Story Title: Oh, Sunshine, Where Art Thou?
Rating: T for Teen
Genre: Humor/Romance
Synopsis: Satoshi Hiwatari tries to get through a rainy day when Risa Harada makes him stop to enjoy the moment.
Author's Note: Experimenting with humor. Tell me if it's funny or not 'cause I want to improve with comedic scenes. By the way, I used a line in Panic at the Disco's song for my story. I forgot which song it was from but for PATD fans, I'm sure you'll recognize it immediatly. Enjoy reading, everyone.
Oh, Sunshine, Where Art Thou?
The last bell of the day rang loud and clear and everyone celebrated, grateful that school was done and over with for that day. Students crowded out the doors, each wanting to get to clubs or to their houses but some stayed behind, talking with their friends and making plans for the weekend. Satoshi however, did not make an attempt of catching anyone's eye. In fact, he seemed to be in a rush somewhere as he packed his bag.
"Hey, Hiwatari!" Daisuke, the only person who seemed close to the ice cold boy, waved with a friendly smile. "Do you—"
"Sorry, I'm busy." Satoshi shook off his friend's wave and walked past him toward the door.
Daisuke stood with a frozen smile, his hand still up in the air, as Riku watched him with furrowed brows. "Daisuke…" she whispered, unsure if he could hear her or not. "I don't think he had an umbrella."
Satoshi strode past the chattering students, hearing more than once a girl saying his name to her friends. He ignored them but as he drew closer to the main gates, he realized that it was raining. Why hadn't he noticed that? It wasn't just raining, it was heavy rain. They sounded like bullets against the pavement and glass.
He sighed. What now? He didn't have an umbrella, and he couldn't call for a ride because everyone at his place was busy. That was why he was in such a hurry today: He had to take train home. But with this rain, how would he even get to the station? He had arrived at the shoe lockers but stayed put.
Someone tapped his shoulder. He turned around.
"Hiwatari! Hi!" Risa waved at him with an energetic smile.
"…Hello, Harada," Satoshi said, indifferent to her happy face. How was she able to do that? Be so…so happy on a day like this?
She looked up at him with her large brown eyes. "Hiwatari, are you in trouble or something?"
He blinked. What? "No, I'm not in any kind of trouble—"
"Liar," she cut in.
He stared at her.
"See here, Hiwatari! If you need help, then just say it!" She was practically waiting for him to grovel at her feet, asking for assistance. But he wouldn't do that. He had pride. That being said, how did she know he was in need of help? He eyed her suspiciously.
"I don't need help," he enunciated. He wanted to make sure she got the point that he really didn't need anyone's help.
"Sure, I'll lend you my umbrella!" she said loudly, ignoring what he just said. She laughed and brought out a pink umbrella from her bag, holding it out to him with a bright, mocking smile. She seemed to enjoy playing with his helplessness.
He stared at it like as if it was a two-headed llama. "You…" he muttered slowly, holding in his annoyance. "I don't need that." He had had enough. It was time to leave. If he didn't show up to the station soon, he'd have missed the train.
When he turned to walk out of the school's dry shelter, Risa caught him by his arm and stopped him from moving. "Hey! You can't go out there like that!"
"Why not? It's just a little rain."
At that moment, thunder split the sky and a tsunami might as well have occurred for all heavy rain. The sky dropped bombs of waters down on them all and Risa stared impassively at him to show her point.
"That was a fluke," Satoshi said.
"Right." She rolled her eyes at him which was a first for him. No one ever dared roll their eyes at him! "Well, here. You'll need this if you're going out there." She pressed her pink umbrella against his chest.
"I really don't—"
"Aahh, just take it!"
He took it only because she had let go and it would have dropped to the floor. "Why are you pressing this on me? Your kindness—"
"Oh! You think I'm kind? Aw, Hiwatari!" She giggled and slapped his back with the force of an ox. It was only with all of his strength that he remained standing. Thank God she wasn't any stronger or else he would've been knocked into next week.
"That's not what I…never mind." He had been going to say that her kindness would have been much more appreciated elsewhere but of course giggling (snickering more like it) Risa interrupted him. He sighed despairingly.
"All right, see you later, Hiwatari!" She waved cheerfully at him as she receded back into the depths of the school, or back into whatever dimension she actually hailed from. Earth didn't seem like her home planet for all the happy energy she was able to give off on a gloomy day like this.
But Satoshi had a plan. He would deposit the umbrella in the lost and found box and the next day, he'd go back and return it to Risa, as if he had used it. He closed his eyes and grinned to himself, his glasses shining in the sharp flashes of lightening.
"Whatever you're thinking, it must be pretty stupid."
He would've shouted in surprise but he wasn't that kind of person. Instead, he swiveled around and came eye to eye with Riku Harada.
"Harada…I don't know what you're talking about," he said, although he knew exactly what she was talking about.
"Hmm…." She stared at him with a deadpan expression. And then with a wave of her hand, not unlike her twin sister's, she left the shoe locker area. "Risa's intentions are good. Don't waste it, okay?"
