disclaimer: jessie does not belong to me ( hb owns her ); 
michael, however, is all mine.  the m & m commercial is
not mine either.

author’s note: this is a side story from ‘the heart of
darkness’ story that i’m writing.  for those of you who’ve
read the story, well you can put this between the prologue
and part one.  for those of you who have read the story
and are j-j hr, sorry.  this story just wouldn’t leave my
head, that it had to be put on paper.  I promise not to
stray in this path too much.  anyway, you probably should
stop reading right now.  for those of you who haven’t read
my story, well, it doesn’t matter.  all you need to know
is that jessie was going out with some guy from school.

warning: dbn hr.

*************************************************************************************
Laughter in the Rain
by Akane-Rei

        Jessie leaned against the tree and closed her eyes.  She
can feel the rays of the sun caressing the skin of her
face, her arms, her legs.  She stretched her arms and gave
a yawn.
        “Bored of me already?” asked a teasing voice above her.
        She lazily opened her eyes and looked at the young man
crouched before her.  A slight breeze made her shiver as
it rustled the leaves of the trees and playfully waved the
tendrils of his hair.
        She smiled at him slowly and replied, “Fishing, are we?”
        Merriment sparkled in his gray eyes as he plopped down
the grass beside her, facing her.
        “Just checking,” he said, his arm extending to touch her
cheek tenderly.  He grinned at her and continued, “I mean,
here I am, providing an elaborate, homemade picnic for my
significant other and what’s the thanks I get?  She yawns
and falls asleep on me.”  He affected a hurt look on his
face.
        Jessie laughed and gently grazed her fist to his cheek in
a mock punch.
        “First of all,” she said as she got up to her knees in
order to face him more fully, “my source tells me that it
was your dear, sweet mother who both prepared and
suggested this little picnic.”
        His eyes widened as she smiled at him with devilment in
her eyes.
        “Who told you?!” he demanded indignantly.
        She smirked.  “Why, your sister ofcourse,” she replied. 
“She likes me, you know.”
        He began sputtering so she held a finger to his mouth.
        “I would gave guessed anyway,” she said, “the minute I
bit into that very tasty fried chicken.  You, Michael,
couldn’t boil an egg if your life depended upon it.”
        “How would you --” Michael began only to stop when Jessie
firmly pressed her fingers to his lips.
        “I heard about your home ec project,” she said in mock
seriousness.
        “Really?” he whispered.  It had happened while she was in
France and he had been hoping it wouldn’t get back to her.
 He had taken the class mostly to try to impress her with
his culinary skills, anyway.  Only it didn’t quite go well
as planned.
        She nodded her head in response to his question.
        “That bad, huh?”
        Jessie raised one of her brows and said, “Michael, half
the home ec kitchen was destroyed.”
        “Hey!” he exclaimed, “half is a little too much . . .”
        “They had to cancel the home ec cooking courses for the
whole semester.”
        “There was only a couple of months left in the semester,
any--”
        “You weren’t even really cooking.”
        “What do you mean I wasn’t really c--”
        “You were using the microwave and it exploded.”
        He looked at her directly in the eye and said with as
much dignity as he could muster, “Your point being?”
        She couldn’t help it.  A laugh escaped her lips.
        He smiled at the sound and watched as her eyes danced at
her mirth.
        When her laughter eventually died down, she rested her
arms on his shoulders and said, “What am I going to do to
you?”
        He grinned at her rakishly and said, “A woman appreciates
a man who can make her laugh.”
        “Oh, yeah?” she asked.
        “I heard it in that M & M commercial.”
        She was about to release another peal of laughter at the
mental picture of a yellow and a red M & M trying to
impress a green M & M with their non existent pecs when
she felt his lips graze hers.
        They stared at each other for what seemed like forever .
. . he, waiting to see her response . . . she, wondering
what to do next.
        Finally, Jessie tilted her head and lowered it to brush
her lips with his when both of them were startled out of
their reverie by fat droplets of rain which soaked them
immediately.
        They stared disbelievingly at each other at first and
then scrambled at their feet, trying to save the remnants
of their picnic.
        As they gathered their stuff, Michael looked up at the
sky and scowled at the sun as it continued to shine
innocently as if nothing out of the ordinary is occurring.
        “You would think,” he muttered to himself, “that if the
sun is shining, then rain shouldn’t be pouring.”
        “What was that?!” shouted Jessie, trying to make herself
heard among the pitter patter of the rain.
        “Nothing!” he replied back, the rain obscuring the sound
of his voice.
        When they finally had all their belongings in their arms,
they looked at each other through the falling rain,
grinned, and then made a mad dash to his car.  The race
was on.
        Although Jessie was leading for several seconds, Michael
wasn’t the captain of the track team for nothing.  He was
just about to overtake her -- no mean feat considering the
fact that the picnic basket he was carrying weighed quite
a bit and the fact that Jessie herself was a good runner
-- when he stumbled on the blanket Jessie was trailing
behind her, therefore dragging her to the ground with him
in the process.
        Jessie stared in shock at him as she tried to assimilate
the fact that she just landed on her bottom in a very
undignified way while Michael striven to stand up from his
current position without much luck.  He kept slipping in
the rain-slick grass.
        After another failed attempt to get to his feet, he
caught Jessie’s eyes and the spark in them sent them both
to gales of hilarity.
        “You should have . . .” he wheezed, “You should have seen
you face when you fell!”
        “Oh, yeah?!” Jessie gasped.  “What about . . . what about
you . . . you klutz!”  She doubled over with more laughter
as he gave her an indignant glare.  Clutching her sides,
she ignored him for awhile and tried with all her might to
stop laughing at the thought of the ridiculous picture
they both made.  
        Michael stared at Jessie, finally controlling his own
mirth.
        Jessie caught his look and the laughter died in her lips.  
        Michael got up to his feet -- successfully this time --
and offered his hand to help her up.
        Jessie took it, and together they walked towards the car,
helping each other when one would slip.
        The drive back to the Quest Compound was a comfortable
silence between two people who felt no need for words to
fill up the space between them.
        Finally, as Michael helped Jessie out of the car and held
an umbrella over her head, he said, “So much for the
romantic picnic I had planned.”  He said this with a bit
of sheepishness in his voice.
        Jessie opened the door to the mansion and turned towards
him.  Her right hand caressed his cheek and she said
softly, “I wouldn’t have it any other way.”  She smiled. 
“I wouldn’t change a thing.”
        With that, she kissed his lips, smiled again and entered
the house.
        Michael went back to his car with  a foolish grin in his
face while Jessie leaned against the door and closed her
eyes.
        “Hey, Jess, what happened to you?!”
        She opened her eyes and saw Jonny staring at her unkempt
appearance.
        She smiled at him and said, “Why nothing.  Nothing at
all.  I was just . . . I was just . . . laughing . . .
laughing in the rain.”

*************************************************************************************

September 29, 1997

like it? hate it? tell me.

===
Akane-Rei

(c) Akane-Rei 1998