Title: Rainy Days
Pairing: Akanishi Jin and Kamenashi Kazuya
Rating: G
Disclaimer: No i don't own any of the mentioned characters yet.
Summary: Kazuya hates rainy days but there might be one thing that can change his mind.

Rainy days

I hate rainy days. That was the one thought that kept circling my mind as I tried desperately to use my small umbrella in an attempt to cover my whole body. Needless to say, it wasn’t working. And then there was the wind. I would be able to stand it if it was just raining, but once the wind gets involved, it’s a whole new story. I swear it has something against my poor little umbrella; always trying to flip it inside-out. It’s times like these when it’s easier to just walk in the rain rather than try to fight a losing battle with the monstrous gale.

What I hated more about rainy days were the puddles. Now, I’m not talking about those little ones on the footpath that make you look like you’re doing some sort of new contemporary dance routine, no. I’m talking about those massive ones at the side of the curb. You know the ones you often yelled out in delight at when you were little and sitting in the back seat of the car as your parent drove through them, causing a massive wave like formation to sprout out? Well, those. I hate those. I remember I was once careless enough to be standing at the lights near the curb, in the rain, just as a bus happened to pass by … and well you can guess what happened when the bus drove speedily through that enormous puddle in front of me. Thus is my dislike for rain.

Well, it seems you know about my dislikes, so I might as well enlighten you about myself in general … my name’s Kazuya. Kazuya Kamenashi. Second year business student, majoring in marketing, and … well I guess that just about sums it up. Not a very interesting life, as you can see. I’m not all that popular at uni. I have a couple of “friends” I guess, but I suppose the word acquaintances would fit them better. The only real friend I have is Yamapi, a.k.a Tomohisa Yamashita. I figured his name was a mouthful so I started calling him Yamapi … quite convenient. Like me, he’s also doing business, majoring in marketing, and so he happens to be in all my classes. We do everything together, from catching the same train to uni, to going to city and having lunch or dinner … I probably see him more than I see my own parents.

Enough of the introductions, and back to my current situation; my bus had broken down on my way to the train station, so I had to catch a different one. However, seeing as it was in the middle of the day, i.e. off-peak time, the buses came at intervals of half an hour. Frankly speaking, I didn’t have half an hour to spend waiting for a stupid bus. So what did I do? I opened my feeble umbrella and started walking towards the station.

Just as my luck would have it, the weather decided, nope, it needed to rain heavier. So it did. Oh, and Mother Nature felt like chucking in strong gusts of wind. So she did. And where did this leave me? Getting quite miserably drenched as I attempted to flip my umbrella back into its original fixture. However, that soon showed to be a futile attempt and so my only protection against the forces of nature was now laying in some random garbage bin a few metres back. Oh today was definitely an awesome day.

I quickly sprinted from one sheltered area to another, trying to cover myself with my hands. But I knew that was useless. My hair was dripping wet, as were my clothes that were now sticking to me like a second skin, not to mention foolishly having chosen to wear a white shirt today. Of all days! The article was quite literally see-through; I wouldn’t have known whether it was still on me or not.

With every step I began to doubt wanting to go to uni that day. This was definitely not a uni day. But no, I had to go. Why? Because the sadistic scholars had felt the need to be cruel to their students by making them do a presentation that day. Ok, I know that the assessments were all pre-planned and no one could’ve predicted that it would be raining so badly today and that a single student’s bus might’ve broken down, causing him to have to walk in the rain … but that’s not my point! And after all this frustrated rambling, I’ve even forgotten what the point is. Great!

Ok, you know what? Shit happens. I’m not going to let it get me down for the whole day. Sure, I might’ve woken up on the wrong side of the bed, but I’m not planning on walking on the wrong side of the road anymore. Is that even the right idiom to use? Probably not, but I don’t feel like caring at the moment.

So I set off, once again, towards the train station with sheer determination urging me on. Not much to aspire for but that was the only thing going for me right now. That was the case until I suddenly couldn’t feel the cold droplets of water pelting my skin any longer. I looked up thinking that maybe the rain had stopped even though I could see it was still raining around me, only to see an umbrella now placed above my head.

