attending Ouran?
"She shouldn't be too picky when it comes to see food," Hikaru laughed and pointed to the kitchen, "So I can just go and grab it right?"
"It's not even cut yet. Let me at least wear my pants first and I can slice it for you."
"Why go and change if you look good right now?" Hikaru tried to tease Kaoru again but only received a subtle annoyed look in response which surprised him a little.
"Right, just don't do anything suspicious while I'm changing," Kaoru said and closed the door to his closet to wear some pants and a light shirt he could find.
As Hikaru waited for his brother outside, he had a sudden realization that this was the first time Kaoru actually closed the door when he was changing his clothes. In fact, Hikaru believed that his brother's privacy increased dramatically ever since he decided to move in with Haruhi. The older twin looked around the apartment and although it was not as big as their mansion back in their home, the place was still pretty huge compared to regular ones.
And Kaoru was living all alone.
'I thought you would get yourself a roommate when I move out,' thought Hikaru. He quickly looked around the wall and realized that all the pictures of them together were taken down and were replaced with random scenery paintings.
Hikaru sighed to himself as he sat down on the large sofa. There was a mini table in front of him with bunch of papers and magazines. The older twin was about to reach out to grab for a fashion magazine when a small white paper with Kaoru's name caught his attention immediately.
"What's this?" Hikaru raised an eyebrow in curiosity and picked up the paper. It was a doctor's appointment receipt.
"Kaoru…? Visiting Doctor?" Hikaru murmured but when heard the closet door opening, he frantically shoved the doctor's note back in the pile of papers and quickly picked out a random magazine and pretended to read.
"Sorry, I took so long," Kaoru smiled and faced Hikaru, "Since when are you into cooking?"
"Ha? What are you…" Hikaru finally saw that the magazine he picked out was a cooking book, "Oh I mean, you know, I was just bored and picked out anything random to read."
"Anyways, I'll go and get your salmon ready so you won't make Haruhi wait longer," said Kaoru and he walked to the kitchen.
Kaoru took out a cold orange colored salmon from the fridge and washed it with water to get all the ice off. He then reached out to grab a thickest looking knife that he could find and positioned his and carefully to start cutting into thin slices. Hikaru stood off from the sofa and decided to watch his brother work.
"Are you going somewhere?" HIkaru scanned his brother's body, "Or do you like to dress up nicely when you're home too?" Hikaru bantered with a hint of curiosity.
"Ah, Kyoya senpai is picking me up later," said Kaoru and HIkaru's golden eyes went wide when he heard their Shadow King's name.
"W-wait what? But why?"
"What do you mean why?" Kaoru looked at Hikaru, "He just wants to hang out with me. It's not something new Hikaru."
"You guys seem to get along really well towards our senior year in high school," Hikaru grumbled and leaned against the kitchen wall.
"What's wrong with Kyoya senpai? Aside from being blunt and acting all creepy sometimes, he's not a bad person you know."
"How do you even get along with him? I mean I like Tono mostly because his reaction to my pranks and teasing are hilarious but Kyoya senpai? Sometimes I don't even know what's going on in his head!"
"You just don't know enough about him," said Kaoru and Hikaru didn't know why but he felt a slight hint of jealously.
"Oh? And how much do you know about him Kaoru?"
"I know that he's not always a jerk," Kaoru smiled, "He's really fun to hang out with and believe it or not, Kyoya senpai's sarcasm can be pretty funny too."
"But if you were to pick between him and me, you would pick me right?" Hikaru narrowed his eyes and waited for his brother to respond.
"What kind of question is that, Hikaru," Kaoru rolled his eyes and turned to face Hikaru again while he was still slicing the salmon.
"It's called a yes or no question dear brother," Hikaru smirked as he crossed his arms, "So it would be me right?"
"You are so childish sometimes," Kaoru sighed, "Sometimes I feel sorry for Haruhi that she is dating you Hikaru."
Just then Hikaru realized something was wrong. He carefully looked at the salmon and saw a blood seeping out from-
"Kaoru stop!" Hikaru yelled as he snatched Kaoru's knife away.
Hikaru's yelling almost gave the younger twin a heart attack and an increase in his anger as well.
"What your problem, Hikaru?!" Kaoru yelled but was surprised when Hikaru quickly grabbed his wrist and presented it in front of him.
"Baka! Your hand is sliced and you keep cutting?!" Hikaru gritted his teeth. "You didn't know?"
"I know there was a cut when I saw the blood but it's pretty small so that's why I didn't stop," Kaoru tried to pull his wrist away but he was only confronted with Hikaru's shock look on his face.
"You call this a small cut?!" Hikaru turned Kaoru's wrist so his brother could see how serious the damage was.
"...Eh?" Kaoru looked at his hand to finally realize that the cuts were indeed deeper than what he expected.
'I saw blood coming out but since I didn't feel anything. I thought it was a small cut….'
