Disclaimer: Diabolo created by Kei Kusunoki and Kaoru Ohashi

Imperfect Circles

And A Little Rain Will Fall

It was only after a little more teasing and much encouragement that Rai and Nana left the courtyard and went back inside the school to collect their things and head home. Neither had any club activities this day, so they had time to spare and they took advantage of it. By the time they returned to the hallway it was mostly empty and Kaoru was nowhere to be seen. Rei, however still sat exactly where they had left him, now making nonsense little circles with his finger in the dirty floor. Nana walked up and grinned down at her brother who finally looked up at her, screwing his face into a huge smile.

"Come on, let's go." The girl said tiredly, but amused.

"'Kay," her brother said, standing up sand brushing off the dirt subconsciously.

Nana faced Rai one final time, nodding her head. "Stop worryin' so much and just go for it."

Rai smirked at her, feeling a little ill-at-ease under all her fussing even though he was indeed indebted to her for her advice and support. Nana waved to him and pulled Rei gently by the shoulder, guiding him away. But even as he was allowing himself to be led, the small blond glanced back over his shoulder and said flatly, "You should probably try being friends with him first."

The hallway fell suddenly still as a frigid wind seemed to blow through. Both other members of the little party stared wide-eyed at the third, their shock evident. Rei simply smiled and said nothing more.

It seemed silence did not necessarily equal ignorance, at least in Rei's case.

But that was all hours ago and Rai now waited outside "The Porcelain Bowl" patiently biding his time until the restaurant finally closed down for the night. The sun had already set and in its absence the night extended a cold and lonely mood that gradually seeped into Rai's bones and tried to take over. A gathering of angry storm clouds hovered overhead, threatening at any moment to let loose a barrage of pelting rain, but had yet to follow through. Rai hugged his arms around his torso. He really hadn't thought this through. He should have brought a jacket, a plan, and a lot more courage would be helpful now that he thought about it. He couldn't even begin to imagine how difficult this would be without his friends behind him, especially when it was something so new and a bit frightening.

It was scary enough to even decide to pursue Ren (he'd faced his intentions and decided that yes, that's what he'd call it), but to have had to deal with it alone would have been a bit too much.

After all the solitary agonizing, it was nice to have a confidant.

Several people passed by, distracting him for a moment and he nodded a mute greeting which they returned before continuing on their way. The sky darkened ominously as Rai checked his watch for the hundredth time and leaned over to glance quickly at the large front window.

It was late now; coming on to the eleventh hour and the interior lights of the restaurant had been closed nearly half an hour ago, leading Rai to believe that soon the employees would be exiting. But he'd yet to see his intended target.

Ren had to pass to the front after leaving just like he did every other day. Not that there was any reason Rai should know this, but the fact of the matter was he had been watching him.

Rai crossed his arms to keep them from shaking as the hour he'd been waiting for ticked painfully closer.

The anxious anticipation he'd felt stirring earlier in the day had grown steadily until his nerves had finally worn raw.

The effect Nana's little pep-talk had had on his waning spirits was wearing off; enough time had passed since then for the little butterflies that took up residence in his stomach to take flight and tickle his insides nervously. He'd made up his mind, he was resolute, but things looked different under a darkening sky. But still, slow and steady wins the race, or so they say.

He snorted to himself.

What a stupid, pointless thing to be thinking at a time like this.

And the butterflies were having a field day though he wasn't quite sure whether it was his desire to see Ren or his lack of experience that made them so flighty. He took a deep, calming breath and ordered them to settle down.

They obeyed for about 2.5 seconds.

To further help in relaxing overactive nerves, he closed his eyes and leaned forward, a little like a standing meditation. Focusing inward, he told himself to stay composed, that this was no big deal, that he could do this. It was only two old friends (a fact unknown to one, but let's ignore that for now) meeting for a chat after work. That's all. Nothing to worry about. Nothing at all.

"What are you doing just standing there?"

Rai almost fell over, all his attempts at composure instantly destroyed. He opened his eyes to see the shorter boy looking up at him with a little bit of ire, but much more confusion, most of which appeared to be directed at himself.

The blond's hair was tousled and his shirt hung halfway out of his pants, the top two buttons of which were unbuttoned, exposing a strongly defined collarbone covered by skin only a shade darker than Rai's own. The remains of his undone tie hung precariously draped precariously around his neck. The warm light from the street lamp glowed behind him, bathed him in a heavenly aura, and made him look like an unruly angel who'd just woken up from a troubled sleep.

All in all, Rai thought the image both apt and perfectly pleasant.

He forced the smile he wore to show a friendly demeanor meant to convey trust and nothing more. Ren eyed him warily.

"Waiting for you." Rai finally said, replying to the question that had been hanging in the air between them.

"What the hell does that mean? You make it sound like I'm your girlfriend or something. And I'm not, you know." Ren crossed his arms and pouted defiantly, but did not move.

