- Chapter 7: Interviewing -

Haruhi and Kyon bickered a bit at dinner.

"You can't just expect your aunt to drop everything she's working on and write a whole book just to satisfy your own personal whim!"

"What are you talking about?" Haruhi shot back. "She doesn't have to drop anything. She's already writing a book!"

"A book about her life and her struggle with cancer. Not about you."

"So she just has to add the four of us in, which she should do anyway! We're part of her life, after all."

"Maybe you are. The rest of us just met her an hour ago."

"Right, so you're a part of her life now! Especially after this weekend, since she's going to have a lot of amazing experiences with us!"

"Good grief." He lay his weary head on his fingers. "What are you hoping for, that we'll get lost on our hiking trip and have to eat slugs to survive? Why can't you just ask your aunt nicely to include you in her book, and leave the rest of us out of it?"

"Leave you out of it?" Haruhi exploded. "Leave you out of it?! You want to cut yourself, your sister, and Yui out of my history? Just turn all our adventures together into the tales of Haruhi the lone warrior? I won't accept that!"

"Okay, okay."

She was leaning into his face now, which required her to hold onto the back of his chair to keep from falling, since she was seated at the head of the table, with him seated perpendicular to her. "What is wrong with you, anyway?! You never want to participate in anything! And this is a completely passive mission. You don't have to do anything, just give your consent!"

"Alright, already. I didn't mean I want us to be cut out of your story. I was just venting."

"Hmmph. Whining, you mean."

"Call it what you like," he sighed.

That surprised Kanae. Not that Kyon had backed down of itself; Haruhi could be pretty scary when she got angry, and everyone else at the table had been struck silent by her little explosion, Kanae herself included. But Kyon didn't seem afraid of her at all. It looked more like concern. For a minute Kanae became worried that neither having fun nor introducing her friends to her aunt were Haruhi's chief motive for this visit.

But the rest of the dinner went smoothly. Haruhi was full of stories of the SOS Brigade's adventures, and seemed determined to get as many as possible of them out before dinner was over. Ishigaki and Kyon's little sister were not privy to most of these adventures either, so she had a rapt audience apart from Kyon, who spent his time throwing in sullen commentary and corrections. Haruhi didn't seem to mind, though; at times she even appeared to enjoy his derision.

"And so we knuckled down, pulled a grueling all-nighter, and got the movie edited into magnificent shape in time for the Cultural Festival!"

"You mean I did," grunted Kyon. "You did a lot of kibitzing and fell asleep at your usual bedtime."

"Kyon, you have no appreciation for what hard work leadership is. You'd know if you tried it sometime. Anyway, I can afford to get some rest when I know I have a very dependable member of my SOS Brigade working on the project!"

"Right, leaving the entire workload and responsibility on me."

"You knew you could handle the rest of it on your own. If you didn't, you would have woken me up! Anyway, at the screening..."

Her little niece (well, not so little anymore) scarfed down plenty of food in between stories, but rather than going into a coma afterwards as she usually did, she still seemed restless as they cleared the plates. She even tried to get in another SOS Brigade story while they were cleaning up, but Kyon cut in that she might want to stop where she was for the moment, seeing as she already had given her aunt enough for a full book.

"Hmm, I guess that's true," Haruhi mused, wiping a plate spotless. "Aunt Kanae might need to do a whole series to cover our adventures. At any rate, I need to give her a chance to take down notes."

"That's a good idea," Kanae said. "If you feel up to it, after we're done here I can grab my notebook and pick your brain on a few things."

Ishigaki tilted her head. "Um, Suzumiya, I'm feeling a bit tired after our trip and everything, so maybe while you and your aunt are doing that, the rest of us could watch a movie?"

"Yeah!" Kyon's sister cheered. "Movie, movie!"

"Good idea, Yui," Haruhi said, beaming at the little girl's smile. "I give it full approval! I think Aunt Kanae still has a bunch of Disney animated movies for you to pick from."

"I sure do, honey," Kanae said. "Come on, I'll show you to the TV room."

They all followed. Kyon yawned. "If you guys are just going to watch cartoons, I think I'll head to bed. Which room have you got me in, Miss Suzumiya?"

"Huh?" his sister gasped, then let out a moan. "Nooo! You have to stay up and have fun with us, Kyon!"

