Sorry if update came later than I expected. We had our classes extended over the summer vacation for our clearance to advance to the following year. I cleared, anyway.

I'm also distracted often by the game Wild ARMs 5: The 5th Vanguard. (Oohh!! AvrilxDean is on my list of to-do's!!!)

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Chapter 03: First Date Proposal

Again, that day, as Kyon would think, that Mr. Okabe gave them a really worthless activity; his tired eyes dwelling upon the blank sheet of paper on his desk as he thought of what to write in it.

"What does he mean by 'Write anything you really like'? He's crazy!" Kyon flustered; his already-tired logic and thinking were trying their best to come up with something to write. At one point, he considered writing 'Ramen' on to the paper but, came up short when he thought about what Haruhi would write on it. Knowing her from top to bottom, Kyon felt a bit inferior if he were to write something worthless while Haruhi would be writing something extravagant, so he took his time to think about the matter. Though, writing something random like more than half of the class might have done was also very tempting. Toying with his ballpen with his right hand, he began searching for the rarest answer to the most common of questions..

"Alright, time's up. Fold your papers in half to hide what you wrote then pass it."

Kyon felt victorious. He had written something pretty significant to his life that he normally didn't even think about, though it was pretty embarrassing to write in the paper. Wearing a relatively big smile on his face, he looked and reached out behind him to receive Haruhi's mystery paper, only to be met with Haruhi, also wearing a smile as big as his. Her present demeanor made Kyon a bit nervous and a bit… excited…

Upon receiving the whole class' papers, Mr. Okabe smiled and held the papers with his two hands. He gave the class a telepathic question, "what do you think I'm gonna do?" The class grew silent, either anticipating or wondering what their teacher is going to do. And, with a quick movement from his hands, he tore the papers apart.

The class gasped at what he did. Some of them were complaining and the others were keeping silent. Kyon, obviously, was one of those who were keeping silent. But, mentally, he was cursing the teacher from head to toe for making him think so hard his mind was already weeping.

"How does it feel that something you really like just got torn in two? I bet it hurts, huh?"

The class has gone silent, apparently understanding the message their teacher was trying to force on to them.

"That feeling you have just felt is only a meager experience from what you will feel when you DO lose something important."

The statement hit everyone hard. Even Haruhi looked like she was deeply affected moved. Oblivious to everyone's eyes, including Kyon's, Haruhi was at her seat, looking at her desk and still feeling sad about the paper torn.

Lunch time has finally arrived. To Kyon, the brief couple of periods before lunch break seemed like it lasted the whole day. Glancing up at the sky, he tried to calm himself and give him the much reassurance he needed.

"Kyon…" a voice called out beside him. Looking to his right, he immediately recognized the yellow eyes and short ponytail meant probably to impress him.

"What is it now, Haruhi?" Kyon asked blankly.

"Um… w… would you… I… I mean…"

Kyon could barely believe what he was seeing; his eyes widened a bit in surprise. Haruhi, Goddess of the World, was actually embarrassed to say something! Yet, she still had a feeling of confidence around her…

"Do you mind if we eat t-together…?"

Now, being SO very un-Haruhi-like, Kyon felt very uncomfortable. His mind raced to find a reasonable explanation for her present behavior. The usual Haruhi would most likely simply grab his tie then drag him around like some kind of rag doll to somewhere he has yet to know.

"Uh… Sure, why not?"

Almost everyday at school, Kyon's lunch would be a bento bought from a local convenience store. It sure sucked on the wallet and Kyon could probably his wallet's loneliness without anything keeping it company. But, that day was different. For the first time, and probably not the last time in his life, a girl has actually made lunch for him. And for Kyon, the most unbelievable fact about it is that the girl was none other than his Brigade Chief, Haruhi Suzumiya.

The setting was at the school rooftop together with clear blue skies and gentle breeze. They ate silently together, side-by-side. Both of them desired to end the silence but couldn't quite find the words to do it. For what the brief twenty minutes of being alone with each other seemed like an hour, they sat, eating without word, only relishing their moments of being with each other.

Then, as if by cue, two students slowly opened the rooftop door. One was a boy and the other, a girl. Both possessed such qualities of perfection others had to work their bones off just to come close. Without letting the two lovebirds notice, the boy snuck up close to them and gently tapped Kyon's shoulder.

"Well, we meet again, Kyon."

The sudden, unexpected disturbance made Kyon jump from his seating position, almost coughing up his lunch in surprise.

"What are you doing here, Shura?"

