They had both been trudging through a winter wonderland for what felt like an age. Kyon's very fingers felt like they had been affected by frostbite, while Haruhi seemed to be entirely indifferent to the weather conditions surrounding her. It was almost as if her skin were made to withstand such extreme chill. The blue jacket which covered her torso seemed far too thin to protect from the cold, and yet, she continued marching onwards with a childlike grin on her face. Kyon began wishing that he had tripped into some sort of a nightmare, and at any moment he would be awakened from the misery. No such escape ever came, just a continuous onslaught of misery and torment.

'Does she really walk this far just to look at magazines?'

A sudden gust of wind whooshed by them with such a ferocity that Kyon couldn't help but groan in detest. She only chuckled; tugging at his arm like a slave driver would crack his whip.

"It's getting a bit nippy," she laughed. "It won't be too much longer now. We're getting reeaaally close."

'You said that ten minutes ago.'

Kyon had learned that, much like in the past, it was best to take anything Haruhi said with a grain of salt. She was not the type to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. She was more the type who would bribe and blackmail the jury. That mad smile she always sported could only mean that someone else was going through some sort of trauma on her behalf. A pure uncensored representation of the passion that goes forth in making other people's lives a living hell.

Though, truth be told, at this very moment Haruhi had become so ecstatic that she barely even noticed the cold. If her luck were a slot machine, her trip to Sola was hitting the jackpot. A childhood friend would be far easier to befriend than your average stranger, or at least, that's what she kept telling herself. It would take very little effort to befriend Kyon. From there on out, life would be different. Finally, there would be someone to call on the weekends when she had nothing to do. Finally, there would be someone there to comfort her. Finally, she wouldn't have to live vicariously through her fictional creations anymore. The world was about to change for the better, and now was her time to shine.

As they passed by numerous retailers and specialty shops, people stopped to stare at the wondrous sight that stood before them. A young girl, couldn't be a day older than twenty, was literally pulling an older man down the street. The girl looked like she could break out into a musical number at any given moment, while the man looked like he was ready to swallow a bullet. Exhaustion was riddled on his face, and many a passerby couldn't help but take pity for the poor soul. His anguish was visible for all to see.

Finally, her footsteps had stopped their methodical pace. Haruhi swirled around with a twinkle of pride glittering in her beautiful brown eyes, causing a momentary sensation of pain to run down Kyon's neck. Facing in the complete opposite direction as his captor, he sighed at his decision to face the hell that would be bestowed upon him for the next few hours. Turning slowly on his heels, there stood before him a sight too ghastly to imagine.

A rundown apartment complex.

Surely, a successful writer would be able to afford more luxurious living quarters than these? There, in all of its glory, stood the polar opposite of his beautiful Western styled home. The thought that people could live in a place like this every day was, in his mind, a ghastly suggestion. The good fortune he had stumbled upon, the riches and the green, had almost completely shielded him from the lower middle-class. Up until this very moment, where he was forced to stand next to it.

"Well," Haruhi sighed happily. "We're here. Home sweet home!"

Kyon choose to remain silent, afraid any word that might flee from his throat would be those of great distain for her lifestyle. Never wishing to leave a bad impression on a gorgeous young lady, he chooses the less violent alternative. This strategy involved keeping quiet until she made it abundantly obvious that it was your turn to speak.

'Just keep your mouth shut, and she won't assault you.'

"You've gotta be freezing out here," Haruhi rambled on. "Come on. I've got a whole case of American beer inside. Nothing quite like a good brewskey to help get you through the night, eh?"

He nodded in agreement, his attention now returning to his chilled motionless fingers. It was, perhaps, a good idea to head indoors.

Well before his thoughts were even able to process, he was once again being vigorously pulled along by the fiery passion of his host. The place smelt as if it hadn't been cleaned for months and, unless his eyes betrayed him, looked it too. Cobwebs could be found in every corner, and every surface was completely devoid of life. Not a single soul seemed to call this place home, or if they had, they certainly didn't wish to make anyone else feel welcome. Dead silence lingered within the air, as if to scare unwanted trespassers.

'It's like a graveyard.'

Each step that landed upon the pavement seemed to echo and rebound off the building with a haunting tone. No man of his caliber could ever call this place home. How could anyone call a place like this home? It was a rotting festering hell-hole from every direction. Yet, here was Ms. Suzumiya, scampering up the steps as if it were her own private castle. Neither the bland grey walls nor the most monstrous stench seemed to deter her enthusiasm in the least. She was simply delighted to showcase her cage to the newly caught prey.

