Warning: This chapter mentions abuse throughout. There are no explicit scenes of abuse, but please be advised and read with caution.

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I woke up the next morning sore from the fresh beating last night. Nii-Sama was passed out in the chair next to my bed, his head resting in his arms on the side of the bed. It was nice to get a break from the chaotic host club, but it had been unlucky that it just so happened to be the day that Father had been in a bad mood. Something about how he had been gambling and lost a ton of money. I sighed at the reminder. I'm sure Father was going to start signing me up for competitions again to make up for the loss. I surprisingly didn't have any for a short time, but it might've been because Father no longer needed a reason to beat me.

It didn't take long after I woke up for Nii-Sama to stir and rise. His eyes immediately met mine before doing a once over to check my injuries. I smiled slightly to reassure Nii-Sama that the beating hadn't been all that bad considering I could still walk myself back into my room without collapsing. Knowing he couldn't exactly fight me on it, he ruffled my silver hair before standing up from his chair and stretching.

"You sure you're okay to go to school, Karino?" Nii-Sama asked as I slipped the covers off of me and swung my legs to the side of my bed.

"I'm fine, Nii-Sama. It's better than staying at home anyways. Father wasn't in the best mood yesterday, and I'm not sure I want to be around if he's going to be home today."

"Good point," Nii-Sama replied. He ran a hand through his short, silver hair and sighed. "We need to get away from Father as fast as possible..."

"I can hold out until you turn 18, so don't put yourself back in danger for us to escape," I said, smiling as Nii-Sama sent me a sad look. "Just promise that we'll escape together."

"Of course," he said without skipping a beat. "I promise I'll get us out. After all, how could I even think about leaving you behind and running away?"

"Then that's settled." I hopped off the bed and began to push Nii-Sama toward the door that joined our two rooms. "Now go and get ready for school. Kyoya-Senpai is already ticked enough about losing the twin package. I don't think he'd appreciate it if the second sibling pair is late to school..."

"Kyoya can go complain to himself in his little diary for all I care," Nii-Sama grumbled. I giggled, knowing that Nii-Sama actually considered Kyoya-Senpai a pretty good friend despite Nii-Sama's constant grumbles about how Kyoya-Senpai was like a persistent tax-collector or something.

