Work Text:
Today was not his day.
Rain blinked back tears from the stress of his first day back at university. How everything ended up going wrong, he had no idea. He had even gone in a week early to make sure he knew where to park his old car and locate his architecture class.
The morning had started off fine. He woke up an hour before his alarm even went off, so there was no way he would fail to show up on time. Oh how wrong he could be.
Two traffic accidents caused nearly a 25 minute delay to get to the university. He glanced at the clock after finally pulling into the parking garage after exiting the backed up freeway. It's fine. He thought to himself. This is why I came early. I still have 15 minutes.
He drove around going past the ground level, expecting it to be full already. True to his thoughts, it was. Rain looked around as he followed the arrow to the second level, hoping to find a spot. When he wrapped around the whole level without a single spot in sight, he shrugged. It's fine. There should be plenty on the next levels.
Wrong. Rain drove around each level, climbing higher and higher to the top, with zero spot in sight. He glanced nervously at the clock again as he reach level 8, the last hope he had. There were only 10 minutes left before the class started.
Rain noticed a student walking to her car, which was parked directly in front of him. He sighed, relieved because she was leaving and the spot would be opened to him. He tapped his foot impatiently as a full minute went by before the girl finally backed up and drove away.
As soon as he parked and shut the car off, he flew out the door towards the nearest elevator.
Shit. He thought as he approached stairs. There were no elevators in sight and he had 8 floors to climb down. He sighed, anxiety and stress starting to course through his body.
He was not the most coordinated person. And he knew Payu would kill him if he hurt himself by tripping on the stairs and falling because he was rushing. So he slowly descended down each flight carefully. Once he finally reached the bottom, he practically ran to the building where his class was taking place.
As he waited for the walk signal to turn across the road, he checked his phone again. 4 minutes. I'm fine. The class is literally down the hallway when I enter the building. He said to himself. He would make it.
He sprints to the classroom, relieved to have a few minutes to spare. He figured he would set his things down and find a good place to sit. He opened the door.
The lights were off.
Not a single soul was in the room.
He closed the door and checked the classroom number again. 126. Yep, this is where his class is. Or was supposed to be. He grabbed his phone quickly to check if there had been some sort of last minute email telling him where he needed to go.
No wifi.
Rain felt like he would come apart. How the hell can a university not have wifi? Why can't one thing go right today? He asked himself in panic. He had 1 minute before his class started.
He ran around asking some students also hurrying to their classes, but none of them were able to tell him where to go. Finally he found the front desk in the building and was able to ask someone to help him.
Rain finally walked through the door of his classroom a good five minutes late. He didn't want his first day to start out like this, but there was nothing much he could do. Rationally he knew it was all totally fine. It was the first day after all. There really weren't any expectations, but he couldn't help but feel stressed and anxious at the events he went through.
He figured that after a good ten minutes, the adrenaline from the morning would ease and he would feel more calm. But once again he was wrong.
It had been a while since he was last in a classroom, making the whole time feel uncomfortable and different from what he was used to. He felt his lungs protesting as he tried to breathe through whatever panic he was experiencing. It wasn't the worst anxiety he's ever had, and he was sure he could manage it long enough to get through the class. But the feeling never got better.
As the first hour was approaching, he felt his hands start to go numb, a really random side effect to his anxiety if you ask him. It was getting a little harder to breathe, but he had to keep on. He didn't really know why he was anxious. But if he had to guess, it probably had to have been from being stressed all morning.
Much to his surprise and relief, the class got over a full hour early, which honestly did make sense. Once again, it was only the first day.
The tightness in his chest eased a little as he made his way back to the monster of a parking garage that honestly made him want to cry. He now knew parking would be an uphill battle every time he had to come on campus. He wasn't looking forward to it.
He slowly climbed up all eight floors, again not wanting to fall. As ridiculous as it is falling while going up the stairs, knowing his luck today, it was plausible.
Luckily he made it all the way to the top with no accidents. He couldn't wait to get back home to Payu and have him hug the stress away.
——————
In all honesty Payu wasn't that busy today. But the moment he heard the front door unlocking, he immediately grabbed his computer acting like he had been typing up an email for the last ten minutes. He always loved watching the different ideas Rain would come up with to get him to stop working. Most of them included him either being in a teasing or a pouty mood until he couldn't help but give in at the sheer adorableness. As the door pushed open, he quickly hid his smile and went back to "work".
"Payu." Rain said as soon as he walked through the door, he sounded relieved. Payu gave a hum in response without looking, continuing to type random words on a drafted email to no one.
"Payu?" He was closer now. Payu looked up and smiled, not wanting to fully ignore his boyfriend.
"Hi." He responded, while then proceeding to look back down at the laptop. Rain frowned slightly, while taking a seat next to him. He started to lean onto Payu, trying to rest his head on his shoulder, searching for any comfort his boyfriend was willing to give him. But Payu quickly redirected him so he wouldn't see the screen.
"Sorry Rain, I can't right now. I have work to do." He said inwardly smirking. Any second now he'll start begging me to take a break. He thought to himself, waiting to see what his boyfriend would try to do.