"Yeah, Kyon," Haruhi said. "You can't excuse yourself from quality time with your sister just to sleep!" He opened his mouth to protest, but she had a follow-up ready before he could speak. "Animated movies are not just kids' cartoons! You need to get rid of your narrow-minded biases. If you sit and watch them, you'll see the Disney movies are full of rich imagination and quality animation. And at least you can be with your little sister! You won't get to be with her forever."

"Look, I'm just tired..." he began.

"Some people aren't even lucky enough to have a little sister, you know? You should appreciate every chance you get to have fun with her."

Kyon seemed to realize he wasn't going to have a choice in the matter, and that made Kanae root for him a little. Bending down to grab the remote and turn on the TV, she remarked, "You know, I also have streaming now, so you guys can watch pretty much anything you want."

"No! Don't coddle Kyon. It's been decided that they're watching Disney movies, and we're not changing that just because he's being close-minded."

"Alright, I get it," Kyon sighed, and took his sister's hand as he bent down in front of her video collection. "Come on, let's pick out which one you want to watch."

Ishigaki intervened, "Kyon, if you don't want to -"

"No, it's fine." He waved her off. "If I don't like the movie, I can always fall asleep watching it."

Kanae showed Ishigaki how to work the remote, and left the three of them to enjoy themselves. Kyon's sister at least seemed delighted by the selection of films on offer.

When she and Haruhi got back downstairs, Haruhi plopped down on the couch while Kanae grabbed her notebook and pencil. "Kyon seems like a nice boy."

Haruhi was looking into the distance. "Are you just saying that to be polite?"

"Oh no, honey. It's just that he seems to put up with a lot from you."

"...Yeah, he does. But I put up with a lot from him, too, so we're even."

"What's your relationship with him?"

"Hmm? We're friends. And he's in the SOS Brigade."

Kanae took a seat on the couch next to her, notebook in hand. "And?"

"And what? That's all I had to say."

She tilted her head. "Honey, you said you want me to write a book about you and your three guests that will give you immortality. I can't do that without knowing what the four of you are really like. I need the whole truth."

Haruhi pulled her legs up onto the couch, knees against her chest. She didn't say anything for a moment, but Kanae got the feeling that she had been expecting this line of questioning. "...You have to promise you won't breathe a word of what I'm about to tell you to Kyon."

The corner of Kanae's mouth quirked. "Well, he's going to find out when the book gets published, honey." She knew Haruhi well enough not to say "if the book gets published."

"He'll never read it. Kyon's not into books."

"It's a book about him and his friends!"

"Auntie, trust me. You could loan Kyon a book with a super-secret message concerning the fate of the entire world, and he still wouldn't read it. Anyway, even if he did read it, he'd assume you made up the parts he didn't know about to make it more interesting. Now do you promise, or what?"

Kanae looked at her niece. She was really serious about not wanting Kyon to know how she felt about him. At the same time, though, even though Kanae had pressed the question in the first place, Haruhi obviously wanted to open up about it to someone.

Then again, Haruhi's mother had mentioned that Haruhi was seeing a psychiatrist. If she was that eager to talk about her feelings for Kyon, she would have spilled it all from the doctor's chair already. So maybe it was just a question of wanting their relationship to be captured in her book. To be preserved for prosperity.

"I mean it," Haruhi said. "If you breathe a word about this to Kyon, I won't be able to trust you ever again."

That got a grin out of Kanae. "Honey, who do you think you're talking to? It's me, your favorite auntie. If you don't want Kyon to know, then I don't want him to know either." She raised a hand while holding the other to her heart. "I promise, but you should know that you don't need me to."

Haruhi didn't return the grin. "It's not that I don't trust you. It's just, there's a difference between trusting someone to hold your shopping bags for you and trusting them with your life, you know?

"Okay. Kyon is..." She closed her eyes. "Kyon is like the magical sword that comes to the hero in a medieval fantasy novel. You know, where the hero is some nobody from a small town who everyone thinks will never amount to anything, because everything they do turns into nothing. Then they find this magical sword, and suddenly the hero can accomplish anything they set their mind to, and they're winning battle after battle, rescuing people in distress, and overthrowing an evil empire, all with the courage and resourcefulness that they had all along! They just needed that sword."

Kanae was taking notes, using a hurried shorthand because Haruhi was going so fast. "Didn't you meet Kyon in high school?"

"Yeah, that's right."

