Chapter 10:
"Be careful! Yuki! Yuki!"
Her answer did not come back. Beside me, still clinging to my arm, Asahina-san said softly, "Don't worry. She can take care of herself."
I know that, dammit!
"How about you? Are you alright? Kyon-kun, I was so frightened!" She started to cry softly in the darkness. Lord preserve me from a crying girl, but if it's Asahina-san...all I can really do is search around in my head for the fastest way to stop her crying. But I couldn't. I was helpless. That was frustrating.
"I'm fine, but it's you that's important right now. What happened? How did you end up here last night? Did it have something to do with the Won Ring of Pawah?"
She shook her head vigorously, letting her red hair bounce around in the shallow light of the flashlight. "No...the Ring has passed beyond our sight. There's nothing we can do about it now."
"Well, then, what was it?"
She looked away, bashfully. Ah, how cute you are, Asahina-san, even in a dank cave! How absolutely adorable...more beautiful than the sunrise after a storm...wait, what did you say?
"Sorry, I didn't catch that."
She whispered the reason again, and I stared at her, thunderstruck. Are you kidding me?
"SLEEP WALKING?"
My incredulous outburst rang in the depths of the cave, and I winced as echoes came back to me, again and again...apparently the cave was rather deep. I could only hope I hadn't woken any bears or anything that might be slumbering in the back.
I let out a groan of "boy, that was stupid" as I heard another sound, seeping in through the thick snow outside, of yet another avalanche, pouring down the sides of the mountain and no doubt blocking the entrance with more snow.
Of all the mysteries in the universe, and the Time-Traveler is a sleepwalker? That's her mysterious excuse for disappearing in the middle of the night?
I sighed and face-palmed, turning the flashlight away so she wouldn't see. But now wasn't the time to be selfish. I let my gaze drift over to her frightened face, illumined to outline her every expression. Her eyebrows were drawn together over her huge eyes, and her lower lip was quivering. I decided to withhold my questions.
It occurred to me now that it was almost noon, and as spartan as girls can be about food, vehemently insisting their lack of sustenance until they're ready to pass out, Asahina-san hadn't eaten since yesterday. Simultaneously, my own stomach groaned in protest, reminding me that I hadn't had anything since the hot chocolate, either. I unzipped the by now somewhat damp backpack, pulled out a couple of granola bars, handed one to her, and began to search around for matches. Even if we could only make a small fire out of the dry pine needles and twigs that carpeted the cave, it would still be better than nothing. Provided we didn't smoke ourselves out or asphyxiate ourselves or...oh, damn.
The matches were soaked. Brilliant. All my mental weighings-in of various ways to die by fire suddenly became more tempting than the prospect of freezing here.
Okay, Kyon. Stay calm. Haruhi and the others will be here any moment. It's not like it's that cold in here...no, not at all...Shit! Asahina-san is shivering!
All practicality and logical thoughts vanished when I saw her cute form shaking uncontrollably. Even if the cave wasn't as cold inside as the biting air outside, she was still dressed in nothing more than her pajamas and the thin robe that her unconscious mind had somehow thoughtfully considered to take along. I wonder if she's less clueless in her sleep than...Now's not the time to be thinking about that, Kyon!
But what could I do? The outside of my coat was soaked and seeping into the inside as well. Without the constant movement of active searching warming me, it was starting to bite coldly into my skin and spread the dampness to the sweater I wore underneath, too. It would be no use to try to give it to Asahina-san to wear. I unzipped it and set it aside, aware that the potential discomfort of the coldness of the cave was preferable to being cold and wet.
This still left Asahina-san cold and shivering, and now a bit confused. When, coming to the best conclusion I could under the circumstances, I instinctively reached for her, she backed away shyly.
"Asahina-san, I'm really sorry, but this is the best way to stay warm," I told her, and, after a moment's consideration with a cute frown on her face, she scooted over into my arms. I wrapped them around her and drew her as close as I could.
A vast depth of tingling that had nothing to do with being cold, as has been stated countless times before in similar situations in practically every story that's been written before, reached deeply into my chest and gripped me tightly. For a moment, I think my mind actually went numb, but returned quickly as I dizzily thought, OMG, I'm actually holding Asahina-san! Hehehe...no, Kyon, time to get serious. You are holding her this way because she is cold and the two of you need to use each other's body heat to stay warm and...OMG, she seriously is big-chested...wahahawowie...
"Kyon?"
Her small voice broke into my happily spinning thoughts.
"Mm?"
"Do you believe in heaven?"
