And the new chapter has arrived, everyone! This one is full of lots and lots of fluffy stuff, so I hope you enjoy it! As you can see, the depression and torment Kyon is going through is beginning to wane, but it's not over yet! Hope you enjoy! :D

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I didn't really get it. I was this close to safety. I could have closed the distance between myself and the others, and there was a possibility that I could have made it far enough that the avalanche of snow wouldn't have plowed into me. I could have done it, but I didn't.

Why didn't I do it, you ask? Well, I have only one answer to your question.

Haruhi Suzumiya.

Yes. Once again, I have risked life and limb for that crazy girl. Once again, I have put myself in harm's way all for her sake. Why am I doing this? Please, will some obscure god just tell me already why I've continued to subject myself to this kind of insanity, all for one crazy, eccentric, overbearing and stubborn high school girl?

In the darkness of my thoughts, I've subconsciously waited. As common sense and rational thought dictated, I didn't get any answer to my question. Perhaps asking these kinds of things and debating about them in my mind has gotten really old by now.

But why did I save Haruhi when I could have just saved myself? There I went again, having asked myself yet another question.

Damn you, Haruhi! Make life easier for me, won't you? How's about you just tell me something along the lines of… "I've been really naughty, Kyon. Give me a penalty NOW!".

No! Now is not the time for perverted thoughts! I'm supposed to be focusing on why I saved Haruhi, not what this teenage body wants from her!

What's the point? Why must I keep avoiding the answer? I wasn't an idiot, and I certainly wasn't oblivious of my own thoughts. I knew exactly why I saved Haruhi. The answer was clearer than a cloudless day.

I still loved her.

My lungs seemed to burst to life. I was breathing before, sure, but now I could actually feel my chest heaving, along with the terrible sensation of cold that was all over every part of my exposed skin. My muscles started working again, and my vision followed as well, although upon opening my eyes, I felt the cold sensation on them as well.

I was clearly alive, although a bit freezing right now. Since I didn't really want to freeze to death anytime soon, I began to move as quickly as I could, pushing with all my might against the snow that was currently covering me.

Unfortunately, I had no idea where the hell I was concerning up and down, so you couldn't blame me for being suddenly disoriented. With time against me, I thought of doing the only thing I could think of to find my direction. Though it was disgusting, I tried my best to spit, and to my surprise, I felt it drip down to my chin. Ignoring the gross factor, I figured out which way was up, and I began to apply pressure with my body.

I felt the white powder moving and dispersing as my arms shoved against it, and the same thing happened around my legs. The snow was packed, but luckily not enough that I would have been trapped in a white coffin. Instead, I could begin to feel it breaking, and soon, my right hand was reaching out into the open air, while the rest of my body pushed upwards against the snow holding me down with all its might.

I heard the sound of something flying apart, though it was a soft noise.

My arms, along with my upper torso, emerged from that snowy prison, and it wasn't long before the rest of my body followed. The warmth of the air hit me instantly, but it only took me a few seconds to realize that it wasn't actually all that warmer outside of the snow. Not to mention how dark it was outside.

Want me to be specific? My hands were blackish outlines. I couldn't see much of anything. And because of that, I had a feeling finding Haruhi might not be the easiest thing, at least if she even survived this in the first place.

I thought about that notion for a moment. Of course she survived. I've learned by now that her death would most likely cause the end of everything. So the fact that I'm here means she's still kicking. And that means I should probably find her before she freezes to death. I gulped in fear. This isn't going to be easy…

The skin on my fingers felt like it was being slowly bitten over and over again. Well, that could be a bit of an exaggeration, but digging through snow without gloves is sure as hell cold!

I had to do it though. I had to find Haruhi before she ended up becoming a human popsicle, because if that happened…

I gulped, and just dug into the surrounding snow faster. I took it out in fistfuls, throwing the packed white powder behind me as I struggled to blindly find Haruhi. None of this was exactly simple or easy. It was dark and cold, and I didn't even know if Haruhi was anywhere near here. The only thing I knew was that she was alive, but for all I know, all the snow from the avalanche could have very well carried her somewhere else entirely.

