Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon or anything associated with it.
Author's Note: This is my first fic in a long time, haha, and the first for this account. I adore Popuri and Kai together and thought that their relationship was really interesting. I've written thousands of fics for them, but this is the first one I've actually published. Hope you like it. (:
"Each moment that I wait feels like a year, an eternity. Each moment is as slow and transparent as glass. Through each moment I can see infinite moments lined up, waiting. Why has he gone where I cannot follow?"
The Time Traveler's Wife – Audrey Niffenegger
"Daddy! Look!"
It didn't take him long to find what she was pointing at. Popuri's father looked up and saw the ship leering at them, approaching gracefully through the fog. And, if he squinted, he could make out a tanned little boy with a purple bandanna that had to be as big as him tied haphazardly around his head.
"Can you see him?"
The first time she saw him was coincidentally the first time he saw the shores of Mineral Town. The ship took its time coming closer until it docked right where Popuri was standing; no matter how he called, her father could not get her to return to their family picnic. She stood there; her fuchsia hair lifted, flapping in the wind, a breathless smile on her little face. It was as if the five year old could sense the importance of the day, as if she knew something far beyond her years. Her mother affectionately called it a woman's intuition in the years that followed.
A tall man with a bandanna that matched the boy's carefully descended from the ship, landing graciously next to Popuri. She stared at him in awe, but he could not hold her attention for very long before it was once again given to the young boy.
He refused for several moments to leap into the man's open arms, and then Popuri called up to him, "Don't be afraid!"
"I'm not afraid," the boy retorted harshly, the tips of his ears turning red. "I...I can get down all on my own. I don't need his help."
Popuri was hard to trick. She folded her arms very tightly and looked up at him with doubt. "Oh yeah?"
"…Yeah!"
"Prove it!"
Moments stretched on, moments which Popuri diligently waited through, watching the boy with an expectant look on her face. These moments, unbeknownst to her, could be considered practice for the awful waiting that loomed before her.
Finally, with a look of pure terror, the boy leapt over the edge of the ship and landed painfully beside her, dropping to his knees. Popuri gasped as the older man hastened to lift the boy up.
"Are you okay?" she asked nervously.
"Of course," the boy replied, dusting his knees off. Popuri's father noted that he was wincing, and he stood in a bit of a crouch. If Popuri noticed this, she said nothing. "I told you I could do it, didn't I?"
She smiled. "Yeah. You did. My name is Popuri. I live here with my family. We take care of chickens! What's your name? How come you're here?"
"My name is Kai!" the little boy exclaimed, suddenly void of pain and fear. "I came here because my ship goes wherever the wind takes it. I'm an adventurer of the sea. I have no family."
Instead of being impressed, Popuri merely looked sympathetic. "That sounds awful lonely."
Young Kai wrinkled up his nose. "What? It's not lonely!"
"Come on, Kai," the older man chuckled, taking the boy's hand. "We've got to get you settled into the Inn. An old friend of mine is going to take care of you."
"Alright," Kai sighed, looking reluctantly at Popuri.
"Wait!" the girl exclaimed, and he instantly turned, wrenching his hand loose to face her. "You're going to be staying here?"
"For the summer," the man answered for him. "Kai can't travel with me all the time. He's too young. So he's going to stay here every summer…at least until he's old enough to travel fulltime."
A bright smile lit up Popuri's entire face. Her little body shook with joy, and then she looked at Kai. She was radiant even then. "We can be friends!" she told him, and then before he could reply, she reached out and straightened his bandanna for him.
The boy's suntanned cheeks turned crimson within seconds. "Y-yeah. Of course. I'll see you soon, Popuri," stuttered the usually confident child.
"Bye!" she stood there waving until he was out of sight, and then ran back to her family, jumping up and down. The sand scattered from the impact of her bare feet, spraying her father. He didn't mind.
"You made a new friend, huh?" he asked his daughter, grinning at her excitement.
"Mhm! His name is Kai, did you hear? And he's an adventurer of the sea! He travels wherever the wind takes him!" Her joyous recitation of his words spewed out with delight that could not be contained. Her father wasn't sure what she had said once she finished, but sensed that it was something to marvel at. Kai had already begun to romance Popuri with his handsome words.
"I don't like him," her brother said simply, taking a roll from her forgotten plate.
Popuri shot him a nasty look. "Who asked you, Rick?"
