Rainman
Title: Rainman
Pairing: Ohmiya
Summary: In the middle of a terrible drought, when everybody has already lost their hope, a travelling seller arrives to the village with news about a man who is able to invoke the rain.
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: The plot is mine and zazasukie made some corrections.
Genre: AU
Words count: 4224
AN: unbetaed
"Grampa is going to tell us a story, grampa is going to tell us a story!" the children shouted, delighted, and noisily gathered in a large circle around an old, hunched man seated in a wooden rocking chair close to the fireplace.
The old man smiled fondly at the little kids that were sitting around him on the wooden floor.
"What story do you want to hear tonight?" he inquired with bright eyes.
He looked at the happy faces of the children illuminated by the small fire in the room almost in darkness, expecting their answer.
"Rain man’s tale! Rain man’s tale!" yelled the kids in unison.
"Eh? Again? You love that story, don't you?" he laughed softly, "All right, I'm going to tell you Rain man's tale."
The children applauded, elated, and waited for the old man to begin his story while he gently rocked on the rocking chair with a soft expression of reminiscence in his face. In the room in silence, only the cracking sound of the fire and the children’s excited whispers could be heard. The old man smiled, looking at the bright eyes of the children gathered around him. After a few seconds, he began his narration in a soft voice, "This story begins in a small village..."
***
Nino looked tiredly at the clear, blue sky, putting a hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun’s blinding light. It had been months since the last time it had rained and the effects of the drought were sadly evident in the small crop fields that surrounded his little village. Under the scorching sun, the soil was dry and cracked; and only a few crops were barely surviving thanks to the villager’s effort and hard work. The river, which had never been too large, was just a stream completely dry now.
Nino wiped the sweat away from his forehead, leaving a trace of mud, and massaged his neck trying to relieve its stiffness. Afterwards, he picked up his shovel and slowly headed towards his house situated in the main square of the village. "I think it's enough for today," he muttered tiredly, after all, he had been working with the other young men of the village since dawn to deepen the old well that had finally dried two weeks ago. Dragging his feet, he turned around the corner, arriving to the small village’s square where the villagers where gathered heatedly discussing the latest news.
"He said that in that village people don’t have problems to get water!” a young man complained loudly.
"Yes, he said that its surrounding fields are always green and the crops grow strong and healthy," an old woman nodded in agreement.
"Who? That travelling seller?” a young woman asked, “In my opinion, that rumour about a man who is able to invoke the rain it's only a bunch of lies!" she disagreed.
"But he had healthy crops to sell despite the drought affecting the whole region, right? Where did he get those vegetables if his story wasn’t true?" another young man argued angrily.
“I don’t know how he managed to get them, but his story is too farfetched to be true!” other voice loudly complained.
Nino sighed tiredly at the sight of his fellow villagers arguing for the umpteenth time about the same thing; the rumour about the existence of a mysterious man who was able to invoke the rain and lived in a distant village situated past the mountains. Since the monthly arrival of the traveller seller carrying perfectly fresh vegetables, the villagers’ feelings had been running high, especially those belonging to a few young farmers who had finally had to give up their dreams of improving their economic situation by selling their crops. Shaking his head, he entered his house, leaving the shovel he was carrying resting against the wall of the modest entrance hall.
“Dad, the villagers are arguing again,” he complained.
“About the man who is able to invoke the rain?” asked from his study his father, the mayor of the village.
“Yeah,” nodded the black-haired young man, “How I curse the day Masaki arrived and began to spread those rumours; they have only made the situation worse, as if the drought weren’t more than enough.”
“Nino,” scolded him his father disapprovingly, “That’s not the way to talk about your friend.”
“Yeah, I know,” grumbled Nino, “but things would be easier for us if that airhead kept his mouth close.”
“I agree with that,” replied his father, exiting his study with some documents in his hand. “I think it will be wise if I keep and eye on the angriest youngsters while you’re in the neighbour city… just in case they try something funny.”
“Yeah,” agreed Nino, “Well, I’ll come back as soon as possible,” he promised, taking the documents his father was holding, “but I don’t know how much time I’ll need to get the best possible deal.”
“I know you’ll try your best, Kazu,” said his father, ruffling affectionately his hair.
***
[Three weeks later]
Yawning, the young man led his horse towards the small village, now visible in the distance under the soft light of the full moon. Though he didn’t like travelling during the night, he was too impatient to tell his father about the very profitable deal he had managed to get in the neighbour city to spend another night in there. “Well, it took me two more weeks than I initially thought, but I think I did a very good-”
A sudden flash of light coming from a deserted warehouse grabbed his attention. “What the-” With a frown, he saw a few figures exiting the old building furtively. They were carrying some bags with them and an oil lamp that was put out the moment they were under the moonlight, but it was too late; Nino had already recognized them. “What are those young farmers doing here at this hour? This place had been deserted since the beginning of the drought,” murmured Nino, looking suspicious at the retreating forms.
Totally awake now, the short man dismounted and tied his horse to a nearby tree, stroking the long face of the equine to calm it. As stealthy as possible, he approached the building’s entrance, stretching his senses in hopes of discovering if there was someone still inside. After spending a few minutes waiting, he finally entered the building, carefully opening the heavy door with all his nerves in tension.
