✦ Status: Finished?
✦ Date: 11/05/2023
✦ Chapters: 1/2
Thanks for your company!
Not long ago I received worrying news about the weather, and I've been quite distressed about it since then. Let's just say that I'm not a fan of rain. I used to, and I miss that joy. But now I'm just terrified.
Thus I wrote this to indulge myself a bit. To calm down. The scene came to me so naturally... it didn't take long to write it down.
By the way, the title is from a song by Dave Grusin. It's calm yet charming, it made me think of Wally. I recommend you listen to it!
Home can be described in many words: colorful, peaceful, lovely, heavenly. Confined
But one of the many peculiar things about the quaint little piece of Heaven was its weather. More often than not it was equable. Neither very hot nor very cold. Always clement. Perfect
Yet the Neighbor had never seen the Sun. The sky shone blue and clear, but the star was nowhere to be seen. The Moon was the same as well: a sparkling night sky with moonlight coming from somewhere. Sometimes days just felt like someone turned off the lights in the neighborhood for a few hours before turning them back on.
However, today was different. The overcast cried over Home and created a maudlin, bleak mood. Time seemed to pass as slow as molasses.
Wally Darling did not like rain.
Rarely did the little artist find something that he did not like, though rain was one of them. Because it was such a rare phenomenon that everytime it happened, the rain caught him unaware and ruined his striking blue hair. He took great pride in his appearance.
There he was now, inside Home, changed into a new outfit after taking a nice bath to forget the unpleasant surprise, this ugly weather—and most importantly, his hair styled back into his perfect pompadour. He couldn't let the others see him with his hair down, he looked horrible!
His self-care session was cut short by the sound of someone frantically knocking on his door.
“I wonder who it could be...” he pondered out loud. His huge building friend, Home, simply jiggled its doorknob. Of course it knew who it was and it would not tell him. Hurry up is all it told him.
Admittedly curious, he left the bathroom and made his way to the door. His eyes widened at the sigh of the surprise visitor.
The Neighbor.
There she was, on his doorstep with an umbrella in hand.
As always she wore that red dress as beautiful as an apple. And of course, that golden heart-shaped brooch, exposed to everyone. Silly. His was under the soles of his feet.
He would be elated with the visit if it wasn't for the nervous expression on her face... Did something happen?
“H-Hey. Sorry for coming over unannounced. I just thought we could, ah, hang out?” she gripped the handle of the umbrella stronger. “But I understand if this was too sudden. I'll just- I'll just leave, sorry. See y-”
“Wait, Neighbor. You can come, it's alright.” I could never deny you.
“Thanks,” she said before she hastened inside. He noticed how she glanced at the dark clouds before he closed the door.
The Neighbor looked up at the ceiling. “Hi, Home. Sorry for messing your floor with my umbrella.”
The floor under her creaked, raising and deflating like a breath. Wally laughed in his unique monotonous laughter before he took the dripping umbrella and hung it on the wall coat rack next to his yellow raincoat.
“What do I owe the pleasure, friend?”
“Well... today is so gloomy, right? It was boring by myself so I thought, let's visit my good pal Wally. I'm sure he will know what to do!”
Wally tilted his head. “Were you feeling lonely, Neighbor? And you came to your best friend to help.”
She didn't answer, but her eyes looking away was louder than words.
“Ha. Ha. Ha. It's alright. I like your idea! We can have fun.”
The Neighbor gifted him a little smile, causing a tightness in his chest. There it was again. That foreign feeling. He did not know what it was but it wasn't unpleasant thus he paid no mind. However, the rumbling sound of thunder stole that gift from him and replaced it with the saddening sight of his friend covering her ears with teary eyes.
Ah, so that was what was really going on.
The Neighbor wasn't here to kill time. She wanted comfort.
And she came for him to get it.
What a touching realization, if it wasn't for the upset lady in front of him.
Wally approached her and started rubbing her back as he escorted her from the door to the colorful couch, both of them sitting down.
“It's alright, friend. We are safe here. Home protects us.”
The building creaked as if to support the statement. The Neighbor laughed mirthlessly.
“Thanks, Wally. And Home.”
Another thunder made her jump from her spot and cover her ears again. It was heart-breaking to see his beloved friend so distressed. There had to be some way to make her forget about the rain, or at least distract her from it... The rhythm of the droplets of water hammering against the windows gave him an idea.
“Stay here, friend,” he said as he got up. But he was stopped by her hand around his wrist. Aaaah....
“Don't leave me alone. Please.”
Golly, he was going to drop dead at this point. “I'm just going to get something and I'll be right back. Alright?”
“.... Alright.”
The Neighbor released his wrist, and he missed the warmth as he went to take his leave.
Wally heard Home doing its best to strike up a conversation with their guest. Home was not easy to understand. The artist himself had trouble deciphering the meaning behind the house's many onomatopoeias. But he adored Home thus he tried. And he could hear the Neighbor trying to understand it, which must mean she cared too, right?
She liked Home. She liked the other neighbors. She liked him.
And she will n̸e̵̡v̨̀͢e͠ŕ abandon Home.
Ah, there it was!
He picked up the small radio next to his art supplies and made his way back to his important person. His chest tightened once more when his friend's face lit up at the sight of him.
He moved the side table closer to the couch, away from its usual spot next to his favorite chair, and set the radio on top of it.
“A radio? What for?” she asked, tilting her head in his direction with curiosity.
“Who doesn't like some music from time to time, yes?” Wally's eyes squinted mirthfully. “Moreover, a little bird told me you like music.”
Rather a large, green caterpillar.
Howdy Pillar mentioned it in passing as he gave Wally his usual. At some point she visited his shop and asked if he had some kind of Cee-Dee player (what is a Cee-Dee?), alas he did not. This seemingly innocuous comment informed Wally of something important: she was longing for her previous world. No, he couldn't have the new friend miss that place nor even think about it. This was her Home, after all.
Even then, it was not a secret that she enjoyed music. She often hummed to herself, or sometimes she even sang along if she knew the lyrics. She loved music, and he loved her music.
The Neighbor twisted the dial on, an old song coming out from the machine. Wally sat down next to her as more thunder rumbled outside. The Neighbor hugged him close like a pillow. Or a puppet.
He was taken completely off-guard yet he didn't reject it. When his other friends hugged him, he gladly accepted it with a smile. But this time, he didn't just take it. For once, he lifted his shaking arms and slowly put them around his friend, a hand rubbing her back again. He even dared to indulge a bit and pressed his face into the crook of her neck as her breathing slowed down. This was working, that's good.
There were no words between them for several minutes, the only sounds amongst them were the rain and the radio playing its old songs. And he didn't move an inch, listening to her heartbeat as if it was the most interesting thing int the world.
The comfortable silence was interrupted by her stirring. With her arms still around him, she looked down at him with a soft smile. Golly, were her eyes pretty.
“Wally?”
“Yes, friend?”
“Thank you. For this. I mean it.”
“Ha. Ha. Ha. Don't mention it. That's what friend are for.”
The Neighbor cupped the artist's fuzzy cheeks and planted a soft kiss on them (careful to not flatten his pompadour).
“I'm glad you're my friend, then.”
His dilated pupils looked back up at her with his endless smile growing on his face, his chest burning but he did not care. His most important and beloved person.
“Of course. I'm your best friend. Always.”
I think I never wrote this much for a oneshot LMAO.