The rain didn't stop.
Neither did the fire. But something did change... something between them.
They said nothing.
Silence stretched between them, warm and serene, like an unexpected truce.
Maybe Rei didn't quite hear what she had said...
but he didn't need to.
Because she understood him. She
understood him in the way he didn't back away. In the way he lowered his arms, not with resignation... but with a new, almost awkward calm. She read it in that slight curve of his lips, and in the silence that, for the first time, didn't feel like a wall... but like a respite.
In that light touch—barely a trembling touch on his arm—
hid all the words that neither of them knew how to pronounce.
Words that hurt, that weighed heavily, that weren't ready to be born...
but that found a home in that gesture.
A silent promise.
A shared refuge. A truce sealed without the need for a voice.
They were just two wounded hearts...
that, without haste and without certainties, began to trust each other again.
Not by fate.
Not by force.
But because, for the first time...
they didn't feel alone.
The heat of the campfire danced in front of them, as if silently celebrating this small shared victory.
The fire crackled softly, sending out sparks that disappeared into the darkness, like loose thoughts that no longer needed to be spoken.
The rain continued to fall, light and steady, enveloping everything in a calm, almost hypnotic melody.
And between them, without the need for words, something new began to blossom.
A serene calm.
A shared refuge.
It wasn't just peace.
It was a silent promise, born from the touch of a hand, from a gaze held a second longer than normal.
The promise that, no matter what happened...
they would no longer be alone.
The world out there could roar, rend the skies with thunder, or unleash storms that made the trees tremble... but there, in that small refuge of light and shadow, only the two of them existed . A suspended instant, where time stood still and the silence wasn't empty, but warm, dense , full of invisible promises ... and of futures that, perhaps, could still be written.
Rei exhaled softly, and without changing the tone of his voice—as if he were talking about the weather or the price of bread—he said, with an almost comical calmness:
—After the big guy took my fist in the face...
He paused briefly. The fire crackled just then, as if celebrating the sight with fiery laughter.
—...his friends picked him up off the floor like he was a sack of potatoes.
— All clumsy, all heavy.
She smiled, holding back a laugh, but Rei didn't end there.
"And they ran off quickly.
" " Like angry rats when you turn on the light," Rei said with a half smile, her voice calm, almost mocking, while the fire crackled as if it were laughing.
"Oh no ! Rats!" she screamed, with a dramatic shudder, putting her hands to her head as if she had just watched a horror movie.
Her eyes widened, and her expression turned into an adorable grimace of pure horror.
"They scare me, no ! With those horrible little eyes and those fast little legs!" she added, shrinking all over, as if they were actually running right next to her feet.
Rei stared at her. For a moment, time seemed to stop right between a drop of rain falling and a spark of fire rising into the sky.
And then he let out a laugh.
It wasn't loud. It was low, husky... but real. A laugh that came from a corner he'd forgotten existed.
"Is that so?" he asked, raising an eyebrow in mock surprise, as if he had just discovered the greatest secret in the universe.
"So much!" she insisted, her voice high-pitched, crossing her arms in a childish pout. "They're like...
" "Little creatures of chaos!
" " Little furry demons!
" " I can't stand them!"
And in that instant, something in the air changed.
The rain was still falling, yes, but it no longer hurt. The fire was still burning, but now it also embraced.
She giggled again, covering her mouth with her soaked sleeve.
"I can't believe you did all that by yourself," he said, and between each burst of laughter, a genuine, almost trembling admiration filtered through his voice.
" You looked like a bolt from the blue."
Rei looked away for a moment.
The smile still played on her lips, faint, like a breeze that refuses to leave...
But her eyes, those eyes that spoke volumes, became softer. More sincere.
"I didn't do it to look cool,"
he mumbled, placing a hand on the back of his head in an almost clumsy gesture, feigning indifference.
" I just... couldn't just stand idly by."
The phrase floated in the air, accompanied by the crackling of the fire and the distant murmur of the rain.
Their gazes met in a silence that required no explanation.
There were no fireworks.
No dramatic wind blowing in time. None of that.
