-His Just Desserts-
(A Joe x Katie Oneshot)
By: Nietono-no-Shana
Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon, or the characters that are written in this story. I only own the ideas I wrote here.
It had all started off like any other day.
I was walking past the Perch Inn, carrying wooden planks on my shoulder and heading over towards the Flowerbud Library, since Maria had called in saying that one of the bookcase's shelves had collapsed. I was just minding my own business and keeping my eyes on the road, until a voice called out to me from the left.
"Excuse me," said the voice. "Would you mind taking one?"
I turned to look over at the person who was talking to me, and then my eyes widened.
…She was beautiful.
From her big blue eyes, to her pale skin; from her orange locks to her magenta ribbons; from her waitress outfit down to her tiny brown boots…
…She was perfect.
"Um, excuse me?" she repeated, blinking up at me with her gorgeous blue eyes.
It was then that I stopped gawking at her and then looked down at to what she was holding up to me. It was a flyer of some sort.
Without even thinking, I took it from her hand and pretended to read the advertisement. (I was actually peeking over the top of the paper to look at her again.) After a few seconds had passed by, she continued to speak in that honey-sweet tone of hers.
"Our grand opening is on Wednesday," she mentioned. "We make really good cakes!"
But unfortunately for me, I wasn't that much of a sweet tooth. But, if she was going to be there, then I would show up.
"A-Are," I found myself stuttering, "Are you g-going to be there?"
At this question, she cocked her head and looked at me like I was sick. This of course, made me feel like a total dork and I stiffened a bit.
"Well of course," she answered. "I'm the waitress at Café Callaway."
'A waitress,' I thought to myself. That made her even cuter in my mind.
And then, she smiled. It was an unforgettable smile that I would never forget.
"Hope to see you there!" she said. And then, she was off and walking over towards my brother, Kurt, who must've caught up with me with delivering the rest of the wood for Maria.
But I didn't start walking again. I just stood there, recalling everything that had just happened. She probably didn't even really mean "hope to see you there". She probably said that to almost everyone, so it most likely wouldn't mean anything special. But to me, it did. For some reason, I felt like she WANTED me to come there. And that smile. Wow. She was so cute. And I'd never felt this way about any other girl in Flowerbud, either. In my opinion, Ann was too much of a mechanic-freak; Gwen was too competitive when it came to businesses; Maria was overly polite; Dia was an antisocial misfit; Gina was a genius (which made me feel like an idiot); Nina was too young (and I didn't want to be called a child-molester); Eve was…well, Eve was already taken; Ellen rarely even looked at me; and Lyla barely visited our village. And then there was…
"Hey!" I blurted out into the cold autumn air.
Both my brother and the waitress girl turned to look at me.
"Ah…" I could feel my lungs tightening up and I could feel my throat getting try. My face must've also been red, because I was so embarrassed now that I'd actually gotten her attention. "What's your name?" I asked her.
"It's Katie," she replied politely. Then, she gave me another one of her smiles. "And I'm going to be the best cake master there ever was!"
And in my mind, she already was.
"Come on, Kurt! Show a little empathy for your brother!" I pleaded, putting a hand on my brother's shoulder.
"No," he said with an edgy tone in his voice. He shrugged off my hand from his shoulder and continued to walk past Café Callaway.
"Please?" I begged, a little too desperate now.
"No," he repeated again.
I took one last look at the café and sighed. If Kurt wasn't going to be my back up, then I'd just have to wait until he'd budge. It had been a week since I'd seen Katie, after the grand opening of the café last Wednesday. I hadn't seen her since, and I'd been hoping I'd get to see her sometime this week. But Kurt was being the stubborn brother that he was and wouldn't go with me.
"It'll just be a min-!"
"NO." Kurt whirled around with his load of wood resting upon his shoulders and shot me a warning look.
I hung my head low and started to follow after him. We were delivering some lumber to the Junk Shop, since Ann was starting a new project.
After a few seconds, I looked up again, and said, "Okay, how about we go after we deliver this stuff to Ann?"
Kurt heaved a huge sigh and didn't' say anything after a while. I could tell that he was getting annoyed. He always sighed before he gave in.
"Alright, alright," he said with a huff. "But I'm not paying for your food."
I smiled behind his back and nodded. "Okay!"
