Fruits of the Summer
Explanation of Universe: The farm areas look like the ones in Tree of Tranquility, and are in the same style. Nearly everything else is Animal Parade-esque.
Disclaimer: I don't own anything, except for my character, Julie, and kindasorta the other farmer, to a limited extent.
Summary: Gil and Chihaya are secretly stalking each other. Because they're both in love. With each other. A certain manipulative farmer, with help from her neighbor, gives them a hand. BL, Shounen-ai, boyXboy, etc.
Chihaya was fascinated.
The way his admiree's soft, light blonde hair gently shone under the lights had Chihaya mesmerized, as the flames seemed dance as they refracted over the shiny, clean locks. The way that full eyelashes batted away the dark of the pub at night was almost too much to bear, and he was hardly able to restrain himself from assaulting his stalkee with fangirly squeals and smothering hugs punctuated by loving kisses.
But he digressed.
Gil Hamilton, the Mayor's son, was definitely out of his league.
"Chihayaaaaaaaaa," came a voice, drawing him out of his appreciative reverie. Jessica, the farmer who owned the seaside lot, waved a gloved hand in his face. "Uhm, yeah. You're thinking bad things about yourself again, aren't you?"
"No," came his automatic response. Technically, it was true. He was only thinking about how great Gil was; how much smarter in comparison to himself, how much more responsible, how Gil was so much more adorable...
Never mind, he realized. That was a lie.
"You're awesome!" Jess declared, thoroughly shaking his shoulders. "What's making you doubt yourself all of a sudden?"
"I don't really know," Chihaya sighed. He turned around and began to absentmindedly prepare some tomato risotto, his specialty, forgetting that it was definitely a daytime dish.
The door to the bar opened, and, briefly, the patrons turned to look at the girl entering- the farmer of the hills, also known as Julie. A recurring customer to the bar, nobody knew exactly what she was doing with the eight cocktails she would buy weekly. Considering she (almost) never appeared inebriated, nobody knew what she was doing with them.
"I'll take seven blackberry cocktails and one buckwheat," she ordered. She downed the buckwheat one immediately and safely stored the rest in her magical handbag of treasures. "Hey. Jess, Chihaya."
"Julie-chan!" Jess exclaimed and engulfed the girl in a hug, which was happily returned.
"Hi there, Jess," she replied. "What's new over here?"
"Chi-kun is depreciating himself," Jess explained.
"I guessed as much," Julie smirked. "And, judging by the tomato risotto he's currently making, it has something to do with a certain someone who happens to like tomatoes. Hmm, I wonder who that could be?"
The girls giggled together.
"What?" Chihaya asked. He looked down. Evidently, he'd prepared the dish without even realizing it.
"I'll buy it off you," Julie offered, even though she could make the dish nearly as well as Chihaya could. An idea occurred to her. "In fact, I'll pay you if you'll give it to Gil for me."
"You want to give it to Gil?" Chihaya inquired, curious suddenly.
"Yeah, he's the cutest guy in Harmonica Town and the surrounding areas," Julie agreed. "There's no other man I'd rather court."
"Uhm, it's okay," he insisted. "I'll... just give it to someone. From me."
He hurried off.
"What was that about?" Jess asked. "I thought you were all for Chihaya/Gil."
"I am," Julie giggled conspiratorially. "I was hoping to get Chi-kun jealous enough to do something. Anyways, you wanted some coffee, right?"
"Yeah," Jess smiled. "I'm proposing to the Wizard tonight, and everyone knows that you make the best pot of coffee around."
"I guessed as much," she answered, pointedly ignoring the comment about the quality of her coffee. "I brought coffee ice-cream too. I heard he likes that."
"From who?" Jess inquired.
"The Witch," Julie replied. "They've known each other for a while, and they've developed a sort-of friendly rivalry. You should get going; it's nearly ten."
"Gotcha!~"
And with that, Jess left.
Meanwhile, Chihaya was wondering to himself what on Earth he had gotten himself into.
Yes, he liked Gil- probably more than he was entitled to, seeing as he hadn't had any sort of contact with him for the past three years of culinary school (he got out of the first one through AP classes, which were, evidently, accepted as college credit for some chefs' academies*). And, for some reason beyond his comprehension, Gil seemed to moderately enjoy his company. He glanced down at the dish in his hand. Well, he could at least give Gil something that wasn't going to be of any use at the inn.
That was the excuse, at least.
"Here," Chihaya said, serving up a steaming plate of the Italian dish to his secret love. "Compliments of the chef."
Gil stared down at the offered dish.
"Thank you," he said politely, allowing a small smile. "I... really like this... I mean, really, how did you know? Why are you giving this to me?"
