A/N: This is my oneshot fic for Day 1 of the Harvest Moon 12 Days of Christmas prompt at The Village Square forum! Starting today and lasting for twelve days total, each day has a different little theme to write about. I hope to have a oneshot written for each one, so hopefully you'll check them all out! Most will be centered around Animal Parade, since I've just recently replayed that game, but quite a few other Harvest Moon games will be included too, or so I've planned. Today's theme is "Gifts." Please enjoy, and Merry Christmas! - CCM

The Little Things

Selena had always been a rather critical sort of woman, and she never hesitated to admit it.

While some in Harmonica Town might call her judgmental to a fault, she just called it being selective. A woman had to have standards, after all. She had her own goals in life to accomplish, and the dancer did whatever she could to come closer to achieving them, even if it meant abandoning her own parents at home on tropical Toucan Island and hitching a boat ride to Castanet on an impulsive whim.

Now, obviously there were things she genuinely liked – dancing, of course, and gorgeous summer sunsets, and the familiar warmth of hot sunlight against her tanned skin; a nice coconut cocktail or two after an especially stressful day, and the sound of waves crashing against the sun-kissed shore while out collecting seashells off the beach. But, admittedly, for each thing she liked a lot, it seemed there were at least ten other things she didn't particularly like to make up for it.

And in her opinion, winter in Castanet turned out to be that one season where everything she didn't like most was all rolled up together in one big frostbitten, glittery tinsel-festooned and peppermint sugar-encrusted package.

Everyone else in Harmonica Town seemed to love the wintry holiday season almost as though they spent the rest of the year just waiting for it to come around again. The kids in town were always excitedly playing together in the snowdrifts that accumulated on the sides of the road. All the shops in the area, including Selena's workplace the Brass Bar itself, had been adorned with festive strings of glistening lights and wreaths of interwoven holly and evergreen. Sonata Tailoring was making business selling warm hats, scarves, and gloves to help the villagers bear the season's harsh weather, and Ocarina Inn experienced a sharp spike in hot cocoa sales.

Every night at work, Selena had to keep on her toes in order to sidestep the random sprigs of mistletoe that the waitress Kathy had thought was a wonderful idea to hang in each doorway - the last thing the dancer wanted was to have some drunk try to make a move on her after she'd just been twirling on stage for a few hours, being the attractive young woman she was. Kathy herself seemed to be making a habit of wearing ugly red-and-green knit sweaters to work lately, and Selena had to admit, even a girl as good-looking as the blonde bombshell in question struggled to make them look the least bit flattering. Goddess, she even caught Chase, of all people, humming holiday carols to himself as he prepared a stew just the other evening.

Perhaps the townspeople were just trying to find a way to make the long periods of cold and dreary weather just a bit more bearable, even enjoyable. That would be understandable, at least. But as for Selena - she grew up on a tropical island, after all. And while she may have left Toucan Island willingly, she consistently missed the beautiful weather there, especially at this time of year. She still wasn't used to this whole "no sun, no warmth, only snow and ice and dark cold misery" thing. It was too cold to even fully enjoy her cocktails.

"How d'ya like that one?"

Selena found herself startled out of her self-pitying reverie, and looked up to see her pretty blonde coworker standing at the other side of the bar and staring at her expectantly, then at the cocktail in her hand.

"Dad just added the cranberry cocktail to the menu, to help get into the spirit of the season and all that. I thought it was pretty good, myself. But what do you think?"

"Um... it's not bad," Selena lied, taking another halfhearted sip of the deep burgundy liquid in her glass. Honestly, cranberry was a pretty disgusting flavor. Much too tart.

"Well, you look good drinking it." Selena glanced back up at the waitress questioningly, and Kathy waved a hand in the air in the vague vicinity of her own ponytail. "Matches your hair nice."

She was saved from further clarification by the heavy wooden front door to the Brass Bar swinging open, releasing a burst of bitingly cold air into the room as a young man entered, the hint of a scowl on his face - Chase, the chef.

"What are you doing here so early?" Selena asked, eyeing him as he slammed the door shut behind him. "We don't open until four."

Chase rolled his eyes. "Wow, you think I don't already know that? I have been working here far longer than you, as a matter of fact."

He stepped forward, clipping a few barrettes into his hair as he walked to hold the stray peach-colored strands out of his face. "I just decided to come early to start preparing for tonight, seeing as how I didn't have anything else to do. And you know how busy we can get during the holiday season; how you can just sit around here drinking cocktails all day, I don't know..."

