Chapter 1: Sharing a Tree

Disclaimer: I don't own Shiritsu Horitsuba Gakuen and its characters, the Child of Rain (You know, that spirit that Watanuki had to deal with in xxxHolic. I forgot her Japanese Name) or the lyrics I'm using. I don't own a tree. I only own the idea. And an umbrella that shows a blue sky with white puffy clouds.

Now that it's raining more than ever

Know that we'll still have each other

You can stand under my umbrella

Plain White T's, "Umbrella"[1]

There was nothing like summer rain. Sometimes you could already feel it coming; you could smell it in the air and feel the humidity sneaking into your clothes. And sometimes it happened in the blink of an eye, big, cool, but not unpleasantly cold droplets hit your neck and as soon as you realize that it's raining, the sky turns grey, masses of dark clouds are woven to form a blanket able to block out the sun.

Summer rain was not rain per se; it was an attack, water falling down so fast that it sounded like someone up there just flushed. There was no way to hide from it and no way to be prepared. Because summer rain was following Murphy's Law. Of course, you could keep an umbrella with you but that's very much it: keeping it with you. Not using it. No, it's never raining when you have an umbrella with you.

And by the way: why would anyone walk around with an umbrella in summertime?

Makes you look weird.

And that was the reason why it was raining a lot in summer months.

Yuui de Flourite, born in France, former chef of a restaurant in Naples and current teacher of home economics at the Horitsuba Private Academy, didn't mind. On this campus, the classrooms were not that far away from the teacher's apartments, even if one got soaking wet, one could change clothes just ten minutes later. Besides, he used to walk home with Fai and Fai always had an umbrella with him, a bright yellow monstrosity with blue duckies on it.

Fai didn't mind looking weird.

Fai loved singing under my umbrella-ella-ella-eh-eh-eh when it rained.

Unfortunately, one beautiful day of summer, Fai got ill, so Yuui had to walk home alone. The sun was high up in a copper sulfate blue sky with fluffy white clouds, so one might think "hey, what a nice day"… until one walked into open space. The air outside of every building with an air conditioner was not only hot, it was thick and heavy and humid. The perfect weather for hiding in the shadows, drinking iced tea and loud complaining and moaning. Not for taking an extra long walk home, because you had to go to a nearby drug store to get some medicine for your fever shaking twin.

It took the blond half an hour to get to the store and by the time he was finally on his way back it was 4 p.m. Yuui walked along an almost deserted alley, as it started to rain. It started slowly, slightly dripping until the child of rain used her key to open the shutters of heaven. Within less than a minute it poured and the H. E. teacher ran, a brown paper bag pressed to his chest. He didn't want it to get wet and to scatter all its contents onto the street.

He passed several trees that had been planted along the streets, most of them not quite taller than a grown up man, nothing to hide, nothing to protect him from this awful rain. Then he saw it.

An oak.

A huge oak with strong branches that carried so much leaves that they formed a kind of natural roof. Under the oak there was a dry spot almost a circle of one meter in diameter. Finally, a place to rest.

Yuui closed his eyes and let out a relieved sigh when he reached the tree, relaxing a little bit. Now he only had to wait until the rain would stop.

Standing there, listening to the sound of splashing water, he lost his sense of time. Minutes passed. Few people walked by, ducking under their umbrellas, somehow being able to fool Murphy's Law. The blond man didn't seem to notice; he stared at the droplets falling onto the dark asphalt.

Somehow the sight didn't bore him.

He remembered that Fai used to stare at a rotary evaporator in the school's lab, wasting minutes by just watching colourless solvents condensate in a round bottomed flask, being completely quiet. Yuui never figured out why this apparatus had such a calming effect on his bubbly brother but Fai never got bored of the sight.

Maybe he was experiencing the same thing right now.

It was soothing, cooling down the human mind and the temperature of the air. And then there was this scent of… pureness as all the emissions from cars and houses were bound by water, leaving nothing but freshness.

"Sensei?"

Yuui snapped out of his rain induced daydream and stared at the student who stared back with a curious expression. It was one of the Li twins although the blond couldn't tell which one. Yet. He only noticed that the boy war carrying a backpack, the shoulders of his T-shirt were wet and his tousled brown hair looked a bit messy, probably because of the weather. Wet streaks were running down his forehead. A smirk was creeping onto the boys lips. "Mind sharing a tree with me, sensei?", he asked and Yuui knew instantly that it was Syaoron, the younger one.

