Author's notes: Well, I'm back. After relaxing for nearly two weeks after my term of service ended, I went back to see what I had written for act 3 and see if there was anything nice there. What I found was still promising but thankfully my time away had also spawned a few new ideas and I found myself writing again fairly easily, despite worrying a few months back if I'd still have any enthusiasm left for this story. And now the time has come to draw everything that was started in act 1 to a final close. Expect more inter-personal drama as you've come to expect from this story, especially for a good long while as our characters dwell in happier times after surviving the standard darker second act. Of course that doesn't mean something mysterious and sinister won't be in the works, but this story has always mainly been focused on Kyon and his relationships, plot and philosophy second (if you'll believe it). Updates might however come at a slower pace than the weekly rate I aimed at before, as I don't have the same sized buffer of text to ensure regularity. Things will probably come whenever they're ready. I'm going to try and switch up my writing style a bit too, to try and make chapters read a bit better on their own to compensate for this however.


"C'mon! Faster, Kyon! Faster!" Haruhi yelled heatedly in my ear, her moist breath urging me on.

"I'm doing the best I can!" I said between gasps for breaths.

"Faster! Faster!"

"Stop squeezing so hard! Why do you have to be on top of me like that anyway?"

"What? You think you'd do better if I was under you? Be realistic!"

"I usually do this type of thing alone, but now with you here it's harder than usual!"

"Well of course it's harder with me here, so what?"

"Well with you riding on top like this, I don't think I can be as fast as I would alone."

"We're handling this together, all right? I don't trust you to handle the goods by yourself! You need a tender touch for this sort of thing!"

"Tender? You're anything but!"

"Only with you, since you need to be put in your place!"

"Look, I know how this works! I know –"

"You wouldn't even know where to stick it!"

"Yeah I do! Around the back! That's how it's best if you want –"

"Absolutely not! Through the front side as fast as possible so we can keep going without stopping!"

"Couldn't we at least take a break?"

"No! We're on a tight schedule! We've only got half an hour before we meet with the others! And we still need to do this twice!"

"Seriously, without you I could have already come and –"

"If I wasn't here riding you, you wouldn't do it properly!"

"Seriously, I know how to –"

"Will you just shut up about that already? I'm really not into smacking you right now, but you keep tempting me!"

"Seriously… I don't think I can keep this up for much longer…"

"Almost there… almost there…" Suddenly an eager enthusiasm started growing in Haruhi's voice was we rode on closer to our goal. "C'mon, Kyon, plow ahead at full speed!"

"RRAAAHH!" I put all I had into the final push, if for no other reason than a faster, even if it was just momentary with a beast like Haruhi, release.

"Yes!" Haruhi's yell was one of near ecstasy.

She then jumped off me and ran, leaving me to catch my breath, panting and heaving harder than any actual beast of burden ever had, and probably with a more vicious handler as well to fear.

"Here you go, Mr. Toriyama! Fresh and warm! Remember Sakurazaki's bakery if you want high quality pastries! And for a limited time only, you will have them delivered to you in a timely fashion! So act now!"

Limited time only meant for as long as it took for Haruhi to gather the funds for… whatever it was that she was planning.

Haruhi handed one of the packages of pastries she had been carrying with a happy and marketable smile and then she turned and hurried back to me. She hopped up behind me and grabbed onto my shoulder with her right hand while her left had the duty of holding what remained of the stack of packages, a slightly easier burden to now carry after our latest delivery.

"C'mon, Kyon! Two more and we'll be done for today!"

"I can't… my lungs are burning!" I wheezed.

"Move!"

Haruhi smacked the back of my head. I heaved my leg back on a pedal and pushed off, making progress like a snail. Haruhi smacked me again. Even so, my trusty old bike didn't go much faster.


When the last kick of a pedal was given, when I was allowed to squeeze on the break and hear the angelic screech of rubber tires that followed and feel the weight of two tightly clenched hands on my shoulders lifted as the girl riding behind me leaped away, I was finally able to take a deep breath and slump over my bike handles to rest a little.

"Well, how'd it go?" Haruhi eagerly asked the other SOS Brigade members, all of them waiting for us at the agreed rendezvous point.

"I was only able to deliver eight of my assigned fifteen," Koizumi said with an apologetic smile, shrugging like an idiot beyond justifiable condemnation. It was a smile that both said 'sorry' and 'but you should have known better' in the most manipulative manner.

"Huh? What are you saying?" Haruhi asked dumbly, rather taken aback by this info, like she'd been told the sky had always really been pink instead of blue.

"I'm afraid I seem to have let you down today, Commander," Koizumi said, sounding as sycophantic as ever when it came to Haruhi.

"Geez…" Haruhi gave her head an agitated shake while giving her forehead a rub of her fingers (a motion that made Koizumi smirk and give me an odd glance, like he wanted to say something to me), before she turned to face Yuki hopefully. "What about you, Yuki?"

