I had originally planned on writing this sooner (like right after my first Haruhi fic soon), but I knew I didn't have the grasp of Kyon's narrative. So here it is (while I wrestle with the third chapter of SAS). Also, this was a promise to a friend of mine, so he better like it

The number one reason I lose sleep, or have inadequate sleep, is Haruhi. The only reason I've found this suitable is because I've convinced myself (or been convinced more likely, but I like to think I made the choice.) of one simple fact:

Haruhi Suzumiya is god.

I find it funny I described it as a "simple" fact, as there is nothing simple about my entire situation, let alone Haruhi.

But I digress.

Getting into the whole "Haruhi can do whatever she feels like short of her own human conscience" thing is old news, so I'll say nothing more than I've been having problems sleeping lately and you should all know the reason.

Currently, it seems Haruhi has reasserted herself to find mysterious things or, failing that, make sure everyone believes they exist. This has spawned a recent chain of ridiculous advertising gimmicks (that I won't mention here) and Sundays spent searching the city for the usual mysteries.

Oh and for the record, Sunday used to be the day I spent catching up on sleep, now that time has been spread through the week, and my grades are starting to show it.

Seriously, I should just skip an outing or two and let Koizumi pick up the slack.

"Those kinds of grades are unacceptable for a Brigade member!" Haruhi yelled over my shoulder after having witnessed, on her own initiative, my current grades that were displayed on a progress report. These progress reports were only done by teachers that felt them necessary, and not as final or ominous as the real report cards that come at midterm or end of term.

To my knowledge, our homeroom teacher Okabe was the only one in our grade that did them. That alone is enough to give me early wrinkles, but does Haruhi really have to yell out to the class how badly I'm doing? And what about privacy with these kinds of things?

"You're a brigade member! Privacy is secondary!" Haruhi countered my privacy statement with another ghastly declaration of the fascist state that is the SOS Brigade. And secondary to what?

"Imagine the shame you'd put yourself in if you had to accept private tutoring from me. I mean, yes, that would make you do better in school and I do have the free time, but that's all beside the point." Haruhi went on talking in extended metaphor and circles mode, so I intervened to save her breath.

Are you telling me you want to help or not?

"I'm telling you to work harder you idiot!"

The rest of class was pretty standard stuff besides avoiding the pitying/concerned stares of my classmates, but I decided to take notes for no other reason than being bored and having nothing else to do, so don't take that any other way.

After school, I left the class, which was being cleaned by Haruhi and the unfortunate chap (was Matsuda his name?) that was paired up with her for class duties, and headed to the brigade room.

"You had better be studying what I told you to when I get over there!" were Haruhi's parting words to me, as to which Matsuda, who was within earshot, tried his best to suppress laughter. Unlucky and unwise is what I would call him.

That's okay though; Asahina's tea should ease the burden of homework and extra studying. Actually, while we're on the subject, where did she learn how to make tea like that? The future must be very bright in the world of tea.

However, a problem I found upon arrival was that the clubroom was empty except for Nagato, who was pounding ever so dexterously on the computer keyboard.

Nagato wasn't reading in the corner?

When she heard the door close behind me, she looked around the computer monitor. I greeted her before she ducked back behind the computer, apparently satisfied.

I took a seat at the table and opened my books. I struggled through a few questions before deciding it was time to take a break or at least wait for Asahina's tea.

I looked over at Nagato, who had been silently typing this whole time. She sure looked busy. What exactly was she working on?

Her answer was merely another lean out from behind the monitor, as if to see what I was doing. She looked from me, to the notebooks in front of me, before looking back at me. When I got uncomfortable, I merely shrugged and returned to my work.

Have I ever told you that you should just say what you mean Nagato?

Ignoring what I said, or more possibly, filing away what I said, she returned to her work.

Not five minutes later, I was once again stuck and really feeling withdrawal from the lack of Asahina's tea. I considered asking Nagato to make it, but while she would usually have no complaints, she seemed too busy to disturb. Too bad, it would probably be comparably good. It was then that I realized there was only the two of us. Haruhi sure was taking a long time to clean the classroom and Koizumi is usually here by now, not to mention Asahina, who's almost always here early to change into her daily maid outfit (unless told otherwise by Haruhi).

