Hearing thunder rumble overhead had Dear freezing midstep. They knew it was supposed to rain but every time they had checked their phone before, it wasn't supposed to be that bad.
They looked at the window over the sink, seeing the dark clouds trying to roll in. Their eyes narrowed to try and see which direction the clouds were going, watching carefully... Nope. Fuck. It's coming in this direction. Great...
And as they watched, a streak of lightning flashed across the sky. About ten seconds later, a loud clap of thunder rattled the walls, their hands coming up to cover their ears.
Where was their phone, they had to check the radar, just to know what they were needing to do...
On their lock screen was the icon for their weather app, and once they turned the phone on and swiped down the screen, they didn't like reading the alert.
Severe Thunderstorm Warning: Radar indicated threat. Hazards include: Wind gusts up to 50 mph, nickel sized hail, heavy rain that may cause flooding. Do not drive in heavily flooded areas. Turn around, don't drown. Areas affected:—
They squeezed their eyes shut when Dahlia was one of the cities under this. The only saving grace that somewhat comforted them was the fact that tornadoes weren't any of the options. They could handle this... They could do this...
They covered their ears again as a deep, long rumble of thunder caught them off guard.
They couldn't do anything to distract them, they couldn't think of anything. The only thing they could do was tuck on their noise cancelling headphones.
Even thought it was close to 80 degrees even now, they were tempted to put on a hoodie they deemed their "safety hoodie," the one they always wear during a storm like this to put pressure on them.
Fiddling with their hands, they wandered to the bedroom to hunt it down, momentarily taking the heads off to pull the big hoodie over their head, then the headphones back on just before another loud crash of thunder.
The thing is with them, they could easily handle the rain. They love rain, even when it's heavy straight down. That's what could put them to sleep in an instant.
It's what comes with the rain that gets them.
The lighting, the wind, the thunder... Don't even get them started on tornado threats — it's ironic they're dating an air elemental being scared of those...
Lasko went out to hang out with Gavin, Damien, and Huxley.
If he gets caught in that—
Ohhh, there goes the sick feeling in their throat again, the fear bubbling up and tasting of bile.
Surely, he'd be fine, right?
They bumped their head against the wall, lightly thumping it to try and rid those stupid and baseless thoughts.
They just wished, hoped to every god possible, that they could be normal about this for just fucking once. Just once! That's all they ask!
Pacing around the house, they kept doing laps as they attempted to distract their mind. Think of that D&D session Lasko's planning, yeah... Yeah, that works...! Right?
They still haven't come up with a character to do, this stuff was still new to them. Even with the amount of hours he spent explaining (rambling) about everything, they ended up more in a daze listening to him talk in that ecstatic passion that gets their heart — among other things — going than retaining any of the information. Again.
Every time the thunder above rumbled, they flinched and held their headphones tighter against their head. The noise cancelling of these things didn't seem to cover up that, much to their chagrin.
They were beginning to get antsy.
He should be back by now.
He said it'd be a couple of hours so he could find some new dice to use... And maybe just to have because he doesn't have any in that specific colour. Maheba few other things if he felt adventurous, get some drinks at a café...
It shouldn't be this long.
They were just about to call him when the front door opened, scaring them half to death.
He was completely drenched. They didn't even hear the... Oh. That must be what their headphones blocked out.
"Hey—" He attempted to shake out his hair, only plastering it instead and spraying water over is face even further. "Could... Uhh— could— could you get me a towel... Or something? A towel would work best— I don't even know why I said the "or something-" um. I just don't want to get water all over the floor—"
"You do know who you're talking to, right?" They tilted their head, a playful lilt in their voice.
"Oh— Wha— Oh! Duh... It's— it's been a long day, shush..." He pouted through a smile, standing there so his partner could use their magic to remove the water from him and his clothes.
It was a bit of an odd sensation all things considered. One second his clothes were a bit soaked, the next he was completely dry as if nothing happened. They've done the same thing a few times from when they've ended up drenched from the rain, but it's funny to see someone else's reaction to it.
"Tada," they made a goofy jazz hands gesture as the water dissipated in the air, "all dry—" They flinched again as the thunder started back up, a few back to back rumbles.
Lasko dropped his things the second he saw them curling into themself, by their side in an instant, "Hey-hey hey... It's okay... Well— I guess it's... not okay— for-for you, at least— or... You don't think it's okay, um..."
"Hey," he tilted their chin with a light touch so they was looking at him, "no apologizing. You can't help it... As much as you want to, that kind of thing just... It's hard to get over."
They shook their head, resting it against his shoulder as he held them. "A grown ass adult... Scared of a little thunder..."
"And I'm terrified of spiders," he stated plainly, "fears are a natural thing, dear... Some are triggered, others are just there for the sake of things being scary." When they didn't respond, he guided them to the couch. "Stay here, okay? Gimme a sec or two."
Even with their headphones on, they still popped their hood up to cover their head, tucking themself as best as they could into it to hide. They probably looked stupid, but... It felt safer that way.
They glanced over as he went through a few of the bags he had, muttering to himself as he tried to find something specific. "Ha-! There!"
He pulled the stuff from the bag, immediately tucking it all behind his back. "We ended up going to a couple of stores, but... I saw these and had to get them for you."
"Baby, you didn't have to get me any...thing..."
Their words trailed off when he showed what he got. "I know we've got..." he chuckled lightly, "at least 20 plushies each already, but, I had to get you these since they had them..."
