“Let me guess: shirt, overshirt, and a jacket?”
He shakes his head and sighs. “Nevermind.”
She laughs, covering her eyes. “How many are there?”
He looks up, then proudly answers, “I have four layers on.”
She raises an eyebrow. “Okay. What are they?”
“Shirt, long-sleeve, another long-sleeve, and then this jacket. And you?”
“A shirt and this.”
“What? How?”
“How are you so cold?”
“I- I don’t know! I just- I just am, okay!”
“Okay, okay. Chill out.”
She grins as her boyfriend face slowly falls into an expression of disappointment.
“What is with you and Marinette and your dislike for puns?”
He continues to walk forward without looking at or answering her.
“Oh, come on. That was pretty good, you gotta admit.”
He shakes his head and rolls his eyes.
“You say it sometimes too you know.”
He stops walking and turns to her.“Yeah, but I only say that when someone, like you, is over-excited or when it’s not actually cold.”
As they’re standing in the quad, Nino feels a drop land on his head. He looks up, Alya following his gaze as more and more raindrops fall around and on them.
She jumps and sprints towards the shade of the building. When she turns around, she sees Nino, laughing with his arms out and still looking up at the sky with his eyes closed.
“Nino! What are you doing?!”
She could barely make out what he says.
“What?!”
He calmly shouts without moving, “Standing in the rain! What are you doing?”
“I’m standing over here, under the awning! You know, not getting wet!”
“It’s not bad you know!”
Students run into the safety of the classroom and library, a few of those already inside watching the couple banter.
“Says the person who was literally complaining about the cold a minute ago!”
“Yeah, the cold and wind is a lot more different than rain.”
“What!?”
“Rain is better than cold!”
“No, it isn’t! They’re the same thing!”
“No, they aren’t!”
“Fine! What’s the difference then?!”
“The rain is calming but when it’s cold, it’s only cold.”
“That doesn’t make any sense! And you’re gonna get sick if you don’t get out of there soon!”
“I know.” He faces her, glasses spotted with raindrops as he holds out his hands to her. “Come on!”
“What?”
He looks left and right, then runs up to Alya’s ‘safe spot’. He grabs her hand and pulls her into the rain, laughing.
“NINO!” With her open hand, she tries to cover her head.
He lets go and starts running in a circle around her, still laughing and twirling.
Seeing her covering her head still, he takes her hands and looks into her eyes. She’s scared.
He tries calming her down, whispering, “Come on, babe. Try and have some fun while it lasts.”
She shuts her eyes and breathes in and out slowly a few times. After a bit, she opens her eyes again and gives him a nod and a small smile.
Letting go, he starts to spin around, splashing her with droplets as he jumps into a puddle. He hears a small laugh and stops to watch her.
Her smile widens as she begins to jump into the puddles. She starts spinning with her arms out, eyes closed even though her glasses could probably block some of the rain out. Soon enough she’s laughing along with him, both of them trying to catch raindrops in their mouths. He peeks out a corner of his eye to look at his girlfriend. She has the biggest smile he’s seen since she caught the last akuma attack footage.
She also peeks out the corner of her eye and grins up at him.
She hits him on the shoulder.
“Tag!”
He drops his arms as she backs away slowly from where they’re standing. Then, he jumps at her, reaching his arms out as she jumps out of the way. She starts to run around the quad where the rain is still pouring with Nino chasing behind. He catches up to her and tags her back. This cycles a few times before they both tire themselves out and just stand in the rain, again with their arms out, eyes closed.
Breathing heavily, she asks, “Are your clothes wet?”
“Yeah.”
“How wet?”
“My shirt is wet if that’s what you’re wondering.”
“Really?”
“Yeah.”
“Same.”
He nods, lowering his arms. He bumps into Alya’s arm, which was also going down.
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay, babe.”
It’s silent there for a few moments before either one of them speaks.
She can barely hear him say, “We’re definitely going get sick tomorrow.”
“Hmm? Oh, yeah. For sure.”