"Nothing special. We were going to eat lunch here when we saw you two together…"

Being seen together with Kyon has apparently left its mark on
Haruhi. Her heart was practically running on nitro. Her mind divided itself to two factions; one regretting her decision of asking Kyon out for lunch, and the other thanking Shura for breaking the silence between them. But the thing was, she didn't even know that they ate at the rooftop. She had her experience of past excursions there as a precaution that no one uses that place. So something didn't quite fit in Shura's description. But, being the careless person she was, merely shrugged it off as a recently-born habit.

"It seems as though we have disturbed you. Should we eat at another location?" Shura said. By now, his rich accent was already unnerving to both Kyon and Haruhi. They ignored it for the time being, only commenting on his bad timing for his entrance.

By Haruhi and Kyon's insistence for them to eat together, they did. Their conversations were limited to Kyon-Shura-Haruhi with Sarah not speaking too often except when asked for her opinion. The topics were mostly about the past exploitations of the SOS Brigade (computer blackmail, baseball game, remote island vacation, etc.) in which Shura was particularly interested in, especially about the faked murder on their supposedly peaceful outing. It was until Haruhi unwittingly touched another topic.

"Your lunch looks good. Who made it?"

A curious look doused itself onto Kyon and Shura's faces. Not noticing it earlier, Kyon took a quick glance at the young man's lunch just beside him. It was well-made indeed. Half of the box lunch was rice with a meager heart-shaped topping; what it was is a mystery to him. The other half was laden with decorative side-dishes made to compliment the others perfectly; egg, sea foods, meat, etc. It was obvious that whoever made the bento wanted him the best.

His expression never did falter when he answered the question without hesitation, confident of the person in question.

"Sarah made this herself. She makes breakfast and dinner too…" Shura paused for a moment, leaving Haruhi and Kyon anticipating the incoming question he had. "Yours was made by Suzumiya-san, correct?"

Haruhi and Kyon's face turned redder than tomatoes. Both of them couldn't blame their redness due to the unusual warmness and refreshing breeze on that day. They were lost for words but still rushed to say something to the curious, mild-mannered amateur SOS Brigade member.

"You don't have to answer my question. I believe that it is none of my business what you two share with each other. If you don't like me sticking my nose onto your lives then excuse me and I'm sorry. However…" Shura paused again, grunted, then continued with his statement. "I do like it when people poke their noses in to my life." And with that, the bell rang.

"Well, we have a report to perform, so I should excuse myself for now…" And with that, Shura and Sarah left them alone. Kyon huffed, looked and met Haruhi's eyes staring at his own. They smiled at each other and at the rare experience they just had.

"That Shura character, he's really something…" Haruhi said; her eyes trailing towards the door from whence they came. Kyon couldn't agree more.

"Yup. He is pretty unusual, especially that girl he's always with."

"What, you've fallen for her too?" Haruhi joked, elbowing Kyon's arm.

"No!" Kyon retorted. "It's just I'm surprised someone could stay silent and motionless longer than Nagato can. I mean, isn't she strange as it is?"

"I guess you're right. So, is it Yuki who you've fallen for now?"

Kyon's eyebrows furrowed and his bottom lip moved forward, hating being teased like that. Obviously, he couldn't think of a good comeback to say to her. Haruhi smiled and elbowed him again, this time, with more strength.

"Come on! I was just joking! Cheer up! No need to pout!" Haruhi said, trying to cheer him up while now slapping his shoulder. Kyon could hear his arm cry out in pain. His eyes were closed so he wondered why the warm feeling beside him disappeared. He found out the reason why when he did open his eyes. "Get a move-up Kyon! We're gonna be late!"

Haruhi was already at the passageway of the door, waving at him, beckoning him to follow her. Her face had its usual first-class smile that made Kyon wonder if it was because of it that he fell for her, but immediately shook it off, knowing that it wasn't because of THAT. He got up, and walked towards Haruhi; a small smile was on his face, yelling at Haruhi to notice it.

"Now, she's back to normal…" was the thought that crossed Kyon's mind. "So, should I ask her?"

As he walked past Haruhi, she grabbed his elbow, causing him to stop from both the surprise, and her grip. At that moment, he felt like someone was watching them. But Haruhi was at a higher priority than that. He looked back to see her being out-of-character again. This time, she was holding his hand with both of hers tenderly, as if lovingly. He flinched at the expression she was wearing. For one moment when he last looked at her, she was yelling at him to hurry up before they get charged with cutting classes. But the next moment, this moment, her mood has completely turned upside-down.