In total there were two slices where one was a little below his index finger and the other one was on the side of his thumb. The blood was mainly coming out from the side of the thumb where Kaoru was able to see the inner parts of the flesh very clearly to the point where he wondered if this was going to be leaving a permanent scar. The one on the index finger was not as deep but the length of the injury was twice as longer.
"It's nothing," Kaoru murmured as he felt an upset stomach. 'How come I didn't feel this at all! I don't feel anything right now too!'
"Nothing? You have got to be kidding me," Hikaru snapped and placed the kitchen knife down in the safe place, "Come on, let's go and find the first aid kit to get that treated."
"H-Hikaru I can do that on my own," Kaoru tried to pull his arm back, "And besides, Haruhi is going to start to wonder what's taking you so long."
"I can fix it up quick."
"I don't need you to do that for me Hikaru. What was that about you wanting me to be more independent?" Kaoru challenged but that didn't stop Hikaru from taking Kaoru to the closet where the medical supplies were.
"Kaoru, just stay quiet while I do this, will you?"
Kaoru blinked a couple of times when he heard Hikaru's stern voice which was pretty rare thing to hear. The younger twin sat down quietly while his counterpart took out some bandages, medical sprays and a white powder that was supposed to aid in closing up the wound process.
'Hospital paper… is Kaoru sick..?' Hikaru couldn't take the image of the hospital appointment paper out from his mind to the point where he didn't realize that he was spraying too much onto Kaoru's poor wound.
If Kaoru still had his natural senses, he would have probably yelled at Hikaru, complaining that too much spray was stinging his injury but even Kaoru didn't respond. When Hikaru came back from the dazing zone, he saw Kaoru's injury flooding with clear liquid which was from the medical spray.
"Gyah! Kaoru, I think I put too much! Why didn't you stop me?!" Hikaru panicked a little and started to soak some liquid with the cotton.
"O-oh.. is it too much?" Kaoru tried to chuckle it off, "Sorry I thought you knew what you were doing."
"It doesn't sting?" Hikaru gave a disbelief look to his younger brother.
"Now that you mention it, it does hurt a little," Kaoru quickly lied and reached for the white powder. "Anyways, lets applied this and we're done."
'Well.. Kaoru did tell me that he was going to go for a health checkup,' Hikaru thought about the text that his brother sent around a week ago. 'Probably nothing serious.'
As Hikaru applied the last bandage, Kaoru noticed that his brother was not looking optimistic than usual. The younger twin thought maybe he was acting too cold onto Hikaru because he was still slightly pissed off for… whatever the strange reason might be.
When Hikaru entered his apartment, his brother tried to joke around with him several times and Kaoru literally threw all of them out the window. Kaoru bit his lips a little as a weak sense of guilt filled his heart.
Kaoru then cleared his throat and broke the silence.
"Am I good to go now doctor?"
Hikaru was speechless first and smiled when he realized that Kaoru was finally playing around with him just like the good old days.
"Hmm I don't know unless-" Hikaru gently placed his slender index finger right below Kaoru's chin, "there are some other injuries you're not telling me about."
Cognitional Insensitive to Pain Condition.
Kaoru swallowed hard and tried to act nothing was wrong.
"Don't tell me that's a pity excuse to keep me longer," said Kaoru as he made an effort to put on his best… well… uke face that he used to do during their host club years.
"And what if that is my excuse?" Hikaru learned in closer to his brother, "Would you fight back, Kaoru?"
"Please… you're embarrassing me," Kaoru slightly looked away while putting on a shy face. Hikaru decided to playfully slide his finger slowly down from his brother's chin to his neck in order to give him that tickling and yet gentle arousing sensation but was confused when Kaoru didn't give any single type of reaction.
'….Kaoru….?'
"Heh, I'm guessing this is how you play around with Haruhi too then," Kaoru laughed and stood up from the floor.
Hikaru shook his head and felt a small disappointment that their little act ended too soon but went along with his brother's decision.
"Don't get me wrong Haruhi is cool and everything but she's not really the types that loves to receive too much-"
"Lovy Dovy junk?" Both twins said it at the same time.
After a few seconds of silence, Hikaru was the first to laugh.
"It's been a while since we said something at the same time," the older twin continued to laugh.
"I guess it was pretty cool," Kaoru agreed and smiled. "Come on. Let's get that salmon ready so you can hurry back to Haruhi."
Kaoru found large plastic box and filled it with bunch of ice. He then started to put the sliced salmon on top of them in order to make sure the sashimi's temperature stayed cool until Hikaru reached back to his and Haruhi's house.
"You know Kaoru, I'm glad I stopped by your house today," said Hikaru. Hikaru was just about to ask Kaoru if he wants to sleep over at his and Haruhi's house but Karou's phone started to ring.
"Ah, that must be Kyoya senpai," said Kaoru when he finished wrapping up the plastic bag for Hikaru to carry.
"Oh right… you're going to see him today…" Hikaru trailed off
"Hey Kyoya senpai, you kinda took long you know," said Kaoru when he answered the phone. "Hm? Don't worry about it, I wasn't too bored. Hikaru came to visit me so it's all good. Should I come down from my apartment right now? Okay sure thing. Bye."
