Jean-Jacques opened his eyes when he felt Chloé shake his shoulder. They'd been laying together in their small cot, Chloé reading a book while resting her head on his chest. He must have dozed off at some point without meaning to. Although, night had already fallen and they were dressed for bed, so it was unusual for Chloé to wake him. He glanced around the room, seeing nothing unusual. The mauve curtains were drawn across the window, candlelight playing across the plain white walls. He recalled distantly that they had been meaning to get a painting or two for the house but kept forgetting or finding other more urgent uses for their money.

"What it it?" He asked softly.

"Do you hear that?" Chloé sat up straighter above him and turned her eyes upwards.

Jean-Jacques followed her gaze to the ceiling and strained his ears for the unusual sound that had Chloé on edge. It took a long moment before it registered that what she was referring to might not be unusual to begin with. It could instead be the ambient pitter-patter on the roof. "The rain?"

Chloé nodded, pursing her lips as she kept her focus on the plaster above her head. "I can't remember the last time I heard any."

"Would you like to see it?"

He had already seen the rain on his own, Paris had been quite wet within the first few weeks of Chloé’s slumber. It had even become something of a mundane phenomenon to him. But seeing Chloé, so stunned by the sound on its own, transported him back to the first time he'd experienced it after leaving Gévaudan. He understood perfectly how terrifyingly preternatural every little occurrence could be when memories of anything beyond endlessly repeating snow had been distorted into something illusory.

"Yes," Chloé said. "I wanted you with me."

Carefully, Jean-Jacques sat up beside Chloé in silent assent. Chloé slid from the cot in response, reaching her hand out to help pull him up and after her. The few steps to the window seemed to take an age. The cold floorboards creaked beneath their feet, jarringly loud against the careful quiet they were maintaining, barely breathing to better appreciate the individual droplets of rain impacting against the zinc roof.

Jean-Jacques pulled the curtains aside, uncovering their little window. Chloé folded her arms on the sill and peered outside. There wasn't much to see, even with a vampire's eyes. Their home was far enough from any major cities that there were no astermite lights to brighten the nights. Only darkness lay within the small panes of glass, broken sporadically by tiny glimmers of candlelight playing off the water beating against it and flowing down its surface.

After observing for a long while Chloé got her hands under the window to push it up and open. She brought an immediate chill into the room as the cool wind crept inside, bringing with it a gentle lash of water that drizzled ever so slightly over the windowsill. Though she could already feel its dewy touch from where she stood Chloé sought out more contact, reaching her hand outside, palm upturned. She shivered at the sensation, though she did not retreat from it, only seeming to lean further out the window, as though in a trance.

"Chloé, are you all right?" Jean-Jacques asked.

She didn't answer immediately, twisting her hand this way and that as she tested how the rain slid along her skin and dribbled from her fingertips. She had reached her hand so far out the window it was beginning to disappear into the shadows. "I think I would like to venture outside."

"Then let's go. No need to wait."

Chloé looked over to him, eyes bright and mouth slightly agape in an astonished little O-shape. Then she was snatching her hand back to herself and grabbing his, dragging him behind her. Jean-Jacques hurriedly slammed the window closed with his free hand as he allowed himself to be yanked from their room. Chloé pulled them to the doorway, dropping Jean-Jacques' hand to grab her shoes from where they stood against the wall.

Jean-Jacques had no choice but to join her, grabbing his own sturdy boots, lest she leave him behind. He had expected Chloé would at least want to change into something more weather-appropriate but it seemed he'd underestimated her excitation. Her nightie would have to suffice.

She finished pulling her shoes on before he did, throwing open the door and all but skipping over the threshold. Jean-Jacques wasn't far behind, though he did make a brief detour to snag his coat on the way out.

He found Chloé only a few steps from the front door, squinting up into the grey clouds. Without preamble he draped his coat over her shoulders, the dark fabric swallowing her, so long it dragged on the ground at the ends. She looked up at him, automatically clutching it around her shoulders.

"It's warm," she said.

"I'm glad."

"You look cold."

Jean-Jacques shrugged. Chloé meandered over to him, inserting herself in front of him and pulling his arms over her shoulders in something like a hug. Jean-Jacques drew her even closer, until they were as tightly joined as they could be in their position. Chloé rested one of her hands atop his.

"It's warm," he said.

Chloé hummed happily, swaying lightly in his arms. The rain continued to shower over them. It was soaking through Jean-Jacques' hair, making it an even more inconvenient mop than usual. He tossed his head to one side, freeing his left eye to the detriment of his right. His heavy coat and his body draped over Chloé should have been protecting her from the worst of it but there was no such shield for himself. His thin white nightshirt was plastering itself to his skin at his back and his pants were growing uncomfortably waterlogged.

"I know we've not been outside for long but are you ready to return inside, Chloé?" Jean-Jacques said. "Uh, Chloé?"

"Huh?" Chloé tilted her head back to look at him, obviously not having listened to a word he said.

Jean-Jacques sighed, lips quirking upwards. "I will take that as a no. Then... here."

Jean-Jacques bent down to lift her off her feet, placing her on one shoulder, and keeping a gentle hand at her legs for stability. Chloé clutched at his collar delicately, the touch itself enough to communicate her gratitude. She stretched her hand towards the clouds, straining as far as she could reach, and watching the water watching it drip between her fingers and down her arm, disappearing within her sleeve. She laughed, quiet but a little hysterical.

"I can touch the sky!"

Jean-Jacques smiled. He reached towards the heavens in imitation. His hand didn't quite extend as high as hers, even so he thought he sensed the same connection he was sure Chloé did. Touching the sky indeed. The distance between their hands did nothing to diminish the intimacy of the action, reaching for the same impossibly high goal, cleansed by the same freezing downpour.

What a strange sight they must be from the outside, frozen in awe beneath the onslaught while anyone else would run for cover. Although it was beyond unlikely that another would ever witness the sight. They were almost as isolated as they'd always been, contained within their own little world. Thankfully, their world now had the capacity for change. Jean-Jacques blinked, feeling his eyes stinging at the corners. He glanced up at Chloé, seeing his own emotion mirrored in her face, rivulets of water streaming down her cheeks.

She seemed to sense his gaze, turning her attention to him and beaming, face crinkled strikingly with joy. He felt a lump get caught in his throat. He might have been overreacting but in that moment he was struck by the perception that maybe, after everything, they had finally managed to crawl most of the way out of the dark.