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[Lightning Returns] Autumn Rain (3789words)
Title: Autumn Rain
Fandom: Lightning Returns
Character/Pairing(s): pre-Noel/Hope STILL
Rating: G
Warning: none whatsoever
Summary: Impressions-verse; photography on a rainy Autumn day.
Saturday morning drew cloud coverage so thick it felt rather like evening without the light shining through. With the dark and cold autumn morning came first a drizzle, and then outright downpour as a thunderstorm swept into the area, loud and rambunctious as a bunch of stomping children playing in the heavens.
There was very little to do when Hope called his mother regarding the new development, and Nora Estheim told him in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t to drive in weather like that, and that their visit could wait until later, or if the weather doesn’t clear up, then next week. The cancelled arrangement left his entire weekend free — not only for him, but his roommate as well.
Not a half hour after that call, a well-placed lightning strike nearby managed to bring down the power in the entire area.
A quiet whirr and click startled Hope from his thoughts, and his turned his attention away from the rain beyond the window pane to stare wide-eyed at his current flatmate, Noel Kreiss, who was grinning unrepentantly at him with an old camera held between both hands.
“No, no, go back to what you were doing.” Noel told him with a flippant wave, already bringing the camera back up to his eye level. “Just pretend I’m not here.”
Hope felt a smile tug at the corner of his lips despite the stormy skies and downed power lines, and he had to struggle to frown at the other man. He had never been too fond of pictures, especially those taken without his knowing, because Hope was far too aware of how un-photogenic he was when he hadn’t hours to prepare and talk himself into looking more confident and congenial. Any impulse shots taken by friends and family over the years usually showed him tense, frowning, and / or in a complete disarray somehow, looking both tired and unwilling to be in the picture. If anything, Hope preferred to be the one behind the camera rather than in front of it, and he had little talent when it came to creative art.
“What are you doing?” Hope demanded, ignoring the prior statement. It would have been ridiculous to believe he could just ignore Noel, anyway, even without the camera. The other man’s presence drew his attention like a magnet at most times, and Noel was usually boisterous and energetic enough to draw the attention of everyone around him even without wielding a contraption Hope hadn’t wanted to see in his hands.
“Photography.” Noel answered plainly, and then looked up from behind the camera lens, still grinning. “I’m in the class this semester, remember?”
“Shouldn’t you be arranging fruit and taking pictures of that?” Hope’s tone was alarmed as Noel took another picture, and the older man stood back, hoping against hope that maybe Noel was just snapping pictures of the weather outside. No such luck — the camera just shifted to follow his movements.
“Afraid I already did that.” Noel gave an exaggerated sigh. “And since there’s no way of delivering all that to Nana today, we may have to put up with more fruit juice than I anticipated.”
That explained the considerable amount of colorful fruits in the kitchen, but it still didn’t explain why there was a camera pointed in Hope’s direction.
“Don’t you have — models in your classes for things like this?” Hope asked instead, waving with his still steaming coffee in Noel’s direction. “I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to be taking most of the pictures in class.”
“And now you’re thinking of art classes.” Noel brought the camera down, grin smoothing out into a fond smile. “This is photography. There’s no one really for us to take pictures of. We’re supposed to be the ones providing the materials for pictures we take. And that includes models. So, yeah, if you don’t mind helping me a bit with this class…” he raised an eyebrow to go along with the fond smile.
Hope once thought that he had enough of being embarrassed around Noel, but it seemed the younger man was quite talented at proving him wrong.
“Ahh, see,” Noel brought up the camera once again and snapped a picture, “It’s really too bad these will be in black and white. That’s quite a brilliant red going on there.”
Hope thought about tossing his coffee in Noel's direction, but ended up countering the thought because the coffee would obviously be put to better use waking him up. Instead, he flicked a piece of lint in the brunet's direction, the tiny ball of fluff not even making it halfway before it floated gently down.
"I'll take that lack of reaction as a general agreement to be my model." Noel said cheerfully. "No need to do anything extravagant or special, I know how you don't like to change your routine. I might just be following around for a little while. Just until I've filled up this roll of film."
Hope breathed out slowly before asking, "And how many pictures do you have left?" Because if anything, Hope had long realized that Noel had a tendency of getting his way on the little things, which ended up being the majority of everything. Somehow, Hope just had a hard time saying no to Noel, and he didn't quite know why.
...Or if he did, then there was no way he was going to admit it.