"How much did you even spend—"
"You don't wanna know," he cut them off, shaking his head and handing over the plushie. "It, uhh... it was less than a hundred, I'll say that much—"
He held his hands up in defense, "What?? I can't get you a few gifts??"
"I—" They couldn't hardly believe him. He did all this... "Why, like... I don't— I don't get it."
He took a moment to get the other bags, one of a few books he got and a couple of new sets of dice, the other with a few drinks, "Well... I knew the weather would get you freaked out, so..." He shrugged and handed over a can, a drink he knew they liked, "I... I just wanted to make the day a little better for you."
They reached for the can, jumping slightly as the rain got heavier again, a few cracks of thunder getting them flinching again. Once it was over, they slowly took the drink, "...thank you..."
"Of course," he bent over to give them a soft kiss, "anything for you, okay?" He assured them. "And I mean anything, I promise you..."
He went ahead and put the other drinks in the fridge, then put his new books with the others and set the new dice sets in his little display.
When he came back, his partner was curled up hugging the penguin, looking absolutely adorable to him. The drink sat untouched up on the end table, unopened. They're still on edge about the storm...
The air elemental sighed softly, but had an idea. He didn't say anything as he picked up the remote, going through streaming services and finding one that he knew had their favourite movie. He instantly started it, which got their attention.
He pulled his phone out of his back pocket to connect to the speakers, finding the playlist he made for them and hitting random. The music was set a bit louder than the movie, he figured it would be better since they knew that movie from start to finish and back again.
He went back into the bedroom to find his switch, then theirs, and carried the two devices back.
When he came back, they were upright without their headphones and hood, and he was able to see them completely. They had a cutely confused look on their face, their head tilted to the side.
Don't get hard don't get hard don't get hard...
He's pretty sure he's good.
He handed their switch over to them, sitting on the other end of the couch and sitting back. He held his arms out for them and they took the hint. They moved over to lay back against him, they propped their head back against him, more between his chest and stomach so he could comfortably hold his switch.
"Do you... wanna play Animal Crossing?" He asked, tilting his head so he could try and look at them. His heart skipped a beat when instead, they laid their head back to look up at him. "I... wouldn't mind some help with terraforming my island— not that I'm just asking for the help, I'd never do that— it's just-just that I'm— I just wanna distract you from... From the storm, um..."
They smiled up at him, his heart beating faster again and he's sure they could feel it, "Boot it up then, baby."
As he got his game started up, they booted theirs up to wait and connect to his island. When their little character popped up on his island, the two started up on redesigning it.
The two eventually got bored of that and started competing on who could catch the most or the biggest fish. He would do that for bugs but he absolutely hated catching the things because of how detailed some of them were. Made his skin crawl.
They blinked and looked out at the room, "You're like Blathers, I just realized."
He made a disbelieving sound, "I am not...! I—" The more he thought about it, the more he realized that he was. He didn't like bugs. He rambled about his interests... "Hey, I'm not a night owl so ha! I'm not completely like him!"
"Woo," they looked back up at him with a lopsided smile, "one little difference, my bad."
He couldn't help but chuckle, "Mean," he teased, carefully leaning down to kiss their forehead.
He didn't want to mention it, but he noticed they weren't thinking about the storm anymore, even if it's still howling and cracking outside.
"Hey," he lowered his switch, "can... can I ask you something?"
"Hm?" They tilted their head back, "Yeah, what's up?"
He hesitated, he didn't know how to ask this. "What... What caused your fear— if-if it's one that was triggered, I'm just... I'm just curious— wondering... Um..."
They hummed a quiet sound. "It's kind of hard to explain, I guess. But..." They took a breath, stretched out, then sighed.
"When I was a kid, I used to stay at a lot of different people's places, my parents were pretty busy working so there were a few family friends that would have me stay over and all that...
One had a few kids about my age, some younger but one was older. Well... One time I was over at that one — and for context, they lived basically right there by the train tracks, it was storming pretty bad. I was, like, 7 or something back then so obviously I was a little spooked, but...
Me and a few of the siblings were gathered up in the older ones room, and he was playing a game on his little TV. The storm was getting pretty bad, I was getting nervous...
And that—" They caught themself with pursed lips and a frustrated grumble, "I'm gonna try and be nice— that dude then says, "Hey, did you know that tornadoes sound like trains?" And right after that motherfucker says that, a train immediately goes last so either he knew the schedule or had extremely good luck, but I ended up having nightmares ever since then."
Lasko's jaw was practically on the floor. "That— who would even do that!? To a— you were a kid!"
They shrugged, sinking back against him again.
"Dear," he frowned and held onto them, "no wonder you hate storms... That'd get anyone to hate it..." He felt awful.
They didn't want the whole sympathy thing, "Can we... go back to playing?"
"Oh— oh! Right, forget about the whole thing," he scrambled to get his switch, "right. Do you still wanna play Animal Crossing or try something else?"
"What other multiplayer ones do you have?"
"Uhhmmm..." He started scrolling through his games, jumping when his phone went off.
"Hang on, sorry—" He had to hunt and search for his phone, having to pull it out from between the cushion. He read the message, then glanced at his partner. "It's Damien, he saw both of us online and asked if we'd be up to playing Mario Party with him and Huxley."
They then smiled. If that's one way to distract themself, it's that.
"Tell him we'll be on in a minute."
