Hi everyone! Here is Part 2! It is about 2,000 words longer than Part 1 heh heh. Sorry. But here you have it! I think eveyone is a little less OOC in this one too!

Disclaimer : I do not own the Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya / Suzumiya Haruhi no Yuutsu.

The Cat And The Dog

Analogy Part 2

Hiking

Kyon smiled at the fact that the sun was finally out.

It was Tuesday morning; the day after Haruhi had suffered her choking fit, and the boy smirked at the memory of kissing her.

Then, remembering that he was a gentleman, he shook his head to clear it. What's she gonna have us do today? He wondered as he stepped through the door to his class. He strolled over to his seat, but before he could sit down, the brunette who sat behind him glanced up.

"Oh, Kyon!" She sounded surprised.

She's never the one to start the morning greetings. Kyon's eyes widened a bit. That's weird…then again it's Haruhi… He trailed off as she reached up to place something in his hands. It was his coat that he had given her the night prior. Baka, you were supposed to keep it! He scowled silently. Nonetheless he accepted his coat back and thanked her as he sat down.

"At least it's not raining today." He noted, trying to get a conversation going before class started. "Hopefully it'll last."

"If it does I have plans for the SOS Brigade." She told him. Wouldn't you have plans for us anyway?

"What kind of plans?" He asked instead. Again she switched personalities.

"It's a secret! So don't ask me! You'll find out soon enough." She barked, smacking him in the back of the head with a notebook. Kyon grumbled something inaudible as their Sensei entered the room.

When lunchtime finally arrived, Kyon did not once turn to look at Haruhi, afraid that she would start choking again.

However, the girl was annoyed by the silence.

"Kyon! Why aren't you talking today?" She finally asked, flustered.

"It's not that I won't talk, it's just I don't want you passing out again." He told her, speaking through a mouthful of food. Then, for the second time that morning he was whacked on the back of his head.

"Shhh!" She hissed. "Don't say that out loud! It's embarrassing… and besides," She broke off, and then continued. "I'm over that now. So you can stare at me all you want-" She stopped herself and Kyon turned around, with a hysterical grin on his face. Haruhi blinked twice and then rapidly shook her head back and forth.

"W-Wait! T-T-That's not what I meant! I-I meant you didn't have to worry about-"

"I get it, I get it." He reassured her, still grinning. Haruhi moaned and, being sure to avoid her lunch, slammed her head on her desk.

"Ow." She mumbled lifting her head again. "But seriously, Kyon, I didn't mean-"

"I know." He said, his smile fading a bit. "Just be quiet and eat you spoiled cat." He teased, and then turned around and continued eating.

"Lovesick puppy." She murmured, and did the same.

"Attention SOS Dan!" Haruhi called once they were all seated.

We're right here, no need to shout! Kyon complained in his mind, covering his ears.

"The weather seems to be nice lately!" The hyperactive Chief continued, standing at the head of the table with her hands on her hips. No it hasn't! It just happened to get sunny this morning! "I am planning a trip for the SOS Dan!"

"That sounds wonderful, Suzumiya-san." The deputy, Koizumi commented with a smile. What? Are you going to skip out again? Ah, but the thought of going anywhere with Asahina-sa- Kyon stopped himself. For some reason it just did not feel right to think about Mikuru that way when he loved Haruhi. He mentally slapped himself a hundred times.

Then, when he snapped back into reality, 'God' was explaining where they would be going for the trip. "We'll be spending the night in the woods just outside of-"

"Wait, wait, wait! The woods?" Kyon cut her off. She gave him an irritated look.

"Yes the woods." She fumed. "Weren't you listening? We're going hiking!" She shouted at him.

"H-Hiking?" He repeated. "When?"

"Kyon!" She growled. "I just explained everything while you were off in LaLa Land! Quit spacing out and wake up! " She huffed, folding her arms across her chest. Then she went through her entire explanation again, regularly throwing Kyon angry glares.

"Everyone understand?" She asked when she had finished. Mikuru shakily nodded while Koizumi's was more confident. Yuki moved her head so slightly that it was hardly noticeable, but must have been a nod.

"Ano, Haruhi? I thought you were interested in finding aliens, and espers and time travelers and stuff like that. So why go on a…normal… trip? How are we ever going to find anything like that in the woods?" Kyon instantly regretted saying 'we' in his last sentence. Haruhi perked up immediately however.

"We," She repeated with a huge grin. "Are not going on any normal hiking trip! First of all, if we pretend that we're just ordinary hikers, not expecting anything to happen, than something will happen! It's reverse psychology!" She's saying that as though it were the most obvious thing in the world. "And second, although it may not be a time traveler, an esper, or an alien, there have been strange sightings of some unknown creature."

As she said this, the brunette sat down once more in her chair and typed something onto the computer. "There are articles about it all over the internet. Most witnesses say that it's overall shape looked something like an oversized wolf or a bear, but that it walks like it only has three legs or something. And the head is all torn up, and its always reported being seen after they hear some weird noises that could only be described as snarls."

Wait, if a witness was that close to it, how come they couldn't tell it if was a wolf or a bear?

"But what exactly do you want to do about it?" Kyon asked, unenthusiastically. Haruhi glanced up from behind the computer, with a mischievous smirk on her face.

"We're going to find it of course!" And then what? Give it a hug?

"Wait so you're telling me that you expect us to go out into the woods and look for some unknown thing that could possibly kill us?"

"Well, you did say your parents were out of town, and you're sister's with them isn't she? And besides, this thing has never really come close to people. It normally just hobbles off when someone gets too close." She shrugged. She's saying it as though it will be easy to find this thing!

