Ah, first fic posted in over a year! I'm so nervous. For a while now I've wanted to get more into writing Haruhi fics, but I've been unsure about my skills. However, taking a leaf from the book of the brigade leader herself, I'm just going to throw myself right into the challenge and get started by posting the short ficlets I'm writing. They're all based off of the prompts from the LJ challenge 30_ways, so as long as I can overcome my usual laziness, this will eventually be thirty (probably short) chapters long. As I said, I'm sure I can improve lots, so I always appreciate comments on how I can improve. In any case, I hope my offerings are enjoyable to everyone.
"I am a merciful and forgiving brigade leader!" At the moment, she sounded anything but. "What you do with your free time is your own business!" Except when you choose to monopolize it for those city-wide searches for weird things or treasure hunts or baseball games or whatever else has popped into your head.
"Are you listening to me, Kyon?" A yank on my tie, dragging me down to eye level with Haruhi, brought me back into the situation. "I'm trying to explain something to you here!" Her eyes gleamed with a fiery intensity and she was grinning in a way that struck terror into my heart. This was made even worse by the fact that I had no idea what I'd done to inspire this tirade.
Still nose-to-nose and eye-to-eye with me, Haruhi continued speaking. "You're allowed to do whatever you want, do you hear me?" Loud and clear, chief. "But have the courtesy to inform me when you make big decisions that could impact the brigade! Stuff like that merits punishment! You need to learn your lesson so you'll remember it in the future!"
How can I learn my lessons if I'm still not sure what I did wrong?!
"Dummy!" Haruhi yanked on my tie and let go. I nearly fell on my face but caught myself at the last second. "If you have a girlfriend, that's a big deal for the SOS Brigade! You're our menial tasks man, and we can't have you going off on dates without telling us and leaving us a member short!" Haruhi turned to look out the clubroom's window, her teeth clenched.
Wait a second. "Girlfriend?" I was pretty sure I didn't have a girlfriend. What could have given Haruhi that impression? It hit me, just as Haruhi answered.
"I saw you with that girl Sasaki over the weekend," said Haruhi, her grin larger and scarier than ever. "Congratulations, Kyon." This did not bode well for my health.
"Haruhi, wait!"
"I've decided on your punishment!" Haruhi announced. I shot a despairing glance at the door. Of all the days for the others to be late!
"Hold on and let me explain!"
Haruhi ignored my plea as she once again seized me by the tie. "Let's go." She pulled me to the door and flung it open.
This was my last chance. I wrenched myself out of her grip, a feat I'm still not sure how I managed, and shouted, "Shut up and listen!"
Haruhi, surprisingly enough, did shut up. She stopped and stood facing me. She was probably shocked that I'd actually defied her this much. I didn't wait for her to recover and just launched into an explanation.
"Sasaki and I are just friends, Haruhi. Really."
"She kissed you. I saw it," said Haruhi, the grin once again spreading across her face.
Damn. So she'd seen that, too. I remembered what Koizumi had said about Haruhi not understanding the different types of friendships between boys and girls.
"She kissed me on the cheek," I said quickly. "We're good friends, but we're still just friends. That was just Sasaki's way of showing friendship. I swear!"
"If you're lying to me, your punishment will be doubled! No, tripled!"
I held up my hands. "I swear, Haruhi, there's nothing like that going on between me and Sasaki, or between me and any girl, for that matter." Not that I wouldn't mind being Asahina-san's boyfriend, but I didn't say anything about that. I'm not suicidal!
Haruhi studied me for a moment and then crossed past me back to the computer desk. "All right, I'll believe you." She turned on the computer and began typing, pausing only to point at the tea pot. "You're on tea duty since Mikuru-chan isn't here." I nodded and began making tea. I'd escaped punishment just now, and I wasn't eager to anger Haruhi again. "By the way, you should know better than to yell at your brigade leader. I'll have your penalty thought up for tomorrow." The wicked grin was back, and I groaned. So much for escaping punishment.