Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

The day starts dark and chilly. It's the kind of day whose clouds promise rain, wet socks and catching colds. Nevertheless, Rei finds a certain primal comfort in such days. They're days you want to spend at home. Well, at least most people do.

Her younger self would definitely have wanted to. Cooking with Mom Amazake and gathering all the pillows and blankets in their tiny apartment to build a pillow fortress where she would read manga with a flashlight until Dad came home. It was a simple, quiet life they once had.

Today, the memory is rather sad, but as Rei sits in the classroom for her first lesson in the morning, an echo of those domestic feelings catches her in the school.

A fall day, promising storms, left everyone a little quieter than usual. The classroom umbrella stand was already bursting when Rei arrived, though it had only been drizzling all morning. The bad weather has even tempted Yui to wear a raincoat and Sayuri has brought a huge thermos full of tea, which she and Rei take turns emptying one cup at a time as the day passes.

It stays almost gloomy for a good part of the morning, so that the view from the window first shows the inner courtyard bathed in twilight blue, interrupted by the yellow-white glow of the neon lights in the other classrooms, which can be observed like paintings or television screens without sun-reflecting window panes.

At lunchtime, thick raindrops clap against the glass. The atmosphere in the classroom is a muffled murmur, interrupted only by the dull pounding of the rain, which can be heard throughout the entire school building if you listen hard enough.

The storm is so heavy that the last class is canceled to send the students home for a short break, for fear that the next downpour will disrupt train services until the evening.

The prospect does not please Rei. In fact, as soon as she hears the news, an uneasy feeling spreads through her stomach, but Sayuri doesn't seem to notice as she urges Rei to finish her cup of tea while she pores over a math problem.

As the last lesson ends, the feeling is still present.

One would expect the students to rush out in a noisy, unruly mass, filled with the joy of an early out of school, but the classes move quietly and with an underlying awareness that reminds Rei of swarm intelligence. Only when they reach the shoe compartments a faint euphoria begins to take over the crowd, but the weather manages to keep it muted. For most outgoing people, dropping classes is of little use when the weather is bad.

"I'm really sorry, guys," Yui announces loudly as she pulls on her boots. Her rain jacket is open and her expression is one of feigned guilt, while her eyes sparkle with amusement. " I'll start making and hanging up my weather dolls again tomorrow!"

A few classmates laugh and Yui grins broadly, then her gaze wanders over the shelves and lands on Rei just as she's about to turn away and leave.

"Oi, Sayuri! Rei! Wait for me!" she shouts and then catches up, running a little so that they can leave the building together. "We have a similar route! And I'll probably be pushing my bike in this rain anyway," she explains to Rei, while Sayuri opens her umbrella.

Rei pauses at the threshold and watches the rain speckle her shoes and stockings. By now, the sensation is so strong that she almost feels sick. She knows she doesn't want to go home yet. Not when the day is stormy and cozy, but nothing there is as domestic as it once was.

"Actually," she interjects, interrupting Sayuri and Yui's conversation about Yui's neighborhood. "I... I think I'll stay at school for a while."

Sayuri looks dismayed and even Yui looks a little puzzled.

"Are you sure, girl?" she asks, giving Rei a doubtful look. "I think this is only going to get worse, you know."

"Yeah, I think you really should go home, Rei-chan," Sayuri says, nodding but pausing in her movement. "Actually... you always go home pretty late..."

Rei has to swallow instantly as the conversation turns in that direction. This is not good.

"Please don't worry," Rei says calmly as Yui raises her eyebrows. "I just like to do homework when it's quiet here. I'm certainly not the only one staying here, either. I heard the drama club is using today as another opportunity to rehearse, and I think a few students from the parallel class are waiting out the rain too."

"If you're sure," Sayuri says, although she still looks worried, but at least Yui seems to understand, because she grins.

"I hear you, Rei. I have siblings and I like hanging out somewhere else too. But I'm not a nerd! You know there are other places to chill, right?"

After that, she sneaks under Sayuri's umbrella, who immediately tries to hold it a little higher so that Yui doesn't catch any more drops. The movement immediately exposes half of Sayuri's backpack to the rain.

Rei steps back into the shelter of the building and waves. "Have a safe journey home!"

"You too!", Sayuri half shouts over the sound of the rain, sounding like a mother admonishing her child.

Yui, who urges Sayuri towards the bikes, gives Rei an amused look. "Don't worry, I'll take care of her, Rei-chan!" she proclaims with a laugh before mockingly blowing her a kiss. "Au Revoir~"

Rei just shakes her head, but can't suppress a laugh. She lingers at the school entrance for a bit until Sayuri and Yui have disappeared through the gate and everyone else is long on their way. The school is suddenly quiet.

The echo of her footsteps in the corridor is familiar from all the late afternoons Rei has spent at school to avoid having to go home. But although her motive remains the same, today it feels like something completely new, almost forbidden.

She takes the stairs on her way back to the classroom. Well, at least that was her goal, but when she arrives in the corridor, she realizes that the light has gone out. It's nothing, Rei knows, just a few steps in and the motion sensors would make the cold electronic light return and illuminate her way. But for now, in almost complete darkness, Rei finds herself in another world.

It's like building a pillow fortress or finding a stick sword in the woods. She doesn't need much to escape an often uncomfortable reality. She sees a dark corridor. Then there is a flash. And Rei is no longer here.

The world as it once was has disappeared. The deluge erupted above people's heads a long time ago, brought on by an endless storm. It thunders in the distance, somewhere above the surface of the sea. A faint sound that barely reaches the bottom of the abyss. Rei ventures a few steps into the strange world. Letting her imagination drift. Anything that distracts her is welcome.

