There's a Rainbow After the Rain

1. Fragile

There's a faint smell of earth in the air. It's raining hard. Every tear that escapes Mafuyu's eyes turns into a droplet of water crashing the surface of the concrete. The view from his window is blurry as he watches the car move further away from his house, disappearing into the street. A small charm in the shape of a guitar dangles from the rear-view mirror and he thinks of the time when he put the charm up there. It rained when he cried, every time and he had no control over it. It wasn't a sick coincidence, it wasn't magic and it certainly wasn't a miracle. For Mafuyu it was a curse.

Another sob rakes through his body as he slides down the wall, his face buried in his lap, knees tucked under his chin as he sits on the cold floor. The tears don't stop and the rain doesn't either.

And then there are headlights blinding his vision, he's in the middle of the road, it's pouring but he doesn't get wet. He hears it, the tires screeching. The sound of metal scraping against the ground is deafening, he fears his ears might bleed. The crash however sounds like it's far away - loud but muted as if he was submerged in water. The ringing came next, faint at first but growing louder by the moment; his whimpers drowned by the blaring of an alarm. He covered his eyes as the lights shone brightly over him, the sound of rain fading away.

                     ❄❄❄

Mafuyu inhaled sharply as he broke from his slumber, breathing ragged, his heart pounding in his chest. The ringing had followed him from his dream and he felt his phone vibrate against his thigh. He collected himself as the alarm snoozed after a while. A soft but heavy sigh escaped his lips, his eyes were moist, tears threatening to spill down his cheek but he swallowed them back. He covered his face with his hands, shielding himself from the gaze of the passenger sitting next to him.

The flight will land in thirty minutes, a voice from the speaker informed him.

The seventeen-hour flight from Washington to Tokyo sucked but what sucked, even more, was that it was raining and he wasn't dreaming this time. It felt like a hundred clouds had burst at once. Mafuyu was somewhat happy to finally get off the plane but the downpour had ruined his mood which wasn't very good, to begin with. This is not what Tokyo was supposed to be like. The rainy weather was one of the reasons why he was willing to leave Pullman.

Mafuyu hated rain. The only thing he hated more than rain was new places, new people. His movements were stiff as he cleared the security check, collecting his bag from the conveyor belt. The smell of earth in the air made him feel sick. He didn't want to be here so far away from home, far away from everything he knew.

As he's walking towards the gate looking for a friend of his -who was supposed to be here twenty minutes ago by the way- his eyes fall upon a dark-haired boy standing right in front of him, Mafuyu moves to the left so that he can continue walking but so does the other boy, they look at each other and he gives Mafuyu an awkward smile and then both of them move to the right simultaneously, he then stops and gestures for Mafuyu to go on. Mafuyu nods and starts walking away but before he can put more thought to it he turns his head around. Bright blue eyes stare back at him; the dark-haired boy stands there, he has turned around completely hands buried in his pockets. The boy looks away quickly after that and starts walking away. He's taller than Mafuyu, around his age, probably a student at the university too. He doesn't have any luggage so he's probably here to pick someone up.

Mafuyu's train of thoughts is interrupted by a hand on his shoulder. "Ugetsu!" Mafuyu gives his friend a faint smile.

"Are you all set?" Ugetsu asks him as he takes his bag. Mafuyu nods clutching the straps of his guitar case tightly. "Are you hungry?" The brunette asks him as they walk towards his car.