This time, it was Kathy's turn to roll her eyes. "We're not just sitting around drinking cocktails, Mr. Grumpy Pants, we're taste-testing the new cocktails Dad came up with."

"Uh huh."

As Chase and Kathy continued their own conversation, Selena took another small sip of her drink and shivered involuntarily; ever since Chase had entered the barroom, the temperature seemed to have dropped a few degrees just in the short time the door had been opened to the elements.

"Can't you guys turn the heat up a bit more? It's so cold in here, especially when I'm not dancing." In her beaded midriff-baring top, Selena itched to start dancing already just to warm herself up, but it was the middle of the day and she wasn't set to work until much later that evening.

The chef shot her a brief sideways glance as bent his arms backward to tie his maroon apron on, his eyes narrowed slightly as he muttered under his breath. "Well, maybe if you actually wore clothes, it wouldn't be such an issue. It is the middle of winter, after all. You're not on tropical little Toucan Island anymore."

"Excuse me?" Selena swiveled in her seat to look at her male coworker haughtily. "What do you th-"

"Okay, that's enough," Kathy interrupted quickly, and she shot the two a piercing glare. "I'm putting a stop to this now, before it even really begins. No bickering allowed. Period. Only happy jolly fun times, 'kay? I don't know what's gotten into you today, Chase, but we sure don't need another repeat of last time."

Last time. Chase and Selena both cringed at the memory in unison.

"Fine. I'll just be in the kitchen if you need me," Chase conceded with a dismissive wave of his hand. "Erm... nice sweater by the way, Kathy."

"Oh.. uh, thanks!" Kathy looked down at her colorful striped atrocity and beamed. Selena merely snorted into her beverage in a most unladylike fashion.

"Hey, that actually reminds me, Selena. Do you like my new earrings?"

The tanned dancer glanced up from the disgusting cranberry cocktail in her hand to watch as her friend, still beaming, pushed her blonde hair behind her ear and proudly swung her head sideways into the light, presenting the sparkly green crystal earring that dangled there on a gold backing. "Owen gave them to me as an early Starry Night present, wasn't that sweet of him? He excavated the emeralds right out of Garmon Mine himself! Took him ages to find them, he told me, but I was worth it!"

"Oh, uh… Yeah, they're lovely, Kathy." And they truly were; they matched the blonde waitress's deep green eyes perfectly.

"Did Luke get you anything yet?" Kathy winked suggestively as she busied herself with wiping down a few stray glasses behind the bar, and Selena rolled her eyes and suppressed a small shudder.

"Oh, please… No. We're not dating, after all; it's not like you and Owen, one bit. Nope."

"Well, don't act like you'd be sooo opposed to the idea," Kathy drawled, turning to place some of the glasses back on their proper shelves. "That boy's absolutely nuts over you! And he's certainly not bad looking, either."

Selena sighed in defeat – she knew Kathy wasn't one to back down once she got an idea into that pretty blonde head of hers. "Fine, he… he's got pretty eyes, I'll give him that much," she admitted reluctantly. "But I'm just not into this whole-"

The door to the Brass Bar swung open with a bang, for the second time.

"Oh... hey! Selena!"

Kathy snickered. "And would you look who it is."

Selena caught a flash of flame-patterned bandana out of the corner of her eye.

"...Great."

"Hiya, guys!" The blue-haired carpenter's apprentice bounced up to the pair, practically quivering in excitement. He always looked excited. "Uh, I mean, girls. Yeah. How's it going? I haven't seen you two in a while!"

"Hi, Luke!" Kathy greeted him cordially, smirking as Selena shrunk back into her stool beside her, as though she didn't notice just how increasingly subdued her friend had become after this small turn of events. "Nice seeing you, too! What's up? Anything you need in particular?"

"Nah, I just wanted to see if anyone was in here yet. I have extremely important news!..." he threw his arms above his head dramatically, "Because it's snowing outside!"

"What?"

Taking on a comically horrified expression, Selena whipped her head around to glare out the window, and sure enough, the fat white flakes were falling through the air thickly just beyond the frosted glass. She suppressed a shudder, one which Luke did not fail to notice.

"Don't you like the snow, Selena? It's so fun! You can make snowpeople, and snow angels, and snow forts, and have snowball fights, and, uh… go sledding, and-"

"No," the dancer cut him off flatly, "I don't like snow. At all, actually."

"Ah, come on, Selena!" Luke begged. "Don't be such a Grinch!"

Beside her, Kathy giggled, and added in a stage whisper, "I tell her the same thing."

