When she began to notice how often the beginning of rainfall coincided with Hatsune Miku coming over, Megurine Luka found herself strangely troubled.
It wasn't as if she had anything against the girl visiting her home, of course. It was simply a matter she felt the need to inquire more thoroughly into: statistically speaking, the fact that Miku's every appearance seemed to co-occur with the appearance of rain was a baffling anomaly.
Though she couldn't say so with absolute certainty, Luka felt very sure that she had never seen that much rain appear with such consistency in her entire life. The closest example that came to mind was a particularly bad typhoon season from her early childhood, when the entire neighborhood had boarded up all their doors and windows and her parents had bought nearly a truckload of cheese and crackers to keep up their strength during the event, but there was still a difference in that the typhoon was a phenomenon that actual scientists had actually predicted. The rain that came with Miku's visits, on the other hand, flouted Luka's faith in the basic laws of causality.
She only started noting the oddity after it had already occurred several times, as, like most anything else, it was the surety that it would happen which made the rain so odd. A storm kicking up just after a friend came over for the first time, after all, was more or less accountable to bad luck, or possibly poor planning. A second spot of rain manifesting out of an otherwise clear sky on a second visit a week later, while somewhat out of the ordinary, could still be labeled a simple coincidence. What left Luka perplexed, however, was how the weather had managed to turn foul on each and every one of Hatsune Miku's twenty-six stays over at her house.
Twenty-six visits. And, according to every weather forecast Luka had looked up before and many times even after the fact, every single one coincided with an often unprecedented outpour of rain.
Something about that, Luka decided, was quite odd.
She first talked over her findings with her friend Meiko. As a fellow journalist for one of the city's more popular news magazines, it seemed like she would be able to think of some rational conclusion. When Luka first told her, though, she was fairly hesitant to believe any of it.
"Are you sure you're not just exaggerating?" Meiko asked before taking a sip of her whiskey—as Luka wanted an honest opinion out of her, it seemed best to broach the subject during one of their impromptu bar outings after a longer day of work.
"How could I be exaggerating anything? I'm telling you, it happens every time." Luka had a sip of her White Russian, a drink that her friend frequently teased her for favoring, insisting that it was too sweet to really be considered a proper cocktail.
"That's just it—see, you saying it's every time is what leaves me skeptical," Meiko retorted. "It seems more likely that you just remember it raining a lot of the time she comes over—let's say, maybe two out of any three given visits—and you ended up filling in the non-rainy days with rain to better fit your case."
"If there were days when it didn't rain, I'd have said so. You know I wouldn't try to cover those up, Meiko."
The other woman threw a hand up defensively, the other still gripping her glass. "Look, I'm not saying you meant to cover them up. I'm just saying that, compared to the idea this friend of yours has rain following her around, it seems more likely you're remembering things wrong. It's like what Sherlock Holmes said about eliminating the impossible to find truth in the improbable, you know?"
"Except what's 'impossible' is for me to be remembering this wrong," Luka insisted. "You know I'm not exactly prone to leaving crucial details out when I'm investigating something."
"Well, for one thing, this isn't exactly an investigation," Meiko said, chuckling, the sound almost muffled out by the clinking of the ice in her glass as she rotated it around. "It's just you trying to equate some unrelated anomalies with having this new intern over. Which, by the way, is a little weird on its own—I'm pretty sure she's spent more time at your place than even I have, and she's only been at the office for a few months. Wouldn't you say that makes you two a little more than just co-workers?"
Luka rolled her eyes and sipped her drink as nonchalantly as she could. Her friend had taken on that tone of voice she would use whenever she wanted to heckle Luka about relationships, a form of teasing that had quickly become tiresome given how it was applied whenever she displayed the slightest interest in another woman. The heckling seemed more rooted, however, in Meiko's recurring inability to hold down a partner for longer than a few weeks than in a refusal to sympathetically understand Luka's particular sexual preferences, which left her little reason to find it too troubling.
"You're shifting the issue," Luka said, once she understood from her friend's stare that simply ignoring that last remark wouldn't make it go away. "This isn't about her. It's about the rain that's always coming with her."
"Yeah, whatever," Meiko said, apparently unconvinced. "Well, even in that case, I'd say this wouldn't be the first time you ended up reading too much into the facts to jump to a more interesting conclusion. Remember that time you interviewed the mayor and got convinced he was heading up an embezzlement scheme?"
"I was never 'convinced,'" Luka corrected her. "I only started considering the possibility after he gave such low numbers for the yearly budget."
"And see, that's just what's going on here," Meiko said. "It's something you do when you look too long at something that's a little off: once you start getting the idea that there's something peculiar around, you let yourself get too carried away in thinking about what the peculiar thing actually is. It's like the rainy days with this girl end up sticking out so much that they start seeping into the sunny days you must have spent with her—like how if you dripped water onto one square of a calendar, it'd run off to the rest of the squares and make it seem like the whole thing got splashed."
"So, you're saying I should just let this go," Luka said, nonplussed.