“You’ll catch a cold if you keep walking in the rain like that,” a voice had said and I immediately turned to my left to see a man walking beside me, holding one of those big umbrellas over the both of us.

“Are you heading towards the station?” he inquired, looking straight ahead rather than focusing on who he was talking to. Or, at least, I presumed he was talking to me since there wasn’t anyone else close by. Maybe he was one of those weird, crazy guys that liked to talk to themselves. I doubted that.

I nodded. It wasn’t hard to guess my destination actually. Most people took this route to the station anyways. I was guessing he was planning on doing the same. Like him, I focused my attention back on the path ahead and only then did I realise we had both stopped walking. When did that happen? I thought to myself, shrugging it off as I continued to walk.

“I’ll accompany you there then,” He insisted as he kept his pace with mine. I merely smiled and replied, with a slight shake of the head, that I was fine on my own. What was this guy a stalker or something? What kind of stranger comes up to people telling them they’ll accompany the other? A kidnapper, that’s who! Or a paedophile, but he seemed to be only slighter older than myself so I ruled the latter out from the list of options.

“You’re dripping wet, you don’t have a jacket, and it’s still a long way to the station,” the man continued calmly, as if my rejection hadn’t affected him the slightest. I looked up at him. He didn’t look all that evil, but then again that could be a mask to hide his deceptiveness. But no, he didn’t really look like he wanted to hurt me. His eyes seemed pure and kind. Oh god! How long had I stood there just staring at him? It seemed like ages! But his lack of reaction meant he wasn’t disturbed by it.

I ducked my head slightly and mumbled, “Ok … thank you, I guess.” We started walking again. Seriously, why do I keep stopping like that? I don’t even realise I’m doing it! But on the bright side, at least I wasn’t walking in the rain anymore, although now that the numbness was wearing off, I was starting to feel the wind blow past my wet body. I could feel myself shivering involuntarily.

We walked in silence for most of the time, except for the short snippets of conversation he started and I finished. All in all, I deduced from our time together that his name was Jin Akanishi, he was a uni graduate, from the same uni as the one I currently attended, and he currently worked in a law firm in the city. There was other stuff, like how he used to live on campus and so didn’t have to fret about using different means of transport each day to get to class. But now that he was working, he was living in a small apartment a few blocks away from the station. Despite my earlier assumptions, this Jin seemed like a pretty decent guy who was only thinking about my health and not how much ransom he could get from my parents. Plus that smile of his was quite contagious; it made me forget all about my horrible morning.

We arrived at the station and he closed him umbrella, shaking it off a bit before binding it together with the Velcro tie. Once on the platform, he informed me that he usually went to the carriage right at the back, as it was closer to the stairs at the station he would get off at.

“It was nice talking to you,” I stated politely. It was the truth after all. It did feel nice talking to him. It was calming to an extent I felt I could be completely open even if this was our first meeting. I felt kind of silly thinking that way though.

“It was nice talking to you too,” he replied, flashing that oh-so-cool smile of his. “Tell me if you even need an umbrella again.”

He chuckled slightly and made to walk away, but I asked him to stop for a second. He looked back with confusion laced in his eyes, but was still smiling. I felt something in my stomach doing cartwheels. This wasn’t right. I tried to play cool.

“How can I tell you unless I get your number?” I asked nonchalantly. Is that what I wanted? His number? Why Kazuya? Why do you want his number for? Now he’s going to think you’re some idiot.

The small laugh I heard, however, contradicted my doubts as I saw him grab a small, black diary from his bag and rip a page out from the back. Grabbing a pen from one of the conveniently located loop holes on the side, I watched in amazement at how the simple task of removing the pen lid with one’s teeth, a quick scrawl on the paper and then replacing the cap as easily, had seemed so cool when he had done it. That was hot, I found myself thinking, but then cursing myself inwardly for thinking such thoughts for a member of the same sex. I seriously need to get a girlfriend, I grimaced internally.

“There you go,” he interrupted my musings as he handed me the folded piece of paper. “Call me if you need me.” With that he turned around and walked to the back of the platform, leaving me rooted to the ground staring at his receding back.

