Vaughn opened one eye to gaze at the sleeping brunette that was cuddled into his chest, a soft sent of dirt and hay filled his nose. Pressing his lips to her forehead, she squirmed slightly in her sleep like she always does whenever he moves. He always wondered how this happened to him, he wasn't looking for love, yet it came and bit him in the ass. And he wasn't kidding about being bit in the ass part either. He closed his eyes and his mind wandered to when they first met almost three years ago.

~Flashback about 3 years ago, give or take a month~

"Hey Vaughn, are you almost done with that load of chicken seed?" questioned the large blond with short hair, she was cleaning off the counter with a light blue rag. The said cowboy looked over at her and shook his head, he couldn't talk or he'll drop the sack. "Well, when you're done, a famer moved to Farm Island yesterday. You should go say hi."

He grunted softly as the silver haired cowboy dropped the last sack onto the others. "Farmer? When did he get there?" he asked the blonde as he wiped the sweat from his brow with his black sleeve. He took a deep breath, quite tired already from carrying the 20 lb bags from the container outside since it was too large to fit through the stupidly thin door. He waited for her answer as he was counting how many, they were supposed to have at least 20 bags.

"She got here last night; Taro-Sama helped her settle in enough so she can get a decent night's rest." Vaughn stopped what he was doing to look at the Animal seller. "What? Don't give me that look Vaughn; it's not a date or anything. I'm just telling you so you can get to know the farmer. She'll be needing animals, Animal Trader." He just groaned as he started to recount the bags, hoping she won't make him go say hello. She always did that, trying to make him talk to girls in hope he gets a girlfriend. He's too busy to deal with whiney girls who cling onto their man since they want stuff.

"I'm too busy for that kind of stuff Mirabelle, and besides, someone needs to count all the bags of seed and bushels of hay we just got." He grumbled as he started to write down the correct number of chicken seed sacks. He was about to walk over to the boxes of hay when another blonde came from behind a wall.

"I'll do that Vaughn" the thin blonde told the cowboy who looked annoyed at her as she pushed him gently out of the door. "Now, just introduce yourself, it might come in handy later on in life if you tell people hello. Her name is Chelsea Moon" She pushed him out of the doorway; he heard the distinct clicking of the lock. He groaned and muttered something harsh, the blonde just laughed behind the door.

He sighed and tilted his hat over his head to block out the sun from his eyes as he walked up the hill to get to the Ranch on Farm Island. He doesn't understand why there are islands here, but he doesn't really care other than it'll be a pain walking the animals up the hill. He saw the little brown shack and he almost felt sorry for the farmer that lived there, almost. He wouldn't ever live here, too small, and too creaky he thought to himself as he knocked on the door. "Hello?" he waited for a minute or two before knocking once more a little louder.

He heard a muffle "coming" and a few sounds of stuff falling onto the floor. He shook his head, wondering if she just got up, how lazy he thought while looking at his watch. 6:00 and she's still asleep, farmers should be awake by 5:30 at least to get the best of the day before it gets too hot even if it's barely Season Spring. His train of thought was interrupted when the door opened to see a girl with brown hair the color of dirt, messy from barely waking up, on top of her head was a bright red bandana. She had a black tank top underneath an unbuttoned brown shirt, they both looked wrinkled. Her ocean blue eyes were dark with sleep as she was looking at the silver haired Vaughn.

"Hello. Name's Vaughn, I'm the island's Animal Trader. We'll be doing business since you're the farmer." Vaughn said in his gruff husky voice. He scratched the back of his head as she looked at him from top to bottom. "Ummmm" he started to get uneasily after a few seconds.

"I'm the farmer, nice to meet you Vaughn." she giggled happily as her eyes lightened to a baby blue when she finally woke up, "My name is Chelsea." She offered her hand which he just ignored, she felt a little uneasy, wondering if she did something wrong.

"I'll take my leave now." He grumbled as he walked off, being unsocial like he normally is, he didn't mean any harm.

Chelsea looked a bit confused and hurt as she watched the cowboy walked down the hill back to Verdure Island. "D-did I offend him or something?" she asked the question to the air as she walked back inside to get her black boots on.

~Fast-forward from the flash back to about a year later~

Vaughn was helping the herd of sheep behind the Animal shop since they kept wandering about if left alone for at least a minute. He shook his head and chuckled under his breath as a lamb jumped after his mother who had already went in the gate. After getting all the sheep, normal and Suffolk, their wool is black not white, in the cage just as it hit 1 in the afternoon. About time for lunch, he took off his hat to fan his face as he walked back into the air conditioned store.

"Hey Vaughn, you can take a break for now since the sheep were the last ones to be put away." He nodded as he sat down at the counter, taking a quick breather before going over to Nick's Diner for his usual dinner. "So, you and Chelsea are pretty close now huh?" nudged Mirabelle, she laughed at his expression of embarrassment and annoyance.