"I didn't know you liked it," Chihaya admitted, internally rejoicing that his meager gift pleased Harmonica Town's most handsome bachelor. He blushed a bit. "Tomato risotto is actually my specialty, and I made some by mistake, so someone recommended that I give it to you. This one's on the house."
Gil's eyes widened as if he'd just had an epiphany- probably that creepy Chihaya, who was five years the elder, was a pedophile who liked to prey on barely-legal young men. Then he blinked.
"Thanks again," he smiled hesitantly, almost shakily, a light blush dusting his oh-so adorable cheeks. He picked up a spoon and ingested the selected portion, licking the spoon tantalizingly upon doing so. Chihaya watched him rim his lips with his petite pink tongue and, subconsciously, Chihaya lightly licked his own.
"That was quite good," Gil smiled at him.
"You're welcome," Chihaya replied. "I'll see you around, then- I have to go back to work."
"All right," Gil responded, and returned to eating the risotto with heavily lidded eyes, most likely from his last late-nighter. Chihaya turned around and went to the kitchen. Somebody was ordering bouillabaisse.
Gil felt totally disoriented the next morning.
He'd come home from having dinner at the bar, totally free of charge. Unless it was customary practice to randomly give patrons free samples of food sold at a totally different time of day, Gil would have guessed that Chihaya was trying to hint that he was romantically inclined towards him. That was impossible, of course, because there was absolutely no way that the hottest bachelor in Harmonica town and all surrounding areas could even be remotely interested in him- in any matter, much less romantically. Not to mention, he was pretty sure that Chihaya regularly flirted with one to the farmers; Jennifer or something of the like. He wasn't exactly familiar with either girl, but he saw them enough to knew that the only reason either rancher had for going to the bar was to meet with Chihaya.
Not like he'd become a regular at the bar during after work hours for the express reason of watching his beloved Chi-san. That was creepy and stalkerish, and Gil did not do creepy and stalkerish. He was far too dignified for that.
Anyways, even if he were stalking Chihaya, nobody could blame him.
Still, Gil thought it would be nice to give Chihaya something in return. If it didn't get his feelings across, then he could pass it off as a thank-you for the risotto, at the very least.
This was the reason Gil stood at the door of the mountaintop farm, in front of the house of a girl he'd only really met once, trying to pick up some fruit to make a pie or a cake or something. He knocked once.
"Coming!" came a muffled voice from within. This was followed by a cat's meow, the sound of shattering glass, and several loud thumps.
Gil suddenly became very concerned for his safety.
The door opened and revealed a petite girl donning singly-strapped overalls with a white t-shirt. A white cat contentedly purred in her arms, resting on a sheet of long, badly knotted black hair.
Was this really his competition for Chi-san's affection?
"Good morning, Mr. Hamilton-Junior-Sir!" she chirped. "How may I help you this fine day?"
Gil then guessed it was the other girl he'd seen flirting with Chihaya, the one who was already engaged. He couldn't imagine this... it... courting anybody. He supposed that neither girl was any competition... then again, Gil wasn't even entered in the race.
All the better reason to buy from them.
"Hello, good day to you as well," he replied crisply. "I am looking to purchase something to bake a pie or cake with."
"Hmmm..." the girl said. She set her cat on the ground next to her. "Follow me, please. Jess and I have an orchard in the town lot, and the oranges there are ready for picking today. I was actually just about to do that myself, but I got a bit sidetracked."
"Sounds good," agreed Gil. He was in his element: business and negotiation. He followed the surprisingly friendly person down to the town lot, where the entire field was overrun with trees.
"The orange trees are on the far right," she told him as they trekked to the area. The other farmer was already in the midst of picking them.
"Julie-chan!" Jess set down her basket of picked oranges and ran over to give her fellow farmer a hug. Her clothes were in considerably better condition, Gil noticed, and the panda following her around obediently nosed through the ground for foraged materials.
"Hey, Jess," Julie automatically replied. "I have Gil here with me today. He's interested in buying some fruit to bake a cake. Maybe a pie."
"Okay. Pick some oranges out of that basket, and then we can talk business," Jess agreed.
Gil walked over to the basket and carefully inspected each orange. This one? No, too round. That one? No, not round enough. How about the one over there? Too orange.
"If you're baking a cake, it's best to use the slightly more ripe ones, cause they have more juice," Jess recommended, having had much experience with baking for Chihaya herself. "If you want to bake a pie, you're probably better off with a firmer, less ripe orange because the flesh softens and sweetens as it bakes."
"Thank you," remarked Gil offhandedly, outwardly appearing to snub her advice, but really taking it to heart.
