April 19th. Saturday Noon. Room 107
The next morning I woke up with the sun shining through the window and straight into my eyes. I turned away from the light and rubbed my eyes with a heavy sigh. I quickly noticed that I had fallen asleep with my back to the wall, which explained the ache I felt all over my back. Once my eyesight became clear I glanced around at my surroundings…Haruhi was sitting by the desk, hunched over it, and I could hear that she was scribbling something. She was wearing an outfit I hadn't seen before, just a purple sweater and a blue skirt, and her hair was neatly tied into a bun the same way it was yesterday. Her trademarked ribbon was nowhere to be seen, probably still in my traveling case.
"About time you woke up," Haruhi said without turning her attention away from the desk, "It's noon already, how long did you stay up?"
"I'm not sure…" I said and kept rubbing my eyes in an attempt to wash the grogginess away.
"Well, I woke up hours ago," Haruhi declared, stopped writing and rubbed her neck with one hand, "but my neck is still killing me…let's try not to sleep so awkwardly again."
"Agreed," I mumbled and rubbed my aching back.
"You didn't do that on purpose, did you?" Haruhi accused and turned around to face me, "you insisted that we'd watch that boring old drama so I'd fall asleep, and then you'd get to enjoy having me cuddled up against you all night!"
"…Yes," I said absently and stood up, rubbing my left shoulder which had just begun to ache a little, "You fell helplessly into my trap. It was fantastic."
Haruhi didn't respond, just hurriedly turned her head back to the desk and resumed writing.
"So…you're keeping the bun?" I asked.
"Yeah, thought I'd try a different look now that we're in hiding," Haruhi said and adjusted the pin holding the bun together, "What do you think?"
"It's…classy," I mumbled, hoping I had stumbled on the right word, judging from Haruhis grin I picked the right one.
"What are you working on there, anyway?" I asked and took a few steps forward to I could see what she was writing.
"Letters, I bought a few in the gift shop downstairs this morning," she said with a hint of excitement, "these people you say are after us couldn't possibly track letters, could they? I mean they'd never be able to tell where it came from if we just drop it off at a random mailbox?"
"Well…I don't know about that…" I said warily, "I think they could have some way of using that to narrow their search ring down..."
"We'll just ask the man at the welcome desk to mail this in two days, We'll be far from here in two days anyway, right?" Haruhi suggested, and by 'suggested' I mean 'explained what she was going to do'.
"…fine, guess it wouldn't help them too much if we're cautious, just be careful not to say anything to specific in those letters," I conceded.
"Of course! I know what I'm doing!" Haruhi declared and turned back to her writing.
I leaned over her shoulder and counted the postcards on the desk.
"Why six letters?" I asked.
"Mikuru, Yuki, Tsuryua, Koizumi and two for our families," Haruhi explained.
"…our families aren't at home, they won't get the letters," I said cautiously, "I already told you…they we're relocated."
"You just told me about my family, your folks got relocated to? But yeah…I remember," Haruhi muttered, "but someone has to notice when a letter from me arrives at home, someone must tell them. I'm sure they will!"
Come to think of it, aside from Tsuruya, I don't think anybody of the recipients of these letters will necessarily be able to receive them, they may not be staying at home…oh well, on the off chance that these letters do make it to their recipients…
"I'd actually like to add one," I said as if I was thinking out loud, trying to pass my request of as trivial.
"What?" Haruhi asked and gave me a wary look, "To who? Taniguchi?"
"No…to Sasaki," I said and casually glanced out the window, strategically avoiding eye contact.
Haruhi instantly made a fierce frown.
"What? Why her?" she demanded.
"Well you see…" I mumbled and sighed heavily, rubbing my forehead, "…might as well come clean about her now that I'm telling you…stuff."
Haruhi have me a scrutinizing stare, leaned back in her chair and crossed both her arms and legs.
"Please do," she said sternly.
"Sasaki was…aware of the fact that we could be in danger," I explained.
"What? Why would she know that?" Haruhi asked and raised an eyebrow.
"She sort of…stumbled into this, not unlike me, she's aware of some of the things that are going on and knew this could be escalating."
"She did? Is that…that's why you were meeting her?" Haruhi asked like she'd just discovered a missing piece in a complex puzzle that had been baffling her for a good while.
"Yes. She even specifically asked me to stay in touch so she'd know I was safe if things turned sour…she's probably worried now that we've disappeared."
