Chapter 14 - The weather this time of year is awful

Posted on https://books.clockworkcaracal.com/dragons-heart/old-beginnings/ch14 - if you aren't there, this is a pirated copy!

Cyan contemplated the empty carton of milk on the table as he munched on a mostly-dry spoonful of cereal crumbs. Living, as he did, mostly on convenience foods and takeaway, going shopping for food was one of those things he never got around to doing until he was either bored, procrastinating, or completely out of food.

Today was going to be the last kind of day, it seemed, which Cyan was - as usual - kicking himself over. If the bonus aches he'd woken up to in his still-remaining limbs were anything to go by, the weather was going to be terrible... if it wasn't already. Glancing down at his wrist display, he brought up the current local weather, grimacing as it proved his suspicious. Cold, windy, rainy.

Cyan looked down at the sad remnants of a box of cereal that were passing for his breakfast, then looked around at his kitchen. He was even out of coffee.

It was tempting to just put it off yet another day and just order in later, but if he did that, he really would have nothing to eat when he got up tomorrow. Nobody delivered for breakfast in the area. Nobody delivered groceries in the area, either, which would've been nice.

Which meant he was going out, whether he liked it or not.

Finishing off the last of the cereal dregs, he stuck the bowl in his sink and got himself dressed to go out - a pair of tracksuit pants that at least imagined themselves water resistant, a clean t-shirt, sneakers, his hoodie - and with a glance again at the temperature, he added a warm jacket on top. Finishing it off with his grocery bags and an umbrella, Cyan headed out, locking the door before making his way down the steps to the back door.

The weather out was just as bad as he'd anticipated. Cyan wove his way through the back alley towards the main streets, stepping around puddles and trash as the cold rain drummed loudly on the top of his umbrella. There were people around, of course - there were always people around - but it was the huddled, hurried remnants of the usual daytime crowds. Dark-clad figures walking as quickly down the streets as they could, an occasional cluster huddled in an alley or a doorway. A bus trundled past, splashing up a wave of murky water as it drove through a puddle - just barely missing Cyan, but the person in front of him wasn't so lucky.

Cyan slipped around them as they shouted angry swears after the bus driver, sticking close to the buildings to avoid any additional splashed puddles. The grocery store was a few blocks away - too close to bother with a bus, but far enough he was going to get much more familiar with the rain than he wanted.

The wind picked up, prompting him to pull the umbrella down closer to himself, the frame bumping lightly against the top of his hood. It wasn't strong enough to threaten pulling the umbrella away, but the rain had taken on a decided sideways slant, giving his lower legs the direct treatment rather than just the splashback from raindrops landing on already wet ground.

The first street he had to cross, he caught just with the light, hurrying across with the handful of other pedestrians. The second, however, gave him no such luck, so he settled himself near the crosswalk - but far enough from the curb to avoid the near-constant waves, as cars and trucks sped through the small pond of rainwater pooling in the intersection.

As he waited, an unexpected noise cut through the usual sounds of the city - themselves already muffled beneath the steady hiss of heavy rain.

Cyan frowned to himself, tilting his head as he listened. A moment later, the sound came again - and this time he was sure, it was definitely a cat. A sad, pitiful, mewling sort of cat, somewhere behind him. Turning around, he searched the area, quickly spotting the source: a bedraggled striped calico, crouched beneath an awning and looking like it would much prefer to be anywhere else.

Cyan and the cat contemplated each other for a few moments.

The cat meowed again.

"I can't bring you home," Cyan informed the cat, ignoring the fact that he probably wouldn't have taken the cat home anyway. (And also that he was talking to a cat.) "I'm going the wrong way."

The cat meowed again, completely ignoring Cyan's explanation in favor of complaining again about its situation.

"...the weather is bad," he allowed. "And I suppose the store does like to have cats around.... Okay, you win." Approaching the cat - carefully - he bent down and offered it a hand - the real one - to sniff.

The cat, for its part, didn't seem to care much about his hand at all, choosing instead to immediately climb up onto his shoulders.

"Ow! Watch the claws." Cyan winced and stood again, moving slowly the cat could adjust and, as it dug its claws in to keep its balance, tried not to think about all the brand new puncture holes in his jacket. "This is why I don't keep a pet, you know," he muttered at it.