Yuui frowned, not being familiar to that phrase. He heard of sharing an umbrella, yes, but sharing a tree? "Of course I don't mind, Syaoron-kun. I mean, it's not like I own this tree, right?"

The boy didn't reply and so they stood there waiting, a student and a teacher, sharing a tree. Sharing silence. However, there was something the blond did mind. He liked silence when he was alone, but now he wasn't all alone anymore and the student's presence made him a little bit nervous. Kids were supposed to be chatting and running around and playing games, but Syaoron didn't seem into chatting, he didn't even hum to get rid of the silence and unlike his brother he was not shy, so the silent smile on the boys face made him look like he was up to something.

"Why are you here, Yuui-sensei?", the brunet asked his eyes fixed on the other side of the road while doing so. It was about then that the older man realized he had been staring at the boy for several moments.

"You mean under the tree?" Yuui knew that was a stupid question but he wasn't feeling smart in the presence of the boy anyway and 'here' was a quite unspecified word.

"No, I mean why did you move here to become a teacher? Fai-sensei told me you were a cook in an Italian restaurant before."

"Oh. Right. Well, the chairman offered me a job, that's why. I thought it would be a good opportunity to see my brother again."

Syaoron-kun turned his head, his amber eyes looking for the blue ones of his teacher. "You and Fai-sensei are quite the opposites, right?", the boy commented, "although you are looking the same. Well, not exactly the same, but… you know." He shrugged.

The blond smiled. "You and Syaoran-kun have also quite different personalities."

"Yeah."

It seemed like there was nothing more to say, so they both chose to stare at the other side of the road, although there was nothing to focus on. The rain was getting even stronger, louder. It sounded like they were caught in the middle of a thunderous river and then the first droplets made their way through the roof of leaves, dripping on skin that had dried just recently and making the couple underneath the tree moving closer together. It was still dry on the small area around the stem.

Suddenly, as they were close enough that their arms almost touched, the boy sneezed.

"Bless you."

"Thanks." Syaoron rubbed his nose and tried not to look at his teacher. He could almost feel the gaze of the older man on his skin.

"You should get home soon, before you get sick. I hope it stops raining in time."

"You too", the brunet stated.

"Pardon?"

"You should get home soon, too, Yuui-sensei. This is medicine, right?" The boy pointed at the paper bag in his teacher's arms. He just recognized the label on that bag. "And I guess, Fai-sensei will be waiting for you."

"Syaoron-kun…", Yuui started but cut off, realizing he didn't know how to continue. Somehow his student just sounded… sad. But that didn't make sense, did it? "Brother will be fine. Kurogane-sensei promised to look after him until I get home and it's not like we don't have any cold medication, it's just not that much anymore. But Syaoron-kun, can I ask you a question?"

The brunet shrugged again. "Sure."

"Why are you here?"

"You mean under the tree?"

He was teasing, Yuui realized. That boy was just teasing him. What a mischievous kid. He had noticed this behavior before, in his cooking class as Syaoron-kun had made his twin blush deeply, mentioning Syaoran-kuns affection for Sakura-chan.

"No. I mean yes, sort of. What are you doing all alone in this part of the city?" There was no movie theater nearby, no fairground, no shopping mall. All the places where one would expect to meet teenagers. There were some cafes, but that still didn't explain why the boy was not with friends or class mates.

"I went to the library." [2]

"Oh. You like books?"

"You sound surprised", the boy stated.

"Well, um, no, It's just…" Yuui noticed that he was almost stuttering and that caused Syaoron to giggle. Not in a girly way, the boy just sounded amused.

"It's just something you and your brother have in common", the blond finished.

The boy sneezed again, heavily. And he muttered little curses after doing so.

"My, my Syaoron-kun, you are really going to catch a cold." Yuui rubbed the kid's back sympathetically.

"I'll be fine, Yuui-sensei. Say, do you like it here?"

What was he just going to do with that boy? It was really not like Syaoron, asking that many questions, changing subject permanently. He wasn't like that in class or with his friends (as far as Yuui could tell). Could it be… no. No, there was no reason to believe he was special to that kid.