Noel made a thoughtful noise and glanced at his camera in thought for a moment. "I took about five pictures of fruit, three more right now, and the roll's supposed to contain twenty-four pictures... So, sixteen more?"
Setting down his coffee carefully on the windowsill, Hope smiled and used Noel's distraction (both from the counting and his sudden gape at Hope's smile), to snatch the old camera out of the younger man's fingertips and, quicker than he thought he could be, ducked away from Noel's grasp to snap a picture of the startled young man, and then another one as realization blossomed within bright blue eyes and the young man reached out again, this time with more intent.
"Fourteen." Hope said triumphantly, and then yelped as Noel nearly tackled him for the camera.
"Oh, you didn't just do that!" Noel reached as Hope attempted to keep the camera out of reach, arms encircling the older man. "Don't even try to — I'm taller than you!"
Hope twisted within his grasp, unable to help his laughter as he snapped another picture of Noel's dismayed expression, this time close up right before Noel made another failed swipe at the camera. "Thirteen!"
"Give me that—"
Hope didn't get far enough to protest before the both of them, in one twisted bundle of limbs, managed to trip over the coffee table leg and spill across the carpet.
.
.
"I'm surprised the camera's not broken." Hope stated conversationally, settling into the couch with his now cool cup of coffee as Noel set another candle down on the table to illuminate the room. The power was still out, and the sounds of rain was heavy against the roof and windows. They had agreed to no more rough-housing now that the candles were out, if only to prevent fires.
(Actually, Noel had been quite appalled after the two of them stopped laughing, and even Hope felt bad about nearly damaging the camera except Noel had fussed over his safety for than for the camera.)
"I'm surprised we're not broken." Was Noel's retort before the younger man slid next to him on the couch. After several minutes of indecision, the two of them finally agreed to whatever cheesy movie they might find on the television. Probably an old black and white film, with Hope's choice of channels. "Say cheese!"
A whirr and click sounded before Hope could even ask what he was talking about, and he had to blink the light out of his eyes as the camera flashed arms length away, the room dark enough to set off the automatic flash.
"Noel!"
"You're right," Noel agreed, and then set the angle of the camera higher as he scooted even closer to Hope, his chin settled on Hope's shoulder. "That one probably didn't even get us in the shot. Second try!"
The camera clicked again, and Hope shoved at Noel's arm, although he couldn't keep the amusement from his voice at the sheer absurdity of the situation. "You can't take selfies with a camera like that!"
"Who says?" Noel moved the camera just out of Hope's reach, although his chin stayed right where it was. "There's no selfie rule about DSLR cameras."
It was ridiculous. The idea of them taking selfies was ridiculous, but even more so that their cellphones were within arms' reach and yet Noel was taking pictures of them with the old, bulky camera that only had black and white film. He was entirely certain that his expression was going to be horrible in the picture.
That was if either of them were even in the shot at all.
It was almost as bad as the first time Noel had tried to as discretely as possible take a photo of Hope for his phone contacts list, and then declaring the photo entirely inadequate the very next morning as he took a very bewildered Hope's phone and inputting his new number and even picture in it before taking his own phone out and snapping a picture of said bewildered Hope.
All before racing off to his orientation.
That had resulted in an entire week of mornings being bombarded by flashes of light as Noel continued to declare his photos appalling for some reason.
"I'm not very photogenic," Hope had tried to explain once, entirely serious. "All you need is a contact photo, correct?"
"I refuse to believe that. And contact photos are important! What if I accidentally set my phone to French and I can't read any of the names?"
Hope had given the nervously laughing Noel a disbelieving look. "Names shouldn't change even if the languages change. And if you'd like, I can show you how to change it back—"
Thinking back to it, Noel had run off a lot whenever it was convenient for him, especially those first few weeks they moved in together.
“Aren’t you supposed to—” Hope floundered for a moment, gripping his mug of coffee tighter, “take the time to set up shots and have…. dynamics or scale or proportions or something?”
It was rather alarming how little he knew about photography. There had been the one art class he had been forced to attend as a child when his mother noticed how neat his lines were, but that hadn’t lasted too long after he proved his talent had been in replication rather than artistic creativity. He questioned every explanation and decision his teacher made until his father had taken over and Hope had spent a summer drawing out lines based on math, and he continued down that path ever since.
