Scooter: Hey all you Haruhi Suzumiya fans out there!!! This is my second story in this category, and it has the same genres as the previous one You Promised. And it's basically got the same plot...just reversed!! It's not as long as You Promised however, but it will have an alternate ending. ((winks)) This one was also roleplayed, so the credit goes to both me and Solared!! Anyway, here's the first chapter! ENJOY!!

Chapter 1

Down and out for the moment, Itsuki was curled up on a cold stone floor, barbed wire all around.

He was slightly bruised, but none worse for the wear. He had an odd collar hanging loosely around his neck, connected to the cage he was trapped in by a thin string.

Slowly, the ESPer awoke to his surroundings, throat dry and body sore.

He awoke to a weight on his neck. His brown eyes slowly opened. Well, one of them did. The other one he couldn't open, seeing as it was pressed hard against the wood floor.

He struggled up anyway and hissed in pain. Where am I? he wondered, then looked ahead, spotting another prone body.

"I-Itsuki?" he asked in a hoarse voice.

Itsuki shot up hearing the familiar voice, only to regret it when his spine creaked in protest.

Wincing as a pounding headache assaulted his brain, he realized he should have toned down his excitement and relief to hearing and seeing someone he knew in a seemingly worthless situation.

"Kyon?" He sounded.

Kyon wanted to weep in relief that the other male was OK. But if he himself was feeling this amount of pain, he didn't want to imagine what kind of pain Itsuki was feeling.

To appease his curiosity, he clasped his hand around his neck momentarily and his eyes widened slightly as he felt a metal band around his neck. He looked up at Itsuki and noticed that he also had a sort of collar on. He struggled to sit, but found he couldn't, and he instead half-crawled over to the fallen ESPer.

"Itsuki..." he said softly, worry in his brown eyes. "Are you...okay?" Of course not, you idiot, he yelled at himself.

Itsuki took a hold of Kyon and lifted him up into a sitting position.

"Probably better than you...you don't look like you can stand without assistance." He said, frowning in concern.

Kyon hissed as he was hoisted into a sitting position. "Thanks," he murmured, half leaning into Itsuki's embrace. "I don't think I can stand easily either... My chest hurts and I feel like I'm going to throw up sooner or later,"

He looked up at the ESPer. "I dont' think we'll be getting out of this anytime soon," he looked around at the dismal area.

Itsuki made a tsking noise.

"Barbed wire all around....I think I see a door over there...." He mumbled, rubbing Kyon's shoulder absentmindedly.

Kyon followed the ESPer's gaze. "But how are we supposed to get to it? The wire..." He reached up and lay his hand over Itsuki's, clutching his stomach with his other hand tightly.

It felt as if a weight was pressed down to his chest, and like a knife was stabbing his insides. Yet he was scared that if he fell asleep he would never wake up again.

"I... Wait." Itsuki murmured, reaching behind Kyon's neck, fingers running over the collar he had.

Chills ran over Kyon's body and he shuddered slightly. He wasn't cold... No...that wasn't it. He didn't know really how to explain it. But it was kind of ticklish.

"Itsuki?" he asked quietly, using his free hand to help prop himself up. "What's wrong?"

A lot of things, dumb-bell his mind snorted. Kyon coughed slightly, wincing as it brought a bit more pain to his chest.

Itsuki's fingers ran over something taped to the back of Kyon's collar. Pulling it free, what was in his fingers was a small cassette tape.

"....." Upon closer inspection, he noticed there was something else of interest on Kyon's person, and the ESPer's hand flew into the other male's front pocket.

A faint blush spread across Kyon's face and he yelped slightly as Itsuki's hand suddenly was in his pocket. "I-Itsuki?" he asked in a trembling voice, utterly confused.

He blinked his eyes rapidly, trying to clear them as he looked to the ESPer for any kind of answer.

"Here we go..." Itsuki muttered, pulling out a smallish cassette player.

"How'd you figure that was there?" Kyon asked, blinking in surprise. He hadn't noticed it. He watched the ESPer with tired eyes and his shoulders slumped slightly

"Your pocket was bulging, so I thought, 'why not'?" Itsuki smiled.

Kyon looked at him and smiled slightly, tiredly. "How're we supposed to get out of here?" he asked no one in particular. He leaned back against the ESPer, his eyes drifting closed.

Itsuki gently peeled the tape off the cassette, before inserting it into the cassette player.

"Hopefully this'll shed some light on the situation." Itsuki said darkly, pressing the 'play' button.

Kyon nodded slightly. ''Yea..." he said quietly, wanting merely to sleep. "I don't feel good..." he mumbled, sighing slightly and clutching at his stomach.

Hearing Kyon say that made Itsuki feel slightly queasy in response.

A low croaking voice came out of the cassette player.

Kyon's eyes opened slowly at the sound of the tape cassette and he looked at it curiously, wanting to sleep, but also wanting to know what will come out of it.

He struggled to sit up straight, determined not to show Itsuki how badly he felt.

Itsuki slipped an arm around Kyon's shoulder, not surprised if he got a punch in the face out of it...

The tape was explaining the obvious, that they were trapped in a cage with barbed wire on all sides....much to Itsuki's frustration.

It also explained that there was a 30 minute time on the door out of the cage that would start as soon as Itsuki stood up.

Kyon - instead of punching Itsuki in the face - leaned back against the ESPer, actually enjoying the comfort. He turned to the other and smiled as best he could. "Thanks," he mumbled, then listened to the tape.

His face turned to horror as he heard it, then looked at Itsuki's collar. "S-So it's like a bomb?" He turned frightened eyes to the ESPer, then back to the tape. "There has to be a way out of this..." he said in a quivering voice.

Itsuki bit his bottom lip, listening as it explained the collars.