The stairs, for some odd reason, seemed to feel distinctly flimsy underneath Kyon's feet.

'I'm shocked no one has fallen through the floor.'

Her hand finally let loose of his arm as she introduced him to her door. Large chips of paint were missing, as if it had been battered mercilessly. He smirked as an image of Haruhi rapidly kicking the innocent piece of wood swelled in his mind. There was little doubt in his mind that she had beaten up on the door at least once or twice while living here. If not once or twice a week.

"Oh," she exclaimed. "I've gotta warn you before we go in. I've got a pretty big bug problem."

'Oh joy.'

"Bug problem?"

Haruhi began fumbling around in her pockets, not quite remembering where she had put her keys. "Yeah. There's roaches crawling all over. You get used to it after a while, but I just wish the little things would find someone else's hair to sleep in."

'Jesus, I know I never believed in you before and... well... I still don't. But if you help me through this, I swear I'll start broadcasting some religious programming for you.'

He gulped, trying not to imagine the terrors that lay within her home. After a few moments of struggle, she finally pulled out a shiny pair of keys with a Mii-chan chain hanging from the ring.

"Don't worry," she reassured him. "It isn't 'that' bad! There's just a few of them here and there. You know, sort of crawling around in the bathtub, sleeping in the beer cans, and..." She jammed the key into the lock, twisting it from side to side violently. "Damn it! This door never wants to open for me!"

Taking a few steps back, she came leaping towards the door. Right leg extended outwards as if to take down a mortal enemy, the door came slamming open. Haruhi, on the other hand, came crashing on to her carpet like a jet airplane.

"Welcome to my humble home," she grumbled.

Kyon took a step within the belly of the beast, terrified to see what squirmed within the darkness. Perhaps they could spend the whole night like this. There's nothing particularly wrong with keeping the lights out. Maybe the bugs wouldn't scurry about if they figured there was no one around.

But alas, no escape was in sight. The lights came clicking on by Haruhi, who must have gotten herself to the light switch in record time, brought a dim yellow glow to the place. He caught, in the corner of his eye, several roaches scurrying away to safety. Haruhi's pounding feet must have seemed like monstrous vessels from their perspectives and Kyon paid a brief mental tribute to the many roach children of the roach families who had become lost in the Suzumiya stampedes. It was never easy being a creature that everyone disgusted.

In a way, he was a roach. Most of the people he worked for couldn't even stand the sight of him. He had flown in and taken a position of great authority without any prior experience. Even more bewildering was that he 'seemed' to perform flawlessly. It was never brought up to him, but he could feel it. He could feel how much they all hated him. They despised him like a bug.

"Take a seat anywhere," Haruhi said while making her way to a brown mini-fridge lodged in the upper-right corner of her living quarters. "I sure hope you don't mind Budweiser. Ever since they started selling American beer at Sola, I couldn't help but give it a try. These are some real class-A imports we're talkin about here." Thrusting the fridge open, she quickly whipped her hand inside, retrieving a six-pack with far more gusto than was necessary.

'Is she constantly racing against the clock or something?'

"You're free to help yourself to whatever is in the fridge," she stated while bouncing the six-pack with a face of pure contentment.

"I'm fine for now," he blurted out. "And thank you."

As her slender legs began striding towards his person, Kyon quickly glanced about the room. Without a doubt, Haruhi was a slob. Leftover potato chip bags were found all over the floor, giving him very little room to sit without hearing the crunching sound of 'Doritos' beneath his buttocks. One sleeping bag lay in the middle of it all, like a safe haven for those stranded within this woman's grand disaster.

Haruhi plopped herself down onto the floor, landing on a bag of Lays in the process. Kyon, now realizing that it was okay to ruin Haruhi's horrible carpeting with smashed chips, did the same. With a flick of the wrist and a toss, a Budweiser was brought from Haruhi to Kyon. Before his very eyes, a glorious wonder of nature unfolded; a woman who could easily drink him under the table. Never before had he seen something quite as amazing as what drank before him. Haruhi had not only begun drinking, but she had already finished her first can.

"You seriously don't know how cool it is to have you over like this," she said without croaking from the sudden mass of alcohol that was now rushing through her body. "You wouldn't believe how long it has been since I've had any company. Most guys usually ditch out on me before we even get this far!"

'They have common sense. What do you expect?'

"Why'd we drift apart like that anyways," she asked while opening her second can. "I tried contacting Kozumi, Yuki, and Mikuru... but there was never an answer."

