Day 3: Domestic Life
Kalin sighed as he leaned back on the porch swing and closed his eyes. The summer temperatures were cooling down now, especially towards evening, and it felt good just resting there after a long day of doing laundry, vacuuming, and dusting. He didn't budge as the gentle evening breeze tousled his hair.
"This is nice, isn't it?" Radley mused, relaxing beside him.
Kalin nodded without opening his eyes. Radley being with him was the nicest thing about it. Strange how he had once never dreamed this sort of peaceful existence would be his future or that he would even want that. But it was all he wanted.
"Scotch loves Fall so much, he starts getting excited when there's noticeable changes like dropping temperatures and the sun setting a little earlier," Radley said. "I'm with him on the temperatures, that's for sure. I can't say I'm sad to see summer end."
"I'm definitely not," Kalin said. "I always hated summer in the Satellite. The heat made everything harder to enjoy. You and the Bunch showed me how to get more satisfaction out of summer, but it's still not a favorite season."
Radley patted his hand. "I'm glad we could do that, at least." He moved closer to Kalin on the swing.
Kalin opened his eyes and put his arm around Radley's shoulders, drawing him closer still.
Radley snuggled against him. "Scotch wants all of us to play Capture the Flag when it gets a little cooler," he said.
"That was one of the things we played in the Satellite." Kalin looked a bit interested. "I always wanted to be captain of a team. Yusei was willing, but Jack and Crow sometimes objected. Jack especially wanted to be captain too." He smirked a bit.
"Of course he did," Radley smirked back.
"We'd usually end up compromising by having Jack be captain of the opposing team," Kalin said.
"I'm pretty sure Scotch is hoping to be a team captain now," Radley said. "I'd be okay with him and you being captains."
Kalin shook his head. "I've had my fill. I'd like to see what it's like from a non-captain perspective. You can be captain, if you want. Or if you want to be on Scotch's team, we can both be non-captain players."
"Usually Scotch and I are the team captains," Radley said. "It's all in friendly fun."
"Unlike our old games," Kalin grunted. "Jack and I were both much too competitive, like we were in every other aspect of life."
Radley smiled faintly in understanding. "Yeah. . . ."
"We also need to work more on our plans for the Labor Day festival," Kalin said.
Radley's eyes gleamed at that. "I've already secured some great vendors," he said. "Scotch insisted we have some with Pokemon and Mario merch. That's easy enough to find with the carnival games, but with the individual sellers, I've been having a time finding ones who don't carry bootlegs."
"Does it matter?" Kalin asked.
"It does if the bootlegs aren't as high quality and might fall apart," Radley said. "I don't really like when they're noticeably the wrong colors either. If it's unofficial merch you can't find anywhere else and it's made well, like stuff you might find on Etsy, I don't care so much. I'm always willing to give good up-and-coming businesspeople a place to sell their wares. It's good for both them and us."
"Of course," Kalin smirked.
"If we do a good enough job, the word will get out that Satisfaction Town is a very desirable destination for the Labor Day weekend," Radley said. He couldn't hide his excitement at that prospect.
"I'm sure with your planning, everything will go exactly as you hope for," Kalin said. "You're good at business ventures. I'm better at keeping the peace." For that reason, he had mostly stayed out of the business-related decisions, although he had kept involved in the ideas for where and how the festival would be set up and what would be included.
"Oh, I don't know," Radley smiled. "I've really enjoyed planning everything out with you."
Kalin smiled a bit too. "I have too."
Radley fell silent for a moment. ". . . You know, heat aside, maybe in some other ways I am an itty-bit sad for summer to end. I really don't mind the longer days. They're good for exploring and traveling."
Kalin shrugged. "I can take or leave them."
Radley chuckled. "I figured you'd say that."
"It's more that it seems like every time we explore, something goes wrong," Kalin grunted. "And I don't mind traveling at night. I have the path to the City memorized by now."
"Both good points," Radley mused.
Kalin leaned back, staring out at the sky. "I wouldn't mind exploring more, though. There must be something we could see without us being put in danger."
"You'd think so," Radley said. "It's a beautiful area."
"We can look more when the temperature cools down more," Kalin said.
"Yes, it's certainly not fun exploring when it's pushing 100," Radley remarked. He sighed and closed his eyes. "I don't think I will ever enjoy that kind of heat."
"Does anyone 'enjoy' it or do they just live with it?" Kalin said.
"Oh, there's some people who revel in it," Radley said. "As hard as that is to believe."
Kalin relaxed more as the sun fully set, leaving them in that strange and short part of day as twilight turned to dusk. Radley opened his eyes again, studying the sky and the people's homes.
"This is usually my favorite part of day," he mused, "and has been since long before the dusk duels. I'm not sure why. When everything is still light for these few minutes after the sunset, it feels so peaceful."
"Too bad it's so short," Kalin said.
"That makes me value it all the more," Radley said. "I like the time in the morning when it's gradually getting light before the sun rises too."
"You're usually asleep then," Kalin said.
Radley smirked. "Well, when I'm not, I still enjoy watching it. And the early morning sun makes me very nostalgic. I remember how I loved playing in my room in the sun patches as a kid."
". . . I liked that too," Kalin remembered.
"I'm glad we have good times to remember and not just the bad," Radley said.
"I'm even more glad that we mostly just have the good now," Kalin said.
"That's nice," Radley agreed, relaxing more against Kalin as the evening fully faded into night.