A subtrope of Snowed-In and Romance Ensues, closely related to Umbrella of Togetherness. See also Snow Means Love, Happy Rain. Compare and contrast Romantic Rain where it's being in the rain that's romantic and seeking shelter doesn't come up.
Contrast Cue the Rain, when the weather is a way for things to go From Bad to Worse.
Compare Rain, Rain, Go Away for a more general application of the trope. See also Ten Minutes in the Closet.
Examples:
open/close all folders
Anime & Manga
- Quite a pivotal point of Hachibe and Tenmaku's relationship in Ai Kora happens because of this.
- Another one of the cave of convenience scenarios comes with Guts and Casca from Berserk. After they fall off a cliff together during a battle, Guts and an unconscious Casca wash up on shore and take shelter in a nearby cave, where Intimate Healing comes into play. They don't dive right into a romantic relationship, but the time they spent together does allow for Casca, who didn't take well to Guts, to warm up to him and they both learn that they weren't very different people.
- In Chapter 5 of Crossplay Love: Otaku x Punk, Mei is caught in the rain without an umbrella and worries that her makeup will run. Hanae, despite not being Hana at the moment, gives her his umbrella, but she rejects it and runs home with just a hat to protect her from the rain.
- Happens in Elfen Lied when Kohta and Yuka are looking for Nyu and it suddenly starts raining. By the time they find shelter at a nearby shrine, they're both drenched, so they huddle together for warmth. Yuka admits her feelings for him, kisses him unexpectedly, and tells him that she doesn't want to be separated from him again. Kohta wipes her tears away and returns the kiss. The rain stops just as suddenly as it started, and when Kohta comments on it, Yuka realizes what she did, panics a little, and falls off of Kohta's lap. Cue Panty Shot, Accidental Perversion, and Megaton Punch. The manga takes their encounter a few steps further...
- Pretty much the point of The Garden of Words. A high school student is walking through a park in the rain when he comes across an older woman sheltering under a gazebo. As it's the start of the rainy season, this happens regularly over the next few months. By the time summer happens, they keep hoping for rain so they'll have an excuse to keep meeting each other.
- In another possible Ship Tease, Kyon and Haruhi are trapped in a cave after falling down from a cliff in an episode in Haruhi Suzumiya. The Ship Tease however does not come from getting stuck in the rain, but because of the hand holding and worried expression on Haruhi's face beforehand. Notably, this entire scene was only in the anime as most of the story needed to be re-written due to the...strong presence of alcohol in the original novels.
- Hitomi-chan Is Shy with Strangers: Yuu and Hitomi are caught downtown in a thunderstorm that stops all trains and cars in or out of the city, so they call her brother for help. He rents them a hotel to dry off and sleep in, but There Is Only One Bed...
- Irresponsible Captain Tylor. Tylor and Empress Azalyn are caught in the rain in a virtual-reality simulation. Cue Falling-in-Love Montage as they run for shelter.
- A pair of chapters from Komi Can't Communicate involve Komi and Tadano taking shelter from a sudden downpour in a storage shed. Since the doors have an auto-lock and can't be closed to keep the cold out, they're forced to huddle together under a blanket and wait for the rain to die down. After spending a while quietly getting comfortable and not much else, Tadano's younger sister Hitomi storms in out of frustration, yelling at them to at least make out or something.
- A flashback in the One Piece anime expands on Senor Pink's Dark and Troubled Past, revealing that he and his beloved and lost wife Russian met when they got caught in the rain and sought refuge from it. He was deeply unhappy but she was all smiles, and she cheerfully told him that she loved rain in itself.
- A major Ship Tease moment happened in Ouran High School Host Club when Hikaru runs off to look for Haruhi during a storm. The situation didn't play out quite as you may have expected, "thanks" to Haruhi's severe Fear of Thunder.
- Ai once ran into the rain to comfort Mew in one chapter of Psychic Academy. This was necessary due to Mew's crippling fear of rain, which made her have a panic attack when she was caught out in it.
- In Tenchi Muyo!, Tenchi and Ayeka take cover in a shed. An awkward moment for Ayeka, as she has a sprained ankle and treated Tenchi rudely because she believes him to be the lover of the woman who killed her brother (back then, she still didn't know he's still alive and is Tenchi's grandfather; Tenchi is very gentlemanly towards her, and then she starts treating him better. Nothing happens between them except conversation, but afterword Ayeka joins his Unwanted Harem.
- Actually invoked by Momo in To Love Ru:Darkness. She fakes a rainstorm for Rito and Kotegawa to get caught in. It sorta works.
- You Like Me, Not My Daughter?!: A flashback chapter shows a 10-year-old Takkun getting locked out of his house and Ayako taking him into her house to dry his clothes and warm up in the bath.
- You're Under Arrest!: Episode 45 has Natsumi and Tokairin having to take shelter in a small shrine when they get caught in the rain on their way back to the town. The scene is pretty much the turning point where Natsumi stops seeing Tokairin as her rival and begins to fall for him.
