Rain
Aster hadn't known exactly what it meant to love Sophie, how deep or profound a love like theirs was until he caught her in the rain. Sure, he knew she meant more to him than anything. But this whole love thing…it was relatively new for him. He didn't really get it.
But then the rain came, heavy and thick. The sky was so gray that it was nearly black and there was no wind. Just the constant, relentless drumming of rain. He could hear it even before the tunnel opened up into the woods behind her home. Luckily for him, it had opened beneath a tree, keeping him protected from the torrential downpour for the most part. Sophie wasn't so lucky.
He caught sight of her out of the corner of his eye, running for the house with a basket of clothes she'd yanked hastily from the clothesline. Her hair was down and matted to her face, her sweatshirt and jeans well on their way to soaking wet. A few yards shy of the back patio, her bare feet hit a slick spot and she tumbled down, the basket of clothing spilling out over the yard.
She sat there for a moment, green eyes blinking and a stunned look fixed firmly on her face. He covered his grin with a paw to keep from laughing, knowing if she caught him he would be as good as dead. And then, thumping her tiny fists to the ground and causing a spray of muddy water to splash over her, she started using every colorful word she could think of.
Right then, he knew exactly what it meant to love Sophie Bennett – it meant seeing the woman who distracted his every thought sitting in a puddle of mud, cussing like a sailor, looking like a complete wreck and thinking she had never looked more beautiful.