Haruhi turned her gaze away from me and stared at the letters she'd been writing. What followed was a full half minute of awkward silence while Haruhi frowned at her letters.
"I see," she finally stated without losing her frown, "well, I already bought all these letters, you can buy one for her yourself. And you still have to write the letter to your family!"
"Right…I'm just going to take a shower and take a trip to the gift shop first…" I said and headed for the door.
"Kyon!" Haruhi called before I reached the door.
"What?" I asked her and turned around.
She pointed at a small plastic bag she had on her desk, "I forgot to give you these yesterday," she said.
I cautiously peaked into the bag, in it was a deodorant, shampoo and such…
"...thanks," I said, grabbed the bag and left the room.
I returned to my room, took a shower and changed into fresh clothes, and then found my way to the gift shop. There was a rack there with generic tourist postcards, I just grabbed one that had a view of the ocean on it and bought it. Then I returned to Haruhi. When I got to her room she was sitting on the bed watching the TV with a thoughtful look in her eyes.
"Could you put your name on the cards I've written?" She asked, "You know, just a signature. Except for the one to my parents, no need for them to know I spent the night at a hotel with a boy…"
"…sure," I said, and sat down by the desk. I read what Haruhi had written, it wasn't much more than reassurance that the two of us were fine and would return as soon as we could, except the one to Tsuruya included a get-well wish because of her smoke poisoning. I wasn't sure what to write to my Family…'Hello Mom and Dad, I narrowly escaped death yesterday and shared a bed with a godlike being last night. Will return home once the Aliens, Espers and time travelers are taken care of'….I just copied more or less what Haruhi wrote to her parents. Then I had to compose the letter to Sasaki…I simply wrote 'To Sasaki; We both escaped, we're both safe.' I then copied the address Haruhi had written on Koizumis card, I don't remember any addresses but Koizumi should be able to forward it for me. Why does Haruhi remember where we all live...
"There…done," I declared once I was done putting my signature on all the letters.
"Let me see," Haruhi said, stood up and approached me to examine the letters. She glanced over my signature on the postcards she had written, and then read what I had written to Sasaki.
"This is what you're sending her?" She asked with a strange look, don't know what she was expecting…
"Yes, I think that's enough."
"Alright," Haruhi said, put down Sasakis card, grabbed her pen and signed her signature on the letter, "There, we can mail these now…but why did you put Koizumis address on Sasakis card?"
"He'll be able to forward it for me," I explained.
"You don't remember her address? He'll know it?" Haruhi asked and stacked the cards.
"Any reason I should know her address? Koizumi can look it up for me. He knows who she is, and he's…resourceful." I said.
Hope that wasn't too suspicious…
Haruhi didn't answer, just put the cards in her pocket and then began packing her stuff. I followed her example and returned to my room to pack my stuff. Both the traveling case with my casual things, and my other bag with my…other things. There wasn't much to pack so I finished quickly and left the room. Out in the hallway I found Haruhi waiting for me. As soon as she noticed me she walked on ahead and I followed after.
"So…guess we'll be checking out now?" I asked as a chased after her down the stairs.
"Yeah, didn't you say we'd have to keep moving?" Haruhi said, determined as ever in her assumed leadership role.
"I did…I'm not sure exactly where this town we're in is located, but I'm not completely oblivious to my home region…I'm pretty sure there's a larger city north of here. I was thinking we'd go there, there should be a train route from here to there….and there should be an international airport, docks and such over there, we can think of the next move once we're there," I said.
"Think of it there? You still don't have a plan?" Haruhi asked, "I assumed you had a destination in mind already."
"No…the plan was not to have a plan, just to disappear and hide, keep moving, let's just go to that city" I said.
"I see," she said, "That approach won't do for long…but we can talk about it once we're on the road."
We got downstairs and approached the welcome desk. The clerk agreed to mail the letters in two days time after Haruhi convinced him to do it, and then he called us a cab. We didn't talk much while we were waiting for him to arrive, Haruhi wasn't paying any attention to anything around us and seemed to have plenty on her mind…once the cab arrived we asked him to take us to the nearest major train station, which he did, and before I knew It we were on a train headed north.
Haruhi and I were sat side by side in the crowded train. The seating arraignment was much like a bus, just pairs of seats lined up in rows. Every seat in the train was taken and judging by the noise everyone was talking, trying their best to have conversation over the sound of the engine rumbling and the noise of children crying. It wasn't too loud to talk, but loud enough to annoy.
