Hey this is the first fanfic I have ever written, and I have been fighting over whether or not I should write it at all. Anyway, this is the behind the scences story of everyone's favorite emo cowboy. I've taken it upon myself to give him the full name of Vaughn Waltz Vaults (where did I get that totally original name from?), gave him one living family member, and hopefully a deeper than his already deep personality. I follow his life on and outside of the island, reintroduce old characters and places, and even might throw in a new character every now and then. I'm still putting a lot of thought into this story so bear with me.

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Chapter 1- The Invitation

Vaughn was in the back stable of the barn brushing the pregnant cow he had affectionately named Bess. She was too weary at the moment to stand for any lenght of time, so she was content to just lay there and let Vaughn gently brush her.

Except today he wasn't brushing her as softly as he usually did. In fact, he was brushing so hard it almost felt like sandpaper on her hide.

Vaughn's mind, like it usually was when he cared for the animals, was elsewhere. And as it often was, it wasn't anywhere pleasant. Today, it was worst still.

He was thinking about what had happened two days ago.

After getting a call from the Yodel ranch, he had shipped a young calf to Mineral town before taking it down to a ranch in the Forget-Me-Not Valley. It had been the first time that Dale let him deliver there, so he was determined to run into as few people as possible.

And for good reason.

______

Soon after arriving he was passing a large farm when he stopped, took off his hat, and checked the slip to see if this was the place he was looking for.

After seeing it wasn't, he started to pull the calf on when he heard a shout from the farm house. An extremely angry looking, and quite hefty woman came charging out the door holding a pitchfork.

"Hey you! Stop right there!!!" She shouted, charging at him. "You thought you could just waltz back into my farm and steal my crops aga.."

She suddenly stopped just short of striking him the moment she saw his face.

A tall young man and a scared young woman appeared at the door, drawn to the commotion.

The man took one look at the man in front of his sister and charged as well.

"Why you little bas.."
"Wait Marlin! It ain't him!"

He paused halfway from the door. "Are you sure, Vesta?"

"Sure I'm sure. This here's a stranger. Has different eyes too. It can't be him!"

Vesta turned back to Vaughn, who had put his hat back on and pulled it low over his eyes to hide the rage burning in them.

"Where ya headed, Stranger?" she asked with a huge grin on her face, completely failing to apologize for nearly impaling with a pitchfork.

Vaughn just looked away and motioned the to calf, which surprisingly had almost fallen asleep during the "break".

"Oh, ya delivering a calf, are ya! Well, seeing as I don't raise any livestock, you must be looking for the Kute ranch up yonder! Well, its just pass this bridge and on your second right, it is"

Still not looking her way, Vaughn nodded the slightest as humanly possible and made his way before she could say another word.

"Well, he's just a basket of sunshine, now isn't he?" spat Marlin.

"Well, you both almost attacked him. How would you feel?" sighed Celia.

When he got to the Kute ranch, he just tied the calf to a post, knocked once on the door and was a ways off before the brunette could open the door and catch sight of him.

_____

"Moooouuh!"

Bess was just about fed up now. Vaughn had been rubbing a spot so hard that it had begun to turn red.

He quickly snapped out of his daydream, knowing all too well what an angry, expectant cow could do to him no matter how much she liked him.

"Got your head in the clouds again, have you?"

Vaughn quickly turned around to see his boss, Dale Cleave, standing behind him. He relaxed just a little.

"Something bothering you? You've been sulking around more than usual since coming back from that last delivery."

"It's nothing," he lied.

Dale looked at him with concern in his eyes, which only made Vaughn tense up more. He wanted to press, but knew better than that. Vaughn was like a son to him, but he knew when things were useless to talk about. And with Vaughn, it was never a good time to talk about anything.

Dale cleared his throat, searching for something else to talk about.

"Oh yeah. I remember now. My sister called. Seems she was told by a friend that their family and some others were going to try to revive this old island and they needed an animal shop to help the local rancher. She told me that she's already there with Julia and that the locals are really nice."

Vaughn went back to brushing Bess, this time alot more carefully as he listened.

"...And they told me that they'll be needing some livestock down there soon, so I thought ...."

Vaughn stopped and looked straight into Dale's eyes. Somehow, he didn't like where this was going.

"It'll be fine! I promise. She said everyone's as sweet as can be, AND that the island is the most quiet, relaxing place you've ever seen. She was sure it would be the perfect place for you to relax and, well..."

Vaughn slowly stood up and let out a deep sigh. It seemed that everyone was out to change him. So what if he kept to himself!

But then, his aunt Mirabelle had always looked out for him. Plus, she always had the best intentions whenever she tried to "help" him.

Maybe it wouldn't be SO bad to take a trip to see his aunt and cousin every once in a while. Maybe he could even bum off a few days and just relax without any worries whenever he went. A nice quite island with few people to avoid....

Dale stood quietly as he watched Vaughn stare at the wall.

"So?"

He turned around to face his boss, his face expressionless as it usually was when he talked to people.

"Alright."