here I go agaon on my own

The sun had slowly begun to set, sending the sky into different shades of orange and purple, leaving the shadows on the ground to slowly stretch and lengthen out ahead of his feet. Despite that, the sun wouldn't be fully set for another hour or two yet. The longest day of the year meant that they had extra time to be out and about before the sun finally sank beneath the horizon fully, before the inevitable darkness closed in around them all and the unspoken, hovering questions that lived in the woods and in the darkness began to rear their heads.

His feet crunched lightly against the gravel of the small area set up for anyone in the town who bothered to drive to the festival. The car door gave a soft click as he closed it and he idly checked the watch on his wrist as he pocketed the car keys with his other. He might be an adult, but his mother had told him to be back with her car (large stress on her) at a decent time and he didn’t want to disappoint her. Although the sun hadn't even begun to truly sink down, Luke could already see the twinkling of lights that were strung between stalls and the brighter lights that decorated the rides littered about the fair grounds.

The festival always brought back nostalgic memories of his childhood that went all the way up to more recent years. It had always been a tradition in town, but it had become more than that to the group of friends that he had made over the years. He could well remember the joy that filled him when his mother would give him a five dollar bill and told him to stick close to Grand and Emerson before she would let him run out onto the festival grounds where they would stuff themselves with candy apples and popcorn before riding the gravitron until one of them got sick. In truth, things hadn’t changed all that much in their routine over the years - except maybe a few less candy apples before they hopped on some rides.

The day was still balmy, still almost uncomfortably warm even with the sun lowering in the sky. Summer was truly here and was tightening its grip even up in the north.

"Luke!"

His ears twitched at the familiar voice and he turned, grin spreading, as he caught sight of the individual headed his way. Without even needing to really think about the action, he raised his hand up in the air so that Link could smack his hand against Luke's own. "Hey, man." A pause as he fully took in the sphynx. "How the hell are you wearing that jacket?"

The cat winked one of his green eyes before gesturing a hand up and down to indicate his whole body. "No fur, dude."

“Still!” Luke couldn’t understand it. It wasn’t as hot as it could get in other parts of the country, but that certainly didn’t mean he wanted to walk around with a jacket on, either. Granted, Link wasn't wearing anything else that heavy but just thinking about wearing it made him feel uncomfortably hot.

Before either of them could continue in their banter, there was the sound of more shoes crunching through the gravel towards them and two familiar voices called out to them. Both Luke and Link turned towards the voices and Luke couldn’t help the way that his heart thumped just a little in his chest and the way that his smile widened even more as he caught sight of Grand. For just a brief moment, the lights of the festival seemed to only be visible around him, everything seemed to narrow and focus on the other canine. Then the rest of the world finally snapped back into focus, the moment over, as both Grand and Emerson finally made their way over to them. They both were dressed more fitting for a summer night with shorts and short sleeved shirts.

And although night was on its way, Grand was still wearing a baseball cap pulled somewhat low over his face, his eyes covered by sunglasses. Luke might have thought it was an attempt to look cool, but he knew the truth that no one else had yet figured out. Just as Grand knew the truth about Luke that no one else had yet figured out. The thought made him glance at Emerson and Link,a s if they, too, might suddenly figure it out simply from looking at Grand there with the protection from the sun. But there was nothing more than the usual bit of momentary shuffling around as they all greeted each other.

"Glad some of us could make it on time for once," Emerson quipped as she raised one eyebrow over at Luke.

"I'll have you know I'm always on time in my head. And also mom will skin me if I have her car out too late so I made sure to be here on time so we have a lot of time together," Luke snorted at the same time that he could hear Link in the background, his voice raising up slightly in song as he went through a stanza of Sunglasses At Night in Grand's direction.

"Yeah, you're sooooo original," Grand commented before moving a few steps closer to lean an arm on Luke's shoulder. “So, are we all ready to eat candy apples until we puke?”

“That depends. Is someone off of his liquid diet?” Emerson asked.

“Correction then,” Grand said smoothly. “Are you all ready to eat candy apples until you puke while I watch?” There was no tension in him, just his usual calm and cool air, but Luke couldn’t help but to hold his breath. This lie could only go so far, right?

Link wrinkled up his nose. “What is you guys’ obsession with this?”

“Tradition,” all three of them replied at the same time before they broke out into raucous laughter. There was a soft “dogs” that came from Link, spoken under his breath, which only made the three of them laugh even more.

Luke smiled as Grand threw his arm further around his shoulders in a casual way. “Come on, let’s go before the lines start to build up,” Emerson said as she turned, gesturing with one hand for the rest of them to follow. And they did, feet leaving off of the soft crunch of gravel onto the somewhat dry grass as they made their way into the festival. Maybe things had changed but, for now, the tradition that had carried them through quite a few summers was still in place and that was good enough for now.