My hands were shivering as I grasped the paper, but I didn’t know whether it was because of the cold, or whether it had seemed a lot like I had tried to pick him up and he had complied, thus giving me his number and instructing me to ‘call him’. That sounded a lot like a pick up to me. I needed to talk to Yamapi about it. He would know what to do.

As if on cue, the train arrived almost gracefully at the edge of the platform just as I pocketed the paper. I knew getting out of the house early would help me one day. At least today I didn’t wait for twenty minutes on the platform even if I did have to walk here. Fate? I asked myself, smiling slightly.

No sooner had I placed myself in the seat next to my friend’s, a piece of paper was placed on my lap. “I made some minor adjustments last night. Here’s the final copy,” Yamapi answered my lingering question. I gave him a quick smile as an appreciative gesture. Even though he didn’t seem like it most of the time, Yamapi was actually quite a hard worker, doing everything to his full capability. It was one of the things I admired about him.

“So why are you so wet?” He asked, prodding my still-transparent shirt. “If you were a chick, I would’ve found it very sexy.”

I laughed at his obvious demeaning sense of humour before I divulged into the story of my horrible, no scratch that, interesting morning. Now, as you can see, I’m quite the rambler. I tend to exaggerate things, like before, with the whole rain talk. So when I was describing the bus incident to Yamapi, I went full into it. But when I got the part when Jin came into the picture, I hesitated. What was I supposed to tell him? Oh yeah, and this random guy offered to share his umbrella, we talked, I found him pretty interesting, so I asked him for his number. Yeah, that wouldn’t have worked well.

So I left that whole scene out. Instead I went for a more general approach in obtaining the answers to the questions in my head. “Hey Yamapi, what do u normally say when you try to pick girls up?” I asked casually, pretending I had changed the topic completely.

Yup, this was coming. Yamapi gave me one of his famous ‘are you serious?’ looks.

“What? I was just asking.” I insisted. Ok, how was I supposed to convince him if I couldn’t even convince myself? And to myself, it sounded an awful lot like those scenarios you play out where you go, ‘say you were in this situation’ but deny that you have anything to do with the mentioned situation even though it relates to you in one sense or another.

“Are you trying to pick girls up, Kazuya Kamenashi?” He inquired in that all-knowing tone of his.

“No!” I quickly piped out. Hey, I wasn’t lying. There was no girl involved here. “I was just wondering what you say when you pick one up.” I tried to emphasise the fact that I was referring to him in the sentence rather that a person in general.

Yamapi seemed to have bought it, or at least I hope that was the case when he replied, “Well I go straight for the details. I go up to her and ask for her digits.”

“Digits? You mean her phone number?” I asked, while mentally questioning how Yamapi came up with such words. It was hard to keep up sometimes.

“Yeah,” he replied as if it was the most basic thing in the world. “Why bother with the small talk when that’s the end result anyway?”

“I see,” I answered softly, but I cursed hard inwardly. It did seem like I was picking him up. I sighed a bit but luckily it went unnoticed by my friend. With my curiosity getting the better of me, I asked him a question I knew would earn me that look again. “Would you ever try to pick up a guy?”

Yamapi didn’t reply for a while. As I had been looking at the floor while asking, I assumed this silence meant he was thinking about what I had said, but as I looked up I realised, no, he’d just been looking at me thinking I had lost it or something.

Finally finding his voice, he attempted to joke with me. “Sorry Kazuya, I don’t think I can return your feelings.” With that he cracked up, earning a stare from the elderly couple sitting four seats away from us. Luckily, it had only been them in the lower section of the carriage rather than having a packed train.

I nudged Yamapi shoulder firmly, and adding in my ‘that’s not funny’ glare. “I’m not talking about you … I mean me … I mean us … far out!” My frustration had gotten the better of me.

“Ok, Ok, I get it. No matter how hot I am, I know one Kazuya Kamenashi will not fall for me,” Yamapi proclaimed with a slight smirk, but stopped once he saw my glare again. “Fine, tell me, who is this about then?” The joking stopped and I noted a seriousness appearing on Yamapi’s features. I decided that if I needed his advice, I needed to tell him what else had happened to me this morning. So I did.