"Shut up, we're not even friends." He grumbled at the blonde who just laughed even louder at the annoyed cowboy. "Anyways, I'm going over to the diner, I'm hungry" he glared at Julia, who kept laughing at him. Getting fed up at being laughed at, he stomped out of the shop, and straight into Chelsea who was carrying her small black dog, Hero. "Watch where you're going dammit" he snarled at her, not realizing who it was.

"Geez, don't need to me so crabby Vaughn, you bumped into me" she complained as she wiped off her shorts of the dirt that decided to hitch a ride when she fell down. Her puppy was bark angrily at the cowboy since he refuses to say I'm sorry right away.

"C-Chelsea!" he called out her name; in response she just raised her eyebrows. His eyes were wide and he could feel the blushing setting in, he quickly pulled his black hat over his eyes. "You should have moved, so it's your fault." He got a bite from the angry puppy on his boot; it didn't hurt, just tickled a little bit. "Don't bite me, bite Chelsea, she ran into me first." He tried to convince the puppy, it didn't work much.

"Forget it, I didn't get. No harm, no foul right Vaughn?" she smiled at him sweetly, a slight blush on her face from holding back a laugh from the sight in front of her. "Anyways, want to go to the diner with me? I'm planning to eat with Hero outside." Hero started to bark loudly when he heard that Vaughn was going to go eat with them. "What? Don't want Vaughn coming with us Hero?" Hero nodded happily, his tail wagging a mile a minute. "S-sorry, maybe next time?"

"Yea, if I'm not busy, which I always am. See yea." If Hero had hands, he would have smacked his face, he didn't want that. He wanted them to go out, just them. He got an idea. He jumped on Vaughn and started to bark at him, his tail wagging happily. "Hero, come on. I want to go to the café." he growled as he pushed of the German Shepard puppy.

He jumped onto Chelsea this time and forced her to sit down with all his might. "Owww, you jerk!" she cried out in shock and a little bit of pain. Hero looked at her then the cowboy was wiping off his dirty clothes, he placed his paws over her heart before yipping once and wagging his tail when she finally got it. "Got it!" she smiled with a thin blush on her face when she got up and slowly walked over to Vaughn. "Let me make it up to you since my dog knocked you down."

"And for knocking me down. What did you have in mind?" he looked at her, wondering what she was about to say. "Wait, how about we go to Nick's then?" She nodded happily, they were about to walk over to the diner when Hero ran over to them and bit Vaughn in the rear. "Hey!" he shouted at the dog, whom ran off. Getting fed up with the dog today, he ran after him, following him to Chelsea's farm.

"Hero! Vaughn! Act your age dammit!" she shouted at both of the immature boys, running after them, holding onto her bandanna in her hand.

~Inside the animal shop with two nosey, but caring blondes~

From inside the Animal shop, a certain two blonds were laughing, to the point their crying and holding their stomachs. "You were right mom; he does have a crush on her. Wonder if they'll get together?"

"Perhaps they will Julia, perhaps they will. But it's up to Vaughn, if he'll say yes to her."

"Ummm, don't you mean he'll ask her?"

"He's too shy, I thought you knew that." She told her daughter, they both thought about it for a moment and nodded, agreeing to what she had just said.

~Over at Midnight Farm, with Vaughn, Chelsea, and Hero~

"I'm so sorry Vaughn! I didn't know that he'll bite you on your ass!" she whined as she kept Vaughn away from getting to her dog by holding onto his waist. He was too annoyed to realize where her arms were and she didn't care as long as he didn't hurt her puppy. "I'll keep him in his doghouse and cook you dinner and porridge every day you're here as long as you don't hurt him!" she pleaded to the angry silver haired cowboy.

As soon as she mentioned porridge, he stopped trying to get to the puppy. "Really? You'd do that?" she nodded from behind him, still holding on to his waist. He was about to smile when he finally felt a pair of arms around his waist, small slender arms. "W-why are you holding me like t-that?" he stuttered slightly.

"You were trying to get my dog…" she grumbled slightly, letting him go, her face hot from blushing. "Anyways! Come on, dinner on me starts today!" she giggled happily as she walked off towards her house, not waiting for Vaughn to follow her. "I can't promise you'll like my cooking though…" she shouted from inside her house, which was upgraded all the way.

He shook his head and walked inside her house, and blinked. "What's with the wallpaper?" he asked Chelsea, who was going through her fridge for food to cook and prepare. "It white and has black paw prints everywhere" he commented while going to the table in the middle of the room. "Did Gannon do this?"

She stopped looking though the fridge to look at him, confused on why he was talking so much. "Umm, of course Vaughn, he was the one that fixed up this shack of mine. You feel like some stir fry right now?" she asked him, who was about to say something when she interrupted. "Without carrots, I know what you like." He nodded at the chef as she started to prepare the food.

Once the food was done cooking and the table prepared for dinner, they heard the roar of thunder outside. "What the hell? I thought Taro would have told me about this…" she grumbled as she looked out the window, "You can stay here tonight if you'd like… It's hell outside with the rain and stuff." She turned around to see Vaughn with a red face. "There IS a couch you know." She laughed as she went to go sit down to eat. "And don't worry; Hero's doghouse is next to my bed." Vaughn took a bite out of the food and his eyes went wide. "Knew you'd like it, after all, I took lessons from Perry in exchange that I grow crops for him."

