First, Martin III told me to post the following retraction, since FF dot net does not allow editing of one's reviews. He'll be leaving a post shortly on the Debate of Haruhi Suzumiya forum, in the "Thoughts on the light novels" thread, to confirm that I have not misrepresented him. Here's the retraction:

"Usually I give a story a lot of thought before leaving a review, but now and then I blast out a quickie so I can move on to another story. In this case, doing so was a mistake, as I realized not an hour later that my whole interpretation of the story was likely wrong, and a PM from the author confirmed it. My error was assuming that if Haruhi were gone Kyon would actually wait for her, and that the rain on Tanabata thing was an end point for the waiting that Kyon had chosen arbitrarily, rather than an obligation. In retrospect the line 'I didn't think they'd manage to keep the damn day sunny for six years' makes it obvious that that's not the case, and that Kyon is not using Tsuruya as a replacement for Haruhi, but I didn't spend enough time thinking the story over. So my whole review for this fic was based on a hasty misreading, except for the part about it being well-written."

And now, my own review of this fic. I really liked this. It more than does justice to the romantic staples of the perpetually waiting lover and the faithful unrequited lover, then adds on a twist which reveals both of those to be false. It's emotionally compelling at every step: I felt concerned for the departed Brigade members, I felt sad for Kyon being separated from his beloved Haruhi, I pitied Tsuruya for spending her time with a guy who's otherwise committed... and in the end, I felt a bittersweet happiness, because the loss of what Kyon and Haruhi might have had together and the wasted years that he could have spent with Tsuruya are still strongly felt, even if they're not enough to completely override the joy that Tsuruya experiences on having her long-harbored hope fulfilled.

The one problem I have is that Tsuruya never feels distinctly like Tsuruya to me. I realize her being peppy and energetic and laughing hysterically wouldn't fit with what's going on (and anyway I'd expect her to be a little more subdued when she's seven years older), but I wanted something in her back story or behavior to make it feel like the Tsuruya of this story couldn't have been swapped for any girl.

Everything else works great. The wording is perfect, economical yet eloquent, and in conjunction with the deliberately short paragraphs the whole thing reads almost like a poem. And there are lots of great details, like the bit about the shampoo, which add character to the relationship and its trials. Despite this being under 2,000 words, I feel like I've just read a whole epic love story.

Much as I love Stephen Stills' music, the lyrics to "Love the One You're With" have become increasingly objectionable to me. And the Kyon/Haruhi relationship is a perfect demonstration of why that is. The things Haruhi does for Kyon cannot be done for him by any other person, and the same goes for the things he does for her. There's more to their relationship than simply fulfilling each other's desires for companionship and sex. So if they're separated, they can't simply get replacements like machines with broken parts. And any relationship where one person is trying to use the other person as a replacement for someone who's gone isn't going to be a happy one for long.

With that said, you can probably guess how I feel about this story, as well-written as it is.

Today is Tanabata so I read this once more. This one always tugs on my heart whenever I read it. Thank you for the story.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you thank you thank you thank you thank you. FINALLY i find a PROPER KyonxTsuruya fic, i mean, there're some fics of them, but they're either discontinued or bad.
I feel so stupid reviewing something a couple years old, but i had to. Thank you so much.

I'm glad I stumbled across this gem of a story. It's depressing at first, you managed to get that feeling across very well. I felt sorry for Kyon, yet I wanted to slap him and tell him to move on. I also felt sorry for Tsuruya and wished she would eventually break through to Kyon. In the end, my wishes came true. For that, I thank you so very much!

Also, you accidentally misspelled "device" as "devise".

my earlier review was supposed to be a giant smily face i can now see it didn't work

words cannot describe so i give you this instead
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xxxxxxxxxxx xxxx hmmn i don't seem to be very good at this. write on racke write on.

;_;

Stumbled upon this little gem at 3AM. I'm glad I decided to browse just a little longer before falling asleep.

It's stories like this that heals the soul. Thanks.

Kyon and Tsuruya always leave a little warm glow in my heart (granted you never confirmed that it was Kyon but I thought it was obvious). Thankyou, I hope you write more of these two in the future.

Can I ask what inspired you to write this scene?

That was beautiful. So well written, such excellent rhythm, such perfect steering of the emotions. I cried so hard at the ending, which I didn't see coming until the last moment. You brought out both the characters really well and made their love believable and really made me cheer for them. I love this story :)

I do love a sappy romance. Usually I wouldn't pair Kyon with Tsuruya. (I'd pair Mikuru with Tsuruya first, but in this fic it works.)

Overall impression: a bit too much introspection and not enough narrative, but a nice fic.

The semi-depressing tone worked well and gave off vibes similar to depellebar. But whereas that fic left the reader in melancholy, this gives the "happy ending." One thing that is unclear is why she started sitting with him in the first place.

So today at an amusement park, I was asked to watch the baby while my family went ahead-I've got a history of diseases which prevent me from attending such rides. To kill time, I pulled out phone, and looked up new fanfics...find one by Racke. Immediate interest, nice to hear from ya again, man. Click it.

About twenty minutes later when my family returned, they found me lightly crying to myself. They panicked and asked what's wrong. I replied, "I found a Tsuru/Kyon pairing fic I actually liked!"

They, of course, asked how many medications I'd taken that day.

The point is, great story. I'm interested to know more about the events leading up to the promise Kyon made and the vanishing of all his friends-is this Disappearance verse, but without him finding any of them again? Or does it just happen, without much prologue? That said, we're in Tsuruya's PoV, so it's completely logical that would be an unknown plot point. Just kinda bugged me as a reader, not at all a fault in the story. I'd like to see a prequel which explained that, perhaps, unless I'm just behind the times and missing a reference to a canon plot I've yet to read.

I didn't see any grammatical errors or any other such trivial noise, and it was a cute little one-shot that left me feeling happy*, as an avid fan of the unpopular Kyon/Tsuruya pairing. Never seemed OOC, had several moments which really hit the personality of the characters well (such as Kyon's "their tea is horrible" line), and a lot of emotion for such a short plot.

*Those tears at the park were of joy, I sort of started laughing to myself and just spiraled into that. I have weird emotions.

I have no complaints, really. An excellent story, great job.

Oh, Kyon. I love how you write him here. Hopeless, romantic idiot. And Tsuraya! This fic works really well as a character study for both of them. Thank you for writing it!