"…Three."

"What? You only delivered three packages? What did you do, walk?"

The pale girl nodded.

Haruhi slapped her forehead before she let it slide down to reveal the exasperated grimace of a sick toad. "Yuki…"

Haruhi then turned to face Asahina-san, making the girl squeak as she came face to face with Haruhi's glower. "I… I… I got lost…"

"So, you only delivered…?"

Asahina-san fidgeted with her fingers, sheepishly rubbing her knees together as she stared at the ground like a kid being asked why there was a big wet puddle in the middle of the living room. "…N-none…"

"Oh c'mon!"

Haruhi's face was turning red and I decided to go ahead and plug my ears for what followed. But just as she took a deep inhale through the nose, her clamped mouth looking ready to burst with outrage, cheeks slightly puffed, she glanced at me and that little pause that followed seemed to deflate her. What could have been a furious blast came out as simple annoyance: "I can't believe Kyon and I were the only ones to deliver all our packages!"

Thirty packages, all in all, meaning five trips back to Sakurazaki's to get a new batch of packages to deliver with Haruhi weighing me down as well until we had arrived at the crossing where we would all gather. My legs had never felt as tired. My shoulders had never ached so much. And the back of my head had definitely seen better days too.

"Well it's too late to deliver the rest now! Old man Sakurazaki said they had to be where they should be by," Haruhi glanced at her phone's display, "ten minutes ago. Don't know why they had to be wherever so fast, but it's not our concern!"

Haruhi gave the three others a reprimanding look, the whole scene playing far too much like a mother scolding her children for my liking.

"I'm very disappointed in all three of you. No treats for any of you! Bad peons, bad!" Haruhi scolded the others and then jumped back behind me. "March to the café! And you'll all be paying for yourselves this time! Now go, Kyon! All this yelling and putting up with you lot has left me really thirsty! I wanna have a nice cold drink! You brought your wallet, right?" she asked me.

Sigh

I kicked off and started pedaling for the café that was just a few blocks away. I was just too tired to try and fight back anymore.

As we passed out of the sight of the others, the hands that had tightly been gripping my shoulders loosened and slide down my front into a more relaxed embrace under my armpits to grab around my chest. The head that had towered over mine the majority of the day came to rest against my right shoulder.

"Good work today," she said softly in my ear as her hold on me tightened a little and she pressed her body against mine.

Hearing something like that from my personal slave driver allowed a smirk to escape from me.

"No problem," I muttered, going ahead and slowing down a little. We weren't in any kind of hurry right now.

Things had remained strangely quiet after everything, and I wasn't just talking about the usual sci-fi nonsense. For starters, something had changed about Haruhi. We hadn't done any searches or anything that weird in a while. But what really made me stop and watch her carefully was how silent she had remained about… what had happened. I had hoped – no, assumed that she would keep me in the loop, but it seemed like Haruhi had come to a conclusion of her own. All she had said before was that she needed time to think, and for a day or two you could see an air of hushed consideration about her, until she seemed to gain her old zest for life and dragged me off for drinks. I had expected her to clue me in on what she thought of facing off with Fuyumi, about finally coming face to face with something truly supernatural, but it was like the thing hadn't even happened.

I wasn't sure if I wanted to press the issue, having gained a better understanding of her powers. If Haruhi had for some reason decided this wasn't an issue to be pursued, then it followed that oddities around us probably wouldn't increase, but if I did bring it up, Haruhi might start thinking more about weird things and that was as far from what I wanted as possible at the moment.

I had been happy enough just drinking my soda, listening to Haruhi go on about some nonsense about… practically everything. I don't think there was a single thing the girl didn't have an opinion on, and opinions they certainly were, because none of them were really enlightened views. Sure, Haruhi was a smart girl, but she tended to view things solely from one angle, her own. People like Sasaki and Koizumi would always spend so much time on considering all possible vantage points that it was oddly refreshing to hear from someone practically as egotistical as me.

Holism just wasn't my thing. I simply couldn't juggle all those balls. I had more than enough on my hands already without considering the fates of mankind as a collective and individuals at the same time. Having Haruhi go on about her world and her world alone… felt nice. It was small and understandable (though stupid as hell mostly). Haruhi's world was a lot like my world, even if it was a bit bigger and grander in ambition. A guy could grow comfortable in a world like that. There was definitely plenty of room in it. And if that world was heading closer to mine instead of veering off on dangerous adventures, I was more than willing to allow a meeting between them.

But still, I couldn't help but wonder… why wasn't Haruhi jumping in joy and arranging parades now that she'd finally found what she had been looking for? Better yet, why hadn't she even mentioned any of it?


