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Surge stewed as she trudged through the jungle of Mystic Ruins, cursing Jewel in her mind the whole way. The beetle was so uptight, the tenrec wondered if she gained some height from the stick up her ass when she sat down.
Surge had tuned her out a few minutes into the lecture, but had caught enough of phrases like ‘collateral damage’ and other mumbo jumbo that she knew the head of the Restoration was less than impressed with her performance again. So what if she’d knocked down a building? The thing was falling down already and she’d managed to get the civvies inside to the outside before then…mostly unharmed.
The director didn’t call the trip she’d sent them on a punishment, but Surge knew enough about these corporate stooge types to call it like she saw it.
The tenrec scoffed, her lip curling in irritation. To add insult to injury, they had to make the trudge through the stupid rainforest with its stupid bugs and stupid humidity and stupid, stupid-
“Drippy,” she called, “I’m sweating my ass off out here. We almost at this dumb rem…remed…thingy? ”
“Remediation, ma’am,” the fennec responded, pulling out and unfolding a map as his boots clomped along behind her. “The place should be just ahead.”
As Kit predicted, they soon reached a break in the trees. A short stretch of open grass met a small pond before them. A lone large purple cat sat at the edge of the water holding a fishing pole.
“Hey, fat-” Surge began to shout, but stopped herself. Should probably not insult the guy if he was reporting on them back to Jewel. She cleared her throat and tried again.
“Hey…guy,” she floundered. “You who we’re supposed to meet?”
The big cat turned his head slowly and regarded them as they approached. “H’lo,” he replied. “Nice day for fishing, isn’t it?”
Surge shoved her hands in her pockets to hide the fact she was clenching them. “...Sure. So… how do we do this remediation thing?”
The cat blinked, eyes wandering somewhere to their right as his brows furrowed in thought. “Hm. I dunno.” He turned, opening a tackle box on his other side from them and, in a few moments, had assembled two more fishing rods, complete with lines and hooks. “You can join me if you want. Got some spare rods you can use.”
Surge scoffed, her nose wrinkling, then tried to cover it up by clearing her throat. She turned her head so the guy couldn’t see and gave Kit a look that screamed ‘what’s with this guy?’
The fennec looked thoughtfully at the cat for a moment, then gestured Surge closer. The tenrec leaned down so her partner could whisper in her ear.
“It’s just fishing,” he suggested, “and it gets Jewel off our backs. What if we play along, sit around a while, then go home?”
Surge let a smile slowly spread across her face. “I like the way you think,” she replied, giving Kit a light slap on the shoulder.
As they both sat down by the water, the cat smiled as he passed them the rods.
“My name’s Big,” he drawled. “What’re your names?”
Surge whipped the rod, sending the hook out into the pond and suppressed a snort at the aptness of Big’s name. “Surge.”
“Kitsunami,” Kit replied curtly, tossing his line out with a smoother overhand motion.
The trio sat in silence. Surge could see the occasional fish swimming past them in the water, but nothing seemed to be biting at the moment.
The tenrec smirked. She was expecting this remediation thing to be talking with some suit about feelings and sensitivity or something. But, it looked like Jewel had another thing coming. Turns out all she had to do was sit and stare at the water for a while.
Easiest punishment ever.
…
…
…….
This was boring as hell.
Surge sighed, slowly pulling in her line, then casting it out again, just to give herself something to do. She wondered how long it would be before she and Kit could bounce and not risk Jewel coming up with something different.
The fish were right there, too. She could make out the shapes of them through the clear water. Stupid things didn’t even have the sense to grab a bite of food literally being thrown in front of them.
An idea sparked in her. Maybe they could leave once Big had enough fish. That was probably Jewel’s game; get them to help some poor sap with getting a meal so they felt the warm fuzzies that all the goody two-shoes at the Restoration got. But Surge didn’t need to spend the whole day sitting on the wet grass by the pond; she could get all the fish they needed in one fell swoop.