"Exactly. I'm saying you're reading too much into it, and that it's probably nothing unusual." Meiko took a longer sip of the whiskey, apparently needing it after so involved an explanation. "Coincidences happen, and really, it's just rain anyway, you know? Why bother getting so involved over it?"
There was, Luka admitted, a certain logic to Meiko's reasoning. Neither she nor Miku seemed to mind the rain much—if anything, it usually helped make things more comfortable between the two of them. There was something about the sound of rain pitter-pattering against the windows and the roof that made tea and hot cocoa alike taste richer, and something about the smell of the damp air that made the inside of Luka's apartment feel cozy instead of cramped. And the way that the rain seemed to let Miku shrug off the air of nervousness she usually wore at the office, as if the change in weather became a kind of security blanket she would wrap herself up in.
Although Luka also missed that nervousness, in a way, as the moments where the young intern would stumble over her words or the way papers would tremble in her hands as she greeted Luka from outside her office had a certain unique charm. That crept in sometimes when she was over at Luka's home, though, in how she would tighten herself up on the sofa or would let the cup in her hands shake slightly. Only that was a shyness so much more subdued than what Luka was used to, and in any case it was far more enjoyable to listen to Miku chatter on about her college courses, or to match wits with her when she scolded Luka for not being as up on contemporary pop culture as she should be, despite her being only a few years out of college herself.
In any case, the rain seemed to allow Miku to present a different side of herself, and more than that, allowed her to present that greater confidence so consistently that the display made Luka wonder whether this or the shy intern at the office was the real Miku. Either way, perhaps it was something to be thankful for, to be able to chat and share afternoon snacks so amiably with that intern whom the rest of the staff saw so little of. Perhaps, Luka thought, it really would be better to just write the rain off as mere coincidence and just enjoy Miku's company. After all, that company was ultimately a key point both in this issue and even in Luka's head, Meiko's reading too far into the relationship notwithstanding.
Of course, as well and good as she found having the intern over, the fact of the matter still was that Luka considered the consistency of the rain odd. And furthermore, she was precisely the sort of woman who would refuse to let an oddity remain uninvestigated, particularly if it was so keen on dropping by her home so frequently.
So, even if the anomaly was hardly a hindrance, it was quite natural that Luka could not do as Meiko suggested and just leave the thing be.
Call her nosy, perhaps, but that was just who she was.
She decided that the next opinion she should seek out would be Lily's, a friend who, despite not sharing Meiko's and her own occupation, nevertheless had a journalist's instincts for getting to the heart of the most complicated of issues. This was especially so when the complicated issue involved young women, and indeed even more so when said young women had an attractive vibrancy about them.
Not coincidentally, that was the first thing she pressed on when Luka brought up the matter.
"I'm only asking because it helps to get a better picture of the situation, you know?" she said, feigning innocence. "And besides, you're the one who called her 'cute.' I'm just following up."
"Asking her bust size goes a little beyond 'following up' in my book," Luka said flatly.
"Like I said, it's just me getting the whole picture," Lily replied. "No need to be a prude about it."
She stretched herself out on her couch more as she said that, every now and then bobbing her head in time with the J-pop she had lightly playing from her modest stereo system. She always seemed to keep music of some kind playing when she had someone over, as if she would be deathly uncomfortable being caught in a moment of silence with another person.
"Well, I'd prefer we keep the picture to the relevant details, all right?" Luka said. "Which is the whole matter of the rain, in case you've forgotten."
Lily sat up sharply, either showing tremendous shock or doing a fantastic job of imitating it. "Hey, that's a plenty relevant detail. And no, not just for my...what's that term you keep using? 'Prurient interests?'"
"Yes, that's the one." It was, in fact, one of the characteristics by which Luka would most easily characterize her friend. "But at any rate, I still don't see your point."
"My point," Lily went on, "is that what this girl looks like is going to have an effect on how you feel about her. And how you feel about her is going to affect how she's thinking about these visits she's paying. With me so far?"
Luka bobbed her own head back and forth a couple times, a show of uneasy comprehension that ended up blending into the electronic beats playing in the background. "I suppose that makes sense. Though, it sounds like you're taking that theory a little too far."
"What do you mean?"
"I mean that it sounds like you think there's something romantic tied up in this."
"Of course I do!" Lily exclaimed, apparently baffled that one could view the affair in any other light. "C'mon, Luka, think about it: an attractive young college student always going over to your place when she ought to be out with friends from school? Doesn't that sound just slightly like she's interested in a little more than a pot of tea?"
Luka let out a long, frustrated sigh, the sound nearly inaudible against the J-pop. It was, of course, probably her own fault for consulting Lily over this in the first place, considering how she was far more likely than Meiko to view any matter concerning cute girls as related to sex. In fairness, however, Luka could see her friend's reasoning, to a certain extent; she herself had already admitted and would readily admit again that Hatsune Miku, with her luxurious hair, bright and cheery eyes, and especially her slim yet still irrefutably feminine figure, hit all the right buttons for her. Really, coupling that with that sweet smile the young intern always wore when she arrived at the door, or when she took that first sip of hot cocoa, or when she would just be leaning over the table, gazing into Luka's eyes and listening raptly as she talked about journalism or old family stories or even just her day, Luka found she probably considered Miku cuter than most any girl she'd actually dated.