Yes, because holding you like this must be Paradise, feeling your skin so close...wait, why the heck are you asking such a thing?
"What if Haruhi-san and the others don't find us? What if we're buried too deep?" Her voice started to quaver, and I felt slight dampness run into my collar. "What if we never get out of here?"
That's ridiculous, because you're definitely alive in the future. Either that, or you have a grown-up ghost wandering the perimeters of various time planes. I didn't say any of that, though.
"It'll be fine. Yuki knows where we are, and she's never failed us yet," I answered reassuringly, I hope, as I cupped my hand around her head and drew it under my chin.
She gulped and nodded. "Yes, you're right, I know you are, but...Kyon, I just can't help feeling...!"
I smiled and patted her back reassuringly. "It'll be okay, shinpai nai." Why am I in the mother-hen role here?
Yes, that's right. We'll definitely be okay. But...oh, I'm so sleepy...
I blinked suddenly as my head started to rock forward, and opened my eyes as alertly as I could. The lack of sleep from last night was starting to kick in, finally. Aside from the rule of "thou shalt not fall asleep when you're cold", I also needed to act like a man and protect the adorable, helpless creature who had finally relaxed in my arms. Yes, I need to...mmbbuhhmm...No! Stay awake!
To distract myself, I said, "Asahina-san, can you tell me how old you were when you first found out about time-traveling?"
No response.
"Ah, I see, it's classified information?"
A very faint, unintelligible mutter. Alarmed, I peeked down at her, moving the flashlight to look at her face. I was relieved to note her butterfly-like eyelashes closed tightly over her nose, her mouth slightly open as she muttered quietly in her sleep. Ah, I see. You must have had a sleepless night too, waking up here in complete darkness, not knowing where you were or anything and terrified to death the entire time. I pulled her deeper into my chest and brushed the side of her cheek gently with the back of my fingertips. So sweet...so gentle and pure...so...
I'm sure there must have been a terrific clatter against the hard floor of the cave as the flashlight fell out of my drooping hand, but I did not hear it. I had sunk into the softest sleep of my life, with Asahina-san's hair as my pillow.
.
"Oi! Oi! Kyon! You pervert, what the hell do you think you're doing?"
Shut up. Can't you see I'm trying to get some sleep? Jeesh, Haruhi, just leave me alone for once. And why are you calling me a pervert? I just fell asleep in class again...uh oh...
This isn't class, this soft thing beneath my cheek isn't the open pages of a book and...
I opened my eyes and was instantly assaulted by the proverbial stunning blast of light. "Itai..." I muttered, shaking my head before attempting that again. When my heavy eyelids finally propped themselves open far enough, the first thing I saw was Haruhi's face scowling inches away from mine. The next was the groggy body of Asahina-san beginning to stir in my arms.
"What...happened...Hah?" Her wide eyes filled with panic as she found herself in the position in which we had fallen asleep, and for a moment, I'm sure the temporary amnesia of short-lived sleep must have wrecked havoc in her brain.
Behind Haruhi stood Koizumi and Yuki, each with their respective unreadable expressions, covered in bits of snow from digging us out, although I could see that the hot ball of the July sun was beginning to turn the previous winter wonderland into a muddy swamp. Oh joy. Nothing more invigorating than a tromp back through angle-deep mud.
Haruhi deftly plucked the finally-starting-to-calm-down Asahina-san from my arms, as though I was a kidnapper and she must save the innocent girl from me, which just seems backwards considering the history thereof, and lifted her pointed chin at me defiantly.
"Honestly, Kyon, you're so useless! Here I send you out on a mission to find the missing maiden, and what do you do? You get trapped with her! It's lucky for you that Yuki found Koizumi and me as quickly as she did. Otherwise you might never have gotten free!"
Assuming that the sun never came out and melted away the ice plug at the entrance, you mean. Which it already started to, anyway.
"Seriously, is that even a remotely chivalrous way of rescuing a fair damsel in distress?" Oh, so we're in a fairy tale now, I see. How very realistic of you.
"Ano...Suzumiya-san...Kyon did his best," offered the sweet girl in her over-protective grasp. "He kept me warm the entire time..."
"Oh, yes, with no ulterior motives whatsoever, huh, Kyon?" She sent an accusing look at me which I wasn't quite able to hold. "Betsuni..." I muttered. I would have done it even if it hadn't been so enjoyable, it's not my fault that she's so excessively cute that it had to be fun anyway, dammit!
"Shouldn't we get going?" Koizumi asked smilingly where he stood. "After all, Suzumiya-san, we still haven't taken any time to find ghosts back at the cabin..."
