Big Book Of Parvill One Shots

Sharing Umbrellas (S)

TW: Random!AU

"Oh god, please don't be late."

The man sharing Will's umbrella peered off into the rainy distance, guitar half-tucked under his jacket and his arms wrapped firmly around it.

"Sorry, where are you headed?" He turned to Will, desperate for some reason still unknown.

"Er - home," Will answered stupidly, staring at him in surprise.

"Home," the dark-haired stranger repeated blankly. He said distractedly, "I'd love to go with you, but I'm actually supposed to be meeting up with my band - we're playing in a café this evening but I wasn't expecting it to rain."

"And why did you decide to take shelter under my umbrella?" Will forces himself to ignore the way he's already tipped his umbrella to cover the man better than it covers him.

"Can't get the guitar wet," the stranger explains, "and I don't know where the case is. Probably Leo's house, if anywhere," he adds as a note to himself. "But anyway," he plows on, "would you walk me? I was running in between umbrellas but I've run out." He gestures at the empty, rainy haze of sidewalk ahead of them.

"I mean - I could but -" Will scrabbles to make sense of the man's quick speech, trying to form a response, anything.

"Good!" The man cuts in before Will can give an actual answer. "Thank you so much!"

He immediately steers Will to the left, taking a turn that brings them farther from Will's home. "I'm Parv," he says cheerily, giving Will a wide smile.

"William Strife," Will says, startled, and offers his hand as he always does.

Parv stares at his hand for a moment before returning the handshake. He looks incredibly awkward, and Will can think of nothing that would make him look more out of place.

Except for a suit. He's positive Parv would look terrible in a suit.

"Wait." Will stops walking, and Parv has to stop or risk getting his precious guitar wet. Will peers at him curiously. "Why do I have to do anything for you?"

"An act of kindness?" Parv suggests.

"No," Will snaps, and begins to turn around. "I don't have to help you. I'm going home."

Before he can escape, a thin, pale arm reaches out and plucks the umbrella from his hand. Will wheels around, a furious retort on his lips, but it dies as he sees that Parv is watching him expectantly.

"What?" He demands.

"I'm a gentleman," Parv says with a grin that is not at all gentlemanly. "So I'll carry the umbrella."

He turns to keep walking, and Will is tempted to just give up the umbrella and go home, soaked or not. On the other hand, he likes this outfit and -

And, well, Parv might be rude but he isn't without looks.

Will takes a few quick paces to catch up to Parv's long legs, the corners of his mouth twitching down as he looks up to the taller man.

"What's wrong, Strifey?" Not only is the nickname absolutely infuriating, Will refuses to admit he'd been about to make a comment on Parv's height.

"Don't call me that," he says, a little too sharply, focusing on the sidewalk ahead of them. "Where is this café anyway?"

"It's just around the next corner," Parv says cheerily as they stop by a crosswalk. "You should stay and listen to us."