"And what do you plan to doing if we find it?"

"Nothing. I just want to find out what it really is. It's a mystery isn't it? And besides, it's probably one of the most interesting things to happen around here." So basically, we're going into the woods, to find a creature we don't know the identity of that could possibly kill us, find out what it is, turn around and go home. Kyon evaluated in his head.

"So, do you expect we find this thing in one day?" Kyon kept going with the questions and all the while the other three members of the club remained motionless and said nothing.

"Of course not you idiot!" Wow, she didn't say 'baka'. "We're going camping from Friday night to Sunday afternoon."

"Wait! Wait! Wait! You just said that we were going hiking, which to most normal people means a day-long walk through the woods. If you meant that we were going to go camping than you should have told us camping!" Kyon flipped out.

"Well, Kyon, in case you haven't noticed," She then looked at each member in turn. "We're not exactly normal people." You have no idea. He sighed. This was the signal that he was through asking questions, and looked up at the others.

"So then! Can the rest of you come?" She seems to have automatically decided that I can.

After a positive explanation of why he could go from Koizumi, a shaky 'hai' from Mikuru, and a solemn nod from Yuki, the issue was declared no longer debatable.

"Just make sure you're all there on Friday! And don't be late!"

The rest of the week seemed to deliberately fly by, just for Kyon who looked forward to the camping trip as much as a cat looked forward to a bath.

As he returned home Thursday afternoon, he packed the majority of his things into a backpack, sighing and grumbling to himself all the while.

Friday during school did not ease his troubles in the least either. He could feel the tension, anxiety, and excitement wafting off of Haruhi from behind him during the entire day. And when the final bell rang, she shot out the door so quickly that it would make a racehorse tired just watching.

Kyon just sweatdropped and face-palmed himself.

After he had gotten to the clubroom, Haruhi decided to pick teams for their little adventure. It was decided that they were going to split up into two groups and look for this creature as soon as they had found a place to make camp.

"Okay! Here's what we'll do to decided the teams!" What? We're going to play rock, paper, scissors? Kyon smiled to himself, amused.

"We're going to play rock, paper, scissors!" Just kill me now. "The first two out will be on a team together and so will the remaining three."

At first, all five of them chose scissors and then paper and then rock. But finally Kyon was the first out and he just sat back and watched to see whom his partner would be. Frankly, I don't really want to be with Asahina-san, Nagato would be fine though right? Oh, but I bet we would have an insanely awkward silence for the majority of the trip. Koizumi would annoy the Hell out of me though! I would actually much rather be partnered with-

"Alright I'm out! Kyon, I'm with you." Haruhi announced, annoyed, but only at the fact that she was out so soon, it seemed that she had no problems with being his partner. Good.

The rest of the meeting was short, because Haruhi wanted to get going as soon as possible. They just discussed where they were going to go, when to be back at the campsite, to use resources wisely, and to not get lost.

After the short discussion, Haruhi dismissed them early. "Just go home to get your things and don't take more than half an hour. Be back here ASAP and don't slow us down. Meet up back here and we'll all go together."

Once Kyon had raced home to try and meet Haruhi's 30-minute deadline, he quickly changed into some sweatpants and a sweater, grabbed everything he had packed the previous night, and was off back up the huge hill to North High.

Of course Haruhi was already at the meeting spot, but Kyon was slightly surprised when he found out that Yuki and Mikuru were already finished as well. I just pray I'm not the last one here… But for once in his life, luck was with Kyon, as Koizumi had not yet arrived. Yet when he did show up, he just explained that one the way there, everything had fallen out of his backpack and he was only late because he had to pick it all up.

Haruhi let it go and began leading the trek to the forest. If I had said that, she would have given me 'The Death Penalty' or something like that. Kyon had assumed that Yuki, Mikuru and Itsuki would not need to have brought backpacks or supplies. Do they even need to eat? He wondered for the first time. Do they just eat at school to look normal?

As Kyon pondered this he looked around unconsciously, and only then did he realize that they had all actually changed clothes. It seemed that everyone basically had the same idea as him to wear sweatpants and sweaters, just of various colors. It was late Autumn after all. Which reminds me, why are we going hiking or camping or whatever it is when it's nearly Winter? Shouldn't we have just waited a little while? But as if in total disagreement, the sun broke free from the clouds just then and Kyon groaned.

And that was all it took.

Haruhi's super-sharp ears heard him and she spun around.

"What are you moaning about? You should be having fun! This is probably one of the most exciting things to ever happen to you people since you live in this boring place." Without waiting for a reply, she turned back around and started walking again. This time, Kyon groaned in his mind.

Once they had reached the woods and the cement under their feet had become grass, they walked until they found a small clearing.

It was then decided that the girls would stay in one clearing and Kyon would have to stay with Koizumi a short distance away. He was grateful for the fact that he would not have to spend every waking moment around the hyperactive girl who was his Chief.

"Yosh!" Haruhi spoke before the group parted to go to their separate spots. "Everyone unpack your things and meet back up here."

With that, the Brigade broke apart, only to meet up again a moment later. "All right, we all know why we're here right?" After they had all given a nod she continued. "We just want to find out what exactly this thing is. If your group happens to stumble upon something, then alert the other group once we've all met back up here." She said, indicating the campsite. Why is she speaking like there's more than two groups?