But that, as she'd explained to Meiko, was beside the point. The point, after all, was the rain that always seemed to accompany the intern, and that Luka wanted to know why on earth it did so.
So, after heaving that sigh lost in the background of J-pop, Luka took a moment to remind her friend of that original point.
"Look, I'm not about to debate you on any of that," she started.
"Because you know you can't prove me wrong, right?" Lily cut in, grinning.
"I'll give you that, if only because you won't take 'you're wrong' for an answer." Though admittedly, she had managed to make Luka start thinking more and more about the smile the intern would wear. "But what I'm trying to ask about is why you think it's always raining when she come by. And don't tell me I'm just seeing coincidences."
"'Course it's more than a coincidence," Lily laughed. "Don't you get it? She's planning it that way. Pretty smart of her, too, I'd say."
"Planning it?" Luka asked, though already she was regretting having to hear the answer.
"Sure. She wants to be shut up in a cozy little house with her cool—and, might I add, drop-dead gorgeous—senior at work. Having it rain every time she's over would make that a bit easier to play off, wouldn't you say?"
It was more the way Lily replied than the answer itself which was a little aggravating. She spoke again in playful, musical tones that suggested teasing Luka was just as important as helping her think things through, except, admittedly, the deduction itself wasn't terrible. That in part left it difficult to get mad at her.
"You do realize the flaw with that," Luka said, "is that you're assuming there's any sort of spark going on between us."
"I'd say it's more 'concluding' than 'assuming,'" Lily chuckled. "See, what I said about it being weird for a college student to be at your place? That works in reverse, too. As in, you wouldn't be so invested in having this Miku over if she didn't have a bit more to offer than stimulating conversation."
Not entirely sure how to respond to that, Luka found herself considering what of Miku, specifically, Lily might be referring to, and given her earlier line of questioning, settled on her younger friend's breasts, lovely in their petite shape, and how they fit so perfectly with the rest of her understated curves. It then occurred to Luka that her friend had been quite non-specific in her wording and that if she mentioned any of these thoughts she'd be seen as only proving that point.
"So, in that case," Luka said, summarizing the earlier logic aloud for herself as a quick means of backpedaling, "what you mean is that she's intentionally coming over when there's going to be rain, all so that it's easier to stay close to me."
"Sure am," Lily chirped. "From where I sit, that's the most logical explanation. It covers means, motive, and method pretty well, doesn't it?"
And Luka had to admit it did, though only to a certain extent. While at first glance the theory did indeed explain how it always happened that their meetings always had a rainy background and even attempted to cover how they might be happening, it was ultimately inconsistent with what Luka herself knew. Namely, that every weather report available could be predicting sunny skies for the rest of the day yet suddenly be proven completely false not long after Miku made her appearance—something Luka had noted happening no fewer than sixteen times out of those twenty-six visits.
But on the other hand, although this inconsistency led Luka to believe there was something deeper to the anomaly than a love-struck college student capitalizing on the weather to further her crush, at the same time, she didn't have enough evidence to effectively refute the idea. What if Miku had some innate ability to tell when it would rain that afternoon, for example? Even disregarding the supernatural, surely there were explanations along those lines.
Which was why Luka decided not to pursue the matter any further with Lily. She was, after all, precisely the sort who would suggest such odd things, only more outlandishly, and would then make ample use of her opponent's lack of evidence beyond simple common sense to win her case. And, again, this was something that proved even truer when she was convinced something along the lines of romance was involved in Luka's life.
Which, Luka reminded herself, was a silly jump to make anyhow. Though Miku did seem friendlier with her than with the rest of the magazine's staff, it was hardly a given that she had something romantic tied up in these visits.
All in all, that conversation with Lily did little more than set Luka's doubts even more astir. Not only did she have a theory she didn't completely agree with yet couldn't entirely disprove, but as she considered the matter from her friend's perspective she found that Meiko's initial thoughts had a certain weight to them as well. What if all the rain had indeed just been coincidences? It was, after all, difficult to imagine the intern plotting something, even if it were totally benign. Her cheerful attitude and sunny smile with which she always greeted Luka was proof enough for her that she was merely dropping by because she felt like it, not because of some imperceptible twitch in the weather. Not to mention how her wide eyes of surprise, along with the little gasps she would chirp out at the onset of rain, more than proved they were shifts in the weather she hadn't been expecting in the slightest. Surely, Luka thought, the girl was much too innocent to have done something as odd as this by design. The eager tone of her voice, the brightness in her gaze suggested only simple warm-heartedness.
But then, Luka had misread people before. In the end, there was little she could do to discount either of her friends' lines of thought.