Inside the warehouse it was too dark to discern anything but Nino was ready for that contingency; closing the door behind him, he lighted the small oil lamp he always carried with him when he made long trips. The light of his lamp was faint, but more than enough to let him inspect his surroundings.
The spacious place was full of dust and discarded farming tools, but what grabbed his attention was the bolt-down door leading to a small room in the farthest wall of the room. Wondering the reasons why the young farmers would want to keep that door closed, the young man led his way to the door; pressing his ear to its wooden surface, trying to discern a sound or something that could give him a hint of what was waiting inside.
A muffled groan coming from the other side of the door made Nino hurriedly move away from the closed door, his confused frown deepening. “What was that?” he asked aloud. With his heart throbbing painfully in his chest, the young man unbolted the door, bracing himself for whatever was waiting inside the other room.
He found himself in a small room in semi-darkness; the only source of light was the moonlight entering through a small opening in the ceiling. Coming from the farthest corner of the room, where the moonlight didn’t reach, a heavy breathing, occasionally interrupted by pained whines could be heard. Nino shivered and, holding his breath, he slowly approached the corner where the moans came from.
Raising his small oil lamp, he gasped, shocked, when the faint light illuminated a shivering figure, enveloped in an old blanket, laying in a straw mattress. Beside the figure there was an empty glass of water, some bottles of what it seemed to be some kind of medicine and an almost empty plate of porridge. Another pained groan coming from the trembling form snapped Nino out of his shocked state and he hurried to approach the shivering figure, carefully removing the blanket that wrapped it.
“What the-!” the mayor’s son couldn’t suppress his surprised exclamation when he found the trembling figure of a tanned, young man sleeping under the blanket. The man, who didn’t seem to be aware of his presence, kept breathing laboriously, his slender body shivering uncontrollably and his dark hair plastered on his sweated forehead. Nino looked alarmed at the man, who was clearly sick, and gently placed a hand on his wet forehead. “Woah! His fever is really high!” he exclaimed, worrying his lips, “I need to bring him to a doctor as soon as possible!”
He hurriedly grabbed the feverish man, trying to lift him, but his action frightened the poor man, waking him up from his restless slumber. Trying to focus his bright, feverish eyes on Nino’s face without success, the scared man made a desperate attempt to fight against him, weakly hitting the small hands that were grabbing him while he tried to recoil.
Nino felt a pang of pain in his heart. “Shhh! Don’t worry, I’m here to help you,” he murmured, hurriedly kneeling in front of the sick man and hugging him gently, pulling his trembling body close to him. “There is no need to worry anymore,” he kept whispering in the man’s ear while he rubbed his back soothingly, not paying attention to the sick man’s feeble attempts to get free. After a few seconds, the short man stopped struggling and seemed to slowly relax under Nino’s care; finally falling unconscious after using too much energy in his desperate effort to defend himself. Nino caressed the man’s back for the last time, slightly moving away to inspect his pale face. “I wonder why you were locked here,” he murmured.
Lifting the unconscious body with difficulty, he began to drag him through the deserted warehouse towards his horse. When he finally reached his horse, he was panting with the effort and was covered with sweat. After several attempts, he finally managed to lift up the unconscious man onto the horse and mount behind him at the same time. He cut the rope that tied his horse to the tree and urged his equine companion to start walking towards the village with a click of his tongue, tightly holding the short man against his body to prevent him from falling.
***
“Well?” asked Nino, wringing his hands nervously, “How is he? Will he get better?”
The doctor closed the door to the patient’s room behind him and smiled at him reassuringly, “Yeah, fortunately, he received treatment for his fever. Too bad that his environment wasn’t the most adequate for his illness but now that someone is looking after him, I’m sure he will recover in a few days.”
Nino sighed in relief, “I’m so happy to hear that, Sho. I was really scared when I found him in that place, burning with fever.”
His friend nodded, putting his equipment in his leather bag. “Don’t worry. From now on, everything will be o.k.,” with those words, he said goodbye to Nino and his father and left the house, ready to visit the next patient in his list.
“Your friend is always so busy. We’re lucky he was in our village today,” commented the mayor, watching the young man walking down the street.
“Dad.”
Surprised by the serious tone in his son’s voice, the mayor turned around, meeting Nino’s determined face, “look after him till I return o.k.?”
“Where are you going?” his father asked, looking perplexed at his son.
“I need to look after something,” replied Nino, clenching his fists.
Without another word, he left his house in search of the three men he had seen leaving the deserted warehouse, “They better had a good explanation for this or…”
~~
“So, let me put this clear,” Nino said, deadly serious, after hearing the men’s explanation, “you wanted to confirm the rumours about the man who was able to invoke the rain and, knowing that my father and I wouldn’t approve it, you took advantage of my absence and my father’s forced stay at home after he sprained his ankle to carry out your plan.”
The men nodded, looking at him warily.
“There, surrounded by the lush greenery, your suspicions were confirmed and you spent the next days trying to find out who that man could be,” Nino’s lips formed a line. “Finally, the comments of the villagers made you suspect that the man you were searching for was Ohno Satoshi, the baker of the village and, spurred by your greediness, - the men flinched at his deathly serious tone - you decided to kidnap him and brought him by force.”