"You couldn't buy better seats than this?" Haruhi muttered crossly and stared out the window right next to her, having claimed the window seat earlier.
"We have to save our money, I don't know how long we have to make it last," I explained, raising my voice just a bit more than I had to.
Haruhi didn't respond, just kept looking outside. The view was quick to turn from buildings and concrete to a tranquil countryside as we settled in for what was going to be a long ride. That city I was thinking of had been further away than I originally thought, but we went ahead with going there anyway.
"So," Haruhi said absently while keeping her eyes fixed on the passing scenery, "is this what we'll be doing? Going from a hotel from a hotel, spending half the day in trains?"
"I don't know…" I said and put down a magazine I had been reading but had long since lost interest in, "once we've gone far enough and been hidden long enough, our trail should've gone cold and we could stay in one place, I guess"
"What do you mean?" Haruhi asked, some frustration in her voice, "Once our trail has gone cold? We're just two kids traveling though Japan, what trail could we be leaving?"
"I don't know…but I'm not taking any chances," I said and glanced out the window, optimistically checking if our destination was in sight yet, "we're going as far as we can."
After Fujiwara tracked us down I'm not trusting my own ability to hide, and if Nagato could keep track of us those other agents must be able to find us eventually…for now, we must keep moving.
"I see…so we'll be leaving Japan?" Haruhi said thoughtfully and stared ahead while rubbing her chin the way generals do in the movies when they're planning their campaigns, "Wouldn't that be worse? I mean, we don't really blend into other countries as well as we blend in here."
"I'm not sure…" I said and leaned back into my seat, adjusting it slightly in a futile attempt to get comfortable, "there are a few Japanese-speaking communities abroad where we could probably blend in, or at least we wouldn't stick out too much there, Besides, there must be thousands of Japanese tourists all over the world…isn't your English good? We could get by in many places just by speaking English."
I'm not sure if I was convincing Haruhi or myself that going abroad was a good idea…
"My English is fine, I would be more worried about your English," Haruhi said and tried to adjust her seat herself, which didn't help much judging by the contempt in her eyes when she stared at the adjustment lever, "but there can't be that many Japanese teenagers traveling in the middle of the school year."
"Yeah, well…I don't think they can do a worldwide search for Japanese teenagers," I said.
"You sound convinced," Haruhi said and gave me an examining look, "So you do think we should leave Japan?"
"I don't know…" I said and turned my neck to face her, "I guess we could blend in with tourists in Europe or immigrant communities in North or South America, although maybe it would be smarter to travel shorter distances and just go to Korea, Russia or China…I had passports to South Africa and some other countries so we have more options."
Haruhi began rubbing her forehead, shamelessly mirroring my signature move, and then began to chuckle.
"What's so funny?" I asked.
"I finally let you take charge, ask you where you want to go and you can't even answer which continent?" she said amused.
I allowed myself a slightly exhausted laughter, the girl has a point…
"I'm new at this, and I have a plan for today so…I'll get better at this as I go," I said.
"I should hope so," Haruhi said and turned to continue staring out the window, "The plan is then just to find a hotel in the next city, then find another place and eventually find somewhere we can stay for a longer time?"
"That sounds about right," I said and leaned back into my seat, "we should find some place where we can wait this out."
"But…what is 'this'," Haruhi asked, "You've been really vague about everything…who are these people? What are they doing?"
I expected her to want more answers, even if I did tell her I couldn't say too much…I guess there's no harm in answering that, as I don't know too much myself.
"I don't really know," I said, "They've sort of been in the shadows this whole time, even if I've had the threat of them hanging over me for a while. And I'm not sure what they're doing…I assume they're looking for us and struggling with my…'associates.' I don't know what they're capable of so I'm just assuming the worst."
"…for some time you say…" Haruhi muttered and looked at me with suspicion in her eyes , "When we were seeing that movie…and you asked me if having secret organizations spying on us and plotting to kidnap me would improve the situation…"
"…yes," I admitted, "I was just…I don't remember what was going through my head…guess I wanted to know how you would feel about that…"
Haruhi gave me a scrutinizing look that lasted a full minute while I returned the look, not daring to look away. She said nothing, just kept…judging me. I don't even think I saw her blink…
"Violated," she finally said sternly, crossed her arms, leaned back into her seat and stared straight ahead.