Eventually, I decided I would make the tea myself. I mean, it's not that hard, but unfortunately, not nearly as delicious as Asahina's tea. When I got up and went to the tea pot however, Nagato had stopped typing and was watching me.

Do I have something on my face or something?

I went about my work, keeping a close eye on Nagato. Maybe an invisible entity was hovering around me and Nagato was having an invisible and epic battle with it. Either way, figuring her out sometimes was harder than figuring out Haruhi.

I went about making tea, before hearing the sound of typing behind me strike up once again. Realizing I could see the computer screen from where I stood, I stole a glance in its direction.

A simple word document was opened up, and lines of words were flying down the page. I couldn't make any of them out, but I could see she was already forty pages into it.

Amazed at what I was witnessing, I wondered if it was some sort of novel that was pouring out of her head.

When she finally noticed I was watching, I had prepared my defense against any suspicion. She quickly closed and saved the document, and stared at me in the eyes once more.

Here's some tea.

She nodded and took it from me, sipping from it before stopping for a moment.

Well, how is it?

"Use cold water next time." She suggested softly.

I couldn't help but smile at an alien tasting my tea and giving me advice, but in the time of dodging her suspicion of me snooping around her private work, I hadn't noticed Haruhi enter.

"What kind of a love story is this?! I thought I said you had better be working!" Haruhi had a face like she had eaten an apple that tasted like a lemon.

Apparently, Haruhi ignored the fact that Nagato had been using the computer instead of reading in the corner like the silent character Haruhi says she's suppose to be.

Nagato was now, however, back to her usual spot and reading a book. Meanwhile, Haruhi sat on the computer looking up whatever it was she ever looks up (beside's our own SOS Brigade Website) and I continued to struggle through the mountain of catch-up work Haruhi had assigned me that I had only ever learned in my sleep.

"You did that one wrong! And that one!"

When Haruhi got bored of the computer, she decided to check on my progress.

"You were way off here too! Is this really your best?"

And my progress was little, especially, with Haruhi yelling over my shoulder until her sanity returned and she offered to help me instead of berate me with unpleasant comments about my failure.

"Here, I'll show you how to do this part now."

When it was time to leave, I was just starting to feel like I had gotten the hang of things. Also, I couldn't help but feel a little thankful for Haruhi's help. It almost seemed like we were old friends and she was helping me out of a jam. We even bumped embarrassingly a few times in our close proximity.

Oh me and my strange manga fantasies.

Evidently, neither Koizumi nor Asahina showed up to the brigade room that day. Koizumi better have a good reason, because Haruhi had steamed about it while we were leaving.

"I mean honestly, where are our two most important members?" she huffed annoyingly as I gathered up my books and Nagato put her book away.

Most important members? Asahina maybe, but what does that make me and Nagato?

"Dismissed!" Haruhi ordered loudly and marched out the door leaving only Nagato and myself.

Speaking of Nagato, she was staring at me again. It unsettled me, but I wondered if she needed anything.

Shaking her head to my query, she ceased staring and headed out the door. I should probably tell her how rude it can be to stare, but I figure it's just her way of humoring me.

The next day, I ran into Koizumi before school and decided to give him a piece of my mind for leaving me with such an unpleasant Haruhi.

"I really think it's you who should be apologizing." He said surprisingly. I didn't expect him to be so accusatory. So that's how it is huh? And why should I apologize to you of all people?

"Maybe asking for an apology is too much, but you should at least keep your grades in check from now on." He answered smugly.

Basically our whole conversation while we walked was him telling me about the ridiculously large closed space that he was in for the better part of the evening last night (serves him right) and how it was my fault for not only having bad grades, but letting Haruhi find out about them.

If he really knew how close of a proximity she keeps with me (against my will of course), he would know not to ask such impossible things. Beside's, privacy is secondary according to Haruhi Suzumiya.

"I was wondering when she would pull out that card on you, I guess that only leaves one option. Keep your grades up." He smiled that smile that I'm almost entirely sure he knows I hate, and patted me on the back. I wish Koizumi wouldn't touch me.

"Fair enough, just do your best okay? I'm counting on you."