"We don't want any trouble with this thing and I don't want anybody getting hurt, understand? If something happens and a bear attacks you or something either make a lot of noise, or if it's really close, just back away slowly, don't turn your back to it, and don't make eye contact. Or if-"

"Did you have a point in there somewhere?" Kyon prodded.

"Oh! Right. Anyway, be back here before sunset, and don't get lost! Speaking of which," She reached into one of her pockets and pulled out several compasses. "Here." She said, tossing Koizumi two of the four she had. "Each team'll take two in case one gets broken or lost."

"Wait." Kyon spoke up. "Shouldn't we have someone stay here and guard the camp?"

"I was getting to that." Haruhi mumbled. "I was thinking that Yuki-chan should stay here to watch the camp." She directed her topaz eyes to the Literary Club member. "But only if you want to." She told her. "I mean I thought it would be better this way because you would get a whole lot more time to read."

After blinking twice, Yuki slowly nodded in agreement. "But, I feel kind of bad about this. I don't really want you to be all alone here, but if someone else stayed here with you, then that would mean that someone would be hiking alone, and we can't do that so then we'd have to make one group of three and we wouldn't cover as much ground, and we-"

"Haruhi, breathe!" Kyon told her. Seriously! How can she talk so much and not have to take a breath?

After taking a quick breath of air, Haruhi was about to resume speaking when Yuki shook her head in disagreement.

"It's fine." She said in monotone.

"Are you sure?"

"Hai."

"Alright then. But…" Haruhi went on to tell her what she should do if something happened and which direction each group would be going.

After they were all satisfied, Haruhi instructed that Mikuru and Koizumi were to head North, while she and Kyon went South.

The sun bathed the entire forest in a warm, pale light as Kyon and Haruhi took off into the trees. He actually enjoyed the stroll through the forest, besides the fact that Haruhi was so anxious that he could taste it in the air. She was constantly checking every little thing, the tree branches, the grass, the twigs, the rocks, the soil. Finally, the question was nagging Kyon so much that he thought it would kill him if he did not ask.

"Haruhi, what are you doing?" He finally brought himself to ask. She did not look at him as she replied for she was too busy examining a pebble.

"I'm checking for signs of that thing! What else?" She scoffed. She's saying it as though it were the most obvious thing in the world again.

"I don't think that you have to check every little thing." He sighed.

But again she ignored him and continued what she was doing.

After about two hours, it was beginning to get dark and Kyon suggested that they head back to camp. Haruhi had agreed halfheartedly but followed him, for it was getting close to sunset. When they got back, Koizumi and Mikuru were already back, and Yuki had unpacked her things and made herself comfortable by sitting on the grass leaning against a tree.

"Anything?" Haruhi asked Mikuru as she walked up to the campsite. Mikuru shook her head quickly.

"N-N-No, nothing but birds." She stammered.

"Why are you so skittish?" Haruhi asked, cocking her head to one side.

"N-N-N-No reason." She replied with a smile.

"Go easy on her." Kyon advised. Haruhi shrugged and went over to where her things were and started up a conversation with Yuki. Koizumi turned to Kyon.

"Make sure she doesn't get bored." He instructed. He's making it sound like a cooking lesson. "Since Nagato, Asahina and I can't be her partners, you're the only one who can keep her satisfied."

"Yeah, yeah." Kyon dismissed the topic and led the way back to their clearing.

The sun had already vanished from the sky and was now hiding behind the far-off mountains.

The temperature had already dropped several degrees for the night and Kyon was alerted to the smell of smoke. He perked up and glanced around wildly, seeing the flames of a small fire lapping at the sky through the bushes. Then, he relaxed as he realized that it was just the girl's camp and that they had made it purposely.

"Why didn't we think of that?"

"We did."

Kyon turned around to see Koizumi kneeling down by a pile of sticks and dropping a burning match onto it. The fire was blazing in seconds and Kyon did not keep track of how long he sat there and stared at the yellow embers. He was snapped back into reality when he heard Haruhi's enthusiastic call from the other clearing.

"Let's tell ghost stories!" She shouted. After a frightened squeal from Mikuru, she called. "Come on! You guys join too!"

"I guess that means us." Koizumi stood up from where he sat across the fire from Kyon and stretched.

"What? You're seriously going to go over there and deal with that?" He indicated the shrieks of protest coming from Mikuru about telling scary stories and the annoyed comebacks that Haruhi barked at her.

"Yeah, because if I don't things might get ugly, and I can't ignore my Godly figure. And besides, you know that if you don't go she'll just come over here and drag you back." The esper warned.

"I'd like to see her try." Kyon mocked.

"Very well then, suite yourself. It's your funeral."

And with that, he walked off through the trees. Kyon waited a moment before he heard Itsuki explaining that he was not coming.

Then he heard an outraged roar from Haruhi, and Kyon instantly regretted not accepting the offer.

After he was dragged through the brush like a rag doll and seated by the fire in between Koizumi and Haruhi, the Chief of the SOS Brigade spoke up.

"All right then, now that we're all here, who would like to start us off?" Haruhi posed the thought.

When no one replied, she huffed out a breath. "Fine then, I guess I'll start. Let's see…"

She was silent for a moment as she thought through all of the best ghost stories she had been told and finally chose one.

"Okay here goes! It's called 'Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?'" She cleared her throat, and when she spoke again, she used a low, ominous tone.

"Once, there were two girls, roommates for collage. One of them was a bookworm, always studying, always doing her homework, never getting into trouble." She paused dramatically, looking around at each member of her club in turn.