“Well, we have invested a lot of money in our fields to lose everything because of the droug-”
Nino’s death glare made the farmer close his mouth with an audible snap.
“Unfortunately, once you arrived here, you discovered that he had fallen sick during the ‘pleasant’ trip and you decided to lock him in that deserted warehouse, using some medicine to try to lower his fever,” he made a pause to breath deeply, trying to calm himself, but the memory of the sick man’s scared face when he tried to get free from him, rendered his efforts useless. “Is that all?” he asked, clenching his fists.
“Y-Yeah.”
Nino fixed his eyes on the farmers, trembling with the effort to hold back his fury, “I’m so tempted to expel you from the village,” he hissed through his clenched teeth, making the farmers turn pale. “But that wouldn’t be enough. I’ll talk with my father about what you did and we’ll decide your punishment,” he stated, looking darkly at the trembling farmers, “And I can assure you something; it will be an exemplar punishment.”
He turned around, looking at the tall policeman waiting beside him, “Jun, take care of them and please, make sure they enjoy their stay in jail.”
The men looked at the tall policeman, who looked them back with a feral grin plastered in his handsome face and a sadistic glint in his dark eyes. “Don’t worry, they will be delighted,” he chuckled evilly.
***
“How is our guest tonight, Kazu?” asked the mayor, entering the guest room carrying a tray of food in his hands.
Nino rubbed his eyes tiredly and smiled with gratitude at his father as he accepted the tray the older man was carrying. “He’s much better today,” he said putting the tray on the table behind him, “Clearly, just giving him some medicines to lower his fever like the farmers did wasn’t enough to cure him; he needed someone to care for him.”
After his words, the young man looked at the sleeping man in the bed beside him, gently moving away a lock of dark hair from his forehead with a tiny smile. Stretching his stiff muscles, Nino stood up, walking around the room to relieve the itching of his legs; which had fallen asleep after the long hours he had spent seated on the chair beside the patient’s bed.
“I’m glad to hear he’s recovering without problems,” said Nino’s father, “and I’m sure his family will be happy to find him completely recovered when they visit us after receiving our message.”
“At least, they won’t have to worry anymore about his disappearance,” replied Nino, his eyes hardening as he remembered the egoistic reasons the farmers had put forward when they had been questioned about the man’s kidnapping.
“I’m glad we can ease their worries,” said his father, snapping Nino out of his memories. “Are you going to stay by his side tonight too?”
“Yeah, I want to make sure he doesn’t get worse during the night,” the young man added with a nod.
His father nodded, agreeing with his decision, and left the room closing the door behind him.
Nino fixed again his eyes on the tanned face of the peacefully sleeping man and couldn’t suppress his smile watching the older man pout cutely. “What a difference from the first time I met him,” he thought. He didn’t know why, but he always felt better looking at the other man’s peaceful face, not only because he was getting healthier with each passing day, but because his face had a charming quality that Nino found strangely endearing.
“You look like a good-natured person,” he commented, gently tucking the blankets under the sleeping man, “but that cute pout of yours tells me another story; one about the stubborn need you have to do things at your pace and on your own way,” he commented with a giggle. Without thinking, he caressed the face of the other man and smiled broadly when the latter leaned on his touch in his sleep.
The fact that the tanned man seemed to enjoy his touch, calming himself whenever Nino was near him, was a nice discovery he had made when he was watching over the patient during his convalescence. The drawback was that he was rapidly becoming attached to the tanned man, but he would worry about that later, when the man woke up. “You are so cute,” he chuckled, affectionately scratching the man’s ear as if he were a big, lazy cat.
[Later that night]
Ohno slowly woke up, progressively becoming aware of his surroundings. With a yawn, he tried to rub the last traces of sleep from his eyes but something was holding his right hand, thwarting his attempts. Blinking owlishly in the room bathed in the warm light of the oil lamps, he fixed his eyes on the dark haired man sleeping in a chair beside him.
The pale man was facing him with his head leaning on his crossed arms, and held his right hand in one of his cute, pudgy hands.
Ohno frowned, confused; he didn’t recognize the man. Not wanting to disturb the peaceful young man’s slumber, the tanned man decided to stay still; opting instead to look around the nicely decorated bedroom. “Well, this is clearly an improvement regarding the deserted warehouse, but I wonder where I am and who this man is.” After spending a few minutes pondering those questions, he began to feel sleepy again, his eyelids getting heavier with each passing second.
Finally, he surrendered to sleep still holding the young man’s hand.
[Next morning]
Nino slowly woke up, grimacing at the painful sharp pain in his neck when he tried to sit up properly. Groaning, he rubbed his stiff neck to relieve the pain, slowly opening his eyes.
There was a pair of warm, brown, almond-shaped eyes fixed on him. “Are you o.k.?” the owner of the aforementioned eyes gently asked him, a hint of concern in his soft voice.
Nino looked at him, dumbfounded, and nodded slowly. He was rewarded by a bright smile coming form the older man and Nino couldn’t help but smile him back.