"I won't," he said hotly. Wait. What did I just say?
He sighed. He didn't want Riku to be on his case about the umbrella (he was sure her punches would hurt a lot worse than Risa's seeing as how she played a number of sports), so he pushed open the umbrella. It was really pink…. Not his color.
Before he stepped out from the covers of his school, he peered up at the sky. It was a deadly black color with blotchy, giant clouds blanketing the sky as if it were a polluted swamp. The rain drops that exploded on all possible cowering surfaces slid downwards to the ground or otherwise built up to create small pools of splashing water.
Oh, how the day seems so bright and cheery just like Risa.
Satoshi set out and immediately pictured himself walking through a battle zone. The people running past him were like injured soldiers, hiding or escaping from the gunshots that were the rain and the cars that sped by, summarily drenching his clothes, were the tanks of the land, ready to destroy and protect.
But that was just his imagination. In reality, things weren't as dramatic but a red car did splash water on him when it drove by. He stared after it with contempt in his eyes.
Great. Now his clothes were slopping wet. He walked on, even though his socks and shoes made him want to yell out at the God of weather. Was there a God of weather, he didn't know.
Finally, after an up-hill battle, he came to the station where it was, surprisingly, devoid of humans. Now it wasn't filled with blue people from strange planets or girls with cat ears and tails waiting to call the first person they meet "master", but it was looking pretty lonely.
He went underneath the roof of the station and settled himself down on one of the benches, drenching it with his clothes. If was going to get hosed down by a passing car, then Risa's umbrella had been unnecessary. He shook at least a bucket full of water from the pink thing, pulled it down, and then clipped it shut.
Just then, the announcer's voice came on the speakers. "We apologize for any inconveniences but the four o'clock monorail express will be delayed thirty minutes due to weather conditions."
Satoshi stared hard at the speakers. He didn't mind waiting, but he had work to do at his house. He leaned against the wall and closed his eyes. He thought about Risa, and her forceful ways, Riku and her tough-as-a-mountain personality, and Daisuke. Hadn't Daisuke wanted to ask him something before he left school? What was it?
Oh, well. Satoshi decided to ask him about that tomorrow.
Before he knew it, as the minutes ticked away on the white clock hanging overhead, he felt his conscience slip from his grasp, and soon, he was dreaming.
In his dream, Risa was holding out her pink umbrella to him again but when he took it, it transformed into a magical-girl-looking-type-gun. He stared at it in disbelief when suddenly Risa had been replaced with Riku. Riku wore what looked like a thief's black outfit which was extremely unusual since she was very much against stealing.
She grabbed his shoulder and said in a very serious voice, "You must protect this world now, Hiwatari. Only you can use the full powers of the Rose Cochon Love-Love Blast Gun."
"What? But how am I supposed to use it when I don't even know what it is?" he asked, looking down at the ridiculously colored and shaped gun. He felt shivers crawl up his spin just by holding it.
"You have to combine your powers with Daisuke for it to work!" said Riku, her eyes shining. And then she grabbed a sphere from one of her many waist pockets, threw it to the ground, and disappeared in a puff of prism colored smoke.
"With…with Daisuke?" echoed Satoshi, spinning his body in circles to see where Riku had gone.
"With me, Satoshi."
Satoshi's body froze. He knew that voice. It was…
"Only you and I can save this world now!" Daisuke grabbed Satoshi's hands and looked deeply into his eyes. "We must defeat the Weather God or else the world will be left in a terrible war against water! Only we can use the Rose Cochon Love-love Blast Gun! After all, we're—"
"NOO!"
He snapped back into reality, his face sweating and his heart thudding against his chest. "What…the hell…was that?" His voice came out strained and his vision was blurry.
"Hiwatari? Are you all right?"
Suddenly, he was looking into Risa's large brown eyes and he jumped to the side in surprise. Unfortunately, he jumped too far and ended on the ground.
"Hiwatari!" Risa ran to his side and helped him up. "What was that? Why did you scream out—" she imitated the last word he had screamed before waking up in a very dramatic way accompanied with very dramatic hand gestures. She could have won an award for that.
"Thank you for showing me how pathetic I looked," said Satoshi, getting back onto his seat. He noticed that it was still raining, and that his train still hadn't come.
"So…" Risa sat down next to him and poked his shoulder. "Why're you all wet? I thought I saved you from that terrible fate by giving you my favorite umbrella!"
"Well, apparently, umbrellas do not save one from a terrible driver." Satoshi held out the pink umbrella and Risa took it back graciously.
"Oohh… Well, that's okay!"
Satoshi stared at her.
"Anyway," she continued briskly, "I didn't know you take the train home." She stuffed her umbrella into her bag. Now that Satoshi thought about it, why wasn't she with Riku? And why wasn't she soaked to the bone like he was? Did she make a deal with the Weather God or something? Hmm… He would have to look into that.