"So you felt like you couldn't do anything the whole time before you got to high school?" It certainly hadn't seemed that way from Kanae's perspective. Even supposing her father was lying about her academic record, Kanae knew Haruhi excelled at far too many pursuits to ever be called a failure.

"Well... It's not that I couldn't do anything, really, just that nothing I did ever seemed to accomplish anything." Her jaw slumped into her hands. "It was all just empty. A bunch of hollow victories that didn't bring me any closer to becoming the extraordinary person that I wanted to be and living the thrilling life I wanted to live."

"And... Kyon changed that?"

She must have let a hint of doubt into her voice, because Haruhi snapped back, "Of course he did! He may not look like much, but Kyon's an amazing person. Ever since I met him, I've been accomplishing all these great things, like forming the SOS Brigade, making a movie, and rescuing a lost boy, and all these extraordinary things have been happening to me."

"Alright. So how did he do all that?"

"I don't know how he does it. He just does. Sometimes he says something, and even though he says it like it's nothing, thinking about it gets my brain spinning and fills my head with all these wild and fun ideas. And sometimes he just goes and does things, crazy things that I would never even think of ordering him to do. You know he went out and advertised the SOS Brigade's services to students, like we were a detective agency or something? I don't know why he doesn't show initiative like that more often. I mean, he's a hero, really. He -" She stopped herself and looked directly at Kanae. "You can't mention this to him, understand? He doesn't know that I know he did this."

She nodded. "Okay, honey."

"That cute little kid I help with his studies, Shiro... One day a car came at him. Like, barreling right at him. And Kyon, he dove into the middle of the street, grabbed Shiro, and got him to safety! He risked his life to save someone he didn't even know! He's like an action hero from the movies, only better, because he's real! He -"

Haruhi caught herself, flushing with embarrassment.

"Well, he's pretty cool. I guess I got a little over-excited there, but he is. Cool enough that he could be my sidekick, if I ever became a superhero."

"He does sound very cool. Now I'm really looking forward to getting to know him."

She sighed. "Yeah... The only thing is, him being so brave and selfless and exciting makes it all the more frustrating when he doesn't even try. I mean, with everything he's got going for him, he should be bringing in half of the SOS Brigade's adventures, and playing a key role in nearly all of them. Instead he just slouches through whatever projects Koizumi and I bring in, and expects me to keep him on with the brigade just because he's been in it from the beginning!"

"Maybe he's just not an ideas person, honey."

"No! It's not a question of ideas. He's got no motivation!" She folded her arms. "And sometimes he says really mean things, too. Like when Yuki was sick, and I was thinking maybe we should check her into a hospital, he made some stupid joke about a space-borne illness turning into a global pandemic." She sniffed. "That's what I got for confiding my feelings to him."

Kanae nodded. "Sometimes guys are -"

"And the thing is, I know he does care about Yuki! He cares about her almost as much as I do! I knew that, even when he was making that awful, tasteless joke. But it still hurt."

She waited this time, but after a moment of silence it felt pretty clear that Haruhi now wanted her to say something. "Sometimes guys are bad at reading girls' feelings. They try to lighten the mood when what you want is for them to say something helpful."

"Not Koizumi. Koizumi would never say something insensitive like that. He always says the right thing." She sighed. "But it doesn't do me any good to hear it from Koizumi. I want to hear it from Kyon."

This was rather exciting for Kanae. Haruhi had talked to her about Kyon before, but this was altogether different. The whole idea of the book was driving Haruhi to pour out everything she felt about him, like she was determined to have their relationship captured properly. Kanae liked to think of Haruhi and herself as close, but she hadn't heard Haruhi talk openly about her emotions since she was in second grade.

"And sometimes I do hear it from him," Haruhi continued. "Sometimes he comes right out of the blue and says something which shows he knows exactly how I feel and he cares. I don't understand why he can't be like that all the time. I mean, I certainly spend enough time taking care of him! You'd think he could show appreciation for me more often." Her eyes closed, and she tilted her head down in reflection. "Not that I do it for his gratitude. I just... I worry about him, you know? I think he worries about me, too, even if he tries not to show it."

Kanae smiled. "Yeah honey, I noticed that about him too."

"Huh? When?"

She didn't think it would be a good idea to tell Haruhi that Kyon had let her win an argument. "Us aunties can just pick up on these things. The part that's still a mystery to me is what's going on with you that has him worried."

