The Thing About Rain
By: An Undercover Changeling
The moment Luan stepped out of her car and into the foggy-gray world outside, an army of raindrops tickled her nose, as cool and soft as kisses from a ghost. With a smile, she let the water wash over her face, snake all the way down her arms and shoulders, and gather into little pools in the folds of her bright yellow raincoat. It may not have been her favorite sort of weather, but she could make it work. Just like her sister Lana had a knack for fixing up any busted old vehicle with a little sweat and elbow grease (and her toolbox, of course), Luan could repair any broken day with a skip and a smile.
Up went her umbrella. Just as bright and golden as her raincoat, it cut through the storm like her own little makeshift sun. But the umbrella wasn't for her.
Her boyfriend stood stern and stiff by the doors to the theatre, pinned to the wall and hiding in the tiny spot of dryness the slightly-jutted roof provided. His crisp black suit was, as usual, immaculate. Judging by the look on his face, it was clear as a sunny day (the sort of day which today was decidedly not) that not only did he not seem to be a big fan of the weather, but his audition today for the local troupe's big play must've gone quite terribly as well.
A bad day like this always wound Benny up a little too tight. Luckily, Luan knew exactly how to straighten him back out again. She was glad it was her, instead of any of his friends, whom he'd called to pick him up after his (presumably failed) interview was over.
Umbrella in hand, Luan skipped across the pavement, which was riddled with enough cracks and potholes to make even the esteemed racecar driver Bobbie Fletcher break into a sweat. Unlike most people, when she came across a puddle that had collected in one of the larger holes, she didn't dart around it. She just ran right through it, letting her sleek yellow boots send streamlets of water tumbling every which way.
"Wow, it's raining cats and dogs out here." As she reached the building, she leaned her side against the wall, hoping to catch her breath. "Better watch your footing there, love. You don't want to accidentally step in a poodle."
He managed the faintest little smile at her wisecrack, but Luan wasn't satisfied in the slightest. I think we can do much better than that, she thought.
"I mist you today," she told him. "Perhaps we could brainstorm something fun to do together?"
"I think I just want to go home."
Ouch. Luan lowered her umbrella to the pavement and attempted to shake off some of the excess water that had begun to make it heavy. Today must've really been a stinker, huh?
Luan handed him her umbrella, which Benny took and held aloft over his head. "Come on. Let's get you to the car, then."
As they walked, Benny stayed huddled under her umbrella, not wanting to get his prim, proper attire wet. Luan, however, had no such qualms. She made a great show of dancing and frolicking across the long driveway and eagerly hopping into any pools of water she saw, no matter how small. When her toes brushed against the edge of a particularly deep puddle, not only did she leap right in with both feet, but she even kicked some water around, sending hundreds of glittery wet missiles into the air. A few of the drops landed in her boots, getting her socks uncomfortably wet, but she paid them no mind at all. Nothing was going to ruin her fun, not even the disbelieving head-shake she received from a certain, curly-haired boyfriend of hers.
"What on Earth are you doing, Lulu?" Benny inquired as he stepped back to avoid the sparkly spray. Narrowing his eyes, he added: "Is this another one of your tricks? You're up to something, aren't you?"
"I'm just enjoying the rain, Benjamin," she said sweetly, batting her eyes and plastering on an innocent smile. She was, in fact, up to something as per usual, but he didn't have to know that. Not yet, anyway.
"Well, I don't like being out in this kind of weather. It's all sad and drippy and the fog makes my hair frizz."
"Benny, you've got curly hair," she reminded him. "It's always a little frizzy. Besides, I like it that way. It suits you." She sauntered over to him and touched a wet finger to the tip of his nose, leaving a single shiny droplet on his skin.
"Luan," he reprimanded her, playfully swatting her hand away. Yes! I'm breaking through to him! He'll be laughing with me again before I even know it!
