Work Text:
The pitter patter of a rain knocked on the window, curtain half pulled back to let the remaining light that managed to pierce through the clouds in. The dimly lit room rested in the cacophony of tranquil sounds. Repeated drops of water flowing to nowhere anyone could control.
The rain continued.
Some say that if you didn't wish to be drenched, you shouldn't have gone out in the rain.
Stay inside where it was safe.
Stay inside until it stopped.
But what if it didn't?
What if it kept pouring, never-ending waves brought itself to existence?
Would you then be trapped? Forced to comply in the company of you and yourself?
What would a human do then? Would they stay from fear of ruining things or risk it out there to find something new?
Maybe that was why people invented umbrellas.
Because we could not simply stay put and let everything pass us by.
Thump. Her heartbeats thumped in accordance, even then always a little behind in reaction. It was loud to her ear even when the rain outside tried to drown it out.
Tomori sat with her face tucked into her knees, knees brought up to her chest, blankets messily wrapped around her. It cocooned her in some sort of a barrier, shielding her from the world outside of her closet.
The closet door was only slightly opened, allowing a faint breeze.
Tomori closed her eyes tightly, the soft blankets around her body didn't hide her enough from the feelings she was trying to chase away.
It knocked on the door to her heart as much as the raindrops hit the ground and scattered off.
Her fingers dug into her elbows more insistently, both arms circling her knees.
Fear and uncertainty held her in a vice-like grip.
The feelings that fluttered and blossomed in her chest wouldn't cease no matter how much she tried to reason with it. The words always stuck right at the tip of her tongue, threatening to spill at any time and risking her saying all the wrong things.
An abnormal feeling that she realized to be fully hers and hers only.
She thought back to Anon's smile and her heart soared just from it. It pounded fast and clear, so much that she wouldn't be able to deny it.
Things that she could feel but couldn't grasp.
Its revelation demanded a change with it. That, she was sure.
She wasn't sure what kind of change it would bring.
It was scary.
The rain soothed as if sensing her turmoil.
The emotions demanded to be understood. To be cradled and told that it mattered.
Yet Tomori couldn't decide what it meant for her.
It expanded continuously, rushing over her whenever they touched―talking with each other and being with each other.
It felt like there was a glass jar in her heart. And little by little, konpeitos filled it, one by one falling from the sky of her mind and rolled in the jar until it found its place with the others.
A jar filled with sweets shaped like the stars.
It counted every time Tomori her heart sped up in Anon's presence. Everytime she thought she had gained something precious from her.
It overflowed now, spilling over the jar's edges.
And Tomori wanted. She wanted. Something. She didn't know herself. What did she want?
If she were to tell Anon-chan, would she know the answer?
The idea chewed at her yet she couldn't stop the drowned out voices that wished to reach out to Anon.
Stuck inside her head, Tomori failed to notice the footsteps that padded into her room, a voice that tried to be gentle in the silence calling out to her―
“Tomorin?”
Tomori blinked in confusion at first, looking up at the pink-haired girl that smiled so placatingly in sight of her classmate-bandmate snuggled up in a blanket in a closet out of all places.
“Anon-chan…”
Anon tilted her head, gaze questioning as she mulled over what she was seeing, “What are you doing, Tomorin?"
Tomori stared at her with a little panic carnival running in her mouth. She opened her mouth before closing it shut after nothing coherent managed to be formed from her throat.
Anon didn't say anything at first before she sighed, a clear fondness that Tomori couldn't catch yet with her mind all jumbled up. Anon spoke next, in the deafening silence except for the rain sounds, “Can I sit there? Tomorin, make space, hurry!" She laughed at the end of her sentence, teasingly gesturing to Tomori to make room, shooing motion done with a cheeky grin.
Tomori did as she was told right away, watching as Anon plop down to sit beside her with a high cheer, awfully happy in the awkward atmosphere. Their warmth connected in the small space of the closet, Tomori realized.
Her heart played a melody that she was well familiar by now, the tune adjusting to always make her think of Anon.
Anon pulled the door closed with a gap like before, only now wider and letting them still observe the situation beyond the closet. She hummed as she finished with it, turning to ask Tomori, “Is this fine? Can you breathe fine?”
Tomori nodded, mumbling ‘yes' to the other girl.
Anon seemed to beam at her then before she relaxed her back against the wall behind them. “I guess this is fun.”
Tomori couldn't help but let out a small giggle at the strange comment for this situation.
“Ah! You laughed just now!" Anon grinned cheekily, poking the bundle of blankets around Tomori―making Tomori giggle a little more under her breath from how it slightly tickled her through the layers.
“A-Anon-chan, s-stop that…hehe…” Tomori quietly chuckled, the soft noise reverberating between them in a symphony that was quickly followed by Anon's own laugh.
“Hm, i don't know〜” Anon sing-songed, plopping to lean on Tomori who immediately yelped at the sudden weight. “Tomorin, you didn't answer the group chat so we got worried. Soyorin scolded me, you know, she told me to come get you.” She told her in a light-hearted way, tone easy-going as usual.
It didn't make Tomori feel any less guilty about it.