"Um, Yuui-sensei, you face is getting red."

"Well, I feel warm, that's all", the teacher replied, blushing even more and cursing his stupid thoughts. There was no reason to believe he was special to that boy just because Syaoron-kun was special to him. Although that was something he kept secret even from his beloved twin. Yuui would never admit to anyone that he liked this student more than any other one nor did he understand the reason why he felt this way.

"I see. So, do you like the school?"

"Yes. It's nice and peaceful and everyone is so kind. And I like teaching. It's much more relaxing than actually working as a cook and it's much more inspiring, too. You guys give me ideas for new recipes all the time."

"I think you're a good teacher."

"Oh, thank you Syaoron." [3] He gave the brunet his most happy smile and the boy smiled back.

"Yuui-sensei?"

"Yes?"

"It stopped raining."

"Really?" The older man frowned, looking around. He hadn't noticed at all. And he started to feel regret which was odd because there was no reason to miss the rain. It was not like he wanted to be stuck under a tree. With a student. With this particular student… There was no way denying it. Syaoron-kun had a way of irritating him, making him nervous and saying stupid things but he enjoyed being near the younger one.

"Well, let's walk home." Yuui sighed.

They were walking for about ten minutes as it started to rain again. However, this time there was no need to run and look out for a place to hide. This time, Syaoron opened his bag pack, picking his grass green umbrella and opened it. Yuui was startled.

"You had that with you all the time? Why didn't you say so?"

"You didn't ask." The boy smirked mischievously. "Mind sharing an umbrella with me, sensei?"

"Yes, I do. I don't like sharing umbrellas with people who make a fool out of me."

"I wasn't trying to fool you, sensei", Syaoron said apologetically. The boy was holding the umbrella higher, not wanting his precious teacher to get wet. Yuui didn't look mad. He never got mad; he was a calm and balanced person. (He had to be, that was a mechanism by nature making sure he would endure Fai.)

Yuui looked disappointed. For the student, this was even worse than madness.

"Well, what exactly were you trying to do, then?"

"Um…" The younger one found his shoes suddenly very interesting. "Nothing, really. I just saw you standing there and you looked kinda lost. I just wanted to… talk."

"Misleading poeople just to get attention is not a very nice habit, Syaoron-kun", the blonde said. He kneeled down next to the boy and – smiled. Amber eyes looked at him, puzzled. "Especially if there is no need to do so. If you want to talk to me, just do it."

"Right. I'm sorry."

"You should be. But think of a way to make up for this later. Now it's time to walk home." His long yet delicate-looking hands were closing around the handle of the umbrella cupping the younger ones hand as the teacher stood up.

Syaoron felt his heart beat faster. All he had wanted was to get to know this man a little better, to tease him a little and now? The boy realized that was given so much more than he expected to, while he had lost something else.

He smiled at the thought. And as they walked away, side by side, the boy asked: "Sensei, would you say that I am nobody?"

"…"

"Sensei?"

"That is a strange question, Syaoron-kun. Of course you're not nobody."

"Yeah, I thought so."

[1] I know, the original is by Rihanna. The version Fai loves to sing is by Rihanna too, 'cause it matches his voice better. ^^ But for the mood of this fic, I guess this cover version sounds better.

[2] The only explanation I could find that made Syaoron not look like a stalker. I leave it to your imagination, if he really was in that library. XD

[3] No –kun in here. It was intentional by me, subconscious by Yuui.

I had the basic idea for this one shot on Thursday, as I picked my sister up from the kindergarten. So this is the first fanfic I wrote it in English first and once it's finished I will translate it into my mother tongue. Or rewriting, that is. Honestly, I think it's faster this way.

Guess what? It started raining. It was raining even under the damn tree we were standing. Well, rain in summer is very common in Germany, but these days the rain gods are pushing it too far, if you ask me. We had minor flooding in Saxony. Thank god, not in the area near Dresden, I don't want to experience that mess from 2002 again.

Anyway, this one shot didn't turn out as I expected but I like it nevertheless. But I might add another "chapter" in time (well, more like an additional scene otherwise it wouldn't be a one shot anymore), I don't think this is enough. And the strange question Syaoron asked will have something to do with it.