Kaoru x Reader- Remember Prologue

Reader Information:
Your name: Your name! Don’t like your name? Make up a new one. I don’t care
Your appearance: Is your own. I bet it looks perfect on you!
Your background: You grew up in a wealthy family, but after moving to America you were sent to a public school until the year after your Eighth Grade. That was the year your Grandmother decided she’d had enough of “ruffian commoners infiltrating my beautiful granddaughter”, so she convinced your parents to send you packing to Japan and enrolled you in Ouran Academy. Luckily, the rest of your family moved along with you.
Your mother’s job: A Manager for several designer outlets in Japan, and the company’s president is none other than Yuzuha Hitachiin.
Your father’s job: Whatever your father’s job really is! Congrats!

   
              Once Upon a December....

Your butler's broad grin reflects at you in the rear-view mirror. He's been in the family for years, so you aren't surprised when he starts speaking to you as though you're his blue-collar niece. "So, you're excited about Ouran, huh?"

“Yeah, I guess. It’s definitely going to be a lot different from public school,” you sigh. Artificially emerald green trees roll past as your family's private steel black limo glides across the pavement. Your butler purses his lips as he notices your dejected frown. All you've been able to think about this morning is your dear, beloved friends you've left behind. As the cheery Japan sun glares through your window, you're able to glimpse your frown for just a moment. Every little detail everyone back home told you about snotty private schools is dancing across your mind.

Don't it let be one of those academies, you think.

"Did you know that the Hitachiin twins are attending Ouran as well?"

Your nose wrinkles. Who the heck is that? "The who what?" Odd, it sounded like he said he-taught-ye' twins. Taught ye' what?

"The Hitachiin twins, they're the sons of Yuzuha Hitachiin. Surely you recall them from the Light as Snow fashion show a few years back?"

"A few years? I was like, in elementary school," you comment, wondering if this would be a good time to practice rolling your eyes. According to Google, all the best snots could perform a flawless sarcastic eye roll.

"You were eight."

"Yeah, that was a long time ago... How do you even remember what it was called?"

Your butler adjusts his shades, lowering them just enough that you can glimpse his deep brown eyes. Although he's focusing on the road, like a good butler should, his expression is obviously doubting. He ignores your question and proposes one of his own.

His eyebrows furrow, and the glint in his eyes spells out determined. "You don't remember anything?" It sounds like a challenge, you note.

What do you remember...

"I wouldn't say that," you relent. "Let's see... This might take while."

"We have a long drive ahead," he shrugs.

You sit in silence, drumming your fingers on the garish Easter yellow ruffles of your dress. Suddenly you burst out with, "It was beautiful! And it was December, I remember that now... When we arrived, there was snow curling down from the heavens... It was the fluffiest, fattest swirl of snowflakes I had ever seen before!" You chuckle, thinking back on it, your cheeks warming up and joy coursing through your veins.

"Keep going, you'll remember more."

"He... He told me that I looked like an angel." You think back on how the snow was settling into your hair, accenting it like thousands of tiny, shimmering diamonds. Your dress, white as innocence itself, had looked stunning against the dark December night.

"Who? Who told you?" You butler presses.

"I... I..." You squint in concentration, your mind straining to recall details of that boy, that night, and suddenly, you're there.

***Flashback***

"Thanks," you beam at both girls, self-consciously toying with the silky fabric of your dress. They watch you closely, hazel eyes examining your own. The girl on the right presents you with a tiny smile, but she's fidgeting, her hand twitching inside the folds of her skirt, while the girl standing on the left examines you blankly. Her gaze, unlike her sister's, is absolutely expressionless. Her blank demeanor reminds you of the scrutinizing look teachers give you when you first walk in the room. Judgingly, as though every second spent wrong shall decide your death.

"Um, I was hoping that you'd play with me?" You ask.

They study you for a second more, and then simultaneously beckon you forward. "Follow us," their voices chime. You hadn't noticed until right then that their hands nearest to each other had been firmly interlocked. As you eagerly rush forward, they spin around, and begin walking into the elaborate building set before you.

