2-23: Flightless Bird

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Ryan shut the door as quietly as he could, trying not to wake anyone up. It was only eleven, but he had a feeling everyone was probably sleeping. Except Rain. He'd been around her enough to know that she didn't sleep until well into the morning hours now.

The sounds of the television downstairs caught his ears and he walked towards it hesitantly. The lights were on in the living room, and a long mess of dark brunette hair hung over the arm of the couch. He cleared his throat to get her attention.

"You guys should really start locking your doors at night."

Storm lifted herself up enough to look over at him, a glare in her eyes.

"Maybe you should learn to knock."

She laid back down, her attention back on whatever she had been watching moments before.

Ryan sighed, heading for the staircase that led upstairs. 

"I don't know what you think talking to her is going to accomplish, Ryan. She doesn't hear anything anymore."

He turned around to face her, annoyed that she could talk so nonchalantly about something that was eating him alive.

"Maybe that's about to change."

Storm let out a harsh laugh, shaking her head.

"Not unless you're going to perform some kind of miracle."

Ryan walked back over towards her, blocking her view of the TV.

"What's wrong with you, Storm? You're talking to me the way you talk to my brother. And I've never been anything but nice to you.

Why don't you take your frustrations out on him, not me?"

Storm sat up quickly and huffed, crossing her arms over her chest.

"Cause I can't talk to him right now."

Ryan raised an eyebrow.

"Why not? You two didn't seem to have any problem talking and making a bunch of other noises I didn't want to hear a few weeks ago."

A small smile went across Storm's lips, but it was gone as quickly as it appeared.

"Yeah, well. I'm guessing you don't know he broke up with me."

Ryan's features fell and he groaned quietly.

"I didn't, no. I'm sorry, Storm."

Her face went blank, and she shook her head.

"It's fine. But, there's something else going on that's more important than that right? That's why you're here. For her."

Ryan nodded, and her eyes met his for a moment. She looked tired. And more than that, she looked defeated. It wasn't something he thought he'd ever see in Storm Nile's eyes. Nothing got her down. She even handled Thaddeous' death better than anyone else.

Concrete like her mother. No one could break her.

Of course it would be his brother that finally did.

"Can you tell Discord something for me?"

Ryan hesitated to respond. Whatever it was couldn't be a good thing. But he would pass it along. That's the most he could do for her, in the end. Discord didn't seem to be doing much. He was behaving the same way he had before Storm even became current in his life.

"Can you tell him that I'm having his baby? Sometime in October."

The realization hit Ryan hard. That that was why she'd been behaving so oddly. Why she couldn't really talk to him anymore. And why she avoided his entire family.

By the way her voice tipped, it was obvious. She was scared.

"I can tell him, yeah. But I can promise he'll want to be there. Discord cares about his family more than anything. 

We're really the only things he cares about. And that baby will be just as important."

He stepped out of the line of the TV, heading back for the stairs. Storm hadn't responded, but her body language said she was trying to believe him.

This family is one earthquake after another.

And here he was, getting caught up in the aftershocks. Again and again.

And somehow, he didn't seem to want to object anymore.

Maybe this earthquake of a family was exactly what he needed.

At least the blue eyed one upstairs sitting on her own fault line.

That was one wake he'd willingly put himself in the path of. Because she'd shaken his entire world, and all the pieces didn't make sense anymore without her.

And he didn't want them to.

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Rain had reluctantly gotten into Ryan's car. He'd tried for almost an hour to get her to go with him. Something about something would make her feel better.

How about something that could make her feel anything at all? That's what she needed. There was no feeling better when you felt nothing. 

She brought her eyes up from her lap when the car came to a stop, her mouth falling open. Her old ballet studio. She didn't want to be here. It was the last place she wanted to be.

Ryan got out of the car, coming around and opening her door for her. She stayed in place though, just staring at the old brick building.

"Come on, Rain. Give me a chance. You trust me, don't you?"