"The other," She continued. "Was more like a rebel. She always went out late at night to go to parties and stuff like that. So one night when the rebel was out at a rave, the bookworm was in her room, alone. All of the lights were off in the room, and she picked up a book to read it without turning them on. Suddenly, she heard something behind her but when she looked up there was nothing there. After a few more moments she felt something tap her shoulder." She paused to pat the shaking Mikuru on her shoulder.

"Then she was about to turn on the light but never got the chance to. She screamed but it was cut short."

Here, Mikuru squealed and Kyon leaned in, actually interested.

"So on her way home, the rebel heard the scream and ran to her room. There, she found her roommate, in the dark room, dead. It looked like she had been reaching for the light switch. The rebel was about to turn on the light but stopped when she saw something on the wall. It was a message, written in blood. And she squinted and read it in the dark. It said 'Aren't you glad you didn't turn on the light?'"

Haruhi sat back, having successfully finished her tale. Mikuru had her ears covered; Koizumi had a disturbed look on his face, Yuki blinked, and Kyon looked freaked out.

"Wow. Did…did you just make that up on the spot?" Kyon asked, amazed.

"No, my cousin told it to me at a Halloween party once. Oh! I know this other one that isn't as scary…if you thought that was scary that is." She turned to Mikuru who was mumbling to herself.

"Its not real! Its not real!"

"Oh come on Mikuru-chan! That one wasn't even scary! I'll tell one even less scary than that this time, okay?"

"O-O-Okay." She stammered, blinking and sitting up straight again.

"Alright let's see. I don't think this one has a title but, have you guys ever heard the one about the doll at the garage sale?" When she got a unanimous head-shaking from left to right she smiled.

"Good! Okay, once there was this little girl, her mom brought her to a local neighbor's garage sale. The mother told her that she could get anything she wanted. So the little girl looked around but didn't see anything she liked until the last minute. It was a little doll. There was nothing that made it different from any other doll really. Except the fact that its arm was positioned and it held up 2 fingers.

The little girl thought that this made the doll unique so her mother bought it for her. The little girl played with the doll for the rest of the day, she loved it so much. Then, that night when she was going to bed, the little girl curled up in bed and held the doll close to her heart."

Haruhi paused dramatically and placed her hands over her heart. "So the next morning, her mother came in to wake the girl up, but she wasn't in her bed. When she pulled up the covers, all the mother found was blood. She called the police, the FBI, they had search parties and everything, but they didn't find anything. There was nothing left of the girl, but that little doll who sat on her bed holding up 3 fingers."

She crossed her arms over her chest in satisfaction as the others stared at her, dumbfounded.

Then, as everything clicked into place, everyone but Yuki let out a sigh that pretty much said 'Oh! I get it!'

Then, Haruhi burst out laughing. "You guys should have seen your faces!" She giggled. "Kyon! You looked like a puppy that was just promised a biscuit and was given cat food! Mikuru you looked like a rabbit cornered by ten foxes, and Koizumi, you looked like a parrot with no colors!"

"Okay can we stop with the similes please?" Kyon snapped. She can't possibly have one for Nagato because she just looked like herself.

"Mikuru you still look like a cornered rabbit." She wheezed when she had stopped laughing.

"Okay well if you're finished, I'll be going to bed now." Kyon announced, standing up.

"Same here." Koizumi agreed, following him.

"Aw come on! I'm the only one who told anything! You guys aren't scared are you?" She taunted.

"A-A-A-A-A-A-n-n-n-n-o-o-o-o, S-S-S-u-u-z-z-z-z-u-mi-y-y-a-a—S-S-S-a-a-n-n," Mikuru stuttered. "I-I-I-I-want t-t-to g-g-o t-to s-s-sleeeeep too." She squeaked.

"Aw come on! You guys are no fun!" Kyon could still hear her complaining from the other clearing. After another moment of arguing, Haruhi gave in and agreed to go to sleep.

"Hey, shouldn't we put that out?" Kyon asked, pointing to the fire.

"Oh no we're fine. I put a force-field sort of thing on both fires so we'll be okay. Unless you want to put it out."

"Just do whatever, it doesn't matter." Kyon mumbled, crawling into his sleeping bag.

Kyon heard Haruhi tease Mikuru to beware of foxes, and then it was silent except for the perpetual chirping of the crickets that had not hibernated yet.

They were all asleep within minutes.

The next morning they were all woken up early because of screaming.

Kyon recognized Mikuru's shriek and he and Koizumi jumped up and race to the other camp. The sun had just risen, so they could see fairly well.

Mikuru was still in her sleeping bag and she stared at something on the ground in front of her and did not move. Haruhi was walking over to her as if nothing was there. What the Hell? Kyon squinted his eyes but could not see what Mikuru was so scared about. Then, Haruhi knelt down in front of her and grabbed whatever it was that was on he ground.

"There! See? That wasn't hard at all!" She said, standing up and walking a little to the edge of the campsite.

"Haruhi, what is it?" Kyon called to her.

"Huh? Oh nothing, just a snake."

"A snake?" She says it as if it's a beetle. "Don't let it bite you!"

"Oh please, I know how to deal with this." She answered, stopping near a tree and kneeling down. "You just have to grab 'em behind the head. There you go little guy," she said more softly. "Just don't come back this way or you might get stepped on!" Once she had let the snake go, she stood up and clapped her hands together. "Well, since we're all up now, let's get going!"

As it sometimes does, the dawn betrayed the day.

The golden light that had flooded through the forest that morning was replaced by a dull, gray, sky during the day.

Once everyone had eaten, and gotten dressed, the two groups saw each other off.

