Chapter Text
“Kanata! Get back under the umbrella!”
That’s all Kanata has heard for the entire duration of the rainy walk home. Barely have Chiaki, Kaoru, and he started returning from a little stroll uptown as it had been cruelly cut off by an unexpected downpour, and he’s still managed to get them to sternly tell him to get back to safety… or something.
He doesn’t really understand why the two are so dead set on getting him back under whatever they deem safety. Rain has never hurt anyone before.
Kanata turns back to catch a glance of his boyfriends. As expected, they’re huddled close together underneath the rainbow colored umbrella Kaoru had impulse bought at one of the stores they had taken refuge in when the rain started. “You two should ‘relax’ a little bit. ‘Rain’ has never hurt anyone before,” Kanata calmly says with a tilt of the head. A drop of water slides off of his stray hair following his movement.
Kaoru laughs a bit, and Kanata can tell from a mile away that it’s fake. “How do you explain people getting colds by being in the rain too much then? I’m just looking out for you, and I’m sure Moricchi feels the same.” As if on cue, Chiaki beams brightly in a way that would make the dark clouds above completely dissipate. “We just don’t feel like putting up with the hassle of you getting sick from your favorite cold plus water combo again.”
The soft smile on Kanata’s face remains, and his eyes have an earnest ‘I didn’t listen to a single word you said’ look in them. “Being in ‘the rain’ is just like being in the sea while on ‘land.’ We are creatures of ‘the sea,’ so we shouldn’t ‘hide’ from our homes.~”
Chiaki and Kaoru exchange glances of ‘what the hell is our boyfriend on’ before focusing on said boyfriend. “... right,” Kaoru finally responds after a few awkward beats of silence accompanied by the soft pitter-patter of rain on the umbrella. He wraps some of his honey blonde hair around his index finger and glances at it. “I think we should seriously get going home now. there’s no good reason to loiter around in garbage weather like this and it’s certainly not doing any favors for my hair…”
Kanata’s emerald green eyes take on a softer look as he slowly makes his way back to the two, taking a spot left of Chiaki while never breaking his gaze from Kaoru. Chiaki quirks an eyebrow at this choice, as Kanata is still well outside of the umbrella’s reach as evident by the constant drops of water falling from Kanata’s hair. “I think you look ‘adorable’ like that, Kaoru.~”
All the previous emotion Chiaki’s face had is instantly replaced by that classic Chiaki smile that could chase a storm away in a heartbeat. “Yeah! You always look so cute, Hakaze!” It’s now Chiaki’s turn to touch Kaoru’s hair, a decision that Kaoru surely wasn’t anticipating judging by the small squeak of surprise that follows. “Your hair looks so weird when it’s all poofy like this… b-but a good weird!”
“Well, that makes one of us then,” Kaoru deadpans back. He gently swats Chiaki’s tanned hand away from his hair. “Maybe if I had the luxury of knowing my hair would do this in humid places all my life it wouldn’t be so bad… gotta love being raised in a place where it rarely rains for half your life, I guess.”
The three boy’s steps are accompanied by the occasional splash from shallow puddles building up on the walkway. “Living somewhere with ‘no rain?’ I don’t think I would be able to ‘survive’ like that… We all ‘need’ water to live after all.~” Kanata tilts his head up towards the depressing grey sky above, occasionally snapping his eyes shut and recoiling a bit as a raindrop or two fall right onto his eyes. He can catch a glance of Chiaki and Kaoru giving him the ‘our boyfriend is really, REALLY weird’ look he’s gotten so accustomed to ever since the three started dating.
“I think you have a nice way of looking at it!” Chiaki pipes up not long afterwards. “I mean, I don’t understand what you mean very well, but I guess it’s true we all need water to live.” He stops to do a silly little hero pose, leaving him stranded out in the rain for a brief second. “The way I see it, it’s like the rain is the villain of the week and it’s up to the heroes to defeat it and bring back the sun!” Chiaki promptly rushes back to the refuge of the rainbow umbrella.
