Chapter 14: Kiss in the Rain

Disclaimer: I own nothing except my OC.

After Kansas, the group traveled to Terrace Hill Governor's Mansion is Iowa and the Taliesin in Wisconsin. They were currently in the parking lot to the Mall of America in Minnesota.

Going their separate ways, the first thing Lauren did was locate the nearest Starbucks. There was no line so Lauren walked up to the cashier and ordered a frappe. When she was asked for her name, she thought about what to put before saying "Prisoner 24601." before walking over to the counter where her finished coffee would be placed. When her order was called out, she jumped up in the air and yelled "My name is Jean Valjean!"

The barista laughed before she replied "And I am Javert!"

After their laughter died down, Lauren took her coffee, grabbed a small wad of cash, and slipped it into the tip jar, feeling incredibly satisfied with how her order had gone down.

As she finished off the coffee she went to throw it away when a lady cut her off. Cut off guard, Lauren tripped, falling to the ground. Instead of doing anything to help, a woman stared at her very judgmentally. She just kept staring and staring so Lauren looked up at her and said "Sorry. It's been awhile since I've possessed a body."

The woman looked horrified as she ran away screaming. Lauren smirked before groaning as she pushed herself off the ground. The lady was out of sight by the time she threw her cup away. Deciding she'd had enough of the mall, Lauren straightened herself up, dusted her clothes off, and began to look for her friends.

After leaving the Mall of America, the group went to Ashfall Fossil Bed, Nebraska, Mount Rushmore, South Dakota, Fort Union Trading Post, North Dakota, and Glacier National Park, Montana before making their way towards Hanford Site, Washington. This was going to be their quickest trip given they only planned on driving by the enclosed area. However, fate had other plans. They were driving right by the site when the bus jerked and skidded to a halt.

"What was that?" Baxter inquired, picking himself up from the floor.

"Ugh, it's probably a flat tire." Roger informed him, shaking his head to clear it.

"I'll go change it." Tug volunteered, walking towards the door.

"I'll help you." Lauren said as she tailed him outside.

Walking around the bus, it wasn't hard to find the flattened tire. It had a massive nail poking out of it.

"You work on removing the tire while I get the spare." Lauren said as Tug began pumping up the jack. Tug nodded as Lauren disappeared on the other side of the van.

After successfully finding the tire, Lauren manipulated the air to surround it and hoist it out of its confined compartment. Manipulating her hands in slow circles, she caused the tire to spin through the air before allowing it to roll towards Tug before falling onto the ground with a dull thud. By this point Tug had finished removing the ruined tire so Lauren manipulated it into the spot where the spare had come from. Once that was completed, she dusted her hands off onto her jeans before going over to Tug and helping him finish bolting down the new tire.

"Hopefully nothing bad will happen to the others. We have replacements for them, but the Colonel will still find a way to be upset if we come back with zero spares." Tug thought aloud, rubbing his chin thoughtfully.

Lauren wrapped her arms around him in an attempt to comfort him. "That won't be necessary. If worse comes to worse, I'll just buy you a new set of tires. The Colonel wouldn't complain if you showed up with more tires than you started with, would he?"

A coy smile formed on Tug's lips as he replied "No, he wouldn't. Now hold that thought." Tug disappeared into the bus for a moment.

Lauren decided to wait for him to arrive so she leaned against the side and crossed her arms, taking in the scenery.

It wasn't long before Tug reemerged, looking very smug. As he approached, he wrapped his hands around her waist and asked "You know how you've been wanting a kiss in the rain for a while? Well, Washington is one of the rainiest states in all of the U.S. so I think today is your lucky day."

Suddenly they were being loosely sprayed from water coming from somewhere above. Tug pulled Lauren in for a kiss as the water continued to rain down on them. Pulling apart, Lauren asked him "Tug, where is this water coming from?"

The water came to a sudden stop and the rest of the cadets, as well as the ghouls, stuck their heads over the edge of the bus. "Hey, Lauren!" Baxter called with a wave.

"Aw, you guys!" Lauren was beaming. "But you didn't have to go to all of this trouble. I could have simply done this." Lauren said before looking up at the sky and clenching her fist. The clouds suddenly began to leak and water spilled from them. It began drizzling onto them. "Now this is a kiss in the rain." Lauren said before pressing her lips back onto Tug's.