"I don't," he replied monotonously. "I just needed it for today only."
"Why's that?"
Satoshi knew that he would soon be bombarded with an elephant's worth of questions. He had to act natural, and but quick. "Because everyone's busy at my place. How did you get here without getting wet?"
"Huh? Oh, Riku dropped me off. She didn't want me walking alone. And I don't need an umbrella since our house is near the station."
"Hmm…. What time is it?"
Risa looked at her watch. "It's six thirty."
"What?"
"It's six thirty," she repeated, lowering her arm and looking up at Satoshi. He had stood up, dark fear growing on his face. "What's wrong with six thirty?" she asked cautiously, as if he was a state-of-the-art-bomb that would blow up at the mere mention of the time.
"I missed my train," he said, feeling his throat go dry.
"I'm…sorry for your loss," whispered Risa.
"It's not a loss, idiot!" snapped Satoshi, aware that Risa was making fun of him.
Risa stifled a laugh and patted the bench. "Well, there's nothing else for you to do except to wait for the next one. So just sit and wait with me."
He sat down dejectedly. He had slept through his train's arrival…and departure. What was wrong with him? He sighed.
"You don't have to look so sad about it. There's always another one," Risa chimed in.
He looked at her. "How can you be so…" he struggled for the correct term to describe her, "bright, when everything's so dark?"
She seemed to take his question seriously because she blinked, and then went silent. She then closed her eyes and smiled, swaying her body left and right in a childish manner. "It's not that I'm bright, Hiwatari," she said matter-of-factly, "it's just that I don't let things like the weather get to me. I know it's sad, but I never cared about the weather because it never cared about me. Sunny days when I want the world to end, rainy days when I want to be loved…it's all just a big bowl of disappointment. That's why I don't let it get to me."
Her explanation seemed so…simple, that it was almost difficult to understand. She just simply didn't let it get to her? What did that mean? How does she do that? Satoshi went into a state of silence, pondering over her reason, until Risa broken his train of thought.
"So what were you dreaming abou—"
"I don't want to talk about it," he interjected quickly but it was already too late. Scenes from his horrible nightmare flashed through his mind like lightening in the sky. He couldn't get rid of them!
"What?" She blinked, looking puzzled. "Why?"
"Because it was a horrible nightmare."
"What?" Risa laughed and Satoshi felt his heart quicken. Her laugh sounded so…no, he couldn't say it let alone think it. It was too embarrassing. Before he knew it, he was blushing because he wanted to hear her laugh again. He covered half of his face with his hand and looked away.
Risa, who had been talking the entire time, raised a brow at him. "What are you doing? Do you feel sick?" People only held their mouths when they were sick, right?
"Kind of, yeah." But it wasn't a sickness he was familiar with, and he wasn't about to tell her that.
"Well no wonder!" she exclaimed, poking his shoulder again. He felt his body prickle from her touch. "You're soaking wet! Of course you'd get sick!"
"W-when's the next train?" he asked, his voice cracking.
"In thirty minutes," replied Risa promptly. She had memorized all the train times because she had to ride it every school day. "Let's hope you don't get a fever before it comes."
"Yeah…."
Suddenly, they stopped talking, and simply listened to the rain falling from the heavens and splashing down on earth. Satoshi wasn't cold, not anymore, which was strange because he was shivering from his wet clothes until Risa had come. And then he heard something. Something small, like a soft drum.
It was his heart.
He pressed his hand against his chest, over his heart. It was beating faster than usual, but for some reason, he felt calm, safe, although a bit nervous. Why was that?
"Hiwatari, look!" Risa jumped up from the bench and ran out into the sidewalk. She was looking upward towards the sky with a bright smile on her face.
Satoshi followed her, as if mesmerized, and held his face to the sky as well. The sun had come out. True, it was still raining, but only slightly. Risa held her arms out wide and basked in the warm rays of the sun. She didn't notice that Satoshi never took his eyes off her.
He was thinking about her kindness, her warm smile, her familiar laugh, her many expressions…but most of all, he was thinking about what she said about the weather. That was such a strange way of thinking.
"It'd be pretty cheesy if we saw a rainbow right now, huh?" Risa said, chucking. "Oh, well. If a rainbow showed itself, that'd be good luck for today!"
Good luck? Satoshi secretly wanted good luck…but for what? At this point in time, he didn't know what feelings were stirring in his heart as he watched Risa bask in the sun's warm glow.
They heard the train making its way toward the station.
"Ah! It's early!" cried Risa, running back inside. "Let's go, Hiwatari!"
"Yeah."
As they boarded the train, he was still thinking about her, about the rain, about the sun, and about whether or not there really was a God of weather. If there was, then maybe he'd be able to tell Satoshi what he was feeling right now.
But no, they had school tomorrow so he couldn't dwell on his feelings. He also had to ask Daisuke what he had wanted and Riku would probably hunt him down for being alone with Risa.
This feeling would have to wait.
At least, until the next rainy day.