She looked up at him, finally. She wanted to say something, but she wasn't sure she knew how anymore. The last thing she had ever wanted was to hurt Ryan. And she couldn't shake the feeling that she had. 

She put her hand in his and he led her to the darkened building. Light was coming from one of the windows, but it wasn't the bright overhead lights she remembered. It was different, softer.

He opened the door and led her through the darkened hallways, to the door of the practice area. He stopped before he went through, light flickering out from the bottom of the doorway.

"This is illegal. But I have this habit of doing illegal or frowned upon things when it comes to you, I've noticed.

Also, breaking into places."

He hesitated with his hand on the doorknob, looking down at her. When he opened the door, something happened in her chest. Some kind of dormant feeling that she had forgotten she contained.

It looked like how he'd set up that house back in London. The one he'd found solace in, brought her to. Candles lined the edges of the mirrors, the piano that sat in the corner. There wasn't a fireplace, but everything else echoed that night.

The door shut behind them and she turned to stare at him, the light bouncing off of his face.

"Why?"

He looked surprised by her question, but took it in stride. It was the first word he'd heard her speak in months. He was going to take it.

"Because, you haven't been Rain in a while. I thought maybe I'd show you that she's still in there. And that I'm still in love with her."

He held out his hand, and she dropped her eyes to it. She didn't know what he was expecting, but she wasn't sure she could give it to him.

"Dance with me, Rain. Just once. You don't have to talk to me. Just let me try."

She hadn't danced in months. Not ballet, and definitely not like this. She missed it. Somewhere in the depths of her chest, she knew it resided there. In the place she'd locked up all of her emotions.

"There's no music."

Ryan smiled, and it was the first one she'd seen him have since coming back to California.

"I can fix that."

The piano began with a few notes, and she didn't know how he was doing it. Maybe it was the same way Thorne had fallen off of that balcony, but she couldn't be sure.

The song was beautiful, and she felt like she recognized it. 

The breath she took was deep, and it kindled that feeling in her hollowed out chest.

She put her hand in his and he pulled her against him, his hand soft on her waist.

"I miss you, Rain."

His words were gentle, but they pressed around her, trying to permeate her new found wall.

"I know that he hurt you, and I know that you don't know how to talk about it. That you don't know how to feel anything anymore without letting that back inside.

But, God, I miss you."

She looked up at him, and his words were pressing harder now, making some kind of progress. Her voice cracked when she responded.

"I miss you too, Ryan."

 He turned her around, pulling her back against his chest when she was facing him again.

"It's never going to be okay. What he did to you. What happened to you in London. I know that, and so do you.

But you can have a future. One where you are okay. Maybe even better than okay.

You can have one with me, if that's what you want."

Rain's defenses were weakening. Splintering at the edges.

"How can you even look at me the same? As if I'm the girl that you knew before all of this?"

Ryan laughed, and it passed into her veins, through her chest.

"Because you are. You're the same girl I've always known. You're just been touched by someone who should have never gotten to."

He stopped their movements, putting his fingertips under her chin. When her eyes caught his, they burned. Like she was going to cry. 

After all the tears she'd given over the years, she'd never thought she'd be surprised by the appearance of them. But she was. 

"I'm in love with you, Rain. I just want you to know that that is never going to change, and I'll help you get better if you let me."

Her eyes stung and then overflowed, wetting her cheeks.

"How am I supposed to get better?"

Ryan pressed his lips to her forehead, his whisper on her skin.

"By allowing yourself to feel again. At least this, with me. You can feel this.

I'm safe. You're safe with me.

I'm never going to hurt you, Rain."

She'd heard those words before, but this was the first time she'd believed them. Truly believed them, down to her core.

She looked at him for a moment, her breath catching in her chest.

And then she pressed upwards to reach his height, her lips touching his. He returned the kiss, his arms around her waist. 

 And... It felt right.

It felt secure.

It felt like coming home.

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Have I found you?
Flightless bird, grounded, bleeding
Or lost you?