ryuki 100 fluff challenge.
theme o7. broken umbrella.

It is gray out. Supposedly, it's a green winter, but there isn't anything green about it- everything is brown and rainy and as dreary as death warmed over. Puddles and mud pop up overnight, flooding the streets with small seas. The world is moving slower today, sluggishly fighting their way through the cold rain. Hell is here- thirty three and a half degrees and raining, the mud piling so high that you could expect Noah's four-wheel SUV caravan to pull around the corner for another forty days and nights.

It is bitterly cold, and it is raining, but does the school district care? No! Of course not. They have walked for many more miles on rougher ground in much colder weather with emptier stomachs when they were children, and the lazy students of today needed to develop character.

School continues as always.

And as four umbrellas plod slowly from home to school, all the character they are developing escaping from the tops of their heads with their body heat, along with any patience that they had even after rolling out of warm beds into the frozen early winter morning

The first umbrella is bright pink, and they go cheerfully together, like puzzle pieces locking into place. They chatter like little children, sharing a rushed breakfast of rolls grabbed hot from the bakery ovens. The sun is with them, hanging inside of their umbrella cheerfully.

The second, a somber, mature black, settles comfortable into the same pace. They discuss safe, responsible, and mature things, with the occasional mild spark as they walk together. Wet, grumpy wood that hasn't had coffee doesn't burn well- it will simply smoke.

But they were getting there, and hidden somewhere in gray smoke, there was a tiny bit of heat emerging from the dark damp wood.

The third red umbrella results in a two boy shoving match, each pushing and jostling to get the most space beneath the shelter of an umbrella. Both are soaked in the process, and laugh their heads off. It is against the purpose, yes, to do this, but that is what they will do. They are like that, they laugh. They have known each other from birth, and raindrops here and there don't do much but give them colds to skip school with together, hanging out all day and pigging out on junk food supplied by overly concerned mothers.

The fourth umbrella, however, is having problems.
-

"Why," she grumbles, carefully stepping over a puddle"are we stuck together?"

"Because," he mimics her, "we are the beautiful people. We have to stick together. And by the way, Ruki, " he adds, "you're looking as gorgeous as ever." He splashes through the puddle, splattering her with the spray.

"And you are as annoying." She grabs for his yellow umbrella, getting ready to plow ahead, itching to sprint forward as fast as she could. But no, Ryou grabs her hand, holding it tight around the metal pole. She struggles free, and hits his leg with her own broken black umbrella, soaking his left thigh with raindrops.

"I hate getting wet, Ruki." He smiles at her. "So I'll keep the umbrella with me."

She glares at him, spitting ice out of her eyes.

"It's my umbrella," he says. "I should charge a forfeit from you for using it." He winks.

"You broke my umbrella."

"Do you want me to pay the forfeit then?" He raises an eyebrow and smirks.

Ruki edges to the furthest possible distance at the edge of the umbrella that she can, trying to avoid the rain as well as the more disagreeable thing that is pouring on and on today with utmost stupidity.

The umbrellas come to a small sea in the middle of the road, and both bodies move- Ruki to the left, and Ryou to the right. Stuck together with Ryo's tight grip on the umbrella, they don't get far.

Holding firmly onto the hand before Ruki decides to cut and run, he estimates the size of the puddle with calm concentration. "It's not that far. We could jump it."

"No, idiot. We can just walk around the puddle, you know."

"That's not fun at all," he grumbles, eyeing the water. "It'll be easy."

"You're too heavy. We won't get off the ground."

"Fine," he sighs, and scoops her off of her damp feet.

"I'll jump then, Ruki."

In response, she slaps his arm with her free hand. He wobbles forward, gravity puling him towards the mud and chill of the pond that has pooled up in this unfortunate dip in the road. Ruki grabs his neck, shouts into his ear.

"IDIOT!"

He laughs and balances himself safely.

"Put me down, Akiyama."

"I can't, Ruki dear."

The free hand hits his wrist. "It's not exactly an option."

"Hold the umbrella steady."

"Put me down!"

"I'm saving you, Ruki, from the killer puddles of 35th street."

The fourth umbrella bobs up and down in the rain, a yellow point dancing drunkenly in the air as it shouts and laughs.

Ryou leaps.

She shrieks, and holds onto his hair in half of a split second of panic. They are going to splash into the stupid puddle, she knows it, and it is all Akiyama's fault that she will be completely wet and miserable and she would just kill him when they landed, no matter how much he grinned and laughed and thought it was a stupid funny joke—

For a moment though, they are flying, the yellow umbrella becoming a sail against the wind.

And in the other half of the split second, a smile flashes across her face like a tiny ray of sunshine darting in and out of the downpour.

Catching herself a second too late, she frowns to his grinning, infectious face.

"If you didn't break my umbrella, then this whole stupid thing would never have happened, stupid. I have no idea how you can accidentally break an umbrella that's worked for five years."

He shrugs his shoulders. "I'm just that talented, you know."

"Idiot," she growls again, and pulls him forward into the gray streets, daring any puddle to come in their way again.

But Ryou Akiyama of the fourth umbrella grins.

Who says, he wonders to himself, that he broke the umbrella on accident?

And the fourth umbrella runs to catch up with the others, hands locked together against the rain.

---
experimentation by authoress. (so I'm sorry if it totally sucks.) My internet has been VERY shaky, so I have to post as fast as I possibly can. It only just got back up after a very very long time.. I'm copying (and messing up badly) a style I found in my literature textbook the other day. The site's been really shaky lately for me, so I'm typing at the speed of a cookie going down my brother's throat.

But reviewers, I still love you as much as ever!

(and hopefully, this chapter didn't flop, strangle itself from bad quality, and die. If it sucked, give me tips on improvement, please!)

-liahime.