"Yes, yes. Let's not get on his nerves anyways, Nii-Sama," I replied as I finally shoved him back into his room. He glared at me, but nonetheless turned to start getting ready. I closed the door between our rooms and headed back to my own closet. Now, I suppose the first task would be to re-wrap my bandages.

~~~

"Morning, Haru-chan," I said with a smile as she entered the classroom. I had gotten there early, surprisingly, so I decided to compose a bit before the class got too loud. She took her seat and I gently stashed my composition away before heading to stand by her desk. It was in the last row, which was the row I was in, but just a few seats down. The twins sat on either side of her, if I remember correctly.

"Morning, Karino." Haru-chan seemed surprisingly tired today. Perhaps she had been studying too much? I tilted my head cutely to the side.

"What are you thinking about Haru-chan?"

"The twins and their fighting yesterday..." As she trailed off, a voice at the door pulled our attention away from our own conversation.

"Hey Haruhi!" It was Hika-chan's voice... but...

The entire class turned to look towards the door and the buzz died down for a second. Standing at the door was Hika-chan with bright pink hair. I stared at it, not quite sure how to react.

"Good morning," he said as he raised his hand. Hika-chan then made his way toward us. "Ah, Karino, you're here too. Morning. I didn't see you past the desk."

"I'm not that short, am I?" I pouted, resting my chin on the side of Haru-chan's desk. He was just joking that he didn't see me... right?

"Hikaru," Haru-chan greeted back. "What in the world happened to your hair? Why is it dyed pink?"

"Cause pink suits me. Don't you think it's cute?" Hika-chan put his hand on his waist. "From now on, I'm the pink-haired twin."

"Until your hair dye gets washed off, that is..." I mumbled, still a bit bitter about Hika-chan making fun of my height. Even when he was in the midst of his own fight, he still had the time to make fun of me... Hika-chan glared at me for my comment, but said nothing otherwise, which only proved my point.

"I didn't want to be mistaken for that Kaoru for the rest of my life, you know?" Hika-chan continued talking. From behind him, I got a glimpse of bright blue cross into my vision and I focused behind Hika-chan. Considering that Hika-chan just walked in with bright pink hair, I wasn't sure why I was surprised to see Kao-chan with bright blue hair. He purposely walked in and stopped right next to Hika-chan who suddenly had a dead look on his face.

"Good morning, Haruhi and Karino," Kao-chan greeted.

"So Kaoru's the blue twin?" Haru-chan asked, exasperated. Hika-chan, without looking at his twin, begin to walk to his seat which was on the other side of Haru-chan. I patted her hand lightly as Haru-chan let out a small sigh. Truly, I felt bad that she was sitting in between the twins. Luckily, I was a few seats over from them, safely out of reach of the devil twins.

"I was finally able to sleep all by myself last night, but I ended having a nightmare," Kao-chan told the two of us. My chin was still resting against Haru-chan's desk, but I tilted my head slightly to look at Kao-chan. A nightmare?

"I dreamt that my stylist had dyed my hair pink," Kao-chan said with a mischievous edge in his tone. I saw Hika-chan flinch and freeze half way as he started to sit down before he finished his action. "It was so garish and ridiculous looking, I woke up screaming."

As Kao-chan started to sit down on his chair, I watched as Hika-chan reached over with his leg, leaning his chair on the two right legs to kick the back leg of Kao-chan's chair. The chair tipped and Kao-chan fell on the floor. In concern, I finally lifted my head off of the table and glanced down at Kao-chan.

"Kao-chan, are you okay?" I asked. Kao-chan said nothing, but instead reached over to Hika-chan's chair, grabbing the back leg and pulling it upwards which caused Hika-chan to fall off the left side of his chair. I shuffled over to the otherside of Haru-chan to check on Hika-chan for a bit.

"Hika-chan, are you..." I trailed off as the two twins stood up, facing each other with their expressions overshadowed. Without blinking, they continued to stare until both of their expressions turned into glares and they both picked up their respective chairs to throw at each other. Then, they started picking up anything they could reach and throwing it at each other. Haru-chan and I sighed, not quite sure knowing what to do. I should just go back to my seat...

As I was making my way back, I accidentally got a centimeter too close to Kao-chan. Suddenly. I felt him grab my arm and, with surprising strength, chuck me along side the various pieces of furniture.

I simply let them pass me back and forth. This probably wasn't the best situation for my injuries, but I might just get dragged in again if I tried to get out of this loop. As I was getting bored of being tossed and was about to simply push myself off one of the various chairs being thrown, I saw Hika-chan grab Usa-chan. Usa-chan shouldn't be throw like this!

Quickly, I pushed off one of the various pieces of furniture in the air and launched at Hika-chan, grabbing Usa-chan from his grasp and surprising Hika-chan with my sudden movement. After all, I had rushed to grab Usa-chan as soon as I saw the danger, so I'm pretty sure Hika-chan wouldn't have seen me move in the first place even if he had been paying attention.

"Don't you dare throw Usa-chan," I threatened him with a scary glare. He flinched, momentarily pausing his attack on Kao-chan, but Kao-chan took this chance and threw a nearby notebook, hitting Hika-chan in the face. As it slid off, Hika-chan looked visibly annoyed before he grabbed me by the arm and launched me toward Kao-chan. And thus, I was once again being thrown back and forth, this time with Usa-chan safely in my arms.

"Kari-chan, Usa-chan!" I heard Mitsu-Senpai's voice. Looking down, I saw his concerned expression before he ran to Hika-chan's side to try to catch me and Usa-chan since Kao-chan had just thrown us.

"Wait, Mitsu-senpai, don't get too close!" I tried to warn. It was too late. Hika-chan picked up Mitsu-senpai and tossed him. In midair, Mitsu-senpai gently pulled me toward him, turning me so that my back was against his chest and crossed his legs as if sitting in the air. With his arms secured around me like a seat belt, the two of us and Usa-chan kept getting passed around between the two twins who were still throwing objects.

"When can we get back to class?" I complained lightly. Mitsu-senpai giggled slightly as he placed his head on my shoulder.

"Isn't this sort of fun though?" he asked brightly. I glanced at him from the corner of my eye before sighing as a reply.

~~~

It was now lunch in the refectory and I was following Haru-chan into the cafeteria. Earlier, it had taken the teacher and Kyoya-senpai to get the twins to stop throwing things. Mitsu-Senpai got bored of being thrown after only a few minutes so the two of us had escaped safely by ourselves midway in being thrown. For two martial artists, it was as easy as inhaling cake.

Despite it having been hours since their first fight in the morning, the two of them clearly weren't over it. They stood next to each other at the front of the line, their bright pink and blue hair colors contrasting against one another.

"I'll have the A lunch," the two of them said in unison. Immediately, they glared at each other before simultaneously switching their orders.

"No! Give me the B pasta and the D salad!" Again, they glared at one another, sparks flying.

"I'll take the F cappellini with the barbarie duck. Hold on! Make that a foie gras in perigueux sauce!" The two of them faced each other in rage. "Stop copying me! Why don't you just leave me alone?!"

"Amazing," Haru-chan spoke up from beside me. I glanced up at her, my silver hair swaying lightly as I tilted my head in silent question. "Perfect unison even when fighting."

"I was wonder what all the fuss was about," a voice sounded from nearby. Haru-chan and I turned to see the rest of the host club standing at the doors of the refectory, which weren't all that far from us. I made my way over since Mitsu-Senpai was excited waving for me. "I can't believe the two of you are still fighting. You're a disgrace to the host club."