So she kept all the thoughts they'd offered her in the back of her head when Miku dropped by the next day. She had brought along a couple slices of cake from a nearby bakery, explaining her sudden visit away with the excuse that they had a new variety out and she thought Luka would love to try it since she said before how partial she was to strawberries and this flavor was supposed to blend the fruit toppings with the vanilla icing beautifully. And of course Luka couldn't help but grin herself at the intern's unexpected appearance—the only way she could be expected to show up, oddly enough—and found herself so taken with her company as she started brewing their usual pot of tea that all her thoughts of "investigation" seemed to disappear.
That is, until the rain started up again. Even as Luka and Miku both chuckled off the oddity of it, and even as they continued their light conversation in spite of it, Luka couldn't help but be reminded of that deeper curiosity she'd been holding onto from before the intern's entrance.
She didn't find anything to sate that curiosity by the time Miku made her exit, however. The girl was just as Luka remembered her being: cheerful, with the slightest hints of energetic nervousness, but above all as genuine as they come. And as difficult as it was to believe this was all consciously part of Miku's planning, at the same time it was just as hard to accept as mere coincidence the fact that rain had managed to manifest itself out of a perfectly clear sky not ten minutes after the intern's arrival.
So it seemed Luka was back to square one. Meaning she would have to call on someone else for help.
That help came when she managed to get a word in with another intern at the magazine office—as someone about Miku's own age and indeed a fellow student at her very college, it seemed a natural choice after pure speculation had failed to provide any verifiable leads. This other intern, Kaito, clearly had a respectable air of maturity about him, and on the whole gave the impression of a reliable sort. It was hard to say exactly why Luka thought that, given how she'd barely spoken to him before. Most likely it was something in his posture and the way he was usually flashing a friendly, disarming smile.
When Luka first broached the subject to him, after catching him on a break at the office, he didn't seem entirely sure how to take it, or even how to put the answer. Surprisingly, that made him seem even more trustworthy. Luka's best guess was that it showed he held a certain amount of respect for his fellow intern.
"There are a few others at school who say she's a little off, maybe, but I don't really see that myself," the young man eventually answered. "If anything, I'd say she's a pretty good friend."
"Really?" Luka asked, somehow surprised he'd go that far. "Then, why don't I ever see you two together at the office?"
"Oh, that," Kaito chuckled. "No, that's only because we're interning in different subjects, you see. I'm more into management, but she's more interested in the actual writing and reporting. You know, like what you do."
Luka nodded in understanding, even though she knew that last part already.
"Anyhow," he continued, "you're probably more interested in that first thing you said—the part about the rain, right?"
"Yes," Luka said. "I'm just wondering if maybe you had any thoughts on it."
"I'm not sure I do," Kaito answered after considering it a moment. "Really, it's quite odd. I don't see how she could possibly be trying to make your meetings end up like that, if that was what you were thinking."
"I was considering it," Luka admitted. "But, you're sure you can't say anything more about this? Maybe there was something similar you've noticed when you've been with her?"
"Not that I can recall," Kaito said. "It's not as if the weather has been strange on campus or anything. And beyond that, I'm not sure what else I can say. In all honesty, I think by now you've been with Miku more than I have," he added with a curiously sly tone.
That last part left Luka somehow sidetracked, unsure as she was about what that had to do with the matter at hand. Still, it was clear by then that Kaito couldn't offer anything terribly substantial as to what exactly was going on with Miku, either. Perhaps he was holding something back, but from what Luka could read in him, it wasn't anything major.
"Although," Kaito went on, unexpectedly breaking Luka's line of thought, "there is something that this whole situation brings to mind."
"Go on," Luka said, eager by now for any new theories whatsoever.
The young man glanced around briefly, as if he wasn't interested in being overheard. "I don't suppose you've ever heard of 'rain-women' before, have you?"
The words did indeed conjure up an image or two in Luka's head. "Of course I have. Ame-onna. Folkloric rain-bringing demons in the form of a young woman." She frowned as she heard herself speak. "But I take it you don't think that's the truth behind this."
"You're taking it a bit too literally," Kaito laughed. "No, I mean 'rain-woman' as in someone who has a kind of jinx about herself. Think of someone with the lousiest luck in the world, except that bad luck only shows up as rain following her about wherever she goes. That's more what I meant, you see."
"So, you're saying this all just a case of bad luck?" Luka asked.
"Something quite like that, yeah. Though, maybe I shouldn't put it quite that way—it makes it sound like it's just something that's just kind of happening, instead of something that's happening because of Miku, specifically." He laughed again, apparently trying to take any possible edge out of his words. "I don't mean anything bad by that, though. All I'm saying is, I wonder if this rain business is just something that tends to go where Miku goes, if that makes sense. You know, like an odd cat that got it in its head to trail one specific person around."
"So, that would mean she doesn't intend for any of it to happen, right? Or maybe that she doesn't even know it's happening because of her." Luka smiled herself, trying to shake off any deeper implications of what she was theorizing. "Assuming this is true, of course."
"The way I hear it, usually, rain-women don't mean for bad weather to come along with them, no," Kaito replied. "Though, something else you should consider is that, if you notice how it rains every time you see her, I'm sure she's bound to as well. That is, even though she doesn't intend for rain to fall, exactly, she might be considering whether she's technically the one causing it. And even if she isn't coming to this particular conclusion, it's worth remembering what she's bound to take note of, right?"