"Okay since neither team found anything yesterday, we'll go East and you go West. See you, Yuki-chan! You know what to do!" Haruhi called over to Yuki, who sat against the tree reading.

As they set off in their designated directions, Haruhi was off to inspecting every little thing again. Eventually, she accepted the fact that doing that was not helping them in their search. For once she sighed and stood to walk beside Kyon.

It smells like its gonna rain." She stated, glancing at the dark sky. As if on cue, a drop of rain fell from the sky and splashed onto her face. And before they knew it, it was pouring.

"Nice."

"Oh shut up!" She pouted for a while; contemplating whether or not they should go back, but she decided against it. "Neh, Kyon? Are you even looking for this thing?" She asked as a blast of thunder drown her out.

"What's there to look for? It's probably just an oversized wolf with a limp." He shrugged. Just then, a bolt of lightning flashed through the sky, like a white crack on a black puzzle.

"A-Ano, Kyon, I think we should go back now." Haruhi suggested.

"I second that." He agreed. "Which direction did we come from?" He asked searching his pocket for his compass.

"Ano, I think it was that way." She pointed diagonally behind them.

"You think?" He repeated in dismay.

"Well excuse me for trying to find this weird thing that we came here to find!" She huffed, crossing her arms.

"Oh no don't tell me…" Kyon mumbled to himself.

"Don't tell you what?" Haruhi sounded both wary and worried.

"I lost my compass." He confessed guiltily. "You have yours right?"

"Yeah but I don't think it'll be of much help." She handed him her compass. There was a long crack snaking along through the center. "You don't think it'll work, do you?" She asked skeptically.

Kyon looked at it a moment longer and then held it flat in his palm. When the dial did not move he sighed and shook his head.

"Oh boy." Haruhi breathed.

Kyon looked up to the sky and saw that the rain was pouring harder and there was more lightning than he had ever seen in his life. The sound of thunder was practically making him deaf.

Now it did not seem like noon at all, it was as dark as any night and there was not the slightest bit of light except in spilt seconds where the sky was lit with lighting. Kyon grabbed Haruhi's hand and they twined their fingers together. Without a word, he led the way back through the trees, the way he thought they had come from.

He knew that they needed to find shelter, and that being under all of these trees during a lightning storm was practically suicide.

Every time the lightning flashed, Kyon looked around frantically for any sort of shelter. In the background of all the rain, he could hear trees snapping and falling every once in a while, and it was only a matter of time before it was one of the trees around them that ended up like that.

The inconvenience of the darkness and the fact that they were -unfortunately perhaps- only human was a great hassle to the two.

They tripped and stumbled constantly, and Kyon could eventually feel some liquid other than rainwater trickling from his ankles. Haruhi's ankles were bleeding as well and their hands and clothes were covered in mud. Damn it! I don't see anywhere that we could possibly stay. Geez, isn't there a cave somewhere in this forest?

He did not know how long they had been out there, but it must have been only hours away from what would have been sunset by now.

"I really hope the others are all okay." It seemed that it had been unusually uncomfortable for Kyon to have not heard Haruhi's voice so regularly. Hearing it only reassured him that she was still there, as her fingers had almost molded together with his own, and he felt slightly better.

"I'm sure they're fine." He told her truthfully. If Koizumi could put a force field on a fire, then he should have no problem of putting it on himself and two other people. Especially with his power…

Haruhi heard the encouragement in his voice and relaxed the slightest bit. She squinted up to the sky through the rain, but there was still no sign of the sun coming out at any time soon.

More and more lightning flashed and every time it did so, Haruhi shivered. It seemed that every time, the bolts were getting closer and closer to them. She was well aware that at least 15 trees had fallen since the storm began, and those were only the ones that she had heard. Who knows how many others have fallen? She thought with a shudder.

As they went on, Kyon stumbled and tripped for the umpteenth time, taking Haruhi down with him.

"Maybe we should just lay here until it's all over." She wheezed.

"I would agree with you if there weren't trees falling left and right."

"Good point." She exhaled sharply as she heard a cracking sound, but nothing happened. "Let's go." She said urgently. The two of the scrambled up, groping the trucks of nearby trees that were still standing.

Kyon tightened his grip on her fingers as he pulled her along behind him. Haruhi heard another crack shortly afterwards and stopped dead in her tracks. She heard the familiar snapping noise very faintly above the roaring of the rain, but she could not tell where it was coming from. She knew that standing still was dangerous, but moving could be also. Kyon felt her resistance and turned to her.

"What's wrong?" He asked. But she did not reply.

She then heard a crack that was louder, and much closer than any of the others.

Haruhi glanced up as lightning flashed, just in time to see an enormous tree swaying unsteadily. But before she could say anything, the entire thing was plummeting horizontally down to the world below, only feet in front of her.

Which was where Kyon stood.

"KYON!" She shouted at the top of her lungs.

Without having to think, Haruhi threw herself forward and tore her fingers from his. She pushed forward him with all of her might as the tree came down. Kyon was completely oblivious of everything up until Haruhi had shouted his name, because everything had happened so fast.

He heard thousands of snapping noises much louder than the rain as the tree came down behind him. Yet despite both his and Haruhi's efforts, he stumbled and fell.

The tree landed on top of his right foot, and he was aware only of a searing pain shooting through his body. He gritted his teeth as the weight of the tree drove his foot into the ground. It was all over so quickly.

He lay there in the heavy rain for about 5 minutes, numbness beginning to creep throughout his body. Then, he sat up and pushed at the tree's trunk with all of his might.