"Really? Why'd you do all of that just for food? You live alone, so I don't think it'll really matter if you know how to cook or not." She looked at him with a confused look on her face. "What? It's true; I think it's pointless to learn how to cook when you live alone. Simple as that Chelsea."

Chelsea just shrugged as she sipped some grape wine, the taste not being how she wanted it, but it was still good. "I have someone I wanted to impress, so I learned how to cook. So what if I live alone, I didn't want to eat burnt toast every morning." Vaughn stopped eating when he heard that she wanted to cook for someone. Did she like someone here? Who?

After dinner was over and cleaned off, Chelsea was looking for some extra blankets when Vaughn walked out of the bathroom after taking a shower, with just black Pajama bottoms. "Thanks Chelsea, but I can fix the bed myself." He paused for a moment and wondered why he just thanked her for now reason. He hoped she didn't notice but he wasn't always so lucky. She stopped what she was doing and pressed a hand to his forehead. "What the hell are you doing? I'm not sick!" he growled at the girl, who was dressed in her usual pjs, but he didn't know that.

"Checking to see if you're sick, Vaughn. You don't thank just anyone for something as stupid as making a bed on the couch. You're head isn't hot though…" she thought for a moment, he didn't have time to prepare for what happened next. She pressed her ear over his heart, wondering if it was beating faster than it should be. "You sure you're fine Vaughn? Your heart is beating pretty fast, at least faster than it should be…" when she looked up, his face was red, he couldn't hid it underneath his hat, he wasn't wearing it. "Now your face is red…" she pressed her lips to his forehead, to check his temperature just like how her mom used to do.

"Its because of you!" Vaughn quickly said, pulling Chelsea away from his face and chest before walking off. She stared at him bare back before he vanished behind the wall into the kitchen.

Walking after him, she poked her head around the wall, hoping he doesn't run off again. "Vaughn? Did you really mean that?"

He wasn't looking towards her, he already spilt that he liked her. He was hoping she didn't realize how much. "Does it matter if I did or not Chelsea? You like someone else anyways…" he grumbled, his heart beating so fast he can hear it in his ears.

"I never said I like anyone Vaughn" she sounded closer than she did before; "I just said I learned to cook for someone. That's it…"

"That means you like someone. It doesn't matter, I'm tired. Let's get some rest." He turned around, avoiding her gaze as he was walking towards the couch. Chelsea closed her eyes and figured she had nothing to lose other than her heart as she pulled him into a hug from behind. "What the hell are you doing?" he demanded.

"Shut up Vaughn… I was talking about you… when I said I wanted to learn how to cook. It's you I like…" she said softly, her face turning read against his back.

"W-what?" he couldn't believe his ears as he turned around. "I must have misheard you... Yes, I misheard you, you just told me to shut up that's all." He tried to reason with himself, she couldn't like him. She was cheerful and giddy, he was grumpy and well, he was himself. She was perfect… Damn close to perfect. She was better off with Will anyways. He was a prince, and he liked her. Of course he liked her, he told Vaughn the other day at the diner. Chelsea was still holding on to Vaughn while he was thinking this, trying to figure out what she went about all of this. He didn't feel when she let go off his waist, or that she told him to look at her.

"Vaughn, can you look at me please…?" she muttered softly, she touched his arm gently, almost knowing that she's about to rejected by the man she loved. When did she fall in love? Somewhere between when he was playing it Hero in the summer or helping her hatch her first baby chick. But she did love him, that's all she knew. When he finally looked at her, he was looking into her eyes. She closed her own as she leaned upwards and placed her lips over his.

At first he couldn't believe what he was feeling, she was kissing him. She was kissing him! He decided why not, this had to be a fluke, so he wrapped his arms around his waist to wake her up. To realize it was him he was kissing right now. He was a more than a bit surprised when he felt her arms go around his neck and deepened the kiss. "Vaughn…?" she muttered softly after she broke off the kiss after a few minutes. He didn't say anything, just stayed quiet, afraid that she's about to say she didn't mean that. "I love you…"

I love you, he felt those few words travel around in his ears and towards his heart. 'She loves me? She loves me she says. I love you as well Chelsea…' he thought he said it out loud so when she let him go and was about to walk off, he grabbed her by the wrist and pulled her into a kiss and hug. "I love you as well Chelsea…" he muttered into her lips as she started to cry. "D-don't cry! I didn't hurt did i?!" he said with wide eyes.

She wiped away a tear from her eye and looked up at him. "No Vaughn, I'm just very happy you said that…"

He chuckled softly as he wiped away the tears. "I guess I owe this to Hero huh? Why did you name him that anyways?"

Chelsea looks up at him and smiled softly. "He's my hero because of him; I was able to become friends with you." He closed his eyes and placed his chin on her head and nodded saying, "Yea, that's a good reason for me too."