He eventually found a couple that were perfect- only the best for his Chi-san. They were ever-so-slightly elliptical in shape, appropriately ripe and firm enough for a pie, and exactly the correct shade of orange.
"I'll pay you 300 G for these," he offered.
"I would much like to sell at 500," Julie stated, inspecting her nails as if she did this sort of thing every day.
"That's too much for these," Gil frowned. 500 was nearly twice his asking price. "The most I'd be willing to pay is 350 G."
"Hmm... I'd sell at 450, and I'l even throw in a fairly good tomato to sweeten the deal," Julie added, pulling one out from her magical handbag of awesomeness. "Maybe you'll even cook something with the two together. They are both summer fruits, after all, and I think they'd go pretty good together if you just tried it."
"Okay..." he quirked an eyebrow at the peculiar suggestion. A tomato and an orange? Together? Nobody had ever heard of such a thing! Still, the two fruits did have much in common. They both grew in the summer, they were both seeded, they both had a strong, pithy flesh surrounding a softer part, coated by a thin, but oblique peel... they could create something beautiful together, he supposed, but only under the hands of a skilled chef... like his beloved Chi-san...
But he digressed, and agreed to the deal, as he loved tomatoes. Accepting the produce, he paid the girls and walked back to Harmonica Town, munching on the tomato as if it were an apple. He had some baking to do.
"Julie..." Jess quirked an eyebrow at her fellow farmer. "Did you just trick Gil into buying something he didn't come here for?"
"That's business," she shrugged, going back to picking oranges.
Jess smiled in amusement.
Gil stood nervously before the door of the Ocarina Inn, mentally willing himself to enter. In his arms, he held an orange pie, wrapped in cheesecloth to keep warm. His knees shook ever-so-slighly, and he steeled his resolve. What did he have to worry about? It was just a gift between friends, a thank-you for the tomato risotto from the night before.
He would have wasted his whole day worrying about this moment if he didn't make it worthwhile by going in now.
This final thought made him push the door to the inn open, and enter.
Chihaya looked up from cleaning the countertop. He slightly furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. It was at least half an hour before Gil's usual arrival at the bar, and he was normally such a diligent person. For him to put off work at all was totally unusual for Gil... especially because he worked overtime six out of seven days (and even then, because Town Hall was closed on Sunday).
"You're early today," Chihaya let the words pass from his lips unbidden. He smiled. He may as well enjoy the extra Gil-watching time.
"I am?" Gil asked, surprised. He hadn't even noticed that he came to the inn at a regular time every day.
"Yeah," chuckled Chihaya, much enjoying the actual interaction with the object of his affections. "You usually come here about half an hour from now."
"Oh," Gil blushed. He mentally berated himself for coming early. Now it looked like he was going far out of his way to deliver a gift to a friend- just a friend. That was suspicious, and maybe Chihaya would pick up on his secret affections.
Gil could only see that going in a very, very good way or a very, very bad way.
Chihaya saw his sweetheart's blush up close as the blonde sat at the counter that Chihaya was cleaning. The pretty dusting made Chihaya blush a bit as well, and he subconsciously leaned in closer to Gil. His body appeared to be working on Autopilot today- he cursed its treachery for betraying his feelings to the boy who would never accept them.
Gil's heart beat faster as he saw Chihaya lean into him... but he couldn't kid himself into believing that Chi-san was honestly coming on to him. Maybe it was just a bartender thing; he knew that Kathy leaned over counters to talk to people all the time.
"Uhm, I wanted to thank you for the risotto you gave me yesterday..." Gil murmured, quickly losing confidence. He held out the pie, hoping to get it over with before he lost the nerve. "I-I know it's not much and my cooking isn't great but..."
So cute. Chihaya's heart burst with affection, both at Gil's effort towards their friendship and his cute expression. Did he honestly believe that Chihaya could refuse such a gift?
"Thank you," he said just as softly. "I'm sure if you took the time out of your day to make me something, then it'll be more than well worth it."
Gil's face burned. He could practically see the heat radiating off his own cheeks in little, tomato-red wavelengths. The gradual quieting of their voices had subconsciously brought the two closer together out of sheer need for aural comprehension. He could literally feel Chi-san's gentle exhales, and if he just turned his head a little, tiny bit to the left, their lips would meet...
"Gil..." the elder boy breathed. He felt the heat rising off Gil's cheeks, and he himself grew hotter under the collar. The heat didn't burn him- it was pleasantly warm, not quite red-hot, but an orangey, golden haze... like... like... the beginning of summer. Yes, that's what it was- the soothingly heated days after all of Spring's rain was over, before the sweltering heat hit and made it impossible to do anything...
