And Now, the Weather

Summary: Carlos discovers Cecil's opinion on thunderstorms.

It happened the first time in the middle of traffic, which was a monologue of existential terror that Carlos had to admit sounded eerily accurate to what being stuck in a traffic jam felt like. The station was coming in as clearly as always from the tiny, outdated radio he kept in the lab, despite the torrents of rain that were falling outside. It made a nice change from the torrents of gelatinous goo that covered the town a week ago – shoveling the car out of a substance that stuck to the shovel required a lot of patience.

There was a huge flash of lightning, followed by a sharp rumble of thunder. Carlos absentmindedly noted that it must have happened fairly close, and then, a moment later, that there was dead air on the radio. Concerned enough to let it distract him from his research – because, after all, if a gelatinous goo storm couldn't ruin the connection, a regular rainstorm shouldn't stand a chance – he walked over and fiddled with the controls, searching the channels before ending up back where he started, Cecil's voice trickling out tentatively.

"We have some… um, some interesting news about the new dining experience opening up next to the Ralph's, known only as the, ah…" There was a sound that Carlos thought might be heavy breathing, a sharper intake of breath in anticipation of more words, and another startlingly close lighting strike, again followed almost immediately by thunder. There was a small cry of dismay and an audible thump.

Carlos waited through the dead air this time and was rewarded with the sound of a nervous Cecil, former train of thought entirely derailed. "Hello, Night Vale? As your faithful, community radio host, I am obligated to stay with you even in the middle of this terrible, horrible, unendingly vile weather, so as always in such undesired conditions I will continue reporting the news, as it happens, from here beneath my desk. I can tell you that staying indoors would be advisable, as there have been several nearby lightning—" His sentence was interrupted by the third lightning strike in as many minutes, followed only by a whimper.

Sparing only a moment to find his keys and give the warm, dry lab and his current project a last, longing glance, Carlos sighed and walked out into the rain, wondering, for neither the first nor last time, why Cecil couldn't just tell him about things like this instead of broadcasting it over the radio.

~0~0~0~

"Hello again, Night Vale! Sorry for the interruption, but you'll never guess who just joined me at the station!"

"Cecil, are you sure we should be down here? I'm still kind of wet, I don't want to drip on any electrical equipment…"

"That's right, it's perfect, beautiful Carlos! He was listening to the show and like the truly gallant and chivalrous man that he is, rushed to my side in my time of need! Listeners, I don't know what experience you've had with love, if you are entrenched deeply in it's clutches and sink deeper with each passing day in an ultimately futile attempt to bring greater meaning to a mutual existence within an immense universe that doesn't acknowledge you, or if you are in the middle of a more casual fling, but I can say with absolute certainty and minimal bias that this is what love is all about."

"Cecil—"

"And now, live from Carlos's lap, the weather!"

"Cecil!"

A/N: So, extremely short first foray into the fandom, but hopefully there'll be more (and longer) fics to come. This was inspired by a post found on the Night Vale Head Canons tumblr page, so credit for the idea goes to whoever submitted it (shamelessly stolen and used by me - sorry, and thanks for the wonderful idea!). Thanks for reading!

(Disclaimer - Welcome to Night Vale and its characters belong to those creative people over at Commonplace Books)