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Rainy days were a favorite of his. Shinsou didn’t quite know how to explain it, and perhaps it just went along with his moody aesthetic, but hearing the pitter patter and watching droplets hit puddles had an uncanny way of bringing calm to his mind. When coworkers complained about the weather as a means of making small talk, he could never relate. A rainy day was a good day for him.
So it wasn’t unusual that he had decided to take a walk one November afternoon. It had poured earlier in the day, but now the water came down lightly, more like a mist than anything else. Perfect for a scroll in his opinion.
It was an added bonus that others avoided being outside when it rained, because he could commandeer the park down the road. Who else would want to be out in this kind of weather but him? So it was surprising when he saw a bright pink umbrella with strawberries splattered across it just ahead.
He wasn’t irritated persay, he just thought he wouldn’t have to worry about running into anyone. No matter, he could simply go the other way. Just because there was someone else here didn’t mean he had to talk to—
“Oh! Shinsou-kun!”
She had turned around and spotted him, he just now realized. Now he was going to be forced into an interaction he didn’t particularly care for, again.
Then he was met with a radiant smile, round brown eyes, and pink cheeks, made even pinker from the cold. She looked the opposite of the weather, shining like the sun and genuinely happy to see him. He relaxed when he realized it was her.
“Uraraka-san, what are you doing out in the rain?”
It was a question he was often irritated at being asked from others, but somehow found himself on the delivering end of. It just seemed a bit shocking to him that someone so full of sunshine and rainbows would be out for the hell of it when it was so gloomy.
“I know, it seems silly right? But I love the rain! No one ever understands because everyone hates getting wet apparently, but I think it’s fun!”
She ambled over to his side, accidentally bumping his umbrella with hers. “Whoops, sorry! Anyway, what are you doing out here?”
“Same thing, I guess.”
Her eyes somehow became even brighter and she looked at him like he just offered her the moon.
“You like the rain too?! I’ve never met anyone else who likes to walk around in the rain like I do, everyone always wants to stay inside!” He chuckled at her excitement, something he didn’t often do. She could pull it out of him though, easily.
“Me neither.”
Suddenly she was bouncing more than she was walking. “Well you have to give me your phone number!”
It seemed that somehow this was a logical leap to her, but it had a perplexing effect on him. That wasn’t to say he wouldn’t give it to her, because he absolutely would.
“So we can reach out to each other whenever it rains! I’ve always wanted a walking buddy, but no one is ever up for it.” There was a slight pout to her features for only a moment until she was smiling yet again. He wondered if her cheeks ever hurt from grinning so much. “But now I can! I mean, if you want to, of course… I guess I didn’t even ask, huh?”
Uraraka rubbed the back of her head awkwardly, ruffling her hair slightly. He didn’t even think before his hand started moving, and his fingers ran through the hair she had moved out of place. Her eyes widened at the gesture, and Shinsou stared at his own hand for a few seconds, his brain trying to catch up with what he’d just done. He yanked it back.
“Yeah, that would be fine with me,” he said, looking away sharply. He didn’t want to know how she was looking at him because it would undoubtedly make him feel more embarrassed than he already was.
“G—good.” His eyes whipped to her at her soft stuttered reply, and found her blushing and clinging to a strand of her hair with the hand not supporting her umbrella. “I would like that.”
Her eyes flitted down to his rain boots then, and she smiled. She even giggled, but to her credit she tried her best to stifle the sound. He thought about saying something about the reaction, but found he might be a bit too embarrassed. They were quite out of character for him, the bright yellow hue. They were the classic image of a pair of rain boots that anyone may think of, and he hadn't thought twice when he had purchased them. These were what rain boots looked like.
It wasn't until he went to wear them for the first time that he realized they stood out glaringly against all of his black clothing. It was also then that he realized that nearly every article of clothing he owned was indeed black. Maybe he should do something about that.
They continued on, with moments of silence and moments of small talk. How have you been, how is work, what's your ranking these days, and the like. It was the same monotonous topic of conversation he dreaded having time and time again, but if it was with her he didn't seem to mind. He wanted to know about her day and her success in her career.
When it was finally time to part, he didn't want to. He thought for a short moment to invite her to his home, but discarded the idea almost immediately, berating himself for almost seeming desperate.
"Well, see you next time water falls from the sky!" Uraraka said with the sunniest damn smile he had ever had the pleasure of witnessing.
"Right, until then." He had a smile of his own on his lips.
It didn't rain for another two weeks, to Shinsou's dismay. He checked the weather report religiously, even more than he already did, wondering when he would get to see Uraraka again. Technically, it didn't necessarily have to be raining for him to be able to see her, but he wasn't sure how else to frame some sort of get together other than the opportunity he had been presented through the 'it's raining' excuse.
So when it did start to precipitate, Shinsou buzzed in his seat with anticipation. Should he call her right away? Should he wait a bit, so as not to seem too eager?
