Chapter 4

As soon as I dozed off I had a very brief dream. I dreamt I was in an endless, infinite white world. Everything around me was white. The floor was smooth and white, and went on forever. The "sky" was solid and white. Next to me Haruhi was sat on the ground crying. I tried to ask her why, but no sound was coming from my mouth. I tried again and again to ask her why she was crying, but I couldn't speak. Eventually I managed to yell out "Haruhi!" but I instantly woke up.

When I woke up, I was of course back in the small room at Nagato's apartment. I sat up quickly, and a wet cloth fell from my forehead. I sat there confused, staring at it. Why was this on my head?

"A-are you okay?" I heard a timid voice from in front of me say "I heard you yell something". I looked up and saw Nagato stood in the doorway. She was no longer in her school uniform as she always is, but was wearing a cute white turtleneck sweater and plain white trousers. This was all I needed to know everything has been changed.

"I'm fine I...how did I get here?" I asked, a bit dizzy.

"Ah, you don't remember" she said, and she walked over and sat on the floor next to the futon I was in. "Well, you came over to mine so I could help you with your homework" she began to explain, twiddling her thumbs as she stared down at her feet "As you left you tripped over and hit your head and passed out. You didn't seem to be bleeding so I just brought you in here...I hope you don't mind".

"Ah...no, I don't mind" I said, looking at her. She looked up and smiled a little. "Thanks for taking care of me, I appreciate it...is there anyway I can repay you?". She blushed a little, and stared back down at her feet.

"No, you don't have to..." she spoke a little louder this time "Really, I don't mind, it's no trouble...even though you were heavy to drag through the door".

"Right, so it was a pain for you to drag me through here?" I said, smiling a bit that she had done such a thing "Plus you helped me with my homework. I owe you, Nagato".

"No, you shouldn't-" she tried to say.

"Nagato, please" I interrupted her "...Nagato, look at me?".

She looked up at me. She was blushing like crazy, but it was so adorable and I swear no words can describe how happy I am to be here right now.

"Nagato, I owe you, will you accept that?" I asked her, smiling at her.

"Uh...alright, I guess that's fine" she said, smiling "But how will you repay me?".

"Ah, take you out for lunch or something" I said as I got out of the futon and stood up "Maybe we can go see a movie or something. And I'll pay for it".

"B-but won't it annoy Miss Suzumiya?" she stuttered. And that's when I realised. The whole world had switched over to the way they were when I'd pushed that button, add on a few months, and then you've got this. Meaning there's the possibility we ending up setting up this out of school SOS brigade, or whatever it may be called.

"Why should it? I hardly know her" I said, and I extended my hand towards Nagato. She grabbed my hand and I pulled her up.

"True, but we've all done a lot these past few months" she said, blushing when she realised how close together we stood. She took a step back, and continued to stare down at her feet. "I just thought since she's evidently the leader of us all that...that it might bother her if any of us try to...um..." she seemed to run out of words at that point, or rather she was too afraid to say the words she had on her mind.

"If any of us tried to...date?" I finished her sentence for her. It's not difficult to understand what she was trying to say. I mean, I'm even sure you could tell what she was wanting to say.

"No! Kyon, it's not like...like..." she stammered, shifting her feet slightly.

"What's wrong?" I asked, putting my hand on her shoulder in an attempt to comfort her.. She gasped, and looked up at me.

"N-nothing I just..." she again stammered, covering her hands with her face.

"I'm sorry! I didn't meant to..." I removed my hand from her shoulder and stood back.

"It's not like I don't like you..." she said, lowering her hands from her face "I mean I do, I just..." her words seemed to fade out. So she does like me? Well that's a relief. I was worried I would end up asking her out and she might run off crying, then Haruhi would find out and would beat the crap out of me. She's scary, even in this world.

"You're afraid of Haruhi, right?" I, for seemingly the millionth time, finish her sentence for her "You're afraid of how she'll react? Well I'll fix that for her. I'm sure Koizumi mentioned to me before he has a crush on her, so if those two hook up then she should have no excuse to be bothered by us dating, right? I mean...that's if you want to date".

"That...that would be nice" she smiled, her face now no longer red from blushing "Dating you, I mean..." and I took this opportunity to lean in and kiss her. I found it incredibly hard to hold it in, and to finally kiss her was a huge sigh of relief for me. Up till now, talking to her in this room, as the conversation progressed it felt like there were chibi miniature me's dancing in my head taunting "Kiss her! Kiss her!", and the pressure to do so had built up immensely.

After a few seconds, I backed off. "Ah, I'm so sorry!" I said, backing away from her "I shouldn't stay here much longer, I should get home". Nagato stayed quiet and frozen on the spot as I quickly walked out of the room and put my shoes on. My coat was also neatly folded on the floor next to them, and even though when I had first "arrived here" I wasn't wearing a coat, I put it on. I also picked up by school bag and swung it over my shoulder. Just as I was abouts to run out the door, I felt a tug on my coat.

"Wait" I heard Nagato's feeble voice from behind me. I turned around, and surprisingly she had a slight smile on her face. "Please stay...I mean it's already midnight" she said, letting go of my coat and backing away slowly. "I...no, I should go" I stammered "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have kissed you I-". "But...why are you sorry?" she asked, hands clasped together, holding them near her chest "I said I wanted to date you...you said you wanted to date me...um..." she then turned around, and hurried over to her kotatsu. She sat down at it, staring at the table. She began preparing tea, so I walked over to the table.

"Look, Nagato, it was rude of me to kiss you I mean we weren't even dating-" I babbled. "Sit" she said, patting the seat next to her. I did as she said, and sat next to her. We were sat unusually close, but this didn't seem to bother her. "We..were..." she stuttered as she poured the tea. "No, I was being silly. Sure, we were saying we'd like to date each other, but we weren't actually dating. I mean, I shouldn't kiss you unless we were boyfriend and girlfriend, right?" I laughed, as she passed me a cup of tea. I took it, and sipped from it. "Don't...don't worry" she said, taking a sip from her cup. She placed it back on the table, and looked at me. When she did, I gulped down the rest of my tea, her plain yet cute expression distracting me from how scalding hot it was. I put it back down on the table, and turned my head left to look at her. She leaned towards me and kissed me, resting her hands on my lap. She backed off, both of her hands clasped around one of mine.

I was happy, my chest felt warm, and I wouldn't have things any other way. However, my mood was suddenly changed. I heard the most blood-curdling evil sound that I could possibly least expect at this time.

"Well, Nagato, isn't this a surprise?" said the unmistakeable voice of Ryouko Asakura from behind me.