What he was not expecting was the small, "Oh." in response. Even further, he wasn't anticipating Rain to get off the couch and walk up the stairs to their shared bedroom.
Finally it clicked for him. He smiled again, impressed with Rain's tactic. Clearly the boy expected Payu to follow him upstairs, wondering why he sounded so discouraged. But Payu was smarter than that. He would wait another few minutes until Rain came back downstairs, whining how his attempt failed.
It took a full ten minutes before Payu started getting actually worried. There was no way Rain would be able to last ten minutes without coming to drag Payu away from his computer. It just wasn't like him.
He quickly discarded the laptop and made his way upstairs.
——————
He found Rain laying on the bed, with his back facing the door. The comforter was all the way up to his shoulders, slightly covering his face.
"Rain?" he called out softly. The situation was making him feel more and more worried by the second. Rain was not acting like his normal self. A small sniffle made his eyes go wide as he ran to the bedside. He pulled back the comforter slightly and the sight made him feel guilty. He took pride in always knowing how Rain was feeling, but he royally misread the situation downstairs. Rain had his arms wrapped tightly around Payu's pillow. His face was buried, muffling his cries. There was a large tear stain on the pillow, indicating that Rain had been crying for the full ten minutes Payu left him.
He walked around to his side of the bed and crawled in so he could face his broken boy. "Rain," he reached his hand out to brush some of the strands away from the boy's face, but he still refused to surface from the pillow. "Can you look at me?" he asked gently. A few moments passed. "Please?" Payu asked him.
Rain's red rimmed eyes met Payu's, effectively breaking the older's heart. He vowed to never be the cause of that face ever again. Regardless of the pain he felt, he smiled reassuringly. "There's my good boy." he calmly said. The palm of his hand cupped the boy's face. He watched as Rain nuzzled his face closer, seeking the warmth. It was safe to say it melted Payu into a puddle.
With his other hand, he maneuvered the pillow away from Rain and moved as close as he could, effectively replacing the pillow with himself. He brought Rain's face to his chest to comfort him. This is what Rain had needed from the beginning. It had been what he nonverbally asked for downstairs when he tried to rest his head on Payu's shoulder.
"My good boy." He praised, tightening his arms around the boy. "You had a rough first day didn't you?" he asked in a quiet voice. He felt Rain shake his head slightly in agreement.
"It wasn't like it was a horrible day though." Rain whispered, speaking for the first time since Payu had come into the room. His voice was watery. Payu hummed as he waited for the boy to collect his thoughts.
"Out of everything that happened, I was only like five minutes late. It's not even that big of a deal. Yet I feel like it got blown up into a huge thing." he finally confessed, snuggling deeper into Payu's embrace, searching for more of the warmth and comfort he's needed since the day began.
"I just felt so stressed out all day, which turned into anxiety from all the nerves and rushing, and it just never got better. I hate how it affects my entire day, even when I shouldn't feel this way right now. There's no logical reason as to why I feel the way I do. There's nothing causing me to still feel anxious and on edge." he vented out, a few more tears running down his face. Payu leaned down to kiss his forehead to calm him down.
"I just feel like it's so dumb." he confessed, confused by his feelings. Payu gently lifted his face so they were looking into each other's eyes. He gave the warmest and most understanding smile Rain had ever seen.
"No matter how small and insignificant you think something is, if it made you feel like this, it's important." He bent down to kiss his lips softly. "You're important." he said while leaning their foreheads together. He felt Rain smile slightly, his shoulders relaxing the longer he was being held.
"Thank you." he whispered to Payu.
"Of course." Hi kissed the tip of his nose. "I'm sorry I was teasing you downstairs. I really misread the situation." he confessed to the boy. He still felt a little guilty for leaving Rain to cry by himself without noticing. Rain leaned back slightly so he could see Payu clearly.
"What do you mean teasing me?" he asked in confusion. Payu sheepishly grimaced.
"I was pretending to be busy because I love how you try to distract me." he confessed with a laugh. "I thought you were purposefully trying to make me worried when you left and walked upstairs. I figured you thought I would follow you up here, successfully pulling me away from working." He put up air quotes on the last part. "I didn't want you to win." he pouted, causing Rain to laugh. The sound warmed his heart.
"So you mean to tell me, that you thought I was smart enough to purposefully make you worried about me to lure you upstairs?" His eyes widened at a sudden realization. "Honestly," he began. "That's genius. I have to try that." The statement caused Payu to protest immediately.
"No." he said while kissing Rain again. "I'm already always worried about you. I don't need to work overtime." he said while tickling Rain's side. The boy laughed at the sudden attack.
"But–" the tickling doubled. He rolled over so he was fully on top of Payu, stopping the attack and catching his breath. "It would work every single time though. It's fool proof, honestly." he pouts. Payu smiled while shaking his head.
"What am I going to do with you?" He asked fondly while cuddling Rain closer to him. Rain smiled into his chest.
"You love me."
"And I always will."