Lightning Bugs


Max was a curious little girl, at eight-years-old she had already made a new friend in this new town. He was nice and didn't talk too much while the town was small and comfy and completely different from Alaska, where it was always cold, except in the summer when the Sun didn't want to go down.

She liked it, it was warm here and had tons of trees for her to play in if she went far out enough, there was also cornfields that went on for miles and miles in either direction once you got out of the city limits, which wasn't too hard since Napton, Missouri was about the size of a pinky nail.

Her mom liked it too, there were always tons of pets going in and out of her office. But on with the story, right now she had her nose pressed against the glass of the window absolutely entranced by the glowing gold orbs outside. Her breath made the window fog but she didn't seem to mind.

She tuned her little blonde-brown head towards the living room where her babysitter Vikki was, talking on the phone to her friends. She looked at the door, it wasn't that new, it would make noise if she moved it at all. She peered back at the living room again, Vikki was smacking gum in her mouth loudly and wouldn't notice if an eight-year-old wasn't in the house. So, with the grace of a butterfly (something she didn't know she had) she opened the door and silently crept out.

Max quickly ran over to her friend Fang's house and knocked on the door loudly so he would be able to hear it, no matter where he was. But instead of Fang, she got his mom, who bent down on her knees to talk to her, "Hey Max. Do you want to play with Fang?"

Max nodded her head and rocked back on her heels. "Yes, please." Normally she wouldn't be this polite, but Fang's mom was scary and Max didn't want to mess with her.

She reached over and messed up Max's hair before getting back up and saying to her, "I'll get him real quick for you." She shut the door and Max waited for what seemed like hours before it opened and Fang popped out.

He nodded his head at her, his way of saying hi. She grabbed his hand pulling him from the porch and on to the grass of her front lawn. She pointed to one of the glowing bugs, "What are they?" It wasn't a question, so much as a demand.

He pointed to one of the bugs, "Those?" He asked.

She sighed and pulled her hand from his putting it on her hip, "No the stink bug over there, yes those!" She stabbed angrily at the air.

"Those are lightning bugs."

"What? Why are they called that?"

He gave her an incredulous look. "Because they light up." One flew by his head and he snatched it up quickly. He opened his palm up and showed it to her as it lit up. "See?" The bug flew away and was soon lost within the masses. "You catch 'em and put them in a jar and punch air holes in so they can breathe, then let them go in the morning."

"Why do you put them in a jar?"

"So you can keep them in your room as a nightlight." He said. He grabbed her arm and pulled her in the house, he pulled a chair up to the cabinet and got a glass down along with some plastic wrap. "Do you have a hair tie?"

She nodded and slid one off her wrist, "Here. What are you doing?" She asked as he got scissors and cut tiny holes in the plastic wrap. "Wait-are we going to catch them?" He nodded and got all the stuff together.

"Let's go."

*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*

Max held a small cup of glowing lightning bugs in her hand. She looked at Fang who was on her front porch. "Thank you." She said in an oddly soft tone for her usual voice.

He shrugged, "It's fine."

In that moment they looked and felt a lot older than they actually were and almost automatically, without her consent, Max planted a soft kiss on Fang's cheek before opening the door and closing it as fast as she could, racing up the stairs. She breathed heavily and ignored Vikki's calls. She smiled happily putting the cup of lightning bugs on her nightstand and smiled at them faintly. She snuggled deeper into her comforter and sighed slipping away into la la land.

*-.-*-.-*-.-*-.-*

Fang faintly touched his cheek as he walked towards his house. A small blush filled his face and in that moment he decided something.

One day when he was super old (twenty-six) he was going to marry Max.


A/N: What do you do when you don't feel like working on your FF stories? You become a one-shot Queen of course! But there are some things I would like to discuss:

1) Napton is real and it takes less than thirty seconds to drive through the biggest part of it. It only has a population count of less than two-hundred and it gets its mail from my teeny tiny town.
2) Go read To Live by Pinkcatheaven. Go do it. Right now. Before I kill you.
3) I have blog. sillylittlemindofmine . blogspot . com remove the spaces and support a little kids dream. *bambi eyes* Please?
4) I have discovered that my second best friend is going to moving out of her neighborhood so if you expect me to do too much, don't. More than half my time is going to be spent there, helping her pack all of her 1D posters and stuffed animals.
5) Old movies suck. Don't ever watch The African Queen or Planet of the Apes.
6) I stubbed my toe and it's purple.

R&R?