He had finally decided that he would wait for a solid fifteen minutes before texting her when his cell phone rang, nearly scaring his soul from his body. He picked it up immediately.
"SHINSOU-KUN!"
He yanked the phone away in a knee jerk reaction to the sound, then after a moment figured it was safe to return the device to his ear when he heard a faint giggling from the other end.
"That was way too loud, wasn't it? Sorry, I just got so excited! Did you see it's raining?"
"I did. Same place as last time?" He tried to sound calm and collected, but thought it came out a bit strange.
"You bet! I'm pawning the rest of the paperwork from patrol on Mina since I did most of it last time. I should be there in 20 minutes if that's good with you!" She sounded so excited that he was certain she was bouncing off of every wall in sight and he smiled privately to himself.
"Sure thing, Sunshine." He wasn't exactly sure where the nickname had come from, but she was silent for a second and it made him question the impulsive moniker.
"R—right! I'll see you then!" She hung up promptly, and he imagined rosy cheeks and fidgeting fingers on the other end.
It rained quite a bit for several weeks, as it was fall, then winter. At first, it was Uraraka calling him each time, almost always within a few minutes of the rain starting. Then after a while, once his confidence had built, he called the instant he realized the weather.
“Hey, Sunshine. Did you see the rain?” he said, as he started their calls every time.
“Yup! I just got home, but I do need a few minutes. See you in twenty?”
He must have interrupted her when she was about to do something. That was fine, so he agreed.
He walked to the park a bit later, as he found himself doing many times lately, and looked around for her trademark pink strawberry umbrella. He didn’t see it.
“Shinsou-kun!”
That was confusing, that sounded like it had come from that individual over there with that black umbrella, and all black clothing, and… bright yellow rain boots.
He laughed outright. The kind of laugh where you double over and clutch your stomach. The kind where if he kept it up too long, he would start to have a hard time breathing.
“I don’t look that silly, do I?” she said through laughter of her own. She was closer now, as she had approached during his fit of guffawing.
“Wh— I—I'm sorry, what the hell are you wearing?” he said with mirthful, tear-filled eyes.
“This is my Shinsou-kun cosplay! Do you like it?” She twirled to show him the entirety of the ensemble. “Everyone always goes for the hero outfit look, but this felt more original,” she said with a wink.
“Did you seriously have this planned out? Did you get these boots just for this? All this black clothing? I didn’t know you owned so much black.”
“I have black clothes! But I… did borrow some things from Jirou.” Mystery solved. “But I did have the boots already! I noticed the first day we walked in the rain.” That was what that little giggle of hers had been about on that first day, the knowledge she had kept to herself that she owned the very same boots.
Laughter having died down, they began their usual route, twin black umbrellas bobbing next to each other. Shinsou laughed at her antics, and Uraraka did the best Shinsou impression she could muster. He laughed more, and his cheeks began to hurt.
“I’ve never seen you so happy! Maybe I should do silly stuff like this more often!”
“Just about everything you do makes me happy, Uraraka-san.”
Uraraka stopped dead in her tracks, and it took seeing her shell shocked face for him to realize what he had just said.
“Oh?” she said, her voice pitched two octaves higher than normal.
“Y—yeah. You know, you’re, uh— fun. Fun to be around. Of course you make people happy.”
It was a pitiful save, but he hoped it worked. He wasn’t wrong, she did make people happy. It was hard to take in the joy she exuded and come out of it grumpy.
“You make me happy too,” she said, the words coming out faster than he could process them. He simply stared while he tried to sort them out in his mind. “I— Well, walking with you and talking to you… it’s nice. It’s more than nice, it’s the highlight of my week these days. I’ve always gotten excited whenever it rains for as long as I can remember, but now I get excited for another reason.” She stepped forward, lowered her umbrella, and ducked under the safety of his. She was so close their breath began to mingle. “I get to see you when it rains.”
He saw the nerves in her expression as she waited for his reply. There wouldn’t be any other reason for her to be nervous except…
Shinsou leaned in slowly to give her time to decide what she wanted to do. Not even half a second had passed before she was leaning forward too.
Her lips were cold and slightly chapped from the winter air, but the way they parted against his would have had his knees buckling if he didn’t desperately need to hold it together so he could savor this moment. When they broke apart, her eyes remained closed for a long moment before they slowly opened. There was a sparkle residing in them that hadn’t been there before.
“I’ve wanted to do that since that first rainy day,” she whispered, a contented tone to her voice.
“Honestly, I’ve wanted to do that since way before that.” Her resulting grin from that statement was blinding.
Uraraka closed her umbrella and hung it on her arm. They shared Shinsou’s umbrella with his free arm around her and her head rested on his shoulder. They enjoyed that particular rainy day for hours, walking side by side in their matching rain boots.