It didn't take too long for the others to catch up to us. I had already brought Haruhi her drink and the little treat she'd set her eyes on when we'd entered the café, eyes open wide enough to consume it by themselves and mouth practically lathering at the time, while I was busy draining the huge slushyI had bought for myself along with an extra large soda as the others came up to us.

When the others had shown up, I had automatically reached for my wallet, only to have Haruhi rise up in her seat and point accusingly at me. "Hey! I said you won't be paying today!" The finger had then shifted to the others and told them to get what they wanted themselves.

While the others went about getting their snacks, Haruhi pulled out a little notebook and started scribbling what looked like math problems on it. Her tongue would poke out occasionally in an unpleased manner and she'd glare at the results occasionally, but she didn't say anything as she went about doing her personal arithmetic.

The pastry delivery job hadn't been the first odd job the SOS Brigade had taken in the last few days. In fact, we seemed to be scrambling for any and all venues of money we could get our hands on. At first Haruhi had offered her services in cleaning the school at a super low price for the faculty, but with her history none of the teachers had been trusting enough to give her any extra time in school after lessons and club activities were over.

School had become something of a joke: days were half as long and teachers appeared have been ordered to make absolutely certain everyone was okay through insistent questioning every lesson. Because of the obviously traumatic experiences our town had gone through recently, the schools (or whoever was in charge of decisions like these) had decided that the youth of our town needed time to gather themselves. I'd thought it completely useless, because I'd already done my fair share of personal growth what with all the lives I'd saved and dangers I'd faced, but I certainly wasn't one to complain either. In fact, most people didn't. Sure, there was a sizable enough minority (or maybe it was just loud enough) that felt there was real need to evaluate their lives and safety in light of recent events, but for the most part life went on. Children still played games, people still laughed, merchants would try to sell anything, accidents and personal tragedies still happened, no matter what. Nothing had changed in that regard.

This was probably because whatever speculated act of terrorism might have occurred in our town for all the normal people, the explosions and injuries had been fairly well contained. The injured people didn't seem to have many if any relatives or anyone that really knew them in town (making me wonder from just how far all the espers had gathered to watch over Haruhi and Sasaki). In fact, it was probably only because our school had gotten some damage that they had decided to give the students some time off. Counseling had also been offered, but no one that I knew had taken up the offer. It was hard to imagine anyone wasting up their free time like that, unless they were already in a condition to warrant professional help before the events. But perhaps I was just being a bit cynical, who knows...

"There's no way we'll make enough money like this before school ends…" Haruhi eventually spoke out, slamming her pencil so deep into the notebook it actually stayed vertical for a while before ot slumped to a side and then fully fell over.

"I've heard the city council considering to simply do away with what remains of the semester and extend this hiatus to the summer break," Koizumi said.

"Well, that'd be cool. It'd certainly give us more time to earn some cash. Though I bet they'd give us a ton of homework or something along with it."

"More likely they will simply start the next semester early."

"Those fiends! The summer vacation is sacred! Don't those old farts remember anything beyond their fat bellies anymore? Don't they remember the joy and excitement to rush out and escape into the world and do whatever you want for a few months? It's crap like this that sometimes makes me wonder if I should try and run for office in the future and change the world for the better."

A mental image of troops marching in formation and hailing their new female dictator passed briefly through my head.

"If you don't mind me asking, what exactly is it that we're trying to raise money for?" Koizumi asked.

"Nu-uh, can't tell you. It's – a – sur-prise!" Haruhi said playfully, waggling a finger in Koizumi's direction.

Koizumi smiled pleasantly. "Of course. I'm sure we'll all appreciate it when it happens."

"Yup, in Haruhi we trust," I muttered between sips.

"Hmf," Haruhi huffed disapprovingly at me. "It's really amazing how you can sometimes make nearly anything you say sound so childishly sarcastic."

"It's a gift," I said, slurping the last of my slushy before I'd transition to my refreshing soda. Seeing how quickly I'd slurped my slushy, I was fairly certain my soda would still be equally cool and refreshing.

"You should have returned it then."

"Lost my receipt."

"You took the sub-par metaphor too long and ruined it all."

Slurrrrp

"Like I said, a gift."

"Now you're just annoying. Not funny in the slightest."

"You sound just like my mother."

"Ah…" My words seemed to have hit Haruhi like a flick on the nose, making her blink in wide-eyed shock at first before her cheeks went crimson. "Sh-shut up!"

Slurrrrp! I countered with a mighty sip of soda. Ahh… so refreshing!

But before I could really enjoy the glow of the moment, Haruhi delivered a soft blow to my stomach with a closed fist, sending my drink spraying in Koizumi's face. Asahina-san yelped in surprise.

"Such arrogance from the lowliest member, smiling smugly at his Commander in Chief! It's clear that I can't let up at all with the whip. You just bite the hand that feeds you!"

Nope, it's more like just the hand that whips me. Any feeding is always done by me, whether it's paying for snacks or bringing in healthy helpings of common sense.

