The product of puzzling over Mikaani at 1 in the morning. This is different from my usual style, but it's kind of addictive. I'm hoping to write more plotful things about them eventually.


The rain falls with a vengeance. Mist rises from the ground. Mikasa watches from under the bus shelter, her boot-clad feet itching to tangle with the groundclouds. But she isn't the only person there, and the gravitational pull of the girl with the ice blue eyes is too strong.

They have never spoken. Mikasa has seen her before, always when it rains. (Mikasa loves the rain; when it rains, she feels like the world is hers, like she's the only being that exists.)

Mikasa peeks at the girl. She wears an emerald green hoodie today with her jeans. (Mikasa thinks green and gold work well together, and the girl has blonde hair.) She is sitting on the bench cross-legged, staring at her phone, thumbing it languidly. Reading, maybe, Mikasa thinks. She wonders what books the girl likes.

She hears the squeal-hiss of bus brakes but doesn't move; she's thinking, listening to the rain. The scent of ginger wisps past her, and green floods her eyes for an instant. She blinks, finds the bus number (oh, this is the one), races into the rain, up the steps behind the girl.

Mikasa, tripping over her own feet, bumps into the girl in the aisle (which deposits her in the window seat) and lands ungracefully in the seat next to her.

Sorry, the girl says quietly, monotone.

It's okay, Mikasa says, but she had been about to apologize first.

She shifts in her seat, glances at the girl, blinks when she sees her looking back.

Rain can make you dizzy, you know, the girl says. You should pay attention.

Yes, Mikasa says. I'm sorry. But the girl is already looking out the window, leaning her forehead against the glass.

Sometimes I wish it would rain all the time, the girl says. It makes me feel calm. All the water surrounding me…

I pretend I'm the only person in the world when it rains, Mikasa says.

The girl looks at her again, gives a half smile. But you aren't, she says.

(Of course not. Mikasa knows there are other people on the bus, for heaven's sake.)

I'm here, the girl says, and turns back to the window.

Mikasa watches her watch the rain.