Just two pairs of eyes...
crossing paths in the middle of a world that seemed to have stopped.
As if time itself had surrendered to them.
As if the universe recognized that, at that moment, nothing else was needed.
A pause stretched between them.
It wasn't awkward. It was... sacred. Like a respite that occurs just before a new beginning.
And while the fire crackled softly, and the rain murmured in the distance,
their gazes remained there, anchored. Firm. Warm. Filled with everything they had yet to say to each other... and everything that, perhaps, would never need to be said.
The world simply held its breath.
The girl looked at him with big eyes, bright with curiosity and perhaps something else she dared not name.
She leaned slightly toward him, as if her voice might break if she spoke too loudly.
"Hey... what about the big guy? He just left unconscious?" he asked, his astonishment growing.
" His friends looked strong... I thought you... that maybe you could get hurt."
Rei tilted his head slightly, calm.
A strand of her dark hair, damp from the rain, slipped down her cheek.
She didn't brush it away. She let it fall as if she didn't feel it, as if it were part of the moment.
"The boss..." he murmured, his tone unchanged, his voice as low as a burning ember.
"That was the only one who refused to leave."
"Did he resist...?" she repeated, almost in a whisper.
Her eyes widened slightly, as if she'd heard the most intense part of a story she hadn't expected.
Her expression was like that of a child listening to a story under a blanket.
Rei nodded slowly, looking tired.
As if remembering it brought her not adrenaline, but laziness... or boredom.
"He staggered to his feet," Rei continued, her gaze fixed on the floor.
"His nose was still bleeding, and he could barely stand." "He yelled something at me... I couldn't understand half of it." Just random words, laced with rage.
He paused briefly. His eyes narrowed, as if reliving the scene.
"But your gaze..."
She was completely absorbed in the story, as if Rei's every word wove a picture before her eyes and she couldn't look away.
"What was in that look...?" he asked, his voice lowering, unable to hide the tension.
"Was it fear...?" "Rage...?"
Rei glanced at her.
Her expression had changed completely: it was no longer the ironic half-smile or the relaxed expression she'd always had.
Now her eyes seemed sharper, as if the laughter had vanished with the wind, and in its place remained only the weight of what she had experienced.
She was more serious.
Almost cold.
Rei did not respond immediately.
He only let out a slight sigh through his nose, lowering his gaze for just a second...
as if something inside him had closed again, like a door he didn't want to leave completely open.
When he finally spoke, his voice sounded lower. More restrained.
"It was... the look of someone who already knew he'd lost," he said bluntly.
"Even though he could barely stand." "The boss... still wanted to keep fighting."
Rei looked up, staring at a point in the sky, as if reliving the scene with every word.
—His face was a mess.
—Blood, mud, his eyes completely blank...— And yet, he screamed that he wasn't going to give up.
He paused briefly, his lips barely curving in irony.
—And suddenly, he fell.
—It wasn't even from a blow from me. —He just... collapsed. As if his body no longer responded. —He was so exhausted that he lost consciousness for a few seconds.
She listened silently, her eyes wide open.
—His companions ran towards him.
—One shouted: Boss, let's go now !
—Another tried to drag him to his feet. —And he, half unconscious, stammered: Leave me alone! I have to finish this! —Rei repeated, imitating the guy's voice with ridiculously dramatic exaggeration.
She remained silent for a few seconds.
Her eyes were fixed on his, as if processing each word with emotion on the verge of bursting. And then, unable to contain herself any longer, she bolted upright, her eyes wide, shining with anticipation.
"So what did you do?!" he blurted out, almost with childish excitement.
"You chased them!?" "You hit them again!?" "You made them run away crying like scared chickens!?"
Rei blinked, taken aback by his sudden effusiveness.
For a second, he just stared at her, as if his brain was still processing whether he should take what he had just heard seriously... or burst out laughing right there.
His expression went from surprise to amused calm.
Finally, he tilted his head slightly and let out a half smile.
"Wow, what an imagination you have..." he murmured mockingly, raising an eyebrow.
"Do you really see me with the face of an action movie hero?"