"Now apologize to Koizumi for spraying him in the face."

Seriously, like my mother.

As if she could hear my thoughts, Haruhi shot me a death glare.

slurp…

"It's quite all right," Koizumi said, dabbing at his face with a napkin Asahina-san had quickly given him after getting over the shock of seeing me assaulted. "Accidents do happen."

Stop enabling Haruhi already.

"Anyway, what were we talking about?" Haruhi asked, slumping over to lean her head against the table with a supporting hand against her cheek. Her face was turned away from me now. Maybe I was being ignored (hopefully). I just wanted to drink what I had left in peace. I didn't have any more money and I had a sneaking suspicion what remained would fail to satisfy me.

"We were talking about our plans for the summer," Asahina-san answered smartly, smiling politely at Haruhi. "O-or the days off we have before it, at least."

"Oh yeah, right… Don't make any plans for a while guys. I'm not sure when it'll happen, what with the lackluster way you all are carrying about, but when it happens it shouldn't be more than a week."

Typical Haruhi. Expecting her Brigade to put their lives on hold for her. But I guess I can't complain. It's not as if I had any plans of my own beyond resting and relaxing. But still, they were plans nevertheless, and mine at that.

"Well… I guess that's that then," Haruhi said, turning her head even further away to stare directly out the window. "Dismissed."

As what passed for the rank of the Brigade filed out of the cafe, I shook my soda, hearing nothing but a miserable little sloshing. I sighed, feeling like I had barely had any of it. I shook it again, but the air in the cup hadn't been transmorgraphied into anything. And if it that wasn't bad enough, I'd just used the term 'transmorgraphied'. Haruhi must have been getting to me more than I'd thought.

"You stayed, huh?" Haruhi asked simply, still facing the window, the reflection of her face blocked by her head.

"Just finishing my drink," I said perfectly honestly.

"Really now? You sure you're not just being a lovesick puppy?" Still her head remained turned, though her tone had changed a bit.

"Knowing how even you adore puppies like any other girl… not feeling particularly puppy-like."

"Hmm…" Haruhi finally turned her head to stare at me blankly in a measuring manner, before she broke into a sly smirk. "You're an odd one, aren't you?"

"Hrng!" I nearly choked on my drink. After a few coughs to clear my throat, my eyes watering at the sudden reaction, I found Haruhi chuckling to herself.

"Now before you say something as uninspired as 'that's rich', would you mind not wasting both our time and just stepping out of the booth? I feel like leaving."

Having lost my taste for what remained of my drink and being dealt two unsuspected verbal blows in quick succession, I sidled off to throw away what little was left of my soda. When I returned (not quite sure why I did that, actually) the booth was now completely empty. I looked around the café but there were only regular customers about. With no reason to stay, I decided to go home as well.

I was out the door of the café when I heard Haruhi just behind me. "Took you long enough."

"You didn't leave?" I asked, turning around to see Haruhi leaning back against the wall between the window and door of the café.

"I left the booth, didn't I?"

"But you didn't go home?"

"Nope."

"…Why not?"

"No reason."

"Really?"

"Yup."

"…Maybe it's just me, but you're acting kind of… strange."

"Hadn't noticed."

How could you notice something like that?

"But speaking of which, you've seemed a bit off to me too."

"Well, things have changed."

"Not really."

"Our school was attacked, my stomach got opened by a freak, then you and I… you know…"

Haruhi glanced off casually, turning her head to glance at the horizon as if she didn't particularly care if I continued or not.

"Actually, on the topic of –"

"I'm not in an amorous mood, Kyon, so you'll have to satisfy your hormonal urges by yourself."

"No, not that. I wasn't talking about us, but about… everything that happened. You've been really quiet about it all."

"What's there to talk about?"

"Are you serious?"

Haruhi gave an annoyed look that threw my words right back at me. But I didn't feel like backing off right now.

"We finally found what you've been looking for over a year now, something 'supernatural', and you just… act like it didn't happen. You haven't said a word. It's like it didn't happen. What's up with that?"

"Like I said," Haruhi stepped away from the wall, pushing her chest forwards and stretching her arms a bit above her head as she took a few ginger steps, "what's there to talk about?"

"Once again with emphasis, are you serious? Fuyumi could go through stuff and teleport. This is the jackpot, the mother load, your wet dream."

Haruhi's expression, which had remained fairly neutral beyond the occasional instance of annoyance in the passing, now changed into something quite different, but still subtle enough to make it hard for me to read. Her brows furrowed a tiny bit and her lips seemed to tighten somewhat and the way she looked off away from me left me with the impression I hadn't been quite right.

"Fuyumi's gone for good, isn't she? So what's there to talk about?" Haruhi repeated, crossing her hands as she kept staring away at a slight downwards angle.