Now it’s Kanata’s turn to join Kaoru in giving their boyfriend a weird look. “Geez, you guys are weird,” Kaoru mutters under his breath as he twirls the umbrella’s handle in his hand.
“What do ‘you’ think about the ‘rain,’ Kaoru?” Kanata questions after the three turn a corner. Kanata notices the rain has been getting lighter and lighter; maybe it would let up completely before they arrived back home. “Do you ‘like’ the rain?”
Kaoru puts his free hand behind his head. “Oh, yeah. I always got so excited seeing it when I lived overseas. I’d run to my mother and shake her awake telling her to look at the rain with me… I think she was also excited seeing it every time it came around.” Kanata can clearly see Kaoru’s eyes have taken on a glassy look, full of tears that threatened to fall. Kaoru looks up, closes his eyes, and takes a deep breath.
“...did I say something ‘wrong?’”
Kaoru takes another breath and finally opens his eyes again. He leans forward to look at Kanata and his smile makes it seem like he never once lost it. “Oh, don’t worry about it, Kanacchi. I’m not sad or anything.” Kanata sees the umbrella twirling around once more, loosening stray raindrops and throwing them around the area. He feels his lips curl into a smile every time he gets hit by the water drops. “I just miss her, I guess,” Kaoru finally continues after a few more spins of the rainbow umbrella.
“If it ‘means’ anything, you’re more than free to ‘wake me up’ to look at the rain with you,” replies Kanata. He bobs his head to the side with many droplets of water being flung off his hair. “Since you like the ‘rain,’ and I do too, we can ‘both’ like the rain together.~”
Chiaki puts his hands out to stop his boyfriends from walking any farther while trying to hold back laughter. “Hey! You two can’t just leave me out like that! Count me in too, you two need a hero for that!” He strikes a pose shortly afterwards, and Kanata can’t help but laugh.
Kaoru smiles and shakes his head. “What am I gonna do about you two…”
The rest of the walk home is fairly mindless, with short casual banter about heroes, fish, or whatever one of the three decided was a good conversation topic. It doesn’t take long before they find themselves sprinting up the steps to Chiaki’s home, as that’s where they had collectively agreed to crash for the night. Kanata motions for both of his boyfriends to turn to the sky, and so they do.
The rain has been replaced with sunlight breaking through the steely clouds above, painting the world below in a soft golden light. Puddles on the ground reflect vivid sunlight and the air is cool with the scent of late summer rain traced within the breeze. Kanata feels like he could pull the clouds back and see a beautiful rainbow hiding behind them, but first he’d need to figure out how to do that. So imagining one it’ll have to be.
“Damn… it looks so nice out now,” Kaoru says while finally collapsing the umbrella. He begins to work on wrapping it up. “I guess all that bother of being poured on wasn’t for nothing.”
Chiaki jumps over the steps in a potentially stupid and dangerous move and looks back to Kanata and Kaoru! “C’mon, guys! You’re gonna let this sort of day go to waste? Let’s find something to do out here!”
Kaoru and Kanata share glances that swiftly turn into smiles and come down to meet Chiaki. Chiaki takes both of their hands and begin to sprint forwards-
Kanata sneezes.
“Are you for real right now, Kanacchi!?”
He nervously smiles and sniffles. “I ‘like’ the rain.”
Kaoru rolls his stormy grey eyes. “Yeah, I know. I can tell you like it.”
Kanata feels Chiaki grip onto his arm with both of his hands. “I guess we can live our best day ever another day… but isn’t being with Kanata already a great day? Every day is a great day when I can be with you two.”
“...yeah, I guess you’re right,” Kaoru replies. He also grabs onto Kanata, opting to hold his hand. “You’re lucky we love you, Kanacchi.” He takes the opportunity to go for the kill and place a soft kiss on Kanata’s cheek, which Chiaki sees and soon he places one on the other cheek.
And if sneezes could say “I love you,” Kanata replies in just that way.