"Yeah…so did I…" I said and mirrored her posture.
"And you said Sasaki knew…" Haruhi said the same way she would accuse me off an insult, "Is there anyone else that knew about this?"
She just asked a question I can't answer in full honestly. I can't reveal the SOS brigade was in on this…there are some things I'm not ready to explain to her, and the fact that all of her friends were keeping stuff away from her…that has to stay a secret for now, I can take the blame for all of us, the other have their hands full as it is.
"…Tachibana knew," I admitted
"What?" Haruhi asked sharply, straightened her back and shifty turned her head towards me in one sudden motion, fixing her eyes on me with a resentful glare, "She knew? Is that why you were meeting her that day?"
"Yes…you never wondered why we were meeting?" I asked.
"I wasn't interested in whatever flimsy pretext she used to lure you into her clutches," Haruhi accused and wagged a finger at me, "you were oblivious enough to fall for pretty much anything."
"…her clutches?"
"You heard right," Haruh said with a slight growl and leaned back into her seat without talking those resentful eyes of me for even a second, "So, There was Tachibana, anyone else?"
"No. Not that I'm aware of, at least."
That wasn't a half-truth or anything, that was simply a lie…a necessary one.
"I see," she said crossly and turned her eyes back to the view of the countryside outside the window.
We didn't speak again for a good while after that. I just tried to tune out, this train ride was going to take hours…
"This thing you say I have locked within me…" Haruhi finally said after a long period of silence, as if she was thinking out loud.
"Haruhi," I said a bit sternly, "This train is full of people…can we not discuss that here?"
"What?" She asked annoyed, "We already talked about some…stuff, the others here couldn't possibly hear us over all the noise."
"Still," I said, "Just…not here, not now."
"…Fine," She conceded.
There still was a long time left of the train ride after that. We spent it discussing the pros and cons of the various countries we could go to, and maybe places we'd like to visit once we were there. We also talked about nearby cities we might want to visit. This wasn't a holyday, but I guess there's no reason not to stop and smell the roses along the way…a lot of the time also went into reading the few utterly uninteresting magazines I had and just mindlessly staring at the view…I've never liked long train rides.
When we finally arrived at our destination, we quickly found our luggage and Haruhi plowed through the crowd while I chased after, allowing us to beat the rush and get a cab without waiting. Haruhi demanded that the driver would take us to a nice hotel. It was dark already and there was a heavy rain so I couldn't really tell where he was driving us, but he eventually stopped in front of what was, judging from the entrance, a very respectable hotel.
We hurried out of the cab and into the hotel, briefly enduring the downpour.
"I know I asked the cab driver for a nice hotel, but are you sure you wanna stay here? It's a bit fancy for our budget, isn't it?" Haruhi asked and glanced around the spacious and elaborately decorated lobby. The floor was white marble and the walls where black with golden patterns…maybe it didn't really match but I it still looked impressive. Impressive and expensive.
"I guess it is…but I'm exhausted from sitting in that train all day, I don't want to go look for another hotel... this will be alright, I'm sure not all their rooms are out of our budget," I said and kept walking towards the welcome desk, my every step echoing in the vast and mostly empty lobby.
"You know, there's no point in us talking separate rooms if you're just gonna sneak your way into my bed again," Haruhi muttered once we arrived at the welcome desk.
The clerk gave us a strange look. He was dressed as sharply as you would expect of a businessman on his way to an important meeting, and he made me feel underdressed even if I was just checking into a hotel.
"What do you have available?" I asked him.
"Our available single-bed rooms are perhaps a bit…" He gave us an examining look from top bottom, evaluating our every feature it seemed, "…extravagant for your tastes, we do have a few more modest two-person-rooms with separate beds and a sizable bathroom, if that suits your…needs."
He named the price, which was rather high but still acceptable…I pondered that for a brief moment, and then turned to Haruhi.
"That okay with you?" I asked her, careful to keep my tone completely neutral.
"What? Sharing the room or having separate beds?" Haruhi said as if she was being asked something completely trivial, "I can deal with both."
"Alright then," I said and turned back to the clerk, "We'll take the one with separate beds."
