Rain Dance, Prompt #51: Your sign
Jul. 14th, 2007 11:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meredevachon posting in ![[community profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/community.png){kind=small}
tamingthemuseTitle: Rain Dance
Author:![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
meredevachon
Fandom: Original
Prompt #51: Your sign (Pisces)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 913
A/N: Okay, so I wrote original fic for a change. I’ve written one other piece (or most of it) with these characters before, butswweeks is the only one who’s met them. Mostly this was a chance to get to know the character better.
Summary: There are many kinds of thirst.
~*~*~
Weeks of no rain after months of not enough, and the red Carolina clay had baked into hard, cracked, brick-like slabs. Topsoil turned to grey-brown dust that flew up in puffs of powder when old Mrs. Bradley down the street tried watering her flowerbeds. Everything was brown and dry and brittle, except the air hanging heavy and thick with humidity. Summer in the South was never the most pleasant thing as far as Lis was concerned, but during most summers, afternoon thunderstorms gave a measure of relief more days than not. The past month there’d been nothing. The few times the much predicted isolated showers appeared, she could count the raindrops as they fell.
Most of the state was under drought conditions already, and many towns were implementing water restrictions or increasing those already in place. Crops were wilting in the fields, lake levels were down several feet, and everyone was feeling the heat – both literal and figurative. They needed relief. Lis needed relief.
Lis felt as dried out as the ground outside, projects at work and at home stifled and withered where they stood with no forward progress. She didn’t have the energy or the motivation to finish what she’d started or to even attempt anything new. Even simple, enjoyable tasks like reading or watching a movie with Michael were more effort than she wanted to spend. Too hot to move and too tired to think, Lis knew something had to change, but she couldn’t bring herself to care enough to do it.
The Wednesday staff meeting was winding down when she felt it. Not that Lis could say exactly what it was she felt, just the hint of change. She rolled her shoulders and felt the stretch and release all through her body. For the first time in weeks, she felt like she could actually breathe, even though nothing about the filtered and chilled, climate-controlled air had changed. The meeting broke up and Lis returned to her office, not bothering to speak to her co-workers as she passed.
The click of her heels on tile sounded loud as she walked down the hall, and yet her steps were lighter than they’d been in quite awhile. She was maybe twenty feet – or a little less – from the door to the parking lot when she got the not-really-a-shiver she’d been waiting for. A low level current running just under her skin that she only felt in two situations: during ritual or during a storm.
Sure enough, the first drops of rain, real rain, were splattering the pavement as she stepped outside. Around her, colleagues were fumbling with umbrellas or dashing for their cars with briefcases or newspapers held high to shield them from the rain quickly becoming a downpour. Lis smiled, strolling to her car in its usual spot at the far end of the lot, only barely refraining from spreading her arms wide and turning her face to the watery heavens. She had enough of a reputation as the office eccentric; she didn’t really need to add to the gossip.
By the time she got to the car, Lis’ hair was sodden, her clothes clinging to her like a second skin, and the smile on her face had spread into a wide grin she could no more tame than the bolts of lightning starting to crackle through the sky. She cracked the window to let in the ozone smell of the wind and the rain, not minding the water pooling along the inside of the door before running down in tiny rivulets. She cranked up the stereo until bass and drums echoed the thunder, and sang along with the words she knew… and some she didn’t.
Michael’s car wasn’t in the driveway when she pulled in, and she wondered if he’d been held up in traffic because of the weather. She knew he’d call if he were going to be really late, so didn’t worry. She kicked off her shoes just inside the door like she always did, then after a moment’s thought, added her wet trousers and blouse to the pile rather than drip all through the carpeted parts of the house.
Only stopping long enough to refill the kitties’ bowls – thereby saving herself from tripping over one or all of them – she headed straight to the back door and out into the yard. Silently thanking Michael for indulging her hermit nature with a thick hedgerow and privacy fence, she finally did what she’d been aching to do ever since the first drops fell. She danced. Spinning and twirling, eyes shut and arms flung open, she became one with the storm, soaking in the rain as greedily as the ground beneath her.
Suddenly strong arms wrapped around her waist, and Michael spun her up against his chest, his laughter making her heart swell more, even though she’d have thought it impossible. Tangling her fingers in his hair, Lis pulled him down for a kiss, not breaking apart until they were panting for air.
“If all it takes is a little rain to get you in this kind of mood, I think I’ma have to start carrying a watering can around with me.”
“What can I say? We pisces need our water.” Lis shrugged, wet hair clinging to her shoulders then loosening with a smack.
Michael rolled his eyes, then swept her up into his arms and carried her inside.
The storm got stronger, but neither of them really noticed… or cared.
*fin*
Author:
meredevachonFandom: Original
Prompt #51: Your sign (Pisces)
Rating: PG
Word Count: 913
A/N: Okay, so I wrote original fic for a change. I’ve written one other piece (or most of it) with these characters before, but
swweeks is the only one who’s met them. Mostly this was a chance to get to know the character better.Summary: There are many kinds of thirst.
