(8/2/11 EDIT: Hey, co-author Solar here...let me say this was rp'd back in 2008 and I've no love in my heart for this fic by this point. :( I'm very, very surprised it's gotten the positive feedback that it has. So for the ones who say a lot of Saw elements were shamelessly ripped off...that's because they pretty much were and I won't ever, ever disagree with you on that. The RP was more or less just a chance to write some gratuitous character torture. But for the ones who DO like it, well, thanks for the support for Yuko in any case :D At best I guess it could be a guilty pleasure...but if you get the chance, read her better stuff at some point, yeah? Cheers.)

Scooter: Well, yet another story. Yea, it's not an update, sue me. ((chuckles)) Anyway, a friend of mine known as Solared26 (on DeviantArt) and Solar (by me) got me into a brilliant anime called The Melancholy of Haruhi Suzumiya. She told me to be on the lookout for Itsuki Koizumi. So I did. And I fell in love with him. ((laughs)) I also happened to fall in love with the common pairing of Itsuki/Kyon. ((sweatdrops)) Anyway, Solar told me one day that she had a dream of a plot that we could do, and I agreed with it almost instantly.

So we RPed it, and finished it rather quickly. Now, the main point for the RP was to cause Kyon and Itsuki major, major pain. So be prepared for that. Also, light shounen-ai. Sue me, people! Now, there are some things that will seem impossible. I'll get to that later, when it actually happens, however. Anyway, I really hope you enjoy this! ENJOY!

You Promised

Setting?

A dimly lit basement.

Time?

No idea.

Alive?

Not sure...

The 16 year old high schooler/ESPer/Captive of some crazy that's eluded police capture, Itsuki Koizumi, tried to stay awake, laying on his side on the dirty wooden floor of a, as he thought, dimly lit basement with various messages scrawled across the walls that he couldn't make out in his current state.

His head hurt. The side of his scalp felt numbly sticky, seeping down to the side of his face and to his mouth, tasting a distinctive sort of coppery salty taste on the tip of his tongue.

He didn't feel like getting up to make sure he was really alive, or whether this body he felt was actually his. It certainly didn't feel like his, dirty, tarnished, sticky, like some child's abandoned rag-doll.

The room around them, as the boy couldn't have known as he faded out of a slippery grip on consciousness, was no larger than an ordinary living room, and only half as well lit, and not even a thousandth as inviting.

A few black cockroaches were crawling around on the dusty floors in the musty room, probably thriving since it was so dim. Various objects were at the sides, covered in a beige tarp, a swinging light on the ceiling, and a bathtub Itsuki was laying next to up to it's edge in some foul sludge that wasn't worth looking into.

Kyon didn't know if he was alive or not. But if he were dead...wouldn't that mean that he wouldn't be in pain? He didn't know, and for the moment, he didn't care. The only thoughts going through the teenager's mind were:

Pain meds! Over and over again. But as he opened his eyes slowly, he gasped slightly which led him into a violent coughing fit. He recovered after about seven seconds and blinked hard. That couldn't be Itsuki... could it? He sure as hell hoped not. He tried to move his right arm, but he found that when he did it caused a severe pain to run up his arm and he let out a small squeak of pain.

But he clenched his teeth, looking around. He didn't knwo where he was, and it scared the hell out of him. He didn't like being in places unknown. Kyon opened his mouth to try and speak, but it came out as a painful rasp.

He coughed again before managing to speak slightly, though it was raspy. "I-Itsuki...C-Can you hear me?" he rasped as loud as he could without coughing again. He tried to move once more, his eyes looking around.

As slowly as they had drifted shut, Koizumi's eyelids slid open again, hearing a discernible voice amongst the pain and darkness. Though blurry, his eyes focused on a form across from him in the shadows against a wall.

"Who..." Itsuki muttered weakly, not even attempting to lift his head up, his body already feeling one with the floor beneath it.

"I-Itsuki... It's...K-Kyon..." He coughed again and managed to inch forward a small amount before he let out a small whimper and clenched his teeth together, biting his tears back. It would do them no good if he started crying now.

