#tho!

“We should head back soon, there is no need to risk getting sick.”

“Yes, of course,” Chondrus replied, as he stepped over one of the fallen logs from last summer’s storm. His foot squelched in the developing mud, sliding his leg back as he leaned forward, landing face first in the cold earth. Mud cloaked his suit now, as well as his face. He looked as though he had left a masseuse mid-session.

Dulse was more concerned with his partner’s well-being, even going so far as to trot over, though there wasn’t a panicked look to him. Rather, a ghost of a smile tugged at the younger’s lips as Chondrus pulled himself up with a series of wet splunks.

He wiped his face and shook off his hand of the mud, “…I may need a shower, when we get back.”

“Perhaps the rain will do that for you,” Dulse answered with a hint of a smile as he helped Chondrus up. Chondrus was a deep blue and he wiped what mud off he could, sulking on their way back to the shared abode.

Dulse was right, even though he was secretly glad for that. All but a few stubborn flecks of mud were washed off of him, leaving his suit a creamy color by the time they arrived to the doorstep. He opened the white door, letting Dulse in first. Then he came in afterwards, squeaking noisily along the wooden floor. It was embarrassing, for his shoes to echo through the house, as though it were just him in it. After he had showered, dried off, and changed into more casual clothes, Chondrus fixed himself a cup of tapu cocoa, as well as one for the man that was sitting by the patio door, transfixed by the rain.

He wordlessly gave Dulse the other mug, then sipped on his own. He soaked in the shared silence between them, with only the rain on the other side speaking for the two. Chondrus licked at his lips, still staring at the water droplets that cascaded from the heavens, “Did we ever get rain like this?”

“Not for a long time, no.”

“What about what happens afterwards, the rainbows?”

“No.”

“And the sun showers?”

“We will never get those, Chondrus. Not now.”

He bowed his head, then spent the rest of their evening staring outside, watching Alola remind him just how different it was to have light, to have seasons and life bubbling around oneself. If Dulse were away, he would have buckled from the sight. Chondrus had not seen rain before, nor had he seen much else. None of their people have seen anything like it, or remotely close to it. There was nothing back where they were from, nothing for them to compare the weather to. It appeared that the rain did more than transfix the Recon members. It reminded them about how alone they were in Alola, a handful of people who had to rely on one another’s familiarity to make it through the foreign world. They had no one else to share their memories with but themselves, keeping their pasts alive and themselves intact. Chondrus wondered if living in Alola would have any impact on his current state of mind.