Things were going amazing. Crops were in the fields, great weather, and most of all Hikari was at a bar. She wasn't an alcoholic or anything but Hikari always wanted a drinking buddy for the novelty of it all, but her brother had always been too overprotective to allow that. But now, now she was on her own fulfilling her destiny in Harmonica town and she couldn't be in a more cheerful mood only problem was that her supposed drinking buddy had stood her up, and her usual good mood was quickly dissipating.

"That bastard." Hikari muttered under her breath. Luke and Hikari started visiting the bar every saturday night at 17:00 before it got busy, to drink away the week with a night of relaxation. 17:00, it was now 19:00, a whole two hours passed when Luke was supposed to be there and she had waited at their table looking stupid. It made matters worse because no one else other than the staff was ever in the Brass bar this early. In an attempt to save herself some dignity she moved to take a seat at the bar and ordered herself a drink from the young cook who was busy preparing food for no one. Hikari rested her chin on the palm of her hand and watched Maya the waitress desperately trying to fan out the smell of some horribly failed dish she was baking in the oven to the far left of the kitchen.

"Goddess, you would think she was cooking hookers in that thing the smell is so god awful,... but then again she looks to raw." Hikari said out loud absentmindly. This random outburst got The cook's attention. He spun around to stare at her slightly bewildered, had that really came out of her mouth or was he just imagining it? Chase had seen the new farmer on a few occasions out in her field when he passed to work or at the bar. From what he saw she was a perfectly carefree, cheerful, slightly ditzy. Even the time they first meet when she was greeting all the townsfolk she seemed quite happily ignorant. Something so rude was the last thing he expected to hear come out of her mouth. She looked up at him staring, her head slightly cocked to the side with an innocent expression on her face.

"What?" She asked her mouth turning up at the corners into a mischievous smirk. Yup she actually said that, Chase thought to himself.

"No, actually." He let a laugh escape in spite of himself surprised by this unexpected personality quirk.

"Just didn't expect that coming from you..your usually a ditz." He said handing her the drink she ordered finally.

"Well, I don't really speak what I always think in front of people I don't know." She said not looking at him with a slight frown on her face, ignoring the "ditz" comment.

"Well you don't know me either." He looked at her as he said this and turned back to his work beginning to ignore her again. Hikari knew that was supposed to be a conversation ender but she didn't feel like leaving the bar just yet.

"No, but I didn't think you would be the type of person who would really mind." Chase shrugged his shoulders in response to her comment, a few moments passed and Hikari was sure he wasn't going to speak again and she would have no more excuses to salvage her night at the bar when he turned around to face her. He held up the dish he had prepared for obviously no customer since the only one there was Hikari.

"Your not wrong there, here since you're sitting here for no reason you can be my guinea pig." Chase put down the plate of food in front of her and waited for her to taste it impatiently. Hikari looked at it hesitantly, with disbelief that Chase who had never so much as looked at her, (other than when they first met) before was now offering her free food.

"Umm...are you sure?" She began prodding the food with the fork he gave her with confusion clear on her face.

"Your not here for anything else so stop being a waste of space and try my cooking."

Hikari took a bit of the food, It was much better than what she could have expected by far and her stomach automatically reacted to the food with a very audible growl.

"What were you expecting Maya's cooking?" Chase said with a proud smirk on his face.

"Oh no, I wouldn't ever insult you that badly, sorry I gotta get going it was awesome though...umm, my names Hikari by the way if you didn't remember." Hikari laughed and pushed the plate away and abruptly left the bar feeling a lot more cheerful then she expected to feel.

Chase didn't speak with Hikari that next week after their brief conversation, however he did start to notice her when she was around. By all rights she was a regular, clumsy dork, but after speaking with her Chase seemed to be able to recognize when she was thinking something rude or dark by the way her expression changed and her eyebrows arched. Whenever he recognized her hidden sarcastic side under her sweet exterior it always gave him a small smile he kept to himself. He wasn't sure why he cared to notice those things about her, probably because he usually found people predictable and annoying, so the fact that someone could surprise him like that was so unexpected.

When Chase went into work saturday at 18:00 there was no Luke or Hikari to be found, so he assumed whatever it was that happened last week had apparently ended their weekly drinking ventures. That was his thought until a very harassed looking Hikari made her way into the bar. Unlike usual though Hikari headed straight to the bar were she sat next to chase instead of her usual table she shared with Luke. Chase continued his cooking pretending she wasn't there until he decided he couldn't ignore her any longer since she seemed to be there to see him, for whatever reason. When he turned to face her she wasnt looking up at him, rather staring at her hands in her lap, her face red and flustered. Chase wondered for one horrible moment if she was going to turn into another Maya after he let her taste his cooking.

