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The first drop that lands on Touya’s head is barely noticed, a light tap like an omen of what’s to come. The second is clearer, and Touya tilts his head back to look at the sky — it’s still light out, still sunny, but little drops of rain begin to fall faster and faster.
He hears Akito sigh from beside him and turns to look at the other boy, who has his hand outstretched and facing the sky. Sure enough, light flecks of water appear on his hand, and start to leave dark spots on the ground around them. The usual crowd of Vivid Street begins to move in a bit of a hurry, different from the lax feel it typically has as people dart into shops and the like.
“How can it even rain this hard when the damn sun is out?”
Akito’s voice is extra grouchy, and on his face is a deep scowl to match.
Touya shrugs. “It doesn’t feel that bad, honestly.”
Akito gives a sullen look in response, and with almost comedic timing, the sun is quickly claimed by dark, rolling clouds. Rain starts to come down hard enough to begin soaking their shirts.
“Jinxed it,” Akito huffs, but there’s no trace of malice as he squints at his surroundings, wiping rain out of his eyes. They had trailed pretty far away from Weekend Garage and its neighboring shops to practice in private, and Akito contemplates just grabbing Touya and making a mad dash to the café.
He notices Touya shivering in his peripheral vision, and instead decides to look around at the brick alleys and little spots they had used for practice before. One has some sort of overhang on the side of the building, accompanied by pipes and overgrown vines. It looks vacant, and Akito vaguely tries to recall if they had lost a spot recently. There’s no time to dwell on that now, though.
“Over there!”
Akito points at the entrance, and Touya peers at it in confusion until he also spots the overhang.
They share a look, and then sprint to safety. Water splashes around their feet, sending a cold chill up their legs as the movement ends up soaking the bottom of both of their pants.
Akito makes it in first, Touya on his heels as they both skid to a stop under the covered space. Touya places one hand on the brick wall, putting more weight onto it as he catches his breath. Akito seems perfectly fine, save for his slightly heavier breathing and the scowl directed at the rain around them.
They don’t say much for a while, Touya looking defeated as he tries to wring water from his shirt — he’s glad he has another layer under the white one, even if it’s just as soaked. Akito simply watches him, wishing he had some sort of way to help. After a while Touya gives up, and wipes his wet hands on his jeans. It doesn’t really help much, as his pants are also somewhat wet. When he looks up, he finds Akito leaning on the wall next to him, still watching him.
“Akito?” Touya contemplates tacking on a “What’s wrong?” to the name, but figures that it’s pretty obvious. It’s still pouring.
Akito raises his eyebrows in response.
“Yeah?”
“…You’ve been staring at me for the past few minutes.”
Akito blinks a few times, and then leans his head more against the brick wall. He’s still watching Touya, who just stares back at him.
“I just feel bad. Don’t you start feeling cold quicker than I do?”
Touya opens his mouth to deny it, and closes it when a particularly violent shiver runs through him.
Akito looks like he would fist-fight each individual drop of rain if he could. His brows furrow even more as he sticks his hand back out into the rain. It hasn’t let up much at all.
“That isn’t your fault, though.”
Touya’s expression shifts, an uneasy barely smile — he can’t quite fathom how Akito is more worried about Touya’s health than his own.
“I didn’t mean it like that. Just meant that I wish I could help out more,” he pauses in thought, and then begins shrugging his jacket off. The outside is soaked, but the water just runs down and off the edges, leaving the inside intact.
Touya immediately shakes his head, crossing his arms so that Akito can’t just shove the coat into them.
“That’s yours, keep it on.”
Akito is, as usual, extremely stubborn. Touya has figured out when Akito is about to grab him or hang off of him in times like this, especially as it becomes more and more frequent. He takes a step back as Akito takes one forward, and then they both stand still.
“Just take the jacket, Touya.”
Touya’s mouth thins to a straight line, and he tries to look as unimpressed as possible.
“No. You’ll get sick if I take it.”
Akito stares at him incredulously.
“You literally look like a sad, wet dog right now. Take the damn jacket.”