Just as I made a mental note to fail my next exam on purpose, we entered the clubroom.

Not writing your epic novel today Nagato?

Her answer was a brief expressionless look from her book. She apparently recognized my sarcasm and was now ignoring it. I'm sorry; I am not funny when I do this.

We had quite a bit of time before class started, a surprising amount actually (I must be getting in better shape), and Koizumi offered to play Othello, which I refused, as there was a more pressing matter to attend to than stomping him into the ground via two sided playing chips. Will he ever learn?

"I can't get better any other way." He admitted, laughing it off.

I sat at the computer and immediately started looking for the file Nagato had saved somewhere onto it. When she got up, I could have sworn she was coming to see what I was up to, but instead, she took a seat across from Koizumi and joined him in a game of Othello.

I kept my eye on them, firstly to make sure Nagato didn't sneak up on me like I'm afraid she could, and secondly to witness Koizumi get wiped by someone else.

By the time class came around, I still hadn't found it, and had looked in most of the likely places.

We all made our way to our floor and split up to our classrooms, where I found Haruhi waiting for me. She practically pounced on me, jumping up and speed walking the length of the room.

"Well, did you get it all done?" She demanded.

Surprisingly enough, I had completed the whole ridiculous amount that she had told me to, and felt better about the material, but I settled for a simple yes.

"You better have done it all correctly or else all that time I tutored you would have gone to waste!"

"See!? It was exactly like I said!" Haruhi exclaimed triumphantly, having checked all my work during a break. I wasn't as excited, as everything is always exactly like she says, however in this case, I had lost more sleep getting it all done.

Subsequently, I slept soundly during class, with only numbers from the night before bouncing around in my head. I conveniently woke up just before the lunch bell and hoped Haruhi hadn't noticed.

No such luck.

"I spent all that effort for you and you go and sleep in class anyways?" she asked rhetorically on our way down the hall towards the brigade room. "Jeez what's with you? It wouldn't be so bad to make the mistakes you do if you at least learned from them."

Haruhi started to sound like a councilor, and I quickly got tired of listening. However, just because I was tired of listening didn't mean I could stop. Not listening to Haruhi is one of the worst things you could do and it is not healthy to let your mind jump around and start thinking about other things like what Nagato was writing about…

"Are you even listening to me?!"

I had thought I would be the victim of Haruhi's unpleasantness for the remainder of the day. However, it seems the universe proved me wrong in a good way today, as a suitable distraction in the form of a green haired girl visited the clubroom after school with Asahina in tow.

"Yo! Sorry for Mikuru not being here yesterday! We had this super duper important project to finish up for class. Ain't that right, nyoro?" Her enthusiasm was as boundless as ever.

"Uh, yes, the reason I wasn't here yesterday…" Asahina seemed flustered trying to explain herself. Innocent Asahina, any reason you weren't here has to be important, so you shouldn't worry about it at all. I was about to tell her all of this, but Haruhi had something more urgent to say apparently.

"You're forgiven!" Haruhi declared immediately, much to Asahina's relief, but there was unfortunately more. "On one condition! Tsuruya arriving has given me a great idea! Onward and outward SOS Brigade!"

Wait, what? Hold on a second, what are we even doing?

"You're not doing anything, you idiot. Mikuru, Tsuruya, Yuki, and I have a very important surprise event to go perform!" Haruhi checked her wallet before nodding in satisfaction. Surprise event and more costume buying eh? I wonder how rich her family is to give her all this money for costumes because she spends breaks looking for mysteries instead of working part-time jobs (except for that one time, of course).

"Ah, but Suzumiya…" Poor Asahina, she doesn't yet realize it's hopeless to argue with her when she's like this. I wish you the best of luck and pray for your safe return.

Nagato apparently had already given up, had laid her book down on the table and was now staring at Haruhi for some sign of leaving.

"Alright! Uber adventure with the Haruhi Brigade! Nyoro!" Nothing too crazy should happen if Tsuruya is there right? Please take care of Asahina.

After they had left, it was me and that annoying Koizumi, but more surprises still awaited me.

"Well, I better get going too." Koizumi said after a sufficient time since they left. "Another closed space has resulted from you sleeping in class." He laughed a little afterwards, and turned to leave.

