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Rain in New York City is different than rain in Japan.
Eiji can’t exactly pin point why that is but he knows it to be true. New Yorkers bear the mundane in a very different way than the rest of the world – women still wear their stilettos and short skirts and men walk unhurried through the torrential downpour with no umbrella and no care for how their nice suits get soaked through by the tepid rainfall. And Ash..
Ash has the window in the living room cracked just enough for him to stick his head in the gap and turn it up so that the rain fell in delicate curtains over his equally delicate features. There was a sense of peace there, of a man perfectly at home in his natural element and Eiji can’t stop himself from smiling fondly as he watches. Ash doesn’t often relax like this; he doesn’t often have the time.
Eiji is loath to interrupt this tenuous and practically unattainable peace but he has an idea. “Ash?” At his boyfriend’s hummed response, Eiji carries on with a slowly widening smile. “How long is the rain supposed to last?”
Ash pulls his face away from the window with a thoughtful crease between his brows. They have cell phones they can easily check, a google home device that they could consult, but Shorter had the news on that morning and Ash had been pretending to not pay attention. Eiji knows that Ash is too aware of his surroundings to not have caught such an important detail. “Until late evening. Why?”
Eiji checks his watch in lieu of a response. It’s only 7pm – late evening is a long way away and they have plenty of time. “Do you want to go into the park?”
Ash blinks once. “It’s raining.” There is no judgement in his tone, not there ever has been when he regards Eiji, but a loud ringing note of curiosity.
“I know,” Eiji starts, his smile impossible to hide as he stands up and crosses the floor to Ash and the open window. The rain beating against the window is pleasant white noise and Eiji wonders if introducing it into their sleep schedule would help Ash’s nightmares any. It’s something to revisit later. “But do you?”
Ash catches the playful note in Eiji’s voice and laughs as he pushes his damp bangs back from his face. He’s already a little wet, even if Eiji is perfectly dry, so he wouldn’t object to engaging with the warm rain outside. Central Park was most likely empty with this weather at this time of day, there would be no one to judge them, no one to look twice at two teenagers laughing and acting foolish in the nightly rainfall. Ash wouldn’t care if there were, but it is nice to exist without worrying about constantly being watched. He smiles, short and bright and it takes Eiji’s breath away for a minute.
“I do.” Eiji brightens the moment the words leave Ash’s lips and Ash knows he can never deny him – not that he was capable of it before.
They take enough time to grab windbreakers and old sneakers that neither of them really minded getting trashed with Central Park mud and city polluted rain water before Ash grabs his keys out of the dish that Eiji insisted that they buy from Pier 1. He jingles them threateningly when Eiji pouts at him, his dark eyes sparkling with mischief in the dim lighting of their foyer. Ash doesn’t have enough time to prepare before Eiji pulls him down by the sides of his open windbreaker and steals any smart retort right off of Ash’s tongue.
This is fine. Ash will never complain again in his life. Eiji whispers something sweet against his lips and Ash is forced to break the kiss to try and have an actual conversation. “Huh?”
Eiji has the audacity to laugh as he brushes their noses together in a fleeting touch, speaking just as softly as he had before. “I said we should go. You’re very easily distracted, Ash Lynx.”
Ash scoffs as he grabs his phone off of its dock, sliding it into the inside pocket of his windbreaker as he follows Eiji out of the apartment. He almost expects to see Eiji’s favorite clear umbrella in his hand as he reaches out to take it, but he isn’t surprised to see it missing. Eiji isn’t one to do things halfway, it’s something he and Ash have in common and it’s one of the many things that Ash loves the most about Eiji. “You’re very distracting, Eiji Okumura,” he quips as he links their fingers and lets Eiji confidently lead him to the elevators.
Eiji leans into the kiss with a coquettish bat of his lashes and curl of his lips. He knows what he can do to Ash and almost revels in it. It would be dangerous if Ash didn’t love every second of it.
The ride downstairs is uneventful and they make it through the building’s crowded lobby-cum-shopping center without drawing any attention to themselves. Ash pulls Eiji to a gentle stop in front of the great glass doors to watch the way the rain is making even the bravest of New Yorkers scatter and hide, some even stooping to the level of buying overpriced, poor quality umbrellas for some shelter against the unrelenting downpour.
The hesitation is an opening for Eiji to be logical and take back the offer of doing.. whatever in the pouring rain, an out not to be ashamed of. Ash doesn’t expect Eiji to take it and his chest puffs up a little in pride when Eiji tugs on his hand to prompt him out of the lobby.
Eiji expects the rain but he still lets out a short laugh of surprise when it hits his head and skin in an unrelenting torrent. He lifts his face up to the sky much like Ash had earlier and holds his arms out to welcome the rain, laughing tightly as he holds Ash’s hand tightly in his right hand. Ash think he looks like an angel experiencing the rain for the very first time. He looks every bit like a child allowed to play in the rain without an umbrella – which isn’t actually too far from the truth. He feels Ash’s hand squeeze his own and finds himself smiling as he looks over at him.