The cat ignored him, settling itself into the dry space beneath the umbrella, and began to purr.

The front bell of the local grocery chimed merrily as Cyan pushed the door open, as though trying vainly to make up for the generally miserable state of the rest of the universe.

"I want a redo on this month," he grumbled.

The cat on his shoulder mewed back, then sniffed the air - probably smelling the other cats. In fact, one of them - the white-furred one, although Cyan had never bothered to learn if any of them had names - was on top of the nearest set of shelves, looking regally down at the two of them. Or maybe just snobbishly.

The calico delicately licked between its toes, its whiskers brushing against the tip of Cyan's ear, then hopped down to the floor and sauntered off.

Cyan smiled, despite himself. "You're welcome," he informed the cat as it disappeared around a corner.

"Hey Cyan!"

Cyan looked up, slightly startled but not showing it. A couple aisles down, near the wall, a small, brightly-clad person was waving an excited hello. Cyan smiled a pleasant hello back as he quickly tried to place who they were and how he--- oh, right. One of his regular, regular customers, named... Jennah. A serious robotics hobbyist, although probably still in highschool; she came by his shop on a regular basis looking for interesting new stock and, if she could catch him, get him to talk about building robots. Ever since the first time she'd asked him about how his arm and he'd actually answered, he'd gotten the impression he was one of her favorite adults.

"Good morning," he called back. "Or at least a morning."

"Yeah, it's nasty out." Jennah wrinkled her nose, standing on her toes to see over the piles of fruit and peer out the window. "Looking for anything in particular?"

"Just the usual groceries." He shrugged. "You?"

"Oh, no. I work here!" She grinned. "Just started two weeks ago. So you shop here all the time?"

"Usually," Cyan agreed.

"I guess it is pretty close by. Hey, do you---" Jennah broke off as another voice said something, looking back down the aisle - probably loudly, but it sounded like it was coming from not just around the corner but in an entirely different room. "Whoops, I'm supposed to be stocking. Let me know when you're ready to check out!"

"I will," Cyan answered, trying not to sound amused as she disappeared back down into the aisle she'd appeared from.

A glance up showed that the white cat was still gazing down at him in its lordly manner, although it had settled into a comfortable crouch; Cyan gave it a brief nod before continuing into the store and bringing up his shopping list. It wasn't really that much like a shopping list, as he usually understood it - running a shop, he had a habit of keeping it somewhere between a shopping list and a sort of kitchen inventory. The list was a compilation of everything he liked to keep "in stock", along with how much of it he had left, sorted by priority.

According to the edit timestamp, the last time he'd updated it has been three weeks ago. Cyan looked at it ruefully, then tapped through, resetting everything on the list back to zero, which left the top item at... "Emergency coffee," he muttered to himself, heading towards the instant coffee.

Half an hour later, both of Cyan's grocery bags and two-thirds of his shopping list were filled. He'd gotten all the most important things - coffee, instant noodles, cereal, even milk - so it wasn't too much of a problem that he couldn't fit everything. The rest could wait for a second trip on a slightly drier, and possibly slightly warmer, day - although the warmer part he wouldn't bet on, it being autumn. Not yet winter, but heading that way.

A glance towards the window confirmed that the current weather was still miserable, the heavy rain still falling in dense grey curtains. Not for the first time, Cyan wondered how much of the rain was actual rain, how much of it was spraying off the edges of the skyways, and whether you could even tell the difference if you tried. The hard shift away from combustion vehicles after the wars had probably slowed that at least a little, but on days like this, it was hard for Cyan to feel optimistic.

His depressing musings were interrupted by another cheerful chime of the front door, heralding the arrival of a newcomer. Cyan absently glanced over at the sound, then blinked in surprise. Unless he was mistaken, it was Jade - the werewolf teammate of Fang's who'd torn up the robot bird in a fit of... enthusiasm.

Unlike both himself and the cat he'd "rescued" when they'd arrived, she looked defiantly cheerful about her bedraggled state, vigorously scrubbing at her short-cropped curls in a valiant attempt to dry herself off as she glanced around the store - and caught sight of Cyan, her cheerful expression changing to a surprised grin.

"Hey! You shop here too, huh?"

"On occasion." Cyan smiled back. "Jade, right?"