I didn't know, but I didn't care either. I just kept digging like a mole, hoping that I would somehow find my former Brigade Chief in this mess.

Former? No! She's still my Brigade Chief! I'm still a member of the SOS Brigade, no matter what kind of idiocy Haruhi has running through her head!

When I find her, I was going to tell her that I want back in the club, and there's nothing she can do about it! That's right! I was going to force myself back into the Brigade! Let's see her just try and stop m-

All of a sudden, something broke my thought process. One of my hands, having been searching around for any sign of Haruhi, finally came upon something deep in the snow, and that something felt…very warm.

I didn't initially have any idea what the hell it was. I just felt something warm in my palm, and it felt soft too. So, being curious and practically blind at the same time, I decided to reach deeper, so that maybe I could see just what the hell this thing I was feeling was.

I heard what sounded like a low moan in the snow. It sounded like Haruhi. Did I find her?

As if whatever underneath the snow was actually a deadly predator, a hand seemed to shoot out. I couldn't see it very well, but something told me it was Haruhi when I felt like my arm was being crushed between two iron jaws. Haruhi's grip was ridiculously strong, and before I knew it, I had pulled away from whatever I had been feeling before underneath.

"PERVERT!" she nearly screamed, and I saw a black outline of a person bursting out of the snow that I had been digging in, causing a lot of the white powder to spray out into the air around us. I guessed my reaction time wasn't very good, or I didn't really expect this situation to happen, because I didn't do too much to get out of her way.

In the next few seconds that followed, Haruhi kind of just barreled into me, and we both went tumbling backwards into the snow. She was like a wild animal right now, and I felt like the poor rabbit that she had decided to pounce upon. She was a little too much for me, actually. Please ignore any and all undertones in that sentence.

"What the hell?!?" I stated as we finally stopped rolling, and I sputtered up snow.

I looked up, and Haruhi was now on top of me, her eyes staring down at me as if I was the most infamous murderer in human history. I wasn't so much as uncomfortable with her gaze as I was uncomfortable with our current…position, at the moment.

"You were trying to get a feel on me, weren't you? You pervert! I should rip your arms out of your sockets for that, Kyon!" Haruhi growled, keeping both my arms pinned down and preventing me from moving at all. Everything felt way too awkward for me to be scared of Haruhi at the moment.

"What are you talking about? I was the one who found you!"

I couldn't see much of Haruhi due to the darkness, so the only things that signified she was actually here at all was her voice and the fact that she was practically sitting on top of me and keeping me pressed into the packed snow. I didn't really know whether or not she cared how uncomfortable I was getting, or the fact that I was a normal teenage guy, and these things might cause some problems…

"Just don't touch me without my permission, you idiot!" Haruhi shouted at me, and my curiosity for what the expression on her face might be only grew.

"What?"

"N-Never mind…"

I would have just hit myself right now if I could move. Damn you, Haruhi! Why did she have such slender legs? Damn you even more!

Come to think of it, I wasn't feeling so comfortable anymore…

"I think you should get off me now." I said quickly, hoping that Haruhi would actually listen. Something bad was starting to brew, and I really didn't want her to notice it. A few moments passed, and thankfully, I felt Haruhi finally let go of my arms and scoot off me. Somehow, I choked out a sigh of relief. A few more seconds and…well…I'll just forget it.

"What happened?" Haruhi asked, while curling up for warmth. It felt a lot colder now, but that could just be from my earlier feeling of heat, I guess…

"An avalanche happened. And it was your entire fault…" I answered, although I mumbled the last part. The truth was obvious by now. Somehow, the whole avalanche was really all Haruhi's fault.

"What was that?" Haruhi asked, crossing her arms in the darkness and probably pouting at me.

"Nothing."

Of course, you have no idea, Haruhi. You never have.

Haruhi stood up, and I figured she was discontent right now. I wasn't exactly giving her what she wanted, so it's only natural that she would get pissed. Still, I felt a bit better. I could sense parts of the old Haruhi. Maybe she was losing her cool because of her current mood.

