This is my first Fanfiction, so it's definitely not perfect. This chapter is just introductory, the beginning and middle are boring. I enjoy the end though. Chihaya x Akari
Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon.
She picked up the old, tattered advertisement one more time before she laid it back onto the kitchen counter, grabbed her baggage, and snatched up her bus pass from the shelf where it had gathered dust for the past month. Her feet then slip easily into her old boots, and she absent mindedly reaches for the closet door forgetting that it holds no hat for her head. How could her life have became so black and white?
She was off to find a place for herself, she wanted to find a place where someone would want her. Even the tiniest, bead of want. She had to leave this forgotten cottage, this place where the sun once shined. It was once very beautiful here, she remembered days back when she was very small, before her mother and father died. She shook remembering the cold scenes of the accident that had taken their lives. The fact that she had seen it with her own eyes made it scar her even more.
She shook her head at the family photos as she ran for the doors, then slowly turned back to face the bed. She slowly approached the cold metal frame, the white paint beginning to clip and split. It revealed a thick layer of rust.
She crouched down beside it, and slipped her hand down beneath. She felt the familiar warmth as her hand landed on something soft which she grabbed at and pull out to her lap. She held a folded blanket. It wasn't perfect but she remembered that her father had made that yarn, and that she had watched as her mother had woven it all together. She could remember telling her mother how beautiful it was, and when she inhaled, for the second she could smell her mothers old perfume.
The blanket was beautiful in it's strange ways. It was fading, she remembered it had once been a cerulean blue. She unfolded it and pulled it around her self, then slipped out the door without hesitation.
"Name?"
She tried to keep herself from blushing at the captain, "My name is Akari."
She could tell he hadn't been paying full attention, his stare went through her, "So you want to go to Waffle Island?"
"Yup, I'm going to start a ranch." Akari couldn't help but glance up at the huge boat beside her, then her thoughts began to wander. She had never been on a boat, she had no idea what it would be like. She wondered it she might end up getting seasick. After the while of silently thinking to her self the Captain began to address her again, "I can bring you over to the island right now, the trip isn't to long."
Akari shook her head in agreement, "Please, that would be great." The Captain smiled, "My name is Pascal, and I'd be delighted to bring you to the island." She grinned at him, "Thank you." He looked surprised when he had first seen her alone at the docks, but now he seemed completely different. He was- more carefree?
"Well you can just climb up to the boat, I'll be up in maybe- five minutes. Then your trip to Waffle Island will officially begin."
Akari carefully got into the boat, she then stood in the back to wait. She watched as Pascal ran back down the dock, spoke short conversations to a couple of people, then came back. He climbed up the same way Akari had, and then walked over to her. "Sorry, I had to make sure that some people knew I would be leaving." Akari shook her head absent mindedly.
Pascal disappeared as they began to sail out, she couldn't help but turn back to the land which she was leaving. She could still see her tiny cottage, a faded pink, dead flowers in the garden, the dirt surrounding the area turned to mud.
Her heart fell, she wished she could have maintained her home a bit longer than she did. She always felt too lonely there, the neibors had forgotten her. Her pets were gone, as were her parents' precious live stock. She couldn't live there anymore, she needed to see people, she needed to make friends, she needed ways to make money, she needed a non-rotting house, this place provided none of those needs.
It seemed as if the lights had gone out, the last thing she had seen was the island coming into view. She could feel swelling in her head, and she covered it, wishing the pain would go away.
It was the day she met… him.
That was a month ago today. They still hadn't warmed up to each other yet. She couldn't understand why he was always so sarcastic and rude. She always tried to get on his good side, she seemed to move very slowly- of she moved at all.
"Chase?" Akari stuck her head into the kitchen of the Sundae Inn. He was standing at the stove cooking as usual.
He looked up as she called his name, "What?" His facial expression was one of terrible annoyance. He had been about to put a dish into the oven, but stood up to talk to her instead, "Are you helping out today, again?" Akari's eyes narrowed in sadness of her failure, "Yes." She said quietly. She knew she should have expected this from Chase, but it still made to her upset to think about the chef who had hated her before she even came.
He glared at her for a couple seconds before resuming his work, "So?"
"What?"
"Why did you some back here?"
"Oh!" Her eyes widened as she remembered her original mission, "I was told to ask you which jobs need to be done." He looked up from the oven, his glare was gone, now the look on his face was one of curiousness, "Well, a job that you can actually do without terribly hurting yourself or someone around you…"
