As of chapter 9, this story has officially exceeded the 10,000 word mark! YAY! :) Also, I posted two chapters at once because I didn't realize I hadn't posted this chapter yet when I finished editing chapter 11, so you guys get both! This chapter is a little short anyway (the next one is really long, so it makes up for it). Sorry to keep you guys waiting so long for an update!

When It Rains
Chapter 10: Restless

The queen entered the chamber to update everyone. "Dr. Flora and Mr. Soil are done. Tomorrow isn't going to be easy, so we should all try and get a little sleep. The burial will be at sunrise." All the insects retired to respective temporary rooms, but the queen stopped Atta to talk to her. "Atta, before you go to sleep, I need to ask you something."

"What is it?" Atta asked. The queen's voice became quieter, yet firmer. "Did you let Dot see his body?" Atta stammered before responding. "Well... yes." Her mother wasn't very happy with this answer.

"Atta, she's just a child! How could you expose her to something like that? I saw what he looked like in there – that's going to scar her for life! Why would you do that to her?!" The elder princess was exhausted physically, mentally and emotionally and she was in no mood for a lecture on whether or not allowing a child to see a corpse was morally sound. "Mother, Flik was her best friend. She'd have been just as traumatized if I didn't let her see him one more time. I mean, I didn't want her to see him, but she found me before I could get back to the colony and she knew he was there with me."

"Couldn't you have said no? She didn't need to see that," the queen asked. Atta sighed. "I know it wasn't really ideal, but it would've still broken her heart if she couldn't see him one more time. I'm not apologizing for it, even if it hurt her. We can't shield her from reality forever, especially since she's going to rule the colony one day."

The queen folded her arms, looking rather stern. Normally, she was a pretty laid back insect about most things, but she was concerned about how seeing her dead friend would affect the tiny princess. "I'm her mother, Atta. Not you. That wasn't an appropriate thing for someone her age to see." Atta was getting irritated by this point and responded with less than subtle agitation. "Well, I don't think Flik dying the way he did was an appropriate thing either. If you had all listened to Flik sooner, maybe he wouldn't have had to die in the first place!" Her voice grew increasingly louder and echoed down the hallway, and it definitely didn't go unheard by some of the other insects. By this time, Dot had long since snuck back into her room, eluding her mother's sight as well as her sister's, but still overhearing the argument between the two of them. Atta was too upset to admit her own hypocrisy; she, along with just about everyone else in the colony, never really cared enough to listen to or believe in Flik's ideas and was never keen on following his example until the very end. The princess didn't give her mother time to react to her outburst before she stormed off.

The mourning insects did their best to sleep that night, but just about all of them were restless – especially Atta. Losing Flik was hard enough on its own, but she kept thinking back on everything that had happened. The fatal blow had been delivered by her own hand, and she just couldn't get over the feelings of guilt in which she found herself drowning, even after the circus bugs reassured her she'd done the right thing. Flik's death would have been easier to accept – at least in comparison – if Hopper had killed him. The princess kept on trying to remind herself that, as traumatizing as it was for her, it was what Flik wanted, and that he most likely would have died from his injuries if she hadn't. But she couldn't get the images of stabbing him or watching him take his final breath out of her head.

On top of these haunting thoughts, Atta felt like an absolute weakling. She was a royal ant – next in line to rule the colony – yet here she was, crushed by her emotions like a sheltered damsel. If she couldn't handle the loss of a single ant, her fellow insects would never take her seriously when she assumed the throne. Atta spent the rest of the night crying on and off. She could hardly even recall any happy memories of Flik to soothe her heart because she regarded him as an annoyance almost the entire time she knew him.

She did smile just a little when she thought back to when he knocked her over with those grain stalks by accident. It wasn't by any means a pleasant experience for Atta at the time, but she could only imagine how funny it must have looked in retrospect. She also looked back fondly on that little peck on the cheek he gave her. Speaking of that, Atta couldn't stop thinking about Flik's romantic confession, and how he used his last breaths to express his love to her. Atta wanted so much to feel happier about his admission of his feelings since no one had ever been in love with her before. Alas, she couldn't find joy in the memory knowing it was one of the last things Flik said and that she never got the chance to return those feelings.

Author's notes: Sorry for the shortness - it's just the spot in the story where I thought a chapter break would work best. The next one is longer, and then after the next chapter will be the final one. Onward to chapter 11! :)