When It Rains

[Josh Cole]

Women.
You can't live without them, but you sure as hell can't live with them either.
Maggie was in one b*tch of a mood. He didn't know what was wrong with her, whether it was just an excess of ... whatever hormone made her angry, whether she was premenstrual (...eugh), or if something was actually wrong. She'd been acting... oddly for a while now, but yesterday, she just snapped and remained in a black mood that hadn't gotten any better in the morning.
Maybe it was a guy. Josh wouldn't know, but the last time he'd been in a mood like that was after the formal, with the whole Ailith having a boyfriend thing.
That had been so confusing - not the boyfriend thing; Josh should have seen that one coming. It was how bad he was feeling about it. How disappointed. How annoyed.
It was crazy.
And Ailith had been on his mind so much since then. The highlight of his week now seemed to be the battle training sessions, where he and Ailith usually worked and talked with each other, being the only non-Warriors there. Of course, she was scarily good at non-magical combat, and he was pretty sure that he was holding her back slightly, but she never seemed to mind - which was nice. Now, they were on magical combat, which he (thankfully) was good at. Hopefully he'd have some chance of redeeming himself here-
And there it was. Why did he need to redeem himself? For goodness's sake, she was just a girl. He shouldn't care what she thought of him, should-
Oh, piss. It was raining again.
People started to shift; shoppers and villagers moving from the street into shelter, the lone busker closing up his guitar case. Josh stayed outside, ignoring the rain. After all, it was just water. It wouldn't do anyone any harm.

[misa]

It was the first day Misa had noticed as being beautiful in a long time. Ironically no one else saw it that way namely, because it was lashing from the heavens. The sky was filled with wonderfully mysterious grey, almost black, heavy clouds that created an impenetrable sheet around the Cardsdale area. It had looked like that since dinner time the evening before, but the rain had only begun to fall around five am. It was happily making up for the time lost now, though.

While the stormy weather had most of the school retreating inside to the library or the common rooms, Misa decided that this would be the ideal day for her first trip into Cardsdale.

Her mind made in a split second, Misa grabbed her jacket and headed out into the downpour. She relished the sensation of the raindrops splashing onto her skin, which constantly felt too warm at the moment. She tilted her head back, allowing the rain to try and wash away the horrendous bags beneath her eyes, or whether it was trying to pummel some colour back into her cheeks - she didn't care.

The walk into town was quiet and uneventful, but for a few crashes of distant thunder and some equally far off flashes of sheet lightning. When she reached the village, Misa was delighted to discover that it was for the majority deserted, but for shopkeepers who had sought refuge in their stores.

After wandering the empty side streets for a while Misa found herself in a large piazza. A beautiful fountain took centre stage there, and it looked all the more majestic, Misa thought, with the rain cascading down the smooth contours of the marble figures which held pride of place in the middle of the fountain. She paused to look at it for a moment, soaking up the ambience of such a beautiful image.

Making her way round the square, Misa happened upon a shop that she couldn't resist entering. She was soaking wet, her ponytail dripping down her back, but she didn't care, there was no one in the store to see her excluding the woman behind the counter. It was an instrumental store, specialising in acoustic guitars - what were to odds of that? The acoustic was Misa's favoured instrument.

Just wondering amongst the vast selection, breathing the rich scent of wood polish, made her spirits soar. It felt like she were amongst familiar faces again, a feeling she hadn't encounter in a very long time.

She'd been meaning to do this for a long time, really. Get a new guitar. She had managed to keep hold of her old one until Germany when it got lost in transit and she'd missed it like an old friend.

She could have spent all day wandering the aisles of the small shop, searching for a replacement, yet - like with all destined things - the right guitar found her after very little time at all. It was a beautiful cherry wood and it called out to her from the corner it sat in. Ten minutes later, Misa was leaving the store - the guitar was hers.

