LGBTQ+ short story's

Rain

All his life Iwan has lived in a climate where it doesn't rain. Unless it does. And when it does Iwan is convinced something bad will happen.
The first time he saw rain, his grandfather passed away. Iwan adored his grandpa so when the 5-year-old found out he was heartbroken. He wouldn't stop crying for days on end.
The second time he saw rain was just before his first soccer contest. He had practised every day. But just before it was supposed to start the match was cancelled. This doesn't sound like that big of a deal, but to him it was.
The third time it rained his parents told him they were getting a divorce.
The fourth time IIwan's mother fell sick. By the time it finally rained again his mother had passed away. The fifth time it rained hurt the worse. His mother recently passed. It was his first Halloween without her. Halloween was her favourite holiday. They used to dress up and go door to door like most kids, but they would also do a speedrun of all the holidays. Starting with Christmas morning and ending with New years eve and everything in between. Iwan never asked why they had this tradition. He believed it was just one of his mom's crazy antics. Iwan had just moved in with his dad, just in time for Halloween. He found some joy in knowing he could honour his mother by continuing the tradition. He was excited for the first time since his mother passed. He woke up as early as possible only to find his father had already left for work.
Iwan decided this would not ruin his good mood. He decided to do the tradition on his own.
His good attitude was not rewarded.
His father's dog had destroyed all Christmas presents. Iwan had to bring him to the vet because she had eaten all the chocolate. The vet took their sweet time so Iwan had to speed up the speedrun. Kingsday, pride month and easter were turned into wearing orange pants, rainbow suspenders and a shirt with an easter egg printed on it. Leaving him with more time for the other holidays. Then his shoe ripped apart while going door to door and he fell into the mud. He had forgotten to eat all day in his hurry so he almost passed down and fell into the lake. When he got home he immediately broke down. His dad told him to stop acting so gay.
That day Iwan came out to his dad. Something about himself he never had the chance to share with his mom. That made it hurt even more when his dad didn't accept him.
That is how Iwan ended up on my doorstep in the middle of the night, with rain pouring on his face.
Or at least that is what I could understand. He told me this while still sobbing. I tried my best to comfort him, but to be honest I was a little freaked out. Who wouldn't be when your 'straight' crush whose 'friends' bullied you in middle school is suddenly sitting on your bed crying on your shoulder? It's a lot to take in.
Especially when you feel like your heart might beat out of your chest at any moment.
I never even thought Iwan was capable of feeling emotions and especially crying. I'm starting to think he's a lot more than just a smoking hot body. Maybe those gym rats didn't turn him into an emotionless, brainless protein powder addict after all.
The second I saw him stand outside my door like a sad puppy my heart broke and I don't even like dogs.
It's currently 3 am. I can not sleep. He's literally lying next to me in my small bed. How am I going to survive this night? It's not like anything could happen between us. I know that. But a guy can dream, right? You might be wondering, Why isn't he on a couch, spare room or air mattress? The couch is currently occupied with my mom's new obsession with making crochet stuffed animals. Every single surface in our living room is covered in yarn. We don't have a spare room in our 2 bedroom apartment, otherwise, it would also be covered in yarn right now. I have no idea how she finds a new hobby to get obsessed with every month. Jamy, my mom's girlfriend, thinks she's going through a bit of a midlife crisis right now. Blowing up an air mattress in the middle of the night also isn't the best idea.
So I lie here. In the dark with a dark-haired brooding mysterious man with muscles firmer than my grandma's pea soup, and you have to cut that with a sharp knife to be able to eat it. It's October and I'm physically sweating under this thin blanket because for some reason I have developed feelings for him. I don't dare move, because what if I accidentally wake him up. I'm too young to die.
Somehow I eventually fall asleep. When I wake up our limbs are entwined.
I'm laying on my back. He's laying on my shoulder. One arm under my head, the other draped over my stomach. My leg is in between his.
I'm not moving, nor complaining. If he doesn't move, I won't move. I will become a fossil if I have to. I am too gay and too comfortable to get up.
I feel the mattress moving slightly when Iwan turns around. I can feel his breath on my neck. I think he turned to his side, but I don't dare open my eyes to check. I'm pretending to still be asleep as best as I can, hoping he will turn back around and continue sleeping. Instead, I am met with Iwan's morning voice whispering in my ear."Toby? Are you awake?" He whispers, his voice raspy. "No" I whisper back. He laughs a breathy laugh. Keeping his voice low in volume. I'm relieved he doesn't untangle himself yet. "Thank you, by the way, for letting me sleep here." He pats me awkwardly on the side of my stomach. I think he means it as a thank you.