You quickly glance over your shoulder, catching one last look at the magnificent white stallions cantering in through the storm. They held their heads highly a lot, mane trailing behind them like swirls of snow itself, and their grand saddles complete with periwinkle satin ribbons only added to you awe. You had been so young back then, but sharp enough to realize that somebody rich and famous was seated in each of those glamorous, gleaming carriages flowing behind each team of stallions.

Much to your reluctance, you tear yourself away from the majestic scene and run to catch up with the two girls inside. "Wait up!"

"We're not going anywhere," they call out over their shoulder.

"Ok, so where are we playing?" You bounce across the last few feet separating you from them, them being the pink and blue haired girls.

"We're not there yet," the blue haired girl says. She doesn't smile, she doesn't frown.

"Have some patience, ok? You're not very nice without it!" the pink haired girl says. Even though she smiled at you earlier, even so ever so slightly, her expression now mirrors her sister's.

Who are these people? you wonder. And I'm patient!

Before you can tell them that they're not being very nice, thank you, the two girls rush off into a hallway. You follow them, but somewhat distractedly, as you glimpse at the crystal chandeliers through the archways in the hall. That main, humongous room that the arches allow you to peer into, is where the show will take place. You're butler was able to tell you that much about the place. But what he left out was how every little corner and surface glows. The floor is a light peach colored marble, and through its polish it looks like the sun itself. Artificial snow dances through the air, freed by drafts curling in from elaborate stained glass windows high above. As you walk to the next archway, something glints from table just a few yards from you.

You glance at the girls, skipping down the hall in front of you. Surely they won't notice?

You rush over to the table and press yourself onto the tippy-toes of your new flats. Your fist clasps around a delicate, smooth, almost cool object. You lower yourself back down to examine your find.

It's a butterfly. "Wow," you murmur. You slide your hand over the diamond patterns on the wings, and you wonder what it's made out of. Well, it's obviously not real. It's too pretty to be real. Is it glass? Maybe it's painted...

"That's not yours."

"You shouldn't touch things that don't belong to you."

"It's bad manners."

"Huh!" you gasp. You whirl around to find the girls presenting you with scorning frowns.

"I- I- I was just looking at it!" you stammer, shoving the butterfly behind your back.

"Hand it here," the blue girl says. She holds out her palm and you stare into it.

"What's the matter? I thought you wanted to play with us?"

"Fine!" You slam it into her hand. She smiles, actually, they both do. The pink one watches the other finger the butterfly, tracing the patterns just as you did the moment before.

"Are you two sisters?"' you suddenly burst out with.

They don't even look up to answer you. "No."

"Oh." You watch as the one holding the butterfly hands it to the other girl, and pink pockets it in some frilly pouch hidden by the folds of her dress. "Hey! You're keeping it?"

"Yeah," she says.

"It was an excellent find," blue smirks.

"Thank you for that!" they chime.

"Uh... Well if you're keeping one, can I have one?"

"If you win our game! Follow us!"

They walk back into the hall and open a door on the side opposing the arches. You follow them inside as a light clicks on. Both girls suddenly reach up and grasp the roots of their hair. In one swift movement, blue and pink goes flying, revealing very disheveled red hair.

What? You gape at the wigs now just sitting dejectedly on the carpet.

As the... girls?... fluff out their hair by shaking their heads like wet dogs, you notice that's its cut short like a boy's. And second, they're taking their dresses off...

You watch as they grab at the folds of their dresses and yank them up over their heads, exposing bare chests and shorts.

"Are you boys?" you ask nonchalantly.

"Yeah," they both say.

"What's it matter?" The two boys smirk. But now that they look identical, who's to tell who the boy now throwing open a closet door is, and who the boy standing next to him is, you wonder.

"It doesn't matter. I don't care; as long as you'll still play with me!"

"We'll play!"

"If you win our game!"

"Okay! What's it called?"

They tug on identical tees from the closet, and beaming, they cry out: "The Which-One-Is-Hikaru Game!"

"What?" Your face twists into an expression of confusion and you wonder if its a board game or something. But it sounds like a matching game?

