"You're not staying over again, are you?" I asked, carrying both my and Haruhi's school bag as per my orders as we once again marched for my house.

This time however, instead of it being late in the evening, we were strolling along in nice enough afternoon weather. People were out and about as well; shops were open and people filtered through them like sand through an hourglass as they passed through the doorways and then went their own way before they settled into an anthill-like chaotic looking mess in the streets.

"Why do you think we're here?" Haruhi asked, irritated by my lack in deductive skills.

Admittedly, I had been curious at first why we hadn't headed straight for my home if Haruhi once again wanted to use up our time planning something, but knowing Haruhi for as long as I had, I wouldn't have been surprised if fickleness on her part had changed these plans. And questioning the reasoning behind any act of Haruhi's had been shown to be a rather empty act anyway according to experience. Prodding too much into why we would do stuff usually just meant a verbal lashing or a kick in the ass as I'd discovered last night.

Sigh… "This is why you asked me if I'd refilled my fridge…" I tonelessly answered. "But seeing as all I've done today is be at school with you, and with my family still away for the day, my fridge is even emptier than yesterday. This means you want to buy food, doesn't it?"

"Huh, maybe you aren't as stupid as you look," Haruhi said, flicking her hair as she turned away from me and headed for a convenience store.

For a brief moment there, I actually considered running away. But the girl knew where I lived and would surely follow. And what would follow from that… I didn't dare risk it. My house wasn't equipped for a full barricade against the likes of Haruhi.

"Hello, good sir," an elderly clerk behind the counter right next to the door said, bowing her head politely. "I hope you'll find what you need here."

"Uh, thanks," was all I could mumble as I hurried deeper into the small shop.

The elderly were always rather off-puttingly polite, somehow so strange and alien in the modern world, where a suspicious glance was what essentially passed for a greeting. A 'how do you?' or 'good day' seemed so weird unless you were in for a longer conversation. Then again, it was usually nice to have polite people in the service industry, I guess.

I found Haruhi at a cold locker containing fish, appraising the contents with a critical eye.

"Hmm… that squid looks like it's been left out in the sun for weeks. All malformed and eyes at weird angles… It sort of looks like you!" Haruhi said the taunt enthusiastically, smiling widely at me as I came up next to her.

I couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at this. The mocking tone and context of the insult just did not go along with the happy, extremely friendly looking face of hers. Was this Haruhi's idea of a joke? Was this how she interacted with people she was comfortable around with? After all, people Haruhi regarded as losers and nobodies, essentially the rest of the population of the world in its entirety, only got an annoyed "shut up!", "leave me alone!" or "you're annoying!" from her.

"That's an interesting observation, if you don't mind," Koizumi said, interrupting my story for what felt like the googolth or whatever crazy sounding number of times.

"Yeah, so what?"

Haruhi had gotten even 'friendlier' with poor Asahina-san on the first day. Besides, that was essentially the way Haruhi had always spoken to me, always putting me down in some manner. I think she might have given me a compliment once or twice, but they had only come about when I had managed to perform exactly as she had wanted me to.

"One might say it's really the only way she knows how to interact with people, by defaming them, but that would be something of an oversimplification, wouldn't you agree?" Koizumi asked, grinning generously at me.

Sure, whatever you want. You know, maybe one of these days you should sit down and write a book, actually, a manual on how to deal with Haruhi. I would certainly rush to buy it and pay whatever price you would be ready to extort from me just to find the off switch on her.

"Sorry, do continue, please. This is all very… illuminating," Koizumi said, still smiling unashamedly.

… All right. Now where was I? Damn, you completely disrupted the flow of things, Koizumi. Let's see…

So, Haruhi and I were in the store. We ended up buying some little fish to fry, rice balls and some sort of dip, nothing fancy. I naturally ended up carrying our groceries, as it was 'a loyal member's greatest honor to aid the Chief in any form possible'.

We were walking towards my home along a back alley when Haruhi stopped all of a sudden.

I, not knowing a sudden stop had been planned (or maybe it hadn't), turned around to give her a questioning look. "What? Why did you stop?"

Haruhi looked at me for a moment thoughtfully, amber eyes focused intently on me. I could practically see all the mind work going on inside her brunette head, something of the end product starting to shine in her eyes as inspiration struck. "You know, I think we need a change of location."

What? But we just bought all of this food, with my money! If you're going to suggest going to a restaurant or something, you can count me out. I'll be going home and eating all of this food if you don't mind. Thank you very much.

"Nothing like that," Haruhi said, frowning lightly at me. "I just think we need somewhere better to work than your place. I've got a place in mind where we can prepare the food and everything. It's a bit of a walk away though."