Rei gave a low laugh, shaking her head.
She laughed, putting her hands to her cheeks as if she were really imagining the scene.
Rei looked at her with narrowed eyes, like someone trying not to laugh...
"I swear I'm starting to worry about what's on your mind.
" "It wasn't as epic as you imagined," he said with a crooked smile. "
But yeah, let's just say they didn't end the night as they expected."
She, with bright eyes and a mischievous smile, could not contain herself:
—Come on, tell me!!!
—Did you chase them? —Did you dropkick them? —Or did you jump like a ninja and punch them? —Or maybe you hugged me and used your coat as a shield while you fought? —She laughed. —
—That 's why I'm covered in mud, right?
—You defended me like that!!!
Rei put on a look of confusion and amusement, frowning slightly.
"Hey... hey, hey, wait..." he said, raising his hands in a sign of peace.
" Don't make up stories. "
She didn't stop, full of energy and emotion:
—Or what?
—Did you also jump out of a tree like in the movies and fall face first into the mud to protect me?
Rei looked at her with a mixture of disbelief and amusement, almost resigned.
"Let me tell you exactly what happened," he said, with a tired smile. "
The thing about your clothes was because you fell in the mud—not because I was using you as a shield or anything."
He paused, then laughed to himself, shaking his head.
—That face you're making, as if you've already made up a thousand stories... —he laughed— .
—You don't even let me tell you what really happened.
She smiled, delighted by the opportunity to imagine a thousand adventures together.
"Hey, hey... calm down," Rei said, letting out a small laugh.
"I see you're really excited."
She gave him a bright look, a mischievous smile on her lips.
"How could I not be moved?" he said, leaning closer.
"With such a mysterious boy..." "An improvised hero like you..." "How could I not imagine a thousand epic scenes?"
Rei raised an eyebrow, half amused, half resigned, and smiled back with his usual carefree air.
"Yeah? Well, get ready..." he said in a sly tone, leaning slightly toward her.
"The best part... I haven't told you yet."
His voice had that carefree tone he used when he wanted to be modest...
but his eyes shone with that small pride that cannot be hidden.
The night, as if listening, seemed to keep silence just for them.
The wind turned into a gentle breeze, and for a moment, everything around them seemed to conspire to intensify the complicity between them.
"After that..." Rei continued, crossing her arms as she spoke with mock solemnity.
" They ran off like rats, with their boss in tow... all beaten and bleeding.
" My fist was the last thing they saw before they crawled away.
He paused dramatically, as if taking the time to see her reaction.
Her eyes widened, her hands going to her mouth, holding back a mixture of excitement and laughter.
—No ! —That sounds like something
out of a movie! —he laughed— .
—Did you really do that?!
—Sorry, sorry... go on, go on...
He tried to calm down, but the laughter kept escaping through his fingers.
Rei looked up at the sky for a second, as if recalling the moment with an almost mystical significance. Then she slowly lowered her head, a smile barely visible on her lips.
—I just looked at them.
—I didn't do anything...—Not a word.—Not a single gesture.
He paused dramatically, letting the wind play with his bangs as if he were at the close of a legendary scene.
—Sometimes... —he continued, his voice lower, deeper, almost philosophical
—Silence... says more than a punch.
The breeze blew just at that moment, giving it a cooler look than necessary.
—He knew it.
—He understood it. —That's why he looked down... —That's why he left without saying anything else.
And then, silence.
Rei, still with her serious look, thought:
— Hehehehe ... I left her speechless.
— I'm sure she's shocked.
— What style I have.
— What presence.
— I really am great...
— Even the wind accompanied me!!!
But when you turn your gaze...
She looked at him with a flat face, blinking slowly.
Without saying a word.
His expression was the portrait of " Really? "
No emotion, no surprise.
Just an invisible sigh that screamed disappointment.
—Huh ...? Rei thought, blinking a few times.
— Wasn't I supposed to say something like,
— Waaa , how deep , how amazing you are!
She scratched her cheek, without much emotion, and murmured:
-AND...?
—"ANDYYYY!?" Rei repeated, incredulous.