Oh, yes... Everyone in Harmonica Town knew how much the tropical dancer hated the cold, snowy winters on the mainland. To save herself the trouble of responding, she simply took another sip from her half-filled glass.

Luke stared at her, one hand pressed to his chin in thought, until a fantastic idea formed in his mind. "Well, I think I know just the right way to un-Grinch ya!"

Selena scoffed at him, nearly spitting out her cocktail in the process. "Un-Grinch me? And how might you go about doing that, exactly?"

He grinned at her, a mischievous, almost catlike look in his golden eyes. It would be incredibly attractive if he wasn't being so annoying. "Why don't you come chop down a tree in Fugue Forest with me and Bo? We're gonna take it back home and decorate it and everything! It's a Cornet Carpentry family holiday tradition! But you can come, too."

"Chopping down... a tree? In the snow?"

That sounded... awful. Exceptionally so.

"Ah, come on, Sel, why not?" Kathy inquired, one hand on her hip and a teasing spark in her eye that made Selena want to smack the smirk right off her face, but she resisted – smacking one's best friend didn't always go over so well. "Go on and have fun with the boys. Goddess knows, you need it, you've been moping around the bar lately for far too long."

"It's just the winter blues," Selena mumbled, swirling around the deep red liquid in her cocktail glass indecisively.

"Yeah, come with us Sel, pleeeease?" Luke shot her a strange look, his gold eyes widened and nearly bugging out of his head in some failing attempt to make a pleading puppy dog face. "Dad's really busy today and he can't go with us like usual, so we could totally use a special third person!"

Finally, Selena gave in. "All right, all right, fine. I'll come with you, just this once. But I doubt it'll be worth it."

"Yes!" Luke raised a fist to the air triumphantly, and then grabbed Selena by the arm and tugged her off her barstool toward the door. "Come on, there's no time to waste! Bo's probably already waiting for us back home! We just gotta go pick him up, and then we'll be off!"

"Hey, wait!" Kathy called after the pair, struggling to conceal her laughter as she waved a half-emptied cocktail glass in the air, "Selena! You didn't finish your cocktail?"

"You can have it." As much as Selena generally enjoyed cocktails, she didn't want to waste another sip on that thing.

As she followed the sickeningly enthusiastic blue-haired boy into the cold flurry of snowflakes outside, leaving a laughing Kathy behind at the bar and a grumpy Chase somewhere in the kitchen, Selena prayed that she wouldn't regret this decision as much as she feared she would.

"Come on, Selena, this is gonna be so fun! Don't be a mope! You gotta enjoy all the gifts of the holiday season! The little things that make it special, like none other! I know all about 'em. And I'll show it to you!"

Selena wasn't entirely sure what the blue-haired carpenter was going on about; his words were just kind of jumbling together in her head, though she definitely heard something about showing her "the little things that made winter a special gift" or something like that. Yeah. And, judging by the look on the face of the younger boy beside him, Bo wasn't too sure, either.

"You're probably just not not used to this whole winter thing, since you're from that little tropical island and all," he continued on, hefting his woodcutting axe over one shoulder, oblivious to the looks on his companions' faces. "And that's cool, but ya gotta understand, winter is... it's extreme!"

"Luke, please... You're giving me a headache," Selena groaned. "We're not even in Fugue Forest yet, and I'm already sick of this."

"That's just the holiday spirit," Luke announced cheerfully. "Sometimes it doesn't sit quite right, but just give it time."

Selena stared at him, equal parts amused and bewildered, as he bounded ahead of them through the snowdrifts toward the entrance to Fugue Forest, swinging his axe around rather haphazardly as he whistled to himself merrily. Bo, being much shorter, struggled through the snow after him, and Selena took up the rear, swatting snowflakes out of her face and wishing she were anywhere but there. She wondered briefly whether Luke also had a cocktail or two earlier, but then again, this was Luke; he was an... unusual sort of guy to begin with, no alcohol necessary.

A sudden gust of freezing wind blew into the tanned young woman just before she made it to the shelter of the trees, loosening her burgundy hair from its elaborately coiled bun atop her head. She wrapped her arms around her largely exposed body and shivered, hugging them against her chest for warmth, and for once she actually regretted not wearing a coat. "Luke, can you just take me back now? I'm freezing."

"But Selenaaa," Luke whimpered, turning around and widening his eyes as though attempting to hit her with another pleading puppy dog look (and failing miserably at it, she might add). "I have to show you the gifts of winter! You know, all the special little things! The things! And first thing we're gonna do is get our tree!"