What's wrong with my place? Especially as is it seems to be closer.

"I just couldn't concentrate there, all right?" Haruhi said, glancing away in annoyance, tongue pocking at her cheek in a cute manner, causing a little bulge of frustration. "You're bed was too… comfortable."

You know, you don't have to lie down in it.

"We're going elsewhere," Haruhi stated sternly, twisting around on her heels and stomping off in the opposite direction.

Sigh…

I followed Haruhi obediently, silently walking in her wake. We essentially doubled back, actually passing the store where we'd bought our food, heading for the edge of town. As I was starting to get worried, wondering into what kind of rat hole Haruhi was leading me, we reached a hill, over laden with thick trees that had a surprising amount of foliage to them already.

Haruhi pointed at a little path, one I wouldn't have been able to spot even with amble light. The sun was starting to set, and my fears were starting to get the best of me. The night and the forest just seemed to fill a guy with primal fear, quite understandable if you take into account our ancestry as savannah living hominids. But in modern times, something like running into a wild animal was actually one of the lesser of my worries. All sorts of weirdoes hung out in woods at night. Proof positive: Haruhi was leading me there right now.

"Haruhi, where exactly are we going?" I asked apprehensively, stepping over some large roots that had grown over the path. It seemed the path hadn't seen much use at all, as grass was starting to sprout on it.

"A spot," Haruhi answered enigmatically, pushing away some low branches, but failing to help me, her beast of burden past it, letting the little branches whip back into place and nearly swat me in the face.

"What kind of spot?" I asked, ducking low before I hurried to catch up with Haruhi.

"A special kind."

Great… sounds fantastic. I can barely wait.

We must have climbed that mountain for an hour. I didn't feel comfortable calling it a hill anymore, you see. I nearly fell over several times, tripping over various rocks, roots and the occasional fallen branch while the low branches that hadn't managed to fall in my path, and there were many of them, scratched at my arms and face. Haruhi marched on ahead of me, never slowing down though I was starting to fall behind. But I kept at it with a stiff upper lip, feeling an odd need to keep up without complaining, as if the fleeting back of Haruhi was challenging me to keep up.

Finally we reached a clearing, a little alcove in the sea of trees around us with the dark, ashen remains of previous fires in the middle with a stone circle around it.

"Huoh…"

I set our school bags and groceries by a fallen trunk that had obviously been set there by some earlier campers, sitting down to get my shoe off and remove the nasty little pebble that had been tormenting me for a while now.

"Seriously, what is this place?" I asked, giving my tired back a good stretch.

"I used to come here back when… well, before I made the SOS Brigade. I guess it was sort of my first clubroom, in a way."

Huh. I gave my shoulders a good twisting as well, something popping back into place unpleasantly. I hadn't even realized something had been out of place until it was back in.

Haruhi went around the clearing, gathering sticks. "This place had a nice view of our school, the current one. I used to bring my binoculars and I'd spend hours just spying on the place," Haruhi said, smirking to herself at what were apparently fond memories.

"Why would you do something like that?"

"Well, back when I was a kid, like four years ago, I met this guy."

…She's talking about John Smith, isn't she?

"He told me there would be some amazing person there, someone really interesting. I could barely wait to see them! So, in order to make sure I didn't miss anything, I took to spying on the place whenever I could. Of course, the person probably wasn't there yet, but what if there was something strange about the school as well? Oddities attract oddities. It's why you always get haunted mansions with ghost, vampires and werewolves and mysterious government workers in black suits wherever aliens are."

This is very true, seeing as there's a host of strange people around the weirdest person of all in your club, all drawn to your overwhelming and overflowing oddness like stupid moths to a flame.

"So I kept watch… but nothing happened," Haruhi said, a hint of disappointment in her voice as she stacked her gathered kindle into the stone circle. "Nothing happened for so long… no matter what I did… no matter how much I tried… and in a way… that's still the case."

Haruhi walked over to a tree with big roots, kneeling down and reaching deep into a hole amongst the twisted roots. She pulled out a rusty old lighter and gave it a few clicks, sparks flashing a few times before a little flame came to life.

"Good. It still works." Haruhi carefully walked over to the waiting fireplace, shielding the little flame from possible winds. It didn't take long for the small and dry branches to start crackling as a yellow fire settled into its little niche in the world.

Haruhi walked over and flopped onto the other edge of the tree trunk I was sitting on, swinging her legs as she stared upwards at the sky that resembled an oil painting, yellows, oranges and reds mixing beautifully in the brushwork of the setting sun.

"Once we get the embers going, we can cook the food."

"That'll take a while."

"I know," Haruhi said with a slight air of irritation about her I wanted to make sure didn't have a chance to grow into full, petulant hissy fit of a storm.

