Short Stories

Thunderstorm

Summary: A date gets cancelled because of a thunderstorm, so Teruya, Rei, and Tsurugi have to improvise.

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"Teruya, please, calm down." Tsurugi said, placing a hand on his forehead. "Rei's gonna be here in like, five minutes. You can wait without tearing down the house."

"I know I know, but I can't wait for her to get here!" Teruya squealed, twirling around the room. "We're gonna have so much fun tonight! You're both gonna love what I have picked out for us to do!"

Tsurugi sighed. "I'm sure we're all going to have a great time, but you are literally bouncing off the walls, Teruya. Calm down."

"I don't know if I can, Tsuru!" Teruya exclaimed. "I'm too excited!"

At that moment, Tsurugi's saving grace came in the form of the doorbell, which rung at that time.

Teruya's eyes lit up in excitement. "Rei-Rei's here! Rei-Rei's here!"

He ran towards the door and opened it, but instead of a happy and dry Rei like he was expecting, he was met with a soaking wet Rei.

"Answer faster next time, will you?" She grumbled, letting herself inside.

"Rei-Rei! You're all wet!" Teruya exclaimed. His face fell. "I didn't realize it was raining outside..."

"Well, now you know." Rei said, collapsing onto the couch. Tsurugi, seeing her condition, quickly wheeled out of the room to get some blankets.

Teruya stared in dismay at the rain. "But... If it's raining... then we can't go on the date I planned out!"

Rei glanced up at him. "What did you have planned, anyway?"

Teruya miserably took out a picnic basket he had stored away in the closet. "I made a picnic for us." He said sadly. "I made all our favorite foods... but now we can't have our picnic, all because it's raining."

Tsurugi came back into the room just in time to hear the last sentence that Teruya spoke. "Don't be sad, Teruya, we can have our picnic another time." He said, handing a blanket to Rei, who accepted it and wrapped it around herself.

"I know I shouldn't be sad." Teruya said, hanging his head. "But I was really looking forward to-"

A loud burst of thunder came from outside, accompanied by a flash of lightning. Teruya shrieked, stumbling back.

"Teruya!" Rei called out, alarmed. She tossed the blanket off of herself and she and Tsurugi went to see what happened.

The merchant was curled up on the ground, hands over his head, trembling. He cried out again as another round of thunder rumbled outside.

"Teruya, calm down. There's nothing to be scared of, it's just a bit of thunder." Tsurugi said comfortingly, going to one side of Teruya while Rei went to the other.

"T-Too loud!" Teruya cried out. "Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop-"

"Calm down!" Rei snapped. "You're fine. You're perfectly safe here. I am with you, and so is Tsurugi. Thunder is just a noise. It's not gonna hurt you."

Teruya was still trembling, and it would get worse whenever thunder and lightning struck outside.

Tsurugi thought for a moment before getting an idea. "Rei- noise cancelling headphones. Now!"

Rei took off like a shot, and Tsurugi continued talking calmly to Teruya. Rei came back a few minutes later carrying the headphones, and she gently put them on Teruya.

He blinked for a moment, looking around and standing up when he realized he couldn't hear the thunder anymore.

"Are you alright now, Teruya?" Rei asked.

It took a moment for the question to register in Teruya's head, but once it did, he put a hand behind his head. "Yeah. I'm sorry guys, I ruined everything." He apologized.

"You are not apologizing for a fear." Tsurugi scolded. "It's not your fault you're scared of thunder. I'm scared of puppets, if it's any consolation."

"Really?" Teruya asked. "I didn't know that."

Tsurugi looked away. "Well, now you do. And I'm sure Rei has a fear she'd like to share to make you feel better as well."

He shot a glance at Rei, who groaned. "Do I really have to?"

Tsurugi's expression said everything.

Rei sighed. "Fine. I'm scared of heights. There, are you happy now?"

"You didn't tell me that either!" Teruya pouted. "But that's fine, because now I can help you guys now that I know!"

"And we can't?" Tsurugi asked. "Everyone's got something we're afraid of. Why do you feel that you have to protect us from our fears when you won't let us help you with yours?"

Teruya looked away, a bit embarrassed.

"Exactly." Rei said. "Now, let's forget this ever happened and go do something else. Just because there's a storm outside doesn't mean that we can't spend time together, right?"

Teruya perked up immediately. "Hey, yeah! I knew you wanted to be with us, Rei-Rei! Come on, let's go watch a movie or make a blanket fort or something like that!"

Rei and Tsurugi shared amused glances about their overexcited boyfriend. "How about we just watch a movie, and we can eat the food you made for the picnic we were supposed to go on? It'll be like an indoor picnic."

"Yeah, let's do that! Great idea, Tsuru! I'll get the food, hang on!" Teruya quickly ran back to the closet and grabbed the picnic basket. He held it by an arm as he used his hands to grab Tsurugi's wheelchair and Rei's hand and dragged them over to the couch.

He sat down on the couch, and Rei grabbed the blankets from earlier and pulled them over herself and Teruya while Tsurugi went to grab the TV remote. Once he had it, Teruya carefully helped him out of his wheelchair and next to him.

While Teruya began pulling out the food from the picnic basket and handing it to his lovers, they were bickering about what movie to put on. Teruya gently took the remote from Tsurugi, held it in the air, and gave them their food.

Once Rei and Tsurugi were satisfied, Teruya began scrolling through Disney movies, and eventually the three of them decided on Finding Nemo.

Teruya fell asleep halfway through the movie, and Rei and Tsurugi shared affectionate smiles.

God, they were in love with this idiot.