Rai took this as a good sign.

"I'm well aware of this." Oh yes, quite well aware. The soft expression remained on his face, desperately trying to prove there was no reason to be suspicious. Ren's mouth quirked up on one side, giving him a half friendly look. A chilled wind blew just then, a portent of the oncoming storm. Ren's messy hair ruffled in the breeze and his anger instantly switched from the boy across from him to the strands that decided to get in his way. In vain he tried to keep it from his face, becoming adorably annoyed as his fingers got stuck within the hair, a tangle of knots barring their way.

"Shit!" He barked, trying to work the knot free, clearly forgetting that Rai was even there.

"Here. Let me." As if it were an everyday occurrence, Rai lifted his hand to Ren's temple and threaded long fingers through blond locks, undoing the tangle with apparent ease. Ren narrowed his eyes as his breathing quickened minutely and he promptly batted the offending hand away.

There was a pregnant pause as he regarded Rai intently, weighing his options and attempting to figure out the wisest course action while also trying to make sense of the other boy. Rai had obviously been waiting here today just as he'd been following him the other. That meant that Rai knew where Ren worked, which meant that he'd been watching him, which meant . . .

"You're a stalker," Ren stated his conclusion flatly out loud.

Rai swallowed hard and began choking uncontrollably on his own spittle.

Ren raised an eyebrow as Rai desperately tried to get his coughing fit under control. Rai finally managed to suppress his hacking and with one last cough, took a deep breath and lifted his eyes to look at the other teen that stood staring at him skeptically.

This was followed by a long awkward silence so tense you could drown in it.

But still Ren did not leave, though he appeared to grow increasingly uncomfortable with each passing second. His arms fell to his sides and he began to shift from foot to foot, itching to turn tail and run. But there was that inexplicable thread that stretched between the two boys, tugging at his insides and keeping him rooted to the spot.

The blond's stomach lurched a bit and it took all his effort to quash it back down. Trying to put a stop to the slow spiral that his body had decided to send him on, he looked downward and away from Rai, spotting the large bag that rested at the brunette's feet.

As he followed Ren's gaze, Rai remembered with a short sound of surprise the excuse he'd concocted for being here. He'd been so wrapped up in watching Ren, memorizing each little move and reaction, that he'd forgotten all about it. He quickly bent down, letting his bangs fall forward to hide his embarrassment, his long tail flipping over his shoulder. Straightening back up, he handed the collection of books out to Ren, neatly packed in a sturdy tote bag.

"These are for you." Rai tried to sound nonchalant.

Still cautious, though now honestly curious, Ren reached forward and took hold of the handles, noticing once again the gentle warmth of Rai's hand as they accidentally came into contact. He held his hand there a moment, even as it trembled slightly from the feel of skin on skin and sent a slow heat that threaded up his arms and settled in the center of his self. Panicked and confused, Ren yanked his hand away, nearly stumbling backward from the sheer force.

He really needed to stop acting so ridiculous.

In an attempt to cover up his unreasonable reaction, Ren peered inside the bag to give the impression that that was all he was anxious about. His brow furrowed in interest while he genuinely wondered what this stranger would possibly have to give him.

Glancing inside the bag, his irritation, his confusion, his curiosity, all of it suddenly ceased. Seeming to forget where he was, he squatted to the sidewalk and placing the bag to the cement, carefully lifted one of the items out. He flipped it over, side to side, examining it from every angle in quiet reverent awe. Then, delicately, he opened it up and casually thumbed through a couple pages.

Rai watched Ren, letting the gentle smile deepen at the way the blond boy responded to his "gift". And while he was distracted with perusing said gift, Rai took in every little detail of the boy kneeling in front of him. He noticed how the hair blended from a blond so light it was almost white to a shade just shy of brown, all the colors in between mingling together in an entrancing display of light and shadow. Then there were the dusty ash-colored lashes, hovering over golden eyes and soft cheeks, almost feminine in their length and lushness, but the contrast to Ren's more boyish features making it that much more attractive. Rai was certain Ren had no idea how he looked, a charming mix of messy rumple and soft angelic perfection. He bit the inside of his cheek lightly, fighting off the urge to get a closer, a much closer, look and instead return to the more practical task at hand.

And it was all going better than he'd hoped. Latching on to this one thing he'd noticed the other day was a stroke of pure genius.

The shorter boy splayed his hand on the cover of his book and lifted his head to Rai, his eyes wide-eyed with mixed joy. Rai looked into those golden irises that held such innocence and trust that he'd seen so many times before. There was a strain on his heart when he saw that look directed at him with no real recognition.

"I've read this one," Ren then said, letting no inflection of his thoughts creep into his words.

"Oh. Well." Rai said nervously, fighting the tightness across his chest. "I can take it back if you don't want it. I'm sure I can find another one that you haven't read."

