Chapter One – Sweet Hydrangeaaaa
Neil groaned in his pillow, turning up louder the music blaring through his headphones. He shifted around, cursing the awkward angles he had to hold until he simply settled on lying on his back. He wasn't a foreigner to the charismatic farmer's newly-found architectural hobby, but it did bother him that this time, Henry's project was only a few yards away from his home. It was past midnight, and the farmer was still hammering away at the wooden structure, an electric saw buzzing here and there amongst the loud bangs.
The irony of the situation did not escape him; he could fall asleep to loud death metal as some sort of twisted lullaby, but not construction field noises.
The next morning came way too slowly. Neil was actually glad that it was his day off, because as he absent-mindedly stirred his black coffee with a thin wooden stick, he could barely keep up with Rod's enthusiastic blabber. Apparently, the strawberry blond was blind to people's moods, yet that did not surprise him much. Why else would Rod keep talking to him? He glanced outside, his gaze catching the violet hydrangeas blooming on the restaurant's counter.
"—oh, you should have seen the look on her face: priceless! Lyli really is calm and all, but I don't know, she scares the hell out of me—"
Neil would have fallen asleep, were it not for the added red-haired guest at their table that said, "I still can't believe she's moving here! My baby sister!"
The sleepy animal dealer grumbled out, "Sister? If she's anything like you, I'm moving out."
Allen scoffed, "He actually has a sense of humour," he mockingly breathed to Rod.
Neil rolled his eyes, taking another sip of his deliciously bitter coffee. That's when Henry decided to pop in the restaurant, dusting his hands on his overalls. He spotted the group of guys nearby and sat next to Neil, since he was alone on his side of the table.
"Hey guys!" he still managed to cheerfully greet them. He didn't look much better than Neil, sleep deprivation-wise.
"Hey!" Rod practically sang. "You done with her studio?"
Studio? Neil perked up at the words, though he was still glaring daggers at his coffee for no apparent reason. What kind of studio?
"Yep; shop, studio and upstairs. She just needs to send over her furniture and she's all set," the farmer-turned-architect boasted, obviously proud of his work. "Does she have a recoding thing...? you know, that thing with all the buttons and all the switches?"
Allen thought about it for a second, before he said, "Nah, just the weird microphones."
"Why?" Rod inquired instead.
Henry, sighed as he explained, "I searched high and low for a decent one that fit the panel I made. Still don't have it."
"Don't beat yourself up, dude!" Rod exclaimed, trying his best to reassure him. "She'll find one, she's good like that!"
Neil mentally pointed out that the pet seller had previously admitted Lylli terrified him, yet he didn't care enough to actually voice what he thought. He quietly sipped his coffee once more, which was slowly growing colder. He contemplated if he should buy another one — to go, this time.
When Felicity came by to grab the two new arrivals' orders, he was grateful for the brief silence that followed as the two guys decided what to take. Neil rubbed circles into his temples, tightly shutting his eyes for a second. He wondered who many more people would come to claim Echo Town as their home. It wasn't because he was annoyed at all the new noise — he was actually glad that it was slowly gaining back the lively atmosphere it had in his early childhood. He hid that simple fact, of course.
He was pulled out of his thoughts as he felt a hand rest on his shoulder. He blinked a few times. straightening up slightly.
"I said, I figured you'd like a new neighbour, so I built her house near yours," Henry apparently repeated for the animal dealer, a smile bright on his features. "Besides, the village's getting crowded, I need to concentrate buildings in the main area," he added with a sheepish shrug.
Neil's facial expression stayed impassive as he yawned, "Yeah, I get it." He honestly was too tired to care either way. He wasn't a morning person, and his recently imposed insomnia clearly didn't help. He was just glad he would get a good night's sleep this time around.
A few moments later, the blonde left the gold for his bitter coffee on the restaurant's table and walked out of the establishment. He headed towards the forest, as he always did on his days off. One the way back home, he passed by the newly-built house. What was her name again, Lily? Yeah, that was what Rod said. He didn't know about the weird spelling he would sure have despised. He would have thought it was only stylized since the girl liked it better that way, it was more original. He would have found that completely stupid.
He did respect her for her apparent love of music, though, as he had gathered. He shook his head, he didn't even care all that much honestly. Once the door was closed behind him, he decided to shut off early in a small attempt to not be tired the next day; he had to work.
