"Ha!" Webby said, her fists triumphantly pumping in the air. " I win again!"
"Honestly," Lena said, making another board on the sand. "This is the most competitive game of tic tac toe I've ever seen with Webby."
"Okay," Louie said, drawing in the sand the tallies. "Webby won 4, Lena has 2 and I have nothing."
The girls laughed as they both began to make their new moves until...
Boom
Crash
Rumble
The three heads shot up as they saw fireworks lighting penetraiting the sky with their noise and colors. Fireworks came in different shapes and colors but all came in the same result that they sizzled again and reincarnated as powder. They stuck to the air as the colors danced around.
"Oh my gosh!" Webby yelled, abandoning the game. "It's here!!"
Webby began to run out towards the ocean seeping by her legs. It was finally happening. All those years in the distance of a tower. Never to touch the dust in her hands. Never to have the firsthand and primary experience of seeing the dust live. It was here and happening. Nothing she has ever done will compare to now.
This is the best gift she could have been ever given. An experience to hold dear to her and cherish forever.
"Wow," Webby exclaimed, breathless at the scene. "Look at it Lena! It's beautiful."
It seemed like the world has shifted. Like the world was watching this. Perhaps people were eating popcorn at the scene or recording the scene and then making it their home screen.
Or maybe they were like Webby, never to have seen it beforehand.
"Pink?"
Webby turned her head and saw Louie standing on the sand. In one hand, he held out something in his hands, like a rocket maybe? Or a bottle of dynamite? In the other, he held a pair goggles and ear plugs.
Webby gasped. "You mean we can..."
"We can if you want to. Unless you don't..."
"Yes," Webby said, abruptly. "Let em rip!"
Louie handed a goggle and ear plugs to Webby and Webby handed her shadow version to Lena. Then, Louie began to light up a match and set it towards the end of the firecracker. It gave a silent sizzle.
"Watch out!" Louie yelled.
Soon, the firework began to erupt into the sky, joining its fellow brothers and sisters. It's sound only heard by the three who set it off. Soon, it sizzled as powder once more.
Louie began to admire his handiwork that he did himself as he felt a small tap to the shoulder.
"Um Louie?" Webby said. "There's something I wanted to give you back. I remember our deal from some time and I want to give you this now as an early thank you present."
Webby began to reach behind her back and pulled out the beat up old chocolate brown bag.
"Wait. So you're telling me that you had this with you the entire time?" Louie asked, digging through the bag and found his cell phone where it now had a crack on the screen.
"I know our compromise is that you take me to see the fireworks and take me back home, but if I have to be real, the unknown sounds cool and I want to explore it more. You know?" Webby said, stuttering over a couple of words. "I'm not scared. I'm willing to go."
Louie looked at the beat up old bag and then to Webby, her eyes averting his. He gave a small smile. "That's great." He whispered.
Webby gave a small girly giggle that was something unlike her. She stopped as her beak lit pink and hoped that Louie didn't notice.
Gosh, what it wrong with me? Webby wondered, but couldn't let it out of her head.
Louie noticed her giggle and did not mistake it for anything else.
Did she just... No... No... It's wrong. I'm her escort. Nothing more or less.
Both did not know what to say about this. It turned to an uneasy tension while Lena just sat there, looking interested in a way, like it was one of those cheesy, cliché rom-com movies.
"Wow, look at the sky!" Lena exclaimed, wanting those two to just move on and not make it any worse than what they intent.
"Oh my gosh look!" Webby said, forgetting about what she did, and pointed to the sky. "they're making shapes!"
Louie looked and saw that they were. Making the regular polygons and abstract shapes and lines. He began to grab a bit of dust and smear it all over Webby's beak.
"Whoops," he said, with the most fake regret voice he could muster. "I'm so sorry pinky. It was an accident!"
Webby looked at her beak and took some powder off her and smeared half onto his goggles and the other half onto his jacket.
"Oops," she said, feigning innocence by quivering the bottom part of her beak, looking like she was ready to cry. "I'm dearly sorry."
"Oh get a room." Lena said, smiling as she turned back into Webby's shadow, letting the moment happen to them.
"Why you..." Louie said as he yanked off his goggles and earplugs and began to grab dust from the air and tackled Webby down. She did the same and both began a fight with powder.
It was a glory of explosions and playful banter galore. Both dodging, ducking, jumping, and taunting around like children playing on the playground.
"Come out, come out pinky." Louie said, his face now covered in every color of the rainbow as he held some pink dust in his hand. "Don't make this harder for you..."
Every step he went, the thicker the dust is. It was the perfect scenario to hide, but the disadvantage was that it wasn't easy to find.
Louie walked around aimlessly until...
Poof
Louie's face was met with a ball of green dust. He began to cough and sputter out all the dust from his mouth. Soon he was met by a cheering Webby. Triumphantly letting dust fall from her fingers.
"Hey! It's not fair!" Louie said, playfully growling.
"All is a fair game dear Llewellyn," Webby said, drawling his real name slowly and teasingly.
She was right, but this duck wasn't going to back down that easily. After all, he is Louie Duck.
"You know what?" Louie said, thinking slowly. "perhaps you're right." He said, his face falling.
"Ha!" She cheered. "take that..."
Webby never got to finish her sentence as dust flung towards her face. She began to cough, but was then tackled to the ground, Louie pinning her down.
She was fast, Louie will admit, but he was going to prove he was stronger.
