Author's note: this is meant as a one-off, and admittedly tiny, piece. But I enjoyed writing it. ^_^
Rainy Day
Chi stared out of the window.
Hideki would be home soon. Hideki would walk through the door and say 'I'm back!' and Chi would say 'Welcome home!' Chi liked welcoming Hideki home. She liked giving him a hug when he came into the room. She liked the way he smiled at her when she hugged him, and even more when he stroked her hair.
The sky was cloudy today. Clouds made rain. Hideki told Chi. Chi remembered: Chi always remembered what Hideki said. Hideki never said if rain was bad, or if it was good.
Chi gazed outside as the rain began to fall. She wondered. Was it good or bad? It made everything look dull and grey but shiny at the same time. Somehow it made her feel hollow inside: like the feeling she had when Hideki went out of the door in the morning, and she knew he wouldn't be back for many hours. She remembered: it was called feeling lonely.
The rain looked like something that made people lonely. When it fell out of the sky, it looked like the things Hideki had called tears. Only tears came out of people's eyes, when they were sad or when they were happy. Did it mean the sky was sad, if it was raining? Were the clouds making tears? Chi felt bad for the sky. It must be very sad to be crying so many tears, all at once.
Everyone underneath the clouds was being touched by the sky's tears. Chi wondered if they felt sad like the sky, or if they didn't care, or didn't notice. She watched as some passers-by put up umbrellas, and hurried on their way. Everyone always seemed to be in a hurry.
Chi didn't understand why people were always in a hurry. They never seemed to stop and look at things, or think about things. Sometimes Chi wondered, if I didn't ask Hideki what this thing or that thing is, would he have ever stopped to look at it? Or would he ever have thought about why it was there, or who needed it?
Chi wondered who had asked Hideki what Chi was when he first saw her. Had there been someone asking Hideki, What is that? Why is it there?
Why am I here?
Chi wasn't sure. But she thought it was for a good reason. She thought it was the same as the character in the book she had been reading: she walked through the city, and didn't hurry, and stopped to look at everyone and everything, and decide: does it belong only to me? Will they love me back if I love them?
It was still raining. Chi waited for Hideki, and stared out of the window.