Kaia didn’t know where Kits learned the song but she wanted it to stop. It was catchy the first five times Kits sang it. Now it was painful. Not only was Kits singing in a language the locals didn’t understand, she was bobbing back and forth doing twosteps beside a fountain in the center of the square. On this world, the locals all had appearances in as colorful a spectrum as Kits and Kaia, meaning the dragonflies had finally put them somewhere they wouldn’t stand out, and here Kits was making a show of herself anyway. At first, she’d tried to get Kaia to join in but soon gave up on that endeavor. Regardless, Kits was obviously enjoying herself and had been at it so long that people had stopped to stare. Or they took ginormous arcs around the square to avoid the commotion. Or they booed her.

Every time they booed, Kits sang louder.

Kaia couldn’t tell if she were happy to be in fox form because it concealed her embarrassment or angry because her ears were more sensitive to the incomprehensible verses Kits was belting at full volume. Kaia hadn’t been on the world where Kits picked up the song and therefore didn’t know the language either. This had started as innocent humming. Why hadn’t Kaia stopped it when it was innocent humming?

A local whose skin was marbled in orange and gold stopped in front of Kits, waited a second to catch the tune, then began whistling along with her, tapping his heel to the beat. A groan reverberated through the crowd, but Kits and the whistler kept on going. They increased the tempo until someone threw a rotten bit of fruit at Kits’ head.

Kaia, who was sitting on the rim of the fountain observing this spectacle, felt the phantom impact on her own head and flinched. On reflex, her ears snapped back. The spray of fountain water dampened the fur on the very tips of her ears and through the soul link her rising aggravation fought with the giggly elation of Kits’ emotional state. Kaia considered shifting out of fox form and bodily dragging Kits elsewhere to put an end to this before Kits inspired even worse criticism from the crowd. Short of actual mob violence, you couldn’t get much worse as a performer than serving as target practice for rotten fruit. Not that Kits counted as a performer. Obviously, most of the crowd considered her a nuisance. Kaia agreed with the majority. If it were anyone but Kits, Kaia might’ve let the crowd have their fun heckling. Not intervened. But it was Kits, which meant any damage she took Kaia would have to deal with too, so Kaia hopped to dry ground and headbutted Kits in the shin.

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“Look who decided to join us,” said Kits. She lifted Kaia and grinned.

The whistler had stopped whistling and was turning about, presumably to find whoever had thrown the rotten fruit.

Kaia sent as much frustration as possible through the soul link.

And what did Kits do? She put Kaia down, picked up the rotten fruit and took a ginormous bite. The flavor was bitter and fleshy and sloshed around like a gooey wraith in Kaia’s mouth.

“Bleh!” said Kits.

Kaia shifted out of fox form and kicked what was left of the fruit out of Kits’ hand. With a disgusting squelch of juice, the fruit landed bitten-side down beside the fountain.

The whistler spontaneously found some other place to be.

“Why should I be punished for your idiocy!”

“It’s not idiocy,” said Kits.

“Yes it is!”

“It’s fun.”

“Fun for you maybe.”

“Shouldn’t fun for me be fun for both of us?”

Kaia pointed at the rotten, half-bitten fruit and raised her eyebrows.

“I didn’t know it was gonna taste that horrible,” said Kits.

“In what world would it have not tasted horrible? Why would someone throw it at your face if it weren’t inedible?”

“Well the song and dance were fun.”

The idea to shove Kits into the fountain popped into Kaia’s brain and it was tantalizing. Sure, Kaia would feel the splash and wetness through the soul link, but there was a good chance the crowd might cheer. Y’know what? Screw it. My ears are already wet anyway. Kaia shoved Kits into the fountain.

Kits squealed, flailing into the water. From the crowd came a stunned silence then a smattering of claps and whoops.

Worth it.

Kits came up giggling. And steaming. Her temperature must’ve spiked in surprise. Of course. Because the only thing more embarrassing than Kits’ song and dance routine would be if she accidentally boiled the water. She kicked a tiny wave of water in Kaia’s direction.

Kaia dodged.

Kits sloshed to her feet and did a cartwheel with terrible form, pinwheeling water everywhere. What was most frustrating about this was Kaia knew Kits could do a good cartwheel. Kaia threw her hands up to shield her eyes from the spray.

“What is with you today,” said Kaia in exasperation. “Why have you decided to be so annoying?”

“Because you ate that pepper.”

“Because I what?”

“The pepper.” Kits pointed at Kaia to emphasize the explanation. “Remember? A couple days ago you found a hot pepper and looked right at me and stuck it in your mouth even though you know I hate spicy food.”

“This is payback for a pepper.”

Kits leaned down and splashed more water at Kaia’s legs. She missed.

“It wasn’t even that hot of a pepper,” said Kaia.

“Maybe not to you. Our tastes are different.”

“Aren’t you supposed to be the temperature queen?”

“It’s not the same,” Kits whined.