Once we dropped off the lumber and gave our polite hellos to Michael and Ann, we walked back from where we came from and stopped at the entrance of Café Callaway. I'd been both waiting and fearing this moment. Because what I would do beyond this door would affect my future relationship with Katie. At least, I WANTED to have a future with Katie.
I pushed open the door and as soon as I stepped in, I could feel the heat and warmth of the café blow right into my face. It was refreshing to come into a nice, cozy place like this after being out in the cold delivering wood.
Kurt and I found an open table and sat down. I looked around the room and saw a few familiar faces: Ellen, Bob, Nina, Liz…
But I couldn't find her. Katie wasn't there. Where was she?
"Hey," my brother called from across the small table. I immediately turned to look at him. Something I knew about my brother was that if he gave in to whatever I asked, he expected the utmost respect from me.
"Yeah?" I asked.
"We came here for you," he said with a glower. "So you'd better be quick and order something."
"Oh, right." I picked up a menu from the table and looked at the offers.
Chocolate cake, Strawberry Cake, Cheesecake, Pumpkin Pie, Apple Pie, Pecan Pie…everything was sweet!
And I wasn't that much of a sweet tooth. Heck, I could barely even eat a lollipop!
"Well?" my brother asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Oh, I think I'll have the…uh…"
"Welcome to Café Callaway!" said that cheery voice I'd never forgotten.
I looked up and saw Katie standing next to our table, a pad of paper and a pen already in her hands.
"What can I get you two?" she asked with a sweet smile.
"I'll have your Cheesecake," Kurt said as I stared at Katie like I'd down last week.
"One…cheesecake…" Katie repeated, scribbling down the order on the pad word-for-word. Then, she turned to look at me with her smile. "And what can I get you…?"
"It's Joe," I automatically said. "Joe."
"Right," she said.
"And you're Katie."
She nodded. "Uh-Huh! You remembered me!"
'Of course I do,' I thought to myself.
"So…your order?" she asked, pointing at the menu I was holding in my hands. "What will it be today?"
"Oh…uh…" I looked down at my menu, skimming the letters that made up the words of the menu. I didn't want to take too long as to not to annoy her. That would be a bad start…"Uh…um…" I constantly was using these kinds of phrases to act like I was still deciding, but my mind had gone blank. I didn't know what to do.
My brother from across the table sighed heavily and put a hand to his head in dismay. He shook his head back and forth. Was I taking too long?
"…I think I'll have just tea," I finally said, closing the menu and putting it back on the holder I'd take it out from. I gave the best, crooked smile I could muster and looked up at her.
She merely blinked her eyes. "What kind?"
"Er…what?"
"There's milk tea, there's hot chocolate, there's green tea, there's mint tea…"
"Er…green tea sounds nice," I said, just picking out something from what she said.
"Okay," she nodded, writing down my order. She looked at both of our orders, and then frowned. Did I do something wrong? I hoped she was frowning at Kurt's order instead of mine. But sadly, she looked at me with her frown.
"Why aren't you ordering any cake?" she asked me. "Café Callaway specializes in cake."
"Uh…"
I couldn't tell her that I wasn't a sweet tooth! I couldn't tell her that I hated cakes! I just couldn't…
"He isn't that much of a cake-lover," Kurt answered for me.
"Oh, really?" She looked over at me with a saddened face.
I hated that face. When I saw it, I could've sworn that my heart had sunken. When she made that sad face, I felt sad, too. I wanted it to be the smile she'd just given me a few seconds ago. I wanted that one smile with the uplifting and happy mood. I wanted that one smile that made me feel happy, too. And, in order to see that smile again, I lied.
"No, that's not true," I said with a nervous laugh. "I do like sweets!"
Katie seemed a bit confused as to whom to believe.
"You do…?"
I nodded my head up and down.
"Well then…do you mind, if you could try my new recipe? I just made it the other day." She leaned over our table to pluck out one of the menus from the holder. Then, she opened it and laid it on the table, and pointed to a specific thing from the CAKES section of the menu. "It's the Double-Fudge-Chocolate Special!" she exclaimed. "It sounds good, doesn't it?"
"U-Uh-Huh…" I said, overly excited that she was leaning down and her face was ever-so-close to mine.
"Can you try it?" she asked, looking at me with hopeful eyes. "Please?"
