Ah, summer; it was Ai's favorite time of year. Summer was the season for camping and fishing, and even though the sweltering heat made her sweat even more than usual it was worth it for those simple pleasures. Sure you could fish in winter, but keeping cooped up in a ramshackle box staring at a hole cut in the ice waiting hours for a bite that wasn't even guaranteed while freezing your ass off was far from her definition of fun. No, summer was far better. She'd already caught a few Magikarp off the dock her bare feet were currently dangling over, but she'd let them all go. And now, she lamented, was all out of bait.

Or was she?

"Hey, Scatterbug," she called, nose wrinkling as the caterpillar wiggled his way toward her from where Spike and Maurice had been sunning themselves. Yuck, what an unsettling way of moving. 

< What is it, Ai? > he asked, tilting his head quizzically. She gave him a devious look which seemed to pass right over the oblivious bug's head.


"You ever been bait before?" she asked, and he had to take a moment to think about it like it was something that wasn't incredibly dangerous and probably pretty offensive to be asked.

< No, not really. Why? Do you need some bait? Can I help? > Ai almost felt a little bad at how much the slow-witted bug seemed to want to help her, obviously not realizing the peril of being live bait.

"Here's what you'll do. You're going to hold on to the fishing line, hold your breath as you go for a brief swim, and try and get something to bite the hook." She showed it to him and he looked at it with a sort of wide-eyed wonder. "Think you can do that?"

It was then she caught Spike's judgmental and disapproving look from back on the beach and she sighed. "...Nevermind. Go back and have fun with the others." Scatterbug nodded and smiled, beginning the steady crawl back to their companions and Ai had to look away. 

This was going to be a long summer.

Summer was always one of Kaleo’s busiest times. In recent years, it was a whirlwind season for concerts and promotional events; before that, it was a constant juggling act of trying to figure out what to do with his three younger siblings while they were out of school when he had to work. It was a rare day that he actually had more than an hour to himself, let alone a full day... but the whole regional journey was a blessing in more ways than one, it’d seem.

{...So, you’re just going to sleep all day, then?}

“Yup.” Kaleo grinned, settling back on the makeshift pillow he’d fashioned out of his shirt and jacket and tipping the brim of his snap-back over his eyes. Ah, afternoon naps in the sun, he’d missed you so. “Wake me when ya want dinner, ‘kay?...”

Hibi said something else, but he was already out.

150 Words ● --- ● aw yis god of word count