He finally managed to pull himself free and sat there, the blood starting to run back into his foot. He sighed with relief at the fact that it was not broken or sprained.

Then, he realized that his hand felt strangely empty.

"Haruhi!" He shouted into the darkness. He pushed himself up to his feet and steadied himself. "Haruhi!" He shouted again and again.

As the lightning continued to flash, he searched for her, but saw no sign of her. Then the thought occurred to him that she must be on the other side of the fallen tree. As he trekked through the mud, leaning against the wet bark for support, his eyes suddenly widened.

"Haruhi!" He ran to her side once he saw her and knelt down.

She was lying on her stomach, her face buried in the mud, with the full weight of the tree resting on top of her.

He swiped the mud from her face and shook her shoulders. "Haruhi, are you okay? Say something!" He pleaded. He was relieved when she lifted her head up as much as she could and coughed.

"K…Kyon…" She gasped out. "Does it…look like…I'm okay?" She asked sarcastically. He could not help but smile slightly.

"Don't worry, I'll get you out of there." He told her. I hope.

Kyon tried the method he used to free himself first, and pushed against the trunk with all of his strength. The tree did not budge and he realized that he must have been trapped under a lighter part of the tree, whereas, Haruhi was dead in the middle.

Then he suggested that when he tried to lift it, she pushed up and then tried to crawl out. Haruhi agreed eagerly and when he told her to, she pushed upwards, fighting to keep her arms straight.

"Okay go!" Kyon instructed her.

Slowly, she began to squeeze out from underneath, but she did not get more than an inch before the weight became too much for Kyon. Without warning, it slipped from his hands and the tree crushed Haruhi back into the ground. Her arms gave way under her and the trunk smashed onto her back, forcing the air out of her lungs.

"K…Ky…on…" She whispered painfully. "C…Can't…breathe…" She gasped desperately.

Kyon tried again in vain to lift the heavy bark from off of her. But his hands were bleeding before long and he slumped to the ground next to her.

"H-Haruhi…" He spoke her name, burying his face in his hands. "I can't…I'm so sorry…please hang on." He begged.

She said nothing. He just sat there listening to the short, quick panting. Then he felt her hand on his knee and he looked down at her.

"…Not…your…fault…" She gasped weakly.

Through the flashing lightning, he saw a small, painful smile on her face. He clutched her hand with his own, and watched her, lying there, her body rising and falling quickly as she tried to force air into her lungs, her eyes squeezed closed in agony.

Then, Kyon let go of her hand and stood up. He heard her gasp in protest as he moved over to the tree and lifted it up again.

He heard Haruhi inhale deeply and sharply, exhaling quickly afterwards and breathing in big gulps. The pain shot through him again but he ignored it.

"Haruhi…hurry…" He directed her.

This time, she managed to pull herself completely from under the tree, and once Kyon saw she was safe he dropped the trunk and collapsed beside her.

Haruhi lay on her stomach for several minutes, breathing deeply. Then, she turned onto her side to face Kyon.

"Kyon…" She wheezed, shaking him weakly. After a moment, he turned onto his side to face her. "Thank you…so…much…" She panted.

"No, thank you." He reflected.

She smiled at him, still gasping, and then she glanced up at the rain and shivered. Kyon moved closer to her and wrapped his arms around her. She shuddered in his embrace and sucked in a huge breath of air.

After a few moments, Kyon whispered into her ear, "I think we should keep going." He told her, loosening his grip and letting her get up.

They shakily stood up together and locked fingers again. Kyon had absolutely no idea where he was going, but he just kept going, hoping that they would stumble upon some form of shelter.

But he did not hope it so literally.

He was alerted by a gasp from Haruhi and then knew nothing more besides the fact that she had fallen.

And she had taken him with her.

The fall was only a few seconds long, but it was rough and steep enough to have them rolling for about a minute afterward.

When they finally lay still, it was even harder to see than it was outside. It was pitch black and the only thing Kyon could hear was Haruhi's heavy breathing in his ear.

"I guess that works." He stated, after a moment, sitting up.

"B-But Kyon!" She hissed, her voice echoing around them, even above the sound of the rain. "What if this cave is already…taken?" She whispered.

"Well there's nothing in here now."

"Now." She repeated. "But what about in five minutes? Or even two?"

"Then we'll leave."

"Easier said than done."

"Isn't everything?"

She sighed in defeat and pressed herself against the cold wall of the cave.

"I don't think I'll need to take a shower or go swimming for the rest of my life." She said truthfully. "I mean I like the water and all but-"

"Spoiled little kitties aren't supposed to like water." Kyon laughed.

"And we shouldn't be around big, dumb dogs either!" She scoffed.

Kyon just laughed again and she secretly smiled in the shadows.

Then Kyo stood up, and before Haruhi could ask what he was doing, he twisted the bottom of his wet shirt around in his hand and wrung it out on top of her head. The water poured from the material as if it were pouring from a glass. Haruhi remained motionless until the water stopped. Then she shot up and kicked his feet from under him.

"Why you—" Once she had him where she wanted him, she flipped her head and smacked him square in the face with her sopping wet hair.

"Hey!" He spat out a mouthful the brown, stringy stuff.

He caught her off guard when she was laughing her heart out. It was a sweet sound, but he could not let her go without payback.

So, -since he was the dog in this analogy- he shook himself like a large mutt.

Haruhi stopped laughing at once as the water splashed her in the eyes.

"Ow! You big jerk!" She growled.