“My name is Ohno Satoshi,” the tanned man said, holding out his hand to Nino.
“I’m Ninomiya Kazunari, but you can call me Nino,” replied the mayor’s son, shaking his hand.
***
Nino yawned and scratched his arm lazily, reluctant to get up. He was still sleepy but it couldn’t be helped, last night he and Oh-chan - yes, he had given the older man a childish nickname, but he was so cute that the nickname fitted him perfectly - had been talking until well into the night, too engrossed in their conversation to pay attention to the time until Nino had remembered that Oh-chan should be resting - after all he was still convalescent. Nino couldn’t stop the smile growing in his face when he remembered Ohno’s pouting face when he ordered the older man to rest before leaving his bedroom. Sometimes, he is so stubborn.
He opened his eyes, finding his bedroom surrounded in semi-darkness and frowned confused; his body was telling him that it was time to get up, but the scarce light entering his room said otherwise. With a shrug, he yawned again, turning around in his bed, ready to let the calming sound of the raindrops falling on his rooftop lull him to sleep.
The sound of the raindrops falling on his rooftop…
Nino snapped his eyes open, his heart beating painfully in his chest.
The sound of the raindrops falling on his rooftop…
He jumped out of the bed and pulled the curtains brusquely. His eyes widened in shock. It was raining, after almost a year of drought it was finally raining… He opened the window, enjoying the refreshing breeze that entered the room, and popped his head out. The sky was grey, full of rain clouds that hid the unforgiving sun, and everything was wet, wonderfully wet. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, loving the smell of rain and the small raindrops falling on his face and hair.
It was raining…
…
Ohno! It’s raining thanks to Ohno!
The sudden thought made him snap his eyes open. He hurriedly left the window and run towards the door, opening it hastily. In less than five seconds, he was painting in front of the closed door belonging to Ohno’s bedroom. With his heart beating painfully in his chest, Nino slowly opened the door and hesitantly entered in the room in semi-darkness. He fixed his eyes on Ohno’s bed and found it empty. W-Where is he?
He run stairs down, looking frantically around him in search of the chubby-faced man and his heart almost stopped when he saw the street door open. H-he’s gone?!
He was about to run outside when a soft, surprised voice stopped him right in his tracks.
“What are you doing, Nino? It’s raining outside, I don’t think is wise to go out dressed only in pyjamas.”
He quickly turned around and found Ohno, looking at him from the kitchen door with a puzzled expression in his tanned face. The older man was carrying a tray full of fresh backed bread, and had small smudge of flour in his nose.
“O-Oh-chan!” he exclaimed, running to the tanned man’s side, “What are you-? Why is the door-? The rain-?!” he seemed to be unable to form a coherent phrase.
“Ah,” the older man smiled bashfully. “It’s because I baked some bread,” he added as if those words explained everything, then he turned around and entered the kitchen.
Nino slowly followed him, looking at him, perplexed “B-bread?” he repeated weakly.
“Well, I don’t know how it works,” began to say Ohno, carefully placing the tray of bread on the sturdy, wooden table in the middle of the kitchen. “But every time I bake some bread it begins to rain,” he looked at Nino shyly as if he was expecting the younger boy to laugh at him. Nino just looked him back, dumbfounded.
“You told me that you were having problems with the drought,” the older man explained, “And, well… when I woke up this morning, feeling completely recovered… uh…I decided that it was a great moment to return your kindness… and I left the street door open because I always left the door of my bakery open wh-” Ohno began to ramble, averting his eyes from Nino and blushing under the dark-haired man’s unblinking gaze.
His words were abruptly interrupted when a relieved Nino suddenly hugged him, making the older man gasp surprised. “Thanks for the rain Oh-chan, and thanks for not leaving,” Nino murmured in his neck.
“Don’t worry, I don’t plan to leave anytime soon,” the older man whispered almost inaudibly, slowly raising his hands to hug Nino back.
Outside, a beautiful rainbow began to form in the grey sky.
***
“And that’s how the story ends,” finished his story the old man.
“But what happened with the man who was able to invoke the rain?” asked with her eyes wide open a little girl, who had never heard the old tale before. “Did he return to his village after helping us?”
“That… is a secret,” he replied after a theatrical pause, laughing at the little girl’s pout of disappointment.
“Kazu!” a voice sounded behind them, “Didn’t I tell you not to bully the children?” A short, old man coming from the kitchen entered the room carrying a tray of fresh backed sweets.
“Ups!” the old hunched man exclaimed, softly hitting his own head and making a funny face of remorse, “I completely forgot it, Oh-chan,” he sing-sang, winking at the jubilant children mischievously.
“Yeah, sure,” Ohno replied with a fake sigh of resignation, sharing out the delicious sweets amongst the overjoyed children.
“Hey!” protested the hunched old man with a frown. “Where is my share?” he demanded, holding out his wrinkled, pudgy hand.
“Don’t worry,” assured him the other man, “I was keeping the best for you,” he declared, bending down and kissing Nino’s wrinkled cheek affectionately.
The gentle sound of the raindrops falling on the rooftop was muffled by the children’s merry laughs.
