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Rider hated the rain.
It was sunset, but you could barely tell with the clouds desaturating the orange glow in the sky. Cold wind blew through the breezeways of Inkopolis, making Rider shake out his hands to the best of his ability–considering the plastic bags filled with groceries in them. The motion didn’t seem to help too much with the cold, though, and the lime inkling sighed as he shrugged his jacket up on his torso to cover his neck more.
Rider clicked his tongue as he saw the sparse drops of water begin to hit the concrete road beside him. A drop landed on the back of his head, making him shiver. More dripped onto his face, and he rubbed off the light stinging sensation with his sleeve. Mentally cursing himself for not bringing an umbrella, he began to pick up the pace, other cephalopods wandering about nearby seeming to share his instinct to get going.
Rider’s worn-out shoes just barely kept him from slipping on the smoothed concrete lining the streets as he briskly speed-walked down the alleyway. The rain intensified much faster than he’d anticipated, so Rider started looking around for places to stay instead of focusing on running to the train station. He turned around a corner lined with familiar yellow metal fences, and his eyes darted around the Plaza in search of somewhere to sit and wait.
An inkling without an umbrella suddenly brushed past him, dashing to his right. He glared at them, his line of sight following the inkling to the Shoal, where a large overhang extended over the outdoor arcade systems to protect them. He squinted through the increasingly frequent raindrops as he hesitantly approached the overhang, pace slowing substantially so he didn’t slam into the wall.
With a sigh, his shoulders fell and he let the plastic bags in his hands slip just a little as he caught his breath. The rain was harder now, a gentle mist persistently drifting under the hangover. A few Shoal employees were rushing to get the gaming appliances inside before the rain started hitting them too hard, and Rider idly wondered why they put them out in the first place.
In the meantime a few jellyfish had gathered in the outskirts of the square, bumbling happily through the downpour. There weren’t many people under the overhang, most of them just deciding to run through the rain. The inkling he’d followed here was pulling out a poncho already, slipping it over their clothes and prepping to dash out to the subway. Rider sighed, sliding one of the bags onto his elbow to check his phone.
The chances of rain that morning seemed low, but now they were way higher. No shot, Rider thought bitterly as he scrolled down to see the map.
Luckily the rain over him right now was a small patch, but more loomed in the distance. The clear pocket he would get seemed like more than enough time to make it to the train, though. It seemed like It would be over in at most a few minutes. Rider put his phone away with a sigh.
He could just run. He didn’t want to, though, it would jostle the groceries he’d bought and it might break the bags if he wasn’t careful. The possibility of face planting on the sidewalk and dropping all his things also wasn’t the most attractive concept. He walked over to hover near the windows, out of the mist’s spray range as he considered his minimal options. Once again cursing himself for not bringing an umbrella, he thoughtfully looked at the Shoal.
He could sit in there, probably, but it was always loud, and Rider wasn’t sure if he wanted to deal with that right now. Plus, it seemed pretty packed already. At least more packed than usual, considering how many people were starting to move to Splatsville for the next season. Rider shut off that train of thought. Moving was a pain. He sat down on the concrete border of the window and put his groceries to the side. He almost missed the sound of the door opening, the sound of 8-bit music and people talking fading outside for a moment.
“Hey.” A familiar, slightly husky voice snapped Rider out of his silent musing and he jolted as he looked up to meet a pair of droopy gray eyes behind a familiar gas mask.
“Mask,” Rider had said, startled. The cyan inkling huffed, hands in his pockets as he stood a good foot away. Out of his control, Rider stayed dead silent. He was still breaking out of his thoughts, something that seemed to take a bit more effort for him than usual. Rider stared at his boyfriend like he wasn’t real, taking a moment to remember where he was, and then continued. “Sorry, I was thinking.”
“Could tell.” Mask hummed.
“Sorry.” Rider repeated flatly, unsure how to respond to that.
“Don’t be.” Mask shrugged and finally walked over to stand closer to Rider. Rider felt a little awkward sitting alone so he stood up. “I saw someone through the window. Wasn’t expecting you.”
“Like, me specifically?” Rider raised a brow. Mask nodded, slowly. “...Why not?”