Their squabbles continued until Haruhi felt herself wearing out, the fact that she had been crushed by a tree just starting to take effect. Her sore back, stomach, chest, shoulders, and neck began to ache and Kyon guessed that she was hurting because she kept breathing heavily through gritted teeth.

"How about we get some sleep?" He suggested. Haruhi opened her mouth and was about to answer, but then she changed her response.

"Alright." She sighed.

Since the steep, wet path into the cave sloped downward, the rainwater had easily found its way into the little cavern, but not much of the water reached the members of the SOS Brigade. They were huddled up in a corner together, their backs against the wall, curled up and shaking. So when Kyon inched closer to Haruhi, she was caught off guard and blushed in the darkness, but nonetheless nestled closer to him.

For a long while, there was nothing put the sound of the rain and shivering.

Eventually, Kyon's eyelids began to get heavy although Haruhi's had long since been closed.

Almost unconsciously, he draped his arm around her shoulders and pulled her to him.

Then, he let his head fall back and rest against the wall, and finally, he slept.

When the next morning favored them with a bright sun and a drenched forest, Kyon smiled.

He stretched and yawned, and only realized that Haruhi was not beside him because he would have been smacked for hitting her when he stretched.

But Kyon did not have to look far, for in her sleep, Haruhi must have moved around a lot, for she now lay on her side on the ground, facing him.

The grin on Kyon's face softened as he gently began to stroke her hair. When she did not wake up from his touch, he shook her shoulder.

"Come on, wake up Sleeping Beauty." She blinked in confusion and squinted in the light that fell through the cave's mouth.

"Huh? Did I fall asleep?" She mumbled, more to herself.

"Well yeah, we had a loooong day yesterday." He dragged out the word. "And you kinda got crushed by a tree. I'm not surprised you fell asleep." At this point she was now leaning against the wall beside him.

"What? Oh I get it. You didn't know did you?"

"What?"

"I got up before sunrise this morning and went outside. I took a walk and just looked at the damage the storm had done. Then when I came back here I guess I fell asleep again." She explained.

Kyon was about to protest her irrationality, but knew that since the deed was done there was nothing he could do about it now.

As they stood up and trekked through the mud up through the mouth of the cave, Haruhi took in a big breath.

"Ah, fresh air! And it always smells just a bit fresher after a downpour. So much better than that stuffy, suffocating cave!"

As they walked through the dripping, yellow forest, Kyon almost forgot the fact that they had to find the others. He was only half looking for anything familiar, his eyes were too focused on all of the broken trees, and wrecked bushes.

"Well," Haruhi sighed. "I guess we'll never be able to find out if its some weird creature that cause all this debris, or just the storm." The boy blinked. Oh yeah! I completely forgot the main reason that we came here. He remembered.

Haruhi was a step ahead of him, and although she was sore, she was as hyper as ever.

"Well at least now that its light we'll be able to see better." She pointed out. Didn't a tree crush her last night? Kyon asked himself, perplexed by her stamina and disability to give up.

They walked until the sun was about half way into the sky. Damn! It's that late already? If we don't get back to the others soon, we'll have to spend another night in that cave...Wait, which way was that again? He glanced around, but saw no signs of the cave now either. Great.

They walked in silence for a while, but at one point, Haruhi stopped him.

"What?"

"Shh!" She hissed under her breath. "Did you hear that?" She whispered after a moment.

Kyon strained his ears. There were no birds chirping. But that's probably because a freaking hurricane came and swept everything away. Nothing more seemed out of the ordinary to him. A sudden cold breeze blasted through the air, shaking the still-standing trees and rattling their leaves, then everything was quiet again.

Almost everything.

In the distance, he could hear noises like squishing feet on the ground, although they sounded much to big too be human. The sounds of the pattern were off a bit, and unsteady.

Then, Kyon's memory screamed one thing at him in particular from the past three days.

"…it walks like it only has three legs…" Haruhi's words echoed through his mind and bounced around like a swarm of bees.

Now, Kyon tried to focus on where it was coming from. And suddenly, they heard the odd noise that the creature was associated with. It was a low, rumbling sound, but it sounded as though it were being pushed up the throat and out the mouth while fighting a stream of water. It was gurgling and rippling and getting louder.

Kyon tried to pull Haruhi away from the direction the sound was coming from but she shook him off.

"This is the reason I came here! I'm going to go see that thing, stay if you want." As the snarls grew closer, Kyon saw a flash of something that looked like sudden understanding cross her face. "Oh is that all it is?" She smiled knowingly.

"What do you mean?" Kyon asked.

"I can't believe none of those other idiots could figure out what it was!" She laughed. "I can tell what it is just by listening!"

"Well, tell me!" Kyon demanded as the snarling gurgled nearby.

"Let's just say I think you'll get along well with this guy." She hinted.

Kyon gave her a blank stare as if she had just recited every word in the dictionary in alphabetical order along with its exact definition. What?! Before he could question her ludicrous explanation, she had already taken off through the trees.

"Hey wait!" Kyon called, following her.

She led him forward until the sounds of growling were so loud his ears rang; yet she seemed to be unphased.

Then his jaw dropped.

Before them, stood the biggest creature Kyon had ever seen in real life. It had huge, paws probably almost a foot across. Its tail was long and ruffled, and its long, razor-sharp fangs hung out from its jaw, glistening. Its eyes were half the size of a human fist, colored pitch black, the fur was a deep gray with mottled flecks. The head was massive, and altogether it stood probably a half a foot higher than Kyon's head. Its left ear was ragged and strew to ribbons, and it leaned most of its weight on its left front leg, while the right one dangled just above the ground.

