Supernova Souls - Ryan Upchurch

-27-

"A farmers market?" He said with a perplexed expression. "Why?"

"I'll tell you the same thing you told me. Because." She shot him a cocky grin and turned the truck key and pulled it from the ignition, then dropped her keys into a pocket on the side of her purse. "Now, let's go, I saw some baby goats 'n ducks over there and I wanna see them."

The coolness of the truck's door handle felt nice to the warmth of Delilah's hand as she pulled it, then pushed the door open. Ryan watched her, still sort of confused about why they were at a farmers market at almost seven in the morning. Once she was out of the truck she leaned against the door and crossed her arms. Her hazel eyes bore into his with an impatient look hiding in them. When he looked back at her with the same impatience, she noticed an abnormal flicker within his ocean irises.

That ain't nothing. She thought, and shook her head slightly. "Well? Off your ass and on ya feet, we got a shit ton of walking to do."

"Fine." He said with a scoff as he climbed out of the truck. Small puffs of dust flew up behind his heels as he walked around the front of the truck where Delilah was. "Which way we going first?"

"This way." She pointed to her left, and off they went.

As they passed by booths, she stopped to pick up some things and in true Ryan fashion, he always had to ask what so and so was for, and why she needed it. Her reply was always something like 'because' or 'I'm running low at home' but some things he could tell didn't apply to those answers because of her expression and her demeanor while she picked those certain items out.

"Look!" She tugged on his arm, giving him a quick, mischievous look before she took off running towards a booth not too far away. Ryan however took a second to register what the actual fuck was going on now and why she was running. Within a few seconds, his eyes landed on the booth she was running too and it was packed full of small and medium sized cages, some of which held baby chickens, others ducks, and one was little baby kittens. He sighed, but started walking towards the booth. A sweet elderly couple welcomed him once he got there, then, Delilah beckoned him over to her.

She was kneeling in the grass in front of one of the smaller kennels. "Ain't they cute?" She asked, but she wasn't paying attention to whatever his answer was. She stuck one finger inside the kennel through the black metal bars and one of the tiniest kittens came up to her and nudged her finger with the top of it's head.

"They're cute but they're a pain in the ass." Ryan said, keeping his gaze on the little cats. The elderly woman sitting in a fold up chair behind him shot him a dirty look as a response to his cussing. He didn't notice, though, because he was thinking of the kitten he had for maybe a couple months a few years back. The little black bastard (Vulpix) acted like a crackhead whenever you tried to feed it, and it was batshit crazy.

"No they ain't." She said, dragging out the last word. "This little guy couldn't possibly be no trouble."

The elderly man chimed in. "That one right there's a girl, darlin', the youngest one of the litter."

She nodded and mumbled a quick 'thank you' to the man. "Can I hold her?"

"'Course ya can." He said with a smile before he stood, gripping the cloth armrests of the chair while he did so. "The little black an' orange one?"

"Yeah." She and Ryan moved aside so the old man could open the kennel's door, and she watched in pure childlike excitement as he picked up the smallest kitten of the bunch.

He handed her the tiny cat and she couldn't help her smile as she held it close to her chest. It let out a short meow, one that sounded like a mixture of raspy and whiny and huddled close to her, letting it's head rest on the middle of her chest. The little kitten's coat was black with little splotches of orange, white and brown and she had long fur.