Touya stifles a laugh at the description. Instead of responding, he stubbornly takes another step backwards — right to the edge of where the overhang stops shielding them. He doesn’t really know why he’s being so stubborn in return, he probably should just listen, and yet..
For some reason the exasperated expression Akito wears makes him feel a bit competitive.
He wonders when he gained the ability to feel that way as Akito grabs him by the collar of his shirt, and tugs him back under the overhang.
“Seriously?”
Touya’s mouth twitches at the edges, and Akito rubs a hand down his own face. There’s over-exaggerated exasperation in his movements, his voice, but his eyes contain a softness reserved for Touya and Touya only.
Akito crowds his space as he puts the jacket around Touya’s shoulders, and Touya relents and slides his arms through. They’re both grateful that Akito tends to buy oversized clothes, as it actually fits Touya normally.
Akito flicks his forehead and finally takes a step back, a smug grin spreading across his face.
“See? That wasn’t hard.”
Touya laughs, or more accurately, huffs heavily out of his nose, and comes back to where they had been leaning against the wall. This time he sits, and thankfully the ground is dry. Akito follows suit. He also seems to have given up on the concept of personal space once more, as he leans against Touya more than he does the wall. Not that either of them mind, especially Touya, since Akito does actually run warmer than himself. He is content to leech warmth, just for a while.
Comfortable silence envelopes the pair, the only sounds being the drumming of rain hitting the ground. There’s quite a few different ways the rain creates sound, Touya begins to notice, listening to how the rain sounds muted when it lands on the overhang. It creates softer thumping sounds from above, and it combines with the more resonant sound of rain hitting the pipes they had spotted earlier. Touya ends up closing his eyes, his head resting against Akito’s.
Akito doesn’t move away, just glances to the side to make sure the other hadn’t fallen asleep. He would if it came down to it, but he’d rather not carry the other boy all the way home. Touya’s fingers are tapping in time with a repetitive drop of rain, so he’s definitely not asleep.
Time seems to move faster as they continue sitting there huddled together. Akito almost doesn’t notice that the rain has stopped about 30 minutes later.
“Hey.”
Touya makes a faint noise in response.
“Rain‘s gone.”
Touya lifts his head at that, blinking rapidly. Maybe he had eventually fallen asleep without Akito noticing.
“Oh, good,” Touya brings himself to his feet, extending his hand to Akito after.
Akito takes it, and pulls himself up.
“Let’s get out of here before it starts again.”
Akito nods, and they both make their way back out onto the street. They stick together until their paths home split off, and Touya is already walking through his front door when he realizes he still has Akito’s jacket on. Oops.
He can give it back later.
***
Akito can’t say he’s not a bit peeved when they manage to get caught in the rain again , less than a week later. He had accompanied Touya to the arcade, and they had lost track of time, not meaning to stay into mid-afternoon. Touya had won yet another ridiculously large prize from the crane machine, and Akito knew he wouldn’t be able to talk him out of it once his sights were set. His eyes had practically sparkled when they had rounded the corner to where the machines were, where a giant blue bunny plush sat in wait.
So, here they are, halfway back to Akito’s house — Touya had claimed he should probably give the bunny to Ena, and that he wouldn’t make Akito carry it by himself. Which, he’s pretty sure is a cover-up for not wanting to go home, but he doesn’t mind. Occasionally the arm of the bunny grazes against his arm, and he’ll glance over at Touya, who smiles sheepishly.
Akito just fondly shakes his head.
“Can you see over that thing?”
Touya nods, he can see just enough to not trip or crash into anyone. He shifts the rabbit in his arms a bit, readjusting his hold.
A few moments later, Touya stops in his tracks as he starts to feel droplets of water hitting his head, his shoulders, even dampening the fur of the stuffed animal in his arms. Akito also stops, looking up at the sky as if it has personally offended him. The rain picks up much faster than it had previously, and several times as hard.
“You’ve gotta be fucking with me..”
He turns to look at Touya, who is currently looking at the stuffed animal in his arms with a dejected expression. He almost seems to not notice or care about the rain pouring down onto him. Akito sighs, and nudges him.
“Come on, we gotta find somewhere to stop,” he grumbles, but he already knows it’s kind of pointless — they aren’t in a commercial area, and at the same time, they’re still quite a bit away from Akito’s house.