“Your place?”
“No, Nora’s going to be babysitting Ella and Etta tomorrow.”
“Oh. Okay.”
A few seconds of silence pass by before Alya says, “How do you think Marinette and Adrien are doing?”
He sighs and shrugs. “I dunno. Lo-Fi beats or Classical music?”
“Lo-fi sounds interesting.”
“Have I told you about Lo-Fi before? I thought I already showed it to you.”
“No, not yet, babe.”
“Dang. It’s just calm music, but not only piano, you know?”
“Oh. Makes sense, I guess.”
. . .
“How long have we been here?”
“Hmm.” He turns to look down at her. “Good question. The real question is: why hasn’t anybody tried to stop us?”
“NINO, ALYA WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN THE RAIN?! YOU’RE GOING TO GET A COLD!”
The couple spins around and sees Marinette in front of the locker-room doors, Adrien standing closely behind her, holding some towels.
Alya grins, “You spoke too soon, Nino.”
They hear Adrien shout, “WHAT ARE YOU WAITING FOR? COME ON!”
They both sprint underneath the shade, in front of their dry friends. Marinette and Adrien throw the towels on top of Alya and Nino, respectively.
“What were you thinking?” Marinette grumbles while attempting to dry off her best friends mane.
Through the towel, Alya laughs, “Nino dragged me into this!”
Even without seeing it, she knew Marinette was glaring at her boyfriend.
“Nino, you’re going to get sick,” the blonde replies.
“I know. Why does everyone keep saying that?”
The other three reply at the same time, “Because it's true!”
After a bit, their best friends give them the towels to dry off with, continuing to sort of lecture them on why staying in the rain isn’t the best.
Nino dries his glasses. “But it’s so calming. And fun!”
The fashion geeks glance at each other with disgusted looks.
“Um, I would prefer not to be in the rain.”
The brunette nods along with him, “Same.”
They begin to walk to their next period as the bell rings.
“Do you want us to get you notes for tomorrow’s lectures?” Adrien asks.
“That would pay for all the times you’ve asked for all of my notes,” Alya laughs.
Marinette and Adrien blush as Nino laughs along.
They walk into chemistry class with soaked shoes and their towels around their necks like scarves.
Mrs. Mendeleev walks into the classroom, looking down when she splashes on a small puddle around Nino’s seat.
“Mr. Lahiffe? What’s all this water doing inside my classroom?”
“Um, Alya and I were, uh, got stuck in the rain outside during lunch, ma’am.”
“You and Alya, hmm?”
“Yeah, Adrien and I got them towels to dry off with but, uh, I guess it didn’t cover everything!?”
Alya glances at the sudden shout of her best friend.
“Well, then. I don’t know if I can send you guys home-“
“Why would we? We can still write notes, Mrs. Mendeleev.”
“Don’t interrupt me, young lady. And yes, I do realize you could probably still write notes, I still want to send you home so no one would catch your disease as well.”
“What disease? You mean a cold?”
“Why of course, do you want to get your other classmates sick?!”
“But we aren’t even sick yet!”
“Alya.”
She feels a hand on her knee and looks at Nino. He shrugs nonchalantly and gives a small smile before letting go.
She sighs. “Fine. Whatever you say, ma’am.”
The teacher grunts approvingly and walks up to her front desk, taking out a pad of yellow paper.
Nino starts to pack up, Alya following behind.
“Alya,” she turns at the sound of her name. “Don’t worry about it. We already said we were gonna write you the notes. Just relax and get better, if you aren’t already. Okay?”
She sighs and gives the other brunette a hug. “Thanks, Marinette.”
She hugs her back. “No problem.”
As she stands up, Nino is already waiting for her with the office pass in hand. They walk out together and, when out of sight of the teacher, hold hands on the way out. They silently pass through the rain filled quad and out the door. She holds onto his arm as the wind blows past them. They shield the rain out by moving their towels above their head as they walk along the sidewalk to Nino’s place. They don’t let go until they get inside to dry off.
