Alrighty, folks! This started out as a oneshot, but it got away from me! I realized it could end up being long enough to be its own story, so, here we are. I got the idea for this loosely from a prompt on the your-otp-prompts tumblr that read: "Imagine person A of your OTP is lonely, wandering around their home city and trying to ignore the fact that they're somehow surrounded by happy couples, making them feel even worse about themselves and about their status as a single person. Trying to escape the people around them, they somehow run smack into person B."

Enjoy! :)


Adrian sighed, exiting the therapy office and beginning his trek home. Today had made exactly seven years since he had solved Trudy's case. He was on his way back from an appointment with Dr. Bell, whom he now only saw once a month. And although he was generally doing much better, he had felt particularly gloomy today. It was days like this one that made him miss Natalie. He had let her go from her position as assistant about three years ago. Dr. Bell had encouraged Adrian to become more independent, and losing the need for an assistant was one of the last steps in that process. At first, Adrian had been incredibly reluctant, and Natalie had outright refused, insisting that she was not going to leave. Finally, however, she had rationalized that, perhaps, letting Adrian be independent of her was the only way he could truly make significant progress. She had assured him that the two of them would remain friends and, for a while, they had kept in touch with weekly phone calls or monthly lunches together. However, as often happens, life got in the way, and, slowly but surely, they had drifted apart. It had now been almost a year since they had spoken and, truth be told, her absence was hitting Adrian like a ton of bricks.

The stormy sky was especially dark this evening, with the sidewalk illuminated only by small pools of light directly underneath each street lamp. Adrian tightened his overcoat around him, trying but failing to keep the biting wind from chilling his bones. Just as the wind picked up, a heavy rain began to fall. Sighing, Adrian opened up his umbrella, absentmindedly glancing both ways before crossing the street. He quickened his pace to almost a jog, eager to get back to his apartment before his clothes got too wet. Just as he rounded the corner, he slammed abruptly into a woman, causing her to stumble backwards. Her ankle twisted beneath her, and she toppled down onto her bottom.

"Oh! I'm so sor-" Adrian exclaimed, stopping mid-sentence.

He felt a wave of both excitement and anxiety wash over him as he recognized the woman sitting on the ground in front of him. There was Natalie, drenched from the rain, an arm full of grocery bags, with a pained look on her face. Her hair was longer and she was wearing a ball cap and old sweats, but it was definitely her.

"Natalie?" Adrian asked incredulously.

She looked up, startled by the familiar voice of the man in front of her.

"Adrian?"

The two stared at each other for just a moment before both registering the fact that they were getting soaked by the downpour and Natalie was still sitting on the ground. She moved to stand up, but winced and groaned in pain, falling back onto her bottom.

"Oh, are you okay?" Adrian asked leaning forward to hold the umbrella over both him and Natalie.

"Yeah, I think so, I just twisted my ankle."

"Here," Adrian offered, reaching out his hand, "Let me help you."

Natalie clasped his hand, scrambling to get up off the ground and keep the bags of groceries in her arms. She winced in pain again as she put weight on her ankle.

"Ouch, that really does hurt."

"Here, let me take those," Adrian volunteered, gathering the grocery bags from her arms. "Look, we're just a block away from my apartment. Do you think you can make it there?"

She nodded.

"Okay," he continued, "come, get under the umbrella. You can hold onto me."

Adrian gathered the grocery bags in one arm, holding the umbrella on that same side. He placed his other arm gently around her waist, supporting her as they began to walk. As Natalie clutched onto the arm of Adrian's overcoat, she glanced up at him. His kind eyes and familiar touch warmed her and, for just a moment, she forgot where she was. The sharp pain in her ankle brought her back to the reality at hand, and she focused her attention on making it to Adrian's apartment as quickly as possible.