Luka nodded, realizing that in particular would be an important part of the issue to consider. Though of course she still couldn't imagine Miku being terribly aware of how odd Luka thought the matter was, and certainly still didn't think the intern could consciously be plotting those changes in the weather.
"But, on the whole, I don't think this is a thought to put too much stock in, mind you," Kaito said, breaking in again. "For one thing, it's not all that feasible for a curse of bad weather to actually be following someone around, don't you think?"
"I do," Luka admitted. Although, deeper down, she also knew she was desperate for answers at this point, and was secretly thinking that even the supernatural or superstitious were viable explanations in the absence of any other evidence. "Although, didn't you also say you didn't notice any odd weather on your campus? Or even when you've just been around her?"
"That was the other thing," Kaito replied. "Even if this whole 'bad luck' theory were feasible, it's just plain inconsistent. From what I can tell—assuming this 'rain-woman' thing were true, of course—it's only your place that Miku is actually be bringing the rain to, and I can't see anything deeper in that. Related to this issue, that is."
Unnerving as it was that everyone she was talking to seemed to be reading something deeper into the relationship, Luka did have to admit that perhaps Kaito was on to something by the end of the conversation. In theory, there could be something different about Luka's house that made it more likely for Miku to bring rain there rather than to, say, her campus apartment. If that were the case, than she very well could have found the answer: what if there really was bad luck following the intern around, a sort which only appeared as rain, and then only when she was visiting her senior from work? It stood to reason that rainfall could do the most damage there, since it meant they were stuck up inside every single meeting. If Miku ever wanted to impress Luka with something outside, say with a new shop or a trip to a pool or something similar, her parade would always be rained on, so to speak.
Except, Luka found herself realizing with a heavy sigh, none of that actually made the slightest bit of sense. After all, if that were the case were the key words here. For any of this to be even remotely plausible, Luka would have to believe in the very concept of bad luck, or in curses intent on staying with somebody yet never doing anything worse than bringing rain. And of course she didn't believe in either. If she did, she could have gone to a fortune teller or some similar sort and considered the case closed from the get-go.
What Kaito had said also kept coming back to her: that there was something deeper here, but it wasn't just about the rain. Even if he seemed to miss the strange point she was actually trying to look into, Luka couldn't help but wonder about what he had meant by that. What could he mean, "deeper?" Obviously it was something about the way Miku saw Luka, or maybe even something about the reverse, if what he'd meant was how the intern saw her own act of visiting Luka's apartment so often.
Only that was hard to keep considering, as the very idea that Miku was somehow working to win Luka over made so little sense. Miku was already so wonderfully charming on her own, even when she did nothing more than quietly sip tea. While smiling that bright smile of hers. Why on earth would she have to worry about impressing Luka, when she'd already done that, simply by being herself?
Luka let out another sigh as she crumpled up the sheet from her legal pad where she'd been jotting all this down and pushed the ball of paper to the side of her desk. All that pondering and interviewing, and still none of it made any sense. And the worst of it was that was where she'd been focusing all her writing towards that entire bit of the afternoon. Admittedly, she wasn't working on any big stories at the time, but it was the principle of the thing that got most under her skin.
That is, until she saw a bit of light as she remembered what else Kaito had said. What Luka had been forgetting in this whole matter, she now realized, was to consider how Miku was seeing things. She felt a new energy in herself as the thought bloomed and bloomed, as she pondered the wonderful simplicity of it. Why not just talk the issue over with Miku and hear her thoughts on it? Surely, Luka thought, that would erase the mystery and make the status quo understandable again. Surely it would make everything to do with the cheery intern easy to figure out.
And considering that led back again and again to that final remark of Kaito's: the one that, for all its impenetrability, Luka couldn't seem to get out of her head. There was indeed something deeper in Miku's coming over so often, and the rain showed as much. Such an odd display of nature had to mean something, Luka was certain. Yet it was so odd that what precisely it meant seemed to keep circling back to Miku, the girl who always brought along that very rainfall.
She only began to shake those thoughts once Miku dropped by again, although even then Luka could sense them lingering in the back of her mind from moment to moment. There was something about her smile, the unassuming and almost clumsy way she walked through the door—as if she were repeating the same steps and timidity one might feel on a first visit—that left Luka far more centered on the moment, too focused on grinning at the girl in front of her to stay on thoughts of the weather. She had eclipsed the rain she seemed to carry along, it seemed, if only for that moment. Luka wondered how that could be so, given how desperate she was to know the truth behind the matter. It was so baffling how this girl who seemed at the crux of the issue could also so easily distract her from it.
She had led Miku back to their usual spot on the sofa when the intern offered her the plastic bag she was carrying.
"It's more of what we had last time," she said, not quite making eye contact as she handed it over but smiling all the same.
The gesture helped to snap Luka out of her pondering, much to her relief.
"More?" Luka asked in half-serious incredulity. "Are you sure you're not trying to sell me a gym membership on the side, Miku?"
