The sound of sneakers slapping the wet ground echoed through the virtually abandoned train station as Rei and Nagisa sprinted through the sprinkle to reach the waiting area and remain dry. The blond was giggling: his counterpart, scowling. In the dim lighting, Rei could make out his friend's sodden locks as he shook the droplets off like a dog. He flinched as the drops hit him.
"Nagisa!" Rei complained, holding up his hands to block the spray. "You'll get me wet!" Nagisa laughed.
"Rei-chan, you're already wet! We just finished practicing! And you were in the rain too!" He leaned over and deliberately whipped his hair to and fro, the ends smacking his cheeks and making them go rosy. Rei humphed and folded his arms in response to this display.
"That may be so, but I dried myself off before we left the lockers and I have no desire to get any more water on me." Nagisa's smile did not fade at his indignant response.
"Haru-chan would be mad if he heard you say that!" he pointed out, poking Rei's shoulder. He kept on, thoroughly annoying his friend, who was rather thankful when the train rolled into the station not two minutes later. They hopped on together, Nagisa having abandoned his quest to get a reaction out of Rei, and chose a pair of seats near the window. Their compartment was rather dark, causing the lights within to appear too harsh to the eyes. Nagisa's smile faded as he let out a yawn and leaned his head against Rei's shoulder. He was thankful there were so few people around at this time.
Rei and Nagisa were rather late, as it turned out. The darker haired boy had insisted upon practicing for regionals longer than usual and Makoto and Haruka had left the blond to supervising. He'd only stopped Rei when he noticed the incoming rain clouds and together they snuck back to the locker rooms to get dressed. By the time they returned outside, the rain was steadily approaching a downpour.
The boy sighed at his companion and glanced outside to the blurred, darkened land. Rei thought the falling droplets to be lovely, not unlike stars in the darkness. Sometimes he would jog to school in the rain to look up at the sky as they fell under the weight of the world. He could not, however, express the same sentiments as they collapsed upon the ground, fattening the soil into streams of mud. With dissatisfaction, he noticed the fields flooding with the sticky, dirty substance - and he'd have to walk home through that!
Slightly put off, Rei gave his napping friend a shake, face flushed with his irritation, as the train eased into the station. Nagisa grinned sloppily and commented,
"Rei-chan, you're blushing! I didn't do that, did I?" He rolled his eyes and Nagisa chuckled, pulling himself up with a stretch and trailing Rei as he exited the train. Then, together, they set off on their trek home.
Their sneakers slapped the wet road as they made their way to their neighborhood. Unable to bear his annoyance alone, Rei grumbled to Nagisa,
"I hate it when it rains. Everything gets so muddy!"
"Aw!" Nagisa exclaimed at his statement. "But the rain can be so fun, Rei-chan! Or," he snickered lightly, "Rein-chan!" Rei attempted to flick Nagisa's ear as punishment for nickname, but the smaller boy dodged it artfully. Disgruntled, he went after the blond who pranced away each time, the gales sweeping up his breathless laughter. Rei found himself unable to land blow on Nagisa as he got caught up in a clumsy dance. When at last he managed to catch the spritely boy's wrist, the blond retaliated by pulling him into a much more literal, much less beautiful dance on the road home. The soles of his shoes crunched the gravel and the falling rain gave a steady rhythm, while Nagisa's chant of 'Rein-chan, Rein-chan!' provided a beat.
"Nagisa! Nagi- Nagisa, stop!" he whined in an attempt to catch the blond's attention. Rei assumed he'd heard when his chanting increased in volume. It wasn't much longer until he simply resigned himself to his fate, reluctantly adding his own chuckles to the chorus. However, it took one harsh tug to spoil his good mood.
Nagisa pulled his arm a little too hard and the dark-haired boy was caught off balance, in turn falling into his partner and toppling the both of them over, right into a very large, very sticky, and very thick pile of mud. Now neither of them laughed, as Rei pushed himself off of Nagisa and desperately inquired,
"Are you okay, Nagisa? You should be more careful, I would've hurt you!" Rather meekly, his friend replied,
"I'm fine." It was here that he noticed something had gone wrong.
"You - you're filthy!" Rei exclaimed, examining his friend as he pulled him up from the mud. His vision was obscured by dark dots and he realized with a jolt that he, too, was slick with the brown residue. He groaned in disbelief. "Nagisa!" he complained. "I'm covered in mud - and this coat was new, too!" The blond allowed himself a guilty smile, pink eyes wide and apologetic.
"Sorry, Rei-chan," he said, rocking back and forth on his heels and looking expectantly up at his friend. Rei snorted - how could he be so presumptuous? - but all the same, replied,
"It's fine," feeling his irritation flow out of him with the very words. "Just be more careful." Nagisa brightened up like a sunrise and took Rei's arm, walking beside him. Rei began to relax, reveling in the boy's company as the clouds broke and revealed the sunset. Each cloud was lined in gold and reflected rosy, iridescent pinks as the darkness was chased away. He glanced over at Nagisa whose hair was bronzing, whose cheeks were reddening, and from whom light was bouncing off in the form of lovely raindrops, glittering with the evening sun. He was beautiful.
Nagisa caught Rei staring and smiled in his direction, not breaking their gaze. "Clouds and rain aren't all bad," he commented, reaching up a hand to scatter some droplets from Rei's hair.
A hand that was conveniently coated in mud.
Nagisa sprinted off with a giggle and an outraged Rei followed him after scooping a handful of his own dirty water, trying desperately to land a blow on the blond.
And so their raindance began once more.