"So, what are we going to do meanwhile? Are we still going to try and think of something for the others?"

Haruhi gave a long, tired sigh. "…I guess," she muttered, slumping her head on her propped hands, leaning forward against her thighs.

Hmm? Well that was a decidedly undecided response from our headstrong leader. "You guess?"

"It's just that, well, I'm having a real hard time with this."

"Well, there's no need to rush. You said yourself this wasn't an actual anniversary of any sort, so it's not like we're working with a deadline here."

"Hmmm…" Haruhi hummed reflectively. "You speak a lot with the others, right?"

"I guess."

"And that's it? You don't know anything more about them? None of them have told you anything about what they want? I mean, like their dreams or hopes or desires?"

You're certainly starting to get surprisingly interested in everyone.

"What about…" Haruhi turned her dark amber eyes to look deeply at me. "What about you, what do you want?"

"Me?"

"Who else would I be talking to?"

Well, now that you mention it… I don't know, I really don't. I don't think there's anything that I want or need as such. All in all, I'm quite content with the way things are. I honestly can't think of anything, but then again, it's pretty much always been that way for me. Life's pretty good, all in all, minor misadventures not included, though I wished school didn't bore me so badly sometimes, especially in the matters that were important. Actually, if there was something I'd change about school, it would certainly be something concerning teaching methods and subjects, but perhaps more in the area of school dress codes to, you know, to incentivize guys like me to step into school with more eagerness. It probably wouldn't raise my grades at all, more like distract me some more, but it would totally be worth it, though as ridiculous as it would be to have girls in little, tiny – never mind, that would be too ridiculous. Maybe just a simple ponytail mandate. That would be golden.

"What's with that stupid smirk?" Haruhi asked, sounding annoyed, always an alarm bell for me.

I shook my head, ridding it of the march of the thousand ponytailed girls and turned to look at the frowning Haruhi next to me. "Nothing."

"…Nothing? So, you're fine with things as they are…"

"Yeah," I answered, taking some time to relax my cheek muscles after the wide, satisfied smirk had stretched them beyond their comfort zones. Apparently smiling wasn't something I did often. "What about you?"

"I… wait, you're asking me?"

I resisted the urge to throw back Haruhi's earlier, slightly sarcastic line back in her face, simply because it felt incredibly wrong for the situation. There was something about how completely unexpectedly my question had come to Haruhi, catching her off guard in a way that made me start to consider my words even more carefully than ever before, like I'd just asked 'how do you do?' and offered my hand for a greeting to a foreign dignitary, thus silencing an entire entrance hall in shock of my audacity.

"Nothing," Haruhi said, before she narrowed her eyes into a knife-sharp scowl, "At least nothing from the likes of a stupid oaf like you."

Right, okay… moving on. Nothing further to discuss here. Warning signs have been posted and I know not to speed into a dangerous curve like the one I've been forced into.

"So, this place, you used to come here a lot then?" I asked, doing my best to not fan any of Haruhi's other fires.

"Yeah…" Haruhi said, sounding surprisingly nostalgic, before she sluggishly grinned to herself. "I sort of wish I could go back to that, chasing bad guys and mysteries like that, like I used to, not like it is nowadays. The world, it just felt… bigger back then. I was always on the move, no one could hold me back…" the grin left Haruhi's face. "But I guess all things have to end."

I gave Haruhi a long lasting look, wondering just how much she actually believed in that. Certainly she knew all things had to end, but on the other hand, it had been because of her we had been in danger of getting stuck in an endless summer. But maybe the finality of all things had finally fully settled into her mind. She certainly had started to become more accepting of the limits of reality than in the beginning. Maybe she no longer wished for things to go on for as long as possible. I actually didn't know which option I preferred anymore.

"I don't like this," Haruhi broke my chain of thoughts abruptly. "Is the fire ready?"

I gave the fire a look, knowing it couldn't possibly be anything yet but a little happily burning pyre, but it turned out I was completely, utterly and ineffably wrong whenever it came to trying to apply common sense around Haruhi.

Huh. Well look at that. I'll not question how a fire managed to go to glowing embers in just a few odd dozens of minutes at best when several hours should have passed in order to get embers of that quality. Seriously, the things were glowing with the heat of magma by the look of it.

"Good, I'm hungry." Haruhi skewered a pair of fish on some sticks lying about and set them in the ground over the embers.

It was pretty weird. The two of us just sat there, sticking to our food, neither one able to come up with much to talk about. Even Haruhi seemed to struggle with speaking to me. Sometimes she would look at me, open her mouth as if to say something, halt, think about it for half a second, close her mouth shut tightly and shake her head before she'd bite down fiercely on her food, chewing on it aggressively, munching on it louder than was necessary, filling the silence with noise of some kind.