"Gotcha." Louie said, his breath short and ragged as he pinned her arms down the side and his legs locking her hips and legs.
"Louie!" Webby exclaimed, "Lemme go!"
"Not til you admit I'm better than you." Louie said.
"Never. Not on my soul." Webby swore, her eyes bright.
"Suit yourself." Louie said as he raised his hands and tickle her lightly on her waist.
"Louie! Please... Oh my... I... I... You win!" She screamed. "You win mighty fighter!"
Louie smirked as he released his grip on the lady. Webby sat up and wiped the sand off her hair and clothes.
"That was fun." She whispered, her face still flushed from that activity.
"Yeah." Louie said as he helped brushed the dust and sand on her hair and off of his. "It is."
Louie looked at Webby, gazing at the sky above. She was one of the special, rare fish in the sea that was really hard to find and catch. She was crazy (in the most loving way), spirited, optimistic, and Louie could go on and on, listing Webby's charisma.
She had an affect on him. She reminded him of Huey, nerdy in their own style and like Dewey, crazy and high spirited, yet she was her own person. For someone stuck in a tower for 18 years she had more social skills than him. Heck, she's like the sun, who has bright and positive vibes all around her.
Louie never had expectations or hoped for a girlfriend. He was just centered in finding a route to his fortune, find a away to talk to his family again, and become rich but damn the tender woes of the heart, leaving him defenseless in this situation.
"Hey Webby..." Louie said.
Webby jumped at the sudden change of names.
He called me Webby... Was it something I did? Or done? Oh I should have known...
"Yeah?" Webby said, ignoring her own train of thoughts.
"You know..." Louie said, stroking the small dirty white hair strand from her bow. "I'm willing to help you with the unknown part. With helping you see the world."
Webby's eyes lit with excitement and something else he could decipher. Something not known to any man.
"You... You'd do that?" She whispered, her thumb now extending towards the soft tufts of whiskers that were slowly growing in, touching them softly.
Louie hummed at the sensation as he pulled Webby closer towards him. She showed no sign of resisting as she came closer and sat next to him, her legs touching his.
"What do you think?" Louie asked softly, and slightly dark that made Webby blush.
"I mean... I'd like to have you along Louie." She said, fluttering her lashes all lady like.
"Me too."
Webby didn't know what to expect next. Her knees were weak, palms shaking, and her breath uneven. Was this the feeling when one of the heroines in a book she read felt when they kissed their lover? Louie as a lover? Is she unsure of this? Will she ever feel like this again? What if she messed up? What if she was bad at it?
"Louie," Webby said, softly. "I don't... I'm..."
"Shh..." He silenced her beak with his finger. "It's alright."
"No it isn't," she admitted. "I mean, I don't know what to do."
Louie cupped the side of her face and his thumb stroked the side of her cheek.
"Well... I do."
Webby was on the verge of losing herself in all this. He was smooth, yet gentle with all this. At that, she didn't know what more than to just lean in and tilt her head to the side.
Her beak met his, almost touching like the whisper of a kiss. It was soft, warm and gentle. Both began to relax as it seemed natural to them. Beak to beak, cheek to cheek.
Louie and Webby slowly separated as they exchanged half lidded gazes. Both blushing and embarrassed like school children who got caught, yet more confident in what they did.
"You like it?" Louie asked.
"Yup," Webby said, pushing her hair back. "It felt great. More than great!" Then she paused and twirled her dirty white hair nervously. "It was my first and I want to do it again. That is if you want to."
Louie stood up and helped Webby up.
"Don't mind if I do." Louie said and with no warning, he pressed his beak onto hers, his arms looping around her waist.
Webby began to kiss back as well as she buried one hand into Louie's hair and the other onto his neck. She gave a small hum of satisfaction and kicked her foot into the air.
It was a perfect night to Webby's birthday. She got her dream, saw Duckburg, and (something that wasn't on her list, but still a bonus) a kiss. The world stopped for this moment, and is was going to last.
Until it had to end abruptly.
Far from the bushes of the now forest where it lead to the sand, stood four figures, looking at the pair from afar.
"I can't take it. Let's get em!" The shortest whispered yelled.
"Not yet!" Hissed the slim duck. "I will not allow an ambush on Webbigail and that boy."
"Well. What now?" Asked a burly one.
The duck looked at the pair, now in blissful harmony as they just looked at each other and the colors in the sky.
The duck narrowed her eyes in small slits. "Knock them out in silence. Then bring them both to the far part of the forest. You know what to do then."
The three looked at each other and grinned devilishly as they soon grabbed a bag and stealthily moved towards the two lovers.
Webby's forehead rested on Louie's forehead as they stood there, relishing what happened in silence.
"It's quiet here." Webby said, looking around, touching the dust.
"Quiet can be good or bad, depending on the situation," Louie murmured in her hair. "I'd say, it's good right now."
"You sure got that right!"
They looked up and saw a short beagle looking at them, sneering.
"You again?" Louie yelled, but before he could say anything else, he was struck on the back of the head with a metal pole by a skinny beagle.
Webby looked at the now unconscious Louie and raised her braid to attack, but her beak was clamped shut by the biggest beagle and a cloth was now on. She began to feel fuzzy, distant, and sleep like. She looked at her hand. Did she always have three hands?
Soon, her eyes were closed as the last thing on Webby's vision was Louie and the firework lights.