The young intern gave her usually musical laugh as she sat by the other woman. "If I was, don't you think I'd have caught you by now?"
"More than likely," Luka found herself admitting. "That is, if you promised to go along with me."
"You'd need me there?" Miku asked, apparently confused.
"Not 'need,' no. It's just that it'd be more fun if it was with you. Or, more bearable, at least."
She laughed again, the sound ringing throughout the house just as vibrant and clear as before. "I guess you're not much for exercise, then."
"Why do you think I found a career in writing?" Luka chuckled. "But then again, if you keep coming over with gifts like these, I really might have to start getting used to a morning jog or something."
They opened the slices of cake together over the coffee table, Miku gathering up the spare bits of wrapping as usual. Luka took a moment to fetch plates and forks from the kitchen, also bringing back the pot of tea she had set brewing. She watched the intern out of the corner of her eye as she took her first bite, finding something strangely gripping in the way today her lips pursed in pleasure at the sweet taste, an allurement lasting even after she'd licked a leftover drop of cream away from those same lips. Something about the sight made it hard to remember the questions Luka had been trying to form those few hours before Miku had shown up, even as she remembered how vital it was she ask her directly about the rain and what she thought about it. It was difficult to say why, though, exactly. Just seeing Miku's face in joy or even hearing the little squeaks of satisfaction she'd make from the subsequent little bites she would take seemed to make every other thought vanish right out of Luka's head.
"Aren't you going to try yours?" Miku offered.
It was then Luka noticed she'd left her cake untouched even while Miku was around a third done with her own. With a quiet apology or two, she snatched up a bite.
She immediately remembered why Miku had been so intent on getting seconds. Even without the company, Luka was certain the pastry would be phenomenal.
"I'm impressed you keep finding such amazing bakeries," Luka said once she was through with the bite. "When on earth can you find the time? Between interning and your studies, you must be swamped."
Miku gave a little shrug, giggling. "It's not that hard. I mean, word about the good places gets around, so it's not like I have to comb through every shop in the city on my own. But it'd be worth it either way, I think."
Her cheeks seemed to glow a little as she said that, and she tensed up a bit on the sofa, apparently trying to take up as little space as possible. Admittedly that part wasn't difficult, considering her petite frame. Her slim legs were drawn up against one another, pigeon-toed at the knees, and she'd folded her arms over her slim waist, resting them just beneath those curves her loose-fitting shirt kept tantalizingly hidden away.
All of a sudden, everything Lily had said a few days before came flooding back to Luka, memories all triggered by the sight. Her friend had been so insistent that Miku had to be an especially lovely young girl, and had insisted all that without having even seen her, as if her being gorgeous was the only way any of this could make sense. It was odd reasoning then, and, of course, was just as odd now.
Even so, Luka wondered if the problem all along was that she was refusing to embrace that absurdity. Perhaps, she found herself reasoning, that this was the deeper insight her friend had been providing all along: that there truly was something more Luka was investigating than just a simple matter of the weather, and there was more at stake here than the mere pursuit of truth.
"Anyhow," Miku spoke up, with the higher tone of voice she'd use whenever she would seem intent on changing the subject, "how's work going? Did you manage to finish that story on that Korean idol who's gonna tour here?"
The tea being about ready, Luka poured them both a cupful as she talked about her relative lack of progress on the article, taking great care, naturally, to leave out the most apparent obstacle. They bantered back and forth some about writing deadlines, something Miku was of course already thoroughly familiar with, and, given her career path, could only leave room to accept more deeply as part of her life, however unwanted. It was odd how much more relieved talking with Miku over the matter left Luka than even when she talked it over with Meiko, considering how the former was still hardly familiar with the more acute variety of stress a work-related deadline presented. She suspected it had something to do with the way the intern's eyes would stay so wide and bright as she listened, as if while staying fixed on the talk she was both accepting the frustration admitted and replacing it with the sunshine she seemed to continually spill forth from her gaze.
As soothing as it all was, though, it also worked well enough for Luka's needs. Even if the conversation made the weather-related questions she wanted to ask feel further off, it would also help to ease Miku into being asked them. There was still no telling how she'd take the matter, after all. Luka never much liked considering the worst of possibilities, but she was nevertheless worried asking the wrong way could leave the intern horribly embarrassed.
Except, after two empty plates and half-drunk cups of tea, it almost seemed as if today would break the pattern and prove Meiko right. Still the skies were clear from out the window, and still the conversation was carrying on as amiably as before.
"I'm sure if you just put in some work on it tonight, you'll be able to turn something in," Miku was saying before she took another long sip of tea. Her face began to light up as she set the cup down. "Actually, maybe I could even help you out some."
"Help me out?" Luka repeated, perhaps a little confused. As often as the two of them talked about their own projects, this was the first time Miku had ever actually offered to collaborate on a piece. "Help me out how?"
"You know, like bouncing ideas off each other, making sure the sentences flow—stuff like that," Miku explained. "That is, if that's okay. I mean, I don't want to tread on your piece or anything, so if that's too much..."
