Chapter Text
Any description of Sho was usually preceded by superlatives. The sky god is the most intelligent and beautiful of his sky brethren and is the best at many things. He wove the best clouds and made the best thunderbeats. His dedication to his job was both scary and spectacular and so was his fully booked schedule.
But on his first day assigned to rain department, he was awestruck by the sleepy-looking water god, Satoshi. That was the beginning of the end.
Before Satoshi, the only water gods Sho has ever seen were the ones assigned to make rainbows. They were all just rowdy children, though. There was never one with hair in short brown spikes and a nonchalant stubble. Sho the best of the best of the sky gods knew that he wanted to see more of Satoshi since then. And boy did Satoshi love seeing him too.
They would talk for hours while making rain. Sho did most of the talking and Satoshi did most of the listening, but either way, rain production slowed by a couple percent when the two of them were assigned to it. It was love, though. So they ignored the first, second and third reprimand and they were banished to the opposite sides of the great river between mortals and nonmortals.
But because Sho was the best sky god and Satoshi was the most talented water god, they were permitted to meet but only on the seventh day of the seventh month, unless it was time to make it rain.
Sho sighed at his schedule. The old boss was really testing him, scheduling rain on such a day. He was no longer permitted to work with or even speak to the rain department so all he could do was to walk away angrily. Sometimes he hated that he was in love. He hated that he started it all. Yet he had no one to blame but himself. He picked up a worn-out umbrella and whacked the surrounding bamboos hard, just wanting to let his feelings out.
The bamboos gladly whacked him right back, making him angrier. He threw the umbrella and ran until he didn't recognize his surroundings.
As if the universe conspired against him, he was lost in the nonmoral country.
There was no one but a gloomy-looking ame-warashi in the corner. Those guys worked under the rain department but were not part of them. The ame-otoko simply sent signals to where rain should be. Sho huffed passed the ame-otoko and ran into what felt like a wooden post.
"Oh, fire's sake!" Sho cursed, having stumbled into a puddle did not help his mood. "Watch it, living landslide!"
"S-sorry." the wooden post was actually a tall person who was glowing slightly. A choochin-obake who was standing in the rain in the middle of the road. "I couldn't tie my shoelaces and my friends told me to wait here."
Sho blinked. "Your what?"
"Yes, yes. It's my fault I forgot how the mortals did it." the ame-otoko scoffed as he turned to face them. His wet hair was slicked back and his angry look made both Sho and the chooshin-obake wince.
"No one else among the elders know about shoelaces..." a kitsune came into the clearing. "Who's this?" he added when he stopped beside the choochin-obake and he looked up to Sho.
"I'm Sho, a sky god." Sho relished in his own title, especially since the ame-otoko and the the choochin-obake gasped.
"You're the one who got banished." the chooshin-obake blurted. The kitsune didn't even flinch when he hit the choochin-obake on the head with one of his nine tails. "Call me Kazu. This is Toma, and the other one is Jun. We've got these new shoes, but we're not sure how mortals closed them."
"I know quite a lot about mortals since I can see them every day..." He bent down and tied Toma's shoelaces. "See?"
There was silence, except for the pitter-pattering of the rain by the time Sho straightened up. Toma looked ecstatic and even the grumpy-browed ame-otoko called Jun looked amazed.
"You gotta teach all of us how you did that!" Toma said, practically bouncing but was careful not to move his feet as if the shoelaces might suddenly untie.
"If you teach us your ways, we'll be your followers, for sure." nodded Jun the ame-otoko with a big grin.
"Oy, oy..." Sho chuckled. He didn't think that nonmortals were this...simple.
"Well..." the kitsune named Kazu looked pretty surprised but took a few seconds to articulate himself. "We're kind of indebted to you, sky god Sho."
Sho grinned. "It's nothing! Come on. Here's how."