Annoying as ever, he could at least tell me how he knew about me sleeping in class.

"But I did tell you a while back. The school has already been secretly infiltrated. Which classroom do you think was their first target?"

This made more sense, but I had never taken the time to think about it, because it didn't really matter. However, since we were on the subject, I decided to ask him about Matsuda.

"I knew you would guess right. It's a fake name, but Matsuda is in fact an esper and also a big fan of yours."

I didn't know I had any fans, but I guess it's because of Haruhi.

After he had left, I was alone in the clubroom. I considered just going home, before remembering a certain file on the computer I promised myself I would find.

Nagato's story.

While I searched, I wondered what it would be about. Aliens perhaps? Or maybe historic literature? Would it be a drama? Or even an unlikely love story?

Just as I laughed at myself for thinking Nagato would write a love story, I found it, tucked away in the system files, and suitably hidden from anyone not looking for it.

Thinking it over, why would Nagato leave it in a place where it could be found? I'm certain she possessed the computer prowess to hide it where it would never be seen by any normal human like me? Did she want it to be found?

Was it nosy of me to look at it? Nagato had done so much for me and now I was going to look at her secret writing without her permission? It didn't seem particularly right, but Nagato wouldn't have left it in sight if she didn't want me to see it. Was she acting so secretive to appeal to my curiosity?

With the thought "SOS Brigade member privacy is secondary" in my head, I double clicked the file (which was named Y x J) and waited for the word processor to open.

To sum up exactly what I found would be difficult, but I'll give it my best. Basically the first twenty or so pages were just random musing (that some would consider poetic) mixed into randomized letters. There were characters simplified into nothing more than pronouns and a lot of cryptic development.

However, abruptly halfway down the twenty-first page there was a break and a different story began. To give a synopsis, the story was about a quiet and shy girl named Yuno and a sarcastic but kind foreigner named John and it was, in actual fact, a love story.

Now I'm not the biggest love story fan, but I found it engrossing. The reason for this might be because Nagato wrote it, but I also thought the pacing was nice and the development was spaced out in a natural manner.

The whole time I was searching for Nagato's story, I imagined it more along the lines of the first twenty or so pages. Did she write those because she knew I expected something like that, and would give up after seeing how long it is?

I quickly reread a few sections of the first half and found I could loosely match them up with developments and events in the real story. Were they her notes? Or practice? I had no way of knowing, but the greatest shock came at the end of the story.

The two characters, alone in a room, had finally admitted exactly how they felt about each other (their undying love etc.) in a very heated argument. That part was all in all pretty predictable, but it was immediately followed by them removing their clothes…

How could Nagato write something like this?!

After finishing the story, I closed the document and considered going home. It probably would have been the best choice to leave, but Nagato had left her book on the table and I was certain she would return for it. And when she did, I would ask her about her writing because something didn't sit right with me.

The sun had started to set by the time she did return and she was thankfully alone. I had finished my homework in that time but had spent the last twenty minutes or so just keeping the books open in front of me so I would have an excuse to still be there (not that I truly believed such miniscule illusions would trick Nagato, but more for my own conscience).

When she opened the door and found me still sitting there, I think she was surprised, as she stopped for a second. Regarding me briefly, she then moved to get her book, but when she picked it up, she did nothing but stare at the computer.

I wondered what Haruhi had made them do and if Asahina would be too scarred to come to school tomorrow.

"Within reason." Was Nagato's answer without her gaze leaving the computer. Actually, isn't that the first thing she's said all day? Also, I found it hard to believe Haruhi did anything within reason.

At my witty counter, Nagato shifted her attention back to me.

"Did you read it?"

The option of lying quickly evaporated with my surprised reaction. I never expected her to be so direct. I stumbled through a lame explanation that I was certain Nagato would never buy about how I just stumbled across it. My lack of finesse at critical times may someday be the death of me.

"How was it?" Her expression hadn't changed at all.

To answer a simple question like "How was it?" for a thing like what I read is about as impossible as keeping secrets from Haruhi (beside's the big one).

Still surprised, I tried my best to critic her work, omitting the strange mystery of the first twenty pages. I talked about how well the characters were done, and basically every thing I mentioned earlier.