"I think the host club is a disgrace to itself..." I heard Nii-Sama mumble. I quickly hid a laugh, and thankfully for Nii-Sama, Kyoya-Senpai didn't seem to have heard him. Excited whispers about the appearance of the host club in the refectory began increasing in volume, and I began to hear some comments, both about the host club and about me.

"Hey, look who it is."

"Oh! I love them!"

"I've never seen them all together like that!"

"Oh Kari-chan is there too! She's so adorable!"

"I wish I had a little sister like her. If only I could take her home instead of only seeing her at the host club."

"She's a host?" I turned to scan the crowd at the last comment I heard as I stopped beside Mitsu-Senpai. It didn't take long before I found a male student standing not to far away with his friends. As my eyes locked on him, he blushed and I smiled cutely. He could become a potential customer and that would help Nii-Sama and I clear our debt from when we tried to quit after the host club found out about the abuse. Kyoya-Senpai still was holding those debts against us and wouldn't even let us pay it off with money.

As I continued to smile for him, as if to lure him to come to the host club, he suddenly paled and averted his eyes, as did the rest of his friends. Confused, I turned to ask Mitsu-senpai what happened, but was met with an innocent smile from my blonde-haired senpai. Instead of letting me try to figure out what happened, he shoved Usa-chan into my arms and bounded his way over to the twins.

"We've had enough of this! You're both to blame for this fight." Mitsu-senpai declared as he held up a sign that said 'Bunny Sumo.' Then, he pulled out a vanilla cake topped with a delicious looking strawberry. I could almost feel myself drooling. Nii-Sama banned having any cake last night or this morning, so I was craving the sugar. If it wasn't for Nii-Sama quickly pulling his hand on my shoulder to hold me back, I probably would've run up to Mitsu-Senpai to ask for a bite. I glanced up at Nii-Sama, who shook his head no. I crossed my arms around Usa-chan and huffed.

"Hika-chan and Kao-chan, I want you to make up and go halfsies on this cake, 'kay?" Then, Mistu-senpai lowered the cake so he could look at the strawberry on top, clearly wanting some of it. The twins on either side of him stared down, unamused. "But I wanna have a piece too, so I guess we're gonna have to go thirdsies. And Kari-chan probably wants a piece too, so fourthsies? Hm, we're not gonna be able to split the strawberry on top, though. What should we do? Maybe I should just take it. After all, strawberries are my favorite! Oh, I forgot to ask, Hika-chan, Kao-chan, do you like strawberries?"

"Mori-Senpai, maybe you should go get Mitsu-senpai," I said a bit worried as Hika-chan and Kao-chan clearly looked a bit irritated. He nodded and made his way to Mitsu-senpai before picking him up, cake and all, and bringing him back over to the rest of us.

"You're just making it worse. Leave them alone," Mori-senpai told him.

"It's okay, Mitsu-Senpai. We can share the cake and I'll give you the strawberry," I offered as I handed Usa-Chan back to him. His eyes brightened as he nodded happily.

"Now, wait just a second, Karino," Nii-Sama suddenly interrupted from behind me. I rolled my eyes while I was still turned away before spinning around and smiling stiffly at Nii-Sama. He was just here to take away my chance of eating cake again. "You had almost a whole cake yesterday at the club. You shouldn't be eating so much."

"Aw, Nii-Sama," I whined as I gave him my best puppy dog eyes. From beside me, I could see Mitsu-senpai join in and give Nii-Sama his own puppy eyes. "An entire cake is nothing. It's like eating a bite of strawberry."

"You're going to get diabetes. You too, Honey-senpai," Nii-Sama deadpanned, clearly not affected by our puppy eyes. If this was club hours, he probably would've taken this chance to put on an act for the ladies. However, there was no need for an act right now, since many of the girls were more focused on Hika-chan and Kao-chan. The rest of the girls were focused on Tamaki-Senpai who was nearby harassing Haru-chan about meeting her in the refectory. Poor Haru-chan.

"Karino, are you listening?" Nii-Sama stated. I flinched and looked to Nii-Sama with a sheepish smile. He glared at me slightly, knowing that I wasn't listening to him lecture about how eating all this cake was bad.

"Mou, i'll be okay, Nii-Sama. I always make sure to eat plenty of healthy fruits with my cakes." I smiled at him as he sighed.

"Fruits are also very sweet, Karino. How are you a supposed genius who can graduate school already if you can't even control your sugar intake?" Nii-Sama looked like he wanted to face-palm, but refrained. I continued to smile innocently at him until he too cracked a smile of his own. Despite his lecture, we both knew that I actually ate extremely healthy aside from my irregularly large cake intake. After all, I needed all the strength I could get to be able to fight Father.

Since Nii-Sama clearly had given up on his lecture, I beamed and quickly dragged Mitsu-Senpai with me over to where Haru-chan and Hika-chan were sitting. We sat down together and Mitsu-Senpai began to cut the cake into equal slices before serving me a slice.

"So what's that?" Hika-chan asked as he pointed to Haru-chan's boxed lunch. Mitsu-Senpai and I also looked over curiously while we continued to devour the cake. "What'd you bring for lunch?"

