A/N: This is just a one shot about fireworks…since I just got back from seeing some. Happy Fourth & thanks for reading!

“I don’t know why your parents don’t like fireworks,” Kyle muttered while playing with a red and black igniter. It was July 4th at the holiday’s high point, dusk. Behind the Childers’ house, Kyle, Tucker, Natalie, and Olivia all stood around a small wooden table used as a launching pad for the various entertainment explosives—some legal, some not so legal—that had been bought over the previous week. While the boys fiddled with red, white, and blue cardboard tubes, the girls stood aside with unsure looks on their faces and their arms folded.

“They like fireworks,” Tucker argued with a match dangling from his lip. “I bet they’re making fireworks right now,” he added to himself.

“Ew, Tucker, gross!” Olivia whined.

“What?” Natalie asked. “Do your parents not want you around on the fourth?”

“It’s their anniversary,” Tucker smirked. Natalie laughed and shook her head. “So, which one do you want to shoot off, Chicago?” Natalie blinked.

“What? You’re going to light those?” she stuttered. Tucker and Kyle began to snicker.

“Well, Honey, that’s why they call ‘em fireworks. You got to give it a little fire to make it work,” Tucker replied with his beaming smile and a hint of condescension. Natalie shook her head again and slapped a bug that had nibbled on her arm.

“This is totally unsafe.”

“Didn’t you have fireworks in Chicago?” Olivia asked while wrinkling her nose.

“Yeah, but professionals set them off. And not in someone’s back yard,” Natalie snorted.

“We’re not in city limits, so setting off the fireworks here is legal,” Kyle reasoned. “However, we bought this baby here,” he identified while patting a large round tube covered in white stars, “in Missouri, so setting it off anywhere within the borders is not legal.” Natalie threw up her hands and headed back to the house.

“This is whack. I’m going to the mall with your parents to watch some supervised pyrotechnics,” Natalie muttered.

“Natalie don’t!” Olivia whined. “Stay with me!”

“Hey, now, wait!” Tucker shouted. “Come on now, Natalie, you’ve got to set off some fireworks. If you don’t do it yourself, it’s not patriotic.”

“Not patriotic?” she repeated skeptically while turning back around. Tucker nodded in complete honesty.

“Stay please?” Olivia begged. Natalie shrugged and walked back over to the two lawn chairs that had been drug out for the occasion.

“Fine. Shoot one off or whatever.” Night had already settled in, and a few pops in the distance could already be heard. Olivia dug through the boys’ box and found a sparkler. After a bit of trouble, she got it lit and waved it around spelling things with the trail of smoke that followed it. This mildly interested Natalie, and she dug through the plastic-wrapped multi-pack of fireworks until she found a small round ball. “What’s this do?” she asked. Tucker looked up from the wooden base he had fastened with the table with a couple of bungee cords.

“That’s a smoke bomb.”

“A bomb?” Natalie nearly cried.

“Here,” Kyle said, walking over with his lighter and flicking a flame over the wick. The small ball immediately began shooting a stream of dark blue smoke from its tip. Natalie waved it out of her face coughing.

“OK, I get it,” she grumbled, dropping it. She kicked it away from her and to the box of smaller explosives. Of course, with her luck, the wick touched one of the flying spinners. While the area was masked in a wave of novelty smoke, something one fire flew up with a shrill scream. Olivia screamed and jumped up, dropping her sparkler. Natalie nearly jumped onto Tucker as Kyle ducked out of the way before the spinner finished and dropped to the ground, burnt. Natalie and Olivia panted while Kyle and Tucker laughed at the close call.

“That was not funny!”

“Woo boy, you nearly lost your hat!”

“I didn’t mean to!”

“Christ, Natalie, why don’t you just go for the Black Cats next time? I had a chance to dodge that one!”

“I’M SORRY,” Natalie growled, dropping back into her chair. “I’m not messing around with it anymore.” Tucker snickered at her before stepping back from the table.

“Go ahead and light that one, K,” Tucker said. Olivia’s sparkler had gone out, and she was sighing impatiently.

“I want to light one,” she pouted.

“You’re too young, Peanut.”

“You used to light them when you were ten?”

“That’s different,” Tucker grumbled.

“Why?” Olivia whined.

“Because he’s a boy,” Natalie said under her breath.

“Exactly,” Tucker ended. “Kyle, light it.” Kyle nodded and fumbled to light the fuse. He was just a shadow in the dark, but as soon as the spark flashed, he bolted behind the chairs were the girls sat. Natalie waited nervously for the loud crack followed by an orange bullet shooting up. All eight eyes lifted up as it exploded into a spray of red and blue tendrils in the sky. After the glowing embers had faded away, the softer pricks of light from the budding stars remained. Olivia clapped and cheered.

“Wow,” Natalie murmured.

“That one was just to warm up with,” Tucker bragged and fiddled with his ball cap.

“Well, I’ve never been this close to one before,” she half-smiled. “It’s kind of…big.”

“Want to light one?”

“No fair!” Olivia cried.

“No thanks,” Natalie declined. “Just…try that big one.”

“This one?” Kyle shouted in the darkness with his flashlight pointed at the side of a cardboard box. “It’s called ‘The Feather Fryer’!” Tucker burst into laughter, and Natalie made a face.

“That is sick.”

“Light it!” Tucker ordered. “Light it boy, fry some feathers.” Kyle waved a hand and once again struggled to light the wick. “Hey, do one of those rockets, too!”

“What?” Kyle called back.

“It’s already lit!” Olivia shouted. Kyle turned to see the box about to fire and started running back toward the chairs. Natalie and Olivia shot up as a reflex and nearly tackled. All four ended up sprawled out on the grass behind the toppled chairs as golden curls circled above them. Natalie might have been worried about the bugs and dirt under her if she wasn’t enthralled by the show above her.

“It’s kind of worth nearly getting killed for,” Natalie muttered. Kyle laughed and pulled Olivia out from hiding behind him. The rest of the rockets continued to fire, filling the sky with blues, greens, purples, and reds. For the next few rounds, the primary pyrotechnitions were Kyle and Olivia; Olivia attempting to light whatever she could find, and Kyle redirecting her flame safely. Tucker and Natalie watched as bright balls of light expanded over the sky, gold dust trickling down in long strands, and echoing snaps of thunder. Natalie didn’t say much; she stared up, mesmerized.

“What do you think?” Tucker asked after a long strain of silence.

“That one was good,” Natalie admitted. He laughed and tugged at her hip. “Hey,” she laughed as she fell into his side, “I’m trying to watch the show.” Before she could look back up, she had forgotten all about what was happening outside of them both. Just one kiss from Tucker was enough to do so. His kiss turned into a bashful smile.

“So was that,” he casually joked before glancing to the spray of color above them as it faded away into smoke.

Natalie was still seeing fireworks.