Rain (Star Trek: TOS story)

K/S Fanfiction
Title:	Rain
Author(s):	Michele Arvizu
Date(s):	1998
Length:
Genre:	slash
Fandom:	Star Trek: The Original Series
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Rain is a K/S story by Michele Arvizu in the zine Amazing Grace #4.

Summary

"While at a conference planet-side, Kirk and Spock draw closer together while sitting before a fire in their room watching the rain."

Reactions and Reviews

There are times when I find myself disagreeing with this author's plot choices and/or characterizations of Kirk and Spock, but never do I question either her writing ability or her capacity to spin an intriguing tale. In "Rain" she has succeeded on all fronts.

This short story covers barely an hour of time and is told from Kirk's first person pov. Kirk and Spock are on Barengaria for a series of Starfleet briefings held in a luxury five-star hotel. Their room on the hundredth floor boasts deluxe accommodations including a fireplace and balcony. The rain falling just outside their glass-enclosed suite captivates Spock. While Kirk is bathing, he ventures out onto the balcony to investigate the phenomenon. By the time Kirk emerges from the bathroom, Spock is one frozen, bedraggled Vulcan. Kirk pulls him inside, dries him off, and warms him up in more ways than one. Basically that's the whole plot, but oh, how charming are the details.

The rain becomes the metaphor for all the differences between them, all the dangers they face, and all the things that could possible separate them in their professional and personal lives as active Starfleet officers and as friends as well. By the end of their conversation both have come to a new realization of their feelings for each other. Although there is no actual sex scene, the lovely warm feelings intimate that there will be one in the near future.

Kirk is charming and funny, if a little over protective, and Spock is his curious, sweet, if a little naive, self. Both characterizations are right up my alley.

And how could I not love a story that has Kirk saying: "To know him is to love him. But you're all aware of that."? Yes,I am, and thank you, Michele, for proving it again.

Kirkwatches Spock stand at a window in a hotel room on Barengaria. It's pouring rain outside and Spock is intrigued.

Very good creation of Spock without actually saying who Kirk is talking about. Not quite Kirk (to my ears anyway) with things like: "...hands behind his back as he is wont to do..." and some inner dialogue: "He is—dare I say it and provoke another smile?"

But the main complaint I have is the use of first person, present time. I kept wondering who Kirk was talking to and if it'd ever be revealed. (It wasn't.) Also, present tense ("I am looking..., I walk to the door...") is awkward and distracting.

However, I loved the details of the city and the rain. The description created a nice visualization.

Spock wants to go outside in the rain. Kirk goes and takes a bath and when he comes out, Spock is out on the balcony. Kirk is furious in a strange, over- the-top reaction. Spock is drenched and freezing like he'd been outside in Antarctica or someplace, and his demeanor is much too childlike.

Spock describes the experience of standing out in the rain as: "sometimes like knives piercing my skin. I held out my hands and could feel the spikes hit my open palms." Boy! That must have been some rain. No explanation was given for Spock's extreme reaction.

But the ending of them lounging by a fire and talking was very nice, and completed with Kirk's thoughts of love for Spock.

Just a small afterthought: "Snowman" by Michele in Beyond Dreams 2 happens to be one of my favorite stories, and I feel this one doesn't have the same qualities and strengths, but I genuinely still look forward to everything written by this author.

"Rain" by Michele Arvizu is a ten page story set in third season. Kirk and Spock are attending a Star Fleet activity on the planet Berengaria, and there is a violent storm happening. They are in their shared hotel room, and Spock is entranced by the rain. This is the first of three water related stories in AMAZING GRACE 4.

In this story, Kirk speaks to the reader at times, and this is a convention I really don't care for. Another thing that slightly niggled at me is that he has a very casual vocabulary around Spock, such as "Brass Balls" and "Vulcan Butt." This Jim Kirk is just too informal around Spock, for my tastes.

Nothing much happens in the story. It's basically a mood piece that will appeal to romantics. If you're looking for sex, this is not for you. If you're into "warm puppy" sentimentality, this is for you. It's K/S for people who donl like the "nuts and bolts" type of stories. My overall reaction is that if you wanted to introduce someone to K/S and you weren't sure of her reaction, that this story would be a safe one to use.

This happens to be another story (see The Letter by Helen [in the same zine]), where there's no sex or even close to it, but the love is so there. This author writes very fine "gen" and "friendship" stories, on the surface anyway, that are nonetheless clearly K/S.

As I always say, I dont love first person present tense. In fact, I wasn't sure this was Kirk at first, as it felt stiff or almost formal. It's also odd when the character speaks to "you." This is a nice atmospheric story, because of the focus on the rain. Kirk and Spock are at a hotel on Berengaria; and the rain, the weather, here and on other planets, is described very interestingly (and concisely, and without making it like a scientific paper). Spock cant help going out in the rain, desert man that he is.

So of course they have to get warm by the fire. A little seductive conversation, nice nice. And Kirk is flirting, and is well aware he's doing so. This is sweet and poetic, really just a nice little moment in time. Kirk's deep yet very natural thoughts about Spock, where the future may lead them. And they are almost saying what they really mean.

A sweet, quiet story.

As a person who truly loves rain in any form, I was right at home here, even with Spock as he defied Kirk’s admonitions to stay in out of said rain. A drenched cold Vulcan has all kinds of possibilities. There are hints of love here as Kirk says “Sometimes I feel that I can’t leave you alone for one minute, Mister Spock.” “Then do not.” No love scenes, but lots of encouraging promises of what is to come.

Over the years K/S has been in existence, while there have been many, many wonderful, moving stories written during that time, in my opinion, there are only a handful which have that magical ability to capture the reader's undivided attention from the very first sentence and hold such reader enthralled until the end. Stories such as Sadness, Loss, and Love by Deanna Gray, A Moment's Surrender by Andi Lenor, and the incomparable Pacing the Cage by Jenna Sinclair certainly fall into this category. This particular story, one of only a few written by this author, more than deserves to be included in that unique classification. Told in first person from Kirk's POV, the theme of this story is as simple as the title itself—Kirk and Spock, housed together in a luxury hotel where they are undergoing various briefings, find themselves confined to their room by a pounding rainstorm. For Kirk, the inclement weather is nothing he hasn't seen many times before, but not so for his desert-bred first officer. Spock, to all appearances, is completely enamored by the downpour and his curiosity soon becomes his downfall as he cannot resist experiencing the phenomenon of the storm first-hand. As a result, Kirk finds himself in charge of one very wet, very cold Vulcan. Understandably angry, Kirk makes no attempt to conceal his ire, all the while doing his best to thaw out the frozen popsicle that was once his first officer. An apology from Spock and the realization that no real harm was done soon restores his good mood and the two settle down for a quiet evening in front of the fire as the storm intensifies. It is then that undeniable truths are revealed and the rain becomes a symbol of their own lives, for just as the storm will inevitably pass so must their time together, but for that moment Kirk is content, for "the rain. And the boy who has never seen rain. Both have made me feel loved." Marvelous.