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Kodya eyed the desert skyline with suspicion. Clouds…
Given the unrelenting heat of the black sun, a wispy cloud here and there would be a welcome change. But that wasn’t how weather worked in the eyes realm. No, just like everything else in this godforsaken place, the weather only occurred in extremes: bone dry or torrential downpour.
It happened every dozen voyages or so - a deluge that carved into the landscape like massive claws. During the worst storms, anything unsecured would be washed away and buried in the runoff untold miles away.
“Change of plans, kid!” he called out. Gyrus pulled his half-sword from the last slime in the pit below and looked up at him quizzically.
“There’s a storm on the way,” Kodya explained, matter-of-factly. “It should touch down within an hour or two. We’ll need to grab our things from the cave and take shelter in the artificial base before then.”
Gyrus nodded, materialized his sword, then joined Kodya at the brim of the pit with a boost from his boots. “What kind of storm?” he asked.
“The big kind,” Kodya answered, then beckoned the kid onward before he could ask anymore questions.
“Why don’t we stay in the base all the time?” Gyrus asked later, as they were collecting their spare gear from the cave floor.
“Too far away,” Kodya grunted as he fastened the tie to his bedroll with his teeth. “I set it up when I first got here, before I knew where the best item stockpiles were, and before I knew I’d be training you. We’d be wasting precious time each voyage traveling to the training grounds and back if we stayed there.” He sent the bedroll to his inventory, then went about collecting his cooking supplies.
“Oh,” was Gyrus’ only reply.
As they made their way across the desert toward the base, Gyrus finally spoke again.
“I bet it’ll feel nice to sleep in an actual bed again, huh?”
Kodys shrugged. “I suppose.”
In the corner of his eye, he saw Gyrus make that face - the one where he was adding up numbers no one else could see.
“…Maybe we could move it somewhere more convenient? That way, you wouldn’t have to throw your back out on the cave floor every night while you waited for me to get stronger!”
Kodya snorted. “Shouldn’t you be more concerned about aches and pains? You’re the one getting shoved into monster pits every day, after all!”
His heart lurched when Gyrus’ response was to laugh. Kodya had gone years with hearing that sound… and now he heard it on a daily basis. It was shocking how readily this reset version of Gyrus opened up to him. And despite Kodya’s best efforts, it was shockingly easy to find himself opening up in return.
“If you were so concerned about that, you wouldn’t have thrown me into all those pits in the first place!” Gyrus retorted playfully, elbowing Kodya in the side for good measure
Kodya elbowed him back - maybe a little too sharply, because Gyrus quickly retaliated with a full-forced shove, cackling when Kodya nearly toppled into the sand.
“Wow, really?” he balked, brushing himself off and taking two steps ahead to trick Gyrus into thinking this little spat was over. Then he struck, angling his shoulder and throwing his weight at Gyrus in one quick motion.
But the kid saw it coming. And he countered exactly how Kodya had taught him. Kodya’s heart swelled with a confusing mix of pride and alarm as Gyrus ducked low and kicked his ankles out from under him in one quick sweep of his leg.
They fell on the ground together in a flurry of swatted hands and shouted taunts. Gyrus momentarily got the upper-hand, but unfortunately for him, he’d learned all his moves from Kodya’s playbook. His moves were predictable, and with seven years of experience under Kodya’s belt, retaliation was quick. He had Gyrus pinned on his back in no time, and he gloated down at him through his sweaty bangs.
“Ha! You really thought you could pull a fast one on me?” He had to hand it to the kid though - their tussle had left him winded, and he paused to catch his breath as he awaited a response.
But Gyrus didn’t respond. He, too, was gasping for air, watching Kodya with wide eyes. He almost looked frightened.
“Hey. You okay?” Kodya asked, suddenly concerned.
The already-pink flush on Gyrus’ face deepened. “Umm… I…”
Oh no. Not this again. It had started a few voyages ago; the staring, the stuttering, the blushing, the lip biting... Kodya took a moment to remind himself that it wasn’t what it looked like. It had taken Gyrus years to open up to him before. There was no way the kid was infatuated with him after a few weeks of, what? Being bossed around and shoved into monster pits? No way!
The kid was just shy. He’d even admitted so himself, during a windy night when they’d had to share their doubled-up blankets.
“S-Sorry!” the kid stammered, for no apparent reason, as Kodya shifted to close the drafty gap between their backs. “I-I’m not used to, um… sharing.”
“It’s fine. You don’t have to be sorry, kid.”
“Oh. Okay. I just hope I’m not… being weird.”
“It’s fine, kid. Get some sleep.”