“Mmm,” Noel disagreed, the rumbling sound caught in the back of his throat feeling like a cat’s purr against Hope’s neck. “Nope. Haven’t gotten to that yet. We’re still supposed to be looking for our inspirations. First two weeks and all that. Learn the basics, develop a few pictures, make sure not to mix up our chemicals…”
“Chemicals? Now I should be worried. I remember Serah calling me up to tell me how your grandmother told her about something to do with an explosion in a chemistry class in high school—”
“Anyway,” Noel interrupted, ignoring the bemusement in Hope’s voice. “I’ve got time before we get into the more complex subjects.”
The cheer in his voice was belied by the flash of light from the windows and the thunder that rolled through the walls a mere second later at that statement. The gave each other a startled look.
“Right,” Hope set down his mug on the coffee table. “Guess it’s time to start unplugging everything.”
.
.
Ten minutes later all the appliances had been unplugged (just in case) and the two of them ended back on the couch under several throws, Hope having pulled out his laptop to start responding to his latest emails as well as reassure his parents over the internet that he was fine, and Noel lying on his back with his legs over the armrest and scrolling through something on his phone, the pillow he had taken for his head slowly encroaching its way onto Hope's lap. The staccato of rain was only growing louder by the minute, and the candles filled the room with not only their flickering light but with the mild scent of apples and cinnamon.
“Forecast says storm’s going to go all day.” Noel murmured, features lit by the glowing blue background of his phone. “Stops for a bit tonight, but it’s going to rain all weekend. Roads might actually be flooded on Monday.”
"Problematic." Hope summarized, glancing up for a brief moment from his laptop to frown in thought. "This area's always been prone to landslides."
"Really? We didn't have any last year. What happened then?"
"Got lucky." Hope answered, feeling Noel twist his neck to look up at him. "Or the city’s decision to pave up the hills actually worked. We’ll see."
“You don’t sound worried.”
“I’m not. Storms happen, and geographically this area is supposed to receive heavy rain. Most accidents happen on the road due to residential architecture taking that into account, and while it causes inconveniences such as higher car insurance and traffic, there haven’t been fatalities due to landslides in this area in the entire history of Academia.”
Another sharp flash of light, coupled by a roaring thunder mere seconds later, interrupted them.
Noel set his phone down to his chest, while Hope glanced toward the window.
“Sounds like it’s moving away.” Noel summarized. “Think it’s safe to go outdoors?”
Hope blinked. “Why would you want to go outside? Even if it’s not dangerous anymore, it’s still raining.”
They waited another few moments just to see if a flash of lightning would contradict Hope’s words, but there was nothing more than the steady patter of rain.
Noel sat up in one swift movement, letting his phone drop onto the couch cushions. He had gotten close enough in his initial shuffling on the couch that Hope actually had to shift his laptop so that the device wasn't toppled over by the brunet's movement.
"Let's head out." Noel said brightly, already moving off the couch. "Take a look at the storm. See what all the fuss is about. Think the camera would work in the rain? No, bad idea, think it’d still take good pictures through plastic? We’ve got those large zip-lock bags, right?"
“That’s a horrible idea.” Hope said, although he was moving his laptop to the side already, online conversation abandoned for the one happening right now. Whether he was getting up to stop Noel or not was debatable, although he tried harder to be more stern in his tone. “It’s cold, it’s wet, and you’re just asking for your camera to break on you.”
Strangely enough, Noel’s lips quirked up at Hope’s words and tone, and he leaned down to tell Hope, “If you didn’t want to go with me, you would have just said no. Now,” and Noel moved back, leaving Hope dazed as the younger man retreated into the kitchen to search for an appropriate plastic bag which might fit his new second-hand camera. “It’s not like the power’s on, so we could go take a look outside or stay indoors and pull out the cardboard boxes to — to build a pillow fort or something. That doesn’t actually sound like a bad idea.”
“I don’t have that many pillows.”
The brunet peeked out from the kitchen area to point, “Exactly. But you know where the umbrellas are.”
.
.
It wasn’t very windy, but the rains brought along the autumn chill, and Hope ducked his face into the thick knit of his scarf, a gift from Serah the Christmas past when the teacher had decided that everyone in her life needed matching hand-knit scarves of various colors. His was a pale blue-green and still smelt faintly of flowers, which he presumed was due to whatever perfume Serah wore while knitting the gifts.
The rest of his outfit, outside of the umbrella he was holding, was rather grey in comparison.
It was still raining hard enough that the droplets felt like hail on his wrist as he shifted to accommodate the large umbrella over two people, one who was leaning in various ways to get a better view through his lens. They had foregone the idea of two personal umbrellas, and Hope offered the carry the largest one they owned in order to allow Noel the freedom to take his pictures.