"You might be wondering, gentlemen, what the devices around your neck are to. You see, one, in a matter of hours, will tighten and constrict the airway...leading to the obvious."

Itsuki fingered the loose collar around his neck, which had notches on it.

He supposed that was his....

"The other, well, let let me start by explaining that, as soon as you make it out of the room, certain areas will become dangers zones that let off a certain signal, triggering the detonation of the other collar. The explosion will result is such force strong enough to blow your skull wide open...." There was a dry laugh that ensued, and Itsuki felt compelled to throw it away in anger.

"That is....if you can pass some simple tests to make it out and get the keys....There is but one hallway leading to freedom...they say the fun is not arriving at the goal, but the journey leading to it." With that, the tape reached the end.

Kyon looked at Itsuki. His collar is loose...so his will probably be the one to get tighter...mine... he gulped slightly and looked at the cassette player, his fists clenching in anger. "there's got to be a way to get out of this part. don't move. That way your collar won't activate, OK?" Kyon said, looking like he was going to stand, though the way his legs were shaking, it'd be difficult to pull off.

"That's the hell of it. If I don't move, I can't ever get out of here either...." Itsuki replied.

"I can figure out how to get out of here. That way we'll have more time," Kyon said, his voice rasping slightly in his throat. He tried to smile at the other male.

Itsuki suddenly reached out and touched Kyon's forehead.

"You're warm..."

Kyon's face flushed slightly at the touch, but he merely looked into Itsuki's eyes. Although he averted his gaze rather quickly. "I-I'm fine," he said softly, his voice really unconvincing.

He clutched at his stomach again, it taking all his will power not to double over in pain

"Like he said..." Itsuki immediately piped up, looking pained at Kyon's discomfort.

"We need to make haste...there may be other things he hasn't told us about."

Kyon looked slightly panicked at Itsuki's words. "What if we can't figure it out in a half an hour?" he said, his voice slightly higher pitched than normal. He panted slightly, feeling woozy, but he rubbed at his eyse and looked around for any sort of key.

"We aren't going to get out of this room unscathed..."

"Nothing starts until I stand up, I suppose..." Itsuki muttered, reaching back and finding that there was, indeed, a string there, heading out of the cage.

Kyon put his hands on Itsuki's shoulders and forced the ESPer to look at him. "Itsuki..." His worry was deep in his eyes and he struggled not to faint. "Just...let me try for a couple minutes, OK? I might be able to find it." He smiled weakly, his worry and need to protect the ther coming out.

Kyon stood with a struggle and rested his hands on is knees to prevent hismelf from falling over. He struggled briefly for breath before looking around.

There's no way to get through except through the wire...

"Itsuki...can you do it?" he asked, all thoughs of his own well-being blown from his mind.

"We'll both have to do it if we wanna get out of here..." Itsuki said sadly, trying to smile at Kyon.

"Sooner or later, I'm going to have to get up."

Kyon nodded. "OK..." He looked at the wire and then turned away from Itsuki, bending slightly at the waist, holding his stomahc, his face twisted in a grimace of pain.

Why does my stomach hurt so badly? he asekd himself in wonder, momentarily staring off into space.

Itsuki took a deep breath.

He shuddered, before standing up and hearing the string snap.

As soon a he did, he reached into the twisting wire, trying his damndest not to scream when the wire scraped his arms.

Kyon walked slowly and painfully over to Itsuki and began to follow him, biting his tongue in an effort to keep his screams down. he couldn't help but let out a small whimper however, and he trembled, keeping his mind focused on his goal: the door.

Itsuki took a step in into the pit and his jaw quivered, head heating up in the pain of the barbs getting not only in the fabric of his clothes, but his skin as well.

It made him dearly wish whoever was keeping them there had let them keep their shoes.

Kyon followed suit, his eyesmost of the way closed. he hissed in agony, wanting more than anything to just drop down. He began to feel lightheaded.

"I-itsuki..." he muttered, knowint the other couldn't hear him. Kyon panted, continuing to get through the door, well ignoring the blood that he knew was coming from the scrapes in his skin. "Nnn..."

Itsuki tried to keep balance, God above helped him if he tripped.

After much cuts, pain, blood, and tears, Itsuki finally made it out of the barbed wire pit.

Slapping one hand onto the cold stone surface, he pulled himself onto the other side, countless wires still stuck in his clothes and in his skin.

The pain was pretty damn bad.

Kyon kept his eyes mostly closed and when he finally made it to where Itsuki was, a few tears of relief slid down his face as he leaned his forehead against the wall, small flecks of blood dripping down his arms. Kyon was panting, his knees trembling violently, looking as if they would give out at any second.

Kyon coughed briefly, clutching his stomach again. "We made it?" he asked in a soft voice.

Itsuki was seated, hissing in pain as he pulled the remaining wires from his clothes and skin.

As soon as they were gone, he fell back onto the floor.

"'Tsuki..." he slurred, looking at the ESPer. "We need to leave this room bfore we can...r-rest." he said. Although he spoke those words, he sank to his knees, his eyes hazy.

"We need to keep going..." he murmured, leaning his head against the wall, his eyes struggling to stay open.

Itsuki rolled over onto his stomach and winced, forcing himself up to his feet.

He heard a squeaking noise, and the collar around his neck tightened a notch. Still not tight enough to even fit firmly around his neck, but it sent Itsuki's blood slightly cold.

"Yeah...Kyon?" He looked up.

He noticed Kyon was dozing off where he stood, and tried to think of a way to remedy that.

Scooter: I'm gonna leave it there for now. XD This one was also roleplayed so I'm just gonna leave it here. ((laughs)) Anyway, any ideas on how Itsuki is gonna wake Kyon up? Anyway, Imma shut up now! Please leave a review for me - I love to read them!! Seeya next time!!

--Scooter--