"We're twins, and one of us is Hikaru, and one of us is Karou," they explain. As they do, they make game show gestures with their hands that are so evenly executed it looks as though they've been practicing since the birth of the world.

"Guess which one of us is Hikaru, and if you're right, we'll play your game with you!" They look like reflections jumped to life... You stare at the young twins.

"But that's impossible."

Hikaru and Kaoru both gasp, their eyes as wide as the pale moon outside. You notice how their eyes are growing glossy, much to your alarm. “What I mean is,” you quickly say, “how can I tell which one of you is Hikaru if I don’t know what Hikaru looks like?”

“Huh? That doesn’t make any sense!” The boy on the left of the duo shakes his head and a tear flies out of the corner of his eyes. He scrubs at the rest with the back of his hands and his brother glances at you with a mixture of a reprehensible glare and a sad pout.

“What I mean is, I haven’t been properly introduced to Hikaru or Kaoru yet. So how can I know what either of them look like? You’re asking to me tell you which one of you is Hikaru, and I can’t do that because I don’t know who Hikaru is. Its just like meeting any other strangers; you don’t know who they are until you've been introduced,” you lecture.

They stare at you. You stare back.

“That doesn’t seem fair,” both twins say.

“It’s not fair for me.” You cross your arms defiantly. “Why don’t you each tell me about yourself, by yourself, to make it fair. Then I can close my eyes or something and you switch places as much as you want to, okay?”

“Okay...?”

You wait for one of them to step forward. They turn towards each other, seemingly speaking through their gazes, before the boy on the left steps forward.

“I’m Kaoru, and uh...” His smile falters and he raises his hand to his chin, a rather cute gesture. “We-”

“No we! Just you, ok?”

“Uh, ok,” he wipes his knuckles across his brow, obviously offended. “I really like to... I really like to be with my brother. I’ve been with him as long as I can remember. Sometimes after we’re done tricking the maids-”

“You trick your maids?” You laugh, scenes of the two pulling pranks on the service staff racing across your mind. “How?”

“Well sometimes we freak them out by pretending to be in more than one place at once. One of us walks around on one side of the house while the other steals snacks or something on the opposite side. When we both pretend to be Hikaru, the maids get pretty freaked out how one boy can mess the house up that much.”

You giggle and wish that you had a twin to play pranks and wreck havoc with you. It sounds like a lot of fun!

“Kay, Hikaru, its your turn!” You say.

Hikaru looks a lot more nervous than Kaoru had, which is saying something. He steps forward, hands twitching. He reaches out and Karou encouragingly squeezes his hand.

"I'm Hikaru," he says, his eyes darting side to side, never meeting your own. "But of course you know that... Because..."

"What do you like to do, Hikaru?"

"Uh... wait. Wha- Why do you care?" Suddenly his eyes narrow, his lips curled into a defensive frown.

"Hikaru," Kaoru coos. He eyed his brother and Hikaru scowls at the ground.

"No one ever cares anything about us," he murmurs. "Why are you any different!"

You stare at the two boys. "Why does that matter to you! I just want to play! This stupid game was your idea anyway!"

"It's not-"

"Why don't we just go steal snacks from the show kitchen or something? That's what I would've liked to do all along," you say. "All the kids I've played with don't like to do stuff like that... They're boring and play with their stupid dolls everyday." Not to mention some of them even pick on you.

Kaoru doesn't move a muscle, but as soon as Hikaru makes a move to nod, he does as well.

"Fine," they say. "We... Don't really play with anyone else either." With that the twins walk up to your sides, their hands shaking as they clasp around yours.

"Ready?" You ask. "We might get in trouble."

"Trouble?" The twins laugh. "We live by trouble."

With that, you had more fun than you had ever had with friends before. Who knew that those... Girls... Would turn out to be so mischievous?

***Le' Time Skip***

You smiled at the memories, remembering that when it was time to leave your butler had asked you about the twins. Which one of then you liked best, if you'd like to see them again...

