Thanks everyone for continuing to read! This prompt is gonna be more fluff, and I hope you all enjoy.
As always, I'm writing this as part of KiriArgo week, which is being hosted on the SAO Fanfiction Central Discord, linked here: discord. gg /sNFEpCSPSc please join, we're always looking for more friends.
Day 6: Weather
The rain started at approximately 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, right before school let out.
It wasn't heavy rain, or that uncomfortable sort of drizzle that appears every now and then which only hints at the appearance of rain—one or two drops falling on you every minute or so—that infuriates even the people who love rain, but a nice steady shower.
The sort of rain that you wouldn't want to walk home in without a raincoat or other such implement, but might be pleasant in the same way listening to relaxing music is pleasant—so long as you had an umbrella, of course.
Tomo—my girlfriend—of course, loved it. The second that class got out, she had leapt out the first-story window despite the shocked yelling of Ms. Tsushima, our mathematics teacher, and stood in the middle of the courtyard, arms raised up as if to feel more rain hitting her.
I gave a hasty apology to the beleaguered instructor, before hurrying to the shoe lockers to grab my umbrella, and both Tomo and I's shoes.
By the time I got out into the courtyard, Argo had transitioned to lying down on the pavement, getting her uniform completely soaked through.
Her eyes were closed, and her breathing was deep and even. It was only the way her face scrunched up into a pout when I raised my umbrella over her that told me she was still awake.
"Are ya gonna get up?" I asked, very much aware of how much she loved the rain.
It's like a shower that feels invigorating instead of mechanical. She'd told me, back during the first storm after we had escaped Aincrad.
"Mmmh," She groaned, stretching her arms above her head. Her hair was spread out around her head, slicked down from the moisture. It made her look different, more refined in comparison to her normal barely-contained bob. "Not right now."
"Well, suit yourself," I said, tipping the umbrella back so that it no longer covered her. If anything, she just relaxed further as the rain fell, her lips twitching upward into a smile.
It was about a minute before she spoke again.
"I'm probably gonna be a while. Ya can head home if ya want." Tomo lifted a hand and made a little shooing motion, as if that would drive me off.
"Nah," I smiled knowingly. "I remember what happened last time you did this."
My girlfriend squawked indignantly, pushing herself up onto her elbows to fix me with a fiery glare. "I'm not gonna fall asleep again!"
"I'd say you were pretty close when I came out here," I said, crouching down to pat my girlfriend on her very wet head. "So just let me be a little protective, okay?"
"What, are ya gonna sit on me?" Tomo asked, the info broker smirking. "Can't think o' how else ya'd protect me from the rain." As we conversed, she slipped her shoes on, frowning slightly at the sensation of wet socks slipping into dry shoes
"Probably like this," I said, holding my umbrella out so that it covered her again.
"Ah, but then ya don't get ta feel me rubbin' up against ya, my breath in yer ear and—"
"—Your very wet clothing on my skin." I said dryly, cutting off my girlfriend's teasing.
"That jus' makes it all the better!" Tomo said, pushing herself to her feet. "C'mon Kii-bou." She spread her arms wide "Gimme a hug!"
I sighed, lifted the umbrella above our heads, and let my soaking wet girlfriend embrace me. The damp of her clothing soaked into mine, and her wet hair was about level with my nose.
I breathed in.
She smelled like water, like earth and the fine silt that appears when the two meet.
It was a familiar smell.
"There," I said, pushing Tomo away. "You've ruined my uniform, now let's go home."
"Only if ya catch me first," the former info broker snickered, before turning and running.
"Hey!" I called after her, before I started to run, struggling to keep my umbrella up. I was taller than her, but she was active more often. If I couldn't catch her soon I'd never even get close to her, and she'd rope me into joining her on her morning runs again. I preferred to run in the evenings, thank you very much.
"C'mon, Kii-bou, you gotta be faster than that!" she shouted, turning one hundred and eighty degrees to call out to me as she jumped onto a bench, before whirling around and leaping off.
I narrowed my eyes.
Oh, it was on.
I collapsed my umbrella, ignoring the rain showering down on me. I'd need all the speed I could get to catch Tomo. Plus the surfaces here were rough—concrete mostly—and we wouldn't slip unless there was a puddle.
I vaulted over the backless bench that my girlfriend had taunted me from, my wet uniform clinging to my skin. Ahead of me, Argo was giggling like mad, running down the path towards the road. She neatly sidestepped a student who was just now leaving, calling out an apology as she did so.
Half a second later I bolted past him, surprising him so much that he stumbled off the path.
"Get back here Tomo!" I yelled, even as I fell into the familiar rhythm of tag. We played it often; Tomo saw it as a good way to train her parkour skills. Hopefully she remembered that we couldn't go above street level when it was raining. Too much risk of a wipeout.
"Gotta catch me first!" she teased as she rounded the gate into the school. I grinned, then changed course. My girlfriend wasn't tall enough for this shortcut, and she never failed to pout when I used it.