"We need to find everyone else!" Haruhi exclaimed to me in a loud voice.

Way to point out the obvious, Brigade Chief. Of course we need to find the others! You expect us to just stand here all night? Still, there were a few things on my mind right now that were telling me I should disagree with Haruhi. For one thing, we had no idea where we were on this mountain at all.

"How do you expect we do that? Are you a tracking expert?"

"Well…not really. But that's not the point! If we just go down the path they were going down, then we should run into them in no time." Haruhi replied, sounding triumphant in her tone.

Something is strange. Haruhi's thinking…it's different than before. She doesn't sound as coherent. I wonder…

Damn it! I couldn't just let her lead us down a path where we'll just freeze to death. I wasn't going to trust her judgment, lest both she and I end up in the obituaries tomorrow.

What the hell should we do? I couldn't just let Haruhi lead and expect to actually get somewhere with that. Though I have no idea what happened to the others, I expect that the avalanche did a good job in separating us from them. For all we know, they could believe Haruhi and me to be dead, and they may have very well abandoned any hope of finding us. I gulped, hoping this wasn't the case. Nevertheless, the chilly wind biting the air continued to tell me that Haruhi and I should get moving.

"Just follow me." I said, taking Haruhi's hand in mine, and not looking back.

I had no idea what time it was right now, but I had a good feeling that it was getting late into the hours of the night, because the cold seemed to increase with the passing of every few minutes. I had decided that the best course of action for the night would be to find shelter, because trying to find our group would probably just lead to us getting lost and freezing up in the cold.

Reluctantly, Haruhi followed me, though she stopped holding my hand at a certain point, much to my surprise. She was a stubborn girl even still, obviously not wanting to admit that she might not be able to do something by herself for once. As we walked along the rocky path that the others should have gone down, the air seemed to thin, and the cold bit at us with even more ferocity. However, it did become a lot easier to see, since the moon had come out, shining a good amount of light across the mountainous landscape.

Behind me, I could hear a faint sound emanating from Haruhi.

"Stupid...K-Kyon…"

Now's not the time for insults. What's the problem here?

I looked back, stopping in my tracks. Haruhi, despite her winter jacket and gloves, was actually hugging herself and shivering as she walked behind me. Her eyes looked like they were straining to stay open, and her walking gait was a little slow and uncoordinated. For a moment, the sight of Haruhi like this almost made my heart stop.

"Hey…are you alright?"

Haruhi scowled at me and turned her head, her voice coming out in short ripples due to the fact she was shivering from head to toe.

"I-I'm fine…just keep walking."

You idiot! You didn't look fine to me. I glanced at Haruhi's face, and I could see that her lips were already losing color. A sign of possible frostbite or hypothermia. Clearly, the cold was affecting her much more than it was affecting me.

"Get on my back. I'll carry you till we get to somewhere warmer." I told Haruhi, my back facing her as I relayed those words more as an order than a suggestion.

For a few seconds, I had a feeling Haruhi would just ignore me and keep walking ahead. The thought scared me, because the idea of her just falling onto the ground with bluish patches on her skin quickly entered my mind.

Surprisingly, I could feel her get up behind me, and without a word, put her arms around my neck and kind of hoisted herself onto my back. I would be lying if I said it wasn't at least a little awkward, but I ignored all the sensations Haruhi was causing me, and began to carry her forward on piggy-back.

And so, for the next thirty minutes, I carried Haruhi like this, enduring the whipping winds and the terrible cold that petrified the night. It was a dreadful setting, mind you. And carrying Haruhi on my back was something that I should have probably thought about first, because it was making me damn tired with each couple of steps. Nevertheless, I masked any exhaustion and continued to carry her as we ascended up the mountain path.

It's strange. The higher we got, the more I could spot snow all across the ground. It was as if a blizzard had spontaneously passed overnight. A strange phenomenon that would have probably never normally occurred. Who might have caused such a thing? I didn't think I needed to answer that for you.