"Come and enjoy the rain with me." Luan took his hand in hers and reached uppity-up towards the stormy sky. Grinning, she spun into a quick little twirl before releasing his fingers and skipping out into the wet, wet world once again. "It'll be just like one of those corny old musicals. Ooh, or one of those Korean dramas your friends like to watch. Don't they always have some sort of cheesy, dramatic scene with a gold umbrella? I'm pretty sure that's a whole big thing."
"You're crazy," he told her.
"All the best people are." She ducked back under the umbrella, placed her cold, dripping hands right over his own, and smirked at the beautifully unimpressed face he made in response. All around them, gilded waterfalls of rain cascaded down the sides of their umbrella, encasing them in a little gold dome that was all their own, that separated them from everything and everyone. It was as though there was nobody else in all the world.
"Step out into the rain," she begged him. "Just for a minute."
Benny frowned. He looked like he wanted to shake his hands dry, but too stinking bad, she wasn't about to let him. "And then you'll be happy and leave me alone?"
"And then I'll be happy and leave you alone."
"I'm not going to like this," he warned.
"Yeah, you will. It'll be fun, trust me."
"I do trust you, and that's precisely the problem."
"Oh, hush."
Gripping his hands even tighter, Luan began the countdown:
"Okay, are you ready? One, two, three…"
She brushed her thumb over the little button near the base of the umbrella and pressed down hard. With a soft click, the umbrella closed up tight like a sleeping daffodil, sending a shower of water down onto both of their heads. She heard Benny gasp at the sudden cold shock, but she couldn't see the (probably priceless) look on his face, for some of the droplets had landed in her eyes, turning the whole world into blurry, gray-and-golden spots of bokeh.
She shook the water out of her eyes, and laughed when, as her vision cleared, she saw that Benny was doing the same thing. His curly hair, now almost black from the moisture collecting in all the little ringlets, had smoothed out flat against the top of his head.
"Somehow, I think this hairstyle suits you even more," she teased, throwing him a wink.
"Whatever. Are you satisfied now that I'm just as cold and wet and crazy as you are?"
Luan edged closer, bumping his nose with hers. "Almost," she whispered.
A kiss in the rain had to have been the silliest, sappiest, most cliche thing a person could have ever done in that particular situation, which was precisely why she did it–just for the kicks and glory of it. She hoped, as she grabbed him by the shoulders and pulled him forward, that she would catch him unawares, but to her surprise, he seemed to reach out for her body just as intuitively and instinctively as she had grasped for his. You really are my perfect, black-and-white movie boy, huh? she had just enough time to think.
When their lips met somewhere in the middle of his space and hers, their space, her brain, just like the water in the clouds above, fell straight to the ground and melted into a drippy puddle.
His hands settled smoothly around her waist, while hers found gentle purchase on the sides of his neck, her right one slowly trailing up to brush against his cheek. His skin was soft, and damp from the rain. Each time she managed to wipe away a droplet, another one fell in its place.
The water fell over her as well, landing like cold bombshells against her nose, her ears, her cheeks and hair, her eyelids and eyelashes. She shivered, and felt him grip her tighter and pull her even closer, until they were standing chest-to-chest. It was utterly hilarious how half her body became toasty-warm from the heat of him, while the other half was still so cold. A strong, chilly wind swept the ponytail away from her neck, leaving the skin bare and stinging. The scent of rain against the concrete mingled with the subtlest little hints of Benny's cologne and settled deep into her nose. The sound of every tiny drop of water, whether it crashed to the ground, or fell on him, or fell on her, reverberated through her ears. It sounded just like music–maybe a tune she had heard before somewhere, or maybe one she was making up in the moment, all on her own.
What was it about the rain that caused all of her sensations to heighten? Maybe that was why so many people hid inside from the rain–not because they were afraid of getting wet, but because they were afraid of getting feelings.
Not me, though, Luan thought to herself. I might prefer the sunshine and heat, but I'll never hide from the rain. Especially not if it gets me things like this.
She grinned at Benny–whose skin looked as though it was desperately trying to decide if it wanted to be pale from the cold or bright red from her kiss–and rubbed the tip of her wet nose against his.