"Yesterday's leftovers, and a rolled omelet," Haru-chan said plainly. A rolled omelet sounds pretty good for lunch...

"You wanna switch with me? I had to order something different than Kaoru so I ended up with stuff I don't really like." Hika-chan asked as he gestured lazily to his platter of food before reaching over and pulling Haru-chan's bento from her hands. He then slid his tray over so that it sat in front of her. Mitsu-Senpai served me a second slice of cake.

"Just because you two are fighting doesn't mean you have to get food you don't like, does it?" I mumbled, a bit confused as I ate my cake. Their fight was getting a bit suspicious to me and clearly Nii-Sama thought something was up since he was staring intently at the back of Hika-chan's head with an expression that told me he was trying to decipher a mystery of sorts.

"That's fine with me," Haru-chan said, although clearly Hika-chan had already decided for her and exchanged their lunches. She glanced down and hesitantly picked up a bite of food and ate it. As she did so, her expression turned into one of bliss as she tasted Ouran Academy's food for the first time. I remember being surprised too the first time I tried it, but thinking back I shouldn't have expected anything less. After all, this academy was educating the future heirs of families that are basically running the world at the moment. Mitsu-senpai handed me a third slice of cake.

"Delicious. It's delicious, isn't it Haruhi? I'm so glad you like it. I want you to eat like that every day." Tamaki-senpai said nearby as he cried while watching Haru-chan eat. I glanced over at Tamaki-Senpai and frowned a bit before turning back to Mistu-Senpai.

"Tamaki-Senpai is a little creepy..." I said bluntly, which caused Mitsu-Senpai to laugh.

"But Haru-chan looks so cute enjoying her food don't you think?" Mitsu-Senpai asked as he turned to look at Haru-Chan. As he looked away from me, I felt a slight pain in my chest, which caused me to quickly glance down at my yellow dress. Did my wounds reopen earlier when the twins were tossing me around?

I quickly excused myself from the table, leaving my cake unfinished as I rushed to the restroom to check on my bandages. It would be unfortunate if I bled through the dressings already. I only brought one set of bandages with me today so I would have to last the rest of the day without it if my wounds already reopened. When I got to the stall, I rushed in and locked it, stripping the top part of the dress off and gently unwrapping a few of the bandages.

To my surprise, there was no blood anywhere to be seen, but it only made me more confused. Normally, I didn't feel all that much pain beside a dull ache that had been present since these beatings started. It was unnatural for me to feel even a slight increase in pain, even when my wounds opened, so I was worried that that pain I felt in my chest earlier was multiple wounds reopening and bleeding through. Yet there wasn't any blood on the bandages.

I re-wrapped the bandages and redressed myself, my actions a bit slower due to my confusion. Why did I feel pain then? Was I getting a heart disease?

Exiting the restroom, I saw Nii-Sama standing outside the door worriedly. When he saw me, he rushed up and knelt down slightly in front of me while holding my shoulders and giving me a quick once-over.

"Karino, what happened? Did you tear your wounds open again?" he whispered to me, his eyes clearly conveying his worry and guilt. Even though it had been over a month since I made that deal with Yuki Natsu, he still hadn't gotten over the guilt of allowing himself to remain injury-free while I came back almost daily with a new, bleeding wound. I grasped his hand lightly, pressing my thumb into his hand reassuringly to try to ease his guilt ever so slightly. I had made the deal after all.

"No. They're fine. Why do you look so sad, Nii-Sama?"

"I don't want you to suffer like this. I should just go tell that Natsu girl that the deal is off. I'd rather have Father beat us both than have you bear it all alone."

"Don't do that Nii-Sama," I said as I closed my eyes and shook my head before opening them and staring into Nii-Sama's purple eyes. Nii-Sama and I had almost identical purple eyes, now that I noticed it, even down to the pain and fear that could be seen. The thought of Nii-Sama coming back into that dojo with me hurt more than getting beaten black and blue by Father. "Miss Natsu is the best bet for you to retain your strength so that you can fight Father later on if you need to. You know that Father won't let us go without a fight later on, so you need to stay healthy and injury-free."

"I don't want to deal with the devil," Nii-Sama complained slightly as he sneered at the thought of Yuki Natsu. He knew that despite her not making much of an appearance at the host club, she still took her chances to taunt me when she passed by me in the hall or to try to trip me as she walked by.

"She's nothing but a small nuisance, Nii-Sama. Just bear with it for a while. She's the only reason right now that Father hasn't dragged you into the dojo again..." Nii-Sama sighed, knowing that I was right, before running a hand through his silver hair and standing up, holding his hand out to me which I reached over and grabbed.

"You're right, but I don't like it."

"I know you don't," I giggled, looking up slightly. I never understood how Nii-Sama grew so tall, yet here I was stuck at less than five feet. He glared down slightly at me before purposely ruffling my hair so that the silver strands hung messily in front of my face. I huffed and blew the strands to the side before Nii-Sama and I started making our way back to the refectory.