Weird really was the only word in my vocabulary I could come up with to describe the situation, but it felt rather lacking to fully convey how it felt. It wasn't like the situation required a more intensive synonym or anything like that, but it just didn't fully capture everything else that seemed to form the situation around us. For starters, since when has Haruhi ever had second thoughts about saying anything? Or doing anything for that matter?

"So, Suzumiya-san… took you to that place?" Asahina-san asked carefully.

"Yes, I remember some old reports…" Koizumi muttered, before he turned to me with a grin. "Your shared moments certainly carry with them a quaint atmosphere, I have to admit."

Oh shut up. I'm not in the mood, not in the slightest sense.

"There certainly seems to have been some form of minor development here, but of what kind exactly that would be, still eludes me."

Just let me tell my story, all right?

Our late dinner was over, the embers glowing faintly, more like twisted lines of dark red than the spot of scorched earth they had been before. Darkness had crept up on us quickly, first casting us in shadows as the sun disappeared behind the hills and trees, before the sky turned a dark blue, then a purple for a while, before it started thinking black might be its best fit after all, with added little white dots of starlight here and there to finish the ensemble for the evening.

"Right, let's go. We've wasted another evening. You gather the trash, I'll make sure the fire's out and the lighter will be safe," Haruhi said, standing and walking over to the embers, kicking sand and dirt on what remained.

I picked up whatever trash we had produced and put back in the bag I'd carried all of it in the first place. I picked up our other bags and made sure nothing had fallen out or anything. By the time I was done, Haruhi was placing the lighter back in its hiding place.

"All right, let's go," she said, pointing at the path back home.

I took the lead, simply because I was closer to the path and we walked along in silence for a while, until –

"Auh! Damn it!" Haruhi's shout actually made me jump.

"What? What happened?" I asked, a sudden terror breaching my mind's walls for a moment as I turned around to see what might have caused the loud shout.

"I think… hhh…" Haruhi grimaced, now splayed on the ground, one leg tugged to her side in an awkward way, teeth tightening in pain as she hissed, squeezing her foot gingerly. "I sprained my ankle."

"Here, let me help." I put the bags down and offered Haruhi my hand, but she just swatted it away haughtily.

"I don't need your help. I'm fine," she said, leveraging herself up, putting some weight on her leg. Predictably enough, she toppled over immediately.

"#£$%ing #£$%!" Haruhi swore, making many an old time sailor proud. She gritted her teeth and closed her eyes as she once again tried to lever herself onto her feet, but yet again fell over. "#£$%!"

"Don't be stupid. Let me help."

"I'm fine! I don't need your help!"

Sigh… let's see, retort options: A) 'Fine, I guess I'll just leave you here then.' Unnecessarily antagonistic. It certainly won't help in cooling her temper down nor help her injured pride. B) 'Just stay here and die.' Even worse. Why did I even think of it? C) 'You know, I heard there are all sorts of lunatics out in these woods at night.' A scare tactic that wouldn't even work on my little sister.

So I guess I'll go for D. At least it has a chance, and I just want to get out of these woods as soon as possible.

"It's a Brigade member's honorable duty, right? To aid his Commander. You'd do the same thing if one of us was injured, after all."

"I…" Haruhi gave a defeated sigh. "Fine. Whatever. Gimme a hand."

Once again I offered the arrogant girl my hand and this time she grabbed it, squeezing tightly on it as I pulled her up. Haruhi nearly fell over as she once again tried to put some weight on her injured foot, but I was ready for the bullheaded attempt this time, knowing full well Haruhi would never give up without a struggle.

While I tightened my grip on her hand, my other hand went to her hip to support her, providing the necessary support just before she once again could fall on her dumb butt. Haruhi's eyes widened as I grabbed her hip, staring at me in shock as we were caught in a position you'd usually only see when two people were dancing the tango or something.

"What are you doing?" she asked, her voice fainter than typically.

"Making sure you don't smash your face into the dirt or anything. Or do you want me to drop you?"

"No," she admitted, her eyes still locked on me with soft surprise.

"All right." I pulled Haruhi closer to me so I could put her hand over my shoulder, but I could feel her tense up as I did so. "This would be a lot easier if you just relaxed." This was awkward enough without trying to lug around someone mistaking themselves for a statue.

"I am relaxed. Why wouldn't I be? You are, after all, an SOS Brigade member, you have – you have a duty to uphold, and not only to –"

"Yeah, yeah. Let's just get moving before we lose all light."

"Just who do you think you are? For someone who's at the very bottom of our hierarchy, you're sure starting to sound rather commanding. You should be taught a lesson in – AH!"