Audio Play
- In 36 Questions, Jase asks Judith if she is invoking the trope after they get caught in a storm and take refuge in his family log cabin.
Jase: Wait. Was this part of your plan?
Judith: Yeah, Jase. I made this storm happen, because I'm an X-Man now.
Films — Animation
- Jin-Roh: The Wolf Brigade. Fuse and Kei kiss while hiding from their pursuers on a rain-drenched rooftop playground.
Films — Live-Action
- This is how Jane and Kevin first hook up in 27 Dresses.
- At First Sight: During a heart-to-heart they have while strolling in the street, Amy and Virgil are caught by an unexpected rain, so they quickly run to the interior of a decrepit house. During their stay there, the two share a moment of intimacy.
- In the last scene of Breakfast at Tiffany's Fred and Holly find themselves caught in the rain, finding her cat. It's in the rain when they're drenched they admit their love for each other with a long kiss.
- The Dark Knight Rises: Miranda Tate finds Bruce Wayne trapped outside his mansion in the rain, trying to get in (his butler has left him and he's never needed keys before). They get in through a side entrance and end up sleeping together not long after.
- In the film Emily, she and the new local curate take refuge in an abandoned cottage during a rainstorm. Though they don't consummate their relationship until a few scenes later—in the same place—this is where they finally admit to their burgeoning feelings for each other.
- This happens in First Knight which gives Guinevere and Lancelot a moment to play in the rain water and just talk.
- Deliberately engineered by Sergius in Foolish Wives, who is a sleazy con artist. He takes wealthy Helen off on a walk through the country while knowing in advance that A Storm Is Coming.
- The Alfred Hitchcock film I Confess, in a flashback.
- This trope is skewered for uncomfortable laughs in Without a Paddle - the three main (male) characters are stranded in the rain in just their underwear and have to huddle together for warmth. They do, but only after agreeing that they never speak of the incident again.
- The Last Letter From Your Lover: At one point early in their affair, Anthony and Jenny scramble to the car in the middle of a rainstorm, leading to a romantic moment.
- Subverted in Lolita (1997). After an argument with her sexually-abusive stepfather Humbert, Dolores flees into the rain. Humbert chases after her, eventually finding Dolores in a drugstore. She appears to reconcile with him, even inviting him back home and into her bed, but it's just meant as a distraction as she's actually planning to escape.
- Loving Annabelle: Annabelle and Ms. Bradley kiss in the rain during the school dance.
- The Notebook. The vast majority of Nicholas Sparks films, actually.
- In The Quiet Man Sean Thornton and Mary Kate Danaher are caught in Irish ruins by a storm, and have their first close hug.
- Something New The pivotal moment between Brian and Kenya's relationship occurs when they are on a hike and it begins to rain, causing them to seek shelter beneath a tree. This brings on the obligatory kiss.
- Tess and Frederick from Tess of the Storm Country are forced to take shelter from the rain in her shack—but she is pure, so she rejects his kiss. Fred's sister Teola is less pure, so when she and Fred's friend Dan take shelter in another cabin, he knocks her up.
- In The Wolverine, Logan and Mariko return to the house in Nagasaki after a sudden rainshower and change from their wet clothes into traditional Japanese wear. Mariko notes that Logan is wearing his wrong and goes to adjust it; it's no surprise what happens next.
Literature
- Evidently Jane Austen liked to use rain as a plot device:
- In Sense and Sensibility, Willoughby carries Marianne home after she twists her ankle while running home because of the rain, thus sparking their romance.
- Invoked by Mrs. Bennet in Pride and Prejudice when she sends Jane on her visit to the Bingleys on horseback so the pending rain later that day will force her to spend the night. The plan Goes Horribly Right when a cold forces her to stay several days.
- Rain forces Fanny to seek shelter one day at the parsonage in Mansfield Park, sparking her closer friendship with Mary Crawford... going by a loose definition of "friendship."
- In The Aeneid, Aeneas and Dido are out hunting and take shelter from the rain in the same cave. The rain was part of Juno's successful plan to hook them up. Makes this one Older Than Feudalism.
- Travis and Craig's friendship in Almost Like Being In Love turns into a romance when they kiss after having to hide from the rain under a gazebo.
- In Caraval, Julian and Scarlett are running away from Governor Dragna when a storm breaks out on the island forcing them to take cover. This leads to a make-out session.
- Happens to Lena and Ethan several times in The Caster Chronicles. Justified because Lena has power over the rain and fire.
- Referenced in The Crow Road by Iain Banks, when the protagonist denies he is in bed with his aunt "because we'd gone hill walking together and been caught out in a snow storm an eventually found shelter in some exceptionally well-appointed bothy that just so happened to have only one bed and we had got in together to keep warm". As he says, they were fucking, but she's not really his aunt.