Right when we arrived at the door, Nii-Sama jumped to the side, letting go of my hand, while I quickly ducked to avoid an incoming chair. Glancing inside it seemed like the twins were throwing things again, this time including Mitsu-Senpai, Mori-Senpai and Tamaki-Senpai. Haru-chan was nowhere to be seen. I suppose she went back to the classroom to eat her lunch in peace. Mitsu-Senpai met my eyes and silently gestured worriedly while flying through the air. I smiled and held up a peace sign to let him know that I was okay. Nii-Sama on the other hand clearly was very lost on what in the world was going on.

"What in the world are the twins doing?!" Nii-Sama exclaimed as he ducked out of the way of a pie that flew out the door.

"You should've seen them this morning, Nii-Sama," I said with a sigh as I stared at the mess in front of me.

"They did this in the classroom?!"

"Yeah, didn't Kyoya-Senpai tell you?"

"This is why Kyoya was late?!" Nii-Sama clearly was upset and possibly disappointed that he had no idea that this had happened in the classroom. I giggled, covering my mouth slightly. I suppose I shouldn't tell him that the twins had literally thrown me into their mess as well...

~~~

The host club, minus Nii-Sama and the twins, was gathered in music room three, sitting around a white cloth-covered table. Kyoya-Senpai had announced that club would be closed today due to the twins' fight and had promised compensation for the ladies who had booked appointments for today. According to Senpai, a few boys had even booked a couple of appointments with me, much to my surprise.

I helped Haru-chan serve the tea to the host club who was sitting down before setting a cup next to me for Nii-Sama and then sitting down between Mitsu-Senpai, who was playing with Usa-Chan, and Haru-chan, who was staring out the large floor-to-ceiling window. It didn't take long for Nii-Sama to make his way in, but he was suspiciously stowing something away in his bag. When he noticed that I saw, he smiled innocently and made his way over, dropping his bag beside mine one of the nearby couches before pulling up a chair and deliberately sitting between Mitsu-Senpai and I. I glared at him slightly but decided that it wasn't a time to complain about it since we were trying to deal with the twin situation first.

"I'm afraid we're going to have to stop offering our brotherly love package. We're down one pair of loving brothers," Kyoya-Senpai announced as he typed in a few numbers into his calculator. "Oh, Haruhi, I just wanted you to know there's no reason for you to feel responsible, even though it was your tactless comment that started this whole feud between the twins in the first place, right?"

Haru-Chan stared blankly at Kyoya-Senpai, clearly catching on that he was blaming her for her words. I clicked my tongue quietly, slightly disapproving of Kyoya-Senpai's words. I couldn't deny that the twins had started this whole fight due to Haru-chan's words, but there was something off about their fight that I couldn't pick out. Maybe the fact that it seemed too synchronized or rehearsed? From what I know about the twins, despite them always become paired together, they're quite different. They also have different tastes in food and despite being in an all out fight, they're expressions whenever they faced each other were half annoyance and half masked, as if they were trying to hide something. I knew Nii-Sama saw it too because when the twins had left earlier after being sent home for destroying the refectory, Nii-Sama had been staring suspiciously at their backs.

"It's weird for Hika-chan and Kao-chan to be fighting like this. It's never happened before," Mitsu-Senpai voiced as he held onto Usa-chan's arms and dejectedly waved them up and down. Mori-Senpai nodded in agreement as Haru-chan, Nii-Sama and I glanced over at the small blonde.

"They've never fought before?" Haru-chan asked for the three of us. Surely that wasn't true. Even Nii-Sama and I have fought before despite desperately needing each other to support us through all the beatings.

I glanced over at Nii-Sama who felt my gaze and looked over at me. His expression told me that he also was thinking about our last big fight. It had been about a year ago and Nii-Sama had been upset that after he had been knocked unconscious by father, I had used my own body, still chained to the ground, as a shield to protect Nii-Sama's unconscious one while Father continued to take out his rage against Nii-Sama instead of moving on to me. Nii-Sama hated that I took those hits, and so we argued, but it ended up worse for the both of us as the stress of the beatings and the argument ended up making us both sick and bed-ridden.

"I've known Hika-chan and Kao-chan since we were in pre-school," Mitsu-senpai said, snapping Nii-Sama and I back into the conversation. "We weren't in the same year, so I never really got to talk to them, but I remember that the two of them always played together."

"Yeah, that's true," Tamaki-Senpai added in, his chin resting on the palm of his left hand as he tapped the table slightly with his right fist. "I mean, I've only known the twins since they were in middle school, but they definitely stood out. It seemed like they kept everyone at a distance except each other. Believe it or not, they were even more warped back then. When you stop and think about it, maybe this fight is a good thing for them. Maybe it means the twins are expanding their horizons a bit. We should just leave them alone and let them work it out."

"Can we really though?" Nii-Sama questioned as he stared down at the cup of tea he had yet to take a sip out of. "A fight may be good for them, but if it is a real fight, then they're showing aggressive tendencies, such as throwing things. Especially large furniture and tableware which can cause injuries. The fact that they're taking their anger out on each other through aggressive means could cause more damage later on, especially in the future if they don't learn to control their anger. Taking aggression out on others can lead to worse situations than a fight between brothers..."

From the corner of my eye, I saw Mitsu-senpai glance worriedly at the two of us, knowing that Nii-Sama was speaking directly about abuse. I didn't meet his eyes, but I picked up my tea and took a sip from it, purposely avoiding the rest of the host club's gazes. They already knew the story of what happened behind closed doors at our house. There was no need to hide it, yet I didn't feel like seeing their pitying looks.

"There's nothing we can do at the moment, even if they do need help stopping this fight," Kyoya-senpai said as he packed away his calculator into his bag. "We'll return home early again today."

With that, the club began dispersing, with Nii-Sama and I being the last ones to leave our seats. Another day where we had to go home early. Hopefully the twins' fight gets situated soon or Nii-Sama and I would have to keep risking me being dragged out for a beating. With heavy footsteps, Nii-Sama and I dragged ourselves to the gates of the academy, where our limo was sitting waiting for us. Nii-Sama had called for it on the way out of the music room since he knew that Father hated it if we walked. Father wanted to fully immerse himself into the feeling of having the money to spend, even if the money our family gained wasn't any long-term income. It came from Father selling Nii-Sama and my artistic talents.

"For their sake, I really hope our observations are wrong and they aren't faking this fight," Nii-Sama said as he tiredly brushed his hair back. I nodded in agreement. It might've been horrible for us to be suspicious of them faking fights, but it was like the boy who had cried wolf. The twins faked so many scenarios so far that it was hard to always believe that they were genuinely fighting, especially after Nii-Sama and I had caught some abnormalities. For their sake, they truly better not be faking this since Nii-Sama and I were depending on this club to keep us away from Father.