That seems to get Touya’s attention and his eyes leave the mass of blue fur in his hands, to Akito’s face, and then to the area around them. He knows just as well that they’re basically stuck with just trying to make it home as fast as possible.
Akito starts to just quickly continue walking in the direction they had been going, Touya easily catching up with him. He considers the stuffed animal in his hands once more.
Touya lifts it up, onto its side, and then walks as close to Akito’s side as he can. It’s not perfect, but the plush now catches more of the onslaught than they do. Akito looks up at the bunny, suddenly glad for its existence. They continue speed walking, spotting a bench that is partially under a tree.
The shade it provides is, once again, by no means perfect. But unfortunately, Touya’s arms were starting to ache from holding the plush above them for so long — he feels sort of bad asking to stop for a bit, but Akito doesn’t seem to mind.
He actually seems like he isn’t even that pissed off about the storm anymore, standing in front of the bench as Touya sets the plushie upright onto it. He finally notices that Touya has been wearing his coat the entire time, too, and laughs.
“Planning on stealin’ that from me?”
Touya stares blankly before looking down at himself, like he had forgotten what he was wearing in the first place. Despite telling himself he’d give it back, that clearly didn’t happen. He scratches at his cheek, averting his eyes again. Despite being wet and feeling kind of gross, there’s a strange peace that settles over them.
“Maybe,” Touya tries to look thoughtful, trusting that Akito will understand his joking around.
“I would understand why you’d want it back though. It’s really comfortable.”
Akito snorts.
“I was gonna tell ya to keep it.”
Touya cocks his head like a lost puppy.
“Really? You wear this one a lot, though.”
Akito shrugs and approaches Touya, brushing raindrops off the surface of his coat. Touya can already feel heat rise to his face as he continues to do so, only pausing when his hands are resting gently on the outside of Touya’s arms.
“Doesn’t matter. Keep it.” Akito looks down at Touya’s hands, thoughtful.
He almost looks serious, and Touya thinks he’s about to say something genuinely serious until he laughs and grabs onto Touya’s wrists.
“You’re still gonna need it anyway.”
With that, the devious grin Touya has seen several times — he’s dubbed this one a scary face before— widens, and Akito pulls him out from under the tree. What was a few drops hitting his head every few seconds turns back into being completely drenched, and Touya gasps at the sudden shock of cold rain.
Akito laughs, eyes glued to Touya as he continues to bring him along. There’s quite a bit of open space around them, patches of grass and sidewalk. Touya attempts to dig his heels into the ground.
“What happened to not wanting to get soaked?” Touya raises his voice over the downpour.
Akito looks up at the sky for a moment, and then back to Touya. If he gets Touya sick, he’ll bend over backwards to make sure he’s perfectly cared for. But for now, he’s indulging himself in the way small droplets occasionally catch on Touya’s eyelashes, the way his nose scrunches up as he blinks the drops away.
Even drenched in rain water, Touya is still one of the most beautiful people Akito has ever seen.
“Figured I’d live a little. Or something like that.” Akito finally responds, dropping one of Touya’s hands as they reach a small clearing. There are some flowers being pelted by the rain, and Touya watches them intently.
When he finally looks back at Akito, the other is already looking at him. Water drips off the tips of his bangs, parts of his hair plastered to his forehead, and the longer bits on the side to his cheeks. Touya smiles at the sight, a similar thought to Akito’s passing through his own head.
They stand there next to each other for a little while longer, letting their intertwined hands dangle between them — and then the rain has finally come to a stop, the sun swiftly coming out of hiding. Rays of light hit Akito’s face, causing him to shield his eyes. Touya watches, admiring the way the light bathes his face. He thinks that this sort of brightness, light and warm, is something he wants to see Akito surrounded by over and over.
Akito drops his hand from his face.
“Ready to get home?”
Touya feels his heart squeeze at the question, at the mention of home — he’s not sure if Akito meant it in such a way, but it makes him feel happier nonetheless.
He’s considered Akito home for a while now, anyway. He can only hope Akito feels the same.