The magnitude of my love for this pairing has got to be unhealthy.

Raindrops danced along the moist ground, the soft pitter-patter lulling her into tranquility. She allowed her eyes to close and her mind to shut, telling herself to forget about her troubles, her predicaments, her life, because this was an otherworldly state she had assumed, and to lose an ethereal, transcendental experience such as this—

SPLASH!

—would make her very, very pissed.

"Luke," Tear growled dangerously, through gritted teeth. Her body had grown rigid under the enormous splash of water that had enveloped her; she could tell she was covered in gooseflesh, but as boiling anger began to course through her veins, her body quickly recovered. The redheaded culprit screeched to a halt, stopping himself from chasing after who-knows-who—most likely Anise for insulting him, or Mieu for being Mieu—and, ever so slowly, turned around to meet her icy gaze.

"Whoa, s-sorry about that, Tear," Luke apologized, offering her—despite her eyes narrowing into slits—a good-natured laugh, then a small laugh, then an awkward laugh, then a stiff chuckle, then silence. He bit his lower lip.

"It's fine," Tear sighed after a moment's breath, sensing his discomfort. She dusted herself off as much as the rain allowed her to before exhaling heavily, shaking her head, and turning towards her tent. "There's no point in staying out here any longer. I'm going to get changed."

"No, wait," Luke interceded, taking a slight hold of her arm before she could walk away. "Look, I feel really bad about what I did, so…" She watched him inquisitively as he positioned himself about two feet away from her, leaving in between them a puddle of rain that most likely reached their ankles. Sucking in his breath, he baldly stated, "Splash me."

"What?" she said blankly.

"I did it to you, right? Splash me back, and we're even."

Despite herself, she couldn't help but chuckle.

"If it pleases you."

"It's supposed to please you," he countered, bracing himself for the watery impact. "Okay, don't hold back! Kick that rainwater at me as hard as you can!"

Luke's vigor must have been contagious, because something had definitely gotten the best of her in the moment following the instant she reeled her right foot back. The slippery ground was not kind to the sole of Tear's boot and denied it proper footing, sending her plunging forward the second she drew her foot back to "charge up" the kick. Alarmed, Luke immediately went into action and ran forward to possibly catch the brunette, but the wet ground did not seem to be in an amiable mood at the moment and could not care less to stop him from losing his balance. Only, as Tear fell forward, Luke slipped backwards, and instantly they felt the freezing splash of the puddle engulf their bodies.

Tear pushed herself up, shaky from the impact and shuddering from the cold. It took her a moment to blink the water out of her irises and adjust her vision to what lay underneath her: a dazed Luke.

"Luke! Are you okay?" She shook him lightly, to affirm his state and receive a reassurance from him. His eyes, shut tightly, began blinking rapidly to clear his vision, and a slight groan escaped his throat. Despite the fact that they both lay in a puddle of water about three inches deep (not to mention their highly incriminating position), he managed to offer her a grin.

"So, did that count as payback, or do you want to try it again?"

She let out a sigh, but it was not in annoyance.

"You idiot," Tear murmured, returning to him a gentle smile. Redness flooded Luke's cheeks as he averted his gaze to the side, suddenly finding the adjacent blade of grass very interesting.

"Um, Tear…"

Briefly, she wondered what he had gotten so embarrassed about, until she felt the damp cloth of Luke's white apparel under the palms of both her hands; she gasped and quickly pulled them away from his chest, unable to stop the faint blush creeping up on her face.

"I-I'm sorry." Tear pushed herself up, dripping from head-to-toe, and offered the similarly drenched redhead a hand. With her support, he pulled himself from the wet ground and stood up, grimacing at his inundated figure. He looked at her, eyebrows furrowed, and shook his head.

"For what? I'm the one that got us into this mess," he admitted sheepishly, using a hand to rub the back of his neck. At her amused smile, he added, "Besides, it was kinda worth it."

A split second after the words left his mouth, he began to spout nonsensical prattle and she only managed to catch a few words here and there, such as stupid and sorry and idiot and I didn't and the words escaped his mouth as fast and hard as the rain was now pouring which wasn't enough to hide the blush that was spreading across the extent of his face and his eyes darted in every possible direction but her gaze, oh, her icy gaze that would most likely pierce his soul and make his blood run cold, except it was so hot because of the embarrassment and the fluster that had taken over his body and bent his will to its command and he was an idiot, dammit.

Luke didn't bother seeing Tear's reaction to his comment—didn't want to—so he turned around without ever once even catching a glimpse of her face during his freak-out.

"W-we should get changed," was all he said. And then he was off, running towards his tent.

But if he'd turned around even once, if he'd taken the risk to catch even a glimpse of her reaction, he would see that she had been smiling the entire time.