Hello everyone! Here I come again with entirely new story that I wanted to make in summer, because it is set in summer. I hope you will enjoy this start and will give this story a try ;-)

It was a calm summer night. The moon shone brightly in the starless sky as Sam and Penny performed their nightly duties for that day.

"Are you cold, Penny?" Sam asked Penny anxiously as he noticed, not for the first time, that she was shivering almost invisibly.

"It's just colder outside tonight," she replied casually. "I'll be fine," she assured, returning her attention to Venus' key.

"Come with me," Sam invited as Penny looked at him confused.

But she followed him to their lockers anyway. She came just as Sam was opening his. He took something out of it and handed it to Penny with a quick, "Take this."

"I..." she hesitated before giving him a skeptical look. "You keep a scarf in the locker? In the middle of summer?" she asked him with amusement.

"What? My friend from the academy kept his winter boots in his locker all year round," Sam recalled teasingly.

"What for?" She asked curiously.

"You'd have to ask him, but he always assured us it could snow anytime now," Sam replied, holding back a laugh at the memory.

"Luckily for us, there's no snow yet in the summer," Penny said as another shiver made her freeze.

“Really, Penny,” Sam pressed lightly, gently but firmly pushing the scarf into her hand. “Take it.”

"I appreciate your gesture, Sam, but I can't," she argued politely.

“It was supposed to be a birthday present for you anyway,” he came up with an excuse to convince her. “It wouldn't hurt if you got it early, in case you needed it.”

“My birthday is in December, Sam. Have you forgotten?" She asked him jokingly.

"You saw right through me," Sam sighed in resignation. "I bought that scarf for Elvis' birthday, not yours," he admitted. "But I'm going to buy him something else anyway, so..." he smiled at her wishfully, showing her the scarf again.

“I really can't, Sam. That wouldn't be right," Penny argued again.

"Then I'm technically giving you this as a gift for... the first day of summer," he thought as he placed the scarf around Penny's shoulders.

“That's nice, Sam. Thank you." She finally gave in and smiled gratefully at him.

“I think we're almost done. You can come inside. I'll clean up," Sam offered.

"Sam, I really can't ask you for that much," Penny hesitated.

"You're not asking, I'm offering," Sam replied, amused. "Besides, if you need to do something so urgently, I don't think Radar will complain about his bowl being full again," Sam pointed behind them, and sure enough, Radar came down to join them, wagging his tail with an empty bowl in his paws.

"Sam, Radar seems to want something from you," Penny remarked in amusement when the Dalmatian actually rubbed against Sam's leg.

"I'm coming, Radar," Sam gave in, picking up the bowl from the ground.

The Dalmatian immediately ran after him, knowing that he was about to get food. As soon as Sam placed the full bowl in front of his nose, Radar started licking it, wagging his tail as much as he could. While Sam went back downstairs to discover that Penny had already cleaned up most of the equipment.

"I told you to wait for me" Sam objected as he took the toolbox from Penny.

"Sam" she gave him her most skeptical look. "I know what it's like to give Radar food. Once he takes it politely, and the next time he will argue for every piece. Judging by the fact that you did it so quickly, he ate it without a fight, right?" She asked in a teasing tone.

"His ears were shaking," Sam agreed with Penny. "I think maybe it's time to build Radar a kennel. After all, he's not getting any younger either," he added with a shrug.

"I honestly doubt he'll need it," Penny laughed in amusement. "Radar really likes his blanket and pillow, he wouldn't abandon them. Besides, he can always come into your garden anyway," she noted. "So why does he need a kennel here at the fire station?"

"Ohh, Penny," Sam shook his head in amusement, sighing softly. "I wanted to surprise him," he admitted in a whisper. "He doesn't have anything of his own anywhere except his own basket, and he would have his own little house, even outside."

"Now you can't deny that you love Radar," Penny teased him.

"I don't love that dog," he denied hastily. "Radar is just my friend, just like all of you," he explained.

"Wait and maybe I'll believe you," Penny replied in a mocking voice. "Everyone knows that Radar chose you as his companion."

"I'm begging you, Penny," Sam rolled his eyes in annoyance. "Even the children in Pontypandy know that Radar is trained by Elvis. I live closest to the fire station, so maybe that's why Radar seems to like me the most," he tried to defend himself.

"But you can't deny that Radar really likes you a lot. Look," she pointed to the floor beneath their feet, where Radar was currently rubbing against Sam's leg just like a cat.

"If I didn't know you, I might think you were jealous," Sam teased Penny as Radar, satisfied with the petting, went his way again.

"Sam," Penny looked at him in amusement. "When I was little, my parents took care of our neighbors' dog during the holidays. And, believe it or not, I said the same thing when every time Telma, because that was her name, she came to sleep in my room."

"You never said anything about it," Sam pointed out.

"Because there wasn't an oportunity" Penny shrugged.

However, as soon as she said this, they both heard the sound of the Map Screen 700. They worked together so well that without a word, they ran together downstairs to the office and just as quickly sprung into action.

"You said something about missing opportunities?" Sam asked teasingly as Penny joined him in the Jupiter.

"Isn't that why you love this job?" Penny replied just as teasingly.

When they reached the edge of the forest, the fire only reached the tops of the trees, and fortunately they were able to quickly put it under control, along with the camp fire, of which, unfortunately, nothing remained, as they found when they checked whether everything had been thoroughly extinguished by them.

"It must have started with that bonfire," Sam said, showing Penny the visible shadow on the burnt grass. "Is it just me, or have people been more careful our times?" Sam joked as Penny knelt down next to him to take a closer look to the fire.

"Not my father," she replied, laughing softly. "He always had to set something on fire when he took me camping," she laughed louder at the memory.

"Have you set up camp?" Sam looked at Penny in surprise. He had no idea that the girl from Newtown had ever gone camping.

"Don't kids do this all the time?" she asked him jokingly as she climbed back into Jupiter.

"Yes, children from Pontypandy," Sam agreed. "On the contrary, I didn't think so from the cities," Sam admitted honestly.

"Sam, cities aren't much different than small towns," Penny admonished him. "It's the harmful stereotypes and constant competition that make us think that," she said thoughtfully.

"You really think so?" Sam asked in an encouraging voice.

"I'm from Newtown, Sam," she reminded him. "Throughout my childhood, I was taught that smaller cities were poorer and therefore less developed, and that the kids there did not have the same living standards as we knew," she confessed. "Yet every year I have seen that listening to this talk closes us off from adventure."

"True," Sam agreed. "Anyway, if you weren't so open to the world and people, we wouldn't have met when we were still children."

"How old were we then?" Penny asked, returning Sam's smile.

"About ten," Sam shrugged. "We had fun all day at the summer festival."

"Until you beat me at every game possible," Penny reminded, slapping Sam on the arm admonishingly to wipe the cheeky smile off his face.

"It doesn't seem to bother you now," Sam teased, grabbing her wrist to stop her from admonishing him again.

"You were a little more annoying back then," she teased him cheekily, successfully yanking her wrist from his grasp.

"Was I?" Sam looked at her in surprise. "Does that mean I'm not anymore?"

"Then all summer long, whenever we bumped into each other, you bragged about winning," she reminded him, offended. "At least now I can get back at you," she added, giving him a cheeky smile.

"Yes? And how?" Sam asked challengingly.

"I'm sure we'll find something to compete with each other at," Penny replied thoughtfully.

"And to think it all started with one holiday memory," Sam sighed. He knew that fierce look on Penny's face - he was going to fail.