“You could just take the bag off,” Hope muffled through his scarf, amused, as he watched Noel hmm and haw over angles while holding the old camera within the confines of a plastic bag. “It won’t get wet.”
With the lack of wind and the heaviness of the downpour, Hope was fairly certain it would take more than a great gust in order to blow the water under their umbrella.
“‘m just being careful.” Noel murmured, the bottom half of his face also covered by a jewel blue scarf as he searched for a new spot to photograph.
As the younger man looked around, Hope spared one hand from the umbrella to pull his scarf up even higher to cover his nose, wishing he’d worn more layers than he had. If this was autumn, how was he supposed to survive the oncoming winter? It wasn’t even that cold, according to the temperature, but the sudden ten degree drop the past week had Hope scrambling for thicker jackets and gloves.
A whirr and click in his direction made him look up to see Noel’s not-at-all-guilty smile in his direction, the camera once again pointed at him.
“You know, I think I’ll stick with portraits rather than landscapes.” The brunet said casually. “I seem to like it better.”
“Is that so?” Hope’s voice was muffled by the scarf, and he hoped that the color in his cheeks were covered as he narrowed his eyes in a glare. “And that’s why we’re out here in the rain and cold?”
He emphasized his point with a brief kick at the pavement, boots splashing up enough water to make Noel yelp as the bottom of his pant legs soaked through, the younger taking a half step back — just far enough to the edge of the umbrella without being bombarded by the rain.
“Oh,” Noel breathed out as he slipped his camera back into the plastic bag, knotting it for good measure before he slipped the package into his cushioned camera bag and zipped it up as well. “That’s how you want to play it?”
Hope glared back. They were only about three blocks away from home, no major intersections in the way since Noel had insisted on pictures of greenery, easiest found at the closest park, which was close to the local elementary school as well. The area they were in was purely residential, mostly condos and apartments due to its close proximity to the Academy and the need to fit in more homes in a central location, but the majority of the people living in the area seemed to have retreated deep into their homes in light of the storm, perhaps to sleep in thanks to the power outage. With an average of seven buildings per street, and blocks perhaps three hundred meters long…
Hope spun on his heel and ran just as Noel moved to steal the umbrella away.
.
.
“I can’t believe,” Hope gasped out as the two of them collapsed in a large puddle just past the doorway, “no one came to yell at us.”
“Maybe no one heard?” Noel suggested, although he was still breathless from laughing on the way back. The run had quickly devolved into a water fight, and he managed to wrest the umbrella away from Hope after a block, mostly thanks to being able to run faster. The two of them had been soaked within minutes and had fallen into no less than four separate puddles, more entire pools of water, in attempts to soak the other even more. In the end, control of the umbrella hadn’t protected them much from the rain, instead being used as a shield when the other tried to kick water up, rather than protecting from the rains falling from the sky.
They only managed to call a truce after Hope finally tripped Noel into the mud in the yard (the scientist was such a sneak), and in retaliation Noel had pulled the silver-haired man down as well before he could get away.
They ended up stumbling through the door laughing and muddy, leaving puddles with every step.
“Hey, now I can check mud wrestling off my bucket list.” Noel said cheekily, laughing as Hope threw his soaked scarf at him. “And I can actually say there’s something actually worse than wet socks: muddy socks.”
“That wasn’t wrestling.” Hope denied, even as he peeled away his outer coat, revealing a cleaner, although just as soaked, knit sweater. He shivered and combed his fingers through dripping hair, trying to wring out some of the water. “I was—”
A whirr and click had him once again glaring at a grinning Noel, who hadn’t so much as stepped out of his sneakers yet and looked somewhat like a drowned cat, but had already taken out his camera.
“—trying not to damage your camera.”
“Don’t worry,” Noel interjected, sensing the imminent disapproval. He waved the camera slightly in emphasis. “I’ve only got one more shot left, so you don’t have to worry too much about me stalking you around the rest of today.”
“You’re right, I won’t have to worry.” Hope told him, holding out a hand for the camera. Noel attempted to give him a wide-eyed pleading look, but eventually conceded even as he scrunched up his face. Hope bit his lip to hide a smile, and then went over to sit next to Noel on the floor, startling the younger man as he scooted closer on the soaked tiles and fiddled with the camera for a moment before raising it and turning it around.
“Say cheese,” Hope told the flabberghasted brunet, aware of stunned blue eyes staring at him. He didn’t bother to turn, but instead smiled at the camera. One more picture left on the film, then.
Whirr.