Angling off to the left in a diagonal motion, I ran straight towards the wall that surrounded the school grounds. At the last possible moment, I leapt up, grabbing the top of the wall with both my hands and swinging my legs up and to the left to land on the other side of the wall in a crouch, right in front of a startled Tomo.
She tried to change direction, her legs already moving for a turn, but it was too late, and her momentum drove her into me.
I caught her easily. Even with all the muscle she had put on, she was still less than 50 kilos, and I had more mass than that.
I wrapped my arms around her, lifting her off the ground as she kicked fruitlessly. "Hello again," I whispered, breathing lightly from the exercise.
"That shortcut is so unfair," Tomo pouted, looking very much like she wanted to cross her arms. Unfortunately, they were still pinned to her sides by mine, and I was going to keep them there.
"Not my fault you aren't tall enough to reach it." I shrugged.
"We should make a rule that ya aren't allowed ta vault over those walls when we're playing tag." Tomo said, squirming lighty in my arms. In response, I grabbed her sides, turned her around, then lifted her up at the same time as I ducked down so that when I came back up, she was sitting on my shoulders.
"Ah, but then we'd have to ban you from hiding in the lockers during hide-and-go seek." I responded as Tomo grabbed my hair gently.
"Ya could fit into a locker if ya tried," My girlfriend said as we set off together. She was doing something with my hair. Probably braiding it as we walked. She liked seeing me with tiny braids.
"Not anywhere near as easily as you can," I pointed out, giving a middle-aged man who was side-eying us a look. I liked carrying Tomo around, it made me feel strong, and I was in good enough shape that I could do it for quite a while. At least until we reached her place.
As we walked, I felt distinctly like I was forgetting something, but I couldn't recall what. Oh well, at least the rain felt nice on my head.
"Point," Tomo said, continuing to work on my hair, humming a little tune. The neighborhood we walked through was one of the dorm complexes that had been built for the people whose families lived far away from the Survivor School.
Technically it was the "Murata Seifu School for Advancement and Reacclimation." but that was a mouthful, and we all knew that it was going to be at the very least renamed after the last class of SAO survivors graduated. So everyone called it the Survivor School, and the dorms surrounding it were the "Survivor's Dorms".
They were pretty nice, all things considered, with Tokyo just a 15 minute train ride away and a selection of stores that could provide almost everything a student could need. I think there was even a karaoke bar.
"So, do you need any help with your newspaper?" I asked as we continued down the street
"Meh, not really," I could almost feel her shrug as she spoke, even though her hands remained steady. "I mean, it's only a monthly newsletter instead o' the weekly thin' I had churnin' back in Aincrad, so it's a lot easier ta keep the articles comin'. I jus'..."
"Wish you had the reach you once did?" I asked as I stepped over a small puddle.
"Yep," Tomo said, tying off the small braid with a sharp, almost painful tug before starting on a new one, right next to it. "I miss bein' the owner of the best news outlet around, ya know?" She waved an arm rhetorically, her legs gripping tighter around my neck as she kept herself steady.
"Maybe you can get a job as a journalist, and work your way up from there?" I said, tilting my head to give Tomo better access to the section of hair she was braiding.
The former info broker hummed in thought as she continued braiding my hair. "I'll think about it."
"Well, in any case, we're almost there," I said as we turned the corner to the street my girlfriend's apartment was on.
Tomo didn't live that far away from the school, just about a five minute walk. Her apartment was part of one of the smaller buildings, the ones with actual apartments rather than just slightly bigger dorm rooms.
As we approached, I knelt down and let my girlfriend slide off my shoulders. We wouldn't fit through the doorway if I kept her up there. It was a simple doorway, with an overhang that kept the rain off us as I walked her to the door, not that it did anything to lessen how soaked we were.
"See ya tomorrow, Kii-bou?" she asked, extending her arms for a hug.
"Alright, I'll text you when I get home, okay?" I said, embracing her briefly.
"Jus' make sure yer somewhere private when ya send it, Kii-bou," She smirked, poking me in the chest. Would I ever live sending a very intimate message in full view of my sister down?
Alright, alright," I said, lifting my hand in a wave as I turned to leave, one hand falling to the side to grab my… umbrella…
I'd left it back at school.
"Ugh," I groaned. I'd have to walk all the way back there, hope that they hadn't closed the gate yet, and grab the umbrella, assuming some well-meaning soul hadn't dropped it off at the lost and found, and then hurry to catch the 1:00 train before it left.
Not something I was looking forward to doing in the rain.
Just as I was about to set off, a thunderclap sounded across the sky, and what had been a steady drizzle abruptly intensified into a downpour. It happened so fast that I felt like I had stepped into another dimension.
"You know what," I said, scanning the rain—so intense that I could barely see 50 feet. "No."
I turned, thankful that I hadn't left the doorway of the apartment building and met my girlfriend's eyes, glimmering with laughter.
"Hey, do you have space for a poor soul without an umbrella?"
"Sure, Kii-bou," Tomo said, letting me in with a smile.