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Whims and Raindrops

"Elijah--"

Elijah glanced up from the laptop he'd borrowed, blinking at Kazahana before realizing she'd probably been calling him and he'd only just noticed. He'd been reading, though... Quickly, he turned off the screen - there was no point in letting Kazahana see what he'd found so engrossing.

"What's up?" Elijah asked. They'd finished work for the day - well, he had. Gai was still doing a bit of work on Blue Frame and Reed had mentioned meeting a few old friends, which Elijah suspected would still turn out to be work-related. Loretta... Elijah didn't often keep track of Loretta.

And he was safely in his room, away from the fuss of Morgenroete and three test pilots who had asked him every sort of personal question he'd never wanted to answer. Honestly... and then Kazahana had gone and confirmed that he was single...

Not, necessarily, by choice.

But the look on Kazahana's face wasn't one that Elijah saw often. She needed something - a very personal something - and apparently Elijah was the only one around to turn to.

"It's going to rain," Kazahana said firmly.

"Good thing we're inside," Elijah replied. So far, it had rained every single day they'd been in Orb. Or every night, at least. Half the time he slept clear through it, but when he looked out the window, there were quickly-drying puddles and pools.

"Let's go outside."

Elijah opened his mouth to protest, but he couldn't really think of anything. He could count the number of times he'd been spontaneously rained on with one hand, and each of those times had been in the last week. But he'd seen old movies... rainstorms were supposed to cause colds, not that he had to worry about that. Kazahana, maybe, but then again, that might have more to do with cold rainstorms to begin with and nothing about Orb had been cold so far.

"For a little bit," he finally said as he set the laptop aside and slid off his bed. His greens had caused a bit of a stir earlier and he'd changed into plain cargos and a dark t-shirt that unfortunately made people look more at him and less at his outfit.

Perhaps Kazahana would be a good distraction...

The sky was a solid grey by the time they made it outside and while Elijah had never really understood that kind of comment before, he'd realized that the world felt a certain way just before the rain.

And it certainly wasn't any cooler, despite the tiniest hints of a breeze attempting to wind down between buildings.

"Any idea where Loretta is?" Elijah questioned as they walked out towards the nearest street. He didn't want to go too far, after all, without someone knowing where they were.

"She said she had some shopping to do."

Knowing Loretta, that was anything from underwear to bombs.

"Mmm, okay..."

"If it starts raining too hard, I looked up where a music store is," Kazahana added. Elijah chuckled - he could see where this was going.

"Why don't we just head there anyway and then walk back in the rain?" he suggested. They'd already gone a couple of blocks and it wasn't raining, after all. "Music discs come in plastic-wrap - they won't get wet."

Kazahana nodded and pointed in the direction they needed to head. A few minutes later, Elijah was fairly sure he could feel the rain in his skull but nothing was hitting the ground.

The music store was small but had a decent selection and after about ten minutes, Elijah had picked out an album by a cheerful-looking green-haired singer and Kazahana seemed unable to narrow her selections to her budget.

Walking along the wall of the shop, Elijah looked at Lacus' singles for a long moment, then back to what he'd picked. No... he didn't really think he was ready to listen to anything by Lacus Clyne just yet. Especially not...

"Elijah? Can I borrow--?"

Elijah turned and nodded. There, on Kazahana's pile, was a Lacus single.

"How much do you need?" he asked before she could finish. "I'm just getting one..."

Kazahana smiled and named an amount that Elijah could easily do. By the time they'd paid and left the shop, the rain had started. Fat, heavy drops splashed against them, warm and soaking in quickly. They made a strange pattering sound against the plastic bag Elijah was carrying that contained their combined purchases. And as they walked across a small block that was nothing but grass, Kazahana spun around a bit, arms outstretched.

"This feels so good," she said as she jumped a few steps to catch up with him. "Once we dry off, let's listen to something--"

Elijah blinked. This was far more attention than he normally received from Kazahana. But it was nice, too, even if it was just because he was going along with her whims.

"Maybe the one you got?" Kazahana continued. "Don't worry; we don't have to listen to Lacus..."

"Someday," Elijah said quickly. He swung the bag a bit, listening to the sound the plastic made as fat, heavy raindrops pattered against it.

"Someday," Kazahana agreed.

And for the next few minutes, Elijah was glad for the raindrops cleverly hiding his tears.