"No, it's fine." Ren replaced the book, a bit in a daze.

Thunder rumbled overhead in a welcome diversion, causing both boys to look up to the angry clouds.

Pursing his lips, Ren stood up and said, "We better get under cover before the storm hits."

Without a glance back, he picked up his things and began walking down the street. Rai watched him go, only belatedly registering the "we" and as his heart lodged in his throat, he rushed to join him.

He had a devil of a time trying to figure out where to put his hands, in his pockets, out of his pockets, behind his back, crossed over his chest. No matter where he put them, they felt in the way. He glanced at Ren who was blissfully unaware of the turmoil roiling around in the boy beside him as Ren darted his eyes this way and that, looking for cover, even if only temporary. Rai clenched his fists which presently hung limp and obvious at his sides. How could something so familiar be so uncomfortable? Were all things like this supposed to be so painfully awkward?

Sadly, he had no idea.

A little cry of triumph and a growl of frustration escaped the blond as he spotted a protected place at the exact same time the sky decided to break. Through the rain, he gave a quick, subconscious glance to check that Rai was still there and rushed to a bus stop that thankfully had a rare protective overhang. Taken aback just a moment at the unexpected gesture from Ren, Rai hurried after and slipped easily under the eave. Gracefully, just as he did everything, he ran his fingers through hair that had been made blacker by the rain, pulling out the excess water to pool on the sidewalk below.

Ren took a much more straightforward approach and after sliding onto the bus stop bench, he bent his head forward and shook, the water spraying everywhere. With a sigh, he raised his head, leaning his elbows on his knees and staring through the sheets of rain out into the empty street. Despite his efforts he remained thoroughly drenched, his hair hanging heavily from the extra weight and the raindrops on his shirt soaking through, merging to create spots of transparency in the crisp whiteness.

Rai swallowed and gripped the side of the overhang he was leaning on. He really needed to sit down.

Ren began mumbling something about the damn rain always coming at the worst fucking time and Rai didn't even have the presence of mind to be shocked at all the colorful language. All his reserves were put to the task of bringing himself over to the bench without looking like a fool. He inched his way slowly closer, trying to make it look deliberate. He was just about there when Ren turned his head and snapped at him.

"What the hell are you doing? Sit down."

Rai's knees buckled and he flopped down, all attempts at grace thrown out the window. He gave Ren a smile that said "I meant to do that" which made the blond raise his eyebrows skeptically.

Now that he was sitting and in spite of his new proximity to Ren, Rai felt a bit more relaxed. Still not knowing what to do with his hands, he opted to rest his elbows casually on the back of the bench.

Appraising both the brunette and the situation, Ren rolled over the options in his head, which was currently craned somewhat uncomfortably over his shoulder. He took his lower lip into his mouth and gnawed on it thoughtfully. He was lucky that Rai wasn't actually watching him, what with him looking so unbearably adorable worrying that lip between his teeth. But he was utterly clueless as to the effect his actions would likely have on the other teen. It was lucky for Rai as well, he was already having a hard time dealing as it was.

"So . . ." Ren began, returning to face front. "Have you ever heard of repressed memories?"

Rai forcibly contained his shock and made himself sound nonchalant. "Yeah. Why?"

"Well." Slightly tan fingers began to tangle with each other, a motion Rai did notice and which immediately mesmerized him. "See, we haven't met before, have we?"

"Not exactly." Rai answered ambiguously.

Ren hunched his shoulders in dismay, causing the still wet fabric to stretch and cling to his skin, revealing strong shoulder blades and the long delicate curve of his spine. His hair, still damp from the rain, twisted into little curlicues at the base of his neck, the strands there darker than at the top of his head.

Rai's vision began to fog over.

There was a sharp slap against his knee, which caused him to return to himself and refocus. Ren was more directly facing him now, an annoyed frown on his face.

"Huh?" Rai asked rather intelligently.

"I said," the blond gritted out, angry to have to repeat something he hadn't wanted to say to begin with and fighting off his visible embarrassment. "The first time we met, you grabbed my wrist and all these strange images of the two of us went through my head. Did anything like that happen to you?"

"I saw some things." The brunette hedged, purposely vague, and seriously tried to ignore the attractive blush of pink that spread over the bridge of Ren's nose and onto his cheeks.

"Ah." Ren sat up, quelling the unwelcome blush as he let his head loll back, exposing a great length of smooth throat, the muscles standing out in silent invitation. He moved his hands so that they now lay uselessly in his lap.

Meanwhile, Rai's twitched nervously at his sides.

"You ever heard of past lives?" Thankfully, it was a rhetorical question as Rai would be hard-pressed to make a coherent reply at the moment; he was too busy watching the movement of Ren's throat as he spoke. "I've been thinking maybe I should see someone about it. There's this guy who could help me 'regress' until I find out what I used to be. Or something like that. Sounds pretty sketchy to me. But I don't know, maybe it's not so bad. This guy is supposed to really know what he's doing."