Selena snorted, her face contorting into an expression of what appeared to be thinly veiled disgust. "You need to quit making that stupid face, for one thing. And there's absolutely nothing worthwhile about winter. It's cold, it's dreary, it's full of annoying holiday carols and weirdly flavored sugar-bomb desserts and the stench of pine. Those things are not for me, no thank you."

"That's not true!" Luke interrupted, his face aghast. He looked positively mortified. "Pine is practically the best scent ever! It reminds me of forests! All these trees! And… uh, don't you know the holiday season is the most wonderful time of the year?"

"Really," Selena muttered. Luke nodded earnestly, seemingly immune to her sarcasm.

"Yupp, it's true! That's what they all say!" To her utter humiliation (though thankfully, they were at the edge of the forest, and not back at the bar), he began to sing. "It's the most, wonderful tiiiiiime, of the yeeeeee-"

"Please, for the love of the Harvest Goddess above. Cut that out."

Beside her, Bo snorted, finally speaking up after all his silence while watching the older pair bicker amongst themselves. "I've been telling him the same thing for ages."

"Hey," Luke frowned at the younger boy. "Don't you guys know the best way to spread holiday cheer is singing loud enough for everyone to hear? ...Or something like that, yeah."

Bo stared at his fellow carpenter as the latter dashed back toward the forest entrance, now singing loudly again. "...Did you get that from a movie or something?"

But Luke was already too far ahead to hear. Shaking his head and exchanging a bemused glance with the dancer, Bo sighed and followed after Luke more slowly, and Selena had no choice but to enter the forest as well.

The trio stumbled on through Fugue Forest for what seemed like ages. Selena had no idea where they were going, seeing as how all the trees and rocks in the forest looked exactly the same to her - they could be wandering around in circles, for all she knew - but Luke seemed to know exactly where he was going. He scampered off through the woods like an excitable little squirrel, staring intently at every pine tree they passed as though sizing them up, and singing a variety of carols that he encouraged the other two to join in on. Bo eventually joined in on the songs with his fellow apprentice, his serious facade falling away to an amused grin with one goofy rendition of "Jingle Bells," but Selena resolutely refused - she wasn't taking part in any of that nonsense.

Suddenly, Luke shot ahead without warning, cutting their most recent song - their own "Goddess Bless ye Merry Carpenters," or something like that - short. Selena and Bo stopped in their tracks as the blue-haired young man disappeared between the snow-covered trees.

"Luke!" Selena called after him, hoping he hadn't gone too far - she wasn't sure whether she could ever get out of the forest without his help, seeing as how everything around her looked exactly alike, not a single distinguishing feature catching her eye. "Get back here!"

She looked down at Bo, who merely shrugged at her, and sighed.

Luke didn't return immediately. They waited for him... and waited...

And just as Selena was wondering whether she and Bo should just try and turn back on their own, Luke burst out from a cluster of bushes behind them, axe held aloft, scaring them both half to death.

"Luke!"

"Where'd you go?"

Luke's golden eyes were positively sparkling with delight, as though he hadn't noticed what a scare he had just put the others through. "I found the one."

"The One?" Bo and Selena repeated simultaneously, the former with a sense of new-found excitement and the latter in confusion.

"Yeah, come on! It's right up ahead, this way! You're gonna love it!"

He grabbed Selena by the hand and pulled her forward through the snow, rushing forward as fast as his legs could carry him and expertly dodging the trees as though he did this all the time. Selena struggled to keep up, secretly glad that he was holding on to her so that she couldn't get lost in the forest chasing after him. If there was one thing she trusted Luke with, it was that she knew the carpenter had to have known Fugue Forest like the back of his hand. He practically lived there, after all.

"Bo?" Luke called out behind him, noticing that the younger carpenter had fallen behind by quite a bit.

"I'm coming!"

He stopped abruptly, and Selena nearly face-planted right into the pile of snow in front of them. Luckily, Luke was right next to her to hold her steady.

"Look!"

Luke threw his arm out in front of him with a flourish, and Selena followed his gaze. Just ahead of them, there stood a lovely, perfectly shaped pine tree, looking almost out of place in the small snow-filled clearing it stood in. Its branches were dusted in the white powdery stuff, but Selena could still make out the full, pristine form of its boughs, and even she could tell it wasn't at all to big nor too small.

She supposed she could see how someone might truly appreciate such a tree, even if she herself didn't care for them.

"Bo! Hey, uh… Bo?"

"I said I'm coming!"

Bo stumbled out of the trees behind them, his face reddened as he hunched over to catch his breath beside the pair.