"Hey, you okay?"

"I… I just tried putting some weight on my leg… ngh… damn it. What the hell? Why's it hurting this much?"

"Look, just don't put any weight on it anymore, okay?" I said, wondering if the girl would ever be ready to take a word of advice from me, no matter how many times she would go through the apparently painful process, like normal psychological conditioning had no effect on her whatsoever. If she was dumb enough to try walking this many times, it didn't seem like I had much hope in trying to help her. "And try to keep your leg elevated… I think it might help."

"You think?"

Sigh… this is going to be a long, long night…

"You ready?"

"For what?"

"Well, maybe to leave this place already, though I suppose the cold, dark night does have a sort of quaint feel to it, what with the promise of hypothermia and all."

"Ngh… you're really not nearly as funny as you think you are…"

"Yeah, well, more bad attempts at jokes are what you'll probably be getting as well if we stay here."

"…We should hurry," Haruhi said earnestly after a quick evaluation of her circumstances.

And so began our awkward crab mimicking wobble down the hill with three legs trying to do the job of two, with one of the newly formed tripod's legs bouncing carelessly over the uneven ground, nearly tripping over constantly, bringing a new torment for the other two as they strained to steady the shifting center of mass of the newborn crab being. It was especially difficult as I still had to carry our school bags, though I had decided to leave the garbage behind. Hopefully it wouldn't be the last straw to break the ecosystem of the world.

I kept a constant eye on both the uneven root and rock covered path while also checking on Haruhi's legs all the time, just in case she got it in her head to try and walk again or something even dumber. With each jump her blue skirt rippled back and forth across her thigh, while the muscles tightened and relaxed under the smooth skin over it, pumping away.

Just making sure she didn't do anything stupid…

This prime example of an exercise in futility continued for a surprisingly long time, mostly because I simply didn't want to risk angering Haruhi by doing something as stupid as talking to her, and going about it like an idiot as she liked to say, but after nearly an hour of hopping along, feeling like you were onboard a ship heaving about in a storm, with practically all the light having run off for the night, further slowing the trip as you now had to truly strain your eyes to spot potential dangers in your way, you start to get a bit annoyed.

"Haruhi, this is getting us nowhere. It'll be morning by the time we get home. Why don't I… huoh…"

If I want to get out of here before the sun comes up I have to do it, I'll have to –

"…carry you?"

"Don't be stupid," Haruhi said, completely unperturbed by my suggestion, as she continued hopping with determined eyes on the path ahead. "We're making excellent time. That's totally unnecessary."

I stopped and Haruhi gave me a questioning glance. I gave Haruhi a little push towards a nearby tree to lean against and dropped the bags I was carry, ready for easy loading once the main cargo was secured.

"Come on." I dropped onto a knee and held my hands out behind me, ready to fully accept the role of a slave I seemed to have been shoved into for at least what remained of high school.

Sigh…

"…Fine," Haruhi said, sounding none too pleased with where things seemed to be heading, like she was the captain of the Titanic, accepting her fate.

Carefully, Haruhi placed her hands on my shoulders and hopped closer. Gingerly, she stretched her injured leg forward under my arm. She then got close and wrapped her arms around my neck. And then, after a hesitant pause, her full weight shifted onto my back, nearly making me fall over at the sudden increased momentum, as the other leg attached to my side and her legs squeezed my midriff painfully while the hands nearly managed to choke me.

"Careful! We nearly flipped over your fat head!" Haruhi shouted in my ear.

"Sorry."

As I got on my feet and managed to take a few uneasy steps, picking up all our stuff once again and somehow found the right balance, Haruhi seemed to relax and loosen the hold of her hands on me, leaning back a little.

As we continued trudging along through the forest path, Haruhi, having stayed as far back as possible, ended up tightening her hold on me, clasping me tighter while her legs on my hips closed around them securely, pressing herself tightly against my back.

"Damn it, Kyon, can't you be more careful? I'm getting my face scratched off because of twigs with you trouncing along like some big old lout, completely oblivious to the further injuries you're causing your Commander!"

"I'll try and be more careful."

"You'll do more than just try if you wish to continue your worthless existence."

Sigh… what stupid thing had I said about a long night? I must have been delirious back then. Somewhere along that dark forest paths, I must have taken a wrong turn and ended up in a hellish dimension of eternal night with a demon on my back. Forget Sisyphus and his struggles…

If I had thought the path had been difficult before, back in a better light and with less weight to carry, I had been monumentally wrong about that as well. I was forced to crunch my legs almost constantly as I ducked under branches. As Haruhi once again tightened her hold on me, I could hear her mutter to herself in a barely audible whisper, "Damn it," and at first I thought it was just more of her prideful resistance against any sort of aid, but the whisper lacked the same sort of anger as the earlier shouting had had. No, the whisper felt more like a disappointed murmur one would say to themself when they'd mess up something they were working on, like there was some sort of private failing going on.

