[Egao, Egao Everywhere]

PROMPT
It started as a joke with me shipping gojira and tsun with only 500 words.

Whenever the rain falls, it feels like the sky is collapsing on top of him. The burden on his shoulders double and he wonders vaguely as he stares at the distant pendulum of car lights, if he’ll be able to move and walk to the other side of the street.

“God damn it,” a woman curses beside him. “It’s raining again!”

God damn it, indeed. The roof in his sight flashes with light, rolling with a massive thunderclap. There are screams and flinches, followed by humoured plasters of smile. It was an exciting moment for those who did not fear streaks of lightning or the slams of God’s fist. He doesn’t flinch, but he smiles a little.

“What, you like the thunder? You weirdo!”

It isn’t until the last word that he thinks he is being addressed to and turns. He doesn’t see her face; the woman who cursed God. She’s two feet away and he wonders how he even heard her earlier.

“No umbrella?”

She’s talking to him after all.

His smile remains, but only out of reflex. “Nope.”

“God damn it,” she curses again. “Yeah, me too. This weather sucks.”

He chuckles, shifting his eyes to his shoes, watching the blinking lights flash on his muddied sneakers.

“Think the rain’s going to stop soon?” she asks as if asking a survey question.

“Probably.” Maybe, maybe not.

“Are you heading in?”

He reconsiders.

“Are you?”

He looks up at the street light. The shape of an idle man glows in red. Though he isn’t looking at her, he can imagine that in the brief pause she makes, the woman is looking at her left and right.

“No one’s doing it,” she observes as if to answer his question. “I’m not in a hurry.”

Neither of them speaks again for a while. The red light hasn’t changed. He’s been watching it go from red to green but this one seems to take longer.

The signal goes green. Instantly, everyone starts walking forward. The cluster of people huddles within the vertical stripes of white on the road, their umbrellas forming a canopy against the rain. Inconspicuously, the others sneak under them, navigating through people and keeping a low duck in their heads. The chance is there and he looks left and right for that person. Did she go in yet?

The crowd disperses and he sees her within the grey of darkness. She’s looking at him too, thinking the same thing. When she meets eyes with him, she moves toward him with her hand stretched out. In that split second, he panics at that hand, wondering what he is supposed to do, wondering what is expected of him.

She moves past a person and puts the hand down. He doesn’t know if he misread her gesture or disappointed her feelings. She’s still smiling though but so is he. Too many puzzles hide behind them.

“Think it’s going to go again?” She looks up, her face suddenly closer. “The thunder.”

“Probably.”