Click.
Fandom: Lightning Returns
Character/Pairing(s): pre-Noel/Hope STILL
Rating: G
Warning: none whatsoever
Summary: Impressions-verse; photography on a rainy Autumn day.
Saturday morning drew cloud coverage so thick it felt rather like evening without the light shining through. With the dark and cold autumn morning came first a drizzle, and then outright downpour as a thunderstorm swept into the area, loud and rambunctious as a bunch of stomping children playing in the heavens.
There was very little to do when Hope called his mother regarding the new development, and Nora Estheim told him in no uncertain terms that he wasn’t to drive in weather like that, and that their visit could wait until later, or if the weather doesn’t clear up, then next week. The cancelled arrangement left his entire weekend free — not only for him, but his roommate as well.
Not a half hour after that call, a well-placed lightning strike nearby managed to bring down the power in the entire area.
A quiet whirr and click startled Hope from his thoughts, and his turned his attention away from the rain beyond the window pane to stare wide-eyed at his current flatmate, Noel Kreiss, who was grinning unrepentantly at him with an old camera held between both hands.
“No, no, go back to what you were doing.” Noel told him with a flippant wave, already bringing the camera back up to his eye level. “Just pretend I’m not here.”
Hope felt a smile tug at the corner of his lips despite the stormy skies and downed power lines, and he had to struggle to frown at the other man. He had never been too fond of pictures, especially those taken without his knowing, because Hope was far too aware of how un-photogenic he was when he hadn’t hours to prepare and talk himself into looking more confident and congenial. Any impulse shots taken by friends and family over the years usually showed him tense, frowning, and / or in a complete disarray somehow, looking both tired and unwilling to be in the picture. If anything, Hope preferred to be the one behind the camera rather than in front of it, and he had little talent when it came to creative art.
“What are you doing?” Hope demanded, ignoring the prior statement. It would have been ridiculous to believe he could just ignore Noel, anyway, even without the camera. The other man’s presence drew his attention like a magnet at most times, and Noel was usually boisterous and energetic enough to draw the attention of everyone around him even without wielding a contraption Hope hadn’t wanted to see in his hands.
“Photography.” Noel answered plainly, and then looked up from behind the camera lens, still grinning. “I’m in the class this semester, remember?”
“Shouldn’t you be arranging fruit and taking pictures of that?” Hope’s tone was alarmed as Noel took another picture, and the older man stood back, hoping against hope that maybe Noel was just snapping pictures of the weather outside. No such luck — the camera just shifted to follow his movements.
“Afraid I already did that.” Noel gave an exaggerated sigh. “And since there’s no way of delivering all that to Nana today, we may have to put up with more fruit juice than I anticipated.”
That explained the considerable amount of colorful fruits in the kitchen, but it still didn’t explain why there was a camera pointed in Hope’s direction.
“Don’t you have — models in your classes for things like this?” Hope asked instead, waving with his still steaming coffee in Noel’s direction. “I’m pretty sure you’re supposed to be taking most of the pictures in class.”
“And now you’re thinking of art classes.” Noel brought the camera down, grin smoothing out into a fond smile. “This is photography. There’s no one really for us to take pictures of. We’re supposed to be the ones providing the materials for pictures we take. And that includes models. So, yeah, if you don’t mind helping me a bit with this class…” he raised an eyebrow to go along with the fond smile.
Hope once thought that he had enough of being embarrassed around Noel, but it seemed the younger man was quite talented at proving him wrong.
“Ahh, see,” Noel brought up the camera once again and snapped a picture, “It’s really too bad these will be in black and white. That’s quite a brilliant red going on there.”
Hope thought about tossing his coffee in Noel's direction, but ended up countering the thought because the coffee would obviously be put to better use waking him up. Instead, he flicked a piece of lint in the brunet's direction, the tiny ball of fluff not even making it halfway before it floated gently down.
"I'll take that lack of reaction as a general agreement to be my model." Noel said cheerfully. "No need to do anything extravagant or special, I know how you don't like to change your routine. I might just be following around for a little while. Just until I've filled up this roll of film."
Hope breathed out slowly before asking, "And how many pictures do you have left?" Because if anything, Hope had long realized that Noel had a tendency of getting his way on the little things, which ended up being the majority of everything. Somehow, Hope just had a hard time saying no to Noel, and he didn't quite know why.
...Or if he did, then there was no way he was going to admit it.