"Oh, it's probably just this mortality stuff. Kyon always worries when I get into a big project, like he can't stand to have his world shaken up a little, even though he usually enjoys it in the end. I guess dying is a scary project, but you writing this book is going to take care of the whole thing. People die, but characters in books live forever. Whenever people read your book, me and Yui and Kyon and his sister will all be alive for them. Our adventures will be in the annals of literature for all eternity."

"...So you're okay?"

Haruhi gave her the condescending teenager look. "Yeah, I'm fine."

Kanae shifted on the couch. "So, how about Miss Ishigaki? What made you decide to bring her out here, out of all your friends?"

That brought a thoughtful frown to Haruhi's face. "I don't know. I guess just because she's the most adventurous of my friends, so I thought you and her would get along especially well. Tsuruya's pretty adventurous, but I feel like she's not really up for it if things get hairy, you know? If we were climbing a mountain and got caught in a snowstorm, I'd rather have Yui with me than Tsuruya."

"She's dependable?"

"No. I mean, she is dependable, but the reason I'd want her with me is because she's willing to be in that kind of situation. She wouldn't want to, but if it came down to it, I think she'd stare death right in the face without blinking."

There was a brief pause, and as if he had been waiting to fill it, Kyon's voice rang out from the staircase behind them, "Hey, Miss Suzumiya, do you have any -"

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!" Haruhi exploded, doing an 180 degree leap that ended with her standing on her knees on the couch and facing Kyon.

He froze, startled. "I was just -"

"How long have you been listening in?!" she demanded.

Kanae looked directly in Kyon's face and made a rapid slashing motion across her throat.

Kyon, perhaps wisely, only spared Kanae a fraction of a glance, otherwise keeping his gaze firmly on Haruhi. "Are you crazy? Why would I even want to listen in on your book discussion?"

"Don't play dumb! You boys always want to know all of our girls' secrets."

"No, I really have no interest in anything you want to keep secret from me. What kind of idiot do you think I am, anyway? You think I would listen in on a private conversation and then announce that I've been standing right there?"

Haruhi relaxed somewhat, lowering herself so that her butt rested on her ankles. "Hmmph. Well, I suppose you're honest enough to at least own up to it if you were ever eavesdropping. What are you doing down here?"

Kanae was nonplussed. Haruhi not wanting someone to know how she felt about them was unique enough, but trusting them about something she was so vulnerable about was really something new. Kanae was going to have a hard time not blabbing about this to her brother. She would keep mum, absolutely, but it was going to be hard.

Kyon answered, "The girls and I wanted some popcorn while we watch."

"I've got a whole stash in the top cupboard to the right of the fridge," Kanae said.

"Thanks."

He went into the kitchen.

"...So, you were asking about Yui?" Haruhi prompted.

"Right. What's she like? Apart from being adventurous, I mean."

Haruhi mused. "Well... She's confident. That's the first thing you notice about her, I think. She's got this incredible, almost overpowering self-assurance that seems beyond what any human being could possibly have. But it's not the off-putting kind of self-confidence, you know, where it seems like they can't stop talking about themselves, or where they feel like they can boss everyone around. It's a warm, friendly kind of self-assurance that makes you root for her to win."

Kanae smiled. "I think I've seen that sort of self-assurance before."

"No you haven't," Haruhi shot back. "Let me at least finish, jeez! Anyway, the one thing Yui isn't confident with is boys. I've even seen her acting nervous with Kyon, and I know she likes him a lot and in a completely non-romantic way, so there's no reason for her to be tense around him at all. On that camping trip, she was completely incapable of handling Taniguchi hitting on her, and you wouldn't believe how she lets her boyfriend jerk her around, like..."

Haruhi trailed off, frowning intently.

It looked like a thought had just occurred to her. "What is it, honey?"

"Excuse me a moment." She got off the couch and went into the kitchen, from where popcorn had been popping for some time now.

Kanae may not have been able to read exactly what was up, but a frown plus a purposeful departure probably meant that Haruhi had a grievance, and given her destination, it was probably with Kyon. She scooted over on the couch so that she could get a view of the action.

"Yo," Kyon said, turning from the microwave to face Haruhi.

"That doesn't sound like a Disney animated movie playing upstairs."

"Oh, uh, yeah. There was this movie in your aunt's collection that's animated and kid-friendly, but it has aliens and giant robots, which I like, and a love story, which Ishigaki likes. It seemed like a win-win-win option."