We got the keys to a ´Room 24´, and quickly found our way to it without stopping to admire the works of arts all over the walls. The room had two beds, each with its own solid oak nightstand with impressive and detailed carvings, and they did not look cheap. I don't even know the name of the fabric the sheets are made of…The beds were about two meters apart and front of them was a sizeable flat screen television. Next to the TV was the door to the bathroom, and at the far end of the room there was even a sliding door to a small balcony. The clerk may have described the room as 'modest' room but I still felt that maybe we should've picked a more modest hotel…
Haruhi didn't say much, just surveyed the room, put her bag down on the bed further from the door, grabbed some things out of it, went into the bathroom and soon I heard that she was talking a shower.
I placed my bags on the other bed and opened the bag the president had given me. Now that I'm in the comfort of a good hotel room, adequately rested and have had time to process this whole mess I can take a better look at what I have. First I counted the money. We had spent more than I liked these past few days but we still had most of it, plenty I would say. Then I took a closer look at the passports.
There we had Russian, Chinese and South Korean. Those were the obvious choices, relatively short distance and possibly easier to blend in as they should be the most used to Japanese people, although that just my best guess. There was the American and Brazilian, I think they do have some Japanese speaking communities but I don't really know much about them...Then there's the French, British and German. We could probably pass of as tourists in all of those countries, and I've heard something about the Germans having some Japanese communities. The South African one is a bit of wildcard, I think I could get by on English there but…it's filed under 'maybe'. I also had left to consider how safe we would be, not just from our pursuers but just from common criminals…
Now that I think about it, we shouldn't be leaving all our eggs in the same basket, Haruhi should be keeping some of this stuff. The passports came in pairs, I took the Chinese, French, Brazilian and South African passports and placed them on Harhuis bed. Then I took one of the roll of yens, about a fourth of our remaining yens, and placed them on her nightstand. I'm keeping the foreign currency, it' not like Haruhi can use it for now. Other stuff in the bag wasn't really things I could divide, except the jewels. The jewel bag had a few rings, necklaces and bracelets in it, and although I'm not an expert I'm pretty sure these are valuable. We were probably supposed to use them for bartering and such. I put one of the bracelets aside, a golden chain with a small plate that had an engraving of a traditional Chinese dragon, which I felt was fitting for Haruhi to carry. I also took picked one of the necklaces, a thin gold chain with a small medal. On the front was an engraving of a monk and on the backside there was an inscription that read 'St. Anthony of Padua. Patron Saint of lost things.' Isn't Haruhi supposed to be lost? It seems fitting that she should have this. Finally, I picked out one of the rings, a silver one with a red gemstone. She can carry those three pieces, just in case. I placed them on her nightstand and left the rest of them in my bag.
After I was done distributing the wealth I laid down on my bed and turned on the television. After mindlessly flipping thought the channels without finding anything of interest I stopped at a news station. There wasn't anything being reported that was relevant to us, I guess if there is any fighting going on it's being done away from the eyes of the public. And I suppose no one has noticed the barrier the domain erected, and there was nothing new about the fire at the school…I changed the channel and found some sitcom that could distract me for a short while
"What's all this," Haruhi asked once she came out of the bathroom and noticed the stuff I had left on her bed. She had put on that one piece she had on last night, a small plain black one, and she had put she same amount of effort into her makeup as she did yesterday. She also was carrying a small black purse I hadn't seen before, one that matched the classiness of her dress.
"I was thinking you could carry a part of our stuff," I explained while keeping my eyes on the sitcom and gestured at her nightstand, "You can take half the passports, some of the money and those pieces of jewelry. Don't get too attached to them, we might need to sell them before this is over."
Haruhi sat down next to her nightstand, crossed her legs and stared at the jewelry with a wary look
"Are these jewels supposed to be a part of a disguise?" Haruhi asked and cautiously picked up the necklace, lifting her hand over her head so the medallion would be on the same level as her eyes.
"I hadn't thought of that," I admitted, " I guess that could make sense…most of it had some sort of culturally meaningful imagery, the Chinese dragon on the bracelet and the catholic saint on the necklace…still, I didn't see anything on that ring."
Haruhi put down the necklace, picked up the ring and examined it closely.
"It says 'yours forever' on the inside", she said suspiciously and gave me an especially apprehensive look.
Koizumi, you bastard. Your people put an engagement ring in there? It didn't even occur to me that it was one, you always see them as golden with a white diamond, I've never seen a silver one with a red ruby…
"Well…you hang onto that one then," I said, using my fantastic sense of humor to dodge that bullet.
"…right," Haruhi mumbled and carefully placed the ring on the index finger of her right hand. Take care to note that; index finger, not ring finger.
