One-Shot Title: Snow
Author: Reniko Seika
Genre: Friendship/Romance/Angst
Rating: T (Tendencies of Haruhi)
Warnings: Fluff, Language, Haruhi-ness, Minor Sexual References
Disclaimer: I do not own the Haruhi Series, never will and don't plan to; I just like to mess around with the creations of other.
A/N: I'm bored, have the flu, and borderlining a psychotic rampage, and I've done this…such is life.
Snow
It was early January, and it was snowing. Christmas and New Years has been and gone, faster than one could blink. I swear the years are getting quicker every year. It was rather eventful, Christmas, now I'm not religious at all, but the best thing the Christians did was Christmas. And when ever Haruhi and the S.O.S Brigade are involved, things get very interesting. It's snowing too, I'll admit I like the snow, its cold, but you can clothe up to compensate, it can be soft, or harsh, pleasant, or utterly horrid. It was rather pleasant today, with the small crystals slowly falling to the ground, stopping on the ground and building up. Where people didn't walk, it was half a foot high.
My Christmas outside the one we had as the S.O.S brigade was uneventful. Mom and Dad bought me a sleek blue iPod Nano, 64 GB; I had been wanting one of these since my Shuffle got stepped on by my sister. I had it on and the ear pieces sitting in my ears as I tuned my guitar. No one but my family knew that I played guitar, rather well, too, for being self taught. I'm not bad with drums, either. I pride myself on being able to play along to the song I'm listening to. Not that I'm very prideful, but everyone has something they're proud of.
Luckily it wasn't turned up very high, because if I missed this call, there would be hell to pay. I paused the device, the screen lighting up with the English words: Meaning of Life, Disturbed, and The Sickness. I'll get back to you later on my music tastes.
"Hello, Haruhi." I spoke as I slid the Cell Phone open.
"He-ey, Kyon!" there was my hated nickname, "you busy at all?"
"Why?" I was sceptical, this had happened before, and last time I had to blackmail Tsuruya-san into burning those photos…I am not going back there…ever.
"Tonight, Yuki got a new apartment, I bet it's about three times the size of her last one, her parents bought it for her from Tokyo, so we're going to have a home warming sleepover!"
I blinked, not once, not twice, but four times before I answered.
"Ok, and has she agreed?" I asked.
"Of course, when I mentioned you'd be there, she agreed!"
"So I have no choice now?" it wasn't a joke, with Haruhi, you have to say these kinds of things with a straight face.
"Nope, no choice! I'll text you the address! Ja-ne!"
"Ja-ne." I sighed as the line went dead. Great, so now I had another party. That made three in under a month; I used to be lucky to get one that wasn't my own once a year. It was just under a minute later I felt the buzz of the cell in my hand as I got the text message. My eyes widened at the new address, this was top-end. Of course when you're a Humanoid Interface created by an Integrated Data Thought Entity, I'm sure money is no problem, but this was impressive.
I was talking about my music tendencies, wasn't I? My English is actually rather good, compared to my results in school. This is because a friend I had in Grade School introduced me to a band named Disturbed. I was hooked; I recommend you look for it. No one would ever guess it, but I like the heavy metal screamo stuff. And hopefully, I never have to reveal that. However, I'm in the mood to play my guitar, I wonder what they'd say about. And if Haruhi remembers what she said during the Arts Festival. I hope not.
With one of my patented sighs, I slipped the earpieces back in place and continued with my task of tuning.
It was difficult getting everything to Nagato's new place, it was in town, so that meant a tram or taxi, and I don't like taxis. Last time I was in one, I saw exactly what Haruhi could do. So my only option was a tram. And I had to travel with my guitar case, and a backpack full of my sleeping stuff, and food. I decided to take my guitar to this party. It would be worth it in the long run, I decided. It wouldn't be so bad if we actually played as a band in the next Art's Festival, I'd become known as something other than Haruhi's lackey.
It was snowing still, a little harsher than when I was at home, but refreshingly so. I felt the tram slid to a halt as we came up to a station. People filed in and out. And someone decided to take a seat next to me. Asking before sitting.
"This seat taken?" she was cute, maybe seventeen, with short-cut brown hair and a pale face, bright hazel eyes shimmering as she smiled.
"Not at all." I replied casually. She took the seat and pressed out the creases in her skirt.
"You seem packed, on a trip or something?" she asked, noting my stuff.
"Party." I responded. I wasn't fond of people just asking questions to the person sitting next to them.
"That's nice, what kind?" she continued.
"Housewarming."