"Win-win for you, you mean! What is wrong with you? I mean, could I possibly have made it any clearer to you that you are to be watching a Disney movie?"

"You made that very clear. We just -"

"You just decided to go behind my back and impose your own selfish wishes on Yui and your poor little sister!"

"I didn't -"

She cut him off by jabbing her index finger into his chest. "Who never did you any wrong and are just trying to snuggle up for a good movie time at the end of a long day of travel!"

Kanae heard the door to the TV room slam shut, and looked up to see Ishigaki coming down the stairs in a hurry.

But Haruhi's fury was too focused to take notice of the stomping footsteps. "Why can't you just be nice and not insist on doing whatever you want for once?"

Kyon sighed. "Okay, okay, enough. I'll go put a Disney movie on."

"You'd better! Because if I find out -"

"Excuse me." Ishigaki's voice was not particularly loud, but it was as pointed as a lance. She was facing the space in between Haruhi and Kyon, like a football coach breaking up a fight. "We're trying to watch a movie here, and it's kind of upsetting for an elementary school kid to hear someone yelling at her big brother, all just because we're not watching the movie that someone who isn't even watching with us wanted."

Haruhi looked at Ishigaki and blinked, as though unsure of how to react. "It-it's not just about that! If Kyon wanted to watch a different movie, he should have gotten my permission, not just gone behind my back and forced you guys to watch it!"

"Listen to me, Suzumiya. I decided that we should watch a movie that we all can enjoy. Kyon and his sis agreed. So if you have a problem with that, then you have it out with me, not yell at poor Kyon just because he was nice enough to go and make popcorn for us."

It took Kanae a moment to realize: Ishigaki didn't know who she was defying. She stood there, arms folded, without even a trace of trembling. She didn't realize that Haruhi would sooner wrap someone into a sushi roll and feed them to killer sharks as let them stand against what she wanted. She must not have been Haruhi's friend for as long as Kanae had assumed.

"Kyon, I think the popcorn's done," Ishigaki pointed out.

Kyon was staring at the simmering Haruhi, and looked reluctant to step away, for fear that he would need to restrain her from wrapping her hands around Ishigaki's throat. But after a moment's hesitation, he took the two steps to the microwave, stopped it, and pulled out the steaming bag.

Ishigaki's gaze was steady on Haruhi the entire time. "Can we get back to enjoying our movie now? Or do we have to watch something Kyon won't like, so that his sister and I won't have as good time because we can't share the fun with him?"

Haruhi clenched and unclenched her fists, over and over. She trembled as though some struggle was taking place just under her skin.

Then she turned her head from Ishigaki. "Hmmph. Fine, you guys can go back to the movie."

"Well, thank you so much for your permission." Ishigaki turned and headed back to the stairs. "Come on, Kyon."

But Kyon was still looking at Haruhi, albeit with a dramatically different expression than he had been just a few seconds ago.

Haruhi's eyes snapped to him, a scowl still on her face, but the threat of an explosion was gone. "What are you smiling at?" she demanded. "Gloating that you got your way?"

"I don't care about that."

"Then what's that stupid smile for?"

He was still smiling, and far from being a stupid smile, it was a small, quiet smile, the kind you might share with an old friend. "I was just noticing that you're much less stubborn than you used to be. It's kind of impressive, honestly."

"I have no idea what you're talking about." She turned her face from him and closed her eyes. "Get going, will you? Don't make the girls eat cold popcorn."

He did as she said, taking the bowl filled with popcorn upstairs, but the smile never left his face.

After a moment, Haruhi came back to the couch and sat down. She didn't seem to notice that Kanae had shifted her spot on the couch. She wasn't scowling anymore, either, but Kanae decided to not say anything just yet. It might not be safe.

Haruhi exhaled a slow breath, as though releasing the stress from her confrontation with Ishigaki. "...There's something I didn't tell you about Kyon. He... well, he was my first."

Kanae tensed. "Your... first?"

Haruhi nodded. "The first person who made me feel happy just by being happy himself. When we were at that baseball game... It's happened a lot of times since then, with a lot of different people, but that was the first time someone ever smiled and I felt happy just because I knew I was the one who made them smile."

Author's notes: If anyone knows what movie Kyon, his sister, and Ishigaki watched, go ahead and shout it out in your review, because I have no idea. I just assumed that something like it exists for the sake of the story.