Lilia exchanged a smile with her husband. "I'm very happy for you and your new friend, Popuri," she told her daughter. "I'm sure you two will become very close."
The girl looked taken aback. "Of course we will," she replied, as if it had been plain from the very start. "We're gonna be best friends."
"Wake up! Wake up! Honestly, Rick, get up!"
Popuri picked up a pillow and smacked her brother across the face with it. He shot upright, eyes wide, and upon realizing it was her who had woken him, snatched the pillow back and swore.
"Why do I have to get up now? My alarm hasn't even gone off! You're the one who's supposed to take care of things in the mornings, anyways."
Rick promptly lay back down, but Popuri pulled him back into a sitting position. "Rick, you need to take care of things this morning. Don't you remember what today is?"
"Uh…Tuesday?"
"No! Well, yes, but no. It's the first day of summer!"
Rick lay back down once more and groaned. "So you mean he's here."
Popuri looked like she would have loved to beat him a few more times with the pillow, but merely said, "Yes. And you need to take care of things here. See you later, brother."
"Hey! You really shouldn't go out there, you know, you're just wasting your time going after him and-,"
By the time Rick finished, Popuri was already halfway to the beach.
Her feet couldn't carry her there fast enough. The heavy sound of her pounding footsteps echoed throughout the sleeping town. Her bare feet revolted against the coarse roads, but she pressed on. Shoes would have taken too long, anyways.
She got there just in time to see her favorite sight of the year. Kai's ship was pulling in, and she could see him standing at the very front, waving his arms above his head at her, his beacon that shone at the fog's end.
Popuri felt as though she could stand there and watch him forever. To watch him arriving, and not leaving; that was the best feeling of all. Every moment after would be another moment until he left, but for now she could bask in the knowledge that he was coming, he was almost here, he was here.
He jumped down before the boat had finished docking, landing much more gracefully than he had years ago, and then they raced to each other, meeting with a laughable crash as they both embraced each other at once.
"It's so good to see you!"
"I've missed you so much!"
"I can't believe you're finally here!"
"I can't believe I'm here!"
Words fluttered out of their mouths too fast to really keep track of them. They said the same things they said every year and held back the same things they held back every year. The fifteen year olds were just content to hold onto each other and babble about their time apart until someone pulled one of them away.
Like always, it was Kai's mentor who pulled him back.
"C'mon, Kai. Gotta get you situated again with Doug. Nice seeing you, Popuri."
"You too," she told the man as politely as possible. Every bit of her ached to lash out at him. How dare he ruin her reunion? How dare he bring Kai to her only to take him away at the end of summer? It was easier to be mad at him for offering Kai an escape than at Kai for taking hold of the offer, and so she unleashed her anger onto him whenever she was feeling particularly low.
Kai turned a crooked smile to her. "As soon as things settle down, I'll find you. Okay?"
"Okay," she murmured, smiling as well. Her chest lifted and then relaxed with a deep, soothing breath. Kai was there. When he was there, everything was better.
Time passed quickly. Summer always came and went much too fast. They spent all day and much of the night chatting about their time apart, about their individual futures, and about their friendship, and they didn't exhaust even half of their conversational topics by the last night.
"I can't believe it," Popuri whispered. She and Kai were lying on the beach, staring up at the stars that shone through the hazy night sky. "You're going to leave."
"I'll come back," Kai murmured, his voice sleepy. He hadn't slept the night before, torn between the painful itching to be back at sea once again and the troubling idea of being away from Popuri for another year.
That's what my dad said, Popuri wanted to tell him. She bit her tongue and forced the words back. It was her last night with Kai, and she was not about to spoil it with her problems. It was a night to spend close together, lamenting the time they'd have to spend apart as they always did.
"Not until next year," Popuri mumbled.
Kai looked over at her and then, so gently that she wondered if she had imagined it, set his hand on hers.
"Popuri…I…" his cheeks flared as he looked into her eyes. "I…I'm really going to miss you."
"I'm going to miss you too."
"But, I…" he drifted off again.
"Don't be afraid," Popuri told him teasingly.
He grinned. "I'm not afraid of anything. I'm an adventurer of the sea," he said teasingly.
"Oh, sorry," Popuri shrugged nonchalantly, though her mischievous grin betrayed her. "I forgot."
Kai sat up and then, very softly, pressed his lips against hers. He pulled away so soon she didn't even have time to react, and they stared at each other, shock clearly written on the girl's face.