You couldn't say, really. They had both been amazing in their own ways. Before you left that night, upon parting, you has told them:

"You know, you might look a lot alike, but everyone's different inside. Getting to know them for them is what counts, for that's how you really tell people apart: their actions. Don't forget that, okay?"

They had nodded, tears glistening in their eyes.

But they forgot, overtime. You didn't know it yet, but nobody remembers forever.

And when your butler asked you those questions, little did you know that their mother was asking similar ones about you.

They didn't know your name, regrettably. They never asked for it, perhaps out of spite, and you had never told them, perhaps out of spite.

*** Present- Your POV ***

"Hmm, well I guess that will be interesting, seeing them again," you grin.

Your butler presses his shades bake over his eyes. "Indeed."

Well, didn't that sound a little sinister?

You cough, leaning forward to hear him better. "Excuse me?"

"You know," he says nonchalantly as he yanks on the wheel, "your Grandmother and Mrs. Hitachiin had met up on various occasions to discuss... Echmn."

Your eyes dart across the dashboard. You can just spot the tops of the rosy pink buildings, and the gate looms ahead. "What? Discuss what?" you press.

"Oh, nothing. Just your engagement."

"What?" you splutter. "How the- what are you-"

"You know how influential your Grandmother is in Japan. After your mother was employed by Mrs. Hitachiin, she became very interested in her two sons, and Mrs. Hitachiin was rather intrigued by you. So they brought you three together-"

You intererupt, "At the fashion show, where I met them. When I was eight."

"Precisely. After you proved to get along well, the only question was which boy."

"Which boy what!?!?"

"Which one you'd be engaged to, of course." Your butler smirks, his words burrowing into you. The limo breaks in front of the gate, and there's a brief transaction between your butler and a security guard outside. You use the time to wrap yourself around the whole thing.

The car starters to move again. "So... am I engaged?"

The smirk only grows wider. "And don't you think it's rather fitting that you go to school in Japan, in order to see him?"

You curse under your breath. What kind of world is this? "So which one?!"

"Which one what?"

"Don't play games with me! Which twin am I engaged to?" You widen your eyes at him, as the limo breaks to a stop.

"I can't tell you that," he smiles, but his eyes, no longer hidden by the sunglasses, look rather wistful. "Even I don't even know."

Something tells you not to believe that.

"Welcome to Ouran!" A voice cries out. You almost shriek, and wheel around to see a slender blond looking rather offended, standing outside the car window.

"How much did you hear?" You cry out.

"Nothing! How could I live with myself if I spied on maidens as beautiful as you are," the boy smiles flirtatiously, bowing low as if you're kind of idol.

You narrow your gaze, but you feel your stupid heart fluttering. "Who are you?"

"Tamaki Suoh," the blond says. His violet eyes glint with some soft of rich-people dazzle that you find a bit disturbing.

"I’m not even in class yet and already this is nothing like my school back home," you wrinkle your nose.

"That's right, you're a transfer student, aren't you? (y/n)?"

"That’s me, and I guess you're in my grade then?"

"No," Tamaki smiles apologetically, but not that you really would have cared. "I'm a second year, but you'll see me a lot in the Host Club. You should give it a try! It's in Music Room 3, by the way, (y/n). I look forward to seeing you there."

"Yeah, that's nice." You try to not look too weirded out as the upperclassmen quickly examines you, before waving and walking away. "Well I guess I should head inside, before anyone else like him saunters up to me," you roll your eyes. There, did you do it right?

"But it's kind of odd," you add, wondering if your butler is even paying attention to your comments. "I would've thought rich kids would be snottier."

"Miss, may I remind you that you yourself are a 'rich kid'?"

You sigh, grab your backpack, and slam the limo door shut. As the car rolls away you turn to face your new school.

"It's breathtaking, isn't it?" you murmur to yourself. "It's strange though, I'm engaged to a boy I've only met once, and I don't even know who he is exactly." You sigh. "He's somewhere in there, right now. And I can't even tell them apart."

Not that it matters, you remind yourself. It didn't before. But what what if things have changed? What if they've changed?

"Well, I guess I'll find out." With that, you enter Ouran High.