"No, not at all," Luka laughed, hoping to reassure her. "I think that would help a lot, actually. But are you sure you have the time?"
"What do you mean?" Miku asked, confused herself now.
"Well, it's going to take a while to finish this piece. Wouldn't that cut too much into your own time? I'm sure you have other things you could be doing, and I don't want to take away from your studies any."
"Oh, that," Miku said. "No, no, that won't be a problem, I promise. This is actually going to be something of a freer week for me than normal, and even if we go kinda late, I can finish up whatever I need to tonight, no sweat."
"Are you sure?" Luka asked. "You shouldn't put those things second, you know. Especially not just to help me out."
"I swear it'll be okay. And besides, helping you out would be kind of like studying anyway, right? Since it's still journalism and all."
"True," Luka said, considering it. "In a way, yes."
Miku grinned, apparently quite satisfied with the answer. "Plus, studying it this way would be way more—"
She stopped herself as a light rapping came at the window, a sound that started slow but quickly sped up and grew louder. Outside, the sky had apparently found time enough to cloud up and let loose yet another torrent.
"Again?" Miku said, sighing quietly as she stared out at the storm brewing. She shivered a moment as the sound from outside surged up and grew more rapid, leveling out once the rain had reached the point where its crashing against the window resembled a quick, off-tempo band of snare drums.
"Nothing to worry about," Luka said, practically in reflex. "We weren't really planning on heading out anyway, were we?"
The intern fixed her eyes on the floor, a kind of cloudiness filling them. "I guess not, no."
"And we have plenty of tea for now, for another thing," Luka went on, trying to give her most reassuring smile.
That seemed to make the other woman perk up some. "That's good, yeah." She managed a short laugh. "I'm impressed you're always so prepared like this, Luka. It makes me feel less like a burden for dropping by out of the blue."
"My having tea makes me prepared?" Luka asked, laughing herself some.
"Well, sure," Miku replied. "I mean, don't you think that having some tea ready is the best thing you can use to get through a lot of rain? Having that kind of warmth makes staying out of it feel all the better, I think. It reminds you that you're lucky enough to not only be safe from the storm, but also that you can keep yourself comfortable while it's going on."
Luka nodded, thinking over it all, how much it all sounded like something she herself could have come up with. Again she remembered what Kaito had said could be going on: "bad luck" were the words he used. Because of course the common understanding of rain, when unexpected and unneeded, was that it was indeed unfortunate.
So perhaps that was what Miku was taking to heart, despite everything else. And perhaps now she was starting to see something a little different in the rain. Something more pleasant in it as it continued to pile down atop the roof and against the window, every drop the sky's own little way of sending the waters from all around to new locations and new faces.
"You're right, you know," Luka finally said. "But even if the tea helps to feel that way, I think there's still something you're forgetting."
Miku looked up, shifting around in her seat some in a sort of uncomfortable confusion. "Does...that mean we're missing something here?"
"Not at all," Luka replied, shaking her head. Slowly, she reached her hand the short distance over the sofa and placed it over Miku's. "I think there's everything I could ask for here, to remind me it's warm inside."
Her cheeks coloring again, Miku's eyes went brighter, their aqua depths somehow managing to grow as sunny as the small grin spreading across her lips. "It's funny," she murmured, as if to herself. "You know, I was actually afraid of the rain once."
"Aren't you still?" Luka chided.
"That's just the thunder, silly," Miku retorted, giggling. "And even then, it's not always. What I mean is, when I was just a little girl...I used to be scared of the rain itself. Not just lighting or thunder, but every rainfall."
Luka frowned. It was the first time the intern had ever said anything about her childhood, and it was a little disconcerting that she would say something so important all of a sudden. She urged her on with a simple squeeze of her hand.
"I still can't say why it was, exactly," Miku went on. "I guess it was just because, back then, the rain seemed like something almost unnatural, like it was this weird mutation of a sunny day. Or maybe because it made me think it would get worse. You know, even if it seemed like it was just a shower, for all we know it could turn into a typhoon or something."
"You'd have a warning of something that serious, though," Luka pointed out.
"But it never seemed that predictable to me," Miku said. "It always seemed like something that would just happen, and nobody can really say when or exactly how strong. It was like this new, unexpected part of life just forcing itself upon you, with or without warning, and there's never any way to always be ready for it."
Giving her hand another little squeeze, Luka looked over at the other woman, deeper into her sunny, doubtful eyes. "But even so, there's a kind of beauty to it. Don't you think so?"
And Miku herself gave another laugh, another wider smile as she looked back into Luka's gaze. "Yeah. Especially with a good pot of tea. That always makes it easier to watch."
"Just the tea?" Luka chuckled. "Nothing else?"
Grinning, Miku slid in close, finally leaning her head on Luka's shoulder. "The tea you make. Though I guess cakes probably do some good too, huh?"
The touch of Miku's hair on her neck was soft, almost feathery. "It does," Luka conceded. "Even if it's just the aftertaste."
Miku giggled again, the sound lightly complementing the pattering against the window. "Don't you think it's strange, though?"