He took it quite calmly even when I told him about the strange sensations I felt in my stomach when Jin smiled. The only outward expression he displayed was when I told him I asked Jin for his number. He cracked up … much to my displeasure. “Not funny, Yamapi,” I complained.

“My bad,” he half-heartedly apologized as I could still see him try to stifle out the remaining bursts of noises emitting from this voice-box. “So are you going to call him?”

I wasn’t expecting that, I seriously wasn’t. For some strange reason it had never occurred to me that even though I had Jin’s number, I now had the option of being able to call him. “I don’t know,” I answered truthfully. “Do you think I should?”

“Yeah, why not?” Yamapi replied. Once again, I was quite surprised by the remark. I knew he was open and daring and all, but I think I might have underestimated him a tad. Seeing the shocked look on my face urged him to continue. “Well if he gave you his number, he’s expecting a call.”

A few days later found me sitting on the carpeted floor of my bedroom cradling my mobile in one hand and the small piece of paper in the other. I had decided to heed out Yamapi’s advice and call Jin. Although what I was to say to the latter was now a more demanding issue pressing on my mind. He had told me to call him if I needed him. Well was this a need? Not really, I just wanted to talk to him. But what if he was busy? I didn’t want to interrupt him just to tell him that there was a ‘want’ to talk to him.

This was all so crazy and it was seriously making my head spin. I took a deep breath and punched in the number once more, but this time instead of erasing it again like I had the previous ten times, I pressed the green call button. I waited anxiously as I heard the ringing go through. Part of me wished he would quickly pick up so I wouldn’t have to suffer listening to the annoying sound, while the other part hoped he didn’t so I would have a bit more time to plan out what I could possibly say to him.

He picked up and his simple “Hello?” caused my breath to hitch. Was this normal? I doubted so.

“H-Hi … um … I-It’s Kazuya,” I practically coughed out. The silence I heard from the other side wasn’t all that promising as I assumed he had probably forgotten who I was. “We met the other day … it was raining … and …”

“I remember,” the other stated calmly. It seemed as though the other had no reaction to my call whatsoever, and here I was worried about whether or not I should call him. “Hey, did you need something?”

Bang. I felt that single line pierce through my body like a bullet. I had been so silly into letting myself believe I could call him for no reason. I felt my determination sinking into a bottomless pit of darkness.

“Oh, um, sorry are you busy at the moment? It was nothing major. I’ll call another time, maybe,” I quickly replied, feeling the sheer embarrassment of the situation heating my skin up.

“Wait, stay a bit.” There, that one line that removed the bullet and stitched up the wound. Heck it even took away the pain. I felt my heartbeat quicken. “Actually, I was waiting for your call.” That’s it. Kazuya’s out from a severe heart attack.

“Oh, r-really?” I questioned, unable to contain my excitement. I heard a small chuckle from the other side and I could almost see the smile that was sure to be lining those lips at that very moment. I smiled myself.

“So how was your day?” The question caught me off guard, but soon enough we began talking about random stuff that I wouldn’t be able to remember if you asked me now.

The call lasted three hours, and through that time I felt I knew Jin better and had become closer to him.

Several months passed since that rainy day. I pulled back the blinds to see that it was pouring heavily outside. I didn’t scowl this time, but rather my face held a distinctive smile.

I walked up to the door and saw my umbrella leaning against the wall. I gave it a quick glance but left it where it was as I stepped outside. Covering my head slightly with my hand I rushed towards a figure standing with a large umbrella held above his body.

“Hey,” I whispered as I ducked under the umbrella.

“Hey,” Jin responded as he wrapped an arm around me and pulled me closer towards him. He smiled as he looked down at me. I looked up at his contagious smile and smiled back. A thought circled my head. I love rainy days.
 


A/N:  Let's see it's 7.37AM and i pulled an all-nighter to write this. Why?? I've never pulled an all-nighter to study or do an assignment before yet i pulled one for write akame fanfics ... see the love and dedication?? ahahha yeah im tired XD