Ash’s face is upturned towards the sky in something akin to rapture, his eyes firmly closed and his lips in a smile wider than any Eiji has actually caught. He looks at peace again, happy and warm despite the water slicking his skin. He finally looks his age and Eiji finds himself falling even harder for the mysterious man holding tightly to his hand. He’d do anything to keep a smile that big on his face.
“Ash,” Eiji interjects for the second time that day, pulling Ash in closer and pressing a soft kiss to his wet cheek. “Let’s go into the park.” Ash doesn’t answer verbally, but gives Eiji’s hand another squeeze before he pulls him in the direction of the park. He doesn’t bother to use the crosswalk like any native New Yorker and Eiji finds himself rolling his eyes as they sprint across the lull in Columbus Circle’s traffic flow. He lifts an apologetic hand to a cab driver who honks angrily at their antics and playfully bumps his shoulder against Ash’s as he gives a short laugh in delight. “You’re so rude!”
“I’m a New Yorker,” Ash replies as if that explains everything and, in a way, Eiji supposes that it does; Ash is a product of his environment in the same way that Eiji is, Eiji’s environment was simply a much politer one.
Central Park is far wetter than Eiji anticipates. Their sneakers make loud splashes that soak through their jeans and Ash’s hand is dripping and clammy from where it’s clinging tightly to Eiji’s own but he doesn’t even think about turning back. Eiji isn’t a terribly spiritual person, or he doesn’t think he is, but he will swear that he can feel the way Ash’s energy spikes with delight the longer that they’re surrounded by the dense, soaking greens.
They spend a few minutes in silence, simply walking through the abandoned park and appreciating each other’s company. The few park police that they come across doing their patrols pay them little to no mind, though Ash notes a fair share of confused and semi-worried looks sent their way. He and Eiji weren’t doing anything illegal, and if being an immature idiot was an activity, plenty of America would be shit out of luck.
“Eiji,” Ash asks with a gentle squeeze of Eiji’s hand as they wandered down another drenched and empty path, “what did you want to come into the park for?” Wandering aimlessly wasn’t something Ash was entirely against so long as he was doing it with Eiji, but he did wonder if his boyfriend had any ulterior motives to their excursion. The thought almost makes him laugh since Eiji is undoubtedly too nice to have an ulterior motive, but Ash has finally learned that his sweet boy from Japan was full of surprises.
Eiji is silent and thoughtful as he considers the question and gives Ash’s hand a squeeze of his own in turn. “I wanted to dance in the rain,” he says like it is the most natural thing in the entire world and maybe, in someone’s world it is.
Ash hopes that he will be that someone eventually. “You want…to dance in the rain? Right now? Right here?” Ash’s IQ is well over 200, but he just wants to make sure he heard Eiji correctly over the rain filling his ears and the overwhelming love filling his body from the roots of his hair to the very tips of his toes.
Eiji laughs and pulls Ash to a stop before he steps into his personal space and presses their chests together. It is a familiar motion, and a comforting one, but it still makes Ash’s stomach do a little flip in delight. “I do. I want to do all of that with you. Right now. Right here.”
They’re very simple words, but Eiji says them with the gravity of a man in love and nothing in the world could make Ash softer. Nothing in the world could make Ash want to protect Eiji more. “Then what are we waiting for?” He asks gently, resting his free hand on Eiji’s waist to get rid of a nearly non-existent distance.
“You to stop asking stupid questions,” Eiji teases as he brushes his wet nose against Ash’s wet cheek. Ash scoffs fondly and lets Eiji press their cheeks together as they start a simple and unrefined two-step as the rain falls around them. He could start a count, he could do any number of things that Golzine had taught him to, but none of it seems proper when he’s with Eiji. That is his past and Eiji?
Eiji is a future Ash never thought was possible.
It’s easy to lose track of time when they’re dancing like this, Ash with his face tucked into Eiji’s hair and Eiji with his nose pressed into the warm junction between jaw and neck. It’s warm despite the insistent pressure of the rain against their skin and jackets and it’s not very long at all until their wind breakers no longer protect them from the angry windblown rain. In an admittedly feeble attempt to fight off the rain, Ash pulls Eiji close to his chest and slowly presses a closed lipped kiss to his temple, counting the beat of his pulse and the breaths that lifted his chest.
Eiji lets out a soft breath against Ash’s ear and ceases their rhythm-less swaying, his smile warm and genuine as he sits back to genuinely take Ash in for a moment. He admires the way the rain has darkened his pale blond hair and makes it stick to his face in unstyled clumps, the way that several droplets of water cling to the perfect curves of his lips.
