ICARUS - jjba

1 -- A Stormy Night

The dark grey clouds hung ominously, blocking out the shining night stars.  The wind howled throughout the night while Leone Abbacchio, a now broken man, sat alone on a soaking wet bench with nowhere to go. He sat with a liquor bottle loosely gripped in his hand. The rain beat down on and around him. The wind chilled around him, making the rain feel unbearable. The tears and rain smudged what was left of the makeup on his face. Abbacchio could feel the guilt eating away from inside him, there was no turning back now.

Abbacchio had nowhere to go or a person he could turn to for help. He was completely alone, sitting quietly on the wet bench while taking swigs of his drink every so often until a man with a black umbrella walked towards him.

     Abbacchio could hear the man's feet hit against the wet sidewalk and the rain pattering against his umbrella. He didn't even spare the man a passing glance.

     "Is it okay if I sit here for a while?" A soft voice asked. Abbacchio turned his head and saw the man with the umbrella. Abbacchio looked at the man. He was tall, he had short black hair with bangs, golden hair clips on both sides of his hair, an expensive white suit with black dots, and black dress shoes. Abbacchio scoffed and turned away from him.

     "Bench's wet," Abbacchio stated flatly. The stranger held out his hand towards Abbacchio with the umbrella in his hand. The two of them were silent for a moment, the only noise was the hard rain hitting against the umbrella. Abbacchio looked over at him with confusion written all over his face. Why? Who are you, and why are you doing this? This is the first act of kindness that anyone had offered him lately.

     "You don't want to waste your time with me, trust me," Abbacchio said, looking down at the half-empty glass bottle.

"Take this." The short-haired man stated, smiling down at the soaking wet man. Abbacchio looked at the man silently, glaring at the man's hand that held the umbrella.

"Keep the umbrella. I'm already drenched." Abbacchio murmured. The man gave him a pitiful look, still insisting that Abbacchio take the umbrella.

"That may be true, but there's no use in letting it get worse. Please, take the umbrella." The stranger spoke. Abbacchio finally met his eyes. The man had kind icy blue eyes. He quickly looked away and took the umbrella.

"I don't think you're in the mood tonight to talk about anything, at least, not now. If you want, meet me here again tomorrow night." The man said as he straightened himself. Abbacchio stared at him as he started to walk away from the bench.

"W-Wait," Abbacchio stuttered out. The stranger's head turned towards him.

"Who are you?" Abbacchio asked curiously. The man turned all the way around to face Abbacchio. The foreigner's mouth upturned into a soft smile. The kind of smile that Abbacchio wasn't used to.

"Bruno Bucciarati, it was nice to meet you," Bruno said before walking away. Abbacchio watched as the stranger, now known as Bruno Bucciarati, walked away into the dark rain. Abbacchio decided that he was going to meet Bucciarati the next night, what more could he possibly lose? That situation left Abbacchio lost and confused, but he could already feel his clothes start to dry.