He liked it. It reminded him of the refreshing spice of oranges and cinnamon that permeated his nostrils, courtesy of the pie.
The two boys grew closer and closer and Gil's eyes fluttered half-shut, preparing for impact. Chihaya couldn't handle the cuteness any longer- his lips surged forward the last few micrometers between his lips and Gil's.
The last barrier was broken.
Gil reached up, sitting now on his knees, and carded his fingers through Chihaya's barrette-ridden hair, pushing past a few of the aforementioned clips. He used the hands embedded in the soft, feathery hairs to press his face closer to Chihaya's as his hips pressed against the slim countertop.
Chihaya, meanwhile, wrapped an arm around Gil's waist, the elbow resting on the counter. His other hand entertained itself by softly stroking Gil's smooth, platinum locks. He relished the coolness below his fingertips, such a stark contrast from Gil's warm cheeks. Their lips glided beautifully over each other, like white cake batter blended completely with melted chocolate to create a new explosion of culinary delicacy.
The sweet and gentle kiss broke eventually, as the two still required oxygen to maintain life function.
Chihaya recovered first.
"I've been thinking a lot about you..." he breathed, pressing a brief kiss to Gil's nose.
"I... I can't stop thinking about you..." Gil replied breathlessly.
"I really like you," Chihaya answered. He admitted, "I think I'm in love with you."
Gil smiled softly, "Would you mind going steady with me?" I mean, if you aren't interested in anyone else..."
Chihaya hugged Gil tightly. "Never. You're the only one for me... You want to go out with me?"
"Yes," Gil sighed contentedly. He nuzzled into the crook of Chihaya's neck. "You do realize that, by agreeing to date me, you are also implying that you intend to marry me?"
"Absolutely," he kissed the top of Gil's head, then smiled into a nest of soft hair. "But, you know, one step at a time, right? I don't want to rush you too much... I would be happy, for now, if you'd just come over my house for dinner sometime soon... I have work tonight, unfortunately, but-"
"I can take over," Maya stood at the doorway, leaning against the wall. Startled, Gil and Chihaya leaped apart, then inched back together again to hold hands.
"Relax," she giggled. "Chi, go take your boyfriend for a date. I can cover for you tonight."
Chihaya rose an eyebrow, regarding her dubiously: "Are you sure? We do't want a repeat of what happened last time with the Saury and that cat..."
"Maya! I'm here, what did you need me for?" Julie appeared at the doorway, holding a bag of fresh produce. She cast a glance in the new couple's direction, her eyes quickly dropping to their intertwined fingers.
"Oh, I see," she snickered. "Don't worry, Chihaya, I'll cover for you. We don't want that thing with the cat and the Saury to happen again..."
"Thank you," the chef addressed her, then turned his full attention to Gil. "Would you like to eat dinner with me tonight?"
"Yes," Gil accepted, a light blush spreading over his barely-recovered cheeks. "I would love to."
As the two walked out of the slowly filling bar, Chihaya whispered, "What do you say to some salad and Tomato Risotto, followed by that lovely pie you baked, and then the rest of our lives together?"
"That sounds good to me," Gil answered, holding his Chi-san's hand just the slightest bit more tightly as they begs walking. "That sounds very, very good to me."
Hayden looked out of the inn's window as he opened up shop.
"It's about time those two got together."
-OWARI-
Footnotes:
*This is actually true; you can get out of taking mandatory first-year core subjects through AP classes in high school.
The conversation where Gil and Chihaya (finally) confess is a conglomerate of four different confessions: Chihaya's at 7 hearts with heroine (ToT and Animal Parade) and Gil's at 7 hearts with heroine (ToT and Animal Parade also).
Recipe for Tomato-Orange Soup, from http :/peppermill – miri . /2009 /03 /tomato-orange-soup . html (sans the various spaces):
Tomato Orange Soup
2 tbsp butter
1 onion - medium, chopped fine
5 tomatoes - blanched, peeled and chopped
1 tsp salt
2 tsp freshly crushed black pepper
1/4 tsp cumin powder
1/2 tsp dried thyme
Fresh Orange juice from 1 orange
2 tbsp fresh cream, whipped
1. Melt butter in a heavy bottomed pan, add onion and saute for 4-5 minutes till transluscent.
2. Add chopped tomatoes, salt and dried thyme, bring to boil and then simmer on a low flame for 15 minutes. Add the crushed pepper and remove from flame.
3. Cool and puree in a mixer. Return to the pan and add the orange juice. Heat gently for a couple of minutes, adjust seasoning and serve with a dash of cream.