I do not own Harvest Moon: Animal Parade or hold association or third party rights with any of its affiliates. No copyright infringement intended.

Rated T for Owen's impatience and the cursory language that follows. (No 'F' words, but he gets a little frustrated.)

Another request! For usuihentai727 – you're so sweet! Thank you for all the support. n_n

This is a short one-shot of a moment passed with Luke and Owen. Just friends! I always pictured these two to have a friendship that's similar to brotherhood. But of course, I always pictured a competition between them – they're so similar, you know?

Anyways, here it is!

Trees shaded the heads of the two workers deep in Fugue Forest. The midsummer sun was hot and the air was thick, but this was routine. Weather wouldn't stop the competitive pair on the forest floor.

"Phew!" Owen whistled, running a hand through his short hair. "It's so hot… Hey, we've gotten ahead of ourselves. What do you say we take a break?"

"Lunch?" Luke asked, suddenly interested. He wielded his axe once more against the old pine stump and struck hard. The head cleaved through the wood like it was melted butter. The stump parted in two and the boy with the fire bandana looked up with satisfaction. "Alright! Let's go."

"Here's good enough – there's plenty of shade." Owen reasoned, throwing his hammer down and sitting down on the dirt. He propped himself up against a sturdy tree trunk and opened his rucksack.

Luke followed and chose to sit on a stump a couple yards away. Owen tossed the lumberjack a plastic wrapped sandwich which he easily caught and quickly dug into. Face full of meat and cheese, Luke asked in a slur: "S'how much you got today?"

"Fifty." Owen replied between bites, referring to the amount of material stone he collected. "You?"

"Sixty-four!" Luke fist-pumped in victory.

Owen rolled his eyes. "This was your idea to come to the forest. If I was in the mine, you wouldn't stand a chance."

Luke shook his head indignantly. "Nu-uh! No matter where I was, I could beat you. At anything! Besides – aren't you here hiding from Kathy?"

"Shut up." He grumbled, taking a grumpy bite from his sandwich. But the challenge still lingered in his mind. "And that's not true—"

"You're totally hiding—"

"Not that!" Owen interrupted. "That thing about beating me. I'm way bigger – it's a scientific fact that I'm destined to be better than you."

Luke's mouth gaped. Finishing his sandwich in one last bite, he tightened the bandana containing his mass of blue hair and positioned his fists. "Lies! Bigger isn't better – you are hindered by your bulky frame!"

Owen raised his eyebrow at this.

"Everyone knows I'm the most popular bachelor behind Chase and Gill (you seriously got beat out by a guy with a diary). I am a ninja of the night! The supreme competitor – none can face me!"

"Except Selena, right? Because last I checked, you're totally whipped—"

"Ready to prove yourself?" Luke jumped up suddenly.

Owen shook his head. "You're crazy."

"What?" Luke asked, flapping his arms (in a motion reminiscent of our happy miner) and making chicken noises. "Chicken?"

"You're seriously going there?" Owen retorted, disinterestedly finishing his lunch. "Luke, you haven't aged a day since Tree of Tranquility."

"BAWK BAWK BAWK!" Luke squawked, drowning out Owen's protests.

"FINE." Owen stood, snatching up his hammer and lugging it over his shoulder. "What are the rules?"

Luke stopped clucking and grinned. He took up his trusty axe and looked around. "First to reach one hundred?"

"Not fair – you're fourteen ahead of me and the trees outnumber the rocks."Owen refused.

Luke counted on his fingers, checking his friend's math and decided he was at least right about the fourteen. Scanning the forest, Luke realized that he couldn't count the trees, but it was obvious the rocks were less in number. "Well, if you're bigger and better than me, shouldn't you be able to beat me despite the disadvantage…?"

Owen glared at Luke's Cheshire Cat smile. "No. No! You're not pulling that one. We need a fair competition."

"Um… How about a race?" Luke suggested.

"Don't think that's exactly fair against the 'ninja of the night.'" Owen reminded with an eye roll. "You know these woods better than anybody."

"Fine – what about… a tree climb?"

"Seriously?" Owen asked. "You're practically a squirrel!"

"Will you stop whining like Luna - I'm running out of ideas here!" Luke accused. "Why don't you pick something?"

"What about an arm wrestle or a boxing match?" Owen suggested.

"Right." Luke crossed his arms, setting his axe down. "Dude, you'll just sit on me and win. Talk about fair."

Owen dropped his hammer and tapped his chin. "We need a game of chance… Something that's completely out of our hands. Something we're both equally good at."