~~~

The next afternoon, classes had ended again and I was heading to the club with Haru-chan. Kyoya-senpai had announced this morning that the club would be closed for business again as we were all going to try to see if we could help the twins resolve this situation. I had been lethargic all day since Father had ruthlessly dragged me to the dojo again, beating me until I was curled up in pain and then announcing that he had signed me up for a harp competition coming up soon.

When Haru-chan and I made it into the club room, we were met with the twins, once again, throwing various furniture items at each other. The rest of the club, minus Mitsu-Senpai, stood nearby watching the two twins in disappointment as they continued fighting. Nii-Sama stood off to the side of the onlookers, staring intently at the two of them and trying to analyze whether or not this was a serious fight. After last night's beating, Nii-Sama was horribly enraged at father. He had even confided that despite knowing it was irrational to be irritated at the twins, he felt that they couldn't have picked a worse time to start fighting. It wasn't their fault, but their argument seemed to line up perfectly with Father's sudden loss in gambling and his anger, thus increasing the length of my beatings for the past couple of days.

It didn't take long for the twins to tire of tossing items back and forth. They stared defiantly at each other, panting tiredly as a mountain of furniture piled high behind the two of them with Mitsu-Senpai sitting on top. I could only assume that the twins had managed to drag him into being one of the things being thrown. Thankfully, since Mitsu-senpai was a martial artist, he made sure that he wasn't injured during their throws and managed to safely secure himself at the top of the giant mound of furniture.

"Don't you guys think that maybe it's time you give up all this fighting? It's driving me insane!" Tamaki-Senpai asked, clearly annoyed.

"What'd you say? It's driving you insane?" Hika-chan echoed. "You've got to be kidding me - how do you think I feel right now? Every time I look in the mirror I see his face. I'm sick and tired of constantly being mistaken for you, Kaoru! The truth is I hate your guts!"

"You took the words right out of my mouth," Kao-chan said darkly. "In fact, I hate you so much I bought this. Belzenef, the curse doll."

Kao-chan pulled out a little wooden Belzenef figure from his pocket, causing Tamaki-Senpai and yelp and jump back in fear. Nii-Sama and I rolled our eyes at Tamaki-Senpai. If it truly was a curse doll, the one I bought a couple days ago would've worked already, wouldn't it have?

"I'm going to complete the curse, Hikaru," Kao-chan threatened as he held up a pen. "I'm going to write your name on his back! From this day forward, you're going to experience nothing but misfortune and sorrow!" Kao-chan began scribbling on the back of the doll. From beside us, Haru-chan was clearly annoyed and so she rushed forward, delivering a strong fist to the top of both of their heads.

"Will you guys knock it off?!" she yelled angrily as she pulled the wooden Belzenef doll from Kao-chan's hands. The two twins were still on the ground, staring up at Haru-chan who continued to angrily lecture them. "What do you think you're doing? You don't bring something like this into a petty fight! Both of you are at fault here but what's really sad is that you've brought everyone else around you into your big mess! Now apologzie to each other! If you don't make up right now, I'm never gonna let you come over to my house! Have I made myself clear?!"