But he was determined to make it over to Itsuki if it killed him. He didn't know how they had gotten here, but Kyon sure as hell didn't want to be alone. He at least wanted a familiar face. He tried to scoot over closer to Koizumi, and was about only six inches away when he collapsed to his side his eyes barely open, his breathing raspy.

"Wh-Where...?"

"Kyon...?" Itsuki's eyes flew open as he recognized his voice, sitting up at once despite the shooting pain in his head as he did so.

"Ssss..." He hissed, grabbing the side of his head where it hurt.

Kyon coughed again, his body seizing and he lay back, panting. He sat up, propping himself up on his left arm, since it didn't' throb in massive amounts of agony if he tried to move it. He felt something scuttle on the arm that was holding him up and he looked down, spotting a cockroach. He yelped and thrashed briefly, throwing the insect off. That movement caused him to grimace and let out a small groan of pain.

He turned to Itsuki and reached out, seeking any amount of comfort. He managed to crawl next to the ESPer and put his uninjured arm around him. "Dont' move," he said in a soft voice that was all he could muster. He struggled to stay awake. "Where are we?" he asked his voice shaking.

"Dunno...I really don't..." Itsuki muttered, pulling his legs close in front of him.

There was no way it was some practical joke Haruhi Suzumiya was playing on them. She wouldn't go so far as to inflict severe bodily harm.

He pulled his seemingly broken arm to his chest and hissed, clenching his eyes shut. "I'm scared, Itsuki," he said, pulling the other closer. "This isn't from Haruhi is it? She wouldn't do this?"

What if there's something in the house? What if it'll try and hurt us again? Kyon shook and coughed again, bowing his head.

Itsuki was silent for a moment, accessing the situation and the room around them.

"...There's a door up those stairs..." He muttered, eyes focused in it's direction.

"Can you stand?" Kyon asked, looking at Itsuki with worry. The other had a head injury, and it was worse than his own injury. They had to get out of here.

"As soon as we're out of here...I'm taking you to the hospital, Itsuki," he said quietly, coughing again.

"Yes...thank you." Koizumi nodded, rising to his feet slowly, Kyon's damaged arm still around his shoulders.

Kyon hissed and clenched his eyes shut as he rose slowly with Itsuki. "Anytime," he said in a quiet, airy voice. Gods he just wanted to sleep. "I hope this is a nightmare..."

Slowly, Itsuki inched towards the stairs with Kyon at his side.

When they reached the bottom, the ESPer pulled away from Kyon and went up himself.

"Ssh...I'll make sure it's safe..." He whispered, tip toeing up the steps to the door, grasping the knob carefully.

Slowly, slowly, and carefully, Itsuki glided to the side and opened the door, nearly being shocked strength less as a body with a noose around it's neck swept in, hanging from the ceiling on the other side of the door.

Kyon looked up at Itsuki and a moment later, a small scream was wrenched from his throat as if it was ripped. He coughed and doubled over before using the adrenaline in his body and darting up to Itsuki, pulling the ESPer against him with his good arm, his bad one hanging limply at his side.

Kyon's breathing was ragged and he stared at the body in shock, his heart hammering in his chest. "W...w..." he tried to speak.

Itsuki's head was leaned back, staring silently at the corpse dangling in the doorway that nearly pushed him off the stairs.

"Looks real...smells real..." He commented, the body clothed but thoroughly decomposed.

"I think I'm going to vomit," Kyon said, clenching his eyes shut and leaning his head back, clenching his teeth together. "I want to wake up if this is a dream." He said in a low voice not looking at the body.

Itsuki was silent for a few moments, gritting his teeth and trying not to be sick himself. Needless to say, EVERYTHING about the place they were in was liable to make him sick.

"No use in staying in the basement...come on." Itsuki said, grabbing Kyon's hand and leading him out of the basement, carefully past the corpse in the doorway.