"Luke, you gotta stop running off like that!" he reprimanded with a grumble, still gasping for air. "I could barely keep up! I-"

"She's beautiful," Luke sighed, ignoring the younger boy's words, and Selena swore she saw actual tears of admiration shimmering in his eyes.

The dancer sighed. "I need a cocktail. Or three."

"Cocktails later," Luke announced with a wink. "First we gotta chop down this tree! She's the one!"

"I'll just... hang back here," Selena said uncertainly, settling down on a nearby boulder peeking up out of the snow and hoping she wouldn't freeze to death before the two carpenters managed to chop down their perfect pine tree. Oh, why didn't she wear a coat, again?

To her surprise, however (though she probably shouldn't have been, as Luke and Bo were the most skilled in town at collecting lumber, after all), the tree was cleanly chopped down in a timely and efficient manner with a few swift cuts from Luke's axe.

Once the tree was felled, Luke let out a whoop of victory, and Selena even found herself clapping for him. Bo bounced around excitedly despite himself, breaking his usually calm and collected demeanor, thrilled by the prospect of bringing such a lovely tree home to show off to Dale, who would surely be proud of his two apprentices for their effort.

Next on their list of winter things to do was to take the tree home and decorate it with homemade ornaments, most likely while listening to more holiday songs and drinking copious amounts of hot cocoa with extra marshmallows just as Luke and Dale and Bo had always done, though Selena was certain she'd pass on the cocoa part. Luke told her all of this as he dragged the tree along, leaving a trail gouged through the snow behind him, and Selena slowed down to match her steps to his; he walked at a significantly slower pace when he was weighed down with the effort of pulling a tree larger than he himself was.

Finally, Luke ran out of winter things to talk about and instead began to whistle merrily again, and Selena found her chance to ask a question that had nagged at her mind ever since she first met him.

"Why do you like me so much?"

"Huh?" Luke ceased his whistling as though the query directed at him had snapped him out of a trance, and glanced over his shoulder at Selena. She looked suspiciously somber for once, her eyes downcast; it was an unusual expression for the dancer. Normally, she looked vaguely annoyed, confused, or amused when she looked at him (or a mixture of all three). But this was something else.

"Why do you even like me?" she repeated.

"I think you're hot."

Beside him, Bo facepalmed.

"No wait, you're seriously the most beautiful girl I know!" Luke stuttered. "You're super cool, and badass, and awesome, and every time I see you I get this weird tingly feeling deep in my-"

Whatever subdued mood had come over Selena seemed to have quickly come to pass, as she now looked like her regular exasperated self again as she looked him up and down skeptically, one eyebrow raised. "Okay, okay, I get it. I think you've said enough."

Luke's face immediately reddened. "Ugh, not - not like that! I mean… ugh, I think this is coming out all wrong, isn't it?"

Selena ignored Luke's question and remained silent for a moment. "You know… I just... I get the feeling that most people here don't really like me all that much."

"But… that can't be true! Why wouldn't they like you?"

She paused. "Well... I don't really talk to all that many people here in Castanet. There's you, yeah, and then Kathy and Chase... but Chase barely counts, he can be so rude sometimes. What if it's because they all... just don't like me?"

Luke waved his hand dismissively. "Nah, that's just Chase being… Chase. He's judgy toward everyone. Even me!"

Selena merely gave a halfhearted shrug of her shoulders in response, and Luke grinned back at her, draping one arm over her.

"Well, don't worry about it, Selena. Seriously, if they really don't like you, which is a total lie but you know, just hypothetically, their opinions wouldn't matter anyway. Because I like you. A lot."

He glanced over at the shorter boy beside him. "And Bo, he likes you too, right?"

Bo elbowed him in the ribs, giving his fellow carpenter's apprentice a knowing look before speeding on ahead. "Luke, keep me out of this."

Selena cracked a smile as she watched him hurry away. "Thanks, Luke. That... really means a lot."

"Anything for you, Sel."

As she smiled back at that goofy grinning face with the gorgeous golden eyes and blue hair peeking out from under his fiery bandana, ignoring the stray snowflakes that dotted the air around them and the sharp chill in the breeze, Selena actually felt genuinely happy. Something she didn't often feel during her winters in Castanet.

It looked like Luke really had made a solid attempt to show her the "gifts of the holiday season" or whatever the hell he was going on about earlier, after all. And as much as she hated to admit it, maybe it wasn't that half bad, these little things about winter that brought people together - though, of course, nothing compared to a good coconut cocktail on a sun-warmed beach overlooking the ocean sunset.

But there was still more to come, as there would always be with Luke. Many more little things that just might change her opinion for the better.