Kodya moved to get off the kid, but his motions caused a drop of sweat to fall from his hair and land on Gyrus’ face below. Embarrassed, he quickly wiped it off Gyrus’ cheek with a brush of his thumb.
…Sometimes moving without thinking got Kodya in trouble, and this was one of those moments.
Gyrus wasn’t one for prolonged eye contact - a trait consistent between both his past and present selves - which made it all the more notable that he was downright staring at Kodya right now.
“Kodya, I…” he murmured, and Kodya hung onto every word with anticipation. “I think…”
Gyrus’ gaze shifted, and he pointed over Kodya’s shoulder. “I think those clouds are getting bigger.”
Kodya glanced up at the sky to see several cumulonimbus clouds creeping up the horizon.
He cursed under his breath. “We need to get moving,” he said, helping Gyrus up to his feet. “You in the mood for a run?”
“Not really.”
“Too bad!”
Kodya took off, running toward the base and away from his problems. He heard Gyrus not too far behind him, panting as he kept up.
Memories of past storms drenched Kodya’s warm feelings in a cold panic. The sky was already darkening, and he knew what came next.
One of the village elders back home had told him that water was stronger than anything - even stone. Kodya hadn’t fully understood her until that first deluge.
He’d ignored the warning signs, and he’d nearly drowned as a result.
He could feel his lungs seizing up now, this time choking on air and fear instead of water. The clouds above them had darkened to an angry shade of gray, and a foreboding wind rustled his hair. Damn it. Where was the base?
Behind him, Gyrus was gasping for air, too. Their pace had likely set off his asthma, but Kodya was lost in the dark maze of his haunted mind, and all he could hear were the choked wheezes of a man with a mortally-wounded neck.
Focus, Kodya. Don’t think about it!
A clap of thunder sounded from behind them, and the kid yelped in surprise.
You killed him.
The thought occurred without permission.
You watched him die, and you’ll get to watch him die again soon… The waters will sweep him away…
The dark sky briefly lit up, and another terrifying pelt of thunder rang out, this one loud enough for Kodya to feel it vibrate within his chest.
Mercifully, the flash of lightning also revealed the telltale white dome of the base in the distance.
“This way!” Kodya yelled through the growing wind, clasping Gyrus’ hand tightly in his own and sprinting for the base.
I’m not going to lose him! Not this time.
The next few minutes were excruciating, but finally they were standing inside the base, and Kodya sealed the door shut behind them.
Kodya finally allowed himself to relax, collapsing on one of the bunks. Gyrus sat on one across from him, and time passed in silence as they caught their breaths.
Images flickered against the backs of Kodya’s closed eyelids - frigid waters, flooded caves, the pained look in his best friend’s eyes during his final moments…
We’re safe! He thought. It’s fine, we’re safe!
A small tremor took hold of his fingers. Kodya made a small sound of annoyance and began rubbing and squeezing his hands together, hoping the pressure would make it stop.
Gyrus eyed him with concern from across the room. “Hey. You okay?”
“I’m f-fine,” Kodya forced out. Oh great. Real convincing.
The trembling worsened, and Kodya folded his arms to his chest, clamping his hands in a vice press.
Outside, the thunder and wind roared, but there were no signs of a downpour. Gyrus was still staring at him, and Kodya felt his ears grow hot with embarrassment. I made a big deal over nothing.
“It sounds pretty bad out there,” the kid offered, hesitantly.
Kodya laughed bitterly. “No it doesn’t.”
With a huff, Kodya laid back on the mattress and stared at the ceiling, signaling the end of this short conversation and hoping to free himself from Gyrus’ analytical gaze. But he could still feel the kid’s lingering confusion in the silence that followed.
That’s when he finally heard it - a soft pitter-patter against the domed roof that quickly swelled into a ferocious pelting.
“Kodya? What’s that?” Gyrus asked.
Kodya shifted to stare at him in bewilderment. The kid met his gaze briefly, then scanned around the room. “Is the wind hitting something against the base?”
Kodya fully sat up at that, squinting in disbelief. Gyrus smiled nervously. “Is it… rocks?”
One of Kodya’s eyebrows lifted to burrow deep in his fringe.
“Kid, it’s rain,” he finally said, and Gyrus’ eyes went wide.
Within seconds, the kid had stood up and run over to the door, his hand on the latch.
“What are you doing?!” Kodya snapped, at his side and pulling him away from the door in an instant.
“I want to see it!”
“What?! Kid, are you trying to get killed?”
“No? I wasn’t going to go far!” Gyrus protested as he reached for the door handle again.
“Absolutely not! Are you stupid?!” Kodya shouted, grabbing the kid’s hand and wrenching it away again.
