"To market, to market, to buy a big frog…"
"You know it's 'fat pig', Luke, right?"
"Ehh, you're a fat pig."
"I mean, she's gonna be, if you been feeding her this way."
Lucas scoffed a crunchy scoff, lip riding up to show two teeth; without lookin' away from the tank, he wiggled in place, chin nestling for a more settled spot on his arms crossed up on the table. "We got frogs, Zoe; how'm I gonna not feed her frogs if I can catch 'em…?"
"Wouldn't mind gettin' Mama to let us go to the pet shop next time we go to town." Zoe crossed her arms; strode up behind Lucas, watchin' the back of his head.
Far less keen than he was on hunkering right down to watch the critter-on-critter wrestling match unfolding behind glass.
"Frogs're free," he hissed.
"Look - I'll pay for 'em, if I got to. Gotta be more sustainable than catching frogs however often these things gotta eat, right…?"
A curdled grumble; a restricted waggling of his head.
Zoe thinned her lips, blinking under a furrowing of her eyebrows.
Wasn't without some of her lingering reluctance, admittedly born outta politeness more than anything else, that she did finally lift her eyes up to the tank. Tried not to internally wince as the big dark mama scorpion jabbed her stinger twice into the frog about her own size that she'd somehow managed to get a grip on in her claws.
Supposed it was easier that the thing was already motionless.
She wasn't sure if it was in her brain or in her chest that a scale tipped, side-to-side, as if bobbin' on a subtle wave.
"And here I thought everybody was wantin' me to be responsible," Lucas said. Pinched. Slippery. Tart.
She tugged the tiniest smirk, eyes falling back to him. Just a pulse; lasted a split-second. She figured she wasn't supposed to smile at that.
Resummoning it, wearily, an exhale fallin' out with the modicum of effort and all, she gave herself a reason to smirk, instead.
"...Guess you are a good mama scorpion, yourself." The sentence trailed out and curled along the bottom of her smoked-out throat till it swelled in the air, with some degree of heart and humor. She heard Lucas scoff again, and the muscles in her face lightened; lifted. "Huntin' for the family."
"Yeahhhh, no shit, Zo'." He nodded to the side - not far enough that she could make out any of his face. Made a sneezy sound, before lifting a shoulder in a sorta-shrug. "Whaddya think Mama here was eatin' before I pulled her outta the crawlspace?"
Mama.
Not "Mama Scorpion".
...Always kinda made Zoe's brain skip for a second.
Her smile fell milder.
"...You ain't feedin' them nothing but frogs, though, right…?" She meandered up a little closer - half-considered puttin' a hand on Lucas's shoulder, lookin' at the spot as she mentally weighed the gesture; but refrained. Lifted her eyes to the biggest of the eight scorpions in the tank again. Its shell shone in the tank's overhead light; it, like the frog, now held motionless, its stinger still poised. "You're gonna have a hard time catchin' enough to keep 'em all fed, when they get bigger, and I don't got enough in the time to help you, if that's what you were thinkin'..."
"Nyehhhh…!" Lucas didn't look at her. But he did finally turn his face aside enough that she could see his face screwing up; he shrugged again, head cockin' in a good ol' slow-motion "Thriller" dance-step. His voice lightened; lilted, despite his lack o' smile. "I feed 'em all kinds a' stuff I find, sure: grubs 'n shit like that - maybe dead lizards or takin' mice from the traps…"
Zoe puffed a snicker - swore she wouldn't tell that the mice hadn't, in fact, gotten too smart for the traps. Probably. Was a good balance, after all; Mom 'n Dad would keep puttin' traps out, mice would keep getting caught, 'n Lucas both wouldn't get charged with meddling and would still have scorpion food.
Lucas, meanwhile, shifted his weight side-to-side, flexing his shoulders into settling over the desk again, one index finger tapping in slow, wooden movements.
Looked like a scorpion's stinger, goin' up, and down.
"...Frogs're just fun," he husked.