"It's a battle, damn it!" "An internal struggle!" "A victory of the soul over physical violence!" "Think about the phrase I gave you!"
She pursed her lips, holding back a giggle.
—Ah... okay.
"' Oh, okay' is not a worthy response!" Rei exclaimed dramatically, a comical tear rolling down her cheek.
"You silly girl!" How can you not see the essence... the style... the poetry of that invisible battle?
She couldn't take it anymore and burst out laughing.
—Sorry, sorry...
—You sounded like those characters who say profound phrases in the middle of a sunset with music in the background. —You forgot the katana stuck in the ground!
"Bah!" Rei said, arms crossed, pretending to be offended
. "Forget it."
She approached with a mischievous smile spread across her face and, without warning, playfully tapped him on the arm.
—Keep up with your cool one-liners , silent hero... —he said, raising an eyebrow as if he were remembering something glorious—
—I'll stick with the version where you jumped with a flying kick while hugging me, defeating everyone with an explosion in the background.
—Boom! Just like in the movies!
Rei slowly turned his face toward her, his expression a mixture of confusion and resignation.
He raised an eyebrow.
—Huh? What the heck...?
"And you still owe me an explanation for how I ended up covered in mud!"
she added, pointing at her clothes with an adorable pout.
Rei sighed, crossing her arms indignantly.
—That never happened!
— I told you... you fell on your own.
— Like a sack of potatoes.
"Hey!" she mock-offended.
"Don't try to turn my epic fall into a simple, unstylish accident!"
-No no No , don't try to turn your clumsiness into part of my legend," Rei replied, pointing her thumb at him with false arrogance.
She laughed so hard she had to lean forward, holding her stomach.
—Pfff ! Shut up! —she said between laughs, wiping away a tear that escaped from the corner of her eye—
—I just wanted to imagine that it was to protect me... —Don't ruin the epic scene in my head!
"Epic scene?" Rei snorted, crossing her arms in mock superiority.
"You played the comic relief, falling face first into the mud." "You weren't even the supporting heroine."
"Hey!" She looked at him, pretending to be offended.
"I was the tragic protagonist who fainted in your arms after you defeated everyone with an intimidating glare!" She gave him an overly dramatic look, holding her hand to her chest as if she were about to faint.
Rei shook her head, pressing her lips together to hold back her laughter.
"You have too much imagination," she said, raising an eyebrow in mock seriousness.
"Or too many romance novels in my head," she added, crossing her arms as if she were passing verdict.
"Both!" she replied without hesitation, placing a hand on her chest with exaggerated pride.
"And I don't regret it one bit."
Rei gave a short laugh, tilting her head.
"Of course not... it would be like asking a bird to stop flying."
But then, as if someone turned down the volume on the world, the atmosphere changed.
The laughter faded...
The electric emotion that enveloped them became softer, more contained. Like a rain that no longer falls, but still soaks the ground with its memory.
She suddenly fell silent.
Her eyes searched his.
Not with laughter. Not with drama. But with something deeper. And then she smiled. Not a big smile. But an honest one.
Rei made a face of " ahh ... how annoying" , letting out a soft sigh as she lowered her shoulders.
His eyes narrowed with that perfect mix of laziness and resignation.
" Look at this girl... " he thought, barely looking away.
" She didn't even respect the story...
" and then he made up an even more absurd version.
But in the end, he couldn't help it, but a crooked smile escaped him.
Not a mocking one... but the kind that appears when you don't know whether to give up or laugh.
— Heh ... well... —he murmured with a sigh disguised as patience.
"What?
" "What was that face?" she asked, tilting her head. "Are you offended because my version was more exciting?"
Rei shook his head slowly, his eyes narrowed as if it were too heavy a burden to continue explaining.
"I'm more offended because you didn't even respect the original ending..."
he responded with feigned solemnity. "Your respect for dramatic storytelling is zero."
She didn't say anything else.
She just watched him.
Then she smiled again. One of those small, almost shy, but genuine smiles. Like someone who acknowledges something without needing to explain it.