Would could I say to that adorable face that was staring at mine? I couldn't say 'no', right? After all, I'd just lied to her, just so she wouldn't be sad. What an awful guy I was, eh?
"Of course!" I said a little too quickly. "I'd love to try it!"
"Great!" she cried, her smile reappearing on her face. At least I'd gotten what I wanted, right? She put the menu back and wrote down the cake's name on her paper. Then she waved to me and ran over towards Carl - who was the owner of the shop - and the two started to get cooking right away.
I sighed a huge sigh of relief, and I felt my heartbeat return to normal. Wow. What just happened right now would never be forgotten. That was for sure.
"You do know that you just screwed yourself up, right?" Kurt said.
I looked up and over at him, and saw him looking at me with his emotionless face. He had on arm up on the table and he leaned his face against his arm. I'd forgotten that he'd been watching the whole thing.
"Of course I haven't screwed up!" I snorted triumphantly. I folded my hands across my chest and looked high into the air to make me look more confident (but it only made me look more like an idiot). "I'll eat it!" I winked at my brother with a grin. "'Cause YOU'RE gonna help me eat it!"
Kurt's eye widened at my solution and he frowned.
"No." He said. ("No" was my brother's favorite word.)
"Why not?"
"I'm already eating one cake."
"So? Why not have a little bit more?" I leaned in closer towards him, as if to keep this a secret. "I'm gonna eat a few bites. It's not that bad, right?"
Kurt's brown eyes narrowed at me.
"No." He repeated.
"Kurt! Don't be like tha-!"
"You like her, don't you?" he suddenly interrupted me.
"Er…" I paused at this question. I wasn't expecting a question like THAT to come out of him. "W-Well…yeah." I said nonchalantly.
"And here I thought you were the most social person there was in this village," Kurt said with a small, taunting smile. "Guess I was wrong, since he can't even tell this girl that he LIKES her." His voice was a little louder at the word "likes", and this made me annoyed.
"So what if I like her?" I hissed. "I'm gonna tell her. Eventually."
"Riiiiiiiiiiiight," my brother said with a small laugh.
Just when I was about to shoot back something at him, I saw a shadow looming over me and then I looked up and saw Katie with a tray in one hand and my tea in the other.
"Order up!" she said with a melodic giggle. She put down my cup of tea next to me, and then served Kurt his cheesecake. I had to admit that both my tea and his cake looked good.
And then came my cake. Actually, it was her cake. She was just using me as a taste-tester. Nevertheless, I was glad to be her first taste-tester.
She placed the chocolate cake right in front of me, and I examined it. The first and only thing I noticed was the chocolate. It was dripping from all sides, and it made my stomach lurch. What had I gotten myself into…?
"Enjoy!" Katie said happily. Then, she just stood there.
Kurt looked up at her, wondering why she was lingering around. "We don't need anything else," he said a little too rudely.
Katie was surprised at this, and then she put the tray close to her chest, as if she was shielding herself against Kurt's hurtful comment. "O-Oh…okay," she began.
I shot Kurt a dirty look.
"But I was just wondering what my new cake tastes like," she turned to look over at me with her smile. "Do you mind if I stay and see your first taste, Joe?"
The only word I picked out from that whole sentence was the last one. Joe. She's said my name! She's remembered my name!
"Uh…I…don't mind," I answered in a daze. Then, I stared down to look at the cake with its mounds of gooey chocolate. What kind of person actually eats this stuff?!
Katie was standing right next to me, moving from side to side, and too excited to see what the results would be. This made me even more nervous.
I gulped and picked up my fork and cut a small piece from the cake, which made even more chocolate spew out from the middle.
Kurt was amused at my bravery, and he watched me as I moved the fork over towards my trembling mouth.
I could feel my throat tightening once again and then I unwillingly jabbed the piece of pastry into my mouth. I chewed cautiously and shut my eyes closed.
'It's too sweet!' I thought to myself. 'Too sweet, too sweet, too sweet, too sweet!'
"How is it?" asked a hopeful Katie.
I swallowed (and almost choked) and gave her a grin. "It was great!" I told her. And it was. But, if I liked sweets more, then it would have been even better.
