madimpossibledreamer

Main Points: Haruhi Suzumiya AU
Chapter Summary: Kyon's late to club, Haruhi's in a bad mood, and it seems no one else remembers that Kyon even exists...
Word Count: 710
Rating: K
Note: I haven't read everything, so this probably is not canon compliant.

Haruhi Suzumiya was in a bad mood. She was running late for club, which would mean that everyone had arrived before she did, and she'd have to award herself a penalty. She breathed in deeply and opened the door before she could chicken out. Of course, no one would question it if she didn't show up, especially if she showed up the next day with a bunch of purchases for the Brigade or something, but this time she'd know she was just trying to avoid the penalty and she couldn't lie to herself.

She opened the door to greetings from the Brigade....

All but one. A somewhat scary smile spread over her face. "Where is Kyon? Late again? This time, I'll make him buy food for all the starving kids in Kenya! That'll teach him!"

She wasn't expecting the reaction she got—Koizumi's smile dropping off his face, Asahina's sudden stillness, and Nagato even looked up from her book! Why was everyone so surprised? It wasn't that harsh of a penalty.

"Who?" Koizumi asked quietly, gently, as if he was merely humoring her.

She glared at her SOS Brigade, but none of the others had any recognition in their eyes, either. Finally she crossed her arms. "This joke isn't funny. Kyon!"

"I assure you, no one is laughing," Koizumi stated, still using a quieter voice as if any louder would set her off.

None of them showed any likelihood of giving up on the practical joke, so she rolled her eyes. "He put you up to this so he could get out of the penalty, didn't he? He's going to get in such trouble for slacking off."

Koizumi shook his head. "As Assistant Brigade Chief, I would never presume to try to shield a fellow Brigade member from learning the consequences of their behavior. Is he a new member you've found for us?"

"Okay, this has gone far enough. You can stop pretending now." She was starting to feel scared. What had happened to Kyon? Now that she thought about it, he hadn't been in class, either. Had he been kidnapped by aliens, or eaten by monsters? But no, it looked like the SOS Brigade, besides her, didn't remember him, and those explanations wouldn't account for it...Some sort of monster that stole and ate memories?

"...Oh yeah, is he a mystery we're going to investigate today?" Koizumi asked. He didn't seem to have gotten the general idea, but that was just as decent an excuse as any. They'd find Kyon, in one piece, and defeat the memory-stealing monster, and everyone would remember him again. As much as his usual grumbling and finding fault in the wonderful annoyed her, she was honestly beginning to miss it.

"...Yes, good job, you figured it out!" She jumped on top of the chair, giving the idea a thumbs-up, throwing her energy into this, because if they guessed that she didn't have the same memories maybe the monster could control them and make them take her to it too. And then who would remember Kyon and save him? "We're going to search for this guy, Kyon...." Odd. Didn't she used to have a picture with him around here somewhere? The same picture from before only showed her, grinning at the camera. "....and when we find him, we're going to ask him a few questions. Okay, Brigade out!"

She charged out of the door, and then quickly found her steps slowing down considerably. What if something had actually happened, and the police just didn't want to mention it? What if no one had found his body? Only pure luck allowed her to catch a snatch of conversation from inside the room.

Koizumi stated, in that same serious, quiet tone: "I know we agreed that we shouldn't work together or discuss our respective organizations, but I think we can all agree that this is an emergency. Who's this Kyon person, who is he to Haruhi Suzumiya, and why is she suddenly talking about him now? We've never heard of him."

She had to move on quickly to avoid getting caught, but her thoughts were racing. Organizations? What was going on? She'd found her weird things, and suddenly she wasn't so sure she wanted any of them anymore.