The entire club remained silent, including Hika-chan and Kao-chan who stared up at Haru-chan in shock. Then, the twins smirked and stood up with their normal mischievous smiles.

"So then what you're saying Haruhi is that if we make up, we can come over to your place?" the twins asked in unison, circling around Haru-chan like a pair of sharks. As they made it to the other side of her, they simultaneously placed their arms around each other's shoulders and placed their free hand on their hip. Haru-chan stared down at the doll in her hand and flipped it over to reveal that Kaoru had written 'blank' rather than Hikaru's name. When she realized she had been pranked, she screamed and the entire host club, minus Nii-Sama and I turned pale at the realization.

"I'm so sorry, Karou," Hikaru said sweetly to his twin as he wrapped Kaoru in his arms. "Even though I was just following our script, I said such awful things to you. I'm not fit to be your brother."

"Don't say that Hikaru," Kaoru replied as he held his brother's face in both of his hands. "I was so worried. I couldn't live with myself if I ever thought I had hurt you."

"Kaoru, I'll never let you go again!"

"Hikaru!"

"You've gotta be kidding?!" Mitsu-Senpai screamed in frustration, waving his arms frantically. "You mean you guys were faking it this whole time?"

"We didn' have anything else to do, we were bored," the twins replied. They laughed, and then looked to Tamaki-Senpai who had collapsed on the ground before sticking out their tongues.

"Kari-chan, Nuki-chan, you guys haven't said anything," Mitsu-Senpai said as he came up to us. Both Nii-Sama and I had our bangs covering our eyes so that the host club couldn't see our expressions. As soon as Mitsu-Senpai came up to us though, I saw Nii-Sama clench his fist.

"All this was a prank?" Nii-Sama asked quietly. They clearly didn't hear him, as Hikaru and Kaoru continued laughing. Nii-Sama's fist tightened even more and I quickly reached over to grasp it tightly. Mitsu-Senpai glanced over at me curiously, but I refused to meet his eyes. If they had been really fighting, I suppose Nii-Sama and I had no reason to be angry at them. But now that they revealed it was all a scheme, it meant that those three extra hours I've been getting beaten for the last two days was nothing but a result of their pranks and boredom.

"Do you understand what exactly you've caused, Hikaru, Kaoru?" I asked darkly. This time, the entire host club heard as the twins flinched at my tone and Tamaki-Senpai scrambled up from the floor.

"Kari-chan?" Mitsu-senpai asked as he slowly approached me, but didn't reach out as he held Usa-chan closer to him.

"We just wanted some fun," they said, glancing at Nii-Sama and I nervously. At their words, Nii-Sama exploded.

"You couldn't have found some way to have fun without causing the host club to close?!" he yelled, he shook off my hand and marched up to the twins, glaring angrily at them as they backed away, clearly shocked.

"Watanuki-Senpai," they voiced, taking a couple steps back as Nii-Sama picked up the doll that Haru-chan had dropped. I remained motionless where I stood.

"Thankfully, for you, your faux fight only lasted these last three days because if this had dragged out any longer I wouldn't mind giving you a piece of what it has been like for us these past few days."

"Watanuki, calm down," Kyoya-Senpai voiced from the sideline. Nii-Sama angrily spun around and faced Kyoya, who surprisingly flinched at the pure rage on Nii-Sama's face.

"How in the world am I supposed to calm down after these two damned twins have shut down the club early for the last two days and since we were sent home, Karino was beaten for an additional three hours for the past two evenings?!" The host club gasped, looking at me and then to Nii-Sama. "You're telling me to calm down when the twins just revealed that my little sister has been beaten just so they can stave off their boredom, even after we've already told you how much we needed this club to stay out of our house? Don't tell me you forgot, because surely you wouldn't be ignorant enough to not understand how much pain we have been going through as a result of even arriving home an hour early?"

"Y-You could just stay out until normal club hours end, can't you?" Hikaru asked quietly.

"Don't you think we've tired that," I finally voiced bitterly. They flinched at looked right into my purple eyes as I finally lifted my head to glare at them. "Father somehow always knows when we should be home. If our club hours end early and we try to trick him otherwise, the beatings get worse. Do you think we're dumb enough to not have tried that these past few years?"

"We didn't mean to, Karino, Watanuki-Senpai..." Kaoru trailed off as both of the twins hung their heads. Nii-Sama said nothing, but returned to my side and began to pull me to the side of the room.

"If you two are really sorry, don't talk to us for the rest of the day," Nii-Sama said without turning to look at the twins. "The next time you pull a prank like this, you'll have to start digging your graves beforehand. I won't tolerate this a second time."

For the rest of the club hours while the other hosts discussed the plan for tomorrow, Nii-Sama and I sat in the corner trying to calm ourselves down as much as possible. It was unreasonable to get mad since everything that happened had already happened, but it hurt to know that they din't exactly think about how it would affect the rest of us, especially given how we could have to close the club until they stopped fighting. When the club hours officially ended, Nii-Sama and I made our way to the door without making eye contact with the twins.