"I'm guessing Kyoya senpai is here?" asked Hikaru with an interested tone.
"Yeah, sorry Hikaru I think I have to go out right now. Do you want to walk down the apartment together?"
"No I'm good. I'm just going to see if I have anything else I can steal from your fridge," said Hikaru. In all honesty, Hikaru didn't really felt like looking at Kyoya at this moment.
"Wow Hikaru, hope you don't steal all my food supply," Kaoru chuckled, "Just make sure you lock all the door when you leave. Tell your girlfriend sorry I only had salmon and not her tuna."
"Sure, I'll see you around Kaoru," Hikaru said weakly but Kaoru was already out the door. The older twin stared at the door for a while before he started to move around the house again.
'Wonder if this is how Kaoru felt when I moved out from this house…' Hikaru trailed off.
Meanwhile, Kaoru decided not to take the elevator since it was taking so long so he was walking down the stairs. When he was almost down to the first floor entrance and saw Kyoya standing next to the limo without anything greeting, which is typical for Kaoru to see, the younger twin sensed something was wrong with his left leg. He didn't feel any pain but his leg was definitely not functioning correctly.
When Kaoru reached the first floor, he stopped moving and touched his left leg with his hand. Kyoya also sensed that something was a little off and walked closer to the Hitachiin.
"What's wrong?"
"It's like my leg is somewhat paralyzed or something," Kaoru tried to get his leg to move but it was a lot more difficult than before, "It doesn't hurt but it's like something is binding the leg."
"Hmmm," Kyoya bent down and gripped tightly onto Kaoru's leg. "Do you sense anything?"
"Nothing really," said Kaoru.
"You're probably not sensing pain because of your condition, however, if it's to the point where you can't move properly, then it's something that we cannot over look," said Kyoya as he touched his glasses.
"D-do you think it's really serious?" Kaoru felt his heart beat increase and an unknown fear started to consume him. "I mean just few moments ago… I gave myself a pretty deep cut on my hand but I didn't notice anything."
"I can't promise you if it's serious or not," Kyoya said bluntly. "What I can say is that we should let my medical staff take a look once we go back to my mansion."
"I see…" Kaoru sighed.
"What I can also promise is that you will be treated well. You are also a good friend of mine Kaoru and since you helped me a lot especially during this year with my research, I have to return that favor."
"Of course it's always a give and take mind set for you, right Kyoya senpai?" Kaoru gave out an awkward laugh. "So should I put my arm around your back to help me walk to your car or-"
Even before Kaoru had the time to finish his sentence, Kyoya managed to lift up the younger twin in a bridal style way too easily.
"…Or we can go your way," Kaoru had a small sweat drop forming. "Eh… aren't I heavy for you?"
"It's better than that idiot so don't worry."
"I'm not even going to bother to ask why you had to carry Tono like that," Kaoru rolled his eyes. "But thank you, Kyoya senpai."
Kyoya quickly carried Kaoru to his limo but what they didn't realize was that Hikaru also witnessed this scene from the apartment's balcony as well.
"K-Kaoru and Kyoya senpai?!" Hikaru gripped his hands tightly. "What was that all about?!"
Hikaru knew that Kaoru was spending a lot of his time with Kyoya lately but not this much. Since when did those two get that close?
Next Chapter Preview
"Ouran High School sent me a letter asking if we want to put up a host event performance during the alumni welcoming night!" Tamaki wave dramatic hand gestures while all the former host club members stared at him.
"Would the profit go to us?" asked Kyoya and Haruhi shook her head with a sigh.
"Not the whole profit but we are still receiving slightly more than 50 percent which is good, right Kyoya?" Tamaki had his eyes sparkling and Kyoya rolled his eyes.
"So basically we are doing what we did back in Ouran, right?" asked Kaoru.
"It's going to be so much fun! Like eating cake and hosting like how we did before!" Hunny jumped up and down.
"I would need to talk to the school's staff and couple of organizations before we start this. Kaoru, would you like to help me?" Kyoya turned to the younger Hitachiin and Hikaru frowned instantly.
"Me?" Kaoru blinked a couple of times.
"Yeah why Kaoru?" Hikaru sounded ticked off than usual, "Why not ask Tono or something."
"Other than myself, Kaoru seem to be the most organized person that I know," Kyoya reasoned. "What do you say Kaoru?"
"Uh… sure if I can be any help," Kaoru shrugged his shoulder.
While Kyoya and Tamaki continued to talk about some other information that they needed to know for this small event, Hikaru tapped onto his brother's shoulder and whispered to him.
"Can I talk to you when this meeting is over?"
"S-sure Hikaru," Kaoru answered, wondering what his brother had in mind.
Yes~ yes~ this chapter was a little different from the last chapter's preview section but I thought this went better with the flow hehheh.
Thank you for reading and please please review if you enjoyed it!
Kaoru & Hikaru: Yes please do review our lovely readers and see ya soon! 3