“Say…Big? How many fish you think we need?”
The cat thought for a moment. “Well…usually I have two for supper, and I need some for stew and-”
“Great, great,” she interrupted, standing up and leaving the rod on the ground. “Drippy, get ready.”
Kit placed his rod down and raised his arms in preparation, two tendrils of water flowing from the spouts on his backpack. Surge clapped her hands together as electricity started buzzing between her fingers. Her eyes lit with a manic grin as she charged up, then released a bolt of lightning out toward the water by the nearest group of fish she saw. The energy crackled, sending a spray of water erupting from the surface where it struck.
When the water settled, Surge grinned triumphantly as a dozen or so fish floated belly up to the surface. She gave Kit a little nod and the fennec sent his water tendrils out, gathering water around the fish and collecting them into a water bubble that floated over to the shore.
Surge turned toward the cat with a satisfied smirk to receive his awe and adulation.
“Aw.”
The smile dropped when she didn’t get the awe she expected.
Big looked sad. Not like she’d kicked his puppy sad; more like his balloon popped a few minutes after he got it sad.
“Why’d ya do that?” he asked.
An angry retort was halfway to her tongue until his tone registered. He wasn’t angry or judgemental, just…disappointed? A pit opened in Surge’s stomach and she started to feel like she had kicked his puppy.
“I- w- I got the fish,” she explained, pointing to the pond, but the words sounded lame in her ears. “We…we don’t have to…fish.”
Big looked at her. “I like fishing,” he explained simply. “It’s ok if you don’t like fishing. Not all of my friends do. But if you don’t wanna go fishing, just say so and we can do something else.”
Surge glanced at Kit, searching for some kind of help with the conversation. The fennec just shrugged, as helpless as she was.
“And my friend Froggy swims in this pond,” Big continued and a large frog, heretofore unnoticed, jumped up from behind him and landed on his head with a croak. “It’s his favorite place to swim. You could have really hurt him.”
“I…sorry,” the tenrec murmured.
What the heck was going on!? Why was she apologizing? Wait…
“Hang on! You called us friends,” she pointed out.
“Uh-huh,” Big replied.
“But we don’t….we’re not…” she looked down at her hands and back at Kit. “People don’t ever….We literally just met you! How can we be friends?” She pointed a finger at him. It didn’t make any sense. Not even the pink one called them her friends and she was the goodiest of the two-shoes.
Froggy shuffled a little as Big cocked his head and pointed at the two spare fishing rods lying on the ground.
“We went fishing,” he said, like the answer was the most obvious thing in the world.
Without another word, the cat picked up the rods and stood up, taking them apart and putting them back in the tackle box. He began gathering the fish from Kit’s water bubble and putting them in a large bag he pulled from his belt. “Gotta get these cooked while they’re fresh.”
When he was done, Kit dropped the water, pulling most of it back into the backpack. Big smiled at him.
“Thanks, little buddy.”
He put a big paw on Kit’s head, just a quick pat, then his hand dropped. Kit stiffened slightly, but didn’t object to the touch. The fennec looked warily up at Big, his analytical mind searching for something, but he seemed to be satisfied with what he saw there, that Big’s smile and his thanks were genuine. His eyes dropped and his hands moved to nervously hold the straps of his backpack. His mouth twitched upward at the corners and he gave a noncommittal ‘hm’ of acknowledgement.
Big turned to Surge, putting a hand on her shoulder. “You too,” he said. “Thanks for fishing with me. I’m sorry you don’t like it as much as I do.”
Surge felt something tingle in her chest that she fought with every fiber not to think about. “I…sure.”
“I can’t eat all this by myself. You guys wanna come over for supper?”
Surge glanced at Kit and his eyebrows lifted slightly as he looked back at her, almost hopeful. The tenrec shrugged at her partner noncommittally, then put her arms up behind her head as she tried not to make her response sound too eager.
“Yeah, guess we could tag along.”