It was raining.
It was as if the sky had opened up to let out all of its pent-up anguish at being taken for granted, for people basking in its sunlight and cursing its clouds, defying its night with lights and hiding behind closed windows from the day's shine.
A figure stood in the middle of one of the less-traveled roads of Konoha. The road no longer had puddles, instead having turned into a shallow river, and its currents rippled around the ankles of the boy standing in it. He faced a house set slightly back from the road, head bowed and arms outstretched. His green jumpsuit was completely soaked through and stuck to his muscled body like a second skin; his short hair was plastered to his forehead and cheeks and hid his eyes from view. It was impossible to tell how long he'd been standing there, but he trembled neither from cold or the exertion of holding his arms out for an extended period.
"Lee? Is that you?"
He didn't raise his head at his teacher's voice coming from the house before him. His lips parted as he breathed through his mouth, breathing somehow unsteady and perfectly controlled at once.
"What are you doing out in the rain?" Gai called, louder this time to be heard over the pounding rain. There was no wind, only the ceaseless patter of rain on leaves and tiles. "Lee?"
He was darting out the door now, a jacket held over his own head in an ineffectual attempt to shield himself from the rain. It was soaked through by the time he stood before the figure in the rain, but he held it over the boy anyway.
"You'll catch cold if you're out here in the cold and wet too long," Gai trailed off when Lee didn't respond. "Lee? Are you all right…?"
"Why…is it wrong?" his voice was no louder than the almost-harsh breaths he was taking.
"What?"
"Why is it wrong?" he repeated louder, still without raising his head.
"Why is what-"
For the first time in his life, Lee interrupted his teacher. "Please don't pretend you're stupid! Everyone else thinks you are but you AREN'T, and I might not be perfect but I'm not stupid either, so I know you're not!"
"Lee-"
"Why is it wrong?!" Lee barked, and his voice broke. He bit his lower lip, and when no answer came he continued, "Am I not good enough? Not smart enough? Not beautiful enough?"
"Lee, you have to understand…" Gai began, but trailed off as if he had expected Lee to interrupt him again and so hadn't fully formed his answer. "It simply isn't done."
"What isn't done? We're not allowed to love who we love? Is that a shinobi law? Were you lying when you told me all you did, of the purity of love and its truth? Of how it could heal the most broken warrior, and bring light to all the darkest places in a person's heart?!" Lee was shaking now, though not from the cold. "Am I not strong enough?" His voice was little more than a whisper. "I'll train for the rest of my life, I swear it, I swear upon the graves of my parents, I'll become strong enough for you."
"Lee, please, that's not it…"
"Then what is? Why can't you love me?"
"It's not my place to, destiny has someone in store for you, someone beautiful and perfect--"
"YOU ARE MY DESTINY!" His head snapped up, a sheet of water arcing backward as his hair released its load of water to momentum before falling messily about his face again. "YOU ARE MY DESTINY!" Tears streaked down his face from eyes puffy and bloodshot from crying to mix with the water dripping from his hair. "YOU!" At some point Gai had dropped the jacket, and now it lay in the mud on the ground. The rain ran from his normally perfect hair and down his face, outlining his cheekbones and eyes. It ran through his usually perfectly preened eyebrows, pushing the tiny hairs ever so slightly out of place. Lee wanted to reach out and smooth them, push his hair away from where it stuck to his forehead in ungainly clumps, smooth out every wrinkle he had made in this perfect man. Instead he stared into his eyes, tears streaking down his face and his eyebrows scrunched together in confusion and anger and heartache.
"I'll be strong enough. I'll be strong enough. I'll be strong enough." He whispered it like a mantra as his head dipped back down and the rain continued its attempt to wash him away. "I'm waiting for you…I won't surrender…I'll never, ever, ever give up…"
"Lee, please--" He took Lee by the shoulders and then Lee's lips were on his again, pushing and pleading and his hands were in the older man's hair and against his back, holding them together even as the rain continued to try to wash them both away.
"Is it right?" Lee whispered when he finally pulled away. "Please…please…Is it right? It doesn't feel wrong…" His eyes were closed, as if he were afraid to open them and find rejection. "I'll be strong enough, I promise, just…please…please…Don't let this love end…don't tell me to make it end…" He was crying into Gai's shoulder now, arms wrapped around his sensei as his entire body shook with sobs. Gai's arms were still half-spread in surprise, but slowly, slowly, as if he were afraid to break the sobbing boy in his arms, he gently wrapped his arms around him and bowed his head.
"It…It's all right, Lee…It's all right," he whispered into the smaller form's sodden hair, just above his ear. His voice was soft enough to be impossible to hear over the pounding of the rain. "It's not wrong."
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inspired by this picture
saniika deviantart com/art/You-are-my-destiny-45553863 (put periods instead of spaces between saniika/deviantart and deviantart/com
and here's a picture done by my friend again, for this chapter
vampireking deviantart com/art/Destiny-56614822 (put periods instead of spaces between vampireking/deviantart and deviantart/com)