The rain hadn't eased off by the time she left, but Misa was glad it hadn't; it kept the public...not public. As she passed the fountain again, her spirits were higher than they had been in such a long time, and she didn't try to resist the urge to take a seat on the stone rim of the fountain and reverently remove the new guitar from its case. Once she had the fine tuning worked out (one of her favourite parts of playing the guitar was tuning it, unlike almost every other person in the world) Softly she began to play the chords of the first song which came to mind. Only when she began to sing along did she realise how insanely ironic it was,

" Someone told me long ago
There's a calm before the storm
I know
It's been coming for some time
When it's over so they say
It'll rain on a sunny day
I know
Shining down like water
I wanna know
Have you ever seen the rain?
I wanna know
Have you ever seen the ra-oh!"

There was someone there! Oh dear...

Jumping to her feet, Misa stood there looking at the boy on the opposite side of the square; the guitar held outstretched in her left hand lamely, as though her body was trying to distance herself far enough from it to deny knowledge of it. It reminded her in a vague way of the day she'd met Dylan...

"Um...hi?" She said sheepishly.

[Josh Cole]

"There's a calm before the storm..."
Josh picked his head up, listening to the soft voice and gentle chords that drifted to his ear.
It was familiar - but he couldn't place where it was from, or what the title was. The melody for the rest of the song was there, but the lyrics remained obscure...
"It'll rain on a sunny day..."
What the hell was that song called?
Josh knew enough about music to know that this girl could play, whoever she was.
So he got up from the stone ledge, still determinedly ignoring the rainfall, and walked, following the sound of the music.
"Have you ever seen the rain?"
And there it was.
And Josh recognised the singer. He knew he couldn't remember her name even if he tried, but she was a Warrior - he'd seen her in Battle Training...
"Have you ever seen the -oh!"
She'd jumped about foot into the air, holding her guitar far from her, almost guiltily.
"Um, hi?"
"Hey," he said, apologetically. "Sorry to interrupt you... you were really good."

[misa]

Misa blushed a shade of crimson that would have out done a poppy.
Cr@p. What on earth had posessed her? In public for heaven's sake!
Poor bloke. He obviously felt the need to make up for her idiocy with some sort of compensation to prevent them both feeling awkward.
Pity she knew she was rubbish already, else maybe it would have saved the embarrassment of her opening her mouth and saying,
"Oh, no, I'm terrible. It's the rain. The rain makes it sound... better,"
And a round of applause for quite possibly the lamest excuse in the history of ever.

[Josh Cole]

Don't laugh. Don't laugh. The poor girl was embarrassed enough, from the shade of her cheeks.
Josh couldn't hide the grin though, as he studied the cherry guitar, the colour somehow enhanced by the gleaming droplets of rainwater that landed on it. "I don't think I've heard that excuse before; but usually, the rain doesn't do much to change the sound..."
The rain was still resolutely falling, drivelling down from the sky, and splashing on the newly-formed puddles.
Rain had a sound. In Canada, Josh hadn't really noticed this much. They were more into snow up there, seeing as most of the time, that was all the weather did. Snow, snow, more d**n snow. It was no wonder half his family had moved into the States...

[misa]

Please, just swallow me, swallow me now... Misa begged her element silently. It didn't pay any attention of course and she was left standing there like a total idiot.

"Well, at least I've got originality, then," She mumbled dumbly, sitting back down on the fountain wall. "I'm Misa," She said unnecessarily (considering she'd just introduced herself as a complete freak).

[Josh Cole]

That was it; Misa. If Josh remembered right, Misa had been the girl who, on her first day, used all four elemental powers and ended up raising a fair bit of the arena's floor. That had been... well, fairly impressive, in all honesty.
"Josh," he responded, hiding a grin at the originality comment. "So, do you usually sit outside playing guitar in the rain, or is that just a one-off?"

[misa]

"Oh, all the time," Misa smirked lightly, "This is a one time only thing, believe me. If it wasn't...well, this square would come with a Government Health Warning," she settled the guitar back in it's soft case. It really was a beautiful instrument, she just wished she could do it some justice and play it properly, "So, Josh, do you usual talk to absolute weirdos in the rain, or is this just a one-off?"

