Sometimes I end up philosophizing.

Sometimes it turns out pretty good.


.


For as often as he complained about snow, Noa was equally verbose about his love of rain.

Unlike most people Ryo had met, and indeed unlike Ryo himself, Noa didn't love rain in the abstract. He didn't enjoy being inside while it rained outside. It seemed like Noa wanted nothing more than to leave any kind of shelter behind once the sky started weeping, and Ryo wondered if he would ever be able to approach anything with as much childlike wonder as Noa did a thunderstorm.

Noa had spoken at length about his favorite mulberry tree on the Kaiba Estate grounds; his favorite time to sit against that tree was when it was raining; when he could look out across the horizon and watch lightning scratch patterns through the stars.

Ryo bought himself a new raincoat and boots so that he could join Noa during his excursions. He wasn't sure he could say he enjoyed it, but what he did enjoy was watching Noa's face while he was happy. Noa smiled so easily, and it spread across his entire face and lit up his eyes so naturally, and Ryo found himself thinking that if someone like Noa Kaiba, who'd seen so much grief and terror and agony in his life, could find contentment and joy, then there was real hope for humanity after all.

If the rain was what did it, then getting wet was a small price to pay.

"Like a majority of the good things in my life," Noa said once, in explanation, "it all comes back to Hahaue. She told me once that nothing made people complain like the weather. Such an inconsequential thing, such a normal thing, such a natural thing, and people always seem to hate it so much. There's just something wrong, something backward, about that. That's what she said. So, she wanted me to appreciate it."

Ryo quirked an eyebrow. "It seems you've yet to extend that grace to higher altitudes."

"First off, rude," Noa said. "Second, that's not the point. The point is, Hahaue always told me that rain is bracing. It's something solid, something undeniable, and you can't escape it. Sure, you can hole up in your shelter, but even once it stops raining, it's still wet. Rain leaves its mark on the world for such a long time, and even after it leaves it takes the sun, of all things, the greatest source of power we've ever known, to unmake it. Isn't there something grand, something worthy of worship, in that?"

"Your mother has never struck me as a religious woman, from how you've described her before."

Noa shook his head. "She wasn't. She said worship shouldn't be exclusively the domain of the divine. She said keeping ourselves limited to worshiping gods is one of the great problems of spirituality. She said worshiping anything that brought you awe was something we can all benefit from."

"Do you worship anything?"

Noa shrugged. "I don't know, which I guess is an answer in itself, isn't it? I guess that must mean no. But I hope I find something one day, and I hope I can tell her about it when I do."