After awhile, Haruhi's presence on me was not so obvious, and carrying her got a little easier despite the temperature. I was mostly afraid of some sort of blizzard starting, so my main goal was to find shelter as soon as possible.

While I carried Haruhi up an incline on the side of this mountain, I could spot quite a bit of white snow ahead. It looked like a large clearing blanketed with snow, so I initially figured that perhaps we could find some sort of shelter nearby, or dig some if we had to. The longer we stayed out here, the worse it would probably get. And now that I mentioned the cold, it was around this time that I realized how numb my fingers had become. I didn't really think to bring gloves…a stupid move.

"Hey…that looks like something…"

Haruhi gave no response. Was she sleeping, or was she already frozen? I brushed away my fears and walked towards the large clearing of snow.

When I put my foot down into the snow, I had absolutely no idea that I would sink within it and fall right through. No, I didn't expect the snow to be so lightly packed that any person without snow shoes would just topple under. And I definitely didn't expect for there to be so much snow in one place, especially when we weren't that high in the mountain yet.

And so, Haruhi and I tumbled down into the snowy ground, rolling along as white powder splashed around us. It felt like falling while on the side of a ski slope, even though it was only a few seconds of tumbling.

Finally, both of us came to a stop, though I was unlucky to slam face down into the snowy ground. Haruhi had obviously been detached from me when we went down, and she was now brushing herself off some distance away. I coughed up watery slush out and rubbed my eyes, looking around at our current location. Somehow, we had ended up underneath all this snow, in what seemed like an abnormally large hole. It was as if someone had previously shelled out all of the snow underneath to form this sort of little cave, which was approximately the size of the clubroom.

You've really got to be kidding me. Did we really happen to get this lucky?

"Moron…" Haruhi said quietly, standing up and looking around at these new surroundings. I found it amazing that somehow the gods has presented us with such a perfect locale to protect us from the elements for the night. I mean, it's just way too perfect…

I glanced at Haruhi. The answer to this became obvious once again.

"Well, I guess we found somewhere for the night…"

"I could have found it myself. I don't need your help for everything, Kyon."

"What? I'm the one who carried you here!"

"I didn't ask you to do that! I could have walked!"

Haruhi had to always be difficult, didn't she? Even when I could feel the old flame flickering when I was around, she had to continue being like this, and ruining it all. How does she plan on surviving after high school is over? I'd like to see that!

"You know what? Fine. Do whatever the hell you want. I'll stay on my side, and you stay on yours. Then we can both be happy." I commented, moving to the other half of this den, and sitting against the snowy wall, resting my head and trying to relax a little. Thankfully, this snow cave was much warmer than the outside, and I expected it would become warmer the longer we radiated our body heat inside it.

"Well...fine!"

With that, Haruhi retreated to her side and pretty much copied what I did. We were on opposite sides now, and Haruhi was glaring at me even though I wasn't trying to give her any attention at all.

I sighed. This is what you go through when you're in love, Haruhi? It was so much easier back when I first found out. Back then, you weren't this unbearable to be around.

For the next fifteen minutes, Haruhi wouldn't change her gaze, and I tried my best to ignore her. Sleep would have been the best thing, but it was hard due to the fact that I was feeling cold in multiple places. My fingers were warming up, but they were still very uncomfortable. Likewise, my face was also thawing a little bit. I had been much colder than I thought. What had driven me before? Adrenaline? Focus? Love?

There came the familiar sound from before. It was the sound of Haruhi shivering. I opened my previously closed eyes, to see Haruhi on her side, curled up and shaking from the cold. She continued to keep her glare focused on me, despite her current condition.

Damn it. She's just making me feel sorry for her now. If I had to being truthful, a time like this would signify how pathetic Haruhi was being. Even though she's going to freeze at this rate, she couldn't shake off this anger against me. She couldn't just get over herself.

