Release
By verdant.
--+--
If he had thought that yesterday's weather was positively heinous—
He was wrong.
The clouds that clung to the skies were practically ominous, leaving absolutely no room for a cheery blue to show through.
Frustration.
But there was no release of rain, and it remained this way, just on the brink of an explosion, but not quite at the climax.
She was sitting all by herself outside yet again, and he could see her through the window, her straw colored hair looking especially dull without the sunlight.
Oh, how he stared at that lone figure with disdain.
She was…arrogant, almost. Almost had a regal air about her, because she always sat up straight, and she was never unfazed nor ashamed or embarrassed. Her expression was always too distant, as if she was too good for the rest of them to know what she was secretly thinking.
Why couldn't she possess even a centimeter of practically, just like the rest of them?
Why couldn't he just leave her alone?
No.
He had to ponder on about the girl who insisted on using wool socks for oven mitts, the girl who crumpled up expensive parchment only to string them together to wear around her neck, the girl who quoted Shakespeare and Dickinson and was overall too poetic for his tastes, the girl…
Who was loony.
There was a click of his shoes, a ruffle of papers, and he was racing down the stairs and out into the gloomy weather.
--+--
" Oh, hello Ronald."
He hated her.
How she said Oh, hello Ronald like everything was just dandy—which she probably believed with all her heart, because her pea-sized, naïve mind couldn't perceive a world with flaws.
" Don't you hello Ronald me, Luna." He snapped impatiently, his books slamming on the wooden bench. Her azure eyes met his. They were serene and not-quite-there, as they always were.
" Something the matter?" And she couldn't even properly get angry with him, the moron. Her voice, the voice that didn't even rise in the slightest to insinuate her own rising frustration and anger, fused a burning inside of him, his hands forming tight fists.
" Yes." He muttered through clenched teeth.
Then there was silence, and not even the birds were singing. She looked up at the sky all of a sudden.
" Beautiful weather." She commented lightly. His frown deepened into a heavy scowl, partly in confusion.
" You're not even going to ask what's wrong?" He demanded, sitting down, for his knees suddenly felt quite weak.
She shrugged, and a small smile graced her lips.
" I know."
" Know what?" He asked incredulously.
" Know what's wrong, of course!" She was almost laughing. He could almost hear her ringing, tinkling, faerie like laugh. He blinked owlishly at her, before his eyes narrowed into small slits.
" Damn it, Luna! No, you don't know! You don't know what's wrong with me, okay? Stop pretending you do, and for once, act like you're just like the rest of us, and not some ethereal creature whose eccentricity has come to…I don't know, change us lowly humans into something better, and that you're some kind of un-earthly gift who has graciously come in our presence!"
He faltered for a moment, and he looked up at the dark clouds as Luna had, wondering why tears were suddenly prickling at his usually dry eyes.
" You don't understand." He finished weakly. He didn't look to see her reaction, because he knew what it would be. The same as always. The same blank expression, the same blank, cheery expression and the patronizing tone in her voice that would tell him to calm down, that everything was all right…
" Do you?" Her voice was small. His head snapped back down, in surprise.
" Do I what?"
" Do you understand?" For once, her eyes were not so wide and not so blue. Her voice was not loud and strong and the epitome of calmness, but a shy, whispering wind of uncertainty.
" I-yes—" He thought. Did he understand? Understand what? Her? Himself?
" I don't know. But I do know that I can't take this anymore." As he spoke, he noticed for the first time the intensity of how humid it was that day.
He looked around at his surroundings, feeling somehow trapped, and out of the corner of his eyes, he saw her hesitating, looking for the right words. An almost frown troubled her face.
Then--
" Can't take what anymore?" Her quiet question hung in the air for a moment, before falling into his ears, falling into his realization, and hitting the bottom. The air dripped down his skin like steamy liquid.
" Stop." The table shook. His hands grabbed her shoulders and they shook her.
" Look at me! Look at yourself! What makes you think that I'm perfect, you're perfect, that this world is perfect—even the weather refuses to be beautiful, and you sit here acting like you see something that isn't there."
Like a statue, rigid and stiff;
She was silent.
" Luna…" His hands were on her hair now, stroking it softly. " I—I l-love you…" He glanced at her quickly, and her stare was still as blank as ever, for once giving him strength. " But I need you to be real, just for a moment. I need to know that everything I've thought about you is tangible, and not some dream I've mistaken as being possible."
She was silent.
Trembling hands fell from her hair to his lap, where they lay lifeless as he watched her in defeat, feeling his entire existence become as gray as the day before him.
But.
There was a change in everything—and, maybe, maybe there had been a loud clap of thunder to signify it, or a blur in the air, or—
But at the moment, it had just been a still minute in time, when nothing moved but her.
The wind blew, and he watched her face fall, watched her cry, watched the tears fall helplessly to her pale cheeks, and there was no trace of a slightly lopsided smile, no trace of wide, azure eyes that held a simple air of happiness and contentment.
But instead he saw there a cloudy smoke of something indecipherable, and he saw there the pieces of a perfect illusion shattering and falling away into the dusty ground.
What was left was a slight, bitter taste of pain that lingered in her dark eyes.
Sorrow and joy collided in a fury of emotions running rampant.
And he wrapped his arms around her, her small hands wrapping around him, as the rain finally fell all around them, cool droplets clinging to their skin.
Release at last.