Noel made a thoughtful noise and glanced at his camera in thought for a moment. "I took about five pictures of fruit, three more right now, and the roll's supposed to contain twenty-four pictures... So, sixteen more?"
Setting down his coffee carefully on the windowsill, Hope smiled and used Noel's distraction (both from the counting and his sudden gape at Hope's smile), to snatch the old camera out of the younger man's fingertips and, quicker than he thought he could be, ducked away from Noel's grasp to snap a picture of the startled young man, and then another one as realization blossomed within bright blue eyes and the young man reached out again, this time with more intent.
"Fourteen." Hope said triumphantly, and then yelped as Noel nearly tackled him for the camera.
"Oh, you didn't just do that!" Noel reached as Hope attempted to keep the camera out of reach, arms encircling the older man. "Don't even try to — I'm taller than you!"
Hope twisted within his grasp, unable to help his laughter as he snapped another picture of Noel's dismayed expression, this time close up right before Noel made another failed swipe at the camera. "Thirteen!"
"Give me that—"
Hope didn't get far enough to protest before the both of them, in one twisted bundle of limbs, managed to trip over the coffee table leg and spill across the carpet.
.
.
"I'm surprised the camera's not broken." Hope stated conversationally, settling into the couch with his now cool cup of coffee as Noel set another candle down on the table to illuminate the room. The power was still out, and the sounds of rain was heavy against the roof and windows. They had agreed to no more rough-housing now that the candles were out, if only to prevent fires.
(Actually, Noel had been quite appalled after the two of them stopped laughing, and even Hope felt bad about nearly damaging the camera except Noel had fussed over his safety for than for the camera.)
"I'm surprised we're not broken." Was Noel's retort before the younger man slid next to him on the couch. After several minutes of indecision, the two of them finally agreed to whatever cheesy movie they might find on the television. Probably an old black and white film, with Hope's choice of channels. "Say cheese!"
A whirr and click sounded before Hope could even ask what he was talking about, and he had to blink the light out of his eyes as the camera flashed arms length away, the room dark enough to set off the automatic flash.
"Noel!"
"You're right," Noel agreed, and then set the angle of the camera higher as he scooted even closer to Hope, his chin settled on Hope's shoulder. "That one probably didn't even get us in the shot. Second try!"
The camera clicked again, and Hope shoved at Noel's arm, although he couldn't keep the amusement from his voice at the sheer absurdity of the situation. "You can't take selfies with a camera like that!"
"Who says?" Noel moved the camera just out of Hope's reach, although his chin stayed right where it was. "There's no selfie rule about DSLR cameras."
It was ridiculous. The idea of them taking selfies was ridiculous, but even more so that their cellphones were within arms' reach and yet Noel was taking pictures of them with the old, bulky camera that only had black and white film. He was entirely certain that his expression was going to be horrible in the picture.
That was if either of them were even in the shot at all.
It was almost as bad as the first time Noel had tried to as discretely as possible take a photo of Hope for his phone contacts list, and then declaring the photo entirely inadequate the very next morning as he took a very bewildered Hope's phone and inputting his new number and even picture in it before taking his own phone out and snapping a picture of said bewildered Hope.
All before racing off to his orientation.
That had resulted in an entire week of mornings being bombarded by flashes of light as Noel continued to declare his photos appalling for some reason.
"I'm not very photogenic," Hope had tried to explain once, entirely serious. "All you need is a contact photo, correct?"
"I refuse to believe that. And contact photos are important! What if I accidentally set my phone to French and I can't read any of the names?"
Hope had given the nervously laughing Noel a disbelieving look. "Names shouldn't change even if the languages change. And if you'd like, I can show you how to change it back—"
Thinking back to it, Noel had run off a lot whenever it was convenient for him, especially those first few weeks they moved in together.
“Aren’t you supposed to—” Hope floundered for a moment, gripping his mug of coffee tighter, “take the time to set up shots and have…. dynamics or scale or proportions or something?”
It was rather alarming how little he knew about photography. There had been the one art class he had been forced to attend as a child when his mother noticed how neat his lines were, but that hadn’t lasted too long after he proved his talent had been in replication rather than artistic creativity. He questioned every explanation and decision his teacher made until his father had taken over and Hope had spent a summer drawing out lines based on math, and he continued down that path ever since.