Katie was ecstatic with my answer and she twirled around once, making her ruffles on the bottom of her waitress outfit flutter. "That's great!" she cried. "Carl will be so happy!" And with that, she ran back to the kitchen to go tell Carl the good new. But, before she went to far, she turned around and gave me another one of her angelic smiles and waved to me. Then, she disappeared into the kitchen.
Once she was gone, I sighed with relief and looked down at the chocolate cake. My taste buds were doused with rich chocolate, and I needed three gulps of my green tea before I'd washed out the chocolate taste.
Kurt couldn't help another one of his tiny chuckles and grinned over at me. "I can't believe she actually thought you liked her cake with that face you made!" he laughed, pointing at my face.
"What was wrong with my face?" I snapped. "I did like it."
"Whatever," Kurt said while taking a bite of his cheesecake.
I decided not to finish my cake for the time being and instead sipped more of my green tea. All I could think about right now was Katie and her smile.
"She's really cute, though, huh?" I asked him.
"Sure." Kurt said, not really paying attention to me and taking another bite of his cake.
"You're not really paying attention, are you?"
"Nope."
I sighed. Why was my brother such an antisocialist? He even gives his brother the cold shoulder…
"Say, who do you think has the best experience with girls?" I asked.
Kurt stopped his fork midway from his mouth and then put it down at looked at me with astonishment.
"What?"
"Well? Who would it be? I don't think Blue would have the best experience, unless you count Ellen, who's his cousin…"
Truth was, I wanted get the best advice there was about girls. I never really cared much for girls until I'd laid eyes on Katie. Yes, that sounded incredibly dumb at the time. But I was so fixated on her that it was like an obsession, almost.
"THAT came out randomly," he commented. "I guess it would be Dan."
"Dan?" I repeated. After a little moments of thought, I knew that Kurt was probably right. He was the master pick-up-artist, and he always managed to weave his way into current relationships in the town. 'Perhaps I should get some tips from him,' I'd thought to myself.
I was just about to ask Kurt where I could find Dan, when Katie appeared at our table once again.
"You're not eating it?" she asked, looking down at me with surprise.
Now I was the one that was surprised. I put my teacup down and looked at her, and then looked down at the chocolate cake I hadn't touched.
Uh-Oh…
"You…don't like it?" Katie's expression emitted her feelings of disappointment and sadness. She'd just told Carl about her first success, and now she'd figure out that it wasn't true. What was I supposed to say…?
"N-No, I do like it!" I replied. "I'm just saving the best for last, you know?" I put a hand behind my head out of nervousness.
"Then…you'll eat the whole thing?"
"Whole…thing?" I gulped, staring down at the river chocolate that was drizzled all across my plate.
Katie nodded.
Kurt couldn't help a devious grin and I could've sworn that his laughing was a cackle.
Finally, I took a deep breath and picked up my fork once more.
'I'd better get his over with,' I'd thought to myself.
Then, I hacked away a huge chunk of chocolate and stuck it into my mouth.
Katie gasped, while Kurt's eyes widened.
"W-Wow," I heard Katie cry with amazement.
Ellen, Bob, Nina, and Liz must've heard the commotion, because I could feel all their eyes on me. They knew that I didn't like desserts. But here I was, taking a huge chomp of pasrty-goodness.
And I was only doing it for Katie.
I swallowed, and could feel the huge piece go down my throat. I couldn't help sticking out my tongue out of disgust. The sweetness was just too much my body could handle…
"Are you okay!?" she exclaimed, kneeling down at eye-level with me and staring into my sickly face. It must've gone pale, because she'd told me so.
I could see Kurt standing up from the table from the corner of my eyes. If my uncaring brother was standing up in protest, then I guess I must've looked pretty bad.
"I-I'll go get some medicine!" Katie said, dashing over to the café's counter and grabbing a small bottle of medicine (funny how she has it handy, huh?).
I wasn't so sure if Katie would like me after this. I mean, I'd lied to her, and now I was sick after making that lie even bigger.
But when I saw her sitting down in the waiting room at Alex's Clinic, I could tell she hadn't completely given up on me.
I guess lying to Katie made me get my just desserts.
-End
This is my first Harvest Moon story, so I hoped you liked it! Joe and Katie is my favorite pairing, and I hope other fans of this pairing liked this story! Is there anything that needs to be fixed? Do you have any suggestions and/or comments? Please write a review! Thank you! :3
-Nietono-no-Shana