[Josh Cole]

"Not usually," he replied, matching her smirk. "But then, I'm from Canada. Weirder things have happened."
Weirder things did happen.
"Besides, usually the absolute weirdos go inside when it rains."
It was still raining. Pissing down, actually, rain hitting hard off the sidewalk and reflecting back up, and gathering in puddles. He smirked at that. Puddles. Where he lived, puddles would be frozen over... oh, pretty quickly. Anyway, they were more prone to snow there.

[misa]

So that's where that accent was from. Canada...one of the few major countries Misa hadn't actually visited. She'd heard a fair few jokes on her travels however.
"Weirder things have happened," she repeated, just about refraining from adding, "Eh?", onto the end. "Saying that is awfully similar to saying, it couldn't get any worse, and we all know what happens when someone says that, don't w-" Misa arched an eyebrow as sheet lightning filled the sky.
One, two, three, four, fi- A clap of thunder resounded sharply.
The raindrops, which had been coming down in a delightfully heavy downpour seemed to have been spurred on by the spectating elements and sped on in their thousands as they dashed for the finish line, better known as the pavement.

Misa held out a hand, tripping up the tiny competitors and savouring the feeling of the cool punishment delivered by the downright torrential weather.
"Isn't it wonderful?" She asked Josh almost in a daze as she examined the fractured globules on her sickly pale skin where they lay, dashed to pieces and utterly defeated by the so easily interchangeable will of man.

[Josh Cole]

Weirder things have happened.
When Josh arrived at Orchid Hill, seeing people this appreciative of nature had really... weirded him out, so to speak. Back in Canada, his mum had loved 'nature', and she found a pleasure in walking in (the walkable areas of) the mountains and just... liking nature. Josh... not so much.
But he had to admit, he did like the rain. It was kind of like the sky's outlet, he guessed. Even the sky must get tired of having to put on a bright face and hiding its sorrows once in a while. After keeping its bright sunny smile on its face for the summer and early autumn, the sky finally let itself weep for... for what?
Maggie would tell him for all the troubles that it could see in the world below, and Josh was inclined to agree.
He watched the glimmering globules drop from the sobbing sky, before answering Misa honestly-
"Yeah, it is."

[misa]

So few people respected the weather nowadays; his answer was rather refreshing.
The weather was one of life's only constant variables, natural simulations - the perfect contradiction. People were always observing the weather, but they never really saw it. All they did was watch as precipitate fell to earth or UV rays gave another person skin cancer.
There was no thought in that; no care.
Some people 'worshipped' the sun, but that was only when it gave them something in return.
Only a minority people understood that the rain was equivalently, if not more, generous than the sun and still even less liked it for all they knew it did for the world.
Now, Misa wasn't wholly religious, but in her eyes the rain was God's way of reminding the world that their slates could be wiped clean just like that; just as easily as the rain washed away the muck and grim, leaving the world sparkling clean; ready to begin again. She wondered why Josh agreed, but she didn't ask - it was a personal thing, she felt. Instead she asked,
"So, what brought you out here, Josh? Proving to yourself you aren't weird?"

[Josh Cole]

Josh laughed. "Something like that."
To be honest, really, he'd come down to escape the lash of Maggie's temper. She really was in one hell of a mood, and was looking for any reason to hit out at someone. And really, when Maggie was in that sort of mood, it was better just to get out before the bomb exploded.
Besides, the day was a good day to go into Cardsdale - grey, damp and cloudy. It meant that most people would stay inside, and that places wouldn't be just as... uh... bustling as they usually were.
"And what brought you here, Misa?" he asked in return. "Sudden urge to busk?"

[misa]

"Why, I do believe that's for me to know and you to never find out, wouldn't you agree?" She smirked then relented. "Technically that's not true - I have no clue what I'm doing out here. Maybe the music called me here," She laughed and it the sound was utterly alien. That sounded like something only someone in a movie would say; namely because no one else would say something quite as certifiable unless you paid them.