“Mmm,” Noel disagreed, the rumbling sound caught in the back of his throat feeling like a cat’s purr against Hope’s neck. “Nope. Haven’t gotten to that yet. We’re still supposed to be looking for our inspirations. First two weeks and all that. Learn the basics, develop a few pictures, make sure not to mix up our chemicals…”
“Chemicals? Now I should be worried. I remember Serah calling me up to tell me how your grandmother told her about something to do with an explosion in a chemistry class in high school—”
“Anyway,” Noel interrupted, ignoring the bemusement in Hope’s voice. “I’ve got time before we get into the more complex subjects.”
The cheer in his voice was belied by the flash of light from the windows and the thunder that rolled through the walls a mere second later at that statement. The gave each other a startled look.
“Right,” Hope set down his mug on the coffee table. “Guess it’s time to start unplugging everything.”
.
.
Ten minutes later all the appliances had been unplugged (just in case) and the two of them ended back on the couch under several throws, Hope having pulled out his laptop to start responding to his latest emails as well as reassure his parents over the internet that he was fine, and Noel lying on his back with his legs over the armrest and scrolling through something on his phone, the pillow he had taken for his head slowly encroaching its way onto Hope's lap. The staccato of rain was only growing louder by the minute, and the candles filled the room with not only their flickering light but with the mild scent of apples and cinnamon.
“Forecast says storm’s going to go all day.” Noel murmured, features lit by the glowing blue background of his phone. “Stops for a bit tonight, but it’s going to rain all weekend. Roads might actually be flooded on Monday.”
"Problematic." Hope summarized, glancing up for a brief moment from his laptop to frown in thought. "This area's always been prone to landslides."
"Really? We didn't have any last year. What happened then?"
"Got lucky." Hope answered, feeling Noel twist his neck to look up at him. "Or the city’s decision to pave up the hills actually worked. We’ll see."
“You don’t sound worried.”
“I’m not. Storms happen, and geographically this area is supposed to receive heavy rain. Most accidents happen on the road due to residential architecture taking that into account, and while it causes inconveniences such as higher car insurance and traffic, there haven’t been fatalities due to landslides in this area in the entire history of Academia.”
Another sharp flash of light, coupled by a roaring thunder mere seconds later, interrupted them.
Noel set his phone down to his chest, while Hope glanced toward the window.
“Sounds like it’s moving away.” Noel summarized. “Think it’s safe to go outdoors?”
Hope blinked. “Why would you want to go outside? Even if it’s not dangerous anymore, it’s still raining.”
They waited another few moments just to see if a flash of lightning would contradict Hope’s words, but there was nothing more than the steady patter of rain.
Noel sat up in one swift movement, letting his phone drop onto the couch cushions. He had gotten close enough in his initial shuffling on the couch that Hope actually had to shift his laptop so that the device wasn't toppled over by the brunet's movement.
"Let's head out." Noel said brightly, already moving off the couch. "Take a look at the storm. See what all the fuss is about. Think the camera would work in the rain? No, bad idea, think it’d still take good pictures through plastic? We’ve got those large zip-lock bags, right?"
“That’s a horrible idea.” Hope said, although he was moving his laptop to the side already, online conversation abandoned for the one happening right now. Whether he was getting up to stop Noel or not was debatable, although he tried harder to be more stern in his tone. “It’s cold, it’s wet, and you’re just asking for your camera to break on you.”
Strangely enough, Noel’s lips quirked up at Hope’s words and tone, and he leaned down to tell Hope, “If you didn’t want to go with me, you would have just said no. Now,” and Noel moved back, leaving Hope dazed as the younger man retreated into the kitchen to search for an appropriate plastic bag which might fit his new second-hand camera. “It’s not like the power’s on, so we could go take a look outside or stay indoors and pull out the cardboard boxes to — to build a pillow fort or something. That doesn’t actually sound like a bad idea.”
“I don’t have that many pillows.”
The brunet peeked out from the kitchen area to point, “Exactly. But you know where the umbrellas are.”
.
.
It wasn’t very windy, but the rains brought along the autumn chill, and Hope ducked his face into the thick knit of his scarf, a gift from Serah the Christmas past when the teacher had decided that everyone in her life needed matching hand-knit scarves of various colors. His was a pale blue-green and still smelt faintly of flowers, which he presumed was due to whatever perfume Serah wore while knitting the gifts.
The rest of his outfit, outside of the umbrella he was holding, was rather grey in comparison.
It was still raining hard enough that the droplets felt like hail on his wrist as he shifted to accommodate the large umbrella over two people, one who was leaning in various ways to get a better view through his lens. They had foregone the idea of two personal umbrellas, and Hope offered the carry the largest one they owned in order to allow Noel the freedom to take his pictures.