And when the neon lights turn on, Atlantis doesn't disappear. Rei holds on to it.

She thinks she's too far gone when she reaches the classroom and is met with words she doesn't understand. She's never been so out of touch with reality as to make up a foreign language, but as she forces herself back to the real world, she realizes she's not dreaming it up. The language is only foreign to Rei, but at least she can almost certainly place it. French. For some reason.

So her underwater expedition ends abruptly, but she's not too disappointed about it, too curious about the person speaking a European language in an empty classroom completely to herself. Does this school have an occult club that she doesn't know about?

Rei peeks in cautiously and sees a familiar school uniform. Turning her back to Rei, the girl stands in front of one of the high windows and looks out. For some reason, the light in the classroom is off, so the sickly yellow of the corridor light falls sharply into the room, but only grazes the person. Light from the phone the girl holds to her ear is the only source of illumination, apart from a flash of lightning that cuts through the sky just as Rei recognizes the stranger.

Muu's voice sounds completely different when she speaks French.

She says something else, but Rei moves and realizes too late that the window is reflecting the door. She barely recognizes Muu's face in the glass, but can only make out a slightly illuminated cheek and the ends of her hair in the window, but knows that Muu must have at least noticed the silhouette standing in the doorway.

Unsure of what exactly she should do and struggling with the strange feeling of having been caught, she wants to leave the room, but only barely makes it half a step backwards towards the wall. Her fingertips touch the light switch.

When the light goes on, Muu hangs up and... They stare at each other.

...at least for a brief, shocked second as they acknowledge the intruder of their own little world. Then Rei opens her mouth and Muu does the same.

"What are you doing - "

" - I thought you were -"

" - and shouldn't you -"

" - saying that the trains are cancelled- "

It comes out in an unintelligible, rapid-fire babble, but even without Muu talking over her, Rei has to admit that she had only blurted out a few disjointed sentences.

An expression of embarrassment creeps onto Muu's face, and Rei quickly says, "Sorry, you-"

" - You go first!"

"Oh."

They stare at each other again. And then Muu's lips twist into a half-smirk. 

"I thought you went home like the others," she finally says, tilting her head.

Rei just gives her head a shake. She actively tries not to think of the reasons, even though Muu would undoubtedly start asking questions right away.

She is wrong. Muu shrugs it off and doesn't follow up like Sayuri sometimes does. Instead, she leans against one of the desks. Her face is relaxed yet thoughtful. Her cell phone lands on the surface of the table.

"...You speak French?" Rei finally asks when she realizes it's her turn to talk.

Muu's smile softens. "I was born and raised in Japan. But my mama is from France."

She reaches for her cell phone and turns it on, only to show Rei the lock screen the next second.

It's a picture of Muu standing at a scenic harbor. The sea water is deep turquoise and the few houses that can be seen are pretty and colorful. Muu's smile, however, is the most fascinating. Rei has never seen this kind on her face before. She has a strange feeling looking at it. As if she sees a hidden treasure.

"I went to Saint-Tropez for the first time this summer with Mama. It's her home."

"It looks beautiful over there," says Rei. " I bet the weather must always be nice in that place."

Muu laughs at this for some reason and then takes a look out of the window. "It's the most beautiful place in the world. But the sun has nothing to do with it, don't you think?"

She shows Rei a few more pictures as they slowly start talking. Sailboats and expensive restaurants and vineyards and everywhere Muu is smiling in a different way than Rei has ever seen her smile.

"You seem to have been so surprised that I can speak French," she says at one point, giving Rei a look of intensity and curled lashes, as if reading every change in her face, then grins. "As often as Yui makes jokes, I thought you knew that about me."

Rei shrugs her shoulders. She didn't. But that brings her back to the beginning of the conversation.

"What are you doing here so late?"

"Like I said before, I could ask you the same thing," Muu replies in a strange half-singing tone. "But it seems to me that neither of us are particularly eager for an answer, but maybe you've changed your mind now that you're stuck here with me?"

Rei frowns at this, causing Muu to snort.

"Now don't act innocent," she says playfully, but underneath her teasing tone is a sharp accusation. "I know you've been avoiding me. I've given you my number. You have to make the next move. That's how it works with friends." She tilts her head and her gaze becomes appraising. "But you haven't had that much experience with that, have you? At least not good ones, I suppose."

Rei's throat constricts. Her palms begin to sweat, because Muu is right, isn't he?

She watches, as if in a trance, as Muu slides off the surface of the table she had been sitting on and stands bolt upright in front of Rei, like a cobra catching sight of its prey. Something sparkles in her eyes. Then she reaches out to pat Rei's shoulder. A friendly, yet threatening gesture that almost makes her flinch.

"I know you have your reasons," she murmurs, and it reminds Rei of the sound of rain as raindrops drum against the window like a thousand little war drums and lightning shoots through the sky. Muu's smile has a predatory edge. "But be warned. If I wanted something, I'd get it."

"And what exactly could you want from me?" Rei asks challengingly.

Muu takes a step back, but it's not a sign of Rei's triumph. She just giggles in amusement. "Touché. There's nothing special about you. They do say absence makes the heart grow fonder, Rei-chan, but your tactics fail on me~"

Rei laughs before she can change her mind. Muu has a kind of confidence that's almost enviable.

"Look, I didn't mean to offend you," she says, keeping her voice calm. "But it's not a tactic."

Muu clicks her tongue, clearly amused, and then moves through the rows of tables. "I only wanted to have said it once," she tosses light-heartedly over her shoulder. When she reaches the door, she turns to Rei again. She raises an eyebrow. "Are you coming or not?"