She squealed happily. Must be thinking of marriage.
"Married couple?" Bingo.
"Nah, friend got a new apartment as a Christmas present, they just want an excuse to party." I explained. Not quite true, but true enough with Haruhi.
"Cool, so do you play Guitar or something?" she pointed to the hard plastic case.
"Yeah." I said.
"How well?" she's hitting on me now, I know it.
"Tutor once said I could play in a band." It was true, self-taught for ten years, last year we asked a tutor to come in and see what my skill level was. Boy was he shocked. The tram once again slid to a stop, and she stood up.
"This is my stop, nice speaking with you." She smiled, she was rather pretty.
"Yeah, it was." I replied, giving her a half-hearted smile back. She hopped off the tram and I chuckled. The funny thing is that we didn't even exchange names in that whole conversation. It was kinda fun to just talk. Maybe this is why people can just talk…nah!
It was a few more stops until the one that was closest to Yuki's new apartment. I got off the tram and shivered, it was warm inside the tram and now it's cold, and snowing. I fished my earpieces out of my pocket and placed them in, looking at the screen. The 'Shuffle' option chose one of my other multi-lingual songs, a Finish one, actually, probably the oddest thing I've ever found on Youtube. I do have Japanese music, like Maximum the Hormone; I just like what the English come up with more.
It was twenty minute hike, I'm guessing, to Nagato's, and it was snowing. But I trudged onwards, wouldn't want to be late. It was quickly approaching 6 P.M and we had to be there at 6.
I arrived quicker than I thought, but I was still late. By a whole six minutes. Regardless, entered the lobby of the apartment complex and pressed one of the intercom buttons on the near-by wall. Number 7, Haruhi had sent.
"Hello?" I knew that dead flat voice.
"Hey Nagato." I spoke clearly. I hate these machines.
"Kyon…come up." I got a reply.
I barely got a 'sure' though before the intercom died out. I sighed, so direct, that Nagato. Regardless, I took the stairs up to the first floor and quickly found room 7. I knocked solidly, these doors are solid, and noise doesn't get through them well. It was a matter of second's before the door was pulled open quickly.
"LATE!" …Haruhi, "PENAL…hey is that a guitar?" I resisted a smirk and held up the case. Got out of penalty, good.
"Yep, mine." I stated and pushed past her into the apartment.
"But you said you couldn't play." Haruhi bounded up to my side.
"I lied." I stated blandly. I slipped the iPod earpieces out and shoved them into my coat pocket as Haruhi scowled at me and bounded on ahead. This was westernized, and a lot larger than her old apartment. I liked it.
I followed my 'leader' into a medium sized room with the rest of the group spread out on the ground, sitting on sleeping bags.
"Yo." I gave a wave. Koizumi gave a glance to the case in my hand and raised an eyebrow.
"You can play guitar?" he asked.
"Yep." I responded, placing my bag in the corner with everyone else's. I spotted Yuki sitting furthest away, and…was that a shy look in her eyes…nah!
"Nice place, Nagato." I said. She nodded, the look not there anymore. I knew I was seeing things.
"I'm hungry." Haruhi frowned, "who wants pizza?"
As per usual, I ended up paying for the whole meal, leaving my wallet rather empty. At least my tram card was a monthly use, I won't need one for a few more weeks. We had ended up in a circle on Nagato's floor as we ate the pizza.
"So, Kyon, when I asked if you could play an instrument, you lied." Haruhi asked, well, stated but that's beside the point.
"Yep." Was all I said with a mouthful of pizza. Haruhi frowned, but then gave a mischievous grin. She was almost instantly in my face.
"Play something." she ordered. I shrugged, that was why I brought, stupid girl.
I stood, slice of pizza still in hand, and walked over to the bag corner, where my guitar also sat. I picked it up, after stuffing the rest of the slice into my mouth, and de-oiling my hands on my pants, and opened it, taking the wood instrument out.
"Prepared to be amazed." I said with a bit of a cocky smirk. Unlike me, but I couldn't help it.
"Carlos Santana, Into the Night." I said, and my finger moved on my own.
And I stunned my audience. Haruhi could play, as could Yuki, and I was stunned when I saw them onstage that day, playing as well as I could. I wonder how loud Haruhi's yelling will be after this?
My performance ender after just a few short minutes, and I got absolute silence, even Yuki's jaw a slightly agape, it was cute, to say the least. Koizumi had to catch my guitar, as Haruhi decided to glomp me, flying glomp me, at that.
