Disclaimer: I do not own Animal Crossing: Wild World, or Ai and Yu, who were from the Animal Crossing movie.

"Fireflies are my favorite!" Rosie cooed next to Ai, who just laughed. "Aren't they beautiful? Don't they just light up the whole sky?"

"They are rather gorgeous," Margie said softly, sketching as usual. "I think I can incorporate the radiance of the fireflies into one of my designs. I wonder how that would look…"

The cat turned to the elephant- what an unlikely pair- and squealed. "Now that would be gorgeous, silly! Don't you think so, Ai?" she watched her friend carefully, and in turn her friend watched the fireflies, mesmerized. "Ai?"

The girl observed every movement of one particular firefly from the bunch. She wasn't sure why, but it's like was flickering on and off- or so it seemed, at least. Ai was amazed at how much longing she felt towards the other fireflies, who shone so beautifully and could go wherever they pleased, and how much empathy she felt towards the lone firefly that tried so desperately to blend in when it so clearly couldn't.

"It's just…the fireflies…they're so…"

"Gotcha!" a familiar voice shouted, and a net swooped down and over the lone firefly, which was soon after bottled up in a jar.

Ai gaped at Yu, who was already doing a celebratory dance with Alfonso. "We did it, it's a me!" the alligator was cheering, spinning around and around the boy, who was waving the jar in the air until he actually looked at the firefly in it.

"It's defective!" he whined. "Look, it won't light up all the way! Ai, will you help me get a new one?"

"No!" the girl said so forcefully that everyone turned and looked at her. "I…I can't believe you, Yu!"

She stormed off, leaving the boy alone with his jar, stunned. "But…" he called after her.

Ai wouldn't have any of it. She kept on going, over the bridge, past a whole other swarm of- of course- perfect fireflies and into her house, where she slammed the door behind her and pulled out a piece of paper from her drawer.

Dear Mom, she began, wiping a tear from her eye.

I miss you so much sometimes- like now. I miss home. I miss your cherry pies and Dad's silly jokes, and I miss watching the fireflies with you guys when I was little. There are cherry pies here too, but they're not yours. Lots of people tell jokes, but they're nothing like dad's. And there are fireflies here too…but people aren't content to just watch them. They have to catch them, too.

I wish I could come visit, but I can't. I'm going to attach some of the cherries from here- hopefully they stay fresh all the way back home so you can make a cherry pie for you and dad.

Lots of Love,

Ai

The next day, Ai went out and headed over to the notice board first. Alfonso's birthday is coming up, she noted, and then skipped past the familiar talking to myself that was scrawled at the top of the next notice. A bug competition. No doubt Yu will enter himself and that poor firefly…

"Hey Ai," the boy's cheerful voice sounded.

Speak of the devil, she huffed to herself as she turned around and folded her arms. "What?" she asked him.

"Are you still mad at me for the firefly thing?" the boy sighed. "Look, Margie and Rosie told me about how you were watching it…I'm sorry if you wanted to catch it for yourself. Here, I saved it for you. I want you to have it."

Ai looked at the tiny thing, it's flickering light barely visible with the sun's rays on them, and gasped. "I don't want it, Yu! I don't want to keep one in my house as some sort of decoration! Sometimes I don't think you know anything about me at all," she said the last part so quietly that she wouldn't have been able to tell if he had heard it had his jaw not dropped so low.

With that she headed into the post office, delivering her letter to her mother and hoping that it would reach her soon. She was often caught off guard with just how much she missed her family.

When she was outside again, it was only to discover that Yu was long gone. She couldn't even hear Alfonso's shouting in the distance. Maybe he went back to his own town for once, she wondered to herself. He spent nearly all of his time in her's; she wondered if maybe his was just waiting for him, falling to pieces without him…

Probably not, she thought to herself. The world doesn't need him to keep it stable.

However, she was beginning to wonder if she did.

The sun was setting when she finally returned to her home, after long visits with Rosie and Margie. In the back of her mind, she wondered if she had hurt Yu's feelings again, and she wondered whose turn it was to apologize- and at the same time, she pleaded with herself to get rid of the thoughts of that boy and try to continue on as she always did.

The familiar sounds of K.K. Slider welcomed her into her home, playing- as always- on her little boombox, but there was another, much more familiar sound as well.

Fireflies sitting in jars were all around her room, lighting it up so bright she would have thought the light switch was on. Standing in the front of all of the creatures was a smiling Yu, who was holding the 'defective' one in his hands.

"Yu, when I said I didn't want to keep one in my house, I didn't mean-,"

"No, no!" he interrupted quickly, handing the firefly to her. "They're not to keep. They're to release. These are all the fireflies I've caught and others have caught, and the extras that were in the museum- they only need one, after all. And they're all here to be released, by me and you."

A smile lit Ai's face as she set the firefly down next to her and flung her arms around Yu's neck.

"Yu, this is the nicest thing you've ever done for me!" she squealed. She wasn't surprised that Yu didn't return the hug, but she was a little stunned that he blushed and didn't push her away.

"Well…I wasn't thinking about how you felt when I caught this one. I should have..." he sounded like he was having a real hard time getting the words out, making Ai smile even more. "I should have…putyourfeelingsfirst."

"Excuse me?" she asked, pulling away with one eyebrow lifted.

He rolled his eyes. "I'm only going to say it one more time Ai…I should have put your feelings first. Happy?"

"Yes. Very," she told him, grinning as she picked her little firefly up again. "This one first, okay? Help me with the lid."

They both set their hands on top of the lid, and after a moment where it seemed like the poor thing might be stuck in there, it unscrewed and then the pair easily pulled it off, dropping the jar in shock and watching as the firefly managed to zoom out and light up the darkening sky before her doorway.

They turned to each other with a smile, and that was how every firefly was released for the rest of the night- by which time all of the villagers had come by to see the show.

"It's amazing, Yu," Ai whispered when they were all free from their prisons, flitting around in the night sky.

"They look a lot better like this then they do cooped up in those jars," Yu mumbled solemnly, and for one little hopeful moment, Ai thought that perhaps he had finally began to felt that longing for something more that she had been dealing with for so long…

And then Alfonso swooped in, dancing about with the fireflies. "This is great, it's a me!"

Yu joined him, cupping his hands gently around each one to observe it before moving along, doing a dance on the way. Ai merely watched him and the fireflies, leaning against the doorframe, a small smile on her face. Something more could wait.

Author's Note: Thanks to the lone reviewer of the last piece. :p I appreciate it a lot. And thanks to everyone who read this, checked it out, whatever. I also appreciate that just as much. Thank you guys for reading, hope you liked it! :D