Disclaimer: This isn't mine.
Umbrella
Ahiru let the water soak her fluffy skirt and flouncy blouse. Her red braids soaked with sky tears and black shoes slipping over the ground.
Walking to the lake in the rain might've been a bad idea except for the fact that she was a water bird, really. It didn't really matter to her about the wetness. Less people were outside today, so it was nice to get some privacy out here. The normally crowded streets were dripping with little drops from the rooftops and tables as the rare person came by.
Less people cared about the getting wet as the mud. Ahiru couldn't care about the dirt as she had been in a lake for a whole year. It wasn't unnatural to have such slushy landscape to her.
The forest descended upon her and some trees gave her shelter from the falling tears. Ahiru trotted along the dewy grass lightly, hopping along past the odd flower. Letting herself slip away into the glorious mood of the blue world, she walked the path by memory.
Imagining the calm blue lake that she had dreamed about so much, dancing with her prince so joyously, brought a smile to her lips. Seeing blushing red cheeks as he lifted her up made her giggle and bring light forth to her eyes. Spinning with the prince, her prince. Such a beautiful activity.
Her eyes popped out as the wetness engulfed her body.
"Quack!"
She had smacked straight into the glassy waters, shattering it's smooth reflection. Thankfully her swimming had quite improved in her time as a duck, allowing her to paddle to the top with no problem except being in the body of water in the first place.
Ahiru sat down to dry herself off, pointless as that activity was. Water beat down on her neck in waves off frigid drops and down her small body.
A shadow stood behind a tree marveling at the girl's stupidity. He had followed her from the house being sure that the clumsy child would get into more trouble than she could handle, as usual she did.
"Moron."
Ahiru turned around to see the shadow and looked at him with bitterness in her eyes.
"I didn't TRY to fall in the lake," she explained. "I was daydreaming and-"
"Aren't you always?" Fakir asked. He walked over to her. "You're never going to get dry like that."
"I know. I just thought that it would be better than in the lake," Ahiru replied.
"You're really dumb, you know. You shouldn't go out in the rain with this." Fakir opened up an umbrella he had been carrying. "Now the rain won't fall on you."
"Oh," Ahiru said. "Thanks."
Fakir held the umbrella above her head firmly, gripping it's cold metal pole.
The umbrella was light blue with a large yellow duck in the center. Ahiru sat under it with Fakir standing next to her.
"We had better go back to the town," Fakir mentioned. "You're still soaked, with the umbrella or not."
Ahiru stood up and walked with him back to the house. He carried the umbrella over her the whole time, it's shiny sides bouncing off little water droplets.
When they got home, Ahiru changed into dry clothes and sat down next to Fakir on the bed in his room. Resting her head down on his shoulder, she lightly fell asleep next to him, letting run his hands through her damp hair.
The next morning the clouds were still rolling in from the sky. Fakir watched the sight unhappily, being forced to let the drops fall down over the town for the second day in a row.
Fakir sat up from his bed and got dressed, tired of this distraction in the weather. When he was done, he moved over the door to Ahiru's room, looking in to see her bed sloppily made with the umbrella gone from its spot in the corner.
Grumbling, Fakir ran outside to see Ahiru walking down the street, fumbling with its handle as she tried to keep it up above her and hold the cold birds from around town at the same time.
"What are you doing? It's still raining," Fakir called out to her.
"Well," Ahiru started, "if you didn't want me to go out in the rain, you shouldn't have given me an umbrella."
The boy was then forced to pace over to the girl to help her stay dry in the rain.
AN: Voila! Thus occurred between the sentences of an interesting conversation last month. My mother was telling my sister that she was not allowed to walk home from the high school a few blocks away in the rain, to which she exclaimed that she had an umbrella. That sprung forth Ahiru's final words in the story, and an exclamation a few minutes later that inspiration had hit me, though this wasn't what I was talking about (actually, it was Early Risers, as it was dawn over the empty fields we were driving through.) She automatically told me I should write this, too, using that line for Fakiru, so I did. I rather like it. How about you?