She also flinched, for the third time; she was unable to speak out to someone clearly. She wanted to ask him out the following Saturday but just could get the word to come out of her mouth. She stood there, holding on to his hands without a word leaving her lips.

"By the way, I've been meaning to ask you this," Kyon suddenly blurted out of nowhere. "Are you free this Saturday afternoon?"

It was as if Haruhi's word were taken right from her mind. Her eyes darted to look at Kyon; both of their faces were tinted red only, Haruhi looked as if she was about to cry…

"I mean… if you're busy the—"

"I'll go…"

"—n I understand… …uhh… what?"

"I'm free this Saturday, so I'll go…"

Her heart was ablaze. Her mind was fluttering and her thoughts were spinning. Unaware that Kyon's sudden date proposal was instigated a bit by her, she couldn't believe what just happened. Her smile grew to an expression of great joy as tears started running down her cheek. She threw herself onto Kyon's arms, crying her heart out, desperately wanting Kyon to comfort her. Kyon, on the other hand, allowed himself to resist normal logic; to break the comfort being shared between them and get themselves to class.

Last period was finally over. Kyon was back to normal, trying to figure out what the night has in store for him. Finished with arranging his school items, his view turned around to catch a glimpse of his Brigade Chief, who was now having trouble fitting something into her small bag. It was a medium-sized shoe box. Who knows where it came from but it seemed to contain something soft as Haruhi's fervent rocking of it didn't even make a sound.

Curiosity killed the cat, as they say. But he couldn't help it.

"What's that?"

Haruhi looked at him, apparently glad that he noticed. Being back to her normal self, he suddenly regretted asking her that question as she was sure to have something for him to do. And, sure enough, she had something for him.

"Kyon…"

"What is it?"

"Would you be a dear and give this box to Yuki?"

The word 'dear' made Kyon feel goose bumps on his skin. Where the word came from, he wanted to know. From heaven maybe? He doesn't have a clue…

Haruhi didn't give Kyon any chance to ask what it contained. He couldn't peek inside it anyway, as it had a small lock on the side. Without a word, she ran out the door after waving bye-bye. With a sigh of both relief and exasperation, he started his tedious walk towards the SOS Brigade clubroom.

"I wonder what this box holds. It's pretty light for its size…"

In wonder, Kyon looked at the ceiling while still heading to the clubroom, trying to guess what the mystery box contained. To him, the most likely object it held was clothes, or something along those lines. But, considering that it was owned by Nagato and was borrowed by Haruhi, he doubted his original thoughts and started guessing things a lot more unusual…

Maybe by coincidence or by fate, a teacher was scolding a group of student at the hallway, blocking the shortest way to the clubroom. The incident made Kyon take a longer route to the room, taking him through the shoe lockers. Incidentally, Yuki Nagato was there, already preparing to head home. Or so he thought; Nagato was actually waiting for him. He thought of the earlier obstruction as a blessing from God, err… Haruhi; not getting him tired from the lengthy walk to and from the SOS Brigade clubroom, or base as Haruhi liked to call it recently.

Raising his hand in substitute for waving it, he greeted Nagato with a not-so-unusual "Yo! Konnichiwa!" Nagato acknowledged the normal greeting and returned it with her usual blank look.

"Haruhi wanted to return this to you and, well… she asked me instead. Here…" Kyon handed the book to Nagato, who accepted it without showing any signs of gratitude whatsoever. When he thought about it, the only time when he saw her eyes warm up from their liquid helium state was when he held her after her battle with Ryoko Asakura. Seeing no response, he wanted more than ever to go home. He bid Nagato farewell and walked towards the exit, almost running through it, to escape school like it was reality. But then, someone stopped him or rather, he stopped because of that someone. It was the esper, Itsuki, smiling at him as always. But this time, his smile felt like it was pushing him away from the exit, trying to keep him there for some reason.

"Hello there, Kyon-kun." The honorific annoyed him yet again. He was about to say something along the line of 'get away from me' when Itsuki continued his statement; his voice demanding his full attention. "We need to discuss something, along with Nagato-san."

Kyon could feel the whole world pout, sympathizing for him.

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Agh! It's longer than I expected it to be… Anyways… the next chapter will be about Shura's intentions.

Special thanks to my friends for giving me with the much inspiration I needed. No thanks to Jan (pen name) for having this copy for two days without editing it as far as a simple single grammar error.

Review! Review! Review! I'd also like to know if you'd like Shura to be either an antagonist or a support character. Opinions are very much appreciated! Please, share your ideas!