Wow, it's been a while hasn't it? Sorry about that. I seem to hit a wall of writers block at this same time every year but it should clear soon and I can update more frequently. Especially since we're so close to the end now! Enjoy the chapter and please review!

People have bad weeks. It's only natural. Unless you have the patience of a saint and the luck of a golden cat you're bound to have some bad weeks over the course of your life. However there is a certain limit as to how bad a bad week can be. After all a bad week is so called because it is bad. If it were catastrophic then it would be an understatement to simply call it bad. Now, bad weeks are the kind of weeks when nothing seems to go your way. They are those days when you feel a little black rain cloud following you everywhere. Those days where you would rather curl up in the foetal position on the couch at home, eating ice cream rather than go outside and face the day.

Those are bad weeks.

Then there is the week I've had. The kind where everyone you know and care about either vanishes or stabs you in the back (Or kicks you in the face). The days where no matter how valiantly you try to dig yourself out of a bad situation you only dig deeper until you've gone further than six feet deep and start to feel the burn of hellfire crackling across your flesh. The days when being optimistic refers to an outlook where a disastrous situation is only terrible and rather than see yourself as having bled half to death, you've simply got half as much blood as you usually do.

That is my week.

The worst week imaginable. In fact it's so bad it's not even remotely imaginable!

But, even after suffering through what had felt like an eternity or torment, a brief glimpse of sunshine had managed to wipe away the black veil of darkness enshrouding my life. Strangely enough the very catalyst of this worst week of my life was the very same reason I was suddenly smiling beside myself.

Mio Akiyama sat huddled in a tiny ball, an impressive feat considering her height. Crouched inside the cupboard of my hotel room (Or at the very least the replica of my hotel room found in closed space.) We found space between the mountain of blankets and sheets and sat side by side staring out at the far wall. Mio's hand clasped around mine, fingers intertwined and bound like rope. Her other arm curled around my back in a half-hearted embrace. Despite all this she did not meet my gaze, staring dead ahead, her ears burning bright red, so much so I could tell even in the dark.

I couldn't help but smile, though the tingles running up my arms and along my spine forced intermittent breaks in my expression, lips occasionally stiffening as sweat dripped down my brow. How such a relaxing thing could cause such tension is one of the many mysteries of adolescence, something I silently cursed in the back of my mind, though only softly. For the most part everything was focused on those small warm hands.

Mio's fingers dug into my side, right over the spot where my rib was most definitely broken. A stabbing sensation seared white behind my eyes and I winced involuntarily. Noticing my body jerking around awkwardly under her touch Mio quickly removed her hand and glanced up at me with a half-smile, as though she were trying to discern whether I was ticklish or in agony.

One look at my face was all it took.

"You're hurt..."

There was guilt in that voice, so thick and despairing it only made the pain worse.

"It's alright...Just a bruise." I lied. "Don't worry about it." Forcing a smile, I tried desperately to steer her away from anything that might make those brilliant glass orbs tear up again. "Are you ok?"

Mio frowned, not wanting to let the previous discussion go, but fully aware I wasn't in the mood to answer. With a subdued sigh she gazed down at herself and muttered, "I'm fine..."

"That's a relief. I was really worried back there." I laugh, though I'm not sure why.

"H-huh? You were worried about me?"

I stared at her.

"Of course I was!"

She opened her mouth to speak but bit her tongue and shrank back into the depths of the cupboard. For another quiet moment we simply sat there in the cupboard, in the dark. Mio would shoot intermittent glances at me every so often as if to reassure herself that she wasn't alone.

"You know, this reminds me of when I first went to your house..." I muttered. Mio's eyes sharpened at that and her body tensed perceptibly. "That stupid alarm Ritsu set on your phone...How you were hiding in the cupboard. It's like Deja vu isn't it?"

Even under the stress she managed a smile and the faintest trace of laughter. "I'm sorry...I don't remember that ever happening."

"Hmm? What do you mean? It was only a week ago, surely you didn't-"

"Kyon, I'm sure of it. That never happened."

She's serious. She really doesn't remember?

It did actually happen right?

Crap, now I'm confused!

"Mio, I was at your house. You at least remember that right?"

She stared at me as if I was insulting her intelligence and I guess I was a little bit so it was justified. "Of course I do! We played bass together, had dinner and went to sleep."

Well at least she got the main parts down...But seriously I know for a fact that something like this happened that night at Mio's house.

"Then don't you remember waking up late because your phone didn't go off? I switched it off to make sure you wouldn't get scared again."

She blushed but her body remained stiff as she adamantly refused, "Kyon now you're just telling stories." Her voice was trembling.

Hang on...Is she...She's trying to overwrite the memory of that night! Was it really that bad?!

That's it...Here goes nothing.

"Uh...Mio, do you have your phone on you?"

"Huh? Yeah, I do. But I already checked. I can't make any calls or anything."

I shake my head, "I figured as much. Can I borrow it for a second?"

She glanced at me with a dubious frown but relented in the end to save probing for answers. Besides I don't look that suspicious do I?

Actually don't answer that...

I fumbled through her settings for a while until I found it. Sure enough it was still there, lurking in the hidden recesses of its digital cage waiting to be unleashed. I gave Mio a cautionary glance, the very act making her tense up as if I'd aimed a gun square at her face. She tentatively leaned forward, hoping to peer over my shoulder and see what I was doing.

