Endless Summer Sunshine

Laney listened intently on Kai. Bluebell was such a tiny town, most people were born and died there. The last ‘new’ person that had come to the tiny town was Lillian, who lived there. Rarely did the town see many visitors outside the Konahana citizens dropping by for a visit. So for one to travel around the world, own their own little restaurants of sea side shack in multiple different areas, seemed like a dream to her. To be able to live such a life had to be tiring, yet so incredible and exciting. 

“I see,” the blonde whispered to herself as she listened intently on the bandana wearing man in front of her. Blue eyes followed every movement he made around the kitchen, watching him just as intently as she listened to him. She wasn’t afraid he would mess up her tea order, oh no, that was fine. Tea was easy. But the way he moved around was almost like a dance. Arms lifting, his body tending to every movement in a slow and steady way.

She moved her hands back up to the towel on the top of her head, making sure it hadn’t fallen out of place. “It must have been tough work to own your business, and four of them!” It was amazing, to her at least. “Is it not lonely to have to move from town to town?”

“I only ask that because I have a business as well.” She blurted out. Oh great, here she went. She wanted to know about him; so it was only right for him to learn about her. “I co-own my business with a farmer nearby where I live. He supplies the produce and I bake pies, cakes, cupcakes- we had an order recently for a pineapple upside down cake which was unusual from our clientele. I also work at my father’s cafe in Bluebell. I guess the reason I cleaned up that mess was because I’m so used to it at home.” She paused for a short bit, before waving a hand in front of her. “But we aren’t talking about me! I’m sorry for that!”

Laney let out a laugh, holding a hand in front of her mouth again. She was laughing both because of her own babbling, and because of Kai’s ridiculousness. “Thank you,” she smiled. She surveyed the different boxes of tea before picking up a bag of rose tea. “I think this one would be perfect for a day like today.” Her eyes twinkled at the package; one of her favorite teas.

But, as she turned around to look back at Kai, her heart almost stopped. That wink. There was something about it that just made Laney stop dead in her thoughts. He was, really, really cute. His voice was cute. His eyes, dark and full of life, were cute. Dear Goddess, his face was really cute with a slender nose and a beautiful smile. So different from Ash and Kamil, so blunt and honest. “Stir fry would be lovely.” She said matter of factly with a smile. 

“Laney Dufour.” She gave him a soft smile, before taking his hands into her’s. With a gentle handshake, she continued, “and it is a pleasure to meet you as well Kai.”

Was it lonely to move from town to town so often? Kai thought to himself for a moment on his answer to that question, not really to sure of the answer. “Lonely?” He repeated, giving himself more time to think. “Nah, not really in the sense that you’d think it’d be! I mean luckily everyone is just so nice, it’s hard to be lonely when you’re surrounded by such kind hearted people.” As he went forth with his chatting, Kai retrieved the cookware he needed to put together stir fry a dish he’s made over and over again. With a bit of flare, he pun the frying pan in his hand while he spoke to her, before lighting another burner and putting it down.

“But I do suppose it gets lonely in the sense where sometimes you just constantly miss the people you’re close to.” He poured out oil onto the hot pan, becoming so used to the motion that he looked at her over his shoulder as he spoke. “Though I suppose that’s the give and take, missing your people but getting to see different towns and different parts of the world. Guess you can’t have both.” The man smile with a bright grin. “Though for now the mayor said he’d pay me quite a bit to hang around Mineral Town for a while, so it’ll be nice having some time back in the place I consider home.”

When the girl mentioned that she ran of a business of her own, Kai looked to her with an even more intrigued sense of curiosity. “Really now?” He chimed while he was retrieving his hoard of previously chopped vegetables from the fridge. As he listened to her speak, he bit into a spare piece of chopped bell pepper while he poured the rest into the pan.

“A baker hm? Well, now I understand why I got such a sweet vibe from ‘ya! I can’t bake to save my life. I mean, if it was a life or death situation I could probably bake something— but it’d probably make them drop dead before they could come after me!” Laughter escaped from the man as he continued, shelling a couple shrimp as the pan continued to sizzle. “Pineapple upside down cake huh? Well we should do a little trade then!”

