*delurks again*
Title: Nothing Lasts Forever
Prompt: Cookies & Cream 20: Reach; Butter Pecan 16: Wet
Topping: Sprinkles, Cherry (2nd person!)
Rating: G
Word Count: 1,064
Story: ROTOS
Summary: Damon takes a walk.
It’s raining outside. Clear droplets pitter-pattering against your bedroom window. Droplets falling onto the cars and causing the drivers to turn on their windshield wipers. Droplets falling to the ground and forming pools, puddles, lakes. A playground for children with rainboots. It’s raining outside, and what are you doing? You’re reading sheet music. You’re reading the same pages of sheet music over and over and over again until the notes run together and look like a counterfeit Rorshach test.
You waste no time in grabbing your keys and jamming them into the pocket of your jeans, in slipping on your shoes. The sheet music can wait, even for just a little while. Because this rain won’t last forever. Nothing lasts forever. And you know that for a fact.
You don’t bring an umbrella. But you're doing that on purpose. You never take an umbrella with you if you know it’s going to rain. Not if you can help it. People say they carry umbrellas because they don’t want to get wet. In certain circumstances, you could understand that. But what about those people who are just casually walking down the street-the ones who whip their umbrellas seemingly out of nowhere at the first signs of rain? Why do that when they could enjoy it more thoroughly? It never made any sense to you. And it still doesn’t, for the most part.
You walk out of the apartment building and down the stone steps, and that’s when the first drops of rain start to hit you. That’s when they trickle down your face, down your neck. That’s when your shirt soaks them up immediately. And rather than frown and run back into the building, you tilt your head upward. And you smile and let out a heavy sigh. You feel free now. As though something’s been lifted off of your chest, as though your soul has gotten rid of some sort of burden. One you didn’t even realize you had.
Let them stare at you. You don’t really care what they think about you, do you? Is he sane? they might be thinking. Let them think that if they wish. You’re as sane as you can possibly get. You just indulge in something different. They indulge in television and texting and sweets. You indulge in music and in the rain. And why can’t you? It’s a free country, after all. There’s no law saying that you can’t take a walk in the rain without an umbrella. That’d be absurd. What would happen if it started to rain out of nowhere? Would they arrest the pedestrians for not knowing it was going to rain?
Or would they, perhaps, arrest the meteorologists for not being able to predict the weather more accurately?
You smile to yourself and shake your head. Now you’re just getting carried away with your thoughts. There’s not need for you to be thinking about that, especially right now. Because right now, you need to enjoy this walk. You need to enjoy the rain. It’s not going to last forever. Nothing lasts forever. Nothing.
You look up toward the sky and reach out for the raindrops-they fall into your palm easily, and it almost feels like it’s raining needles. Little wet needles that pummel your skin but don’t pierce it. Needles that soak your clothes but don’t tear the fabric, that don’t make barely visible holes that will eventually add up. Litle, harmless needles that stop functioning properly once they hit people, hit cars, hit the ground.
But you like them all the same. You like the way the rain makes your hair cling to the sides of your face. The way it makes you feel cleaner. Purer. Better. People would say it’s like taking a natural shower with your clothes on. You think it’s something of a catharsis. Sent down to you so you can walk in it every so often. So that you can reach up toward the sky and let everything out in one single solitary breath.
You continue to walk the streets of Boston; occasionally you’re bathed in the orange glow of the streetlights above you, and that just adds to the peacefulness of it all. It’s heavenly to you. One of life’s simple little pleasures, one of life’s unexpected luxuries. Happiness, and you don’t even have to look that far to find it. You just have to wait until the time is right. You just have to wait until Mother Nature is on your side. And then you can indulge in your own way. Revel in it as much as you can. Savor it while the opportunity is within your grasp.
Eventually the rain starts to let up, and you find yourself frowning. Asking yourself why, why did the rain have to stop? You welcomed it with open arms, welcomed it like a friend, like a family member. It made other people scowl and groan; it made you smile and laugh. It made people bolt for shelter; it made you grab your keys and run outside. Other people opened up their umbrellas and shunned it; you embraced it and played with it the way you would play with others when you were just a little boy.
But then again, everything has a beginning and an end. The rain had to start up, the rain had to stop. The skies have to be clear sometimes, after all. So you sigh one last time, a goodbye to the rain that’s decided to brighten your day, and you trun around and retrace your steps back to the apartment building.
The steps are wet, darker in color, and you take care not to slip as you head up and pull the door open, going up the stairs and down the hall until you reach the apartment you share with your father. The keys jingle like a set of bells as you fumble with them, as they slip through your wet hands like a bar of soap. But you managed to find the right one, and you unlock the door. Click, clack, swish, and you’re home.
Your father smiles up at you from his place on the couch. “Welcome back,” he says. “Did you get caught in the rain again?”
You smile and kick off your shoes, shivering because you finally realize just how cold you are. “Well… yeah. Something like that.”