THE END
Pairing: Ohmiya
Summary: In the middle of a terrible drought, when everybody has already lost their hope, a travelling seller arrives to the village with news about a man who is able to invoke the rain.
Rating: PG
Disclaimer: The plot is mine and zazasukie made some corrections.
Genre: AU
Words count: 4224
AN: unbetaed
"Grampa is going to tell us a story, grampa is going to tell us a story!" the children shouted, delighted, and noisily gathered in a large circle around an old, hunched man seated in a wooden rocking chair close to the fireplace.
The old man smiled fondly at the little kids that were sitting around him on the wooden floor.
"What story do you want to hear tonight?" he inquired with bright eyes.
He looked at the happy faces of the children illuminated by the small fire in the room almost in darkness, expecting their answer.
"Rain man’s tale! Rain man’s tale!" yelled the kids in unison.
"Eh? Again? You love that story, don't you?" he laughed softly, "All right, I'm going to tell you Rain man's tale."
The children applauded, elated, and waited for the old man to begin his story while he gently rocked on the rocking chair with a soft expression of reminiscence in his face. In the room in silence, only the cracking sound of the fire and the children’s excited whispers could be heard. The old man smiled, looking at the bright eyes of the children gathered around him. After a few seconds, he began his narration in a soft voice, "This story begins in a small village..."
***
Nino looked tiredly at the clear, blue sky, putting a hand over his eyes to shield them from the sun’s blinding light. It had been months since the last time it had rained and the effects of the drought were sadly evident in the small crop fields that surrounded his little village. Under the scorching sun, the soil was dry and cracked; and only a few crops were barely surviving thanks to the villager’s effort and hard work. The river, which had never been too large, was just a stream completely dry now.
Nino wiped the sweat away from his forehead, leaving a trace of mud, and massaged his neck trying to relieve its stiffness. Afterwards, he picked up his shovel and slowly headed towards his house situated in the main square of the village. "I think it's enough for today," he muttered tiredly, after all, he had been working with the other young men of the village since dawn to deepen the old well that had finally dried two weeks ago. Dragging his feet, he turned around the corner, arriving to the small village’s square where the villagers where gathered heatedly discussing the latest news.
"He said that in that village people don’t have problems to get water!” a young man complained loudly.
"Yes, he said that its surrounding fields are always green and the crops grow strong and healthy," an old woman nodded in agreement.
"Who? That travelling seller?” a young woman asked, “In my opinion, that rumour about a man who is able to invoke the rain it's only a bunch of lies!" she disagreed.
"But he had healthy crops to sell despite the drought affecting the whole region, right? Where did he get those vegetables if his story wasn’t true?" another young man argued angrily.
“I don’t know how he managed to get them, but his story is too farfetched to be true!” other voice loudly complained.
Nino sighed tiredly at the sight of his fellow villagers arguing for the umpteenth time about the same thing; the rumour about the existence of a mysterious man who was able to invoke the rain and lived in a distant village situated past the mountains. Since the monthly arrival of the traveller seller carrying perfectly fresh vegetables, the villagers’ feelings had been running high, especially those belonging to a few young farmers who had finally had to give up their dreams of improving their economic situation by selling their crops. Shaking his head, he entered his house, leaving the shovel he was carrying resting against the wall of the modest entrance hall.
“Dad, the villagers are arguing again,” he complained.
“About the man who is able to invoke the rain?” asked from his study his father, the mayor of the village.
“Yeah,” nodded the black-haired young man, “How I curse the day Masaki arrived and began to spread those rumours; they have only made the situation worse, as if the drought weren’t more than enough.”
“Nino,” scolded him his father disapprovingly, “That’s not the way to talk about your friend.”
“Yeah, I know,” grumbled Nino, “but things would be easier for us if that airhead kept his mouth close.”
“I agree with that,” replied his father, exiting his study with some documents in his hand. “I think it will be wise if I keep and eye on the angriest youngsters while you’re in the neighbour city… just in case they try something funny.”
“Yeah,” agreed Nino, “Well, I’ll come back as soon as possible,” he promised, taking the documents his father was holding, “but I don’t know how much time I’ll need to get the best possible deal.”
“I know you’ll try your best, Kazu,” said his father, ruffling affectionately his hair.
***
[Three weeks later]
Yawning, the young man led his horse towards the small village, now visible in the distance under the soft light of the full moon. Though he didn’t like travelling during the night, he was too impatient to tell his father about the very profitable deal he had managed to get in the neighbour city to spend another night in there. “Well, it took me two more weeks than I initially thought, but I think I did a very good-”
A sudden flash of light coming from a deserted warehouse grabbed his attention. “What the-” With a frown, he saw a few figures exiting the old building furtively. They were carrying some bags with them and an oil lamp that was put out the moment they were under the moonlight, but it was too late; Nino had already recognized them. “What are those young farmers doing here at this hour? This place had been deserted since the beginning of the drought,” murmured Nino, looking suspicious at the retreating forms.
Totally awake now, the short man dismounted and tied his horse to a nearby tree, stroking the long face of the equine to calm it. As stealthy as possible, he approached the building’s entrance, stretching his senses in hopes of discovering if there was someone still inside. After spending a few minutes waiting, he finally entered the building, carefully opening the heavy door with all his nerves in tension.
