The Guilt of Haruhi Suzumiya

An unconscious Kyon, an apologetic Haruhi...what happened?!

Haruhi knelt beside Kyon's motionless body, her face buried in her hands.

"I'm sorry, Kyon," she mumbled as she wiped the tears from her cheeks. The rest of the SOS-dan watched silently, the events leading up to the comatose Kyon and guilt-ridden Chief playing through their minds.

It had started out innocently enough. The weather was beautiful, so Haruhi said they were going outside. Tag was decided upon, but soon the Chief got bored, saying there wasn't enough strategy involved. As such, the game quickly morphed to kick-the-can; a drawing of lots showed Itsuki to be 'it' first. A quick count later, poor Mikuru and careless Yuki were caught and put in the 'jail', a nearby cluster of bushes. Kyon ran around, continuously dodging Itsuki's attempt to tag. Haruhi came barrelling towards the can and gave it a mighty kick...hitting Kyon square in the head.

He collapsed, sprawled on the ground as Haruhi started laughing. She trotted over, still giggling to the point where she was crying. Kneeling over Kyon, she gave him a poke.

"A member of the SOS-dan can take a hit like that easily." Rubbing her face, she wiped the tears from her eyes and nudged him again. "I'm sorry, Kyon," she mumbled, her apology so out-of-character that Itsuki and Mikuru glanced at each other in surprise.

"Get up," Haruhi demanded, rising. "As punishment for getting in the way of the can, you're it."

Kyon didn't even twitch.

"If you don't get up, you're buying lunch," their Chief threatened.

If Kyon had been faking it, that would have gotten him up in a hurry, but this time...he didn't move.

"Maybe I kicked it a bit too hard," Haruhi admitted with a petulant frown. "That doesn't give you any excuse to laze around."

After a long moment of Haruhi glaring at Kyon's body, their Chief turned to Itsuki with a long-suffering sigh.

"If he's going to be like that, we may as well take him to the infirmary," Haruhi grumbled with a glance at her watch. "There's still time before club ends."

Itsuki nodded and hefted Kyon onto his shoulder, then grimaced. Beckoning Mikuru over, between the two of them they managed to get Kyon onto Itsuki's back. This confirmed Kyon's comatose state-the sarcastic boy would have leapt up immediately and made a snarky remark at Itsuki had he been aware of his surroundings.

Haruhi led the way, muttering under her breath about 'unreliable club members' and what she was going to make Kyon do as punishment for interrupting the game.

After Kyon was dumped onto a bed in the infirmary, Haruhi flounced over to a chair, wheeling it over beside the bed and sitting with a heavy sigh.

"I'm going to stay until he wakes up," Haruhi said, as if she were doing Kyon a favor by gracing the unconscious boy with her presence. "A chief has to take care of her peons." She paused, then turned to the other SOS-dan members. "You guys can go. I don't know how long this is gonna take," she added, poking Kyon's cheek with a frown.

The clock chimed 5pm, the noise of the bell causing Kyon to twitch. He was aware of a massive headache and something cool on his forehead. He reviewed what he remembered, getting the sneaking suspicion moving without consideration would end badly. Assuming the cause of his sudden nap was the can, that meant...

Kyon groaned, opening his eyes to see Haruhi leaning over him with an intent stare.

"What brings the Chief to..." Kyon paused, staring at his surroundings. "...the sick bay, after school?"

"The nurse was gone," Haruhi said irritably. "It's not like I wanted to stay here and stare at ought to have waken up earlier," she grumbled. "I missed the sale at the store because of you." Haruhi paused, glaring at Kyon as he sat up. "Be careful. If you fall, I'm not helping you again."

"Duly noted," Kyon said dryly as he hesitantly felt his head. A cold compress was on what he assumed was a rather impressive lump.

"You can't walk around with your head looking like that," Haruhi said defensively to Kyon's inquisitive look. "It'd hurt the SOS-dan's reputation."

"I didn't think it could get any worse," Kyon muttered, slowly standing. Haruhi stood beside him, a flash of concern crossing her face as the boy swayed. It was quickly replaced with its normal impetuous expression as soon as Kyon steadied.

"For making the Chief stay behind, you're buying me supper," Haruhi commanded, her tone allowing no argument; Kyon sighed as he walked to the door.

Stopping suddenly, he turned, causing Haruhi to squeak as she nearly ran into him.

"Haruhi," Kyon said quietly, seriously. "Thank you."

"I was only doing my duty as Chief," Haruhi said hurriedly, a flush spreading into her cheeks as she turned away. "It's not like I could have left you there. You'd probably end up with a cold, making you miss a lot of meetings, then we'd have to catch you up on everything you'd missed, which is way too much of a pain." She stared at him, hands on her hips. "Get moving."

Kyon nodded in agreement, then leaned in close, touching Haruhi's shoulder.

"Haruhi?"

"What?"

"You're it."

Kyon took off laughing as Haruhi bellowed, massive amounts of Closed Space exploding across town.