"I'll admit it, just this once. I'm a little afraid. I'm scared because…I…well…I don't know how to say this. But…I guess the best way to say it would be…I…well…damn it, I really like you, Popuri."
For a moment, Popuri continued to lie on the beach, her eyes wide and only half focused on his. The confidence drained from his face, replaced with sudden apprehension. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out.
She pushed herself into a sitting position as well. "Kai, I like you too."
The sailor breathed out a long sigh of relief. "Good."
"Good?"
"I don't know what I would have done if you didn't feel the same way," Kai admitted sheepishly. "You don't know how much courage it took just to say that."
Popuri smiled, but it quickly faltered. "And now you're going away."
Kai stared down at his lap. "Not forever."
"But you're going to spend forever coming and going."
Kai didn't have an answer to that.
"Popuri," a soothing voice murmured. "Popuri. Popuri. Wake up."
The young woman's eyes slowly flickered open. It was a delight to be woken by her mother rather than Rick, who liked to obnoxiously crow and shake her until she had a headache before even getting out of bed. Lilia was dressed simply, but wore such a marvelous smile that Popuri knew even before her memory kicked in that something wonderful was happening.
"He's almost here!" she screamed.
"Nobody cares, Popuri!" her brother's voice sounded from the next room. She paid it no mind. She brushed past her mother, returned to give her a brief peck on the cheek, and then continued her mad dash to the mirror. In the six years that had eclipsed since that first brief kiss, Popuri and Kai's relationship had advanced to unofficial, but very real. Neither of them ever made it clear, but neither of them would have dared to date another person knowing that in only three seasons they would see each other again.
The brush ran painfully through her hair. The discomfort didn't delay her a single second. She pulled on her clean clothes and slipped on her shoes at the same time, and though it was clear her mother was trying to tell her something, she dashed right out the door.
"He's twenty-one now…" Lilia whispered to the empty room. "Oh, Popuri…"
Barley and May laughed as they watched Popuri sprint towards the beach; they each called out a greeting, but she couldn't be stopped. Her feet carried her without conscious thought; after sixteen years of doing the same thing on the first day of every summer, they needed no guiding. They surged forward with careful grace; every step brought her closer to Kai, and a single stumble farther away. She had never run with such precision.
When Popuri finally arrived at the dock, she was shocked to see that the ship was already dropping its anchor.
How did I arrive a few minutes late? She wondered anxiously. I barely stopped at all! I've only been up for five minutes!
Kai looked at her and she smiled and began to wave, but he quickly looked away. The guilty, depressed look on his face sent chills down her spine. Had he cheated on her? Was that possible, as they weren't even officially together? She hoped he hadn't met someone else. Her world came crashing down around her due to this single snub, and she wasn't even sure what to grieve over yet.
His mentor, the captain- in all these years, she had never bothered to learn his name- glanced over at her and waved.
"A little late this year, eh?" he chuckled. He and the crew thought Popuri's sweet doting was adorable, and teased Kai for it year round.
Popuri's face whitened. Could this be why Kai seemed so upset? No, it couldn't; he wasn't the type to get worked up over something like that. She nodded so pathetically and miserably that the man instantly turned away and busied himself in unloading.
Kai jumped over the edge of the ship and walked to her; she rushed forward and met him only a few steps away from the ship, lunged forward, and wrapped her arms around him. His lips found her forehead, and he set his arms far more carefully than usual around her. Everything felt wrong. They had made a promise years ago to never let a single year change them, and yet Kai seemed to be a completely different person.
"I missed you," she whispered. She wanted to hear all the kind words he had ever told her; she wanted proof, any kind of proof, that he still felt the same way about her.
"Me too," he replied. That wasn't good enough for her. She buried her face in his chest and wished he would have hidden this sadness from her until the end of summer. She couldn't stand him to be here and so visibly upset. She thought that if she could, she would upturn the entire world to turn that grimace into a real smile. She knew it was foolish, to put him so high on her priorities, but she couldn't help it. He was at the top of the list and didn't even know it.
"Enjoy your last summer with him, Popuri," Kai's mentor said, setting his hand on her shoulder. "Let's go check in with Doug, Kai."
"What?" Popuri exploded. Kai was being reluctantly led away by his mentor, and in his embarrassment did nothing but shoot an apologetic glance at his almost girlfriend. She felt tears threatening to spill over and fought them. She wanted to be mad. Being mad was easier. How could this be his last summer? How could he have not told her that?
Was he really choosing the sea over her?
