Title: Rain
Author: KamquatBanana/MentalKitty
Pairing: R/S
Notes: Also posted to my livejournal account, MentalKitty. A pointless sort of ficlet; inspired by crummy weather and an obsessive need to puppyship. IF YOU DON'T LIKE SLASH, although it's very mild, YOU WON'T ENJOY THIS FIC. Thanks. -KB

Disclaimer: It all belongs to JK... Well, 'cept for the boyslash stuff...

Rain. It was suddenly everywhere; rolling down glass windowpanes in streaky paths, glistening on the hard cement, poised on the tip-tops of grass stems and branches, dripping off roofs and gutters and streetlamps and cats and pretty much everything and anything. The world smelt fresh and raw, renewed by the onslaught of thorough hydration after weeks of perpetual sunshine. The damp drifted through the air and clung to the roofs of mouths, the inside of lungs, the corners of eyes; bringing a sigh of relief to the heat-blistered and weary. It drummed the hazy, languid nature of summer right out of their bones; pounding down like liquid determination.

It drove Sirius Black utterly wild.

"C'mon Moony! It's raining outside. What are we doing cooped up in this godforsaken building when there's a whole wet, wide world to explore out there?"

Remus Lupin did not bother to glance up from his dog-eared novel and look to the window for validation of this event. He could hear the steady plip-plop of raindrops on the roof and feel the moisture creeping towards him, regardless of his (only slightly holey) woolen sweater and thickest pair of knit socks. Shuddering slightly, he drew his feet in close to his body and responded incredulously, "And why would we want to do that?"

Sirius didn't answer what he considered to be an offense to Mother Nature herself. He was too busy staring out the window, at the soaking, gleaming, spectacular landscape awaiting him, body thrumming with anticipation and practically exploding out the door with delight. The world had finally woken up after a particularly long nap, and it was begging to have each and every nook and cranny sniffed out. He felt alive with the dancing rhythm of water against pavement, and how on Earth could Moony stand to lock himself up in this fortress of walls and ceilings, away from that glorious otherworld just around the corner?

"You do what you will; I'm staying where s'nice and cozy." And so saying, Remus sighed contentedly and curled his body toward the crackling fireplace in a supremely catlike manner. All of Sirius' dog practicalities itched to chase him into the drizzly wet backyard and up a tree.

However, his best bet for uprooting a stubborn Moony undoubtedly involved begging.

"Pleaseeeeee? Just for a minute. A second, even. A millisecond. The baby of a millisecond. Oh c'mon, it'll be fun."

Remus raised an eyebrow and shifted closer to the fire. "What part of hanging about in miserable wetness until your nose droops down to your navel do you consider fun?"

Sirius pouted. "S'better to have a droopy nose then to sit indoors all day long until your bones knit up and you develop cobwebs in between your toes."

"I'll make sure to dust mine regularly, then."

"Fine. But what about when you're no longer able to get out of that chair? You'll just begin to grow onto it, like some kind of grumpy barnacle, until one day you'll be indistinguishable from it and I'll have to sign all of our Christmas cards 'With love from Sirius and the Cantankerous Armchair'. What about then?"

Remus glanced up, his face a twisting mixture of amusement and incredulity. "Padfoot?"

"Yes?"

"You're crazy."

"I know."

"Go on and get our coats, then."

- - - - - -

Bad weather didn't agree with Remus. It lashed at him, whirled around him, and then quietly trickled past his many layers of clothing to chill his naked flesh. It clung to him like a blanket of cold, wretched wetness, until his cheeks blazed with icy fire and his eyelashes froze together. All in all, he felt it was best to avoid the situation altogether and sensibly stay inside. In fact, days like today were practically begging to be spent toasting marshmallows in front of an open fire, or snuggling up with a thick blanket and a good book. It would take something very large and sinister, he thought, to make him go Out There.

Or something fairly small and persistent.

Sirius was quivering with joy as he hastily did up his coat and matched several buttons to their wrong partner, inevitably. Humming, he began to sing brazenly off-key in a distracted way, "Outside, outside, we're going to go O-U-T… I'm coming out, I want the world to kno-ow…"

Remus snorted and carefully did up his own jacket buttons, before re-doing Sirius' and plonking a wooly hat and scarf on him before he could protest. "S'cold out. Don't want to catch a bug, do you?"

"The only bug I want to catch is yo-ouuuuu, my little snuggly-wuggly-bugaboo!"

"You," Remus intoned solemnly, "Have officially lost it."

"Maybe… Or maybe I've still got it! I got rythym… I got blues…" This sentence was left hanging as Sirius decided to adlib a little soft-shoe in time to an imaginary beat. Swinging open the door to the majestic beyond, he breathed in deeply and announced grandly, "The world AWAITS us, my dear Moony."
"Tell it to take a number and wait in line," muttered Remus, but he was already being dragged along by a very determined Sirius, who seemed to have decided to forgo the lures of the backyard in preference to the darkened street, where small pools of light from the streetlamps illuminated the short-lived raindrops, speeding towards the concrete suicidally.

"I'm singinggg in the rainnn… Just singingggg in the rainnnn…"

Sirius kicked at the collected water by the side of the road, causing a great spray to attack Remus out of nowhere.

"Oi!" Remus sent a mini-tsunami Sirius' way. From there it was all-out warfare, and neither were remotely dry by the end of it.

"What a wOOOooonnn-der-ful fEEEeeee-ling…"

Sirius splashed happily in murky puddles, twirling under the neon glow of the streetlamps and attempting to get Remus to join in. Remus, however, was content to huddle under a protective branch of pine and grin as he watched Sirius leap, frisk, and skip like a newborn puppy.

"Nutty dog," he muttered under his breath, his chest shmooshing in a warm, gushing way that was usually associated with horrific Hallmark sentiments and February the 14th. He could even overlook the fact that his nose had swollen to the size of an overripe kumquat and was dripping steadily with rain and snot.

How romantic.

"C'mon," Sirius implored, laughing, grabbing his mittened hand and dragging him under the spotlight. "I want you to teach me to waltz."

"Who says I know how to waltz?" Remus responded huffily, but he allowed himself to be positioned, rather like a mannequin, until one hand was on Sirius' hip and the other wrapped around his shoulders; their soaked-through bodies clenched to one another in a sodden embrace.

And so they danced, while the rain continued to pour down like thunder and the world around them came to life. Flowers reached upwards like battered victims, trees turned grateful branches to the sky, and yellowing lawns greedily drank up every drop. And still they danced, turning a blind eye to their sopping wet hair and drenched bundles of clothing that creaked alarmingly when they moved, to the moisture seeping through even the innermost layers and finding the twists and turns of their ears and nostrils and elbows and belly buttons, to the soaking wet patch of skin on the back of their necks, to their drooping noses and cracked blue lips. They danced all the way through the downpour, and when it finally let up they retired indoors, infused with rain and dripping all over the hall carpet. But they were smiling and tracing lazy patterns on each other's skin, as they crawled out of wet clothes and shook off the clinging droplets of water.

"Mmm… Moony, I must say… Your nose is drooping ever so slightly."

Remus grinned. "I know. So's yours, you daft plonker."

Sirius kissed him on the tip of said nose and dragged him towards the bathroom, where hot baths were to be had and bubbles employed.

"I think it looks rather fetching, anyway," Sirius commented, clambering into the bathtub and pulling Remus in with him.

Remus decided there were several nice things to be said about bad weather, after all.