I looked to what would be my eight a clock just in case there was something to be seen, what with where Haruhi was staring, but I didn't spot anything noteworthy.

"Sure, she's gone and all… but… she pretty much validated everything you've been talking about since… the first time we met."

"Look, Kyon." Haruhi's head snapped back into position to stare at me sternly. "I don't wanna talk about it! It's done! Over! Why don't you get over it as well?"

"Hey, I'm just fine. It's you who I'm… a bit worried about."

"Well don't. I wasn't the one who… who was hurt."

For a moment, the girl looked fragile, almost like the faint breeze might manage to push her over.

"…Hey… Haruhi…"

"Just drop it," Haruhi answered irritably. "I don't wanna talk about it. Life goes on. We're not going to wallow in anything. We're off to the next thing."

"…So your plan is…?"

"Sheesh, are you deaf or just stupid. It's a surprise!"

"Okay, okay. I won't push it."

"Good, because you're really starting to annoy me," Haruhi said, taking a long step closer next to me. She looked up into my eyes. "You really need some lessons in discipline."

"And you'd teach them? That's like asking a snail to teach how to run or –"

Haruhi reached up and kissed me on the lips.

"Shut up, Kyon," Haruhi said nonchalantly as she gave her hair a flick of her fingers and turned about on her heels and started walking away. "See you tomorrow."

Huh.

Well, that's one way to shut me up, I suppose. But even so… even though I'd acted like I wasn't interested in talking about the subject, I wouldn't have minded getting a few details on me and Haruhi and where exactly the two us were in terms of our relationship. Haruhi had changed after everything, and not just in terms of her need and desire to search for oddities but it was in the little things as well. Haruhi had always been kind of hot and cold towards me depending on how exactly I reacted to her dumb plans, or the scalding and freezing to be more exact, but now even those things seemed changed. Maybe it was just me, but there was a softness to our interactions that hadn't been there before. Even though Haruhi had given me a little hit in the gut, it wasn't anywhere near the same that flicks on my nose, swats on my head with rolled up paper or even a kick in my butt had been like. It was of course possible that I'd just grown used to it all, but Haruhi seemed to be going easier on me nowadays. I wasn't complaining as such, but it was kind of weird, an adjustment if you will, like wearing brand new shoes. Things were better, I guess, but I still needed to walk in my new shoes some more, let them mould to the shape of my feet and let my feet get used to them in turn, to put it metaphorically.

And all this kissing business… I really didn't know how to deal with it either. In keeping with the apparel theme of my thoughts, Haruhi kissing me was a brand new pair of pants to wear, as it were. It wasn't the kissing I minded at all, it was just the weird way she'd go about it. It was like she'd always spring it up on me without any sort of warning, like I was being toyed with.

Haruhi had come over to my house sometimes, but they hadn't been what one might expect, although they sometimes were as well, or… eh, I don't know; it was weird. Sometimes she'd show up (unannounced of course) and we'd just talk and goof about, but occasionally, and it didn't happen every time, she'd just start making out with me in the middle of it all.

This wasn't really an issue either, as such. No, it was the way she'd go about it. She'd always catch me off guard and then proceed to kiss me passionately, jumping in my lap if I was seated or pushing herself on top of me if I happened to be on my bed, and then when I was just getting over the shock of the sudden ferocity with which she'd attack me, she would usually end it there, just as I was getting into it. It was a bit maddening. It was like she was experimenting or something, pushing and prodding at boundaries I apparently had no true concept of as of yet. She'd always have this strange look on her face afterwards and before I could ask, she'd start up some new conversation or come up with something else for us to do. But luckily all of this didn't happen too often. Visits from Haruhi were still few and infrequent. I could almost still count the times I'd made out with her on one hand. Almost.

…Or perhaps it wasn't me who was being tested...

Anyway…

It certainly was an interesting development.

And yet... very little had changed between us. Except that there was more bodily contact (thats is, if you didn't count smacking me on the back of my head or flicking me on the nose, of course). Skinship, I believe it's called, or something to that effect. And it was getting hard to remember when Haruhi had last shouted properly at me. It had been long ago… maybe too long…

Were we girlfriend and boyfriend…? Not really, not as such. I honestly didn't know what we were. Friends with benefits? I couldn't even really call it that. In order to be that, there would have to be clear benefits instead of the frustrating manner in which Haruhi went about distributing said benefits.

A thought occurred to me, but it felt strange, although with Haruhi in mind, strange was always a fitting association. Haruhi had said once that she wasn't immune to the effects of affection, having the occasional urge herself, what with being quite the quote unquote healthy girl. Was that it? Was she just letting her impulses be satisfied whenever she pleased? It was a strange thought because it implied Haruhi had been more restrained back in the past than she was now... What a scary thought! And yet, she was softer and more patient with me than ever before… always a source of contradictions and frustration for me, no matter what happened with her, no matter what particulars changed.