"You don't have to wear them, just keep them…in case," I said.
"They're nice," she said, picked up the necklace, unhooked the chain and placed it around her neck, "I'll use them tonight."
"Tonight? Why are you dressed up anyway?" I asked.
"I wanna go to that restaurant downstairs," she said, picked up the bracelet and placed it on her left wrist.
"What? Don't you think that could be a bit expensive?" I asked and turned my attention away from the television to face Haruhi. I had only seen her from the corner of my eye till now, looking directly at her made me immediately change my mind about a dinner being too expensive, for some reason.
"Too expensive? We haven't had a proper meal in two days and now we have a restaurant right downstairs that we can go to without leaving the hotel. I don't care if it's a tad snobby, we're going", she demanded, placed her hands in her hips and leaned forward, clearly conveying that indeed, we're going.
"But I'm sure they have a dress code…" I said, "Easy for you to fit in with all that jewelry and that dress, I just have plain shirts and my school tie."
"Just get dressed," she said impatiently and tapped her foot, "I'm sure that if you stand next to me, it'll all even out and we'll get in."
I went along with her plan. I took a quick shower and put on one of the shirts I had bought and added my school tie to look more presentable. Before we left the room we placed our valuables, other than the small amount of money I carried and the jewels Haruhi had on, in a safe that came with the room.
The waiter who received us gave me a kind of a judging glare when we approached him, but once he saw Haruhi he apparently he decided that we did, in fact, even each other out, showed us to a table and handed us our menus.
The restaurant was almost fully booked, and yet with all that people there was hardly any noise, the only sounds where people talking softly and the music coming from a pianist playing a calming melody on a grand piano at the other end of the restaurant. The floor and walls were all black with the same elaborate patterns as we saw in the lobby, the tables were made of sturdy oak with artistic carvings and the seats where made of heavenly comfortable leather, there were even candles placed in shining silver candle stands on every table to top it all off. I glanced over the leather-bound menu and saw some prices high enough to make me feel a sting in my stomach, but judging from what the others were eating at least the food was good.
"Two days ago, would you've pictured us eating at a place like this?" I said slightly amused once I was done taking the place in.
"No," Haruhi said and opened her menu, "but I think that says more about you than it does about me,"
I began composing a response in my head, but decided to let that go as she was partially right...normally, you really wouldn't see me talking a girl to such a fancy restaurant. I'm beginning to understand why the time travelers are so cautious about affecting the future, events really do have effects that you wouldn't predict. The escalation of the conflict had the effect of Haruhi and I going to an expensive restaurant. It also had the effect of me accidently giving her an engagement ring…I'm still amazed how I managed to fall into that trap, you'd think that would be easy to avoid.
"So, we can finally talk now?" Haruhi asked after flipping through the menu for a while.
"Talk? What do you mean? What about?" I said.
"About, you now, whatever it is you say I have locked within me," Haruhi said with a soft but decisive voice and lowered her menu so she could glare at me over it.
"…I already told you…I can't tell you, and there are people here too," I explained.
"Nobody's listening," Haruhi whispered, leaned forward and spoke in hushed tones, "common, tell me, is I some sort of nano-robotics? Some magical power? Am I part of some ancient mystical bloodline? Am I some mutation? Tell me!"
How did she know about the nano-robots…
"Haruhi…" I said cautiously and lowered my own menu, "…I already explained…if I told you, I'd be making it worse."
"Even if you don't tell me what it is, can't you tell me what it does? How it works?"
"…No, that would be just as bad," I explained.
Haruhi gave me a scowl and then turned back to her menu.
"You're not making this easy," she said sternly without looking up, "I'm following you almost just on faith and you can't even tell me why people are after me?"
"There's nothing I can do about that…I didn't decide how this works," I defended, "you don't need to blame me. besides, I thought maybe you'd be a little bit excited about this…you made that whole speech once about how you hated the idea of being just one in a million, and now I tell you that you really are special…"
"I give you a speech about how much I hate being just one in a million, and you think I'll be happy about taking a trip were the point is specifically to completely disappear into the crowd?" She shot back, closed her menu and put it down, "I can't really decide how I feel about this if you don't tell me what it is."
"…then…We're at an impasse," I said and also put my menu down, meeting her glare.
Haruhi stared down and began fiddling with the pages of her menu. "So it seems," she said disappointed.
