A/N: Thanks for all the positive responses to the last fic! It was totally unexpected and really, really awesome. I honestly ship Faye/all the girls, because let's face it, Phoebe Tonkin could have chemistry with a rock, but for some reason I see Faye/Diana as the pairing with the most potential for angst, and that's why they have my love right now.
Faye Chamberlain loves the rain. She doesn't know when or why this obsession started, she just knows that nothing gets her more excited than a raging thunderstorm; she relishes the opportunity to stroll outside into the waiting deluge and let it soak her to her core.
Even as a child, Faye had loved to put on her rain jacket and gumboots and plonk around in the puddles outside. Young Diana Meade, however, hated the rain. As Faye's best friend at the time, Diana would be dragged along as the taller girl splashed about from puddle to puddle, drenching Diana in the process. To Diana, rain meant the end of summer; it meant goodbye to cute dresses, to strappy sandals, to days at the beach, to lemonade sales. But most of all, it meant the end of her daddy's smile. When the rain came, he would shut himself in his study for hours, and when he emerged, he never cracked a smile, not even the tiniest hint of one when his waiting daughter would run and jump giddily into his arms, already dressed for bed without having to be asked.
But Faye loved the rain. And so, Diana tried to love the rain too.
Faye knew her friend was faking, of course, just like she faked loving the sunshine and bathing suits and stupid sand at the stupid beach, but she loved that Diana tried to love it for her. Diana managed to fake it all the way until they were 13 years old, and then she didn't need a reason to fake it anymore. Because that's when Diana found Adam. And Adam loved the sunshine. He liked the rain, too, but not like Faye. Adam just liked everything, it seemed. What a swell guy he was. So swell, in fact, that one spring when the rains came, Adam and his dad whisked Diana away to California with them on vacation so Diana wouldn't have to deal with the rain back home.
Unbeknownst to Diana, this would be the week that changed her friendship with Faye forever. Because Faye didn't see it as Diana leaving to escape the rain. She saw it as Diana leaving her for Adam. And that was unforgivable.
As the two aged, Faye became moody and unsettled, while Diana blossomed into a lovely young girl with a kind smile and a habit for making people feel at ease in her presence. They stopped talking every day, and then eventually stopped seeking each other out all. They would probably have ceased contact altogether if they hadn't found out they were a part of some sort of witch's circle. They were just too different from the little girls they had once been.
Regardless, when Faye conjures a huge storm after Cassie Blake first arrives in town, Diana knows immediately it's her doing. She begs for Faye to stop it, and Faye, to her credit, tries – but only because Diana had almost been hurt. She's not sure how she would have lived with herself if the brown-eyed girl had been put in serious peril by the storm. It's for this same reason that she swears off starting anything like that particular tempest again.
It's also how she knows something must be very wrong, because a few months after her storm hit, another, stronger one starts up out of nowhere and it's not her doing.
She heads to Diana's house on instinct and finds the auburn-haired girl a disheveled mess in the middle of her backyard. She's rocking lightly to and fro, knees to her chest, when Faye runs over to her, discarding her jacket and wrapping herself around the shivering girl. Diana's murmuring something to herself, but Faye can't make it out. After a minute or two, the murmuring stops and Diana speaks with quiet clarity.
"My dad – sometimes he talks in his sleep. He's had night terrors ever since I was young," Diana explains. "But today he was asleep on the couch, which is just so, so unlike him and I… he – he said… Our parents killed Nick, Faye."
Faye lets out a long, tired breath she didn't know she was holding. She always knew Diana's dad was a bit off, but she never thought her mother was like him. Cold and a bit of a bitch, maybe, but a killer? It was a lot to take in. But right now, her Diana was hurting, and she needed to make it better.
"Diana, you need to stop this weather. I know you started it. You're letting your emotions control your magic."
Diana laughs bitterly, a sound foreign to Faye's ears.
"You're one to talk. You couldn't even stop your own storm, Faye. What makes you think I can stop mine?"
"Because you're stronger than I ever could be. And if you don't stop it, it's only going to get worse and people are going to get hurt. We can do it together. We're stronger in numbers, remember? Come on, Diana. We can do this. Say it with me: stop this storm. Stop this storm."
As Diana slowly starts in on the chanting, Faye unwraps her arms from around the girl and clasps their hands together. After a few moments, the rain ends, and the clouds begin to dissipate. Soaked down to their bones, the girls remain in the grass, breathing heavily, Diana shivering violently as Faye supports her from behind.
"How did you know it was me? Diana asks in a small voice, "How did you know I was causing the storm?"
"You hate the rain," Faye answers simply, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world, "And I know that only someone with so much disdain towards it could make it come on so strong."
"That doesn't make any sense."
"It makes perfect sense."
Diana turns inwards to face Faye, and regards her for a moment before burying her face in the girl's shoulder.
"Rain always makes me think of you," she mumbles into Faye's rain-slicked skin.
"I guess you must hate me an awful lot for you conjure up such a big storm."
"What? No! How could you even think that? I don't hate you, Faye. I never could. I just…" she sighs. "When did we get so different?"
Faye ruminates on her answer a moment before replying.
"We were always different, numbskull. That's what made us so great. I liked things you hated and vice versa, so we met in the middle. We complemented each other. The perfect pair."
Diana chuckles, but grows solemn quickly.
"I miss my best friend, Faye."
"You have Adam. Isn't that the same thing? You chose him over me a long time ago."
"I didn't choose Adam over you. He was just different. Or the same, I guess. We got along easily. We never butted heads. I thought that's what I was supposed to want. I never would have done it if I'd known you were going to disappear from my life."
They sit silently in the grass as long minutes pass.
"…I miss my best friend, too," Faye replies earnestly, her voice barely above a whisper, "But right now we have a more pressing issue on our hands. What are we going to do about our parents?"
Diana lets loose a drawn-out sigh before wiggling out of the taller girl's grasp and standing up. She beckons for Faye to follow suit.
"Come on. Let's go dry off and head to the old house to try and figure out what we should do. I can't be here right now."
"Want me to call the others?"
"No. Not yet. I think we could benefit from some alone time to process before inviting the Circle into this. It was our parents who did this. They hurt a lot of people, not just us. We need to find a way to break it to everyone gently. Especially Melissa."
Faye nods and forces down a smile before following Diana into the house. Leave it to them to turn a tragedy into a reunion of sorts. Regardless of the circumstances, Faye was determined to make the most of it.
Even after everything that had transpired that day, Faye still loves the rain. She may love it even more now, if possible. Sometimes, on a whim, she'll conjure up a little afternoon shower, and while she makes sure it only lasts a few minutes and never gets out of control, that's all it takes. Because innately, she knows that somewhere in town, Diana saw the rain, and thought of her. And no matter what's happening in her life, that knowledge is all she needs to make it through the day.