Olive Snook hated the rain.
Fumbling with the small, polka-dotted, more-fashionable-than-practical umbrella she kept in her bag, Olive sighed. She heard her own voice in her head, mocking her. That's okay, Ned. I don't have to take the car. Why waste the gas? This delivery's only four blocks away. I'll walk. It's such a nice day outside! Be back in a few!
It seemed as if the moment she'd gotten the pie into the grateful hands of its recipient, the sky had opened up, laughing at her.
"Nice day my ass." Olive mumbled. She staggered along the sidewalk at an irritatingly slow pace, trying to keep her umbrella from turning inside-out with the force of the unrelenting wind. The black swirling sky hung overhead ominously. She stared, shoulders hunched, at the ripples radiating from her feet with every step. The heavy air made it difficult to breathe; warm mist curled around every structure in sight, giving the usually sunny Coeur de Coeurs a ghost-like appearance.
Olive Snook hated the rain.
She tried to find something beautiful about the sheets of water falling around her, but all she could see was emptiness: empty cars parallel-parked on the side of the road by owners who had ducked in a nearby boutique or restaurant to wait out the storm; empty driveways, completely free of the squealing, lighthearted children who usually played there; empty roads, unoccupied save for the occasional car or semi that cruised by. Noting all of this disheartening emptiness, Olive couldn't help but feel like she was looking in a mirror; a painfully honest mirror that was reflecting back to her the contents of her heart. The heart that reached out to so many, but seldom reaped any benefits from it. A heart that had been broken and sloppily taped up too many times to count. A heart that yearned, more that anything, to be loved.
On a happier note, she noticed, she had still stayed relatively dry given her pathetic umbrella. At least, she noticed it until a bright red truck sped by, drenching Olive's full four feet and eleven inches a spray of icy, muddy rain water.
By the time Olive had gotten over the initial shock and decided to act on her anger, the truck was too far away for the driver to see her wildly shooting him the bird.
She was soaked. She was furious. She was depressed. She was still two blocks from home.
Olive Snook hated the rain.
She found herself thinking about every little aggravating thing that always seemed to
happen to her time and time again: Why did she always get caught in the rain? Why did she always get stuck next to the smelly, snoring guy on the flight? Why did people dump on her constantly? Why didn't her hair ever do what she wanted it to? Why didn't her family ever visit her anymore? Why did she always get her seat kicked at the movie theatre? Why did she always get stuck making pie deliveries that were out of the delivery boy's "zone"?
She considered the other unfortunate things that she stubbornly brought on herself, which depressed her even more: Why didn't she protest against the stupid itchy uniforms Ned insisted she wear? Why did she always set herself up to get hurt? Why did she always let good men leave her life? Why did she constantly choose to wear such damned impractical---
A loud crack echoed through the street and Olive collapsed, skidding against the pavement and nearly twisting her ankle in the process.
---shoes.
Wincing and blinking back tears, Olive looked down at her bleeding knee. She picked up the broken heel in her hand and cursed under her breath. Then, realizing the treacherous shoes weren't worth salvaging, Olive took them off and left them on the sidewalk, along with her pitiful excuse for an umbrella. It wasn't like there was any point in using it now. She was already drenched. She'd buy a better one. Heck, maybe she'd even buy a pair of shoes that weren't hazardous. She limped away, barefoot, bleeding, and soaking wet.
Olive Snook hated the rain. (And she really, really wanted a margarita.)
Olive stopped thinking. She concentrated what was left of her energy on moving her feet: left, right, left, right. Dripping and broken, she just wanted to go home and curl up by the fire place with Digby, booze, and a Tinkerbell band-aid.
Surprised by a booming clap of unexpected thunder, Olive jumped and stumbled forward. She would have fallen face-first into the pavement, if not for the Piemaker's arm.
Ned caught her and pulled her flush against his front, holding her steady with one arm, gripping an umbrella (a good one) with his free hand.
"Ned?!" Olive squeaked. "What are you doing here?"
"You were gone forever…I went looking for you. What happened? Did somebody hurt you?" A look of anger flashed through his eyes as the thought. He squeezed Olive tighter.
Biting back her initial thought of More than one person actually, and you were one of them! Olive simply nodded no. She was eternally grateful to him at this moment, no matter how many times he'd hurt her in the past. Too tired to explain her pathetic appearance, she just sighed and looked up at him. "Please take me home."
Ned nodded, but neither of them moved.
Ned looked into Olive's eyes, really looked, for the first time. And for the first time, he noticed just how beautiful she was. Even now: barefoot, soaking wet, and with her hair matted to her forehead, she was beautiful. Something about the way the raindrops clung to her long eyelashes made his breath catch in his throat. The time he'd spent worrying about her had been the most terrifying time of his life. He'd never paid much attention to her before. When she was gone, something just didn't seem right. But here with her, he felt himself again. Complete. Ned loved the way he was holding Olive now, and how perfectly she fit in his arms. Ned loved the way her blinding smile made his chest tingle. Ned loved the way she was looking up at him now, so affectionate and…touchable. He brushed the dripping hair out of Olive's eyes with a smile.
The fast, irregular drumming of rain on the tin roofs in the city mimicked the racing heartbeat presently pounding in Olive Snook's ears. Her stinging knee was long forgotten. She tried to push the hopeful thoughts in her head away, tried to tell herself not to get emotional, but she could not. She'd seen the look on Ned's face too many times before, but his features did not melt into that look around just anyone. The expression of the Piemaker's face was usually saved for when he looked at one Charlotte Charles. The love of his life. But... maybe…
Ned dropped his umbrella, letting the rain shower both of them. He wrapped both arms around Olive's waist as he began leaning toward her. Olive stopped him, her hands on his chest. "Ned," she whispered, eyebrows knitted together. She thought begrudgingly of Chuck, but desperately wanted Ned to move closer. "What are you doing?"
Ned saw a combination of sorrow and lust in Olive's eyes. She saw laughter in his.
He gave a small smile. "Honestly, I don't know…" with that he closed the remaining distance between them, gently pressing his lips to hers.
Olive smiled and dissolved into the kiss, tasting a mixture of Ned's sweet lips, the pouring rain, and her own salty tears of joy. Her hands found themselves tangled in his hair, pulling him closer. She rain was no longer an enemy; it was cleansing, washing away all of the tension, anger, and grief that had existed between the two until now. None of that mattered anymore. All that mattered was now.
She didn't know if she was setting herself up to be hurt again. She didn't know if Ned was only doing this because he pitied her. She didn't know if he'd regret this moment they were sharing together, or even if he'd feel the same way about her once he laid eyes on his childhood sweetheart again. One thing was for certain, though:
Olive Snook loved the rain.
(A/N: Cheesy and unrealistic, I know. But I had to! I know Ned was pretty OOC in this....oh well. I love the NOLIVEness....)