Another one-word, open-ended prompt. I just like prompts if you couldn't tell lol.Do what you like; enjoy!

“I’ve always wanted to see them,” Dash whispers conspiratorially, like he’s letting Ana in on a secret he’s never told anyone else. Sweat drips off his forehead in the hot Texas afternoon, the sun slowly sinking behind the skyline: glass towers and hotels rising up from a bed of quirky little desert-themed shops.

“Oh yeah?” she asks, hoping her flirtatious tone comes across. “They’re wonderful. Just one more strange and lovely thing about this strange and lovely city.”

He smiles back, a row of perfect white teeth right below some cactus-shaped sunglasses he got at a tourist shop. “And you might just be the strangest and loveliest girl I’ve met all day.”

Is Dash his real name, or a nickname? Does he miss his hometown somewhere in Washington, and does he have a family who hoped he would stay there? Ana doesn’t know any of those things, and she likes it that way. Once they start sharing details, it becomes real.

She grabs his hand and walks faster. “Hurry up,” she says, dry wind blowing hair across her face, “we’re going to miss them!”

The bats don’t come out every night. Ana remembers last time she tried to take someone to see them, overpromising and underdelivering. She closes her eyes and prays that they’ll hunt tonight, filling up the sky with their delicate echoes. Flirtations aside, Austin really is a magical city. But a bridge with no bats is just a bridge.

Downtown buzzes with neon signs interspersed with dirty alleyways. One bar blasts hip-hop from a DJ, the next country from an old-time fiddle band. Dash bobs his head to both, and Ana wonders what kind of songs he grew up on. Did he pick up a guitar for the first time at a farmer’s market, thirdhand and beaten, and pluck the strings aimlessly for hours? Did his parents pay for him to learn piano and read music at a special school?

With his eyes on her, she can’t help but bounce off the sidewalk, half-skipping as they pass between new-money skyscrapers encrusted with glass. She doesn’t want to be leading the way right now. She wants to be following behind him, looking at him, memorizing everything about this night. But she settles for looking at their reflections in the windows of empty finance buildings.

“I can’t believe I met you this morning,” she murmurs, not realizing she said it out loud. He just squeezes her hand tighter.

Finally, the city gives way to green. Trees line the side of the Colorado River, a little park with kids and dogs playing. The sounds of music give way to nature sounds: crickets and cicadas humming the sun away. Bits of bat food announcing their locations.

Ana leads Dash through the park, across the highway, to the river. A small crowd has already gathered on the pedestrian bridge across from the car bridge, breaking out their binoculars. Someone cracks open a can of beer, making her suddenly thirsty. There’ll be time for drinking later. For now, a handsome man wants to see a colony of bats.

They stand there for fifteen minutes, squinting at the graffiti on the other bridge and the cars passing by. Wind rustles. Boats pass by underneath. Ana steps closer to him, enjoying the feeling of being so close together. The sun sinks ever lower behind the city.

A little black speck appears from underneath the bridge. A whisper passes through the crowd. Then that speck is joined by another, dancing through the sky in the low light of sunset. Within minutes, the bats of Austin fly out in force.

Dash squeals like a little kid as they stream out, a river of wings over the onlookers. They fill the air like a cloud of chirps and flutters, swooping and diving to catch the bugs breeding in the river. The bats are carefree. A summer spectacle. Little hunters fearlessly pursuing their goals. And yeah, Ana’s seen them every year for the past twenty years, but it never really gets old.

Suddenly, Ana feels his arms around her waist, pulling her in. “Thank you,” he whispers from behind her ear.

“You’re welcome,” she answers. Then she twists around and kisses him. She’s not letting this moment go to waste.

His hands tangle in her hair, and they’re all wrapped up in the dust devil of a summer fling. The night could go anywhere after this: out to the downtown bars, back to Ana’s place, maybe somewhere far away in the desert where no one can find them. The bats will leave Austin in September, and he’ll leave tomorrow morning. But they’re here now, and that’s all that matters.