I can't help the smile growing on my face. "Do you want me to make you some breakfast?" I ask. While awkwardly returning the pats on his (sadly) clothed biceps. He shakes his head lightly, tickling me with his hair on my neck. "Can we- Can we stay like this for a little longer? I just need to be close to someone for a little bit"
I nod. Before realising he can't see it. "Of course. However long you would like." I say.
I turn my head to the ceiling. Iwan hugs me a little harder. Hand holding on to my shirt. After a while Iwan's breathing slows down, signalling that he fell back asleep. His grip on my shirt loosens. I let my thoughts wander. I think he's trying to grow out his hair. It's significantly longer than when I first saw him. I move the hair in front of his eyes away, careful to not wake him up. I can't fall back asleep. I'm not too mad about it. It's always been like that, if I wake up after 5 AM I can't fall back into slumber. According to my alarm clock, it's currently 9:48 AM. Yeah, that's not happening. Iwan apparently seems to have no problem sleeping in.
"Toby, Breakfast!" My mom yells from downstairs around 10:30. Normally I would have already eaten around 8, but you know, a hot guy is currently laying on my shoulder. I have been trying to ignore the hunger forming in my stomach. I stop myself from dramatically falling to my knees and screaming "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" when Iwan begins to stir and eventually opens his eyes, greeting me with a "Hey" followed by a horrified look.
"What? Is my bedhead that bad?" I joke while letting go of his back and bringing my hand up to fix my hair. "It's raining," He says. His voice so low, that I can barely hear him. He looks so vulnerable like he's about to break. I think my heart will shatter into a million pieces.
I try to reassure him. "It's going to be okay. This time will be different. I promise."
I actually have no idea. Believe it or not but I can't see the future. I just hope it will be. "I don't want to go back." He whispers. I can hear the tears in his eyes as his voice breaks. "You don't have to. We'll figure something out okay?" This feels like an appropriate moment to stroke someone's hair. So I do while telling him over and over that everything will be okay. My mom knocks on my door. "Breakfast is-." She stops when her eyes land on the very vulnerable looking boy in my embrace. She sights. "Toby, we talked about this. You need to tell me when you bring boys home. I don't want to walk into something I don't want to see, okay?" I almost die out of embarrassment. "It isn't like that!" I yell while grabbing things off my nightstand to throw at her. Because I don't want to kill Iwan with dramatic arm movements, most of it ends up not even reaching her.
Iwan untangles himself and climbs out of my bed. "I'm very sorry ma'am, I didn't mean to intrude." My mom looks very confused at his shirt that reads happy new year, his Christmas sweater that I laid on the heater to dry, his shoes with scary pumpkin print and his bright green pants. I sit upright.
She looks at me with a look that says 'explain'. I sigh.
"Iwan, can I tell her?" He seems to hesitate but nods.
I explain to my mom how Iwan was kicked out by his dad, not going into detail about why or what exactly happened. I know she will understand.
My mom nods. "Do you have any allergies?" She asks him. We both look at her confused.
"No, I don't have any allergies ma'am" He fidgets anxiously with his hands.
He is very different from what I thought he would be like. "Would you like to join us for breakfast Iwan?" He nods while biting the inside of his cheek.
"And please, call me Janet. Being called Ma'am makes me feel old." She continues. I roll my eyes. I have a strong opinion that she is old. But you know, I think everything above 30 is old.
"Do you have a change of clothes?" She asks him, already rummaging through my drawers. She pulls out everything, making a mess that I'll have to clean.
"No... It all happens so suddenly. But I can go back home. It's not a big deal."
"Absolutely not." She says just before I can. She doesn't even have to know the full story to know going home after being kicked out could be dangerous. "When does your dad come back from work?" I ask. Finally having something to add to the conversation.
"6 PM"
Me and my mom both nod. Silently agreeing. I stand up and walk over to my closet and take a shirt from her hands. Trying to put everything back where it belongs. "Me and Toby will go back to collect your things.
We walk downstairs together. Jamy is already sitting at the breakfast table. We finally have someone to fill the fourth chair at the table after my older sister left for college.