Haruhi was still Haruhi. Looking back on things, it really was quite interesting how she'd gone from a sociopathic weirdo who would fondle other girls and use blackmail, to a girl who had come to worry about the people around her, like when Yuki had been sick in the cabin during the blizzard due to some data attack of some sort and now to how she was acting towards me.

The girl had grown up but she hadn't let the fire inside her die out. She was still full of energy and determination if our bike trip was any indication, but still… the way she wouldn't talk about what had happened to us, to me, to Fuyumi, it set me ill at ease. Something had changed in her, and for the first time ever, probably, I hadn't been there to see what exactly it was.

My mind pondered about this for a moment before it wandered off to a file cabinet of recent events for one reason or another and pulled up the mental video on the first time we'd properly made out after Fuyumi, in complete peace and quiet without the fear of death pushing us forward. It had happened in the clubroom, and it had remained the only time we'd made out there. I wasn't sure if I liked or disliked this fact. There was just something wrong about kissing Haruhi there… and on the other hand that was also why it felt so great to do it there.

But anyway, things had started off a bit oddly, then progressed to something in no shape or form any better, really…

Anyway,things had gone like this:

Haruhi had held my tie, narrowed eyes tightly peeled on it as she scrutinized it as if inspecting it for dirt.

"Uhm… so… what? Is this my punishment, for whatever, you keeping me here?"

"Shut up. I'm trying to decide how best to go about this."

I shut up, feeling rather nervous, all things considered. Haruhi had for some reason completely beyond me held me back as everyone was getting ready to leave the clubroom. She'd said something about punishing me, dishing out detention for me as I was almost at the door. Asahina-san had given me a worried look, Koizumi one somewhere between interest and amused sympathy, while Nagato, being the last one to leave, having to close the door, had given me a look, much like any other of hers, but the way she had intently focused on me and then Haruhi had left an odd impression in my head, almost like she would have had something to say about my detention, provided someone had asked her. I certainly would have, but Haruhi had made sure I wasn't going anywhere, stepping between me and the door, arms at her hips as she gave a little glower. The door had then shut, accompanied with the gentle click of the lock, sealing my fate for the rest of the afternoon.

"Do what exactly?" I asked. I honestly had no idea what I was still doing there, with Haruhi no less.

As far as I could tell, I hadn't done anything to warrant Haruhi's discontent, the day passing within the clubroom as it did on most days, but knowing Haruhi, it could have been any number of things to irk her. The odd thing was though, if I had done something wrong before, then surely she would have torn me a new one right then and there. She always spoke her mind, at least if something irritated her.

"Hush up. I need to focus here."

I let Haruhi focus what must have been a hurricane of ideas and thoughts on a good day, each rivaling the other with its sheer inanity.

"Kyon," Haruhi said far too sternly after the wistful pause, making emergency klaxons cry in my head.

"Yes..?"

"I want the Brigade to be a single cohesive unit again… and… and I don't want anything getting in the way of that. You – you're a lech, but you're one of us… I… I wanna make this all work, so I can't have you going about mucking things up." Slowly, almost a bit indecisively at first, Haruhi reached up to gently caress my cheek. "You know you can catch more flies with honey than vinegar, right?"

"Yeah, so what? Manure works even better."

My comment certainly made Haruhi pause to let a perplexed look pass across her face before a contemplative one stepped in. I could see the mental calculations being carried about in her eyes, pupils rolling about in the upper hemispheres of her eyes, and about her mouth with her tongue jumping about and causing cute little bumps against her lips and cheek, until the equation for an answer arrived with a borderline sadistic smirk.

"Oh… so you like it rough then?"

"Wha- No, I – that is – No! Don't put words in my mouth, woman!"

"Hmmm…"

"Okay, why are you looking at me like that?"

All of a sudden, Haruhi sprung up on her toes and – kissed me. Right on the lips. Just a little peck though.

"Hmm," she mumbled, as she pulled back, pulling her lips inwards, jaw wiggling a little as she seemed to either weigh her lips or options (maybe both).

"Uh… what?" was all I managed after the sudden but soft assault on my lips.

Haruhi got up close, really close, so close I got a good peak down her school uniform, seeing the curvature of her breasts in the small gap. I tried not to make it too obvious, but Haruhi didn't seem to notice either way.

"Hmm… you try it."

"Uh… what?"

"Kissing me. What else?"

"Oh, ah, okay..."

I grabbed Haruhi by the shoulders and firmly planted myself in front of her. She peeked up at me with an edgy look, anxious to see what I would do and how it would be done. The way she stared at me nearly had a suffocating effect on me, but I pushed through my anxiety and gave Haruhi a kiss on the lips. I tried making it as passionate as possible, but:

"No, something's off," Haruhi said broodingly, taking a step backwards after the kiss was over.

Huh?

