Summertide

-:-

by Novaki Monderin

It was hot. Sweltering to the point that had I not been in the company of Haruhi, I would have stripped myself of my shirt without a second thought.

The unrelenting summer weather was what had originally prompted Haruhi to invite me, or coerce me, rather, for a walk at the local park. She had said something along the lines of, "genius is one percent inspiration and ninety-nine percent perspiration, so walking in this heat will be good for your grades!" Having received her call in my bedroom with the air conditioning at full blast, I, of course, had no idea what the weather was like outside when I accepted. If I had known, I would have at least tried to weasel out of it. In any case, though, it's not like she'd forgive me if I declined, no matter what the temperature was.

When I arrived at the designated park one train ride later, I was greeted by nothing less than a duck-bill-mouthed Haruhi. Having known her for over a year, I knew what this meant.

"I'm late, and I deserve a penalty, right?"

"Yes, you do!" Haruhi huffed at my smart-alack deadpan. But then she softened. "At least you're starting to realize your own mistakes. If you make a brigade chief wait in real life, you could be beheaded for real, did you know that? By making you pay for my lunch, I'm preparing you for when you're released into the adult world!"

Ignoring the fact that we were practically adults anyway, I followed Haruhi towards the park. I had never been to this particular lot before. It was basically a spacious field of viridian grass, where you could see several people walking around aimlessly eating ice cream, playing soccer, or just lying down and watching the clouds. There were a couple of trees dotted along here and there, too. It was a nice place - I made a mental note to visit again sometime.

Haruhi and I began to stroll along the edge of the field. It might have been slightly cooler walking on the well-watered grass, but the complete lack of breeze sort of canceled out that bonus.

"So," I said, trying to break the cumbersome silence that had been bugging me for the last sixty seconds, "is there any particular reason you wanted to see me?"

"No! Of course not!" Haruhi snorted, turning away from me.

"Then why am I here?"

"Because!" She stopped walking for a second, seemingly in thought, then reached her hand out and poked my side. "Tag! Come get me!" And she took off like a bullet, faster than Hikari, Nozomi and Kodama combined, I'd daresay.

-:-

One excruciating game of tag later, I found myself collapsed, absolutely drained, under the shade of a large tree. Haruhi was next to me, panting but looking like she'd just won a million dollars. I greatly suspected that the only reason I had managed to tag her at all was because she let me.

But anyway. Both of us under a tree together. That brought back memories, for sure.

Haruhi, breaking the silence, laughed heartily. She looked like a pirate. "You're it, Kyon!" she cried, and stabbed my chest with her finger once again.

I groaned. "I'm not playing anymore."

"Your loss, then." She shrugged, and slumped down beside me.

We sat there in silence for a little bit, watching people give us funny looks, like we were Purple People Eaters or something similar. Why, I didn't want to know, and I didn't really care. Maybe call me when I've got my bronchi back together, I'll take the news then.

Just then, Haruhi spoke up. "Hey, Kyon."

"What?" I snapped.

"You've got something on your nose. People are staring at you." Her voice had a tiny laugh in it.

"I don't care."

"Would you like me to take it off for you?" She didn't sound very genuine.

"No."

"Haha, not like I'd listen to what you want anyway." And then she reached over and peeled something off my nose, eliminating this tickling sensation which I had not noticed before.

I reluctantly turned my head to look at what had been on my nose and gaped.

It was a caterpillar. That would have been perfectly normal, had the caterpillar actually looked like a caterpillar. This particular one had the face of someone I had not wanted to see until I absolutely had to at school on Monday: Itsuki Koizumi.

A caterpillar with Koizumi's head. And I thought, what with all this stress Haruhi gave me, I wouldn't live to see the day.

I expected a more climatic response from Haruhi, like her trying to shove the creature into my still-open mouth, for example, but strangely, she just giggled (a very un-Haruhi giggle, might I add) and said, "This world is full of strange stuff, isn't it?"

I somehow found myself smiling slightly. "Yeah, it is."

-:-

After having explained to some children that flying a kite without wind was definitely impossible, Tsuruya continued to skip through the park, smiling in the most carefree way. Her grin grew wider, however, when she got to the tree in the very center of the park.

The sight that awaited her was an extremely sweet one - two of her schoolmates under the tree, heads together, and fast asleep.

Tsuruya burst into laughter.

She ran up to them, pulled their eyelids, splashed her water on them, bit them as hard as she could, fang sinking into their skin. They didn't stir.

So. Cute.

Suddenly, a caterpillar crept out from under Kyon's chin, the one bearing the face of Koizumi. With a pop, it took the form of a human.

"Hello, Miss Tsuruya," Koizumi smiled.

"Howdy, Mister Koizumi! How's the business?"

"Oh, there has been a significant decline in the amount of Celestial battles lately. I think this here might be a contributing factor," he chuckled, indicating the sleeping figures behind him.

"Aha..." Tsuruya snickered. "Let's leave 'em alone, then."

"Of course."

-:-

Haruhi was the first to wake up of the two. The sun was setting now, so the temperature had dropped, and it was very much pleasant.

Then she realized where she was lying.

She yelped and shot up into sitting position. She breathed deeply, in, out, in, out, until she felt she could bear looking at Kyon in her embarrassment, then turned to face him.

Ah, good. He was still asleep.

She couldn't believe she had fallen asleep like that! What kind of brigade chief was she?

She frowned, then looked at Kyon again and stopped berating herself. Don't tell anyone, but he looked better when he was sleeping than when he was awake. It was actually sort of calming...

Catching herself, Haruhi ran her hand through her hair and breathed deeply again. She allowed herself one last glance at the sleeping Kyon because, well, it was a nice sight and she probably wouldn't get to see it again for a while, before she ruffled his hair and said:

"Race you to the station."

And she took off, leaving Kyon alone to miss the last train of the day.

A/N: Kyon + Haruhi + friendshippy fluff = happy Novaki!

Dedicated to, um, Patrick Chan and Daisuke Takahashi and Yuzuru Hanyu! They got the men's skating podium this year, and they're Canadian and Japanese! My two favourite countries... :')

Haruhi is not mine. (Yep, I'm too tired to think of a witty disclaimer orz) The pic isn't mine either... I was just testing this funky new image manager! Whoever made this picture, I come in peace and give you cookies. (^o^)

Concrit is epic. *hint hint* I need it!

/ /Novaki/ /