Gyrus gazed at him, puzzled, then looked down at their clasped hands, where Kodya’s hand was still trembling. “I’m sorry,” he said. “I’ve just… never seen it before.”
“Never seen what before?” Kodya asked.
Gyrus glanced back up at him. “Rain.”
Kodya’s mind refused to believe what he was hearing at first. But then the pieces began to slowly click into place.
Gyrus must have seen the look on his face, because he began to explain. “I grew up off-planet, on a space colony. We didn’t have weather there, and water use was rationed.”
Seeing the sad look on the kid’s face, Kodya felt conflicted. For a brief moment, he imagined opening the door to let Gyrus peek outside, but the vision quickly transformed into one of Gyrus being swept away by suffocating depths, out of his reach. Always out of his reach…
“Scout, scan the outside environment for weather hazards,” Gyrus said, breaking him from his thoughts. He turned and watched in horror as the bot answered.
“Climate-based hazards are currently minimal. Please wear proper coverings if venturing outside.”
The kid looked at him expectantly, and Kodya’s heart dropped.
“Please,” he begged, his voice strained, “Please don’t go out there.”
“But Kodya - ”
He slammed his fist against the wall. “I’m not letting you go out there!”
Gyrus’ eyes went wide with fear, and Kodya instinctively turned to flee - to stew and let off steam somewhere in private - but there was no privacy to be found here. Fuck. Instead, he sauntered over to the furthest corner of the furthest bunk in the room and sat there, trying to make himself as small as possible by folding his legs against his chest and curling in on himself.
His face burnt with embarrassment. Losing my mind all because of a little rain… Despite this, his tremors continued, and his stomach lurched with each pelt of raindrops above them. Kodya dug his nails into his arms in frustration. He must think I’m crazy.
“Hey,” Gyrus said gently from his side (when had he moved there?).
Kodya stubbornly buried his face deeper between his legs. Gyrus touched his shoulder softly, as if reassuring a frightened animal, and Kodya’s face burned even hotter.
“Hey.”
Kodya squeezed his eyes shut and tried not to think about flooded caves or bleeding necks.
“Heyyyy!” Gyrus jabbed him in the rib cage.
“Could you be more annoying?” Kodya grumbled.
“Yes, actually,” Gyrus laughed. “Do you want to wait and see how annoying I can get, or are you going to let me give you a hug?”
Surprised, he looked up to see the kid with his arms spread wide in offering.
“I suppose if it’ll get you to stop pestering me…” he mumbled, and leaned sideways into the hug.
Gyrus’ arms wrapped around him. “I don’t know what’s going on,” he said, “And you don’t have to tell me. But I want you to know that. Umm... That I’m here. If you want to talk, that is.”
Kodya was loath to admit it, but it felt so nice to be in Gyrus’ arms like this… He nestled against the kid’s collar and sighed.
“O-Or if you don’t want to talk!” Gyrus added. “That’s fine, too! Just…” Kodya was close enough to hear him gulp. “Just let me know if I’m being weird, okay?”
Kodya didn’t respond, but he eased further into the hug and wrapped his arms around Gyrus in return, and that seemed to reassure the kid enough to continue the hug and idly rub at his back. Every once in a while he would stop, only to resume again when Kodya’s fingers flexed against him, pressing a wordless request into his skin.
Outside, the storm carried on, but the battering ram of raindrops against Kodya’s eardrums slowly faded away into background noise.
“I can’t swim,” he confessed.
“O-Oh?” Gyrus replied, clearly confused by this sudden admission. He rubbed Kodya’s back harder, as if to make up for this confusion. Despite his nerves, Kodya almost laughed. It was so very Gyrus.
“Mhm,” he mumbled. “I always meant to learn how. And my mentor… he always wanted to teach me. But it was the one thing I couldn’t…”
As an apprentice, he’d prided himself in being able to overcome every challenge Gyrus threw at him. Combat. Obstacle courses. Strength training. No matter the challenge, he’d faced it head on, ready to prove that he was worthy of being Gyrus’ protector.
But he’d never been able to overcome his fears of drowning, and every swimming lesson they’d attempted had ended in a panic attack.
It was no wonder, then, that he’d failed to protect Gyrus in the end.
He bit back the thick bile of shame. “It’s pathetic. I should have learned by now.”
“Hey, it’s okay!” Gyrus said, not realizing that he was the bitter embodiment of Kodya’s failures. “I didn’t learn to swim until recently either!”
Kodya lifted his head in astonishment. Gyrus had always been so talented, so capable… It had already been a shock to find out that his reset self could hardly hit the broad side of a barn with a stick, but the kid still seemed to have that endless depth of knowledge.