"That's me!" She strode over towards Cyan - the white cat, who had continued maintaining its position the whole time he'd been shopping, abruptly and silently fled to the other end of the room as she passed near. "I've been stuck with eternal grocery duty."

Cyan gave a sympathetic grimace. "As someone who buys groceries as infrequently as possible, I wouldn't wish that job on anyone." He could ask after her teammates. It would be a normal topic of small talk; he wouldn't have to mention anyone's name at all. He could just....

"How is the job going - have you heard from your client yet?" Well, he could talk about something completely different, that would work too.

The surprised blink and blank, albeit brief, stare, told Cyan that Jade was definitely not a part of the team who professionally dealt with people. At least not conversationally - based on the repairs he'd done to the bird, he believed she was perfectly capable of dealing with people in other ways if she had to.

"Oh! Yeah, right." After the short moment of confusion, Jade seemed to have figured out the euphemism. "Yeah, they finally got in touch, so we got it, uh, scheduled and everything."

Cyan did not ask when "it" was scheduled for - he was half afraid she might actually tell him, and the less he knew about probably-definitely-lancer business, the better. "So that means," he said instead, "you're heading back home soon?"

"If it goes well, yeah! I'm so looking forward to sleeping in my own bed again," she sighed.

"I can imagine." Cyan hoisted his shopping bag up onto his shoulder, ignoring the sinking feeling in his stomach. "Well, I had better go check out, it's been nice bumping into you."

"Oh, right. Uh." Jade hesitated, shifting her weight uncomfortably from one foot to the other. "Actually... okay, I know this is weird and we don't know each other and all of that but can I ask you a maybe personal question?"

Cyan considered both her and the question in mild surprise. "A personal question...?"

"Yeah, it's about, uh... well, can I?"

"I don't see why not," he said slowly, "but I might not answer it."

"Okay! Totally fair." Jade nodded in decisive agreement. "So what is up with you and Fang, anyway?"

That was not at all a question he expected. Caught by surprise, Cyan laughed, the sound dry and unamused. "That's a great question, isn't it."

"Hm." Jade wrinkled her nose at him, like a cat who'd smelled something interesting but a little suspicious. "Is that a not-answering answer?"

"Not exactly." Cyan sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose with his free hand. "Honestly, I'd like to know the answer, myself."

"Oh?" A moment later, her expression shifted from confused to sympathetic. "Ohhh. In that case, I'm sorry my teammate is so... weird? Let's go with weird," she decided.

"It's fine, but... thanks, I think?"

"Nahh, don't worry about it. Thank you for answering my question. Fang's been all... well." Jade shrugged, dismissing whatever she was going to say. "We're going with weird."

"We are," Cyan agreed, feeling a little like he was trying to have a conversation with someone on the phone with someone else. "If you don't mind my asking... why did you ask?"

"Oh, he's, well." Jade frowned, tilting her head to the side in thought, then seemed to come to a decision. "He's been extra broody lately, and he snapped at me last time you came up, so I figured maybe you had an idea what was going on."

"Ahh." Cyan mulled over that - he did have an idea, unfortunately. Not a full explanation, but.... "We had a bit of an argument," he admitted, trying not to look as uncomfortable as he felt. "I guess that might be related?"

"An argument, huh?" Jade tilted her head again, this time the other direction. "Well, that sucks. Want me to drag him over to say sorry?"

"What?" Cyan blinked in surprise, then quickly shook his head. "No, that's... thanks, but no. You can...." He cleared his throat, feeling even more uncomfortable. "You can tell him I am, though."

Jade's eyebrows went up. "Oh. Okay, sure, I'll let him know."

"Thanks. I really do have to go check out now," Cyan added hurriedly, giving up on all pretense of social comfort levels. "It's been nice talking, good luck with your job."

"Yeah, thanks, sorry." Jade waved sheepishly as Cyan headed for the register - not following him, which wasn't actually notable but he nonetheless felt relieved about.

Jennah was at the register, as promised, but Cyan just didn't have it in him to strike up a real conversation. Handwaving away his mood with mentions of the miserable weather, he managed to deflect her disappointment with a promise to discuss her latest project when she next came by the store, then escaped with his groceries and his umbrella back into the street.

And the rain.

Maybe frigid, pouring rain wasn't the worst thing.