Looking closely at Anon, Tomori noticed that the edge of her shoulders were slightly damp. Tomori startled into sitting fully right up, rigid as a board, hands seemingly wanting to reach out to the guitarist. Anon was confused by the shift, only barely avoiding her side slipping off of Tomori and falling down. Close one.
“Tomorin―”
“I'm s-sorry―The rain, did you walk through the rain for me? I….” Tomori cut her off before she trailed on her own words, asking quietly before it tapered off into near nihil of a volume.
Anon watched Tomori's hovering hands that seemed to hesitate on whether it would be appropriate to fuss over the damp part of her clothes or would it be more appropriate to just give her space. The sight made her gaze soften, lips slightly curled up in a more defeated way because of how Tomori always thought about others so greatly even if she was unsure on what to do.
“It's okay.” Anon uncharacteristically spoke more subduedly, gentle in the face of caring hands that always wished to reach the depth of another's heart. “I did use an umbrella. It's just a little splash here and there.”
“Is that…so?" Tomori hesitantly asked.
Anon nodded her head once before she replied back, “Plus, you were cooped up in your closet. I don't think that is better, Tomorin." She shot her a teasing grin.
The faint blush on Tomori's cheeks flushed ever brighter in response, stuttering over her own tongue before she managed to utter an apology again. Her heart pounded in a fast orchestra that reflected both her flustered and embarrassed state after finishing processing that Anon was really here with her and this much closer.
Anon shook her head, tutting in disapproval as she pointed at the other. “None of those apologies now! Who knows what Rikki will do…”
She then paused before she gently said, “Instead, I would be happy if you could tell me what is troubling you.”
Tomori's eyes widened. She flinched slightly before she froze.
Ah, she did notice.
Anon saw her expression and immediately tried to rectify it. “Ah, you can also tell Soyorin instead if you'd prefer, I mean…”
Tomori was still stuck in her place.
The emotions rattled inside her chest like the flutter of a dragonfly's wings. It persisted. It was making a mess of nerves inside her stomach.
What did she want from this feeling, she wondered?
Was it right to just stay here? Under this shelter… forever?
The worried look in Anon's eyes made a light spark inside Tomori.
She couldn't. Even if it might bring changes… even if she couldn't fully understand the extent of it… she wanted to be on the same page with Anon. In the same book. In the same story told by time, her feelings open for her to accept.
That's why…
Things that you felt but couldn't touch.
I want to give them a shape.
“A-Anon-chan…”
Anon nodded her head patiently, her hands close to the edge of the blanket that had started to come loose around Tomori.
The warmth reached her even still.
“I have this strange feeling…when I'm with you…” Tomori confessed firmly even when her hands shook a little bit. Her voice while meek was the strongest that she could muster, a testament to how she refused to give up when it mattered. When it comes to her friends, and whatever she wanted to be with Anon.
“Me?"
Tomori nodded her head before she gazed straight into the other girl's eyes, determined. “M-My heart beats fast…! And I don't know if it would change anything… I want…things…” That might not be normal, her mind whispered.
Anon went silent. She seemed to consider it, staring right back with an unreadable expression before she smiled again which surprised Tomori.
“Tomorin.”
“Yes?"
“That feeling… What does it do?”
“H-Huh?” Tomori didn't know what she was being asked.
Anon grinned before she spread her arms wide, a clear and bold invitation to a hug. “Does it make you want to hug me?”
Tomori blinked a few times in confusion before she nodded. Right after that, Anon pulled her into a hug that had Tomori making a noise close to squeaking.
Tomori's heart responded with another rollercoaster of emotions and a new rush of blood to her face. Although, she quickly melted into the embrace which had Anon humming giddily.
Tomori giggled in turn, a bit of an airy breath escaping her as she held Anon back just as endearingly.
Anon slightly pulled back enough after so that their eyes could meet again. “And then―”
She smiled cheekily. “Does it make you want to kiss me?”
Tomori went red in the face really fast.
Anon saw and immediately followed with her own blush. “Ah―I mean, it’s too soon, isn't it? I underst―”
She was promptly cut off in less than a second.
SLAM
A sound of an impact echoed as Tomori rushed at Anon, knocking their noses together in a clumsy attempt for a kiss.
Anon got knocked back until she fell to the floor of the narrow closet, Tomori following right on top of her with both of them letting out an ‘Oof'.
The blankets flew from around Tomori to now resting over both of them.
There, laid under softness, Anon scrunched her nose from the pain while Tomori, who also had a red nose, immediately fretted over Anon instead of worrying about herself.
Before long, Anon's conflicted expression dissolved into laughter like beautiful bells that entranced Tomori’s heart.
Tomori couldn't help the smile that helplessly attached onto her face from the warmth and soft feeling the moment gave her.
The both of them laughed, feeling silly for what had plagued their minds.
Their hearts beat the same tune. Intertwined.
Outside, the rain stopped as the two girls opened a new chapter with bravery.
To walk out in the rain even when you fear to be drowned.
Because a rainbow might be waiting ahead.
With matching panda bandaids and matching heartbeats.
They walked hand in hand.