She didn't need to. She would have found out even if she was in the room across the hall.

"GRRRRRAAAAAAAAAAARRRRRRGGGH!"

"AH!"

"Yaaaaaaaaaaaaaghn..."

The alarm sounded, so deafeningly loud in the small cramped space that even I let slip an involuntary cry despite knowing full well it was coming. Mio on the other hand made a shrill squeal that stretched on into a soft groan.

Then she fainted...

Or so it seemed.

Just as I was about to lean down and lend a hand, her head snapped up like a rocket and she shot me a furious glare. Or at least it was intended to be furious, but the tears streaming down her face made it less intimidating and more cute.

"Kyon!" she yelped, her voice rising and falling in a sweet lilting wave. "Why did you do that?! You're so mean!"

She beat her small fists against my chest and sobbed. Half out of guilt and half out of the simple desire to do so, I wrapped an assuring arm over her shoulder and held her close.

"Sorry."

Footsteps rattled up the hall outside. Mio huddled closer to me, clutching my shoulder so tight it hurt. Together we glanced up as the other girls from the light music club stormed into the room, switching on the lights, scanning the room, noticing us after a brief moment and then shuffling back embarrassed. The fact that Yui, Azusa and Mugi all did it the exact same way and in perfectly unscripted unison was too funny to pass up.

I laughed.

It didn't help at all...

It got awkward really fast.

Do you know that at some point stares can become painful? Well they can, and I was experiencing it on all fronts. Withdrawing back as far as I could into the cupboard I pathetically tried to shield my furiously blushing face, but my vain attempts to do so coupled with the misunderstanding around this entire situation and of course let us not forget the fact that Mio and I were both flustered all led into a hideous downward spiral as slowly the other girl's expressions darkened. The resulting looks bearing down upon us were lost somewhere in the grey middle ground between pity and disgust.

I felt like taking a leaf out of Mio's book and crying, but this situation is embarrassing enough without adding more fuel to the fire.

Before anything incriminating could be said against me, I desperately raised my hands in surrender.

"I know this looks strange...But-"

The resulting explanation would have gone by so much quicker if Yui wasn't as hopelessly slow at connecting the dots. She seemed so perceptive back when we were running from the celestials but it seems that her intelligence bar ran low and had to recharge so for the time being she's stuck being her usual self.

A well-deserved drink of water waited at the end of the road. Not only because my throat was parched more than the Arabian Desert, but also because I needed something to keep me standing. By now most of the girls were well aware of how serious my condition is and a renewed sense of urgency had come over them, however Mio hadn't seen through the facade. No doubt she was still struggling to come to terms with this strange place and the mystifying presence of all her friends alongside her. Plus that alarm appeared to have shaken something loose inside her mind and had kept her in a semi-lucid state for a while afterward.

I ordered Mio to get some rest and she collapsed on my bed and lapsed into something more akin to a coma than sleep within the blink of an eye. How exhausting it must have been for her. I imagined her sitting stock still in that cupboard, eyes wide and alert scanning the empty darkness every waking hour, listening intently to the distant roars of giants outside. The poor thing certainly wouldn't have gotten a wink of sleep and considering she was sent here at some point during the night it would have to mean she hadn't gotten much rest for almost two full days.

But it's alright. I'm here now. Actually, wait, that sounds kind of presumptuous. Let me rephrase that as 'we're all here now.' Yeah that sounds better. I wonder why I assumed the former in the first place? I'm nowhere near as important to Mio compared to the girls of Houkago Tea-Time. I'm quite sure that if Ritsu or Azusa had found her rather than me she would have been much happier.

But then, according to the others she does hold me in some regard. I wouldn't have the first clue as to why though. I bumped into her by accident in a music store only a week ago and have only met her a handful of times. Certainly not long enough to form enough of a connection that would stand against her long-time school friends.

So why on Earth did I even entertain the idea that I was more important than them back there? Freud, give me a sign.

I even glanced skyward as if a postman from beyond the clouds would deliver a message.

Of course nothing happened. The light-bulb flickered on and off but it's been doing that for the better part of half an hour and wasn't some special omen in any sense.

I sighed and said "Oh Brother." almost out of habit. I'd grown so used to it that withdrawal symptoms had started to settle in. But I suppose it's a much better addiction to have compared to most other vices. Drugs, alcohol, gambling. I suppose love could count too. I distinctly recall Haruhi's romantic view on the subject as something of a mental illness or parasite intermittently infecting whichever unfortunate fool they saw fit.

Somehow that particular bug had failed to bite me. Miss Asahina's effect upon me feels more like a spell than an infection and Nagato's enthralling air of mystery captures my curiosity not my heart. Haruhi is just out of the question. And my stance towards Mio is just a surprisingly fast friendship, right?

Nothing more, nothing less.

No bugs, no illness, nothing.

Kind of makes you feel left out. Like a child watching another kid in the playground with a new toy, lamenting my empty hands.

Wait, what am I saying? God I'm delirious. I really need to get out of here soon.

The girls gathered around me all stare intently at me. Instinctively I flinch back into the cupboard. For a long quiet moment the face-off ensues until all the girls lapse into a fit of childish giggling.

I'll never understand women...