Throwing the lid on top of the pan and decreasing the flame to a mere simmer, with a swift motion he place the mug in front of her. A twist and a turn, and he picked up the teapot just as it was about to sound it’s alarm, and he filled the cup with it’s hot water. “Pineapples are kind of the best fruit there is.” He spoke teasingly, pushing the now full mug a little closer to her. “And I’m sure pineapple upside down cake, made by a professional baker like you, would be to die for.”

“So I purpose a trade,” He spoke with confidence. “Professional to professional, you tell me how you like my stir fry and then you stop by again sometime with this pineapple upside down cake you mentioned!” As he leaned against the counter, chin rested against his palm, he continued. “That way we don’t have to worry about anything like a bill at the end of this, simply using the barter system instead.” 

Though Kai simply shrugged his shoulders, smiling back at her as he turned back to the pan. “Though that might just be my silly excuse to see you again.”

This was the first time that it really hit Laney that oh yeah, sea shacks are by the sea! There would always be some form of a mess inside it, whether from the sand or the ocean water itself. People entering after spending the day at the beach, surfing, swimming, sun tanning. No wonder he was so relaxed over the rain water. “You’re right.” She felt silly for apologizing so much for something that wasn’t her fault. Her face turned down as she bit the inside of her lip; a habit she had taken up from her childhood years ago. A little water couldn’t hurt someone coming in; and during this rain storm, who would want to take a trip to the beach?

As the man talked (probably thinking he was chatting to himself, but Laney listened to every word, hanging onto everything he said), Laney couldn’t help but finding the man so… interesting? Was that it? “How many of those sea shacks do you own? And in how many places?” Small talk was one of her favorite things. After working in for her father since the age of thirteen, Laney had become a master of a sort. Chat up a customer, make them happy and smiley so they always come back with a smile on their face! That was their motto! “But, it must have been so fun to travel to different towns and celebrate summer there!”

“Oh, tea would be lovely, thank you.” The blonde smiled as she continued to wipe the floor with the rag. It didn’t take too long for the water droplets to be wiped off the floor. Laney stood up from her crouched position, smiling happy at her own little housework. She put her hands on her hips, settling the white rag her right hand before turning her head towards the courteous man.

“But there was a puddle!” Laney complained, flustered again over how silly it was that they were still focusing on this. She looked back at the now cleaned area, no sign of any rain droplets from her hair and body. “If you had a customer come in, I’d hate for them to slip and fall because of me.” Laney sat on a white barstool, watching the man’s movements as he focused on the drinks. “Hmmmm….” She thought to herself out loud. 

“Tea, and I guess I’ll have whatever your speciality is here. Like I said before, I’m not from a town with a beach so I’m not too sure what is beach appropriate food, but I would love to try something new and different. So, whatever you love to cook, I would love to taste ♪” Right as she said that, Laney let out a small gasp and put her hand in front of her mouth. “Oh no! I’m so sorry! I haven’t asked your name and you’ve been so kind and welcoming! What’s your name?”

“I know I’m right ♪.” The tan skinned man chimed in a teasing manner, too caught up in filling the teapot he was able to find with water to get on the stove. Thus, he didn’t even notice that she was still cleaning up the mess despite him waving it off. Sure, great job being right Kai. His attention was too focused, rubbing down some of the dust that collected on the tea pot since the last time he had used it. What? It’s been a while. Not many people want hot drinks during summer.

When the girl seemed so intent on learning about him, Kai rose an eyebrow and looked to her over his shoulder. “Hmm ...” He mused for a moment, after flicking the stove on and the flame began to heat the water. “I own four, but the one you’re standing in now is most definitely my pièce de résistance.” A flamboyant kiss to the air was all he managed before he began rummaging through his cabinets, he knew he had it somewhere ... “I’ve put my blood, sweat, tears and every dollar I made for two years into this shack. My other three are mere beachside, open air type shacks. Of course I still love them dearly, but this one’s my baby.”

