livingmyths | Rain and Topi

"I don't like today," Rain said honestly, curling her body up on bed and wrapping her arms around the pillow. "I want it to be tomorrow now."

"Or maybe..." she turned her head slightly to look at the sky through her clear roof. "Maybe grilled cheese and soup would make me feel better." She sighed and put her head back down. "Except I'm not really hungry."

She rolled over and caught sight of a paper on her bedside table where she'd written, Go out with Topi tonight and sat up right away, eyes brightening. "Oh no, I changed my mind! Today is good!" She slid off the bed and ran across her small house to the bathroom where she brushed her long black hair. "Topi is coming. He's coming here!" She giggled a little and hugged herself. "He likes me and he doesn't care if I'm broken and he wants to go out with me."

Rain had never been on an actual date before and had no idea that some women spent ages getting ready for one. She was in clean jeans and a nice t-shirt - she didn't really own much beyond a couple pairs of each - and she was all washed up with fresh brushed hair. Surely that was enough?

She heard the knock on the front of her house and hurried to let him in. "Topi!" She beamed at him, blushing a little. "Come in!"

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"Rain," he replied warmly, and wrapped his arms around her briefly in a hug, his smile always so big for her. Topias thought she was wonderful; he'd been getting ready all day, in some way or another, though he had picked up dinner. One of his extra limbs was carrying it as he hugged her and let her go, smiling still. "I'm in, I'm in," he pulled the door closed behind him.

"I brought Chinese," he said. "I hope you like lo mein. And broccoli. And... well I'm not sure what else is in here, I told them to give me their favorites." He set the bag down. He had known Rain now for two years; they had been mostly incidental friends until a few months ago, when they'd started spending more and more time together, and Topi kept getting really lucky scratch cards. Sometimes really, really lucky. The kind of lucky he didn't get on his own.

"I don't know," Rain admitted cheerfully. "Mostly I eat peanut butter crackers. Or maybe grilled cheese and soup. But it smells good! And if you like it, I'm sure I will."

Her sad day was forgotten, Topi was here and he was happy to see her, so what else mattered?

She hugged him tightly, not wanting to let go right away. Finding out he didn't mind hugging her whenever she wanted had been one of the best things about him. And she didn't care about his extra limbs except that they were great for hugging too!

Topi hugged her with his extra limbs a lot. He liked to, and liked that she enjoyed being hugged by them, because since coming to this... time... most people were just freaked out by them and wanted nothing to do with them. So the fact that he could hold her, touch her with them, that he could tickle her and use more than just his humanlike hands to hold her hands... it was part of what drew him to her, honestly.

"I think you'll like it," he smiled, his limbs already starting to open up the bag. "Have you eaten yet?"

"No," Rain said, her face falling a little. "Today was a Not Nice Day and I was just going to go to bed and pretend everything went all away and then I remembered you were coming."

Her face brightened again. "And then it was a Very Good Day." She twirled around a little, then ran to the drawers to get some silverware. "Do you want something to drink? I mostly have water and tea." Unless he'd left something the last time he'd visited her little house in the woods.

He stroked her hair from her face with an extra limb and kissed her forehead. "I think it can be a Very Good Day for a while." He kissed her cheek for good measure and opened all the little containers of Chinese food so she could look through them and taste them as she liked.

"Do you want me to make you tea?" he asked, petting her back with extra limbs. "Or just some water?" He smiled again. He loved her expressions. How much they changed and were honest.

"I like it when you do that," she said a little shyly. "The kissing thing. You can do it whenever you want."

Rain thought Topi was wonderful. He never rolled her eyes at her or asked her silly questions she couldn't understand or whispered about her behind her back. He knew that just because she wasn't quite right it didn't mean she was a baby or retarded like some people thought in their heads. She tried not to listen, but sometimes they thought so loud she couldn't help it. Topi just had a sort of happy hum to his brain when he was around her and that made her happy, too. Sometimes when she knew something would be lucky for him she pointed it out.

She sniffed at the different containers while she thought. "I think I'd like tea, but water would be good too. Can we have both? I think both would be okay. Oh Topi, these smell wonderful!"

"I thought they all smelled good too, I only turned one away, it was covered in some kind of weird sauce that looked the wrong color," he said, putting the electric kettle on to boil and pouring some water over ice cubes in big glasses. One of the other things he liked about her was that none of her dishes matched. He wasn't sure why he liked it, but he did. He got the tea mugs ready and turned around, leaning across the counter and kissing her cheek again with a smile.

"Do you mean that?" he asked. "Kissing you whenever I want?"

"Oh yes, no weird sauce in a wrong color," Rain said, making a face. "But everything else is lovely!"

It was good he liked all of her mismatched things because they, like almost everything else she owned were hand-me-downs or from a place like Goodwill. A kind benefactor had built this crazy little efficient house for her before being pulled back to whatever time he was from, but everything she got with what little she had after she tried to help out the little ones on the street.

"Yes," she said, looking surprised that he'd ask. "Of course. I like it very much."

"Well, I like kissing you," he said, grinning and then standing straight, and pulling down bigger sized plates, and after a little rummaging with all those extra limbs, found enough utensils to distribute some food onto his plate. "Dig in," he said, hearing the water about to start whistling and clicking it off to pour it. "Are you doing okay?" he asked. "Do we need to go ticket-hunting and pad your box of money a little?" He didn't mind going ticket hunting. Though he would much rather spend the evening lying in bed with her and watching the sky, even if it was so completely different from his own.

She giggled. "No, my box is okay. I think we should eat and then watch the stars."

Her eyes went wide and she put her hands up to her mouth. "Uh oh. I forgot. You asked me out and I said yes, that means you get to decide, right? I just thought... but it's okay, we can do whatever you want."

She sat down quickly on one of the chairs by her little table and put a spoonful of rice in her mouth so she wouldn't say anything else wrong.

"I think eating and watching the stars is a wonderful thing to do for a date," he replied, putting his hand over hers and running his thumb over her knuckles, to sooth her. "Just because I asked you out, doesn't mean that you don't get to say what you want to do. The important thing for me is that I get to spend time with you, after all." And though she had food in her mouth, he pecked her lower lip, just to make the point, and closed up the little boxes of chinese food once their bowls were full. "The stars here are so different," he murmured. "My dad says that the planets, moving through space, over thousands of years between now and near when we lived before we came here, we end up with different views of the sky."

Rain beamed at him. "It's okay then? 'Cause sometimes I just say things and I don't think first."

She leaned forward, resting her chin on her hands. "What are your stars like? Do you have names for them and stories and stuff like that?"

Rain and Topi

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