"What is?" Luka asked. Almost sure of the answer even as the words left her lips.
"The rain. I'm pretty sure it's fallen at some point or another every single time I've been over."
She hummed softly, more in agreement than in surprise at how the intern had been the one to say it. "You know, I was spending a little time thinking about that myself."
"I wondered if you would," Miku said. "It's weird, isn't it? How it seems like we always get so unlucky."
The word coming out of her mouth then, however, did manage to leave Luka surprised, not so much at how it matched previous words with others but at how she had been certain Miku was past that thought. She leaned back some, to better look her in the eyes again.
"Don't be silly," she said. "Having so wonderful a reason to be in here with you could never be unlucky."
She couldn't remember who moved first after that, who was the one who started the lean forward to cross the gap between herself and the other. All she could recall in detail—as unfitting a quality as that was for a journalist—was the way Miku's face lit up in joyous surprise at that, the way her eyes sparkled with a light like ripples spreading through water. And then their lips meeting somewhere along the sofa, the looks on one another's faces and the very sense of the air speaking more than either of them ever could.
Her lips were softer, Luka thought, more feathery than her hair was from just a moment before, even if she only felt them for an all-too-brief second. Hungering for more of the feeling, more of the sugary taste of cake still lingering on her lips, Luka closed the gap again, letting the moistness and electricity of the connection overtake her. She could feel arms wind around her shoulders as her own found their way around Miku's waist, pulling those alluring curves close.
Slowly, with a low hum, Miku pulled away, a smile spread across glowing cheeks and her eyes towards the floor. The rapping against the window hadn't gone away yet, but was slowing down once the both of them began to hear it again. Clouds still hung in the sky, only not so thickly layered as before.
"You know...I don't have a lot of experience with this kind of thing," Miku murmured. "I mean, I did really like it, but would you mind if we take it a little...slower?"
Luka grinned, barely able to keep herself from pulling Miku into a tight hug at the way she said that. From anyone else it should have been disappointing to hear that kind of reluctance, but for Miku, it was just the right thing to hear—and that she'd said it so adorably didn't hurt, either. After all, they had come to know one another slowly, and there was still no need to rush things now. There was so much more left to explore, and Luka was willing to take her time with those new parts of her investigation.
She nodded, taking Miku's hands in her own. A wider, more confident smile spread across the younger woman's face, and Luka almost sighed with relief.
"I don't suppose you have any dinner plans?" she offered, unwilling to let the moment go to waste.
"You can't mean you want to go now," Miku laughed in response. "I mean, it's still raining out!"
"It's only a drizzle now," Luka said. "And besides, I think it's about time we felt it for ourselves, after all the watching we've done. Don't you?"
She squirmed around in her seat some again, only grinning this time, if ever so faintly. "You...don't have a spare umbrella, do you?"
Luka leaned over again, stealing a quick peck on the other woman's cheek. "I wouldn't dream of lending you one."
With a few more laughs, the both of them stood and headed out the door, opening an umbrella on their way out. Stumbling out the door and making their way just out from the cluster of apartments, Miku suddenly looked up at Luka, an oddly hesitant look on her face.
"You know, this kinda makes what I said about tonight...awkward," she said.
"You're still welcome to come over after dinner, you know," Luka said, unsure where the confusion lay.
"No, it's not that. It's just that, maybe a movie would be better? You know, just at your place?"
The thought sent a bit of warmth running through Luka, in spite of the rain still drizzling down around them. She chuckled softly as she considered it further. "We've never actually done something like that before, have we?"
Miku shifted her weight from foot to foot as she stole glances up at the other woman. "I mean, is it okay? I don't want to keep you away from your article or anything, but..."
Gazing into the aqua eyes again, Luka put a finger against the intern's soft, sweet lips. "That sounds more than worth putting an article off for, Miku." Bringing her head to Miku's cheek, she leaned in for another kiss, the umbrella brushing the tops of their heads as she let her grip on it slip. "Yes. Much more than worth it."
Grinning widely, Miku took Luka's hand and led her further into the city, away from the little apartment where they'd watched the rain together for so long. As they made their way down the dampened sidewalks, huddled together under the little roof of fabric and metal, Luka thought, perhaps, that some god of weather had indeed played a prank on the both of them, that some mysterious force had conspired to use a lifetime's worth of bad luck for the most unpredictable of purposes. But if that were so, the rain that fell was never so much a thing to figure out as it was a thing to share in, however frequently it was overcast.
The way Luka thought about it, perhaps that was the best way to beat out that whole notion of "bad luck" entirely.
As they wandered through the sunnier parts of the town, Miku started explaining where all the best restaurants around were, as well as how to find them. Luka listened to her intently, the warmth of the intern's hand in her own offsetting the chill of the rain, and the promise of a night snuggled on the couch with Miku still ringing in her head.
A/N: Once again, much gratitude goes to my patient and ever-so-thorough beta Genki Collective, for all her hard work on this silly little story of mine.
After all the angst I've been putting out recently, I figured something of a change of pace was in order and drabbled up this. Hope you enjoyed!
More to come soon, folks!