Spoilers: none, really.
Type: candyfic
Summary: On a rainy day, a boy searchs for acceptance and a girl searchs for something from her past
Notes: candyfic is fun. takes place when they were 11. feedback is good. :) love feedback!
Title: "Rainy Days"
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At age 11, Michael Gurien had already spent the past 6 years of his life searching for a place where he was accepted; a sense of belonging. He was looking for his in a home, someone who loved him. It was all he ever wanted.
And by age 11, Michael was already beginning to wonder if love and acceptance would ever me found: certainty not with his current foster father, Hank. Maybe with Max and Isabel, maybe, but they were too different. They were lucky, they were happy. They had a home; they had people who loved them. And truth be told, Michael would not have it any other way; although sometimes, he secretly wished that he were one of them; he was living under the same roof as Max and Isabel Evans, with a mother, a father and a house that didn't reek of alcohol and vomit.
No use wishing the world were different though, he sighed to himself. He dug his hands further into his pockets and continued shuffling his feet down the grey sidewalk. Today was Thursday, and to the rest of the world, it may have been just another average day, but for Michael, this was THURSDAY. It was another 6 days before Max and him would take another visit into the desert and try to unlock secrets from their past, salvage the desert sands for more wreckage from the ship, their ship. But worst of all, Thursday was Hank's payday. Meaning money. Money to buy beer. He shuffled a little slower, to make the walk home from Max's house to the trailer park last a little longer.
As he took his time, a fat drop of water appeared out of nowhere and splashed on his nose. "Oh great," he muttered under his breath, digging his hands even deeper into his pockets. More drops of water splashed down and within moments, it was complete downpour. He sighed again. The world never seemed to work in his favour.
He didn't pick up his pace though, if anything, he slowed down, getting almost soaked instantly. Miserable weather. The story of his life. He stopped for a moment, underneath a tree in front of a cute little house. "Bet the people in the house are happy. Stupid world." He gripped, the young tree's branches not doing much to shelter from the rain. His eyes wandered towards the house, searching it over in great detail, until his line of vision landed on something…bright. Yellow…no…blonde. Blonde…hair? Yes, blonde curls…a girl…his age? Maybe…she looked familiar. Michael couldn't pull his eyes away, she was…captivating.
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Inside her house, Maria Deluca, a usually energetic bundle of 11years, stood with her face up against the front window of the residence, with her nose and palms pressed lightly against the cold glass. She was watching the rain fall down from the skies, the fat drops landing on the sidewalk in front of her house in loud "pitter, patter" noises, and watching the dirt of her mother's garden slowly melt into a thick patch of mud.
Maria was only half paying attention to the scene unfolding in front of her. Usually a big fan of the rare rainfall of New Mexico, today she was thinking more of her father, as she tended to do every time it rained. "The God's are celebrating," he'd say, picking her up. "They are shedding happy tears."
But the last time he had said that was two years ago, two years before he decided that Maria and her mom weren't worth it, that he had bigger things to do in life. Two years before Maria came home one day from school, and found all her Daddy's stuff gone.
She missed her Dad, she missed how he had a deep laugh, a soulful voice and smelled like coffee. She wished that he stayed around to see how long her hair was now, or how short her Mom's was.
"But no use wishing things were different now," she sighed to herself. "Might at well go and enjoy this rain shower while it lasts."
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Michael's eyes were still watching Maria, his mind ignoring the fact that he was now soaked to the skin. Suddenly, she was gone from her place at the window. He blinked for the first time in minutes; where was she? Where could she have gone?
All of a sudden, she was there: standing in front of her house, with an impish light in her eyes. With one great leap and one loud squeal of delight, she landed in the mud puddle; mud splashing and covering her from top to bottom.
She was poised to jump again, when she noticed him standing there, watching her from behind the young tree. At first, she was frightened, but upon second glance, he looked familiar. So instead of screaming, liked her first instinct, she glared back at him in response. And with that, the two engaged in a short starring contest in the rain: just long enough for Michael to finally break away from the gaze, slightly uncomfortable.
That was when she finally grinned, satisfied, and jumped again, this time, coating her cheeks, clothes and arms with mud. She wrinkled her mud-covered nose in Michael's direction, laughing, delighted that she had him for an audience, temporarily forgetting about her father. Maybe this would be her new rainy day tradition.
And in spite of himself, he felt a smile beginning to spread across his face. It didn't matter that both of them were completely soaking wet, or that the rain was still falling, or that by tomorrow, they would both pretend this incident never happened.
But for this one moment, he found it; he found what he was looking for.
Acceptance.