"Whats wrong with you now?" He asked sounding very bored

"Luke...you see..last time..." Hikari mumbled incoherently trailing off.

"You realize just because your saying words doesnt actually mean your saying anything right?" Chase said his arms around his chest waiting for her to get on with it. Hikari sighed deeply and began speaking feverishly still not looking at Chase.

"Luke stood me up last saturday because he had a date with Selena and the idiot completely forgot about me waiting on him! I was still pissed when he asked me if we were still on for tonight so I told him I had plans to meet with you here instead because he ditched me!" Hikari finished in a rush her cheeks burning even brighter waiting for Chase's response.

"..And why would you tell him something stupid like that?" This time Hikari did look up at Chase, he was looking down on her with the look of someone chastising a very annoying child. It made her all the more embarrassed for her brashness, and still the more angry.

"It's not like I didn't know it was a lie! I just didn't want him to think he could stand me up without any consequences!" Hikari retorted defensively. This time it was Chase's turn to sigh. He waved his arm in the air to express him saying "fine" and walked away from Hikari and his cooking station. Hikari was worried that he was genuinely exhausted with her and cursed herself for her stupidity when he reappeared with two shot glasses.

"Lucky for you its unbearably slow tonight, so I guess I have some time to drink with you." he said as he set down two shot glasses in front of them and started pouring some wine.

"But you're paying for this of course."

"Sounds fair since I dragged you into this." Hikari let out a long breath of relief and couldn't belive her luck. It was a slow night, hardly anyone came in, and majority of those orders were drinks, leaving Chase to drink more than he originally planned. Both of them managed to get a good buzz going. Hikari, chase realized was incredibly clumsy, she kept accidentally knocking over their drinks and even managed to stumble and fall over sitting down and Chase would have to catch her, he also realized he thought that it was kinda cute. Hikari's mind was a little foggy from all the shots, it was making her speak more openly (not to mention loudly) she could also tell the alcohol was having the same effect on Chase. He talked a lot more, and man could he be an ass, but in a funny way Hikari thought watching him use his hands to animate something he was saying to her. She didn't know if it was because of Chase or just the thought of getting to know someone new, but she was really enjoying herself.

"So do you like Luke or something?" Chase began to think this was the case, being that Hikari was so upset over being stood up.

"N-No! He is just supposed to be my drinking buddy!" Hikari said a little to hastily. Chase raised an eyebrow, he wasnt buying it.

"Uh-huh."

At this Hikari threw her hands up in defeat.

"Oh come on cut me some slack, I might have thought he was cute but thats it!" She was real flustered now and she was starting to slur her words together.

" And now?" Chase corked the bottle of wine, they didn't both need to get drunk while at work, slow day or not.

"He stood me up, I dont forgive people who treat me like that even if he forgot." She growled. Chase decided to change the subject as he started his closing duties, it was already 22:00.

"Whatever, Luke is an idiot anyway, did you hear that bell? That's the second one, every time one rings the town seems to get better it's pretty bizzare...I know Gill actually thinks its..." Chase's voice went on but Hikari carefully tuned him out.

"Mmmhmm.." Part of the rules was that no human, other than a spouse of course, was supposed to know she was the medium between the Harvest Goddess, Harvest King, and the humans. So Hikari feigned disinterest in what Chase was saying, he could belive whatever he wanted it didn't matter to her. Bells..bells..tapestry..church..oh, fuck! Hikari slapped her hand to her forehead and stood up quickly.

"Crap I forgot! I got to go do something, see you later, thanks!" Hikari barely turned her head to look at Chase as she waved goodbye and ran out the door. Why was she always running off somewhere Chase thought as he began wiping down the bar before it stained from the wine Hikari kept spilling everywhere. A loud creak sounded from a door somewhere behind Chase.

"Have fun drinking at work." Maya's voice announced her annoyance as she leaned against the door way, tapping her foot waiting for Chase to respond.

"Oh, give it a break Maya you don't even work here." Chase rolled his eyes and continued to wipe down the table doing his best to ignore her, but Maya had away of making Chase instantly tense.

"You were supposed to give me cooking lessons today!" Maya stomped her feet outraged.

"Maya, no one can teach you how to cook, your only skill is inhaling food."

"I can't belive you'd rather drink at work with some smelly farm girl then cook with me!" She sounded like she was holding back tears, but Chase made a point not to give into Maya and today was no different.

"People typically do enjoy having drinks over putting their fire safety, and poison control protocols to use." Maya heard enough and ran out of the bar. He made Maya cry too often he knew that, but she just wouldn't leave him alone and take a hint if he didn't, he was just too good at blantly pushing people away with rude the end though, despite everything else that happened tonight, his last thought however as he turned off the lights to the bar before heading home was...

"Hikari never paid the bill..."