Chapter 3: The Fight in the Rain

It had been raining all day.

Not the romantic kind, not the gentle kind that whispered on rooftops. It was the kind of rain that drowned out your thoughts and turned sidewalks into battlefields.

Zara tugged her hoodie tighter as she waited beneath the training center's awning, watching water pour from the edge of the roof like a broken pipe. she hated this weather. It always reminded her of the day her dad left for good, soaking wet suitcases in hand, her mother crying in the kitchen.

She didn't expect Ari to show up that day.

He'd been expect Ari to show up that day. He'd been absent from the group chat. Miss Liyana mentioned he might be skipping due to "overstimulation."

So, when he appeared suddenly behind her, she jumped.

"Jesus," she muttered.

Ari stood there, dripping slightly, his hair flattened to his forehead, His hoodie looked heavier than usual~~like it was soaked through and clinging to him in all the wrong ways.

He held up a paper bag. "Coffee."

Zara blinked.

"From that cafe across the street. The one you mentioned during the communication exercise. I figured... whatever."

She took the bag slowly, suspicious. "Are you bribing me?"

"I'm apologizing. In my own emotionally stunted way."

She opened the bag. Two cups, one labeled Z. The other had a badly drawn smiley face.

Zara tilted. her head. "You seriously came all the way here, in the rain, to apologize?"

Ari shrugged. "Don't make it a big deal."

She nodded, looked away, then muttered, "Thanks."

They stood in silence for a moment. Then Miss Liyana called out from inside, "If anyone needs help getting home, let me know. It's slippery."

"I'll walk," Zara said, already tightening the drawstrings of her hoodie.

Ari stepped beside her. I'll come."

She gave him a look. "You don't have to."

"I know," he said." I want to."

So they walked.

Side by side.

No umbrella. No plan. just soaked sneakers and clumsy footsteps over puddles.

For a while, neither of them spoke.

Until Zara broke the quiet. "You know I used to hate you."

"I'm still not sure you don't."

"I do. But like... less."

Ari chuckled. "Progress."

She turned to him. "Why were you such a jerk the first week?"

He hesitated. "Because I saw you, and you reminded me of everything I wish I was."

She stopped walking. "What?"

"You care," he said. "You show up early. You say things that sound like quotes but come from somewhere real/ I thought it was fake. But it's not.

Zara stared at him, rain soaking her face now too. She didn't wipe it away.

"You know what I saw when I looked at you?" she asked.

Ari braced himself. "What?"

"A scared boy pretending to be dangerous."

he looked away.

"Tell me I'm wrong."

He didn't

Instead, he said, "I hate that you see through me."

Zara took a step closer. "I hate that you pretend no one ever has."

The wind picked up. Thunder cracked far away.

The storm outside had nothing on the storm between them.

Ari's jaw clenched. "You think you know me, Zara, but you don't."

"Then tell me," she said. "Tell me what I don't know."

He took a breath, then another, like it physically hurt to speak.

"I don't trust people who claim they want to help," he said quietly. "They always leave. Or change. or use what you gave them against you."

Zara's voice softened. "I'm not them."

"But you will be."

It came out sharp, like a wound he'd never stitched up.

Zara stepped back. "You don't get to decide who I become."

Ari looked at her, water dripping from his lashes. "You don't know what it's like, Zara."

She nearly shouted over the rain, "Then make me understand!"

He opened his mouth, then stopped. He was shaking again~~this time not from fear, but from fury. Or grief. Or both.

"You want honesty?" he said finally. "Fine."

he took a breath that sounded like it had been waiting years to come out.

"When I was fifteen, I told someone I trusted that I wasn't okay. And you know what they said?"

Zara didn't speak.

"They said I was being dramatic. That boys don't cry. That I should be grateful I had a roof over my head and food to eat."

Zara's heart cracked. "I'm sorry."

"I learned to shut up after that. Smile. Joke. Pretend I was fine. If people didn't see the pain, they didn't judge it."

Zara whispered, "But they didn't see you either."

Ari looked at her then, really looked, like he was trying to decide if he was still angry or just exhausted.

"You're dangerous," he said quietly.

Zara blinked. "What?"

"Because you make me feel things I've been avoiding for years."

Her voice was almost a whisper. "How dare I."

And just like that, they both laughed. The kind of laugh that sounded too close to crying.

They stood in the rain, still dripping, still broken, but not alone anymore.

Not quite enemies.

Not yet lovers.

But something.

Something that felt like the beginning of healing~~even if neither of them were ready to call it that yet.