The bell above the door rang, signaling that someone else had entered the Sincerity General Store, and waking Doug from his daydreaming.

Glancing upward, he noticed that his visitor was Lest, the strange amnesiac who had fallen into town several months prior.

"Hey, Lest." Doug remarked, idly rolling a seed back and forth across the counter, "You know where to find everything, just let me know when you're ready to buy."

Lest nodded, a friendly smile on his face, as always.

The dwarf turned his attention back to the counter as he allowed his mind to wander once again. Idly, he wondered what time it was, hoping that it was time for his lunch break. His mouth began to water as he pictured the nice tempura bowl he had waiting for him, his eyes slowly sliding shut...

"Oh, hello!" Lest said suddenly, breaking Doug from his stupor.

Flicking the seed in irritation, he turned to Lest, a complaint ready on the dwarf's tongue. Doug stopped however, when he saw that Lest was not talking to the store's only employee on duty, but at Forte, who was crouched, looking over one of the shop's lower shelves. He absentmindedly scratched his face, wondering how he had forgotten that the knight had even entered the shop in the first place.

Knowing that Lest's incessant friendliness would keep the dwarf from drifting off fully, Doug decided that he might as well stay awake and listen in. After all, he might be able to tease Lest about it later on, Doug noted, a smirk growing on his face.

"Good morning, Sir Lest." Forte replied, looking over her shoulder at Selphia's acting prince. "Looking for more farming supplies?"

"Of course. It always seems like I don't have enough seeds for what I want to plant." Lest answered, crouching down next to the Dragon Knight. "What about you?"

"Er- I came in for some oil and polish... I've been cleaning my sword much more now since we've been going out more often." Forte stated, patting the scabbard at her hip. Her eyes opened wide as she realized what her wording sounded like, before backpedaling to correct herself. "I-I mean, since we've been going out adventuring! Not..."

Doug chuckled to himself as he watched Lest place a hand on Forte's shoulder. This was turning out to be very fruitful in finding additional ways to tease the acting prince.

"I know what you mean, Forte." Lest said, some mirth in his voice. "But... this doesn't look like the sword section..."

Doug's smirk deepened, and he leaned closer for a better look, but the pair of adventurers blocked his view entirely.

"I might have gotten... distracted... during my time in here." Forte admitted, and an armored hand made its way to the back of her neck in a sheepish gesture.

"So, you might pick up one of these too?" Lest prompted, reaching over and picking up an object from the shelf.

"Probably not... it wouldn't be befitting of a knight to obtain one of these..." Forte stated, shaking her head subtly. Standing up, she looked downward at Lest's crouched form. "I should be getting a move on anyways. I've wasted enough time here as it is, time that could be used to further my skills."

Lest watched Forte as she walked away, his mouth set in a thin line, the gears in his head slowly turning. Suddenly, he stopped and stood up as well, the object from the shelf still clutched in his hands, allowing Doug to see the shelf for himself- it was filled with small dolls, shaped like various animals.

It was odd, Doug noted, but useless, in the end. Forte would probably thrash him if he even tried to tease her about it. Lest on the other hand...

The dwarf resumed his daydreaming from before, now that Lest's friendliness had subsided... for now, at least. Several minutes later Lest came up to the counter in order to finish his purchases. One by one, the acting prince placed his needed seeds, until finally placing one of the dolls on the counter, one made to resemble a small Chipsqueek.

Doug chuckled at the last one, looking down at the goods as he calculated the money that Lest owed.

"I didn't peg you as one to play with dolls, Lest." The dwarf grinned, looking up at Lest, "Or is this for your girlfriend over there?"

Lest's face lit up with a blush, and Doug felt some smug satisfaction at having pegged Lest.

"I... you... she..." Lest stammered, attempting to form some sort of explanation.

"It's alright, Lest, I'm sure that Porcoline will appreciate it..." Doug chuckled out as a reply.

"Ah, right..." Lest murmured, before paying what he owed and leaving the store.

A bit later, Forte made her own way to the counter, supplies for sword care stacked high on the counter. She didn't say anything, and neither did Doug, both of them accepting the mutual silence. As Forte paid for her goods, however, Doug noticed out of the corner of his eye that Lest was still waiting outside.

Forte raised an eyebrow at Doug's smirk as he handed over the supplies, but she said nothing. Doug, on the other hand, only smirked deeper as he watched Lest stop Forte outside the small shop. He turned his attention back to the woodwork as he resume his daydreaming, thankful that he would not have to take stock today.

However, a couple hours later, Doug's smirk was gone entirely as Lest entered the store for the second time that day, covered in dirt and idly playing with his bag of coins. His smirk had evolved into an all-knowing grin as Lest brought a second Chipsqueek doll to the counter, his eyes silently asking Doug to keep quiet.

"So, I take it Porcoline liked the present?" Doug asked, his grin threatening to split his head in two with its size.

"I guess you could say that..." Lest sighed, giving Doug one final, sheepish look.

Author's Notes

Hey everyone, Pega here.

Let me just give you a little backstory on this fic.

So, I've only just gotten into the Rune Factory series- I've started extremely recently on the first one, and I'm already enjoying the series. I plan on picking up 4 (sometime soon, hopefully), but since my gaming "craving" won't let up, I've resorted to watching playthroughs of the game on YouTube to sate my appetite for Rune Factory.

One of the things I happened to watch first was some of the dating interactions between Lest and Forte, and I was immediately taken by how absolutely adorable those two are together, with Lest generally being clueless and naive and Forte getting flustered and confused. So, of course, I looked for fanfiction for them and found little to none at all for this pair. What a travesty! /sarcasm

However, it was reading a comic I found on Tumblr (post/55807085966/erarud) that sent me over the edge. I wanted to write a lead-up and a follow-up to this comic, and the result is what you've just read. As always, I hope you guys enjoyed, and I hope you stick around for another year or so until I release another story.

- Pega