"Feeling any better?" she said with a smirk, although she was already sure she knew the answer just from the look on his face. For some reason, even though he was an actor and could make his face look like just about anything he wanted, whenever he was around her and no one else, he was charmingly easy to read.
"You are, by far, the craziest girl I've ever met," Benny replied.
A drop of rain slipped off the side of his cheek, landing perfectly onto hers.
"Now that is high praise," she said. "You always know just how to flatter me."
"And you always know just how to fix me and make me whole."
"Just doing my job." Luan took his hand in hers, brushing her thumb over the ridges of his knuckles. "Alright, I've had my fun. Let's get going."
And so they did, carefully making their way across the pavement to where her bright yellow car was crookedly parked between two white lines. Of course he walked around to open the passenger door for her, and of course he had to remark on her shoddy parking job. Luan rolled her eyes at him, like she always did, but they both knew how much she loved both these little gestures, because they were so authentically Benny Stein, without any of the props or masks he put on around everyone else.
"Thank goodness you didn't take my car," he muttered breathlessly as he slid into the driver's seat and pulled the door shut behind him. The sound of the rain hitting the pavement became a dull hum, but it thudded against the hood of her car, so loudly she could barely hear him. Benny pointed a finger down at the seats, which were already soaking up the moisture from their wet clothes.
"I should have, just to mess with you," she replied, watching a pair of raindrops slither down the windshield. She thought wistfully to herself about how Lana and Lola would have both placed a bet on which of them hit the bottom first. Beaming, Luan handed Benny her car keys, and he turned them into the ignition, but then suddenly stopped.
He reached out a hand to brush a few strands of her wet hair behind her ear, then, when she turned her head to look at him, he leaned in and kissed her again.
And, once more, Luan wondered how it was possible that she could feel so warm, and yet so cold. So dry, and yet so wet. So full of life, and yearning to live forever and be forever, but also content to only have this moment, this here and now, and then nothing ever again. I guess that's just the thing about rain. Makes you feel all kinds of things you normally don't.
Just as soon as he pulled away, Benny stepped on the gas and turned on the radio. Old show tunes–the kind that was really old, that people were singing and dancing to long before either of their parents were born–filled the car with sound and all but completely drowned out the rain. He gave her a knowing look, and she simply smiled innocently, as though she hadn't purposefully left the radio on that station just so that would be what came up first when he pressed play. Because obviously she would never do a thing like that.
Luan watched him while he drove. She watched his face, and his eyes, and the little nod of his head in tune to the music. She watched the rain slide down his neck and bury itself into the fabric of his tie, which had started to come loose. How'd a big goof like me get so dang lucky?
When he pulled into the driveway of their house, Luan was surprised when he didn't immediately rush to the front door. Instead, as soon as he got out of the car, he just stood there, tipping his chin towards the sky and letting the rain fall onto his eyelids.
She watched him from inside the car, observing the way the raindrops gliding down the foggy window framed his face. After a minute or two had passed this way, she dropped out of her seat and onto the ground with a little splash, shut the door, and walked over to join him, leaning her elbow against the yellow hood.
"Don't you want to go inside?" she asked.
Benny blinked away the rain from his eyes, then took her hand in his and held it up for both of them to see. It felt a little like a moment in a movie.
"Let's stay out here for a bit," he said. "Let's dance."
That was something Luan would never say no to, no matter how old or tired or jaded life tried to make her. So, she took him by the arm, and both of them danced to the drip-drop of the rain until every inch of their skin and hair was soggier than she ever would have thought possible. And they laughed so hard that she never wanted to stop.
Yep, Luan thought, certain that in this moment, their life really was a movie, and they were the stars, and everyone and everything else that lived were just the props sent to decorate their perfect, hilarious little existence. This is most definitely, certainly, seriously the boy I am going to marry someday.
A/N: No, I'm definitely not procrastinating on Sunshine and Yellow Lilies and using the fun of writing fluffy scenes like this to cope. Who in the world put that sort of idea into your brains?!
Just another little Luanny oneshot, because I'm just a silly girl who writes silly things.
Hope you're all enjoying your summer, dear readers! :)