With her body now firmly pressed up against me, I could feel her breasts against my back, and couldn't help but commit the sensation to memory, two soft but pleasantly resisting round things pressing against my back, with some sort of folded fabric, most likely the edges of her bra, digging through my shirt. I sort of wished I were a bit more mature than that though. Unfortunately, such experiences were still new and exciting for me, and I had a sneaking suspicion they would probably remain few and still equally exciting even in the distant future.

This was the first detail I had thus far chosen to omit from the others… that I could remember leaving out at least, though I suppose there might have been other moments. But seeing how crazy the guys had gone over 'playing footsies', forgetting to mention this little, tiny, miniscule detail that had no bearing on the subject matter and could only further harm my image in anyone's eyes, especially in those of innocent Asahina-san's, it was a smart, and necessary I might add, move on my part, even if I do say so myself. And somehow mentioning it to Nagato felt almost worse for some reason, but I wasn't exactly sure why. She definitely wouldn't get teary-eyed or blush profusely, but those eyes could sometimes feel incredibly judgmental, especially when they stared so intently at you that it felt like you were receiving a CAT scan and an EEG for good measure. And as for leaving Koizumi out of the loop on this tidbit, it should go without saying.

We had by now reached the end of the hill, breaching the tree line and leaving the dirt under our feet behind to replace it with even concrete.

"Bench," Haruhi said in my ear, pointing to my left over my shoulder.

I gave a little nod, fully understanding the implied order. I would probably have asked for a break soon anyway because, although Haruhi herself didn't weigh much, thankfully, my legs were still tired, what with all the roots and small pitfalls I had to avoid and balance around with another person on my back, my muscles had remained in a constant state of tension. After all, if I had managed to drop Haruhi, it would have most likely been a good idea to just run for the coastline and hope the sharks got to me before she did.

After arriving at the bench, I turned around and slowly lowered myself, and could finally feel Haruhi's tight hold on me lighten. But as she was pulling her legs away from me, her injured foot twitched as it made contact with my side. I could hear a little noise behind me, like a hiss or air being inhaled through gritted teeth.

"You okay?" I asked, staying still, still squatting, facing away from her.

"Moron, I'm –" Haruhi pulled her leg back with such a hurry that it ended up hitting me in my armpit, once ending in sounding too much like an angry cobra preparing for a fit. "– fine."

I looked at the foot in my armpit. It was red and purplish blemishes could be spotted here and there. Even so, I didn't think it was anything too serious. I let go of the bags I had also carried, and with courage summoned from simply being too tired to care, I reached out and grabbed her foot.

"What are you doing?"

"Just hold still," I said, turning it a little, making Haruhi gasp. I pulled back on her sock, revealing reddish skin around the ankle. "Give me your ribbon."

"Huh?" Haruhi asked.

"You've got a keep a thing like this elevated, cold and compressed. Didn't you ever have basic health care? So, seeing as we don't have any ice, we'll just have to do with what we got."

"And my ribbon's for…?"

"Compression."

"That's so dumb… there's no way it works like that. You weren't listening during the class."

"Maybe, but compression was definitely one of the three things you had to do. So, can I at least try?"

"…" Haruhi was silent for a strange while. "Okay."

I held her ankle firmly, doing my best to grip it as tightly as possible without causing too much added pain, Haruhi's movements making it a bit harder as she went about getting the ribbon out from her hair.

"Here," Haruhi handed me her orange ribbon over my shoulder.

I let go of her ankle and went to work, taking off her shoe and sock before I started wrapping her foot like some weird present.

"Gah! Careful, you – agh! Are you trying to cut through my leg? Are you a sadist or something?"

I'm not a doctor, damn it. Cut me some slack.

"You're doing it all wrong!"

Shut it. You didn't even know about this, so how could you possibly know what's the proper procedure?

…Not that I do either, really, but I'll trust my instincts over hers any day.

"Ungh," Haruhi moaned as I wrapped her ribbon around her ankle.

"Stop moving! It can't hurt that much."

"It didn't! Not until you got your clumsy, sweating palms all over my foot!"

"You're not making it easy for me."

"You're not making this any easier for me!"

In my mounting frustration, wanting to get this crap over and done with as soon as possible, I pulled hard on the knot I had made, sealing her ankle as tightly as I could.

"AAAHH!" Haruhi cried out.