Unknown to Ren however, he was talking mostly to himself. Especially when Ren raised a hand to pull his fingers through his hair, brush it from his face and shake a persistent water droplet free. Rai became entranced by that droplet as it slid down the blond's face, skirting close to his ear, over the edge of his jawbone until finally reaching that long expanse of exposed neck. It continued its path downward, so tortuously slow, trailing down a collarbone and roaming insistently through the space of Ren's unbuttoned collar and disappearing from sight. That was one persistent drop of water.

Rai envied it.

"That's nice." He murmured a little lower and huskier than he'd intended.

"You think?" Ren asked, oblivious to the attractive display he was presenting his companion. "So you think it's a good idea?"

"Yeah." Was the breathy reply, though whether actually it was an answer to the question is highly debatable. Rai's heartbeat thrilled to the same rhythm of the pitter-pat of the rain on the overhang, his jade eyes locked onto the small patch of flesh that peeked through that open collar, imaging the continued path of that water into places unseen.

"Hmm." Ren stared up through the clear roof that shielded them. His mouth parted open and a tiny tip of pink tongue darted out to lick dry lips, all the while his chest rising and falling visibly with the gentle tempo of his breathing.

One of Rai's hands slipped off the edge of the bench and slammed self-consciously to the seat, making the boy fall forward a little, though still careful not to loose his balance entirely.

Ren's eyes shifted to the side, seeking the source of the sudden interruption, catching Rai just as he was slipping forward. The black-haired boy turned to him with that same placating smile, though his eyes clearly showed anxiety, even to Ren's untrained ones. But even if he hadn't recognized that, he would have seen the trembling of those pale hands just before they clenched tightly into fists. Ren said nothing, merely crinkled his forehead and turned his gaze back to the ceiling.

Rai held his hands together and faced the other way. His breathing was much more heavy and ragged than he'd even realized, his heart hammering against his ribcage so hard he was surprised it didn't leap straight out. While he was watching Ren, he had to really fight the urge not to, as Nana so eloquently put it earlier, "jump him". When had it gotten this bad? What was wrong with him?!

The rain continued to fall, adding more water to the small river that flowed down the side of the street and down through the gutter grates. Thunder roared in the far distance and there was a soft flash as lightning stuck somewhere far away. The two boys now sat silent, held by the music of drumming rain as the minutes stretched before them, the tension between them palpable but somehow not entirely uncomfortable. Rai took this time to settle down and try to sort out the sudden influx of intense feelings. The sky by now had gone completely dark; the great masses of rain-heavy clouds obscuring any sign of stars or moon. The only light the boys had came from a lamp that glowed dimly in the night and cast its reflection in the puddles which broke into sparks each time another drop of rain fell.

It seemed the rain wouldn't stop until it covered the ground with a deep ocean, flooding the world over. And all that would remain would be the two boys who sat side by side on a bus stop bench, as they alone would somehow be taken by the tide and carried away. Rai closed his eyes and let the cadence of the falling rain slowly lull him into a state of relaxation.

The air grew still and quiet, a feat done so slowly that Rai didn't notice it. Of course, he was also preoccupied with trying to not be distracted by the boy sitting so close to him, a thing much easier to do in theory than in practice. His "relaxed" mind kept going off into unsafe tangents when he thought of blond hair and brown eyes, slightly tanned skin wrapping around sinewy muscle, a dusting of soft hairs that would flutter subtly under his fingers, the gentle rise and fall of a chest that could be made to go so much faster . . .

Only faintly did he notice when Ren eased off the bench with the ending of the storm.

Rai felt eyes on him and opened his own, catching a pair of beautiful golden brown staring back, the light of the lamp illuminating them with an ethereal light. The pressure of the gaze made Rai's mouth go dry as he lost the ability to speak.

Ren stared back, trapped by an intensity he'd never seen before, an intensity in jade eyes coupled with the slight blurriness that accompanied the newly woken. Not liking the way that gaze affected him, he turned on his heel. Taking a deep breath, he took up his two bags and stood, looking off into the empty distance that he knew would eventually lead home.

Something had changed with the falling of the rain, some small unseen force leaving a lasting effect he couldn't quite put his finger on. Nor did he want to.

He tightened the grip he had on his bags.

"I'll see you later." He whispered, barely audible. Gritting his teeth and steeling his nerves, he ran off, blending quickly into the blackness of the night.

Rai stood there for long minutes, alone in the street, staring into that same black night. He took a step forward, splashing into a puddle and breaking the water to a series of outward waves. But he barely noticed as the water seeped through his shoe, only smiling serenely as the last words he'd heard echoed through his mind like a promise.