An emperor butterfly danced across Yuna's fingers, fluttering its wings and teetering across her knuckles. She laid back on the island grass, tucked her arm behind her head, and continued to play with the creature while casting furtive glances at Alice.

She was swimming out in the blue, dipping below the surface to pop back up with skittish sea life in her hand, all of which succeeded in struggling out of her grasp. Alice eventually gave up and waded up the shore. Her red hair clung to her cheeks like hands.

"God damn expert," she panted. "I told you."

Yuna laughed. "At least you can fish."

"At least I can fished." Alice dropped down beside Yuna and tugged at the grass. "How's the island treating you?"

"Just fine," Yuna said. She lifted the butterfly off of her finger and released it. "They have some beautiful furniture here. I just can't afford it."

"Sure you can. All you need are some medals; they don't take Bells."

"Medals?"

"From tours."

Yuna frowned. "Tours?"

"Welcome to the beginner scavenger hunt tour-"

Yuna stared at Tortimer, shifting on her feet and glancing over at Alice, nonplussed and a little smug. Maybe. She can probably tell I'm not paying attention.

"Go!"

Yuna stifled a yelp at Tortimer's shout and scurried to the nearest house. Calm down, check your list:

astro bed

round cactus

regal bed

fireplace

Easily distinguishable. How many houses on this island? Five? Just find one-

Yuna charged through a rusty door into a yellow house. A lot of yellow furniture, but is that-yes, a fireplace, grab it! Are we stealing from people on the island, or are these getting returned? Shit.

Yuna tripped out the door and ran east to a distant smokestack.

Alice, meanwhile, was in no hurry. She strolled from house to house, north to south, all while ogling the bugs and wildflowers she stumbled across along the way. By the time Alice had found everything on her list, Yuna was back at the square, heaving in air with her hands on her knees and four large furniture leaves scattered at her feet.

"Jeez, kid, you didn't have to run," Alice said. She handed her leaves to Tortimer.

"Maybe not," coughed Tortimer, "but she did win the Gold with six medals."

Alice grinned. "Hey, Yuna, that's great! I told you it wouldn't be so bad."

Yuna glared up at her. "Sure. How many more do I need?"

"Well, if you want the whole set in the mermaid series and each piece goes for 40 medals…" Alice trailed off. "We'll be here awhile."

Yuna groaned. "Oh, god."

"We can always come back."

"No," snapped Yuna. "I'm getting all of it."

Alice offered her hand and smirked. "We better get going then."

Eight hours and thirteen pieces of furniture later, Yuna collapsed on the island's beach. Alice, who had gotten a net from Lloyd, stared down at her and shook her head. "You don't look like you're up for bug hunting."

Yuna grunted. She rolled over, huffed, and looked up at the stars, lids heavy and mouth agape. "I've had plenty of that today, thanks."

"Too bad," said Alice. "I was going to show you the secret to my vast riches."

"Can't I just watch from here?" Yuna asked. "This island isn't even a fourth of a square mile."

"I guess, if you want to be that way." Alice stood and balanced her net on her shoulder; no gold mesh or polished handle today. Kapp'n had taken all her precious tools away before they left Paradise.

Alice gestured for Yuna to be quiet and pointed to a coconut tree; a large black beetle was perched on the trunk, with three round horns shining in the moonlight. Alice crept towards it on the balls of her feet. She leaned forward, adjusted her grip on her net, and-

swung.

Alice scooped the net back towards her and reached inside. "And here we have the gorgeous Atlas beetle." She pulled the beetle out with a gentle hand. It squirmed under her fingers and she moved her fingers a few centimeters to accommodate it.

Yuna scrambled to her feet to get a closer look. "It's massive."

Alice nodded, smiling. "This isn't even as big as they usually get." She shoved the beetle into her pocket and peered at the other trees. "The Atlas goes for eight thousand Bells. Some here go for ten or twelve thousand."

"You just come out here and farm them," Yuna said. She watched as Alice approached another tree and shook her head.

Alice swung her net over a shimmering gold beetle. "Since the day I got here."

Yuna and Alice kissed for the first time in Kapp'n's boat on their way back to Paradise. Kapp'n was whistling an old sea lullaby, and Yuna was wrapped up in a blanket to protect her from the ocean chill. Halfway through their trip, Yuna looked at Alice's profile until she looked back, then tilted her head forward and kissed her. Kapp'n continued to whisper.

"Don't go home right away when we get back," murmured Alice after they broke away. "There's something I want-something I need to show you."

x-x-x

hello i'm trash i'm so sorry. i don't have any excuses for the huge chapter gap other than finishing high school and moping around about the future, and this chapter is fairly short, but i'll really try to get the next (and possibly last) chapter up within the next week. again, i pre-write in notebooks and then quickly copy them into documents with minor additions and some editing, so there are almost always things i miss, and i apologize for that.