It's nice to see Iwan smile and laugh at Jamy's stupid jokes. My mom tries to impress him by juggling mugs and ends up dropping 2 out of 4. When we told Jamy about our plans to collect Iwan's things she tried to make a whole break-in plan before we told her that he has a key.
Iwan is a really good storyteller and we end up sitting at the breakfast table the whole morning. Iwan offers to walk with Jamy when she needs to go out to walk her dog. Apparently, dogs are his favourite animal. My mom and I leave to collect his things at his dad's house. After we all get back Iwan tells me he and Jamy had a really good conversation. He even came out to her. Around 5 pm my mom and Jamy leave for their weekly Saturday date night, but not before planning a pride party for tomorrow night. I am scared. Their parties are... something to say the least. Another thing I didn't know about Iwan is how much he loves karaoke. We sang all kinds of songs together. From dramatic ballads to songs for children.
Somehow we end up breathless on the carpet with wigs on while Let it go is still blasting in the background. It ended up being rainy all day. Iwan even ended up sitting in the window with one of the unbroken mugs filled with hot tea, smiling while rain poured outside.
It kept raining all week. Iwan told me at one point that he realised it wasn't the rain that made bad things happen, it was just life. He knew now that he couldn't do anything to change it. Life is just a little quirky sometimes. His words, not mine.
Iwan stayed with us for a while. My mom even cleaned up her yarn for him so he could sleep on the couch. Eventually, he moved in with his half-sibling and their mom. I still don't understand his family history. He has already explained it so many times that I just pretend I understand which relative he's talking about. The most important thing is that he seems to like it there.
We became great friends while he was staying with us. At some point, he asked me out on a date. It was surprising to hear that he had feelings for me too. We dated for a bit but figured out we were better off as friends. It was a bit awkward at first, but we got over it. Nowadays Iwan is very open about his sexuality. It's been so awesome to see him blossom into the person he's meant to be. It's a little embarrassing thinking back on our feelings for each other, but we can laugh about it now. I think it's nice to see that people who could end up being in love choose to ultimately just remain friends. We still cuddle often. He doesn't speak to his dad anymore. He tried to for a bit, but you could see it made him miserable hearing his dad make homophobic comments while Iwan was around. He took up gardening recently. He told me how his fear of the rain disappeared after learning more about nature. He's still a little quirky. Again his words, not mine.
Most of his life Iwan has lived in a climate where it doesn't rain. Unless it does, then you can find him outside on the ground trying to become a rainworm.

THE END.

(Well, I don't know what to say. This one feels a lot less quality than the lesbian one. I am like a man trying to write women but the other way around.
I don't plan these stories in advance so as you may have noticed I switched between actual dialogue and a sort of summary type of storytelling.
I don't want to go back and fix it. Also, this one was supposed to have a written out romance but I was too lazy to write them pining for each other.
Maybe I will edit these things, maybe I won't. Probably not. These stories are just for fun. I can't get myself to write actual books but finishing short 4 page stories like these give me the motivation to keep writing.
Now that I'm thinking about it I'm probably going to end up writing everything within the first week of pride or giving up after this one. No in-between.
I don't know what I ate but as Iwan says, they're all just a little bit quirky. I think it's boring to write characters who don't want to turn into a worm.
Also, I may make these stories into a multiverse. As the shortly mentioned Stepsibling is friends with Jet from the previous story in a webtoon I was writing. The names of the characters match. Most of the characterisation does not. The ones in the heart stopper inspired story don't in fact want to turn into a worm.
In the previous story, There was Jet (lesbian), who in that story is best friends with Alex (the stepsibling. Who's nonbinary, queer and asexual) and Marlijn (A trans femme lesbian). There is another friend group constructed of Teddy (the other one from the previous story, unknown sexuality and gender), Bonnie (Aroace and genderfluid) and Toby (In that story nonbinary and gay, in this one too but apparently I'm a large company who won't confirm that in the actual content). In that story, Iwan joins the friend group after the two friend groups have formed into one (his sexuality is unknown in the story but he is confirmed by me to be asexual). I keep writing 'i headcanon him as ace' but I decide the canon lol. Also random in between, why doesn't Eda call Raine 'Raineworm' instead of 'Rainstorm in The owl house? There is probably a good reason for that. This author's note was way longer than the previous one lol. I hope you liked it, otherwise please come tell me in person because I haven't seen you in way too long.)