Chapter Text
Lex climbed a broken escalator in the train station and cursed underneath his breath when he reached the door of the train station. Outside, the sky’s muted grays were darker and the tree branches, speckled with changing colors, swayed ominously. There was rain in the forecast, something he’d hoped to avoid because he didn’t have an umbrella. Public transportation and walking home with a thunderstorm looming wasn’t exactly his idea of a fun Friday night, but his car had broken down the day before and there weren’t any rentals available for the long weekend. He was willing to tolerate stuffy public transportation, but was beginning to regret his decision not to order a taxi.
For a moment, he humored the thought of ordering a taxi before he disavowed himself. After spending an hour of his afternoon in a claustrophobic train car, desperately trying to drown out the noise with Chopin playing in his earbuds, he wasn’t ready to deal with strangers again. He especially didn’t want to chance the possibility of having an overly chatty driver—the day had simply been too much. The weather app on his phone suggested he had a half-hour before the rain started, which was enough time to walk home.
The air outside was thick and humid, unpleasantly swamp-like considering that it was early autumn. Lex set a brisk pace toward home and tried to ignore the way the ambient temperature seemed to plummet with every wind gust.
After only a few minutes of walking it became clear that Lex wouldn’t make it home before the rain started. At this point, the temperature must have dropped by ten degrees and the damp air forecast an imminent downpour. He could always run, though it was probably a fruitless prospect as his apartment was almost two miles away still. He sighed and began to reconsider his options.
Jimmy’s apartment was less than a half mile away, though in the opposite direction, though asking his boyfriend to come over wasn’t exactly his first choice. Jimmy had a roommate, one that Lex had never met—somebody that, for unspecified reasons, his boyfriend was nervous about him meeting. Whether it was because he was still in the closet, or even if it was because he simply had a terrible roommate, Lex wasn’t sure. No matter the reasons, it would be awkward to have that meeting now and Jimmy would give him shelter if push came to shove. Perhaps, Lex figured, he could simply ask to borrow an umbrella to make the remainder of his commute home bearable.
Rolling thunder growled in the distance, resigning Lex to his fate. He pulled out his phone to call Jimmy. “Hey! I was just thinking of calling you.”
Thunder growled in the distance and Lex resigned to his fate. He pulled out his phone to call his boyfriend. “Hey!” Jimmy’s warm voice sounded distant behind heavy gusts of wind. “I was just thinking about calling you.”
Lex smiled faintly despite himself but cut to the point when he felt a single, fat drop of rain hit the top of his head. “Are you home?”
“Yeah, why?”
Lex sighed, “I had to take the train today. It’s going to rain and your apartment is closer than mine.” Lex couldn’t hold back on a sigh. “I took the train today and it’s going to rain. Your apartment is closer than mine.”
“Come over here!” Jimmy said without hesitation. “We can watch a movie or something until it stops raining.”
“Are you sure?” Lex kept walking, though the next street corner he turned on took him closer to Jimmy’s apartment. “If it’s too much, I can just borrow an umbrella.”
“Please! I want you to stay here.”
It began to drizzle, and Lex tried to shield himself from the rain with his jacket. His mind got caught on the prospect of an awkward meeting with a roommate. “Are you sure that your roommate won’t mind?” His worries vanished with a crack of thunder and lightning, just close enough to startle him.
“He’s out for the weekend. I have the whole place to myself.”
Relief washed over him like a wave, and he picked up his pace. The drizzle was still a minor annoyance, but it seemed like it was getting heavier as he walked. “Thanks, Jimmy. See you soon?”
“Totally! I’ll meet you at the gait and show you upstairs. See you soon.” The line clicked and Lex pocketed his phone. He was less than a block away from the apartment when the sky opened in a straight downpour with another harsh roll of thunder. He began to run, though his pace though the deluge soaked him anyway.
Jimmy was waiting outside with an umbrella as promised and rushed over to him as soon as he saw him, pulling Lex underneath the safety of the umbrella. They walked back to the apartment in silence, while Lex tried to ignore the disgusting squelch from his wet shoes.
The cold air from inside was a shock to Lex’s system and he almost forgot to pull off his shoes outside the front door, which dripped as he set them down. His feet itched from the wet wool of his socks, and he peeled them off too before he stepped inside.
Jimmy had clearly anticipated this, Lex thought, noting the towel on the ground inside to catch water as well as a stack of clean towels on a table beside the door. He grabbed one and began using it to dry is feet, which were tinged pink from the cold.
Jimmy shut the door behind him and left the dripping umbrella outside. Lex hadn’t noticed that Jimmy also grabbed a towel until the man began gently towel-drying his hair and face. There was something about the simple intimacy that made his cheeks and neck flush despite the cold. He rested a hand on Jimmy’s waist and pulled him in close enough to rest their foreheads together. Lex never considered himself the sentimental or intimate type—it flew in the face of rational thought and clouded judgment. He valued vision and strategic insight and credited that to his success as a businessman. This kind of sappy fondness was enough to cloud his judgment, but while he knew it might be his downfall, he craved the way Jimmy touched him with earnest.
When they broke contact, Jimmy looked at his dripping clothes and tugged lightly at the hem of his shirt. “May I?”
Lex nodded and Jimmy tugged the wet shirt over his head and began to gently dry his torso, too. Lex shivered at first, but the gentle dab of the towel and occasional brush of Jimmy’s fingers against his bare skin was enough to warm him quickly.
“Careful, Flamebird, if you get me out of these wet clothes I might have to return the favor.”
This time, it was Jimmy’s cheeks that reddened. He wrapped the towel around the back of Lex’s shoulders and used it to pull them closer together. His heart fluttered and he didn’t have the presence of mind to curse it before Jimmy leaned in for a tender kiss. “As long as you’ll let me warm you up,” he whispered.
Maybe rainy days were’t so bad, after all.