"Oh, I know," Haruhi exclaimed, seemingly brightening up like a fresh light bulb as an idea arrived. "Push me against the wall."

Too dumbstruck to argue back, I placed my hand against her shoulder and gave it a little push. Haruhi took a step back, and did indeed come in contact with the wall. She stood there for a moment, before she looked at up at me with a superciliously raised eyebrow.

"Is that it?"

"Okay," I said, my confusion starting to frustrate me, "what the hell do you want from me?"

"Sheesh, I thought you were a bit more genre-savvy than this."

Genre-savvy? What, you want me too…? No way.

"Look, do you want to make out?" I asked, nearly giving my head a confused scratch, but was luckily strong enough to fight the stupid urge which would have made me look even dumber. "I mean… if that's what you wanted… you could've… well… asked. That is, if you wanted that… did you?"'

I was so confused. Either Haruhi really did want to maybe make out with me, or she was looking for a fight, a physical one. The latter felt less likely, but not because it would have been weird of Haruhi. In fact, a fight would have been much more believable of her. It was just the way this was all going down. If Haruhi wanted a fight, she would have kicked me in the family jewels or done something almost as painful right from the start.

"I mean, seriously, it's not like I – you know – that is – not like I would have said no or anything… I mean… you know… could you just tell me to shut up already?" I should have just gone ahead and given my head a good, long scratch, because I'd just managed to sound far more stupid than I would have looked by doing so before.

"Wow, you can just really kill the mood unlike anyone else. It's astounding, really," Haruhi said as she crossed her arms, leaned on a hip, and gave me a mocking grin.

"…Wasn't much to kill in my opinion."

"I'm doing you a favor here," Haruhi said as she leaned back against the wall behind her, one knee bent outwards as she brought a foot against the wall.

"What? You're doing me a favor? Isn't it you who…"

Haruhi gave me a glare.

"I'll just shut up now."

"Look, we both have needs. Especially you. So, we should figure out a way in which those needs… can be met."

"Really?"

"No, I'm joking. This is all the most elaborate and unfunny gag ever," Haruhi said, indulging in some rare sarcasm on her part, giving her eyes a healthy roll. I really wish she didn't do it at all. She was difficult enough without it. Besides, sardonic derision was more of my thing than anyone else's, though admittedly, I was no master. But one has to stick to what they know best.

"Look, I really don't want to get into this, but… if we're gonna do this, we need… structure, guidelines, I guess. How exactly are we going to go about this?"

Guidelines? Okay, I know I don't have the dating experience you have had, but since when have there ever been any guidelines? …Well, okay, there's some, like social conventions, polite behavior and the like, but when have you been one to follow any of that? And we're not dating anyway, not really. Or are we? Okay, I'm just confused, I'm more than willing to admit it.

"Kyon, there's always a right way to do things and the wrong way. You can't find the strange if you don't look the right way, like we have as the SOS Brigade."

"And like always, you know the right way, of course."

"Well of course," Haruhi asnwered immediately without event a hint of modesty. "Now… best way to start would probably be with what we don't want."

Sure, that sounds reasonable – wait, what the hell is this? We're not dating! We're just… something. You and me… Something.

"Rule #1: Don't make a big deal about this! Although I can understand that something like this must be astronomically huge for you, I do not want you slowing me and the Brigade down! This is most important! Crucial! Your life depends on it!" Haruhi left the wall to its own devices and jabbed a finger in my face. "You have a disability, much like most of humanity. You let your hormones and social conventions control you, making you think you have to pair up with someone. I'm just relieving this pressure, so you can stay with us. Understand that, okay?"

"Yeah… sure."

There was a little pause.

"So…Any demands you'd like to make?" Haruhi asked, placing her hands on her hips.

"What, you're actually willing to let me decide about something?"

"The way I see it, this is pretty much a business deal. A transaction. I get what I want, you get something you want."

Cute, warm and fuzzy, the way a relationship should be. Great.

Sigh…

"But don't push your luck!" Haruhi quickly added, her cheeks a little pinker now. "You already nearly ruined everything before! But seeing how important this sort of crap is for you, as the Brigade Commander, I'm ready to shoulder the responsibility of aiding those members that are in need! But if you make a big deal about this and drag us all down with you to your level, you'll be castrated! So it really is up to you, whether we do it the easy or hard way!"

I could easily believe that, that there was an easy and a hard way to make out with Haruhi, though I doubted that the easy way was in any way easy to come by.

"Okay… but, wouldn't just castrating me be a lot easier than having to 'service my needs' all the time? For you, of course." I couldn't help put point out the 'little' hole of logic. It simply came as a natural response to Haruhi nowadays.

"Sh-shut up!" Haruhi angrily sputtered, trading up in redness of the cheek variety. "You want to be neutered like the bastard in heat you are?"