Oh there it is! “I’ve got this one here in Mineral Town, I’ve got one up in the valley in a town called Forget-Me-Not, and—” Kai turned back around, proud he was able to find what he was looking for after definitely not seeing it for the better part of a year, but paused his speech when he noticed the girl had cleaned up the puddle anyway. “Oi!” He piped up in a fake, teasing type of angry tone. “I told you I would take care of it!” He chirped at her like an angry baby bird. Though the man merely ended up rolling his eyes, her logic somewhat flawless. “Alright alright, but you’re done cleaning up, you’re essentially like a guest in my house! I can’t my guest cleaning up.”

The man opened the box he had found, a wooden box with the inside decorated with a variety of different types of tea. Herbal, fruity, even some with a bit of spice, it was all he had collected over the past while. “M’lady.” He spoke while offering her the lot to pick from. “The water should be ready in just a sec— probably just a minute or two more.”

The blonde mentioned she wasn’t sure what beach appropriate food was, the man couldn’t help but let out a hearty laugh in response. “There’s not such thing as beach appropriate food! Every type’a food is good at the beach, but one that’s good at the beach while it’s raining? Lemme think.” Kai slipped off his purple bandana, running a hand through his hair while taking a second to thing while he looked behind him at what he had to work with. “Hmmm ...” Though when he perked back up, he threw the girl a catty wink. “I can make a mean stir fry, how’s that sound?”

The air conditioning of the sea shack gave Laney the chills. She crossed her arms over her bare skin, moving her hands back and forth against the porcelain skin. The cold air made the goosebumps pop up on her skin. Yet she tried her darn hardest to warm up her body. Between the rain sticking to her clothes, skin, and hair, drowning her and the air conditioning blowing, she was freezing.

“Again, I’m so sorry that I’m dripping wet into your store.” Laney apologized again. She looked around the store- and it was cute. White, pristine like it was rarely worked in, and so calm. No one but the man were inside the shop- was it because of the weather? Mineral Town seemed so quiet as she had ventured around earlier that day. It was like Bluebell in that way. It wasn’t a busy merchant town or bustling like a few other small towns she had visited on work. 

Her hands carefully took the brightly colored towel. “Oh, thank you so much!” Laney exclaimed with a smile on her face. Patting her clothes and legs dry, she quickly moved the towel to her hair and pulled it around the wet hair. Water was no longer dripping onto the floor from her long, blonde hair. Instead, it was now soaking the towel. Fun. But at least it kept it all together. Laney pushed a piece of her bangs back into the towel.

“I was just at the beach. There isn’t one in my hometown and I hadn’t seen the beach in forever so.” Laney let out a heavy sigh. “I didn’t know it was going to rain. Nor did I know it was going to go from a few raindrops to a heavy storm in a matter of seconds.”

As with the man’s words, Laney walked towards the bar. A small pool of water was at the front of the door. She looked around for a towel (not the one on her head, because her hair was going to be wet for EVER now). “Oh, a warm drink would be lovely- thank you!” She called to the man, as she carefully walked to the other side of the bar. She bent down by a little opening, looking for something, anything, to clean up the water. It didn’t take too long for her eyes to find a white rag, grabbing it.

Laney bent back down, wiping down the puddle of water that she had left. Okay, maybe she left more than that. Seeing how now there were small, little drops of water around the bar trailing back to her. 

“Dripping wet?” Kai asked in a tone that rose high in immense confusion. “You don’t have to apologize for something as silly as that.” He laughed openly, brushing off her concerns with a wave of his hand. People sure found strange things in life to stress over. “Remember, this shop is position riiiight on the beach.” He explained. “I get people drippin’ wet, covered in sand, half dressed, comin’ in and out of this shack all day. No water is going to hurt anyone or anything.”

When the blonde young woman explained her reason for being there, Kai leaned further against the bar. “No beach in your hometown? Why on earth would you ever even live someplace without a beach.” The man spoke with a snicker, before chirping up and explaining his own story. “Well that makes sense why I don’t know you. I set up different meal and food shacks all over different towns. I spend my time set up on their beach in the summer and move on to the next when summer comes to a close. Since I travel all over, I usually know everyone.” Ugh, what a life he had. With his new change of normality, Kai was still trying to get used to it.

“I’m actually usually not here in Mineral Town at this time of year.” He spoke with a slight sigh, adjusting his bandana on his head. “But the mayor begged me to start setting up shop year round because of all the success I was getting over the past couple years, so I decided to settle. Didn’t think I’d still be meeting many new people like you around though.”

