Alphabet ≫ Jarchie

T is for Torrential

Torrential— relating to or resulting from the action of a downpour.

☀︎☁︎☀︎

The rain was unnoticeable at first. It was silent, drizzling softly upon the world it watched over, cleansing her child with the gentleness of a mother.

It was the sort of rain that left her footprints in puddles, rippling the earth with ease as she tended to her task.

Jughead watched intently from his window, squinting his curious emerald eyes at the dreary, grey sky that complimented his front yard. He was making himself dizzy as he tried to focus, desperately searching for the endearing occurrence of Mother Nature giving her child a bath.

His unsuccessful attempt was interrupted by a ding from his cellphone, sucking him back into a reality that was far less interesting than rippling footprints at the ends of driveways and tender baths given at midday.

Jughead ruffled his jet black hair and tiredly reached over for his phone. He was a bit dazed, but the rain always had that sort of affect on him. She was entrancing even while silent, peaceful, and translucent.

The boy's eyes lit up as he checked his phone, smiling softly at his boyfriend's wish to come over. He hadn't physically laid his eyes on him in a while. The angelic two were caught up in a whirlwind of things that didn't matter as much as they did to each other. Jughead replied, typing with hopefulness and eagerness. He told his boyfriend to be careful of the rain.

As minutes passed, the rain grew steadily stern. She revealed herself with force as she bounced off of items not true to her kin, pounding against windshields and garbage cans with sharp thuds and splats. Her footprints became stomps, flooding driveways and backroads only known to those who resided nearby.

Jughead watched in awe as his window projected a swirly image in front of him, allowing the rain to hide herself behind a veil of distortion. He ran up to the window, pressing his face against the cool glass, and looked for a flash of red.

His boyfriend didn't have a car nor a license, for they were both two young to travel using only one foot. The trek to Jughead's house from his boyfriend's house wasn't very far. It was 12 steps away from the corner store surrounded by cherry blossoms and three blocks away from the school filled with dread and agony.

Jughead wasn't fearful of the rain's touch, but he was fearful of what the rain had touched. He was fearful of Archie slipping on vengeful cement. He was fearful of weak branches, reaching out to him for help and attacking him instead.

Jughead was so busy creating a storm of what-ifs in his mind that he hadn't seen his boyfriend walk through the storm outside and stop in front of his driveway.

The raven haired boy, too relieved to think rationally, flung open his front door and raced outside. He jumped on rigid brick, slid on even pavement, and crashed into his boyfriend's cold arms.

His boyfriend, whose flames atop his head had been dulled by the rain's graze, laughed gently against the rain's loud roar.

She was becoming angrier by the second, enraged by something no mortal could begin to understand. What started as a pure bath became a viscous tsunami and she was not apologetic.

Archie mentioned something sensible, like finding cover, leaving the rain alone to her rough thoughts and her harsh feelings, but Jughead refused. He found comfort in the chaos, the irritable breeze of the earth and the surrendering branches of the trees who waved their leaves in the place of white flags.

His boyfriend didn't see it, the appeal to the whipping by a mother so cold and unrelenting. He would rather be inside, surrounded by artificial warmth that he felt more connected to, something easily decipherable and unchanging.

Jughead decided to show him how beautiful disarray could be.

The use of words seemed irrelevant. Anything uttered would be swept away and lost in a sea of grey static. Jughead decided to show what he meant instead. He straightened up and stared at Archie with something of a shy gaze, a glint in his eye from an imaginary sun that shone to send Archie a warning.

Jughead was always something of a drama king and a romanticist. He dreamed of soft kisses in the rain, of rose petals arranged in the cliche shape of hearts. He dreamed of Archie, of his first kiss with a boy he considered his first love despite what everyone thought about high schoolers and the word. He decided he had enough waiting and enough yearning.

He leaned in shyly, bringing his cold, wet hands up to Archie's face and caressing his cherry petaled cheek. He felt heavy, weighted down by the rain's shower of anger but free at the same time, in control of his actions in an environment he had no control of. That gave him peace. It gave him the balance he so craved and strived for.

Archie fell into his touch, staring up at him in anticipation. The rain yelled louder, attacking the couple with as much force as she could manage, drenching them vindictively as they stood unconcerned and unaware.

Inches away from each other, Archie inaudibly giggled and brushed Jughead's wet hair out of his gorgeous face. The trees cheered them on, rustling with a purpose as rain flew though them. The puddles parted at their feet, trickling down around them as if trying to get the best seats to the act of love in the middle of their mother's tantrum. The clouds parted slightly, allowing a single stream of brilliant light to shine a spotlight on the two.

Jughead, taking a leap of faith, closed the space between them clumsily, his knees going weak at their connection. Blue lips against chapped ones collided, inexperienced but loving. Archie smiled against him, pulling him closer as they learned to love by doing so.

As their passion and connection grew stronger, the rain took things one last step farther. The sky lit up in a blaze, a single bolt of lightning parting the sky, creating a discoloration of purple and grey shades of beauty.

The trees began to sway, desperately trying to make their rigid trunks move away and find cover from the fatal spark. The clouds switched their mood quickly, huddling into each other and turning an ominous, smoky black. Thunder rumbled in the distance, scaring the puddles and scattering them about.

Mayhem and fear surrounded them, but Archie and Jughead created their own bubble of safety and bliss within the rain's unforgiving curtains.

It took a loud boom to jolt the two, breaking them apart. They were drenched and beaten with the rain, her substance leaving them cold and shivering. Jughead smiled and grabbed his boyfriend's hands, giving them a squeeze. They rushed back into the house with the quickness of the rain herself, running inside and locking the door behind them. They laughed to themselves as the rain continued to scream in the distance, spreading her gospel for those who were special enough to listen.

☀︎☁︎☀︎

I've kind of always had a thing for writing about rain? It's something I used to do all the time, especially in my earlier writing. It's something that comes up a lot for me. That theme is really prominent in Nameless.

This one is pretty different from the other one shots, mostly because there's no dialogue and there's a lot of personification in everything (which I learned yesterday is called pathetic fallacy so I wanted to try it out and I like how it came out) so yeah.

I normally don't publish things like this because I feel like people don't like stuff like this as much as they like my other ideas that are more dialogue based and fun so I was originally not going to publish this one but I figured why not.

Happy Halloween guys stay safe :) 💕