"Of course not! I was just saying!" I immediately answered, feeling an uncomfortable phantom pain below at the mere thought of losing man's one true best friend. (Dog people were insane to even hint otherwise.)

"Well keep your stupid observations to yourself! Isn't that what you usually do?" Haruhi asked huffily.

Yes, but how did you know that?

A sticky silence followed, catching careless words like a spider web before they got a chance to fly out of either one of us. Haruhi looked at ground, hiding her blushing face. I also looked away, giving my neck a scratch, feeling my cheeks heat up as well. Neither one of us said anything else for the longest time until one of us finally broke the silence.

"So…you wanna make out then?"

Haruhi looked up at me, blinking once in slight surprise. "Uhmm… that is to say… I wouldn't mind if you were to… do stuff to me if you wanted…"

The cute sight of a blushing Haruhi was an image I had a harder time to cope with than I had managed to imagine. Most scenarios where I would find Haruhi in an embarrassed state involved me laughing and pointing at her spitefully. But this…

I gulped down a deep helping of air that didn't offer much cooling and could feel my own cheeks rise further in temperature.

Slowly Haruhi leveraged herself up on to her toes, a hesitant pause stealing over her for a moment as she stared at me with something a bit like trepidation, before she screwed up her face and kissed me on the lips. I let the kiss last for a moment, drinking in the sensation, before I put a hand on Haruhi's hip and dared to pull her closer.

What followed was a lot of things. It was weird and awkward. It was uncomfortable and messy. It was nerve-racking and scary. It was stifling hot and sometimes made my knee jerk awkwardly, causing something of a short commotion in-between the bigger commotion. And yet… I would have preferred it if it had continued. It stopping would have meant the beginning of something potentially more awkward.

The table saw the most use. I would occasionally manage to get on top but that hardly ever lasted long. It wasn't that I particularly cared where I was, but Haruhi's knees and elbows tended to press painfully against my body if I let her roam freely over me.

As bad as it was though… when Haruhi's lips touched mine, all the uncomfortable sensations were wiped away. All that existed in those seconds that lasted an eternity was her soft, warm flesh on mine. But before I could even really start, it ended… and it was probably my fault.

"He-hey! Wait… nn-not there!" Haruhi suddenly pulled back, biting her lower lip as she looked at me uncertainly.

"Huh? Wha… what's wrong?"

Haruhi pulled down on her shirt, flushing a bit as she looked away. "I… I'm not really ready for that."

As we'd been making out, my hand had, all on its own, made its way up the contours of Haruhi's sleek side, up her smooth skin, to rest at her side, under her shirt, right under her left breast. I hadn't as such intended on anything, but the mind-wiping power of Haruhi's hot kisses should not be underestimated.

"You're feeling self-conscious?" I asked. Then again, I suppose it wasn't really the first time… But still, to see the dauntless and often exhibitionistic Haruhi blushing in front of me despite appearing in front of me in bikinis and the like was… cute, too damn cute.

"Ah… a maiden's heart isn't something to be toyed with, you know!" Haruhi sharply replied, growing redder in the face as she frowned at me. "One needs to prepare for… for the bumbling assault of an awkward little boy!"

"Yeah, right, it's my fault, sorry."

"I think we've had enough for one day anyway," Haruhi said as she eagerly clambered off me, straightening the hem of her dress and her hair.

I sat up on the table and gave my neck a good stretch, only now fully realizing just how uncomfortable a position I'd been in. "So… was that it? We finished?" This was exactly what I'd been dreading, 'the awkwardness that ensued'.

"Uhmm… Well…" Haruhi looked about as bothered as me by the current development, but Haruhi wouldn't have been Haruhi if she hadn't gathered herself for one of her typical stabs at handling any subject in her unique style. "Now, uhum, obviously, we're going to be running into some fairly obvious scheduling issues and the like. You'll probably be ready more often than not, even when the time ill suits you, as right now probably was."

"Oh? But it suited you then?"

"Why else would you be here?"

Ah, of course, how Stupid of me…

"Anyway, it's going to be rather difficult to accommodate your requirements what with my busy schedule and all, so… Yeah, after school – whenever I'm not too busy, of course! – would probably be best. But… maybe not here…"

"Yeah… it felt a bit weird… geography-wise as well."

"Yeah… geography…"

We were quiet after that, completely unaware of where to head on this new path we'd discovered.

"Well, see ya!" Haruhi had eventually exclaimed in her usual manner and hurried off with a faint little satisfied smile.

And that had been that.

As clumsy and troublesome as our first 'proper' time together had been, it hadn't taken too long for both of us to relax and find something like what we'd had under the stars before. All was well in my little world right now. A part of me said it wouldn't last. Another part told that part to shut up and go to hell. And the rest of me was just happy to be there, alive and well with the people that mattered to me.

Life was good… so why did it feel like I needed to convince myself of that?