Kyon grit his teeth as his injured arm grazed over the corpses body. He shuddered violently before looking to Itsuki. He caught up to walk next to the ESPer and tightened his grip. "I don't want you to go first all the time. You'll get hurt probably. No knowing what's here."

He thought he heard something coming from above, but he didn't pay it any mind, saving it for later.

"It's alright. I'm tougher than I look." Itsuki replied, giving Kyon a smile to keep the hope alive in the atmosphere, if for no other reason than to preserve his sanity.

They headed down a short hallway together, reaching another door.

He heard something above him and he stopped. "I-Itsuki...did you hear anything?" he asked, swallowing. He coughed again and forced his eyes open. "I believe you. And I'll stay stronger too." He cradled his arm to his stomach.

Itsuki slowly shook his head, slowly putting a hand on the door knob.

Turning it, he tried to pull it open slowly, but it only opened an inch or two before stopping.

Kyon's breathing was coming in rasps as he tried to stay conscious from the pain. He coughed again and clenched his eyes shut. He peered through the door and saw nothing for the time being. Until he looked in a far corner of the room to see another corpse.

This one was also decomposed, but had a knife embedded in the chest and the area around it a dark red. Rats scuttled around the body and a foul stench floated through the air.

Unable to take anymore, Kyon slipped from Itsuki's arm and dropped to his knees, and even though it caused him great pain, he fell to his hands and knees, emptying his stomach.

tsuki gasped momentarily, not only at Kyon being sick all over the floor but at the door refusing to budge open any further than a mere two inches.

"Kyon?" He cried, abandoning his efforts to open the door for the time being and falling to his knees, wrapping an arm around the slightly smaller male's shoulders.

Kyon continued retching for a good fifteen seconds and was into the dry heaves before he managed to stop and almost fall sideways into Itsuki. He coughed again and swallowed a few times, grimacing.

"M'sorry..." he mumbled, wiping the tears from his eyes. The pain from his arm hit him and he whimpered softly, bringing the injured limb to his chest and cradling it. He hissed and closed his eyes tightly, chest heaving. "I-I'm OK..." he rasped, trying to give the other an encouraging smile.

Itsuki was staring at him silently with immense worry in his eyes.

"Here..." He spoke up, getting out a handkerchief from his pocket and dabbing all around Kyon's mouth.

Kyon looked at Itsuki with gratitude in his brown eyes. "Th-Thank you, Koizumi..." he said quietly, forcing his eyes open again. "Don't look in that room." he said in a raspy voice, meaning what he had seen.

He leaned into Itsuki's grasp, actually feeling a small amount of peace. "But we have to get out of here..." he sad in a small voice, looking up at the ESPer, his eyes pain filled, but a small amount of determination in his eyes.

"We have to get out...and there seems to be no other way than through that door. We have to go forward..." Itsuki tried to say resolutely, but concern for the situation, himself, and most of all, Kyon, was cracking his voice up.

"I'll try to open it again."

"D-Don't examine the room too closely," Kyon said softly, struggling up and avoiding the vomit, leaning against the door, trying to block out the stench that came from the other room through the small crack in the door.

"We need to find something to defend ourselves with. There was a weapon in there, but we shouldn't touch it..." he trailed off and moved to try and help the ESPer best he could.

Itsuki went silent once more, and finally, with Kyon's help, pulled the door wide open.

At once, a pin like one on a grenade fell to the floor, but no explosion. In the next instant, a small TV turned on, glowing in the darkness of a dimly lit dilapidated living room, showing nothing but static.

Kyon blinked and gasped, his eyes being drawn to the TV. He took a step towards it as if drawn. His eyes were unfocused and he looked at the screen. He shook his head as if to clear it and closed one eye, his gaze never leaving the television.

"I feel weird.." he said quietly, his eyes unfocusing again.

Scooter: Well, there's the first chapter. I'll see if I can add some more chapters maybe tomorrow. ((smiles)) But first maybe a review or two? ((hinthint; winkwink; nudgenudge)) So...seeya next time!

-Scooter-