Hello again! Ok, I should have uploaded this yesterday but I freaked out at the last moment because I was really unsure of this chapter... and I only finally plucked up the courage to upload today instead. So sorry for the wait!! ^.^" But yeah, I think I was being a bit pedantic.
Special thanks to RozErika and sparky-sugarqueen for reviewing! I love you guys for giving me motivation to write more (since I'm naturally lazy heheh) ^_^
Anyhow, here's number 2, and I hope you enjoy it! Please review and tell me how I went! :D

Disclaimer: I don't own Rozen Maiden or any of its characters, Peach Pit does. And if I did, the third season of the anime would be out by now. =.="

Rain

It is one of those few times of peace in the usually chaotic Sakurada household. Jun lounges around, not really paying attention to the television, as rain patters quietly outside on the window. The skies beyond the glass are overcast and muddy with clouds. It is tranquil in a strange, eerie, almost ethereal way, but there is one thing troubling him the most at the moment.

He hasn't seen her all day.

Her suitcase, sitting on the floor of his room, has remained locked firmly shut all day.

He just knows something is wrong. Sighing, he switches the TV off and trudges upstairs, deciding he would rather face an eternity of her reprimanding lectures than this awful, unbearable silence. Upon reaching the threshold of his room, he stops.

She's right there.

Shinku stands unmoving on his bed, her back to him, one hand resting lightly on the sill. The window, broken from Suiseiseki's morning entrance (damn that wicked doll!), lets the rain blow through into the room, soaking everything. Jun is caught off guard by the unexpected sight of Shinku, uncharacteristically dripping wet and not even trying to move out of the way, but is yet more shocked when she turns around and he realises the water running down her cheeks isn't just rain.

The fifth doll of the Rozen Maiden is crying.

She looks at him in a way as if she doesn't expect him to understand, but he believes he does, even if only a little.

After all, he's seen it for himself; those times when she wakes suddenly in the middle of the night, pale and sweating. He knows how she dreams of blue flames engulfing her world in darkness. He wonders to himself when she asks him with that uncertain, almost insecure tone he rarely ever hears from her, if he thinks she's a good sister.

Jun does not consider himself to be a particularly shrewd or observant person, but he knows Shinku well enough to realise she is breaking down inside. And he cares enough about her to want to see her smile again. Seeing this; her tears mingling with the raindrops on her cheeks, Jun feels his world come to a stop; he can't move or breathe.

He remembers every other time he's seen her cry – the endless stream flooding down her stricken face, as she clutches the gaping tear where her arm used to be, that aching pang in his chest, when she cradles a broken doll, weeping for its lost soul…

Because, like the rain falling through his window onto his head, Shinku's tears fall like a rain upon his heart. But this rain does not merely soak through his clothes and skin; it makes his blood run cold, seeps through the crevices of his soul, and touches some part of him deep within the core of his being. He can't help but feel pained when he realises he can't prevent her suffering. He can't bring back the dead. He can't change the past. He can't erase the grief, the shock or the loss.

But there is one thing he can do.

Wordlessly, Jun reaches out, enfolding the blonde doll in a gentle and tender embrace, pulling her close to his chest. She doesn't complain, nor does she try to resist as she falls softly into his arms. Neither of them has any need to say anything; Jun only wonders at how, despite their size difference, Shinku fits perfectly into the shape of his arms. As if she were made for them.

The one thing he can do for her is to let her know she's not alone.

I promised, as your medium…I swore on the ring, didn't I…I'll protect you…and I won't leave you to face this by yourself.

The least he can do is reach out and touch her.

Whatever hurts you…whatever causes you pain…I'll take it away with my own hands…because…you're very important to me…

They stand there, caught in this quiet, rare and infinitely exquisite moment shares between them…

There is a sudden whooshing sound as her hair whips up and smacks the side of his face. He jumps back with a stinging reddened cheek, relinquishing his hold on her.

"What the hell was that for?!!"

"I refuse to be handled in such a casual manner."

"I was comforting you, you vicious doll!"

Shinku ignores him, stepping off the bed. Despite himself, Jun feels his considerably heartened when he sees her tears have disappeared.

"Hey! Aren't you going to fix the window?"

"Why? It's stopped raining, hasn't it?"

Jun looks outside and notices the sliver of golden light breaking through the dispersing clouds. But when he turns around to yell at her some more, she gives him that small, rare, wonderful smile of hers which distracts him completely.

"You - " She interrupts him, before he can say anything.

"Thank you, Jun."

***

He's always thought of rain as a cold, dreary and miserable thing. Only now does he realise how astonishingly its water washes away the veils of gathered dust to reveal the otherwise unseen, exquisite inner splendour of even the most commonplace of objects. It is, therefore, even more surprising to him to see how the rain of his doll's tears can wash away the surface of the façade he's built around himself, to expose the true nature of the beautiful, delicate emotions towards her contained within his heart.

And then, after all, if Shinku's tears were the rain upon Jun's heart, her smile must be the sun that shines through long after the clouds have gone.

Thanks for reading! I await your reviews :D