+ Fallacy, a 100themes Challenge +
Sarehptar
Theme: 18, Rainbow
Characters: Kharl, Garfakcy
Pairing: None
Warnings: None
Need to Know Info: None?
Title Provider: Gentle Rain (Clazziquai)
이 빗속에서 너 행복하도록, I Wish…
In Order to Make You Happy, Amid this Rain that's Pouring Down, I Wish...
The rain falls without warning, glinting in the sunlight and splitting the rays among each drop so that the air seems suddenly golden. The steady drip is hard against the castle roofs, echoing in the open-air hallways and dripping melodiously from every tree and shrub. It brings with it instantly the smell of wet earth, and where it strikes stone walkways, misty tendrils of steam rise and rip apart as drops fall through them. It is strange, but not overly so, and weather never was of much interest to the Alchemist.
"Are? It's raining?" Garfakcy blinks, shifting the laundry basket more comfortably on his hip.
"Uh? Yes, it is." Kharl looks up from his notes with a disinterested gaze, watching the crystalline drops mark glittering trails from sky to earth.
"There weren't any clouds at all an hour ago." Looking as if he is intending to stay, the human boy drops his basket gently and swings open the heavy window with an intolerably loud grate of wood on stone. "The kitsune's taking a bride," he murmurs without even thinking about it, and something in the words catches Kharl's attention.
"Kitsune? What did you say about fox demons?" He peers over frayed parchment edges of his papers; the servant smiles, green eyes glittering half-sheepishly and half-superiorly.
"It's a human saying," Garfakcy explains, and for a moment, the thought that he is analyzing idiomatic expressions with a god-like being is disconcerting and amusing. "The fox is taking a bride. It's what you say when it rains on a sunny day." Kharl's lilac eyes are wide in confusion, blinking slowly. He unconsciously frets his bottom lip with a fang.
"That's just silly," the youkai replies, "no one wants to marry on a rainy day." Garfakcy stifles a laugh because it would just not be polite.
"Humans have a really strange idea of fox demons." He turns green eyes to the forest again, and cannot help but think that he once shared those beliefs. "They think all Kitsune are tricksters who love to stir up mischief. It would be just like a Nogitsune(1) to drench his bride."
"Wherever did they get that idea?" The Alchemist's tone is one of general disbelief and intrigue, and Garfakcy finds it more than a little irking that his lilac-haired master can take such a scientific interest in ningen.
"I don't know," the darker-haired boy mutters, and goes back to watching the rain fall gently. It is light enough that he does not need to be concerned for his flowers. Vaguely, he wonders if Kharl's mandrakes take well to water, and though guilt weighs heavily on him for it, he hopes they do not. "Oh, look, a rainbow."
Finally, as if it is required of him, the Alchemist joins him at the window, nose wrinkling against the thick smell of hot, wet earth. The arch glimmers over the trees, seven colored bands wavering as the rain continues to fall.
"Did you know that I see it differently than you do?" the lilac-haired demon murmurs.
"I didn't."
"Human eyes have distinct trouble differentiating light waves in the blue spectrum. The indigo that you can hardly see stands out quite vividly to me."
"Must be nice." It is a sarcastic reply; Kharl can't help but think there is some seriousness in it too. The smaller boy does not bother to look at his master. "You know what humans say about rainbows?" He knows the Alchemist does not, and wonders why he even bothers asking anymore.
"Does it have anything to do with fox demons?" The youkai's chuckle is roguish.
"No, it doesn't! Rainbows are supposed to be pathways between the realms of Heaven and the mortal world." The Alchemist's light eyes narrow with interest, making the colored lights only brighter. "I used to hear that if you could find the place where the rainbow touches the earth, you could ascend it and join the spirits."
"That's impossible." Kharl shakes his head softly, spider-web strands of hair dancing in the breeze of the action. "Rainbows are only light. They're caused by particle waves being broken into their relative colors when refracted through the prisms of the raindrops. Not a heavenly phenomenon, at all." He giggles faintly and his eyes close in evident amusement. "Maybe the Kitsune is going to Heaven for his wedding reception."
The boy shoots him a withering glare. "You never appreciate anything."
Kharl watches the rainbow fade, and agrees.
Across the continent, a drenched fox bride curses her husband's sense of humor.
Translation Notes:
(1) - Nogitsune: "Field Fox", wild foxes usually portrayed in Japanese mythology as malicious.
Next up, Theme 19: Gray
Foreign and unwelcome, he plucks it free, and shakes the offending hair disparagingly.