And although she didn't say it out loud, she thought it as she looked at him there, with that strange mix of awkwardness and depth:
You're so weird.
But I'm glad it's you.
The fire, as if sensing the tension hanging in the air, suddenly erupted with a sharp crack.
The flames danced with brief fury, casting their long shadows against the cracked wall of the shelter. Two silhouettes. Motionless. Silent.
But connected by an invisible bond, a subtle current that needed no words.
It was as if time itself had stopped just for them, holding their breath at what they couldn't—or wouldn't—express.
A tense, dense calm, charged with suppressed emotions.
A seemingly peaceful scene...but with the weight of a suppressed roar, throbbing in both their chests.
The crackling of the fire seemed to resonate with its own heartbeat, a murmur that said everything that words did not say.
Rei lowered his gaze , as if he were talking more to himself than to her.
His voice came out low, raspy... as if each word held a piece of something he didn't usually let on.
The fire crackled, filling the spaces between sentences.
"Sometimes..." he murmured, almost swallowing his words,
"you don't have to fight to win."
She didn't respond immediately.
She frowned slightly, as if trying to decipher what was behind that sentence.
It wasn't the first time I'd heard it... but this time it didn't sound like before.
It wasn't just a " cool " line from a silent hero.
It was something deeper.
More real.
And then... he just didn't say anything.
There was no need to.
She just looked at him.
With a different stillness. One that didn't come from wonder or emotion, but from the kind of understanding that can't be explained with words.
She felt that unspoken truth in his gaze, like a deep whisper that said more than any words.
The pauses, the shadows that crossed his face, the silence that enveloped him...
everything spoke of a different force, of a silent pain that was stronger than any blow or fight.
Rei kept his gaze fixed on her face.
There was something about that stillness, that quiet way of being, that slowly disarmed him, without him being able to help it. She said nothing. She just watched him, with those eyes that seemed to understand more than what they were saying.
And then, without warning, that smile appeared.
It wasn't wide, nor did it seek attention.
It was one of those small, genuine smiles that come not from the mouth, but from the soul.
A serene expression, as if something inside her, something that had been at war, had finally found a small refuge.
Peace. Hope.
Rei felt it immediately.
No words were necessary. It was like a warm breeze at the end of a tiring day, one of those that you don't notice at first, but that soothes without asking permission.
Like a silence that, instead of weighing on you, envelops you. A silence that didn't demand answers... only presence.
And in that instant, without fully understanding why, he knew something had changed.
Because with her, the silence stopped hurting.
In some subtle and silent way,
his proximity blurred the shadows that used to inhabit him.
It made them less dense.
Less cold.
As if her mere presence calmed everything that used to roar inside him, everything he himself refused to look at.
The moment hung in the air like an invisible thread,
delicate... almost sacred.
A pause from the world.
A moment suspended between what is felt strongly
and what one does not yet dare to say out loud. As if emotions have finally found a place to rest.
And for the first time in a long time, Rei didn't think about what would come next.
Not in the past, nor in the wounds he carried...
Only in that present, as simple as it was perfect. He just allowed himself to be there. With her.
And just when the silence began to feel eternal, when time seemed to have stopped just for them... Rei broke that calm.
With that dry irony that he always carried as a shield, half mockery, half protection, as if hiding his true feelings were an art learned by force.
Without warning, without giving anyone the slightest chance to prepare, he simply cut the moment short with a sharp sentence, as if breaking the stillness was as natural to him as breathing.
—Well... as I was telling you, before you started making up more stories —he said, raising an eyebrow with a hint of irony.
Then, lowering his voice a little and tilting his head, with that strange mixture of tiredness and sarcasm that characterized him, he resumed his story, like someone reliving a scene that seems so absurd that it almost provokes laughter.
"After they picked him up, the big guy started yelling nonsense..." He paused briefly, mimicking her tone of voice.
"He was saying things like, 'This isn't over !'... 'I'll make you pay!'"
and other threats that sound more ridiculous than intimidating. "
I even think he tried to point his finger at me..."
But he was so dizzy he almost fell over again.