A surge of frustration came boiling through Kyon's veins, as if he had just been hit in the foot with a large hammer. Memories of his late teenage years resurfaced, and most particularly, all of the times he tried to communicate with his fellow Brigade members. He even went through the trouble of teaching Yuki how to send email, just so he could stay connected with her at all times. Of all the people he had expected to reply back, he had always secretly hoped that he and Haruhi would keep in touch after their high school days.

"I had sent you dozens of emails," he tried to say nonchalantly. "And you never responded to any of them."

"I never got any emails... from anyone."

Her face fell slightly, as she briefly reflected upon the pain of rejection. They all hated her, and she always knew it. All of her life, she pretended not to care. However, at that very moment in her youth, the flames of their hatred had finally scorched her. Seeing her email clogged with nothing but spam was heartbreaking. No one cared for her. For the few years that the Brigade stayed alive, she felt as if she had finally created a place where she belonged. She was with friends. They had accepted her for who she was, even if they had to tolerate her ups and downs. Now, after all that time, the boy she cared for the most was telling her otherwise. That he had tried to contact her. That he cared for her in return back in those days.

"You didn't receive any of them," he asked softly.

"None of them," she shook her head. "Did you get any of mine?"

"Not a single word."

The beer she had been holding was now forced down the path of his long lost brother, as his liquid began spilling down her throat.

"I figured you had run off with some exotic American beauty and never wanted to speak to me again," she smirked. "Glad to know I was wrong about that."

"I guessed you were just bored with me."

One of Kyon's greatest fears was Haruhi's indifference to ordinary life. Even if he were to have pursued a relationship with her back then, it would have never worked out. She wasn't interested in ordinary men. She would want someone unique. Someone different. He had always been ordinary.

"Ha! Just because I was bored with you didn't mean I was going to stop bossing you around." She began laughing hysterically, washing it down with another chug of beer. "I was a cruel mistress then, and I'm a cruel mistress now. You never want to give up on a potential resource, Kyon."

Suddenly grinning from ear to ear, Haruhi was amazed at how quickly the thought of abusing Kyon cheered her up. Kyon just sat in silence for a moment, realizing that he was being referred to as nothing more than a 'resource'.

"So you haven't been able to contact the other members either," Kyon asked.

"It's like they had fallen off the face of the Earth or something."

Her grin stared firmly in place, even as the tone of her voice was obviously giving into her memories of disappointment.

"I can't say I really blame them though," she continued. "If I were them, I would have stayed as far away from me as humanly possible."

Kyon stayed motionless as Haruhi once again attempted to drown out her sorrows with alcohol.

"You know," she sighed. "There are a lot of things I wish I could go back and change. It isn't like I'm happy with everything I did back in high school. Sure, it was a blast when I did it, but..." Another sigh. "... Now I've sort of realized that the only time I had ever truly enjoyed myself was at the expense of everyone else around me. It's kind of sad really."

Her eyes spoke volumes as they lowered shamefully towards the floor. She had never shown this side of herself before. She was opening up to a man that, after all the years of separation, had become a complete stranger. Yet there she was, about ready to break out into tears over actions that had happened over a decade ago.

Kyon laughed quietly to himself.

"I never thought I'd see the day. Suzumiya Haruhi feeling regret." He chuckled again, loud enough that she could hear. "Never thought it would happen in my lifetime."

"Well, I have changed since then. Maybe not by much, but still enough to open my eyes to certain things." Another mouthful of liquid courage slipped down her throat. "Do you remember Mikuru?"

'Larger than life.'

"Of course."

She rubbed her eyes with a quick jerking motion, almost as if she were keeping herself awake; though it was nothing more than a nervous twitch.

"That's something that I would actually go back and fix," she admitted solemnly. "She was such a cutie. So really didn't deserve all that torment I layered on her."

"Oh. You mean the groping?"

Her expression lit up like a batch of fireworks.

"And the bunny suit! Do you remember the bunny suits?"

'Make up your mind! Did you enjoy it, or didn't you?'

"Ooooh, trust me, I have vivid memories of the bunny suits."

"That was fun..." she chuckled giddily. "Do you remember when we were passing flyers around at school?"

Kyon remembered opening the door to their club room and finding two gorgeous women in get-ups that would have made Hefner proud. It was Haruhi's intention to spread flyers around campus advertising 'The SOS Brigade' while wearing extremely revealing bunny girl cosplays. Needless to say, the adventure didn't sit well with school officials.

