A/N

I decided to roll with the Nature prompt and came up with this. It's not great and probably could have been fleshed out more, especially the ending. I'm not great with those.

Sometimes there's nothing you can do. While Natsume may have power, and has plenty of experience dealing with youkai, there isn't much he can do with higher powers.

He learns this one day in the wake of a once-in-a-lifetime storm.

The days leading up to it were relatively calm. Almost suspiciously so.

Natsume began to suspect something was wrong when a week had gone by and there hadn't been a single youkai to come by asking for its name. Even those within Yatsuhara had seemed subdued. If it weren't for the presence of Nyanko-Sensei and his friends within the forest, he might have thought he could be living a relatively normal life at the moment.

This, of course, meant he needed to find out what was wrong so he could try to help. It shouldn't bother him so much, but he would much rather be returning names and dealing with shenanigans than wondering what shoe is about to drop. However, when he goes to ask about the sudden absence, he gets vague answers about a "strong being" coming to the area soon. They tell him there's nothing for him to worry about, except maybe to stay inside for a few days when it comes, which is plenty alarming on its own.

Its not until he sees something on the news, of all things, that he starts to understand.

There's been a storm system ravaging the country. Lots of rain, high winds, and plenty of lightning. It seems to stay in a spot then quickly move on to a new location and has been going on for a little while now. They don't know how this storm came to be, and nothing like it has happened in recent history. They just know that it's dangerous and that those in the areas the storm takes place are better off taking a few days at home and staying safe, as there has been much in the way of wind damage and even some flash flooding.

There are some jokes about maybe it's the brother gods, Fuujin and Raijin, out and about, having fun for the first time in a few millennia.

Given what he's come to know, Natsume isn't so sure that those statements are far off the mark.

As the storm gets closer to their little town, he makes sure to tell his friends about it. He wants to make sure that they'll be ok, that they are as prepared as possible. He knows everyone pays attention to these things already, but Natsume has been super anxious as all the youkai have seemed to have hunkered down by now, meaning this really is no walk in the park.

It's a few days later that the storm hits.

Natsume is at home with the Fujiwaras and Nyanko-Sensei having a quiet dinner when the world outside bursts into a cacophony of sound, wind, thunder, and rain all coming at once. It's startling simply because of how sudden it all is, though the noise level is much more than expected. Luckily, they had pulled the shutters closed already, so much of the rain is dampened already. All they can do now is get used to it, as it is the new normal for the next few days.

Natsume didn't pull the shutters on his bedroom window. He knows this is the event the youkai were all preparing for, and he wants to see it, even just a little bit. It's dark and there just isn't much to see. He can hear the wind and thunder, but the brief flashes of lightning offer no insight to the nature of this storm.

He's about to give up when, suddenly, by the flash of a long streak of lightning, he sees two silhouettes among the clouds. It disappears and the sound of thunder, much like that of a taiko drum, soon follows.

He continues watching the sky, seeing the silhouettes change with each flash, much like a slow strobe light. He can't help but be reminded of the work of Tawaraya Sotatsu, and wonders if maybe he was born with the ability to see youkai as well.

This is also the first time he truly feels as though there's nothing to be done. Most times he feels like he can deal with a youkai alone, or sometimes enlist the help of another to take care of a problem. Here, he is faced with two deities who would never even look his way. This was nothing like Tsuyukami, whose power waned with the number of believers and gained the moniker through association. These are literal forces of nature, beings who will not just disappear to the flow of time. They are beings that even the strongest of youkai that he knows are prone to hiding away and waiting it out.

It's in the wake of the storm created by Raijin and Fuujin that he learns that sometimes all you can do is watch and wait.

So, he does. He takes in all he can, so that he can tell his friends about this later. He can understand why people used to believe in them, why their statues stand tall at temples, why their likenesses are immortalized in art. They are mesmerizing and terrifying all the same.

He spends the next days doing the homework that had been given advance, watching the skies for those large, imposing figures, and attempting to put to paper the scenery before him.

It's all over just as suddenly, marked by a youkai coming for its name. The silence is almost deafening, the rain having become commonplace.

He learns that the two deities don't often come about, that nowadays they are usually sleeping. He is likely to never see them again in this lifetime, and the next generation to see them is far in the future.

As awe-inspiring as the experience had been, Natsume is glad that he won't have to go through that same feeling of helplessness again. It did make him think of the other stories of the old deities, and he hopes he doesn't have to ever meet any of them.

Natsume's return to school is filled with questions of his days during the storm, and he gladly retells the story of the two gods he saw among the clouds.