Or maybe it's me. Maybe I need to get over myself. Maybe I've been the one who's been unable to accept Haruhi for the person she is, and that's what led to our separation…

No! Why did I have to be the one that was wrong? It was Haruhi's fault! It's all Haruhi's fault! She's the one who changed like this! She's the one who kicked me out of the Brigade and tried to make me jealous by using Koizumi as a weapon!

I glanced at Haruhi again, watching her like this. She was like a child unable to accept a truth that the world had presented right in her face. Kind of like someone refusing to believe that an old man who delivered gifts on Christmas wasn't real. I guessed I was like her a long time ago. I had believed in so many ridiculous things, or at least wished they were real, even though I knew full well they weren't. But even still, this wasn't necessarily the Haruhi I knew, so such things might not apply…

I sighed once again. I couldn't just let her be like this.

"I suggest coming over to my side. You're going to freeze up like an icicle at this rate."

Haruhi's expression changed to surprise for a moment, though she shifted back to her original glare in a heart beat.

"People survive the cold by sharing body heat. I don't think you want to freeze and leave the Brigade leaderless."

I guessed that comment might work. And not much to my surprise, it actually did.

"Don't…t-think this means anything, idiot.." she said while still shivering a bit.

Haruhi then began to kind of crawl over to me, although she did so with a scowl on her face, as if I was forcing her to do this. She was sitting next to me now, and for the next few seconds, there was a perpetual moment of awkwardness between us. All Haruhi had to do was lean up against me, but it was as if some ancient curse was stopping her from doing so. No, it must have been her pride.

And so, I got tired of waiting. It should have done what I was doing more often, that thing being taking action over Haruhi. Without much of a warming, I put my arm around Haruhi, and brought her just a little closer, so that she was leaning on my shoulder. If we managed to be like this for the whole night, we probably wouldn't end up freezing to death.

Haruhi didn't try to move away from me, despite my action having been a little sudden. She kind of warmed up to it actually, though I almost didn't want to see what kind of expression she was wearing on her face. I closed my eyes, leaned my head back, and pretended like I was falling asleep.

"Why…why did do it?"

My eyes opened, and I looked down at Haruhi, who was looking back up at me, with a confused look in her eyes.

"Do what?"

"You could have just saved yourself. Do you know how stupid you were for getting between that avalanche and me?"

Well, that certainly makes sense, especially coming from you, Haruhi. What the hell should I say? I didn't so much know the full answer myself. What else could I say but…

"I don't know. I guess it was a spur of the moment."

A blatant lie. Haruhi would no doubt see right through it. I knew the reason. I just didn't want to admit it completely, even to myself.

"You're lying. Tell me the truth." Haruhi said, her tone becoming more annoyed. I, on the other hand, was not in the mood to start spouting off things.

"I'll tell you tomorrow. Let me just go to sleep already…" I replied, in a vain attempt to change the subject. It worked though, and Haruhi went silent. We were practically cuddling by now, though it was all for the sake of not freezing, I swear to you!

And so, I assumed that after awhile, Haruhi had drifted off to sleep, with her arms around me as if I was a big teddy bear. I didn't mind so much. Still, going to sleep for me was a partial struggle. I felt conflicted. I felt like there were things for me to say that I was purposely avoiding. My feelings were spot on, of course.

Haruhi's presence warmed my body up more than anything else. Being here in this snow den was comforting, and when Haruhi was like this, quiet, unassuming, and sleeping softly, it was almost heavenly.

As I felt my own mind drifting off into a land of dreams, I kept a specific thought in the back of my head. I began to realize something. This kind of thing with Haruhi…I wouldn't be able to live a sane life without it. As much as I needed the abnormalities of existence, the proof that time travelers, espers and aliens really roamed out there, I needed this girl, Haruhi Suzumiya.

Tomorrow, I'll tell her. Maybe if I do, everything will just become so much easier. Perhaps rejoining the Brigade would be right within my grasp as well. A break from this insanity she's caused would be the nicest thing in the world. Even nicer than the comfort of sleep…

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While this story is nearing it's end, it's not necessarily over yet. There's still quite a bit to be resolved, so you're going to have to stay tuned and see how it plays out! :)