The tanned man nodded at her acceptance of his offer for a drink, hopping back over the bar and proceeding to call to her. “Pick your poison, I’ve got coffee ...” He searched through what he had, anything cold weather wasn’t usually what he kept in stock, so it took him a moment to find. “Tea, milk if you like that hot, or if you’re feeling dangerous, I’ve got hot chocolate—” When he looked back to her, expecting to see her at the bar, he noticed her crouched and cleaning the mess.

Georgia had asked- not begged- for Laney to join her to Mineral Town. A quiet, sweet town just a few towns away from Bluebell. The trip took awhile, longer than what Georgia and Laney had anticipated together, but once they got there, the two girls split ways. 

There was a specific time to meet back up so they could go home together and be back before it was too late. Wouldn’t be good to leave either of their families waiting, worried sick for them. Splitting up, she said bye to her best friend before going off on her own. Georgia had her own reasons for coming to this quaint town.

After a walk around town, Laney found herself at the beach. The cool, summer air hit her face as the smell of ocean salt was wafting around her nose. It was beautiful. The blue, clear water. The soft sand under her flats. The air, that made her bangs fly past her face. She was lucky that she had put her hair up in the usual bun today. The yellow skirt she wore flew against the wind, making her feel like the hidden sun against the clouds. 

At first, she noticed the rain. Small drips of rain against the white sand of the beach, clumping pieces together. But, it wasn’t a problem. A little rain never hurt anyone- she wasn’t going to melt. Yet, just as quickly as the rain slowly began, it just came down. Like that, water was dropping from the sky and soaking her to the bone. As the rain fell down on her, Laney looked around for a place to go into, stay safe until the rain was finished. In the corner of her eye, she caught a sea side shack, a savior in the downfall. She quickly raced there, her shoes tracking sand along. She quickly opened the white, wooden door and slammed it slut behind her. Letting out a soft sigh, she put her head on the door. Oh Goddess, what had she done? Just entered a random person’s home or business without even asking. She turned around, only to see a tan man standing at a counter staring at her.

Oh. Okay, so this was not someone’s home. Nice to know at least. She wasn’t just ruining someone’s house. But still, the guilt came onto Laney’s soul as she quickly gave the man an apologetic smile. 

“I’m so sorry.” Laney apologized. Blonde hair stuck to her face and she carefully began to take the wet hair out of the bun. Her blonde hair fell down, wet, soaking the floor. “The rain came out of nowhere, and I’m not sure where my friend went off to or the town very well. Is it okay if I stay inside here until the storm is over?”

The day had been pretty slow. 

Not many customers, not many people to talk to, not much going on. Though he supposed it was fair, with the weather report telling everyone in town that there was going to be an 80% chance of rain who would want to go out to the beach? Well, Mrs. Weather woman, it was almost the middle of the afternoon at this point, and guess what? No rain. 

The brunet man leaned against the counter of his beachside shack, flipping through a fishing magazine he kept to keep him busy. There wasn’t much to do when people weren’t around, and that was the reason why he always forced Gray and Cliff to come visit him while he was kept up at the shop. Sure he might give them one too many free drinks and meals as a way to convince him, but that cost was nothing in comparison to the boredom that plagued him when there was nobody around. 

Yet Gray was stuck at work, just like he was. And Cliff—  Who really knew where Cliff was anyway. So the man simply sighed and continued on with his peaceful reading. 

That was until the door to the shop slammed open, “E Como Mai,” Kai chimed his greeting while his eyes remained stuck on the last few sentences on the page, before looking up and blinking in surprise. This poor girl that had entered his shop was soaked to the bone, her hair dripping and her clothes clinging to her skin. She practically looked frozen to the bone. Okay, maybe it was raining outside now.

“Woah! Hey—!” The man spoke in surprise, grabbing a a spare beach towel from beside the sink as he listened to her rattle on her apologies. “Nothing to worry about little bird,” He reassured as he hopped over the counter, approaching her and handing her the brightly colored towel to dry herself off with. “What are you doing out in the rain anyway? I mean, I didn’t think it was raining. But from the looks of ya’, I’m not going to guess you decided to dive head first into the ocean in all your clothes.”