Her other leg, which had remained hidden behind my back suddenly sprung forward in response and kicked me squarely in the lower back, sending me toppling over myself. My forehead luckily remained unscathed for the most part, though a bruise wouldn't have been surprising by the feel of it.

"Damn it, did you really have to –" my question was cut short as I turned around to see Haruhi holding her ankle with both hands, teeth clenched almost just as tightly as her eyes, from which a few tears were making their arduous push into the world through the corners of her eyes.

"Damn it…" Haruhi muttered quietly.

"Sorry."

"Shut up," she said with her usual vigor as the worst of the pain seemed to pass.

I went ahead and sat on the other side of the bench and gave my forehead a rub, wondering just how much longer I would have to endure with this night. Haruhi gave her wet eyes a little wipe.

"Hey, can I get a look at it?" I asked eventually.

"Why? You some kind of pervert? This turn you on?"

Groan…

"I'd just like to see if I did it right."

"…Fine."

Haruhi carefully raised her slender leg and brought it over. I let it nestle in my lap as I gave it the inspection, pocking and prodding her ankle carefully, for all the good it would do. I slowly turned and twisted it, watching her cringe whenever I neared a limit. But I was glad to notice that the ankle seemed to be capable of moving as much as it should without her shouting out. I had a doctor or do similar test to me enough times by now to at least know that nothing serious was going on.

"Yeah, just a sprain…" I gave my expert prognosis, ready to get her leg off my lap. "You can have your foot back now."

"Wait," Haruhi said suddenly, making me freeze in place, afraid I'd done something wrong, something bad to her foot, but what followed was probably worse.

"It… it feels better when you rub it…" Haruhi admitted, keeping her eyes fully focused on her ankle.

"Oh… really?" That was hard to believe, taking the level of my care into consideration.

"Yeah…"

"You don't mind if I…?" I asked hesitantly, not really needing to finish my question.

Hey, whatever helps us get out of this and home sooner, right?

Haruhi gave a little nod of her head, her eyes never leaving her injured foot.

Cautiously I grabbed her ankle and gave it a squeeze. Not meeting any resistance, I went ahead and started giving it a little massage.

We remained like that for a while, completely silent, both of us watching her foot intently, not wanting to look awkwardly away or trade a weird glance between each other.

Eventually however I could feel Haruhi's leg tense and I knew she wanted to move. I immediately released it and let her remove her foot with all due haste. Haruhi placed the foot against the ground, tapping it tenderly against the surface.

"Thanks, Kyon…" Haruhi said, still staring at her foot.

"For what?" I asked, glancing off into the dark city around us. "I didn't do anything special. If I had, you'd be walking perfectly all by yourself. It's not like I performed surgery. I just carried you, did some crappy first aid, anyone could've done that."

"It's the thought that counts…" Haruhi said softly, her eyes still focused on her ankle

I looked at her, slightly perturbed by the sentiment coming from the bullheaded Haruhi.

"That's – that's what they say, right?" Haruhi said hastily, finally looking at me, looking at me like she had just used her foot to step on mine and injured me instead. A very weird response from Haruhi.

"…"

"Stop looking at me like that! I was just trying to be grateful!" Haruhi said haughtily, looking off quickly, cheeks gaining a little more color.

"…Well, I guess you did a pretty good job then. Well, until you started shouting at me again."

"Just shut up already, you dumb, stupid, slow, dense, idiotic moron."

Any more synonyms for 'intellectually challenged' you want to throw my way?

"Jackass…"

'Ask a stupid question…' Actually, I feel a bit dumber for not being able to come up with a word Haruhi hadn't already used to describe me.

Haruhi gave an exasperated sigh, as she slumped forwards, resting her chin on her raised palms, elbows lodged against her thighs as she once again leaned forward, oddly enough reminding me off my sister long ago, when she hadn't been able to get a puppy, before Shamisen had made his furry way into our lives. "I knew this was a bad idea…"

"Huh? What was that? I didn't quite catch what you were muttering to yourself," I said, wondering what exactly was wrong now.

I had always wondered about that habit with people. If you didn't want to be heard, why did you speak out loud? Did you actually want to be heard or was what you were thinking somehow so powerful that it could not be contained within your mind, but had to be spoken because it was so real that the world of the mind, of imagination, was not enough, but it was so real that it had to transfer from the mind into the real world as a vibration of molecules, as sound, something more than what was only felt, something true and actually substantial, even quantifiable if you had the proper equipment. The latter felt a bit ridiculous to me at least, although... it had occasionally happened to me as well.

"Nothing," Haruhi said unhurriedly, staring at the ground in front of her with an unreadable expression, almost as unreadable as Nagato's on her best day. Then she suddenly moved, slouching onto her feet, wobbling a little bit too much as she did so. Without even considering it, I had gotten up and taken a step closer to her, ready to catch her if she fell, but Haruhi held out a hand as she tested her foot, placing more weight on it, though not fully.