Inside the warehouse it was too dark to discern anything but Nino was ready for that contingency; closing the door behind him, he lighted the small oil lamp he always carried with him when he made long trips. The light of his lamp was faint, but more than enough to let him inspect his surroundings.
The spacious place was full of dust and discarded farming tools, but what grabbed his attention was the bolt-down door leading to a small room in the farthest wall of the room. Wondering the reasons why the young farmers would want to keep that door closed, the young man led his way to the door; pressing his ear to its wooden surface, trying to discern a sound or something that could give him a hint of what was waiting inside.
A muffled groan coming from the other side of the door made Nino hurriedly move away from the closed door, his confused frown deepening. “What was that?” he asked aloud. With his heart throbbing painfully in his chest, the young man unbolted the door, bracing himself for whatever was waiting inside the other room.
He found himself in a small room in semi-darkness; the only source of light was the moonlight entering through a small opening in the ceiling. Coming from the farthest corner of the room, where the moonlight didn’t reach, a heavy breathing, occasionally interrupted by pained whines could be heard. Nino shivered and, holding his breath, he slowly approached the corner where the moans came from.
Raising his small oil lamp, he gasped, shocked, when the faint light illuminated a shivering figure, enveloped in an old blanket, laying in a straw mattress. Beside the figure there was an empty glass of water, some bottles of what it seemed to be some kind of medicine and an almost empty plate of porridge. Another pained groan coming from the trembling form snapped Nino out of his shocked state and he hurried to approach the shivering figure, carefully removing the blanket that wrapped it.
“What the-!” the mayor’s son couldn’t suppress his surprised exclamation when he found the trembling figure of a tanned, young man sleeping under the blanket. The man, who didn’t seem to be aware of his presence, kept breathing laboriously, his slender body shivering uncontrollably and his dark hair plastered on his sweated forehead. Nino looked alarmed at the man, who was clearly sick, and gently placed a hand on his wet forehead. “Woah! His fever is really high!” he exclaimed, worrying his lips, “I need to bring him to a doctor as soon as possible!”
He hurriedly grabbed the feverish man, trying to lift him, but his action frightened the poor man, waking him up from his restless slumber. Trying to focus his bright, feverish eyes on Nino’s face without success, the scared man made a desperate attempt to fight against him, weakly hitting the small hands that were grabbing him while he tried to recoil.
Nino felt a pang of pain in his heart. “Shhh! Don’t worry, I’m here to help you,” he murmured, hurriedly kneeling in front of the sick man and hugging him gently, pulling his trembling body close to him. “There is no need to worry anymore,” he kept whispering in the man’s ear while he rubbed his back soothingly, not paying attention to the sick man’s feeble attempts to get free. After a few seconds, the short man stopped struggling and seemed to slowly relax under Nino’s care; finally falling unconscious after using too much energy in his desperate effort to defend himself. Nino caressed the man’s back for the last time, slightly moving away to inspect his pale face. “I wonder why you were locked here,” he murmured.
Lifting the unconscious body with difficulty, he began to drag him through the deserted warehouse towards his horse. When he finally reached his horse, he was panting with the effort and was covered with sweat. After several attempts, he finally managed to lift up the unconscious man onto the horse and mount behind him at the same time. He cut the rope that tied his horse to the tree and urged his equine companion to start walking towards the village with a click of his tongue, tightly holding the short man against his body to prevent him from falling.
***
“Well?” asked Nino, wringing his hands nervously, “How is he? Will he get better?”
The doctor closed the door to the patient’s room behind him and smiled at him reassuringly, “Yeah, fortunately, he received treatment for his fever. Too bad that his environment wasn’t the most adequate for his illness but now that someone is looking after him, I’m sure he will recover in a few days.”
Nino sighed in relief, “I’m so happy to hear that, Sho. I was really scared when I found him in that place, burning with fever.”
His friend nodded, putting his equipment in his leather bag. “Don’t worry. From now on, everything will be o.k.,” with those words, he said goodbye to Nino and his father and left the house, ready to visit the next patient in his list.
“Your friend is always so busy. We’re lucky he was in our village today,” commented the mayor, watching the young man walking down the street.
“Dad.”
Surprised by the serious tone in his son’s voice, the mayor turned around, meeting Nino’s determined face, “look after him till I return o.k.?”
“Where are you going?” his father asked, looking perplexed at his son.
“I need to look after something,” replied Nino, clenching his fists.
Without another word, he left his house in search of the three men he had seen leaving the deserted warehouse, “They better had a good explanation for this or…”
~~
“So, let me put this clear,” Nino said, deadly serious, after hearing the men’s explanation, “you wanted to confirm the rumours about the man who was able to invoke the rain and, knowing that my father and I wouldn’t approve it, you took advantage of my absence and my father’s forced stay at home after he sprained his ankle to carry out your plan.”
The men nodded, looking at him warily.
“There, surrounded by the lush greenery, your suspicions were confirmed and you spent the next days trying to find out who that man could be,” Nino’s lips formed a line. “Finally, the comments of the villagers made you suspect that the man you were searching for was Ohno Satoshi, the baker of the village and, spurred by your greediness, - the men flinched at his deathly serious tone - you decided to kidnap him and brought him by force.”