It was a giant wolf.

Kyon's feet were rooted to the spot with terror, but he marveled at the creature with amazement.

But the black eyes were not on him; instead they were focused on the brunette beside him.

The wolf stepped closer to her, hobbling on it's left leg as it supported the weight of it's right. Haruhi did not move, but despite the fact that there was a gargantuan wolf that was only feet away from her and was staring at her, she was smiling.

Kyon was about to take a step towards her but was shocked when she shot him a warning glance, telling him to stay put.

He gave her an incredulous look and his jaw dropped slightly.

The wolf lowered its head so that its face was now only about three inches from hers.

They seemed to be having a staring contest or something of the sort. Are they speaking telepathically?

After a long, dragged out, frighteningly still moment, the wolf pulled back slightly and bore its teeth, curling its lips back over its gums. Haruhi's smile faded a bit and confusion lit her eyes as she tilted her head to the side. As if in response, the cousin of the dog parted its jaws and let a massive red tongue loll out. Then, understanding some hidden signal, Haruhi reached forward and gently patted the wolf's nose.

And as she stroked the rough skin, a second later it was all gone.

Kyon blinked several times and looked around wildly, but the wolf was completely out of sight.

Then he turned the Haruhi, her arm still extended and her fingers reached out from petting it. Then she sighed, dropped her arm and turned to him with a huge grin. She stared at Kyon with a victorious, topaz stare for about a minute. Then, he closed his hanging jaw and decided to speak. "What the Hell was that?" He asked each word in turn. She then put her hands on her hips.

"Oh come on Kyon! I knew you were stupid but I didn't think you were that stupid! It was a wolf, dummy!" Oh, no more 'baka'?

"I know that! I mean, what was it that you just did?"

"Oh that." She pondered for a minute. "You know Kyon I have no idea." He twitched his eyebrow.

"I mean, when I looked into his eyes I wasn't scared. I read him like a book. His eyes told me the whole story. He was rejected by all people and animals because of his odd appearance, even though he wasn't mean or violent. And then, I guess he read my eyes, because he stepped back and smiled in that weird way. Then, he gave me permission for some reason, I pet him, and he was gone." She finished.

It took a moment for Kyon to snap everything into place.

He's just like her. They were both outcasts for various reasons, and they could relate. Then Haruhi went on unrepentantly.

"I think…I think he let me touch him…because…he wanted to be like me." Kyon was not following.

"I…" She continued, but she was hesitant, embarrassed. "I…made friends…and I think that…since we were the same…he wanted to be like me…he wanted to make friends too…so I guess I sort of gave him my power by touching him."

Everything slowly flowed into place. Each piece of information was like a separate stream, until finally, they all connected and made one big river. Then, without a word or a clear reason, Kyon stepped forward and hugged Haruhi. She froze at first, but then relaxed and giggled.

"What's so funny?" Kyon asked.

"Its just that…are you a bully or something?" She giggled.

"I'm afraid I'm not following."

"The way he looked at you. It was like…he regarded you as someone who stole his lunch money and was ignoring you." She laughed. "I mean I thought that you two dogs would get along."

Kyon chuckled.

"I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about." Nonetheless, he laughed with her. Then, he remembered something else she had said. "Hey, I thought you said that it would run away if people got to close."

"No. If you thought correctly you would remember that I said he would normally run away if people got to close." He gave her a blank stare.

"You still haven't figured it out? Switch the words around genius." She told him with a smirk.

He flipped her sentence around in his head until it was a different sentence, but still made sense. He would run away if normal people got to close. The light bulb flicked on.

"Oh." Was all that he said.

"Geez. Dogs really are stupid." She taunted.

He was about to retort when he heard another pattern of footsteps. The two of them looked up unanimously to see Koizumi standing there beside them.

"Thank goodness." He sighed happily. "Where were you two? No never mind that are you all right?" He asked, looking at each one in turn. They quickly recovered from the shock of seeing him and relief suddenly filled the air around them

"More or less." Haruhi answered, with a wince as she placed a hand on her aching stomach. Koizumi gave her a concerned look, but the turned around.

"Come on you two, let's get back to camp." He instructed, leading the way.

"You mean it didn't get destroyed?" Haruhi asked disbelievingly.

"Yes. Somehow we managed to make it through with no damage at all." He winked at Kyon, who rolled his eyes. Why couldn't you give us force fields?

"Whatever." Haruhi sighed. "Let's just get back to camp so we can pack up and go home."

"As you wish." Koizumi replied.

As they walked, Kyon fell into step with Haruhi and leaned closer to her, ruffling her hair with his hand.

"Spoiled cat." He murmured, only loud enough for her to hear,

"Dumb dog." She mumbled back.

Then they shared a smile, and Kyon realized that he was actually happy that he had come along hiking with her.

A/N: Well there you have it! I hope you all enjoyed it! My computer crashed on me when I was halfway through editing this so I apoligize for any spelling or grammar mistakes.

Oh and FYI there will be a Part 3! A sequel to the sequel to make a mini trilogy! Ever wonder why it is called The Cat And The Dog Analogy? Sure Kyon and Haruhi call each other a cat and a dog, but why? What exactly does this analogy mean? Find out in Part 3!

And by the way, the ghost stories, I got one from my older sister's friend but deathBERRRY told me the one about the doll and the whole 2/3 fingers thing at my house in the dark...It was creepy at the time! LOL so thanks for the story deathBERRRY! Credit for that little tale goes to her!

Please review!!