- Occurs in Kij Johnson's The Fox Woman with Kaya no Yoshifuji and his brother-in-law. They end up seeking shelter at a hot spring, and...ah...get to know each other during something of a Hot Springs Episode. Water is apparently an aphrodisiac.
- At the end of Little Women (1994), when Jo shares an umbrella with Mr. Baer, a proposal soon follows.
- Snow Falling on Cedars has Hatsue and Ishmael, as teenagers, taking shelter from the rain in a fallen tree.
- Played for Drama in Twenty Years Later, when the king is Caught in the Rain with the fiancée of Athos' son. Romance ensues (note that at this point the king is already cheating on his wife with his sister-in-law, and never understands why both women are acting more acerbic than usual later on).
Live-Action TV
- Buffy and Angel. But we all know what happened to Angel afterwards.
- Spoofed on The Golden Girls:
Blanche: I do love the rain so. It reminds me of my first kiss...
Dorothy: Ah, your first kiss was in the rain?
Blanche: No, it was in the shower. - Good Omens (2019): During the second season Crowley insists that the best way to get two humans to realise their feelings for each other is for them to be caught in a rainstorm and be forced to shelter together. He later uses his demonic powers to summon rain to force Maggie and Nina into this scenario. The two women do start to talk about their growing connection...but then the awning they're standing under breaks and dumps rainwater on them, thoroughly ruining the moment.
Crowley: Get humans wet and staring into each other's eyes, vavoom, sorted. I saw it in a Richard Curtis film.
- Likewise in the BBC adaptation of A Horseman Riding By. In that case they took shelter in a barn.
- Love and Destiny: Jiu Chen deliberately invokes this, using his magic to prolong the rain when he meets Ling Xi again.
- A variant in M*A*S*H, involving artillery fire, occurs between Hawkeye and Houlihan.
- Mary Margaret and David have to take shelter together in Once Upon a Time.
- Happens in A Woman Of Substance with the heroine and the cad who is after her sheltering a cave after being caught in the rain on a picnic (although it's not love, merely lust). It's certainly in the TV mini-series. I don't know about novel.
Music
- The Hollies' song "Bus Stop".
- "Golf Girl" by Caravan has a rain of golf balls with this effect.
- "Walk Between Raindrops" by Donald Fagen.
- "Don't Stand So Close to Me" by The Police: "Wet bus stop/she's waiting/his car is warm and dry."
- A comic musical inversion: Mister Murray, "Down Came the Rain", in which the rain not only interrupts the singer's romantic interludes but also causes his crooning voice to turn into a hideous whine.
- "Escape (The Piña Colada Song)" references this, with the iconic lyrics of a man seeing a personal ad specifying a love of piña coladas and getting caught in the rain.
- "Geronimo" by The Divine Comedy ("With an arm around her waist/He leads her to a place he knows/Soaked through, but happy, they squelch up to the landing/The room before them makes a welcome sight")
- "Laughter in the Rain" by Neil Sedaka.
- The danish children's song "Mariehønen Evigglad" is about a female ladybug, who gets caught in the rain, and moves in with a snail.
- Sting's "Heavy Clouds, No Rain" forlornly hopes this will come to pass after the girl he is after says she will "save her love for a rainy day".
- "Rain on the Roof" by The Lovin' Spoonful.
- The song "Crystalline" from The Midnight focuses on a couple that hooks up after a rainy train ride together.
Theatre
- In The Moon is Blue, Don takes Patty over to his apartment for a drink, with the plan being to then go out for dinner. However, a downpour starts, and Patty doesn't have a raincoat, so she decides to make a home-cooked meal instead. He still has to go out and buy groceries, and she still manages to get her dress stained due to David mishandling a ketchup bottle.
Visual Novels
- Katawa Shoujo plays with this in Rin's route. It's raining, and there is a sweet moment of bonding, in more way than one, but they are not outside until well after the rain has stopped.
- Early in Sea Bed Sachiko and Takako explore a shoal on their vacation only to be caught in a sudden rainstorm. The two take shelter in a nearby grove of trees, and Takako presses up against Sachiko and initiates a makeout, claiming it's the only way she can warm up. They only are able to enjoy the moment for a little while before being startled by the sudden and noisy appearance of a coconut crab.
- Tokimeki Memorial Girl's Side has Kei Hazuki's almost confession event occur when it starts to rain after a date with the heroine. He tries to confess his feelings to her, but Tsukushi arrives at the worst moment with an umbrella for his older sister.
Webcomics
- Happens to the unlikely pairing of Lucy and Carter in this
April Fool's chapter from Bittersweet Candy Bowl.
Western Animation
- One episode of The Simpsons has this. Marge and Homer (who were experiencing some marriage troubles, feeling their relationship lost it's "spark" ) have to go to an outlet mall hours away to get a new motor for their fridge. It starts to rain and the car gets stuck in the mud. There's a barn nearby and they trudge through the mud to get there. They lie down in the hay, and one thing leads to another...
