A Song For Another Time - A Hikaru Hitachiin Story

Chapter Eleven - It's My Right to be Hellish

If Hikaru had to be pinned down to any one definition of weakness it would be that the way he interprets the world is often far from the way it is. As he, his brother and Rose walked toward the football stadium all he could think about was how close she already seemed to his twin.

He didn't notice that his jersey was a different color from everyone around him. He didn't know that the tattoo on his face said Dartmouth. He wasn't even vaguely aware of the stares from people around him or the sneers on the faces of passers-by.

No, Hikaru was focused on the fact that Kaoru and Rose matched, that she was endlessly asking him questions and her words kept playing in his head like the narration to a bad dream. "I kind of have a thing for redheads anyway."

His hands were balled up stiffly next to him and although his head was slightly hanging, his eyes were glued on the backs of his brother and Rose.

When they finally got inside the stadium Rose sat herself between the boys but turned her body toward Kaoru on her left. Though she knew she had brought both brothers along, the entire purpose of the day was to meet Hikaru's twin and, honestly, she was really interested in him. She wanted to know as much about the brothers as possible - mostly to see if they were as similar as Hikaru alluded to.

They had time enough before the game started for Rose to begin her "interrogation" and soon enough she and the younger Hitachiin were deep in conversation, laughing with each other.

Hikaru on the other hand was brooding. His hands were crossed tightly in front of his chest and he was slightly slouched over. He was bored, neglected and for some reason people kept throwing things at him. What's so interesting about his brother anyway.

Rose and Kaoru were hunched over, their heads almost touching as they tried to suppress their laughter. It was incredibly hard to do so, however, while they watched the emotional display on Hikaru's face as the crowd around them became increasingly aware of raven-haired boy's attire.

Kaoru couldn't help but think that his first impression of Rose had been correct, she was incredibly fun, but he also felt slightly guilty watching his brother get slowly pelted with straw wrappers and spare bits of food. Rose's plan was still funny though.

Finally the anger inside of Hikaru bubbled to a head and he quickly turned around to snap at those who were drowning him in trash.

"What are you doing?!" he shouted at them.

The two men behind him snickered and one of them threw a small piece of pretzel directly at Hikaru's face before answering.

"Who do you think you are - wearing that jersey in the Crimson student section," he questioned with a sneer.

Hikaru blinked back at them with mild surprise, not really comprehending the gravity of the situation. He raised an eyebrow at them as if to ask what are you talking about?

"You hear me you ugly green sellout," the other man answered. "Why even go to Dartmouth. Were you not good enough for Yale?"

Anger began to churn in the depths of Hikaru's belly, knowing he had been insulted, despite having no clue what the guy was talking about. He started to move toward the man, ready for a fight, but Rose held her arm in front of him, suppressing her laughter.

"You can pull your punches Lance, he doesn't even know what Dartmouth is," Rose said, speaking directly to the blonde behemoth in front of Hikaru. "I was just pulling a joke on him."

Hikaru looked down at his jersey, just now noticing that it, in fact, did not read out Harvard. I'm an idiot he thought. He had been too caught up in his emotions over Kaoru and Rose to notice. They had played him.