“You didn’t?” he asked.
Gyrus shook his head. “Our water was rationed, remember? It was hard to justify building a community pool when drinking water was already so scarce. The few that were built were used for prescribed low-impact physical therapy and, in my case, astronaut training.” He laughed and began pulling away from the embrace. “The first time I jumped in, I sank like a rock and had to be rescued!”
Kodya clung to him tightly at the thought, and Gyrus stopped pulling away. “Did… Did something similar happen to you?” he asked.
It took Kodya several moments to muster the words.
“When it first rained here…” he said. “I took shelter in an old lava tube. It was one of those twisted ones, so I didn’t realize parts of it were below the water line.” He clutched Gyrus tighter as he relived the memory. “I took a nap… and I couldn’t see anything when I woke up. The tunnels were waterlogged and I - I had to feel my way around and blindly wade through them, holding my breath until I broke the surface again. The water kept rising, and I couldn’t even tell if I was making my way out of the tunnel or going deeper in…”
“That sounds awful,” Gyrus murmured. “I would have just reset myself at that point...”
Kodya chuckled sadly. “You know how I always tell you to keep an extra heartbeet on hand in case you need to reset?”
“Yeah? …Oh.”
“Yeah. That’s why.”
…He could feel Gyrus looking at him again and felt a jolt of self-consciousness. “A-Anyway, that’s why - ”
“Kodya,” Gyrus whispered. “I don’t want to alarm you, but I think there might be a small leak in the roof.”
“Huh?”
Gyrus simply smiled, then reached up to brush his thumb against something wet on Kodya’s cheek. “Some raindrops got on your face,” he said softly. “They must have gotten through the roof, somehow.”
Kodya felt his face get hot under Gyrus’ hand, and his heart leapt wildly in his ribcage. He heard the faint echo of Don’s voice in his mind - “No close contact” - but it was drowned out by the sound of rain.
Gyrus was still looking at him, but this time Kodya didn’t mind. It was nice, being close like this…
Suddenly, the kid pulled away with a gasp. “S-Sorry! I’m being weird again. I’ll just, umm…” He stood up as if to leave, then seemed to remember that they were confined to this small space.
“We can go outside, if you want,” Kodya blurted, processing his words only after he’d said them.
The kid’s eyes lit up. “Really?! But… Are you sure?”
Despite his fears, the thought of spending any more time with Gyrus in this cramped, tension-filled bunker made Kodya even more nervous, so he nodded.
“You want to see the rain, right? Just… don’t go far, okay?”
Gyrus beamed at him. “I won’t,” he promised.
With a sigh, Kodya opened the door, and Gyrus bolted outside like a dog on a mission to get as wet as possible. Kodya stood inside the safety of the doorway, watching as the kid ran around like a maniac, waving his arms skyward and hollering with delight as he got pelted by the rain.
“Kodya! Come on! You have to try this!” he shouted.
Kodya grinned despite himself. “I’m alright! I’ve had plenty of experience already.”
“But it’s so…” Gyrus reached up toward the heavens as if he could grasp them. “It’s like hydroponics, but in the sky!”
“I don’t know what those words mean!” Kodya shouted back, unable to keep the laughter out of his voice.
His heart ached as he continued to watch the kid jump for joy. It was something he’d always loved about him - the childlike wonder and curiosity about all things. But the Gyrus he knew had always put duty first, restricting these moments of joy to the interstitial pockets of their busy lives.
If you’d been allowed to have more moments like this, would you still have gone mad?
Ugh. No time for existentialism, he decided. The past was in the past, and nothing he did could change that. Sure, maybe Gyrus deserved more moments like this back then, but at least Kodya could give them to him now.
He sighed, keeping a protective eye on the surrounding dunes, ready to pull the kid back inside at the slightest hint of a flood.
Gyrus’ approaching footsteps redirected his focus. The kid was standing right in front of him, drenched with rain. He held his hand out in offering.
“Please? Just for a little bit?”
Kodya was helpless to deny him. With a grin, Gyrus dragged him outside and into the downpour. Faint thunder rolled in the distance, and Kodya eyed the horizon. “Okay, but only for a little bit!”
Gyrus let go of his hand and resumed more of his maniacal behavior - kicking his feet in the wet sand to expose the dry layer underneath, trying to stare directly up at the incoming rain, and cupping his hands to collect rainwater and throw it in the air. Whenever lightning or thunder broke across the sky, he whooped and cheered with unbridled excitement.
“Isn’t it amazing, Kodya?” he asked exuberantly, gesturing around them.