His tone was serene, almost nonchalant, as if the big man's threats had been left behind, floating limply among the remnants of the rain. But in that calm, there was something else... not real indifference, but a kind of carefully calculated distance.
As if telling it lightly was his way of not letting anything touch him too much.
As he spoke, the atmosphere seemed to gradually regain its rhythm: the lights flickered softly, the sound of raindrops still fell, and the cold began to feel less hostile.
Still, his words, though laced with humor, didn't completely erase the invisible weight that still hung in the air. It was like a laugh that comes right after an argument: necessary, yes... but never entirely honest.
Rei shrugged, tilting her head with an expression somewhere between doubt and mockery.
—...although, to be honest, it's hard to take someone seriously who can't even stand on their own two feet , he said, with a half smile
. —I don't know how they're going to put up a fight... if they can barely stay on their feet without falling over again.
She blinked, and without thinking twice, she let out a laugh.
It wasn't out of mockery,
nor out of nerves.
It was one of those small, genuine laughs.
One of those that are born when the chest finally lets down its guard and lets out the air it has been holding for too long.
When the soul, tired of pretending strength, finds a crack through which to breathe.
She blinked, surprised by how easy it sounded... and by how much she'd unknowingly needed it. A soft, almost shy laugh, but laced with something deeper: relief, surprise... and a hint of tenderness she couldn't remember feeling in years.
Because seeing him like that, even though he was him... with that strange seriousness, his out-of-place phrases, that calm that sometimes seemed more like a wall than a refuge, and yet capable of joking, of letting out a laugh, of letting himself be reached... gave him something he had been searching for without seeking it: an unexpected peace .
One of those that don't make a sound.
That don't scream or shine. But that stay.
She felt time stretch out for a moment, as if everything else had been left out. And it was there, in that tiny, invisible fragment of time, that she understood something she couldn't quite put her finger on:
that she had begun to feel safe.
Not because of the fire crackling beside him...
Not because of the bridge protecting them from the rain... Not even because of the coat he was wearing.
But because of him.
Because of his quiet presence. Because of his way of being without imposing himself, of looking without judging, of staying... without promising.
He was beginning to become what she thought was lost:
a presence that doesn't demand, but accompanies. A silence that doesn't suffocate... but rather envelops.
Her breathing became slow, almost lazy, as if the air refused to leave her lungs for fear of breaking that moment.
He noticed a different heat than the embers crackling nearby.
It was gentler... but deeper.
A warmth that didn't burn, but rather seeped slowly from her chest to her hands, as if her body were recognizing a security that her mind couldn't yet name.
She found herself watching him out of the corner of her eye, trying to memorize the exact curve of that half smile he still had.
And without fully understanding why, he knew he didn't want that night to end.
Not yet.
Not while he was still there, sitting beside her as if the world were a less hostile place than usual. Not while that laugh of his—honest, quiet—continued to light embers in a corner where before there had only been fog.
She bit her lower lip, lowering her gaze to hide the slight blush that betrayed her.
The fabric of her coat felt warmer, not because of the nearby fire, but because of the certainty that, for the first time in a long time, she wasn't alone... and it didn't weigh on her.
Her fingers played with the edge of the blanket, tangling and untangling the fabric as if there she could hide everything she dared not say.
Part of her wanted to break the silence, but another part knew that speaking would be like blowing on frozen glass: a sigh would be enough to break the magic.
So she stood still, letting the moment sear itself into her memory.
She listened to the crackling of the fire, the faint murmur of the rain, the distant echo of her own breathing... and his constant presence, so close.
Then, with a small, almost invisible smile, he thought silently, as if it were a secret the world shouldn't hear:
"I hope tomorrow is late to arrive..."
— End of Chapter —
📖 Author's Comment ✒️
Even in the midst of a storm, a genuine laugh is enough to remind you... that there are shelters built not with walls, but with people.
Thank you for joining me once again.
See you in the next chapter...
— 夢と雨と言葉の仙人
— Yume to ame to kotoba no sennin
— The Hermit of Dreams, Rain, and Words
— The Great Master Makoto-sama