“Well, we have invested a lot of money in our fields to lose everything because of the droug-”
Nino’s death glare made the farmer close his mouth with an audible snap.
“Unfortunately, once you arrived here, you discovered that he had fallen sick during the ‘pleasant’ trip and you decided to lock him in that deserted warehouse, using some medicine to try to lower his fever,” he made a pause to breath deeply, trying to calm himself, but the memory of the sick man’s scared face when he tried to get free from him, rendered his efforts useless. “Is that all?” he asked, clenching his fists.
“Y-Yeah.”
Nino fixed his eyes on the farmers, trembling with the effort to hold back his fury, “I’m so tempted to expel you from the village,” he hissed through his clenched teeth, making the farmers turn pale. “But that wouldn’t be enough. I’ll talk with my father about what you did and we’ll decide your punishment,” he stated, looking darkly at the trembling farmers, “And I can assure you something; it will be an exemplar punishment.”
He turned around, looking at the tall policeman waiting beside him, “Jun, take care of them and please, make sure they enjoy their stay in jail.”
The men looked at the tall policeman, who looked them back with a feral grin plastered in his handsome face and a sadistic glint in his dark eyes. “Don’t worry, they will be delighted,” he chuckled evilly.
***
“How is our guest tonight, Kazu?” asked the mayor, entering the guest room carrying a tray of food in his hands.
Nino rubbed his eyes tiredly and smiled with gratitude at his father as he accepted the tray the older man was carrying. “He’s much better today,” he said putting the tray on the table behind him, “Clearly, just giving him some medicines to lower his fever like the farmers did wasn’t enough to cure him; he needed someone to care for him.”
After his words, the young man looked at the sleeping man in the bed beside him, gently moving away a lock of dark hair from his forehead with a tiny smile. Stretching his stiff muscles, Nino stood up, walking around the room to relieve the itching of his legs; which had fallen asleep after the long hours he had spent seated on the chair beside the patient’s bed.
“I’m glad to hear he’s recovering without problems,” said Nino’s father, “and I’m sure his family will be happy to find him completely recovered when they visit us after receiving our message.”
“At least, they won’t have to worry anymore about his disappearance,” replied Nino, his eyes hardening as he remembered the egoistic reasons the farmers had put forward when they had been questioned about the man’s kidnapping.
“I’m glad we can ease their worries,” said his father, snapping Nino out of his memories. “Are you going to stay by his side tonight too?”
“Yeah, I want to make sure he doesn’t get worse during the night,” the young man added with a nod.
His father nodded, agreeing with his decision, and left the room closing the door behind him.
Nino fixed again his eyes on the tanned face of the peacefully sleeping man and couldn’t suppress his smile watching the older man pout cutely. “What a difference from the first time I met him,” he thought. He didn’t know why, but he always felt better looking at the other man’s peaceful face, not only because he was getting healthier with each passing day, but because his face had a charming quality that Nino found strangely endearing.
“You look like a good-natured person,” he commented, gently tucking the blankets under the sleeping man, “but that cute pout of yours tells me another story; one about the stubborn need you have to do things at your pace and on your own way,” he commented with a giggle. Without thinking, he caressed the face of the other man and smiled broadly when the latter leaned on his touch in his sleep.
The fact that the tanned man seemed to enjoy his touch, calming himself whenever Nino was near him, was a nice discovery he had made when he was watching over the patient during his convalescence. The drawback was that he was rapidly becoming attached to the tanned man, but he would worry about that later, when the man woke up. “You are so cute,” he chuckled, affectionately scratching the man’s ear as if he were a big, lazy cat.
[Later that night]
Ohno slowly woke up, progressively becoming aware of his surroundings. With a yawn, he tried to rub the last traces of sleep from his eyes but something was holding his right hand, thwarting his attempts. Blinking owlishly in the room bathed in the warm light of the oil lamps, he fixed his eyes on the dark haired man sleeping in a chair beside him.
The pale man was facing him with his head leaning on his crossed arms, and held his right hand in one of his cute, pudgy hands.
Ohno frowned, confused; he didn’t recognize the man. Not wanting to disturb the peaceful young man’s slumber, the tanned man decided to stay still; opting instead to look around the nicely decorated bedroom. “Well, this is clearly an improvement regarding the deserted warehouse, but I wonder where I am and who this man is.” After spending a few minutes pondering those questions, he began to feel sleepy again, his eyelids getting heavier with each passing second.
Finally, he surrendered to sleep still holding the young man’s hand.
[Next morning]
Nino slowly woke up, grimacing at the painful sharp pain in his neck when he tried to sit up properly. Groaning, he rubbed his stiff neck to relieve the pain, slowly opening his eyes.
There was a pair of warm, brown, almond-shaped eyes fixed on him. “Are you o.k.?” the owner of the aforementioned eyes gently asked him, a hint of concern in his soft voice.
Nino looked at him, dumbfounded, and nodded slowly. He was rewarded by a bright smile coming form the older man and Nino couldn’t help but smile him back.