"It feels better now… I think you managed to stop the swelling."

"Yeah…"

"…Thanks again. You're a good subordinate."

Smirk. "Thanks for the compliment, they're usually rarer then pearls from you."

This comment however appeared to not have been the right thing to say, as Haruhi's face suddenly came wistful in a depressing manner.

"I should go," she simply stated, just as casually as one would talk of the weather, before I could even ask if something was wrong. She crouched down, most of her weight on her good leg, and picked up her school bag into which she put her discarded sock. She then carefully pushed her injured foot inside her shoe.

"You sure you can –"

"I'll be fine," Haruhi said sternly as she turned away and walked off into the night, quickly disappearing into the dark shadows.

"Hmm… I don't recall her favoring her leg much at all… either she has been hiding it, which, to be perfectly honest, wouldn't surprise me, knowing her character… though the obvious reality warping is also possible in regards to her," Koizumi mused, more to himself than any of us, his eyes slightly glazed as he considered things beyond the need of it. "But I have to say, I'm pleased to note that the two of you are interacting far less strenuously than ever before."

"Ungh," was all I could bother in way of retort anymore. I was just too tired to give this stupid, pointless examination any more attention than it deserved, less than one would for the mating habits of dung beetles. I held my palm to my face, weakly shaking my head, all but ready to just give up on life by now. But luckily, we had reached the end of my pointless tale. I would be free soon!

"Anyway, as you all can clearly see, there is absolutely nothing going on between me and Haruhi. Nothing whatsoever!" I said, actually feeling rather triumphant, having come clean with the others (not that there had really been anything to come clean about, as I'd said), but also because this should have absolutely, definitely, concretely, irrefutably and indubitably proven that there was nothing going on.

"If you say so," Koizumi said, still staring pensively at the table before him.

Urrgh… I give up. I #£$%ing give up. Go ahead, put a bullet in my head, send me to the glue factory, kick my shoddy bucket, whatever, just stop, please…

I rubbed my forehead in defeat, shaking my head with impotent frustration.

"Look, I know what you're getting at, and I won't deny it," I said, leaning against the table, to set the record straight for the last time, the very last time. If it didn't work now, I would honestly just walk off. "Haruhi and I are close, really close, and admitting anything else at this point would just be beyond insane. So far beyond insane I should be locked away before I go so far into denial I start thinking bullets can't hurt people, and it wouldn't be much of a stretch going from 'me and Haruhi don't share anything' to that, but it doesn't mean there's anything beyond that going on. I like spending time with her. Otherwise I would have gotten out of all of this ages ago."

"You have certainly had the opportunity to walk away at any given moment, not being tied down to Suzumiya-san like the rest of us, but you have remained, even going so far as to restore a reality where you could continue spending time with Suzumiya-san as you knew her best, so I agree firmly with you."

"You… what? You finally agree?"

"I don't think I ever said otherwise."

"But you've been hinting at something more all the time!" I voiced my long lasting annoyance, something that had been gestating within me for a long time, like some noxious disease.

"I think it is only you who has inferred something extra from what I have been saying. I simply wanted to know what had occurred between the two of you, and I have."

Sigh… I honestly can't take much more of this…

I shook my tired head before looking around, noting the rather despondent way Asahina-san was staring at the table, her hands clasped in her lap, looking like she was attending a funeral of a distant, although always sweet aunt. I turned my head, and was slightly surprised to find that Nagato's iron hard stare had also shifted away from me finally. Nagato was now simply staring ahead with empty calmness, much like she would whenever a book didn't happen to be in her vicinity.

Asahina-san's lips crinkled, wriggling for a moment like two fighting caterpillars, her brows furrowing problematically, as she began to ask what seemed to be a difficult question. "So, Suzumi-"

"Hey! What are you guys doing here?" the voice of Haruhi stopped Asahina-san in midsentence, the timid girl's eyes going round with weak terror at the interruption, and immediately made all our heads turn like the sound of a gunshot to spot the scowling girl approaching at an ill-fated trajectory for its targets.

Ah, crap...

"Eeep!"

"Oh, ah, Suzumiya-san, we were just..."

"..."

Seriously, what did I do in my past life to receive all this crappy karma? Kill a cute baby panda with a blow to the head with an even cuter kitten? My eyes are so tired they're actually starting to hurt. It feels like someone's poured acid into them.

Haruhi's suspicious eyes darted from a blushing face to a carefully smiling one to a completely placid one until they settled on me and shifted into condemning mode as soon as they made contact with mine.

"Kyon, explain..."