“Usually Aloha’s around right now.” Mask looked back to look around the Plaza. “But I guess he’s avoiding the rain like a smart person. Unlike you.” Mask hummed with a lilt in his voice Rider recognized as a teasing smile pulling at his mouth.
“Fuck off.” Rider scoffed, elbowing Mask’s side. The cyan inkling chuckled, the noise awkward through his mask. That’s how Mask themself described it, anyway. Rider never voiced that he thought it was endearing. “...I forgot an umbrella.” Rider admitted, and Mask nodded again before they leaned back against the window with a sigh.
“It’s cold.” Mask half-complained half-commented after a beat, still watching the square over his shoulder.
“It is.” Rider agreed, crossing his arms. The slightly damp fabric of his jacket certainly wasn’t helping, but it’d be colder without it. The sound of rain hitting the overhang silenced their conversation. A moment passed before Mask spoke up again.
“Skull invited us over, by the way.” Mask turned back to Rider, kicking his foot back to adjust his shoe. He was clearly trying to fill the silence. Something about the way Mask was more talkative around him made his chest flutter. “You didn’t respond to the text, so,”
“Oh-“ Rider blinked. “Nah, I didn’t see it.” He picked his phone out his pocket and lo and behold, the text was there. It was a simple ‘Date at my apartment tonight?’ message with 3 emojis reacting to it, followed by a back and forth between Army and Aloha on how they should either watch a movie or order takeout. Rider liked the invitation and sighed.
“Since you live in the same apartment unit I figured you’d go anyway,” Mask blinked at the ground, his stare unwavering. He went quiet for a moment, seemingly trying to formulate his words. His eyebrows always furrowed just slightly when he did that. Rider watched him with wide eyes.
“...You can come over in the meantime.” The yellow-green inkling guessed, and Mask simply turned his head to stare at him instead of the ground. The angle made the glass on his mask shine over so Rider couldn’t see their eyes. The way Mask was so easily able to turn unreadable vaguely unsettled the other, and Rider nearly thought he’d said something wrong before they replied.
“Sweet, yeah, cool.” Mask let out a quiet sigh with his words and Rider rolled his eyes.
The rain was getting better, Rider noticed, ear flicking as the sound of the drops hitting the overhang lessened in frequency. Mask blinked at him before looking back out at the Plaza.
“It seems good now.” Rider pushed himself off the window ledge, sticking his hand out to feel if the rain was still hard or not. It was dying down quickly, he noted, as a few sparse drops landed on his palm. “If we go now, we can probably make it before the worse rain.” Rider adjusted his jacket’s sleeve as he stood and flattened a bumped zipper with a brush of his hand.
“Okay.” Mask shrugged, stepping back a bit to let Rider pick up his bags. He wordlessly took one that was farther away from the others. Rider watched him thoughtfully for a moment as the cyan inkling turned away abruptly.
“If you’re gonna hold one, hold two.” Rider said pointedly as he slipped the other bag he had on his right hand off to his fingers. He held it out to Mask as the inkling turned. They stared at the bag for a moment before groaning, rolling their eyes, and taking it in the same hand.
“Tryin t’be nice… Whatever…” Mask grumbled, taking the other bag in the same hand and turning on his heel in his stewing remorse. Rider barely heard Mask’s incoherent muttering through his namesake, but he didn’t really mind, opting to start walking down the sidewalk as planned. He was glad to find that the rain was practically gone, now just a light flurry of drops that barely touched him. Mask followed him quickly with a bit of shuffling in his step to catch up and soon enough they were on their way.
And when Rider slowly slipped his free hand into Mask’s, the cyan inkling didn’t push it away. They interlocked their fingers without a word and Rider looked over to find Mask staring to the side, watching the buildings pass. Flustered, no doubt. Rider wondered if maybe he’d pushed too hard, questioning if he should go back on the whole hand-holding thing until Mask was more comfortable. He’d forgotten the cyan inkling was always more resigned with this kind of thing.
His thoughts were cut short when Mask squeezed his hand gently, not breaking his intense eye contact with the wall. Rider blinked at him, then made a small ‘hm’ noise before squeezing back and leading them around the corner.
Maybe the rain wasn’t that bad.