“You could just take the bag off,” Hope muffled through his scarf, amused, as he watched Noel hmm and haw over angles while holding the old camera within the confines of a plastic bag. “It won’t get wet.”
With the lack of wind and the heaviness of the downpour, Hope was fairly certain it would take more than a great gust in order to blow the water under their umbrella.
“‘m just being careful.” Noel murmured, the bottom half of his face also covered by a jewel blue scarf as he searched for a new spot to photograph.
As the younger man looked around, Hope spared one hand from the umbrella to pull his scarf up even higher to cover his nose, wishing he’d worn more layers than he had. If this was autumn, how was he supposed to survive the oncoming winter? It wasn’t even that cold, according to the temperature, but the sudden ten degree drop the past week had Hope scrambling for thicker jackets and gloves.
A whirr and click in his direction made him look up to see Noel’s not-at-all-guilty smile in his direction, the camera once again pointed at him.
“You know, I think I’ll stick with portraits rather than landscapes.” The brunet said casually. “I seem to like it better.”
“Is that so?” Hope’s voice was muffled by the scarf, and he hoped that the color in his cheeks were covered as he narrowed his eyes in a glare. “And that’s why we’re out here in the rain and cold?”
He emphasized his point with a brief kick at the pavement, boots splashing up enough water to make Noel yelp as the bottom of his pant legs soaked through, the younger taking a half step back — just far enough to the edge of the umbrella without being bombarded by the rain.
“Oh,” Noel breathed out as he slipped his camera back into the plastic bag, knotting it for good measure before he slipped the package into his cushioned camera bag and zipped it up as well. “That’s how you want to play it?”
Hope glared back. They were only about three blocks away from home, no major intersections in the way since Noel had insisted on pictures of greenery, easiest found at the closest park, which was close to the local elementary school as well. The area they were in was purely residential, mostly condos and apartments due to its close proximity to the Academy and the need to fit in more homes in a central location, but the majority of the people living in the area seemed to have retreated deep into their homes in light of the storm, perhaps to sleep in thanks to the power outage. With an average of seven buildings per street, and blocks perhaps three hundred meters long…
Hope spun on his heel and ran just as Noel moved to steal the umbrella away.
.
.
“I can’t believe,” Hope gasped out as the two of them collapsed in a large puddle just past the doorway, “no one came to yell at us.”
“Maybe no one heard?” Noel suggested, although he was still breathless from laughing on the way back. The run had quickly devolved into a water fight, and he managed to wrest the umbrella away from Hope after a block, mostly thanks to being able to run faster. The two of them had been soaked within minutes and had fallen into no less than four separate puddles, more entire pools of water, in attempts to soak the other even more. In the end, control of the umbrella hadn’t protected them much from the rain, instead being used as a shield when the other tried to kick water up, rather than protecting from the rains falling from the sky.
They only managed to call a truce after Hope finally tripped Noel into the mud in the yard (the scientist was such a sneak), and in retaliation Noel had pulled the silver-haired man down as well before he could get away.
They ended up stumbling through the door laughing and muddy, leaving puddles with every step.
“Hey, now I can check mud wrestling off my bucket list.” Noel said cheekily, laughing as Hope threw his soaked scarf at him. “And I can actually say there’s something actually worse than wet socks: muddy socks.”
“That wasn’t wrestling.” Hope denied, even as he peeled away his outer coat, revealing a cleaner, although just as soaked, knit sweater. He shivered and combed his fingers through dripping hair, trying to wring out some of the water. “I was—”
A whirr and click had him once again glaring at a grinning Noel, who hadn’t so much as stepped out of his sneakers yet and looked somewhat like a drowned cat, but had already taken out his camera.
“—trying not to damage your camera.”
“Don’t worry,” Noel interjected, sensing the imminent disapproval. He waved the camera slightly in emphasis. “I’ve only got one more shot left, so you don’t have to worry too much about me stalking you around the rest of today.”
“You’re right, I won’t have to worry.” Hope told him, holding out a hand for the camera. Noel attempted to give him a wide-eyed pleading look, but eventually conceded even as he scrunched up his face. Hope bit his lip to hide a smile, and then went over to sit next to Noel on the floor, startling the younger man as he scooted closer on the soaked tiles and fiddled with the camera for a moment before raising it and turning it around.
“Say cheese,” Hope told the flabberghasted brunet, aware of stunned blue eyes staring at him. He didn’t bother to turn, but instead smiled at the camera. One more picture left on the film, then.
Whirr.
Click.