2-26: Angel

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"Blonde hair? Not only that, bleach blonde hair. Are you sure this baby is mine?"

Storm scowled at Discord from her hospital bed, her eyes narrowing into slits.

"Maybe her hair is blonde because she was born without all of your bullshit running through her veins."

Eden couldn't contain her laugh from the corner of the room. It spilled into the air, and it must have been contagious because Rain began to laugh too.

Discord rolled his eyes, brushing his fingers over Variance's forehead. He leaned down to press his lips to the tiny bundles cheek, something like a smile on his face. 

It was weird for Rain to see him smiling like that. Smiling about something that wasn't a result of his chaotic ways.

Only, Variance kind of was in a way. But at least Discord was here.

He had refused to leave Storm's side. He wouldn't even leave the room when the nurses came in. It was driving Storm crazy, but it seemed to Rain like he thought it was the right thing to do. 

And it was. Whether Storm liked it or not. Variance's father loved her. Even if Storm didn't like him very much.

Ryan stood awkwardly in the corner of the room. And every few minutes, Rain felt him look at her. But he didn't stand with her. The distance between them was tangible, and she knew she wasn't the only one who noticed. Judging by her father's stares, it was obvious he could tell something was going on.

But he didn't ask.

Rain couldn't deal with it. Not right now. She needed air. To be able to breathe without his eyes on her.

Rain cleared her throat, giving her sister a smile.

"I'm going to go and get some coffee, I'll be back in a few minutes."

Storm glanced at her, raising a perfectly sculpted eyebrow. Only Storm would wear makeup to have a baby.

"You don't drink coffee."

Rain didn't even have a response. She just shrugged a shoulder and walked to the door, trying her hardest not to look at Ryan.

But she felt him follow her. And even if she couldn't feel the weight of his footsteps behind her, she would have noticed his massive shadow.

"Rain, hey. Wait just a second, please."

She stopped in the middle of the hallway, freezing in place. Ryan moved in front of her, stuffing his hands in his pockets. Like he had to do it to keep from touching her. 

But she wanted him to touch her. 

She wanted to marry him. She just didn't know how to make the fears go away.

She shifted her weight, somehow doing it with the grace she usually seemed to find. She took a deep breath, directing her eyes onto his.

Ryan opened his mouth to speak, but Rain held her hand out, palm up.

"Give me the ring."

Ryan's mouth instantly shut and he stared at her. She waited a few seconds, and then repeated her words.

"Give me the ring, Ryan."

He pulled his hands out of his pockets, blinking at her tone.

"That's... That is not how this works."

Rain shook her head abruptly, her hand unwavering in between them.

"I don't care."

Ryan hesitated for only a second, reaching into his pocket. He flipped the box open and pulled the ring out, dropping it into the palm of Rain's hand.

"Just don't like throw it at me. I'm not sure I can handle that. If you're going to reject me, this is not the way to do it."

Rain's smile spread across her lips and she shook her head. She closed her hand around the ring and stepped closer to him, her voice firm for one of the first times in her life.


"Why do you want to marry me?"

Ryan's face echoed the shock he had to feel, his shoulders stiffening.

"Because I love you."

Rain shook her head again, her hand closing tighter around the ring.

"No. Besides that. Why do you want to be with me for the rest of my life? What are you going to gain?"

"What are you doing, Rain? What is this?"

Rain took one more step towards him, looking up at his face, at his eyes. She could feel the words he spoke as they brushed past her skin, and no anxiety seemed to touch her. Absolutely none.

"This is me asking you why I should not be afraid."

Ryan stared at her for a long time. Like he had on the dock. The ring started to cut into her skin from how hard she was holding onto it, but she didn't lessen. She just looked at him as he looked at her, waiting.

When he finally started speaking, his eyes were far away. Lost somewhere she wasn't sure she had ever been. But she listened, his melodic voice strong in the hospital hallway.

"Rain... I remember growing up with you. When you were really little you used to sit by yourself at Christmas, singing under your breath next to the tree. Everyone would be talking, laughing, but not you. You would just sit there and sing these songs to yourself, playing with whatever you'd gotten from under my family's tree.

Lost in a world of your own.

I remember hearing those little songs, and never knowing what they actually were. But that I wanted to hear them again.

As you grew up, you grew quieter with your songs. One Christmas you were so quiet I had to sit really close to you to catch the sound of your voice.

And I was afraid you would notice. You were fourteen, and it wasn't exactly normal for me to have taken such an interest in someone so much younger than me.

But it wasn't a romantic interest. Just a very complex platonic one.

You seemed so sad. So out of place in a room full of people who loved you.

I listened to you sing that year, and I was going to talk to you, ask you why you seemed so different. Why every year your voice became quieter, but I decided not to. You were so much younger than I was, and it didn't feel right. So I left you alone.

And the next year you didn't sing at all.

I remember asking myself if maybe you just decided singing wasn't your thing. I convinced myself of that so I wouldn't have to think that something had killed that light in you.

You grew up, and I kept my distance. I paid attention to you on holidays, and I tried to ignore the interest I had in you. I tried to ignore the fact that when you turned seventeen, it turned into something different.

But then I came to your ballet studio that day.

And the moment I saw you, I realized that I couldn't ignore it any longer. That there was a reason for it.

That the reason that little girl stopped singing was something I needed to know.

And so I let down my guard some. I got closer to you, as close as I could, without crossing any lines. 

But they got blurry. Faster than I thought they would. 

I fell in love with you before I really recognized that's what I was doing.

I fell in love with you, and then watched you marry someone else.

I watched him kill the song that I tried to recreate.

You want to know why I want to be with you for the rest of your life?

Because ever since you stopped singing, all I've ever wanted, is for you to do it again.

Against reason, or logic, or circumstance."

Ryan had spoken for a long time. His words growing hushed as they continued until the last sentence he spoke was barely a whisper. 

Rain hadn't said a single word, her eyes locked on his. When she finally did, her voice broke with the weight of her words.

"You paid that much attention to me?"

Ryan nodded, not a second of pause in his response.

"Always."

He reached out, touching her cheek with his hand, and Rain felt the tension in her stance disappear. She opened the hand that was carrying the ring and held it out to him. Palm up, like the way she'd asked for it.

"Always."

She said the word under her breath as he took the ring from her. He took her hand, slipping the diamond onto her finger.

"I stopped singing because no one listened."

The words were subdued. Heavy. She stared at the ring as she spoke, at the decision she had just made.

"I was background noise, and no one ever heard me."

Ryan pulled her into his embrace, his response steady.

"I did."

As they walked back into Storm's hospital room, hand in hand, Rain couldn't help but wonder how she'd never noticed. That Ryan had seen her outside of ballet when no one else seemed to. 

She'd felt alone most of her life, even when she was with her family. 

But somehow, Ryan had been with her. Without her even knowing.

Is that what love was really like?

It couldn't be the cold, dead thing Thorne had given her. 

So it had to be this. The light and the heat that emulated from the very center of who Ryan was.

For the first time in a long time, it felt like winter was finally over.

For good.

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She has the voice of an angel
That I've heard once before
It was drowned out by the wind and the rain
She wears a pretty little locket
That she opens everyday
Hoping that she will see his face
That he will be there one day