And Eiji kisses him, reveling in the way that it steals Ash’s breath away and makes his arms tighten around his waist. Eiji loves kissing Ash, has admitted to the fact on more than one occasion, but he isn’t particularly sure that he likes kissing Ash in the rain. It’s too wet, too windy, and kind of silly. He starts to giggle as his thoughts wander, his arms tightening around Ash’s broad shoulders with nothing short of adoration.
“Why are you laughing?” Ash asks softly, a fond chuckle leaving him as he brushes the very tip of their noses together again. He is endlessly fond of his lover and his whims and sways once more just to hear Eiji giggle again.
Eiji giggles, sweet and playful, as he squeezes Ash’s shoulders. “It’s..it’s wet,” he gasps out before another burst of giggles leave him and he has to tuck his face into Ash’s chest to keep his mirth down to a minimum. Ash joins him after staring down at him in bewilderment for a beat or two and playfully tugs Eiji back in the direction that they came from.
“It’s wet, do you realize how silly you sound? You wanted to go out into the rain and now you’re giggling about the fact that things are wet—”
“Not things,” Eiji interrupts, laughing softly as he follows Ash down the nearly flooded path, playfully jumping in a particularly large puddle to thoroughly soak both his jeans and Ash’s as if the rain wasn’t doing a good enough job of that itself, “your lips are wet!” He grins as Ash gives an outraged bark of laughter, swinging their linked hands playfully.
“My lips, my jeans, my sneakers, I’m fairly certain that most of my skin has to be soaked through at this point,” Ash points out with all of the patience of a wet cat. He is very tolerant, but he isn’t the biggest fan of the way his wet clothes are sticking to his skin. “And you think this is funny.”
If Eiji wasn’t well versed in the language and behaviors of Ash Lynx, he wagers that he’d be threatened by his behavior, but he knows that Ash has fun and is only being grumpy because it pleases him to try and nag at Eiji’s nerves. “I think it’s hilarious, honestly. Don’t misquote me.”
Ash rolls his eyes fondly, stopping at the corner of 59th and Columbus to watch the way that the traffic raced by in the gray city rain. There are more cabs than usual because of the rain and even less people on the streets now that the simple rain fall has given way to a steadier downpour and, by the color of the clouds, the promise of thunder but oddly enough, Ash wasn’t in a hurry to get back inside of the building. “I won’t misquote you. Do you think we could get seated in a restaurant looking like this?”
Eiji gives him two blinks – confused and then disbelieving – before he shakes his head. “I don’t think so, and I don’t even think that I would want to sit in a restaurant feeling like a drowned rat.” Eiji gets Ash moving back towards their apartment building and Ash is loath to admit that he has a point. While he does thoroughly enjoy being a public nuisance, he usually doesn’t like to do so at his own expense. Sitting in wet jeans in a fancy restaurant is definitely very high on his list of things that would put himself and Eiji in a difficult situation. “I think I want to take a nice warm bath with that pretty blue bath bomb that we got,” Eiji hums as they track water into the lobby, his chin lifted in thought and to ward off any unwanted glances.
“Do you want to take a bath first? I can wait a little longer,” Ash muses, leaning over to press a light kiss to Eiji’s cheek. He only pulls away when Eiji gives a light huff of amusement. “What? What’s so funny?”
Eiji turns to Ash as they wait for the elevator, tilting his head just so as he speaks. “I want us to take a bath together, silly.”
It’s such a simple statement that it’s almost embarrassing how long it takes for Ash to process it and just what it means. He and Eiji have shared baths before as a playful bonding activity, but he’s always initiated it. He’d always though that Eiji was too shy to bring it up himself. Ash is pleasantly surprised to admit that he’s wrong. It’s a rare occurrence but Ash is content to embrace it for the time being. “I think,” Ash says slowly as they walk into the blessedly empty elevator, taking Eiji’s cool, clammy hand into his own, “that I could be amenable to that.”
Eiji laughs at him, resting his head on Ash’s shoulder as the floors pass by leisurely. “Amenable. Did you know that you’re an old white man in an eighteen-year-old’s body? Like, has that thought ever crossed your mind?”
“Frequently, especially with how often you and Max like to remind me of that fact. If I was made of more delicate stuff I’m almost certain that my feelings would be hurt,” Ash sniffed as he rubbed Eiji’s cool fingers between his palms. He didn’t retain heat as well as he would like, but that didn’t mean he couldn’t try to keep Eiji warm with what little heat he did have. It was his duty as a loving and supportive boyfriend. Eiji hums a little at that assessment, a little smile on his lips as he watches Ash try and warm up his hands. “You don’t care in the least, do you?”
“I care so much,” Eiji laughs, pulling Ash out of the elevator and towards the waiting warmth of their apartment. “I promise. Kiss?” He pursed his lips out and it’s not like Ash is actually capable of telling him ‘no’.