"Hey, why don't we play Rock, Paper, Scissors?" Luke asked, holding his fist out. Owen was about to comment that was a great idea when Luke ruined it and said: "If I win, I get to pick and if you win—"

"Oh, shut up – we're just going to play Rock, Paper, Scissors!" The miner stepped forward.

Fist to fist, the boys looked each other threateningly in the eye. "Best out of three?"

"Sure." Owen nodded.

They bounced their fists and said in unison: "Rock! Paper! Scissors!"

"EXTREME!" Luke shouted, smacking Owen's fist with both of his.

"What the hell was that?-!" Owen asked, having chosen 'rock.'

"Me winning!" Luke smiled with a glint in his eye. "You were 'rock' and I was 'nuclear arsenal.'"

"You don't even know what that is!"

"Do, too!"

"Just play the damn game fair." Owen muttered, holding his fist out again.

"It was fair…" Luke grumbled.

"Rock! Paper! Scissors!"

"EXTREME!"

"LUKE!"

"What?"

"What the hell was that?-!"

"Best out of three, that's what it was!" Luke smiled cheekily.

Owen as 'scissors' just got his wrist pinched. "What was that? 'Nuclear arsenal' again?"

Luke rolled his eyes in disappointment. "No…! You just got 'rattlesnaked!'"

"Rattlesnaked?"

Luke nodded.

"You're such a dickhead."

The smaller of the two fumed. "Fine! I'll be merciful and let you try again—"

"Oh, please—"

Luke was already starting the next round. "Rock! Paper! Scissors!"

"EXTREME!" Owen shouted before Luke could. He viciously slapped Luke's hand away.

"Dude, what was that?"

"Beating you at your own game!" Owen replied smugly.

"No, no." Luke shook his head. "What was that move?"

"Bitch slap. I figured you'd be familiar with it."

Luke laughed and held out his fist again. "Good one!"

A little more taken to the game, Owen held his hand out again and they both repeated the verse. "Rock! Paper! Scissors!"

"EXTREME!" Luke got to it first and gave Owen an 'Indian burn.'

After multiple rounds of childish insults and injuries, the two found that the more it hurt, the closer it felt to winning…

"Black eye!"

"Upper cut!"

"Roundhouse kick!"

"Okay, okay – stop! Hold on a minute!" Owen coughed, holding out his hand.

Luke was panting, one eye slowly starting to swell.

"Let's catch our breath…"

Luke agreed and plopped down wearily. "So… who's winning?"

"I don't know…" Owen shook his head. "You still up?"

"Yeah. You?"

"Obviously. So… first to KO?"

Luke nodded but he groaned. "Yeah… It's only fair."

"Hey, guys!" Angela waved from a distance. They didn't hear her at first, so she jogged the rest of the distance holding her axe over one shoulder. "Hey! Guys, I – what happened to you?-!"

The boys continued their labored breathing and gave her shrugs in response. The young farmer first ran to Luke and inspected his eye before turning to Owen and noticing the large, dark bruise on his jaw. "What happened? Are you guys alright?"

"Just a friendly competition, Angela. Nothing to worry about." Owen explained, batting her away.

"It's only fair…" Luke tacked on.

"Are you telling me you got into a fight as… a game?-!" Angela scoffed. "What is this, Fight Club?"

They gave her unknowing but surely interested stares. She put her hands on her hips angrily, so they looked in different directions.

"This is ridiculous." She determined, picking up her fallen axe. "You two had better sort this out – you're both very worthy competitors. Don't push it and kill yourselves… Call it a tie."

The girl disappeared as fast as she had come. Luke and Owen gave each other shameful looks.

"Guess Ange has a point…" Luke mumbled first.

"Yeah… This was dumb." Owen nodded.

The two were quiet for awhile, only the sounds of the forest to fill in the gap of silence. They finally went about to clean up their things – it was late afternoon. As Owen packed his rucksack, Luke took up the hammer by accident when he was in search of his axe handle.

Owen noticed the mistake when he picked up Luke's axe. "Hey, Luke – you've got my hammer."

Luke looked down and realized the exchange. "Oh. Yeah… I suppose I do."

The two stared at each other for a minute before nodding and rushing around. Luke with the hammer – Owen with the axe.

"Clean slate! First to fifty!" Luke shouted as he pounded a rock.

Owen agreed and slammed the axe head against a fresh tree.

The two buzzed around the forest wildly chopping and smashing away, finally in a 'fair' competition.

"This hammer sucks!"

"How do you do this?-!"

"These rocks won't SMASH!"

"This thing is so clumsy!"

"I hate this!"

"Oh, you ready to give in?" Owen suggested, sweat pouring as the stump split.

Luke finally broke through the boulder. "NEVER!"