Ningyo

Kyon was the only one who seemed to remember the missing Nagato Yuki. He tried to describe her to Mikuru and Itsuki, but neither of them had more than an empty shell of a memory. His memory wasn't all that clear either, but the love he felt for her lingered in his heart like a heavy warm fog, clouding everything else he tried to feel in this empty world.

He was still living in a world where he was supposed to love Haruhi, but he couldn't remember a time when he actually loved her. It was like he had gone through the motions the entire time, acting the part so well that he even tricked himself. But now that the veil had been lifted from his eyes, he found it hard to pretend anymore.

"Kyon." Haruhi nudged him yet again. They were sitting on couch in her living room watching whatever happened to be on.

"Kyon?" She asked again. Damn, he hated hearing his name so damn often.

"What up with you?" She asked, giving him a slightly more than gentle prod with her elbow. "Usually, you'd be halfway in my shirt by now. But you're just sitting there, hogging up the couch."

"I'm using just as much couch as you are." Kyon retorted, finding it quite natural to mindlessly argue over pointless things with her.

"Well, I usually like to watch you struggle with my bra, but why don't we speed things up a little bit?" She said playfully, slipping her shirt off over her head and undoing her bra, letting her breasts come spilling out.

Kyon stared at her, slightly mesmerized. He was in love with Nagato... right? A timid hand reached up, cupping the soft flesh. His mind screamed at him again, he did love Nagato, right? He gave the soft mound in his hand a slight squeeze, wondering why he wasn't feeling the normal excitement he usually be feeling. Whoever this Nagato person was, she must really be something special, because even with Haruhi's beautifully naked form in front of him, he couldn't get her out of his mind.

"I'm sorry." Kyon said, getting up. "I forgot something at some place I had to do."

Haruhi stared at him, her eyes full of disbelief. "Something at some place?"

"Yeah, sorry, but I need to go. I'll make it up to you, I promise." It was a promise he wasn't going to keep, but he really didn't care.

Something at somewhere? Yeah, he was a genius. But he just needed to get out of there to have some time to think. He wandered the streets for a while, still trying to remember anything he could about Nagato. She was so close he could almost feel her heartbeat, but still couldn't picture more than a brief glimpse. He found himself at the school gate. It was locked up tight, but it wasn't the first time he had hopped the fence. Not really sure where he was going he wandered up to the club room, hoping to unlock some hidden memory or something, but all he got was a big fat nothing. He sat down in his usual chair and rested his head on the table, his brain exhausted from all the mental hurdles.

"Kyon..." a voice called to him, yet again. Not wanting to deal with the world right then, Kyon kept his head mashed against the table. The voice stayed silent but the hairs on his neck were tingling like the speaker was staring at him. Reluctantly he raised his head, but he was alone.

"This must be what going insane feels like." He muttered, leaving the room before his mind played anymore tricks on him.

He wandered up to the school roof, finding a familiar wall to lean on. He couldn't remember when it had been but he was sure he had been up there before. He remembered having lunch with Haruhi and something about aliens or something. He knew it was important, but it was just another thing he couldn't remember. Something on the ground caught his eye. There wasn't much there, but he had the strange feeling of déjà vu when he looked at the strange faded outline that had been drawn on the concrete. It was like a big circle with writhing or squiggles or something filling in the center. It looked strange, alien even, but whatever it was, he was sure Haruhi had something to do with it.

"There you are." Haruhi said as Kyon burst through her door, not even bothering to knock. "So, did you take care of that thing at that place?"

"Yep." He nodded, "And, I've got a surprise for you."

"Really now?" Haruhi approached him, grinning. She gave his a sweet little smooch that make Kyon feel a little queasy, but he kept his composure.

"Yeah, but we'll have to hurry." He told her, hoping to avoid anymore false affection.

He led the way back to the school, dodging Haruhi's questions as best as he could. He wasn't sure what he was going to do if they got up to the strange circle and nothing happened, but he'd cross that bridge when he got there. As the two of them broke in to school, Kyon had another flash of déjà vu. How many times had he done this?

He quickly led her up the stairs, hoping to beat night fall. As they stepped out on to the roof they were bathed in the warm rich hue of sunset.

"It's beautiful..." Haruhi breathed in wonder, staring out at the picturesque view, but Kyon was too worked up to care.

"Look." He said, pointing to the circle. "It's like a weird alien sign."

Haruhi laughed softly under her breath. "You know, I gave up all that alien nonsense when I started dating you."

"But isn't it weird and interesting?" He said, feeling his plan slipping through his fingers.

Haruhi gave it a quick look over. Some strange look of realization seemed to twinkle across her face but she quickly shook her head. "It looks like someone drew it in chalk. Now, why don't we get back to the real surprise?" She said, motioning to the beautiful sunset.

Kyon was at a complete loss. He didn't want to live in a world without Nagato, but if she didn't exist, he didn't want to lose Haruhi as well. He joined her and they found a spot to sit and watch the sunset. As the sky grew dim they found themselves in each other's arms, Kyon trying to tell himself that this was right. Twilight turned to darkness and the air grew too cold for them to spend much more time alone on that roof, but before they got up, Haruhi gave Kyon one last long passionate kiss.

"I guess that something somewhere turned out to be really important." Haruhi grinned, slipping her arm through Kyon's to walk close to him like a stereotypical couple.

"Yeah... I guess." Kyon sighed, wondering why he had expected his plan to work in the first place.

They walked arm in arm down the familiar road to Haruhi's house. He wasn't sure how many time he had walked this path with her, or how many more times he'd walk down it again. He felt helpless, wondering if he should just give up and live out his life of false happiness with Haruhi or throw it all away for someone he couldn't hardly remember.

"You know, even though it was a lame excuse to get me up there, I had forgotten how much fun it was looking for aliens and stuff." Haruhi said, standing in her doorway as the said good night.

Kyon remembered all the pointless hours he had wasted following her on her wild goose chases and kicked himself for reminding her. "Yeah... fun."

"We should do it again sometime." She said, giving him a kiss good night.

Kyon forced a smile, feeling both the emptiness in her kiss and dreading the countless hours he'd be wasting on her new adventures. "Yeah, lets..."

"I mean, yeah, I know it sounds crazy, but wouldn't it be amazing if aliens were here on Earth, living amongst us?" A sparkle of wonder shimmered in Haruhi's eyes.

Somewhere off in the distance, a circle on a rooftop sparkled as well.


End

Author's notes

Sorry sorry sorry that took so long to write, I've been feeling like crap and dealing with a lot of crap these last few week. But, since I'm shipping out pretty soon for some more training, I wanted to finish before I left. I won't be gone too long, and I might write an epilogue with Yuki when I get back, but as it is, this was the ending I was planning from the start and I'm pretty happy with the Haruhi~esk style of tying things together.

And as always, thanks for reading. And if you've got any thoughts or suggestions, let me know, I do appreciate any and all feedback.