The day had been long for Gray. He woke up before the sun rose and was one his way home to sleep long after it had set. He didn't know why he kept doing this, traveling so far into town just to do his job, but he didn't like the idea of leaving where he was at and that was that. Ur had always said that his stubbornness would be the end of him; he'd be lying if he said that part of himself hadn't believed her. He painfully shoved the thought of his teacher aside; she'd been too invested of a mentor, and that was that.
He frowned at the skies when he felt the first raindrop touch his nose. Luckily, his intuition about the weather was accurate and he had brought his umbrella with him. He opened it up with a sigh and slid one of his hands into his jacket pocket, resigned and tired. It would be heaven when he could get into his bed and sleep so late that Natsu would be the one to bang on his door.
The streets and things that passed him by periphery were blurred and insignificant. The rains helped to cover up things outside of his dry bubble under the umbrella, and the dark evening blotched out small, dark objects like stones and trash that lined the alleyways. Gray breathed in the chilly air as he closed his eyes and walked numbly, glad that the cold was still there to comfort him. He opened his eyes to find his jacket and shirt gone, and thought nothing of it. He had plenty more, and now, at least, someone else on the streets in need of a jacket would have one. He tried his best to keep his pants on though, he had fewer pairs of them.
Eventhough he was set on ignoring everything extraneous (everything that wasn't himself, his clothes, the rain, or his bed), Gray couldn't help but notice the car parked in the driveway of the house next to his, and the 'FOR SALE' sign that was absent from the front yard. He doubted the sign had just disappeared that day and wondered why he hadn't noticed earlier. Then he kept walking, his eyes lingering on the yard for just a moment longer.
A midnight Tesla, some soaked boxes on the porch, non-active sprinklers, a pale, nude woman on the lawn, pelted grass, disgruntled dirt, and wrinkled clothes, drenched, by the sidewalk.
Gray took two steps more, his eyes forward, before he stopped.
He was by no means snoopy-- he was rather reserved in his own right. But there was just something about all that pale skin illuminated dully in the late evening by the half shrouded moon that made him want to just . . . stop. It wasn't right, he finally put together; no one should be out so late at night in the rain with no clothes on. No one did that.
Against his better judgement, he took two steps back and looked at the naked woman blanketed only by night. His intentions were not lewd-- perhaps slightly affected by her hourglass shape, but nothing more. She was simply ethereal. He watched how she moved, how she seemed to be dancing in the downpour, her hands gliding over her skin and her body stirring the drops, and her feet placid on the asphalt driveway. His mind whirred at the sight of her countenace: beautiful, calm and resonant-- as if she were one with the rain.
Then her eyes opened and she looked at him.