A moment later the waiter arrived.
"Have you made your choice?" He asked me.
"I'll have the Lasagna," Haruhi said and handed the waiter the menu.
"I'll have the steak," I said and handed him my mine.
"Wasn't the steak rather expensive?" Haruhi accused once the waiter was out of earshot.
"I've earned it," I said and rubbed my forehead.
"Sorry if this is too much of a chore for you," Haruhi accused, crossed her arms and leaned forward, severely limiting my personal space, "Are you just here because you have to? You stumbled into something you have no control over and now you're trapped, stuck with me?"
…where did that come from? Guess she's been letting some bad thoughts fester…
"No…it's not like that," I said tiredly, placed my right elbow on the table and resting my head in my hand, "although…maybe, I don't know, at first…"
"At first? What do you mean by that?" Haruhi said and raised an eyebrow.
I sighed…
"You remember when I was in that coma?" I asked after talking a moment to pick my words.
"Do I remember? I was there…all three days of it," She said, looked down and fiddled with her bracelet with a conflicted look.
"Around that time I was offered a…clean break of sorts," I said.
"…A clean break?"
"A way out, basically I could've just walked away from you, the SOS brigade, the whole thing. I refused," I said while doing my best to contain the frustration I was feeling with hearing all these accusations repeated like this was my fault.
Haruhi looked up again and stared at me with a cautious look, but if I didn't know any better I'd say there was hint of appreciation there, not that I'd be familiar with that look on her.
"So why didn't you walk away?" She asked and leaned back, keeping her hands crossed.
"Maybe I'm just a creature of habit," I said, shrugged and leaned back, "Or maybe I like the life I had, I honestly though my life would be far more boring if I walked away from you guys…so I didn't."
"…You chose this because you thought it would be interesting?" she asked skeptical.
"You're saying it isn't? At least things were far less interesting for me before you founded the brigade," I said.
"Yeah…it was that way for me to," Haruhi said absently, made a fist with her right hand, lifted it close to her face and began adjusting her ring with her other hand, "although I think things were even more interesting for you, sneaking around with girls and talking to secret organizations…"
"I think things are plenty interesting for the both of us right now," I said and glanced at the people around us. Nobody appeared to be listening, and a good thing to, who knows what people would think…
There was a short silence after that. Haruhi appeared to be looking at the people around her like I did, and I enjoyed the moment of peace by staring at the pianist practicing his art. A short while later our meals arrived. My steak looked juicy and delicious, and both of us had received generous servings, which seemed fair considering the price tag. As we began our meals, a though struck me.
"Tell me, Haruhi…would you call this a date? We haven't really talked about that since…you now," I asked awkwardly as I was cutting a juicy piece out of my steak.
"Well…" She said, and I could hear her familiar preaching tone returning, "Normally, if a guy showers a girl with jewels and takes her out to a restaurant like this, he wouldn't have to ask."
"…probably, yes," I conceded, "though I wouldn't say I showered you with jewels, I just let you keep some of them…"
"Kyon, don't try to downplay your gifts to me," Haruhi teased, extending her right hand to me and spread her fingers the way newlywed ladies do when they're showing off their new rings, "we both know this ring is just two fingers away from sealing my fate."
"…don't even joke about that," I said.
Haruhi giggled, awfully pleased with herself, and turned back to her meal.
"If it's not a date," She said , "it's something to it close to one."
"Why such a vague answer? It's a simple question…" I muttured.
"To be honest, It feels like it could just as well be me asking you, you're the one who has all the answers these days," Haruhi murmured and rested her head on her left hand, staring at her lasagna and poking it with her fork for whatever reason, "it's like you're some sort of onion…I just keep peeling away at the layers and finding out new things."
"You mean like a mystery wrapped into an enigma?"
"Nah, the onion metaphor suits you better."
"How so?"
"I think it's obvious."
"…did you have a point?"
"Yes, you're only telling me things as we go along," Haruhi said, stopped stabbing her meal and turned her eyes to me, "casually mentioning important stuff in conversations, I can't help feeling that you're still holding out on me."
"I just mention things when they're relevant…I'm not lying to you anymore," I said carefully.
