The snow was raining wet droplets of ice onto my head and shoulders, blanketing me in a slushy film from head-to-toe before I reached Nagato's apartment. My whole body was a shivering mess of emotions and sensations when I approached her door.

Cold. Fear. Butterflies against the ribcage. Flitting. Screaming.

I put my hand on the knob. Somebody died here. I released the handle. Fight the terror. Don't let her die again. This is how you lost her last time. I grabbed the doorknob and held it tightly.

Frozen. Uncertainty. Weightlessness. My soul separate from my body. Watched helplessly as the butterflies smashed through bone. Scarlet blood and amber wings.

White knuckles as I twisted the door open. Arms stiff and unresponsive. The creaking of the oak whined and rang through the halls. Darkness before me. Blackness and lifelessness.

"Nagato?" I breathed. Swallowed. Said it again. "Nagato, are you there?"

There was no reply.

I entered into the place of nightmares that Yuki had once called home.

"Kyon..."

No. No, not again. For the love of God, not this again.

"Oh, God, Kyon... I'm so sorry."

It wasn't Nagato's voice anymore. It was hers. Haruhi. The bringer of bad news. The messenger I had shot. Damn her. Damn you.

My vision was hazy. My head was pounding. The dim light of the evening sun and stars barely illuminated the room through the thickening layers of sleet that plastered the window. What was once red and bloody was now gray and dying. I could just make out the features and furniture around me. Mats. Table. Chair. Rope.

"She was like this when I found her."

A rope pulled taut. Spinal cord snapping. Life draining from eyes locked open for eternity.

"What the hell do we do?"

Dangling feet. Choking gasps for air. Not quite dead. Almost. One foot in hell. One foot still kicking and fighting. Angel wings meant nothing to the dying.

"Oh, Kyon. What the hell do we do?"

Don't know. I don't know. Shut up. She's not dead.

Golden eyes burning holes in my heart. No life. No warmth. Murderer.

Stop. Stop staring at me. Quit asking me what to do! How the hell am I supposed to know? She was my friend too, damn it!

Pale skin turned pallor. What had once lived was now dead. The puppet danced for the goddess no longer. All your fault.

Goddamn it, I loved her! Why, you bastards, why did you take her from me? She was dead. I was dead. We were going to be dead forever. Together. Forever. Why the hell did you bring me back here, then? To live it all over again? To know that no matter what I tried, I would never see her again?

"Answer me, you son of a bitch!" I roared, clawing at my eyes and face. Tears falling. Blood pulsing. Heart breaking. "Somebody out there, somebody tell me why!"

"Kyon."

I froze. Time stopped. A reply.

"Kyon. Look at me."

That voice. It couldn't...

"Please."

It was.

She hadn't changed. Purple hair glowing a faint indigo in the silvery light that basked the room. Somber, honey-colored eyes full of wonder. Snow-white skin beneath a black uniform. Hell... hell, she was wearing her school uniform, for God's sake.

I chuckled involuntarily. Felt the tears flood my eyes. Warm water that spawned even more teardrops.

"Kyon," she said. Monotone. Emotionless. Nagato. "It has been a long-..."

The material of my jacket muffled her voice as I hugged her tightly. Wrapped my arms around her small body. She took a few seconds to register this in her mind, and then she returned the embrace with her own icy grasp. Her fingers dug into my back.

Cold but alive.

"Over three-hundred and thirty-six hours have passed since our last encounter," she explained.

And every one more painful than the last.

"They listened," she said.

I choked out a strained, "W-... who?"

"The Overmind," she answered. "They realized that it would have been erroneous to remove me from this plane of existence. Through the actions resulting from my death, they concluded that it would have been too dangerous to let the world go on in this way. They could not safely observe Miss Suzumiya in this manner."

I was confused, to say the least. "So... what happened?"

"As Suzumiya began to systematically destroy the world with her powers, the Overmind reinserted me back into existence." She looked at me softly. Her eyes twinkled in the approaching starlight. "The world has been reset to as it once was one week ago."

I got it now. The world couldn't go on without Yuki Nagato. Plain and simple. "So, is everything back to normal?"

"Yes," she stated with a nod. Her expression stoic and calm.

It was over. Alive again. None of it had even happened. Just a bad dream. Hell, this was just another piece of code to her. Just another day.

But I had to make things right. Still had something to ask.

"Nagato?"

She looked at me. Heart throbbed. Mind raced.

"I... well, I..."

Her face was still.

"Are you doing anything this weekend?"

Yuki's eyes flickered. Her mouth shifted subtly, and her golden orbs moved at a million miles an hour. Calculating. Thinking. Wondering. Then everything stopped when she looked at me again. "I am available."

The End

Author's Note: Thanks to everyone's reviews and support while this was still in the works. MC-Kun, VeryBerry96, Artimenner, and Alfonso Ling. You're all awesome. And let me know if this is a writing-style you would like to see more of. It's not something I usually do, so feedback is appreciated. Thanks again for reading and reviewing.