Oh my gosh. It's been over 6 months since I last posted anything on Fanfiction.net. Well, I've been really busy, and events in real life have been keeping me from doing much. I'm going to try to work on my other stories, too, but... I have a few new ones.

This is my first attempt at a Harvest Moon story, based off the PS2 game Save the Homeland. It's actually based off an RPG my sister and I were playing. I was playing as Joe's team (Joe, Katie, and Dia) while my sister was Alan's team. Since I was playing as Joe, I was able to sympathize with him better and wrote this story mostly in favor of him and Katie, heh...

DISCLAIMER: I don't own Harvest Moon. Natsume, Marcome, Victor Entertainment, and any other companies that I've forgotten to mention own it. However the following characters: Alan, JC, Jason, and Kayla are my sister's creations, used with her permission. Any other made-up character is mine.

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The Prank War
Chapter 1: A Little Accident Goes a Long Way...

It had been almost a year since Sugar Village's demolition scare, and life had gotten back to normal (more or less) for all the villagers. Within that year, three young men had moved in and built a gym: Alan, JC, and Jason.

"Mornin', Louis," JC called as he entered the tool shop. "Gotten that tool I asked for yet?"

"No, not yet," Louis answered from inside the rocket-shaped thing in the middle of the room. He claimed it was a dryer, though a very odd prototype, that's for sure According to Louis' wife, Lyla, it worked just fine. Even so, Louis wanted to try to make it better, and had taken it into his shop so he could work on it during the day. "The mail service is slow in these parts." He chuckled. "Thought you would have noticed that by now."

"Yeah, well, doesn't hurt to ask. So, can I buy some AP medicine from you, or are you too busy right now?"

"Just leave the money on the counter. actually, why don't you go to the flower shop and give it to Lyla? I'll probably forget about it if you leave it on the counter."

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Why don't you just stop working on that thing for a moment "Uh, OK. I'll give it to Lyla." JC took the AP Medicine and left.

The flower shop was right next to the tool shop. No, not across the street from it. This village was so small, that there wasn't even really a well-defined street. Just a path. JC and his brothers had been surprised when they'd found that out, but they'd gotten used to the dirt path rather soon.

Lyla was alone in the shop, looking bored. "Oh, hello," she perked up when she saw JC, "May I help you?"

"I need to pay for this," JC held up the AP Medicine. "1000G, right?"

"Yes, you're right. Um, why didn't Louis?"

"Working on the dryer."

Lyla shook her head. "Still? He got up early this morning, claimed he had a great idea Well, I'll give the money to him."

"Thanks." JC said goodbye to her and went back to the gym.

The gym had been set up on Brownie Ranch, the land given to them as a small gift from their cousin, Bob. Bob and his younger sister and brother, Kayla and Tim, had been excited to finally have some permanent help on their ranch.

The owner of the gym was actually Alan, the oldest of the three brothers. Alan, however, didn't have a very good sense of leadership. He was way too jocular to take anything seriously. So JC ended up doing most of the work, despite the fact that he was the youngest.

"Yo, what took you so long?!" Alan exclaimed when JC finally got back. "I've been waiting forever!"

"Just had to take a little detour in payment," JC answered coolly. "I got it."

Alan grabbed the AP Medicine and drank it all in a few gulps. He wiped his mouth. "Ah, much better."

Jason was busy talking on the phone. "Oh, great guys," he said when hanging up, "Woody just called. He's not going to be able to look at our roof today, so his apprentices are gonna do it."

"Gwen?" JC asked, hopeful.

"Nope. His apprentices. Gwen isn't his apprentice."

"Dang."

"Those two geeks then? That wanna-be fisherman?" Alan asked.

"Yeah, him. And the other guy, whatever his name is. They'll be here soon."

Alan was sorting through some healthy yogurt treats we kept. "Like how soon?"

"Any minute."

Sure enough, about ten minutes later, Joe and Kurt arrived.

"Hey," Joe waved in greeting, while Kurt did nothing. "Where do ya need it looked at?"

"Up here," JC motioned to the top left corner, outside. "It sags a lot during the rainy season."

Joe was carrying a ladder. He stood it against the gym and climbed up to take a look. "Ew"

"What?"

"There's a ton of stuff caught in the gutter. It won't let water drain. That's your problem."

"Oh, gross!" Alan grimaced. "Can you clean it?"

"Yeah, let me get some stuff." Joe hopped down from the ladder. "Kurt, I'll need some scraping equipment."

Kurt nodded and rummaged around in the toolbox before handing some tools to Joe. Joe hopped back up onto the ladder and began scraping out some of the gunk in the gutters.

"Oh sick, this looks like manure and smells worse," Joe nearly gagged. "Worse than yogurt! How'd stuff smelling like this get in here, anyway?"

"It happens," Alan answered. "And it doesn't smell like yogurt."

"Well, I don't like yogurt," Joe nearly snapped. "And this is really gross. See?!" Joe flung some at Alan, meaning for it to land right in front of him.

Instead, it landed on Alan

JC and Jason burst into laughter. "Oh, man, Alan! Bet you could attract any girl with that wonderful scent!" JC laughed.

"Whoah, sorry, man," Joe laughed as well while Alan glared at him. "That was just an accident. No need to try to kill me with that look!"

Alan said nothing, just went back in to change.

Joe finished what he was doing. "All right, all done." He hopped down from the ladder. "Be sure to call us again if you have any problems."

"Sure thing!" JC and Jason both waved to Joe.

Alan came back out. "That jerk! Did you see what he did?!"

"It was an accident, man," Jason reminded him.

"Hmph, accident, yeah, sure."

"Hey," JC asked, looking a little worried. "You're not gonna do something to him, are you?"

"Maybe"

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A few nights later, a shape crept through the Walnut Forest, up to a little shack. The shadowy figure took out a crowbar, tried to unlock the door, found that it was already unlocked, and went in. Two figures lay sleeping inside the shack. The shadow crept up to one of them, put something all over his face
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"AAAAAH!!" Joe woke up in a panic. At the other end of the room, Gwen was doubled in laughter.

"Oh man, Joe! What were you doing last night?!"

Joe wiped all the yogurt from his face. "Gross! Who did that, I wonder?"

"How drunk were you when you got home from the bar?" Gwen was still shaking with laughter.

"I wasn't all that drunk"

"He didn't have any yogurt with him when he got home," Kurt said quietly. "Someone played a prank on him."

"Who else was at the bar?" Gwen asked.

"Bob," Joe answered. "And the boss."

"Maybe Bob did it," she suggested.

"Nah, doesn't seem like him to do that," Joe mused. "Well, I'll find out and pay them back good!"

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The answer came later that morning, when Joe and Kurt were at work splitting wood to sell as firewood. Jason and Alan came to buy some wood, and Alan stopped to talk with Joe.

"So, Joe, anything interesting happen last night?" Alan asked with a grin.

Joe stared at him. "It was you, wasn't it?! That yogurt?"

"What'cha think?" Alan laughed. "That's what you get for cleaning out the gutter on me!"

"That was an accident, man," Joe pressed. "That yogurt thing wasn't."

"So? I just hope you learned to be more careful."

Joe sighed as he got back to work. "That jerk What do you think?" he asked his brother.

Kurt said nothing.

"Some help you are," Joe grumbled. "But I have an idea"

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