"How could I ever forget," Kyon shook his head. "It was kind of like being in hell, but instead of demons and pitchforks there were bunny girls and undergarments."

'This is heaven you speak of, foolish man.'

"Nearly traumatized poor little Mikuru to death!" Loud boisterous laughter came erupting from her mouth, but as her thoughts came back to her, she slowly gained composure over herself. "That poor girl."

"I'm sure she's doing just fine."

"Yeah..."

There was a long period of time where neither of them uttered a single syllable. Kyon was still in shock from the revelation that Haruhi had feelings of compassion for other human beings, while Haruhi was so trapped within a nightmarish walk down memory lane that she forgot she was even in a conversation. After a particularly depressing memory of blackmailing the computer society with 'sexual harassment' threats, she snapped back into reality. Kyon was gaping at her awkwardly, obviously swimming in his thoughts as well.

She smirked, basking in the attention. "I think I know who your personal favorite was, Kyon!"

He gulped. She had him backed up against a corner now. He fidgeted back and forth slightly, hoping her gaze would divert back to the floor again.

"I saw how you eyed Yuki! You know, there's very little point in denying it anymore."

'Oh, thank god.'

He straightened up, feeling very relieved that she wasn't referring to herself.

"You've gotta be joking," he laughed.

"I'm dead serious! You had the hots for her, didn't you?"

Images of the artificial humanoid life form known as 'Yuki Nagato' came flashing back from Kyon's memory. A bookworm of sorts, Nagato had helped him out of several tough binds. She was cute, but far from being the gorgeous fallen angel Haruhi was in his eyes.

"She was cute, I won't deny that. Infact, you were all very cute. I could have never picked a favorite."

Scowling like a wounded lion, Haruhi grumbled to herself.

"That always pissed me off."

"Everything pissed you off."

Another pause ensued, as Kyon practically held his breath waiting for Haruhi to pour new life into their exchange. This was turning out to be a very strange evening.

"You know, now that I really think about it, I haven't changed much." She finally spoke, breaking the ice that was slowly hardening around them. "The world just keeps on turning, but I continue to stand almost completely unaffected. It's scary."

"Well, you are who you ar-"

She cut him off, unaware that he was speaking. "I really wish I was more like a chameleon. You can just blend into whatever social situation you fall into and you just, you know, mesh perfectly with whatever is going on."

"Everyone feels that way. Human beings don't just change overnight though. It takes a lot more effort and determination then it's really worth."

""I try my hardest to be different from everyone else. Then one day I realized that I'm just like every other eccentric. There's nothing unique about us. We're just another group within the mass of society." Chug chug chug. "Then I realized something about the life I had been living. It's all just a giant game, and every one of us is a pawn. Like a pawn, we just sit by and wait to get knocked off the board. No matter how hard we try, Kyon, we're all going to be knocked off the board someday. It's inevitable." Chug chug chug. "Which is why, when life comes to knock you over on your ass, you just put it in a chokehold and break its arm. Or at least that's the way I'm choosing to look at it."

"So... have you succeeded?"

"... I'm working on it."

Admiration. Complete admiration. This was something Kyon hadn't felt since high school. Though he often despised Haruhi and everything that she did, he had always secretly admired her passion; her desire to live life against the rules. To live the way she wished to live, even if it was against the norms of society. When she was passionate, there was no one more attractive in the entire world.

'It's happening all over again.'

"Oh," she exclaimed while jumping to her feet. "That reminds me! I haven't shown you my writing yet!"

'Writing?'

Writer's Corner:

*waves happily* Yo yo yo yo! How has everyone been doing? Have you all brushed your teeth lately? That's good!

I can not tell you how happy I am with the reception that went along with the first chapter of this story. Sorry this chapter took so long, but.... my priorities have shifted somewhat. The responsibilities of 'real life' and the desire to spend as much time as humanly possible with my (wonderful) girlfriend has left me with a lot less time to devote to fan fiction writing.

I've gotta say that I easily prefer this chapter to the first. The interactions between Haruhi and Kyon were a lot of fun to write; even if Haruhi is acting a bit out-of-character sometimes (my excuse is that it has been over a decade... so there!).

*bows* I hope you enjoyed my crap! I hope you look forward to more of my crap. I will attempt to produce said crap as soon as possible for your enjoyment.

:) Wheeeee! Fan-fiction is soooo much fun!

(The grammar issues for Chapters 1 and 2 are going to be dealt with before I continue with Chapter 3. Just a little update, lol)