"Kari-chan..." I heard Mitsu-Senpai's voice. I stopped in my tracked, forcing Nii-Sama to stop with me and faced Mitsu-Senpai. He looked at me sadly and worriedly.

"Give us some time, Senpai," I said quietly. "We'll get over it soon and be back on good terms with the twins. Just not right now." Mitsu-senpai nodded in understanding, but still looked a bit down with a hint of guilt mixed in. I wanted to comfort him and tell him that it wasn't his fault, but I didn't have the mental capability of doing so right now.

"Karino, Watanuki-Senpai," the twins voiced as they approached us cautiously.

"Didn't I say not to talk to us until tomorrow," Nii-Sama barked. They hung their heads, but approached us anyways.

"W-We know, and we're sorry but we wanted to give this to you." Nii-Sama and I looked over to the twins, who handed us a little wooden Belzenef. Nii-Sama accepted it, spinning it around to reveal that the twins had written 'Watanuki and Karino's Father' on the back. "We didn't know his name, but if the curse doll has any effect at all, we were hoping that it could do something..."

"We'll accept this, but don't pull a prank like this again," Nii-Sama said as he tucked the doll into his bag. The twins nodded frantically and Nii-Sama sighed. "Don't be so scared. I won't kill you. Give us the rest of tonight and we'll let the bygones be bygones."

"We're still really sorry, especially to you, Karino." I nodded, but couldn't offer them a smile at the moment.

"We'll see you tomorrow," I said as I tugged at Nii-Sama's sleeves. As much as I didn't want to go home, I also didn't want to stay at the host club at the moment. I wanted some space after realizing that our suspicions were right, even though we had desperately wished they weren't. With that Nii-Sama and I turned and left, making our way through the large academy and back toward our house.

~~~

Later that night, after I finished wrapping my bandages on my fresh wounds for the evening, Nii-Sama knocked on the door that joined his and my room.

"Come in, Nii-Sama," I said, and the door swung open. He was dressed in his nightwear, but in his hand was the wooden Belzenef doll that the twins had handed to him.

"Do you want to keep this in your room?" Nii-Sama asked as he offered it. I giggled a bit, although the reasoning behind the doll's existence in our house was nothing to be amused at. Without explaining to Nii-Sama why I laughed, I spun around and fished my own wooden curse doll from the drawer in my nightstand.

"You can keep it, Nii-Sama, I bought my own a couple days ago. Nothing has happened yet, though so I'm not sure the curse actually works." Nii-Sama stared at the doll in my hand before chuckling a bit, confusing me.

"I suppose we thought the same thing," he said as he pulled out another wooden doll from his school bag that he had accidentally left in my room. Realizing that we now had three of them, the two of us began to laugh lightly. Despite the fact that the twins' fight had ended up harming Nii-Sama and I more than they thought would happen, perhaps they hadn't completely ignored our situation. There was still reason to believe that we could continue to trust in the host club and rely on them a bit.

~~~

The next day, the twins were glad that Nii-Sama and I were talking to them normally again. They kept apologizing to us, but we had already agreed to just let it go. It wasn't like they did it intentionally to have me be hurt anyways. There was no harm in forgiving them. It took us until the beginning of club hours to convince Hika-chan and Kao-chan that we weren't mad anymore.

"I'm so glad they made up!" one of the twins' guests cheered as the girls were ushered in. I was sitting with Nii-Sama since we were hosting as a sibling pair today. Mitsu-Senpai had looked a little dejected that I wouldn't be eating cake with him, but I told him that I would try to convince Kyoya-Senpai to let me host with him tomorrow, to which he brightened up at.

"Okay, it's time to play the 'which one is Hikaru' game!" the twins said in unison, smiling brightly at the girls in front of them.

"I know!" one of the girls said as she raised her hand. "The twin with the pink hair is Hikaru!"

"We have a winner!" the twins cheered. I rolled my eyes. The girls here really are brainless. If you just listened to their voices, you could tell that they had switched hair colors today. The blue haired twin was Hikaru.

"So are you two going to keep your wild hair color even though you've made up?" One of the other girls asked. "It's much easier to tell the two of you apart now."

"Huh, no it isnt," Haru-chan scoffed as she happened to pass by them. I smirked, agreeing with Haru-chan. "Today the pink one is Kaoru and Hikaru's the blue one. You swapped colors for the day, huh?" With her piece said and done, Haru-chan walked away back to her table and I turned my attention back to Nii-Sama and my guests.

Hopefully, the twins realize soon that they're not alone in this world, just like how Nii-Sama and I did when we joined this club. 

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Hey everyone!

Thank you for waiting. This chapter turned out longer than I thought it would be. I had like, three mental breakdowns today because I had a few exams today for my summer college courses, but I managed to finish all those and this chapter so I feel super accomplished right now. I hope y'all are staying safe and not stressing!

As always, let me know what you thought of this chapter! Stay safe and healthy!
ThePurpleDragon