Kodya took in the sight in front of him - Gyrus, a man who had once shunned small pleasures in favor of exhaustive, unrelenting research, was giggling with carefree joy over the simple fact that water could fall from the sky.
“Yeah… I suppose it’s pretty amazing.”
Gyrus’ teeth flashed in a wide, infectious grin. He stepped closer to Kodya. “Did you get rain like this - ” He winced as a raindrop hit him in the eye, then sputtered as more hit him in the mouth, “…all the time back home?”
Kodya laughed at the ridiculous sight before him. “Here,” he said, touching his flattened hand to the kid’s forehead to serve as a makeshift brim. “We got rain back home, but storms like this one were rare.”
Gyrus’ lips made a surprised “O” shape as Kodya’s hand blocked the rain. He lifted his own hand to mimic the gesture and grinned when the rain stopped pelting his face.
Adorable.
Gyrus scanned the landscape with his newly acquired vision, reminding Kodya to do the same. No flooding yet, but a few puddles had formed around the base…
A loud sploosh! grabbed his attention and he turned to see that Gyrus had jumped in one of the larger puddles.
“Woah! Watch out, you don’t know how deep those are!” he called out.
“I’m alright!” Gyrus said - right before he slipped on a rock and fell.
Kodya’s feet closed the distance between them on instinct and he managed to grab the kid and protect him just in time… by taking the brunt of the fall in his stead.
He cursed and sputtered as they landed in the puddle. “Getting submerged in water” was a contender for last place on the list of activities he wanted to do at any given time. This was exactly why he’d wanted to stay inside!
The kid’s eyes went wide for a second, and then he laughed. He laughed so hard he snorted, and when Kodya spat out another slew of curses, Gyrus had the audacity to laugh even harder.
“Oh, you think that’s funny, do you?” In one quick motion, Kodya swapped their positions, rolling Gyrus on his back and into the puddle.
“Hahaha-AHH! Cold!” the kid gasped. “Why’s it so cold?”
What followed were several minutes of juvenile roughhousing that left them both thoroughly drenched. Kodya seized victory in the end, pinning Gyrus beneath him and demanding that he forfeit. Instead, Gyrus just laughed, and Kodya’s heart walloped the way it always did at the sound.
Gyrus grinned at Kodya, somehow seeming comfortable despite the wind, the rain, and the grit of the wet sand beneath them.
To his surprise, Kodya felt comfortable too. He smiled back at Gyrus, and before he knew it, he had leaned down to close the gap between them.
Gyrus’ lips were wet and pliant against his own, and the warmth of his skin felt like standing in the sun on a crisp autumn day. The tender sensation was so comforting and familiar that Kodya forgot about everything else. All he could think about was how much he’d missed this…
A loud clap of thunder broke the blissful moment, and the world came crashing back into sharp focus; his soaked clothes, the rain pelting his back, his mission.
He stared at Gyrus, frightened of the storm, but even more frightened that his whole world was about to slip through his fingers again.
Gyrus’ expression was apprehensive for a beat. Then a wide grin cracked across his red-tinged cheeks and he let out an exuberant holler.
“Yeah!!! Woohoo!” he cried, pumping his fists skyward. “Weather is so cool, right, Kodya?”
Kodya remained where he sat, perched over Gyrus, dazed by the sight below him. There were so many things he should be worried about right now, but all he could think was: He’s not upset that I kissed him?
Or perhaps Gyrus was just being Gyrus - choosing to avoid an awkward conversation by pretending that the incident in question hadn’t happened at all.
Kodya’s hair was dripping onto Gyrus’ face for the second time that day, the rain forming a small waterfall that cascaded from his bangs. This time, Kodya thought before moving, choosing to lean away from the kid. But Gyrus moved with him, concern knit into his brows as he delicately brushed Kodya’s hair back to tuck it behind his ear. “We can go back inside if you want,” he said softly.
“N-No, I don’t want to go back inside yet!” Kodya protested, and it was surprisingly true. With Gyrus’ hand cradling his face like this, he felt anchored; steady enough to brave the deepest of oceans without losing his way.
Gyrus smiled. “Good. I don’t want to go back quite yet either,” he said. His fingers cautiously crept to the back of Kodya’s neck to play with the loosened hair at the base of his drenched ponytail. Kodya shivered at the touch, then watched in awe as Gyrus leaned forward to kiss him.
There, against the backdrop of stormy skies and rolling thunder, rain-slick lips caressed and trembling fingers anchored themselves in wet hair. And, as Gyrus slowly pulled him back to the ground, Kodya supposed that rain wasn’t so bad, after all.