As I viewed it critically, I felt less shock that Nagato had written something like she had.

The problem lied in the fact that as I was talking, I realized the characters seemed very familiar, if in different circumstances.

"Yes, it was written that way."

Oh. I would have never guessed.

"And the…" Nagato had trailed off, as if to find the right words, and I hoped she wasn't asking me about the ending…

"…lemon?"

No such luck.

After several false starts and stuttering, I realized I was very nervous, for some unknown reason. I tried my best to critic the "sensual bit" that she had written, pointing out where she had been far too descriptive, and more or less told her it would have sat more comfortable with the rest of the story if it wasn't so…graphic.

"Oh." Was her monosyllable response.

I then considered what she thought about it and decided to ask.

"I like it."

I gathered as much. So, Nagato liked the lemon she wrote.

"Yes, I like the lemon."

I resisted the urge to ask "Do you love the lemon?" as Nagato seemed so adamant about its existence she had spoken more about it than she had spoken in the last few days, but I stopped myself. Protecting her silent dignity from my sarcasm and amusement was the least I could do to repay her for saving me countless times.

I instead commented on how the work was good, and how she should continue writing. Also, I told her how I would be pleased to read any future work by her.

"I see."

Nagato left shortly after and I said goodbye to her without an answer as usual. I wonder if Nagato doesn't say goodbye because she knows we'll see each other again. Should I fear the time when she does return my goodbye?

Regardless, I gathered up my books and walked home, allowing myself a few exterior (and many interior) laughs at what it would sound like if Nagato had said: "Yes, I love the lemon." But eventually I realized Nagato would have merely recognized my mocking sarcasm and probably not have answered. It was still amusing to think about however.

It then fully occurred to me that Nagato had, if slightly evasively because of my phrasing, admitted the story was about us. This brought about a whole line of speculation and wonder that would have drove me insane if I didn't know that Nagato, regardless of whatever happens between us, would be exactly the same tomorrow when I saw her.

Sighing to myself after that brief panic, I started to think about a thought I had been building since discovering all this weirdness back near the beginning of the year.

It's not fully developed yet, but I might as well share it.

Basically, every choice made of every second of our lives builds a branch of a tree. This means that all the choices we don't make are just other branches we aren't on, but another dimension has us on that branch. Can you see why I don't talk about it and have had to work hard to figure all that out?

Anyways, the reason I bring this up is because Nagato (the most unlikely of everyone) had shown me a very distant branch of my tree. It just goes to show that when Nagato scares you, she's really thorough.

The next day, I didn't have time to run by the brigade room before class, so I merely went to my classroom, where Haruhi was undoubtedly waiting for me. It wasn't so bad, as I wanted to hear about the most recent advertising stunt Haruhi had pulled last night.

"Never mind about that, it was all pretty standard stuff." Haruhi deflected my query into nothingness, which was unfortunate, as I wanted to know what Asahina had worn for imagination fuel. And what's with everyone thinking things are simple or standard lately? When did my whole life turn into a weird world that emphasized its weirdness by calling it all normal? I was content when things were weird and that was it.

"Don't worry about such ridiculous things! Besides, I never had a chance to tell you what happened to me yesterday during class cleaning. That idiot Matsuda confessed to me! Naturally I said no, but I was impressed that he asked me to my face." I'm more impressed that Haruhi said "no", not that I wanted her to have a boyfriend, just impressed that she broke her long history of always saying "yes".

"Afterwards, he kind of laughed and said something about me already having someone. Hah! Imagine that, he's almost as stupid as you are! Speaking of you being stupid, no sleeping today, got it?!" Haruhi went on talking like no one else in the class (Matsuda in particular) could hear her.

All the while I considered all the choices I could have made and the ones I was going to make. I credit this to Haruhi Suzumiya, who makes me lose sleep, and the alien, time traveler and esper that I hang out with, who make me imagine all the possibilities.

No matter what they say, "normal" will always be on the opposite end of the tree.

Thanks for reading, reviews are always welcome, and yes it was more or less YxK and yes it went practically no where, but I like it like that. It was nice to write something lighter even if I got sort of philosophical. Thanks again -Don Piano