Haruhi shrugged uncaringly. "The sun has come back out, anyway. Maybe we'll have to wait for night but...oh..." she yawned widely, "I'm so sleepy, I didn't sleep a wink last night..."
I feel your pain, really, I do.
"Kyon, I need you to carry me back."
What? I didn't get any sleep last night, either!
"Yeah, but you got some right now, didn't you? So hurry up already, I'm exhausted! Oh, and by the way," she added as I begrudgingly got to my feet, "you'll be paying for our train tickets back."
Nani?
"Because we had a deal, remember. Last one to find Mikuru has to pay a fine."
"Hey, I found her first, with Yuki, so it should be that you and Koizumi have to pay!"
She humphed at me. "No, because you got trapped in here with her. That doesn't count as finding her, unless you actually got her free. Yuki got us and brought us here, where we found you two, asleep, and then you woke up, so you were the last to find her after rescue was available."
How does that even make sense?
"It makes sense because I say so."
Naturally, my logic doesn't even come close to deciphering the mystery that is Haruhi and her illogical way of looking at things. But, if I can't argue, there is one thing I can do to get the best of her.
"Well, you told me to carry you back."
I ducked down, as if going for a judo throw, and caught her stomach to fold over one of my shoulders. Her startled cry echoed in the cave, and, grinning, I pulled her around my neck and held onto her arms and legs across my shoulders as though she was a gazelle from a hunt. Oh, she struggled, I can tell you that. Kicked, scratched, tried to bite, but victory was mine.
After all, even in this world that you wished for, I'm stronger than you in the end. Stepping forward out from the cave, I looked over at Koizumi who, for once, had a genuinely amused look on his face. "Shall we get going? Haruhi, if you struggle too much, I'll lose my balance and we'll go hurtling over the edge of the cliff."
As Yuki and Asahina-san came into formation behind us, Haruhi actually obeyed and furthermore...she giggled.
"You're insane," she said.
It was the second time she'd told me that. I enjoyed it just as much as that other time.
.
Siiiiiiiiiiiiiiigh. "It's good to be back!"
Haruhi, don't stretch your arms out like that. Seriously, you have no idea how good that looks...not as good as if Asahina-san did, but...
"Kyon, what in the world are you talking about? I swear, you're like a crazy person sometimes. Mikuru, no no NO! Not like that, didn't you hear?"
As I watched Haruhi speed across the music room to snatch the by-now-soundless tambourine from Asahina's adorable hands, I thought, But I have to agree, it is good to be back. Even though it means I'll be forced by certain dominant females of my acquaintance to begin studying immediately for the exams that won't start for a few more months yet. Even though I haven't learned all of the bass parts adequately enough for Miss Haruhi Daihime-sama of Royal Blue Blood, and the cultural festival is approaching at an alarming speed. Oh yes, she wants to play for this one, too. Almost done writing up the music for it, though I have my suspicions she'll be changing things up until five minutes before we go on stage, and yell at me afterward, too. Doubtless she'll conjure some impossible outfits for the girls and expect me and Koizumi to fend for ourselves; doubtless the teachers will have a hay day but be unable to do anything about it because we're already on stage. It is Haruhi, afterall. Nothing would surprise me. I wish.
And me? Well, I have some questions to ask. Because the summer brought more than untimely snow.
It brought feelings...new feelings...unexpected feelings. I suppose it's what you could call "first love", from what I've read of its description. I guess I have all of the symptoms. Tingly feelings in the stomach? Check. Heart racing? Check. Feelings of breathiness and dizziness? Check.
Overwhelming sense of warmth? Wait...I've felt that one before. On a dark night about a month ago, danger and foreboding and iron taste of blood. Silky hair and a cloudy moon...and tears. I am already familiar with it. But that sort of thing...
"Kyon! Oi, pay attention!"
Yes, Daihime-sama. What is your eminent wish? She'd already turned back around and was tapping out the beat with one of her feet, about to begin the new song.
"Ramming speed!" Haruhi announced, raising the pick in her hand as though it were the sword of Excalibur, legs wide-spread in a stance of victory.
"I think you mean 'presto'," I corrected off-handedly, and gave in to the ferocious tempo.
Author's Notes: Sorry about the long wait! The rest of the story is COMPLETE and I will continue to release it every other day until it's done. Thanks for your (collective) patience!
Translations:
-shinpai nai: don't worry
-itai: ow
-betsuni: not really
-nani?: what?
-Daihime-sama: a ridiculously high-brow title meaning something like, "Your worshipful highness, my Princess"