Weeks of no rain after months of not enough, and the red Carolina clay had baked into hard, cracked, brick-like slabs. Topsoil turned to grey-brown dust that flew up in puffs of powder when old Mrs. Bradley down the street tried watering her flowerbeds. Everything was brown and dry and brittle, except the air hanging heavy and thick with humidity. Summer in the South was never the most pleasant thing as far as Lis was concerned, but during most summers, afternoon thunderstorms gave a measure of relief more days than not. The past month there’d been nothing. The few times the much predicted isolated showers appeared, she could count the raindrops as they fell.
Most of the state was under drought conditions already, and many towns were implementing water restrictions or increasing those already in place. Crops were wilting in the fields, lake levels were down several feet, and everyone was feeling the heat – both literal and figurative. They needed relief. Lis needed relief.
Lis felt as dried out as the ground outside, projects at work and at home stifled and withered where they stood with no forward progress. She didn’t have the energy or the motivation to finish what she’d started or to even attempt anything new. Even simple, enjoyable tasks like reading or watching a movie with Michael were more effort than she wanted to spend. Too hot to move and too tired to think, Lis knew something had to change, but she couldn’t bring herself to care enough to do it.
The Wednesday staff meeting was winding down when she felt it. Not that Lis could say exactly what it was she felt, just the hint of change. She rolled her shoulders and felt the stretch and release all through her body. For the first time in weeks, she felt like she could actually breathe, even though nothing about the filtered and chilled, climate-controlled air had changed. The meeting broke up and Lis returned to her office, not bothering to speak to her co-workers as she passed.
The click of her heels on tile sounded loud as she walked down the hall, and yet her steps were lighter than they’d been in quite awhile. She was maybe twenty feet – or a little less – from the door to the parking lot when she got the not-really-a-shiver she’d been waiting for. A low level current running just under her skin that she only felt in two situations: during ritual or during a storm.
Sure enough, the first drops of rain, real rain, were splattering the pavement as she stepped outside. Around her, colleagues were fumbling with umbrellas or dashing for their cars with briefcases or newspapers held high to shield them from the rain quickly becoming a downpour. Lis smiled, strolling to her car in its usual spot at the far end of the lot, only barely refraining from spreading her arms wide and turning her face to the watery heavens. She had enough of a reputation as the office eccentric; she didn’t really need to add to the gossip.
By the time she got to the car, Lis’ hair was sodden, her clothes clinging to her like a second skin, and the smile on her face had spread into a wide grin she could no more tame than the bolts of lightning starting to crackle through the sky. She cracked the window to let in the ozone smell of the wind and the rain, not minding the water pooling along the inside of the door before running down in tiny rivulets. She cranked up the stereo until bass and drums echoed the thunder, and sang along with the words she knew… and some she didn’t.
Michael’s car wasn’t in the driveway when she pulled in, and she wondered if he’d been held up in traffic because of the weather. She knew he’d call if he were going to be really late, so didn’t worry. She kicked off her shoes just inside the door like she always did, then after a moment’s thought, added her wet trousers and blouse to the pile rather than drip all through the carpeted parts of the house.
Only stopping long enough to refill the kitties’ bowls – thereby saving herself from tripping over one or all of them – she headed straight to the back door and out into the yard. Silently thanking Michael for indulging her hermit nature with a thick hedgerow and privacy fence, she finally did what she’d been aching to do ever since the first drops fell. She danced. Spinning and twirling, eyes shut and arms flung open, she became one with the storm, soaking in the rain as greedily as the ground beneath her.
Suddenly strong arms wrapped around her waist, and Michael spun her up against his chest, his laughter making her heart swell more, even though she’d have thought it impossible. Tangling her fingers in his hair, Lis pulled him down for a kiss, not breaking apart until they were panting for air.
“If all it takes is a little rain to get you in this kind of mood, I think I’ma have to start carrying a watering can around with me.”
“What can I say? We pisces need our water.” Lis shrugged, wet hair clinging to her shoulders then loosening with a smack.
Michael rolled his eyes, then swept her up into his arms and carried her inside.
The storm got stronger, but neither of them really noticed… or cared.
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no subject
Date: 2007-07-15 06:12 am (UTC)So very, very true!
no subject
Date: 2007-07-15 06:21 am (UTC)Glad you liked it.
no subject
Date: 2007-07-15 04:51 pm (UTC)Push a button or three why don't you? Very nicely done. *g*
no subject
Date: 2007-07-15 06:29 pm (UTC)*innocent look* Who, me?
Thanks, hon. :)
no subject
Date: 2007-07-22 12:38 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-22 04:10 pm (UTC)A rain like that really just changes your whole mood (or at least it does mine), and I enjoyed trying to capture just a bit of that feeling.