His work day came and went quickly, boring as it always was behind his stall, but he did enjoy the time he got to spend with his animals in the meantime. Once he reached his house, he noticed the new girl had already moved in and was crouched near her home's outside walls, occupied with flowers. Oh, she was planting them. He headed straight for his front door, not at all in the mood for small talk, yet he glanced her way once more before he entered. She was smiling, and her lips moved as if she was singing. She caught his gaze and waved, though he did not stick around much longer to see her resume her work as if nothing happened.
He had expected her to say 'hi' or something like Rod did each time their paths crossed, or maybe a snide comment like Allen often threw his way. He wasn't expecting a simple, friendly wave. One other thing he did not expect was her hair colour. She wasn't a blood-redhead like Allen; rather ebony black, tips dyed navy blue. She also had a fringe that passed right above her eyes. Allen's baby sister? She looked barely younger than him...
He scowled at the empty air before him, and he headed towards his room, taking off his bass from its hook, on the wall. He turned on his amplifier, playing simply because he felt like it.
"Sweet hydrangeaaaa," a certain girl sang, borrowing a melody from Avenged Sevenfold. "You smell so gooood! And don't you dare think you don't belong heeere, yeaaah." She patted the dark earth right above the purple flower's roots. "Oooh, it's your freaking nightmaaaare!" She laughed at her own antics, moving on with the next flower. "While your nightmare comes to liiiife!"
She carefully took the roots out of their plastic container, sticking mycorrhiza all over the compact roots and earth. She also dumped a generous amount of the plant-friendly fungi in the hole she had previously dug up for the blue plant. She gently placed the flower in the hole, carefully filling it up with the pile of loose earth all around it.
In her peripheral vision, the new girl caught sight of something red and gold. She turned her head to get a better look at it. It was young man, maybe about her age, looking at her. She waved, figuring it must be Neil, her new neighbour. She liked his fashion sense — no, that was an understatement. She blinked in surprise when he glared at her and quickly entered his house, but smiled afterwards, continuing her diligent work with her plants.
Rod had playfully warned her about the peevish young adult. She dusted her hands on her dark jeans, planning on taking a little cranberry and lime lemonade break.
But then she heard it.
It was faint, but she definitely recognized the muffled sound of an electric bass. She glanced in Neil's house's direction, slowly walking up to its side. She closed her eyes, the music slightly louder, as she followed the quick succession of deep notes with a wild smile. She guessed he'd be into AFI, if he didn't know them yet, with all their complex bass melodies.
She stayed for a second song, but then she left for that lemonade break. She pushed open the glass door of her store, the overhead bell echoed with a soft chime. The floor was made out of very dark hardwood, while most of the furniture was white as snow. Cold-coloured flowers were the only decoration, if you didn't count the various large band posters hanging from every empty charcoal-painted walls, the back one navy blue. She breathed in the sweet air, remembering the atmospheric snow-capped mountain air freshener she had sprayed earlier.
A few good-quality black speakers hung from high up on the walls, and she fiddled for a few seconds with her phone to hook them up with bluetooth, playing a song she had stuck in her head. Two rows of electric guitars and basses were hung on the left wall, arrayed by colour, with the black and white ones on either ends. Classic guitars hung from the ceiling to create some sort of nearby row, amplifiers of various sizes to the ground below. On the room's opposite side, hundreds of CDs were openly displayed in rows, classed by genre, and again by artist.
This was her music shop, The Bass Clef.
"Oooh, this is gonna be so much fun!"
A.N.
Old story I once took down, since it wasn't that interesting story-wise. Recycled my OC, whom I had previously named 'Iris', but since there's this bachelorette now in Story of Seasons with that name, I changed it. Gah. I freaking loved that name...
Criticism is much appreciated~! This one's short, but meh. Tell me if it's worth continuing~! :3
Anyways, I've always imagined Neil to have Gideon Emery's voice, what do you think? Accent and all. If you don't know how he sounds like, type 'Fenris and Varric party banter' on youtube. Gideon voices Fenris, the Elf. :3 He also voices the male crusader in 'Diablo: Reaper of Souls'. (Totally didn't create a male character just to listen to his voice, nooo ;3) And Gideon in Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare~
Have a nice day!
~SjelTheif