"We have a band!" she squealed as I rolled her off me. I thought I saw a jealous glint in Yuki's hazel eyes, but that was gone in under a second. Trick of the light.
"What are you talking about?" I snapped at her, annoyed at getting glomped.
"We can make a band! Koizumi said he can play drums, and Mikuru showed me her skills on the keyboard! We can really do this!" she started giggling like a twelve year old schoolgirl. You're sixteen damn it, but I suppose sixteen-year-old girls act like this anyway. Meh.
Later, Haruhi said we were going to play a game. Something that made sleepovers complete. Truth or Dare. God damn it.
Of course, when it was my turn to be dared, or truth-ed, I had to quickly make up my mind.
"Kyon, truth of dare?" of course, it was Haruhi dealing out my punishment.
"Dare." I snapped out quickly. I thought it to be the lesser of two evils.
"Take a squeeze of Mikuru's chest."
Crap, I was wrong.
"Change, I'll go with truth!" I almost stuttered on it, and probably turned a little red as well. Asahina-san gave a slight whimper at the request, but gave a relieved sigh when I declined hastily.
"Fine." Haruhi sighed. Knowing her, she had a camera on her to blackmail me with if I actually did it. As much as I'd like to, I won't. She grinned spontaneously and darted quickly over to where Asahina-san and Nagato were sitting and put her arms around them.
"Is there any one of us you like?" she accented the last word very clearly, and I was positive I turned faintly pink. Considering I had to be truthful…
"Yes." Was all I said. It was true; I did like one of them in that way. Can you guess? You probably can.
"Boo, you're supposed top say who as well."
The game went on similarly, people standing on their heads, drinking something unknown. There was a kiss involved, and I'm not going into whom, the wrong audience might be reading.
It was a few hours' later, approaching midnight, when we went to sleep. Well, most of us did. It was into the next day when what would classify the best moment of my life happened, and it started rather crap.
I was trying to sleep. Both Koizumi and Haruhi snored, loudly. Asahina-san was sound asleep, not making a noise, and a thought Yuki was when I saw her stand up and walk into the kitchen, closing the door and the light filtered out of the gaps. I frowned, but stayed still, that was the way to the bathroom, maybe to keep up the image of being human see had to go sometimes. But when a few minutes turned into half an hour, I became worried. I stood up. And went into the kitchen.
It was odd. And slightly frightening too, considering it was Yuki in this state. She was shivering, chin to knees and arms around legs shivering in the corner. Something was off.
"Nagato?" I asked softly. She looked up at me, I saw the sweat on her face, and…fear…in her eyes. Not good.
"What's wrong?" I asked, stepping closer. She seemed to tense up and curl up even further. This was not good; it seemed like an mental breakdown.
"I'm…feeling things I shouldn't." she muttered. I could barely hear it, but I did.
"Shouldn't?" I echoed.
"Yes." She sounded pitiful, like a child scared of a thunderstorm. I frowned slightly, and stepped closer and sat down next to her. She shifted against me and didn't seem to notice, like it was instinctual.
"Do you know what may have started this?" now I felt like a therapist.
"The Integrated Data Thought Entity has chosen a few Humanoid Interfaces to receive and upgrade to help us better fit in, we feel and understand emotion better now, but…I'm feel one, and I don't know what it is." Was she…crying? The way her body shook, I think she was. I pulled her onto my lap, I can't believe I was being so bold, but with my sister having a terrible phobia of lightning, I was rather good at comforting girls. I wrapped my arms around her waist and held her close.
"Can you tell me what you feel?" I really feel like a therapist.
She didn't speak, but relaxed substantially.
"I, I feel tight, around my chest, my breathing hastens and I get warm and sweat, I want to turn away, but can't." She whimpered. It would be cute if she wasn't on the verge of a meltdown. I knew there were tears, I just knew, with the ways she was sniffling. I reached up with my right arms and brushed them away with my thumb.
"When does this happen?"
"Whenever I look at him." she answered. Him. It made sense now, she loved someone, of at least had a major crush.
"You love him." I said. I couldn't help but feel the twinge of depression. Yuki is the one I like, so to hear she loves someone else hurts.
"Love…" she echoed my word. I could feel her smile.
"Yes, I love him." she twisted in my arms, looking face-to-face with me, a warm smile on her face. It was beautiful.
"I love you, Kyon." And she kissed me.
It was early January, it was the middle of the night. I was sitting of the kitchen floor of my friend's apartment, and the girl I like is kissing me.
I may not love her. But I can love her, and I will love her. My Yuki.
Oh, and it was snowing.