26. In the Rain / Umbrellas
The rain poured down with a vengeance, as if the very heavens were crying for him the tears he couldn't shed.
Sheeting rain drenched him head to toe, plastering golden hair to his head, running in rivulets down his face, filling up his oxford shoes and soaking his socks—but Adrien couldn't find it in him to care. Sitting on the balustrade on a bridge overlooking the Seine, Adrien watched the explosion of raindrops over the cobbled pavement, the cars zipping by on the road in front of him and kicking up sprays as they ran over puddles. The Seine rushed beneath the bridge like an angry snake, the roiling water roaring like the river itself had gone mad. The dripping black suit stuck to his skin and weighed like the mountain of lead in his gut; heavy, oppressing. A suffocating reminder.
When he looked up, the rain was grey. Falling so heavily that it bleached all colour from everything it touched, plunging the world into a dull monochrome. Adrien shivered, the wind cutting through his soaked clothes and chilling him to the bone, but he never moved. Despite the torrential chaos thriving around him, his senses remained numb, his heart cold. Colder than the frigid wind that bit at his fingers and whipped his cheeks. Colder than tombstone over his mother's empty grave, her name etched into the apathetic granite.
Colder than the absence of his father as Adrien had laid the flowers down, the wreath of carnations and irises turning soggy as the first drops began to fall.
She'd always preferred sunflowers anyway.
He'd fled, abandoned the shelter of his chauffeur's umbrella, ignoring Nathalie's calls for him to come back as he left the cemetery. He'd ran through the streets, without knowing where he was going, only that he needed to be far, far away. He'd ran and ran, until he could run no more.
Something felt deeply wrong inside his chest, like a clock with some vital part broken. As if he should be crying, screaming, yelling, something. Anger, sorrow, bitterness, anguish—something had to be better than feeling nothing, than the all-consuming black void in his centre.
Had he lost even the ability to feel?
"Are you all right?"
Adrien still didn't move, forgetting for a moment that he was indeed a human being and not a statue. Then he realised the rain no longer pelted at his head, though it still beat down on the stones of the pavement and banister. Hair still dripping, water in his eyes, he raised his head.
Blue shattered the monotone of grey, periwinkle irises shadowed by long navy lashes staring at him in earnest. They blinked, and Adrien's eyes travelled over creamy skin, pert nose, and pink lips. The girl's hair was done in pigtails, a shade darker than her eyelashes. She looked about his age. The empire line dress flowed over her slight frame, pale pink fabric printed with brilliant red roses startling in contrast to the colourless haze. She held an umbrella over his head, a twenty-colour rainbow shield that repelled the rain. She'd shifted closer so that the umbrella kept both of them from the wet—or in his case, any wetter—and he couldn't help but notice the healthy pink glow over her cheeks.
She was a burst of colour amidst a cold, muted world completely devoid of it, and Adrien couldn't take his eyes off her.
"Um, hello?" she said, tilting her head when he didn't respond. "Excuse me? Do you need help?"
He started, trying to remember where his voice was. "E-erm, sorry. I was just … thinking. I'm fine."
She peered at him. "You don't look fine," she said, eyes flicking pointedly up and down his form.
Opening his mouth, he started to say that she needn't worry about him, when his throat closed up and he swallowed back a choke. He willed himself to speak, but the words would not come. Around them, beyond the safety of the multi-coloured umbrella, the grey storm continued to rage at the world.
"Come on," she said, tugging on his dripping sleeve with delicate fingers. Her nails were painted a rich butter yellow. Like sunflowers.
He didn't move. "What?"
The girl sighed, rolling her eyes. "You look like a half-drowned rat and if you stay out here any longer, you're going to catch a cold or pneumonia. Or become a fish. My house is just around the corner, you can dry off there."
He had never met this girl before in his life, and Adrien Agreste should know better than to trust any random stranger he'd just met off the street. But at her touch, he wordlessly slid off his perch on the balustrade, letting her shield them from the storm with her rainbow umbrella. He followed her as she led him forward, the only splash of colour to be found in his monochromatic world.
A/N: This was what I got when I wondered about a reverse version of the famous rain scene. :)
Also, I just remembered that someone asked if they could write a fanfiction based on one of these mini-fics. If you could first provide me a link to where you'd be posting it, then that would be great!
Sorry I've been taking so long to finish, going through last minute edits and been busy with art for MariChat May.