“My name is Ohno Satoshi,” the tanned man said, holding out his hand to Nino.
“I’m Ninomiya Kazunari, but you can call me Nino,” replied the mayor’s son, shaking his hand.
***
Nino yawned and scratched his arm lazily, reluctant to get up. He was still sleepy but it couldn’t be helped, last night he and Oh-chan - yes, he had given the older man a childish nickname, but he was so cute that the nickname fitted him perfectly - had been talking until well into the night, too engrossed in their conversation to pay attention to the time until Nino had remembered that Oh-chan should be resting - after all he was still convalescent. Nino couldn’t stop the smile growing in his face when he remembered Ohno’s pouting face when he ordered the older man to rest before leaving his bedroom. Sometimes, he is so stubborn.
He opened his eyes, finding his bedroom surrounded in semi-darkness and frowned confused; his body was telling him that it was time to get up, but the scarce light entering his room said otherwise. With a shrug, he yawned again, turning around in his bed, ready to let the calming sound of the raindrops falling on his rooftop lull him to sleep.
The sound of the raindrops falling on his rooftop…
Nino snapped his eyes open, his heart beating painfully in his chest.
The sound of the raindrops falling on his rooftop…
He jumped out of the bed and pulled the curtains brusquely. His eyes widened in shock. It was raining, after almost a year of drought it was finally raining… He opened the window, enjoying the refreshing breeze that entered the room, and popped his head out. The sky was grey, full of rain clouds that hid the unforgiving sun, and everything was wet, wonderfully wet. Closing his eyes, he took a deep breath, loving the smell of rain and the small raindrops falling on his face and hair.
It was raining…
…
Ohno! It’s raining thanks to Ohno!
The sudden thought made him snap his eyes open. He hurriedly left the window and run towards the door, opening it hastily. In less than five seconds, he was painting in front of the closed door belonging to Ohno’s bedroom. With his heart beating painfully in his chest, Nino slowly opened the door and hesitantly entered in the room in semi-darkness. He fixed his eyes on Ohno’s bed and found it empty. W-Where is he?
He run stairs down, looking frantically around him in search of the chubby-faced man and his heart almost stopped when he saw the street door open. H-he’s gone?!
He was about to run outside when a soft, surprised voice stopped him right in his tracks.
“What are you doing, Nino? It’s raining outside, I don’t think is wise to go out dressed only in pyjamas.”
He quickly turned around and found Ohno, looking at him from the kitchen door with a puzzled expression in his tanned face. The older man was carrying a tray full of fresh backed bread, and had small smudge of flour in his nose.
“O-Oh-chan!” he exclaimed, running to the tanned man’s side, “What are you-? Why is the door-? The rain-?!” he seemed to be unable to form a coherent phrase.
“Ah,” the older man smiled bashfully. “It’s because I baked some bread,” he added as if those words explained everything, then he turned around and entered the kitchen.
Nino slowly followed him, looking at him, perplexed “B-bread?” he repeated weakly.
“Well, I don’t know how it works,” began to say Ohno, carefully placing the tray of bread on the sturdy, wooden table in the middle of the kitchen. “But every time I bake some bread it begins to rain,” he looked at Nino shyly as if he was expecting the younger boy to laugh at him. Nino just looked him back, dumbfounded.
“You told me that you were having problems with the drought,” the older man explained, “And, well… when I woke up this morning, feeling completely recovered… uh…I decided that it was a great moment to return your kindness… and I left the street door open because I always left the door of my bakery open wh-” Ohno began to ramble, averting his eyes from Nino and blushing under the dark-haired man’s unblinking gaze.
His words were abruptly interrupted when a relieved Nino suddenly hugged him, making the older man gasp surprised. “Thanks for the rain Oh-chan, and thanks for not leaving,” Nino murmured in his neck.
“Don’t worry, I don’t plan to leave anytime soon,” the older man whispered almost inaudibly, slowly raising his hands to hug Nino back.
Outside, a beautiful rainbow began to form in the grey sky.
***
“And that’s how the story ends,” finished his story the old man.
“But what happened with the man who was able to invoke the rain?” asked with her eyes wide open a little girl, who had never heard the old tale before. “Did he return to his village after helping us?”
“That… is a secret,” he replied after a theatrical pause, laughing at the little girl’s pout of disappointment.
“Kazu!” a voice sounded behind them, “Didn’t I tell you not to bully the children?” A short, old man coming from the kitchen entered the room carrying a tray of fresh backed sweets.
“Ups!” the old hunched man exclaimed, softly hitting his own head and making a funny face of remorse, “I completely forgot it, Oh-chan,” he sing-sang, winking at the jubilant children mischievously.
“Yeah, sure,” Ohno replied with a fake sigh of resignation, sharing out the delicious sweets amongst the overjoyed children.
“Hey!” protested the hunched old man with a frown. “Where is my share?” he demanded, holding out his wrinkled, pudgy hand.
“Don’t worry,” assured him the other man, “I was keeping the best for you,” he declared, bending down and kissing Nino’s wrinkled cheek affectionately.
The gentle sound of the raindrops falling on the rooftop was muffled by the children’s merry laughs.
THE END