"You see," Haruhi said, raised her head and put down her fork, "It's the 'anymore' in that sentence that bothers me. The idea that this whole time, you've been actively lying to me, keeping things away…"
"It wasn't really the whole time," I said and stopped in the middle of cutting my steak, turning my full attention to her slightly annoyed to be repeating this yet again, "it wasn't even until a while after you founded the SOS brigade that I found out about you.… and it was only a few times I really had to outright lie to you…you make it sound like some conspiracy were I everything we did was a lie…it wasn't like that, you know I'm not that good of an actor. There were more lies of omission than anything."
"Well, that still bothers me, and even in that case, you got to have all the fun," Haruhi went on and leaned forward, "made your own discoveries and had your own adventures while I was desperately looking for one."
"And now I'm bringing you with me on my latest magical adventure," I said flatly and turned back to my steak,
Haruhi didn't answer, just turned back to her lasagna.
"One thing I was wondering," I thought out loud a while later.
"What is it?" Haruhi asked.
"How long have I…you know…had your attention?"
"If you weren't completely oblivious you should've noticed something around the time we were founding the club," Haruhi muttered crossly without looking up.
...that long, huh…
"In that case, there's still one thing I don't really understand," I said.
"What?"
"If I had your…attention from the start, and you've established that you don't like me spending time with other girls, then why did you go out of your way to find the cutest, most well-endowed and most charming girl in the school and insist that she joined us? Mikuru and I would never have taken that walk in the park just the two of us if it weren't for you," I said.
"We needed a mascot," Haruhi said like I had just asked the obvious, "and what's this about a walk in the park? You were supposed to be looking for strange stuff."
"…yeah, that's what I said, we searched the park."
Haruhi gave an unconvinced glare.
Shortly after that we finished our meals and I paid for everything, earning a surprised look from the waiter when a kid like me paid that amount in cash. Then we returned to our room. Once we arrived I immediately laid down on the bed and turned on the television. Haruhi went straight to the bathroom, she was there for a while but once she came out she walked straight out to the balcony and just…stood there with her arms crossed facing the city.
After a few moments I gave in, stood up and walked out to the balcony myself and took my place next to her.
"You're going to catch a cold if you're out here dressed like that," I said while I was talking in the view. It was quite a large city, and it was completely dark aside from the city lights; the rows of cars, streetlights and lights of the surrounding skyscrapers. Our room wasn't that high up but the view was still an impressive display of the lights of the city shining through the rain.
Haruhi didn't respond, just kept staring at the city. I followed her example. A while later she spoke.
"Why do we always have to argue like that?" She asked with frustration in her voice while staring directly ahead, "We couldn't even sit down for dinner…"
"…I don't know," I said cautiously, her question caught me off guard, "…guess we've just been under a lot of stress…"
"Yes, but it's more than just that, you've been keeping stuff away from me this entire time!" Haruhi accused.
"You say you're tired of arguing, and then you shoot at me something we've already discussed?" I said, doing my best to make it sound more like an observation rather than accusation, "I already told you…I was only looking out for you and did what was for the best-"
"I know, I know," She interrupted me to concede and uncrossed her arms, resting them along her sides, "It's just hard to accept all that, on top of me being hunted by some people..."
There was a moment of silence after that…she's right about us arguing far too much. Is she offering some sort of concession now? If she is, I better take it. We really need to take some of the strain out of our relationship, there have been moments that I really did enjoy and if we can tune down the bickering, maybe we could have something good here…
"Look…" I said, "let's just get through this ordeal, day by day, and once all of this is over I'll have plenty of time to make all the sneaking around up to you."
She didn't immediately respond, just firmly stared ahead for a while. Suddenly, I felt that her hand found mine, slowly talking hold of it. I didn't look down, and neither did she, we just kept staring ahead and taking in the view.
"You better," she murmured.
We stood there for a while, silently staring into the rain.
"Haruhi…I've thought it over and..." I said in a low voice, "all the passports I was given, all the foreign currency, and the instructions they left me…my associates clearly think we should leave Japan and…I'm beginning to think we should, the sooner the better."
"Kyon…" Haruhi said quietly, "It's been a long day…just…not now, we can make plans tomorrow."
"…Yeah, sure," I said in agreement, "Tomorrow it is."
AN: This chapter is shorter than any of those released so far. That's because this chapter and the next one were originally intented to be relased as one chapter but I split them to shorten the gap between updates. It does create something of a pacing problem as the story intentionally slows down in this half and picks up again in the other half, but I hope this chapter was still a good read. Feedback would be appreciated, as I'm trying to determine if my writing is getting better as I'm working on this story.