I do not own Harvest Moon: Animal Parade or hold association or third party rights with any of its affiliates. No copyright infringement intended.
Request! Hope you like it, usuihentai727. =D
It's really a shame there aren't any stories about these two. They're adorable! Well, looks like I've added another project to my list… =3
Quick one-shot Harvest God/Harvest Goddess. Spoiler for their names! I'm about to use them.
EDIT 7/8/12:: Had some general grammar and word changes to fix. Thank you HorseGirl784 and HersheyChocolates101 for the help!
"You know, you have to go up there eventually."
Sephia crossed her arms defensively. She shook her head, tumbling the enormous locks of aquamarine hair over her shoulders. "You're being ridiculous!"
Molly laughed with hands on her hips. "Ha! You are!"
The two girls stuck their tongues out at each other, neither one feeling mature or other-worldly at the moment.
Molly sighed first. "Look, I just want you two to talk."
"There's not a chance—"
"Talk."
The Harvest Goddess glared at the underling farmer who had been doing her own work all year. Molly rang the bells, resurrected the Harvest God, rescued the Mother Tree (and Sephia in all technicalities), and virtually saved the island of Castanet by herself. Yet she wasn't about to win this one… "No."
"Why?" Molly whined. Kicking up grass, the girl began to pace back and forth. "I've done everything you've ever asked me to do! I rang all those stupid bells, wrecked my social life for a month to grow all those Blue Mist Flowers to become a 'hero'—"
"I know, I know." Sephia cut her off. She took a deep breath, trying to regain her ephemeral essence. This bout of arguing wasn't good for her image of a supreme being after all. "Yes, thanks to you, Molly – the land is at peace once more. Castanet has been repaired and it now grows to—"
"Don't lay your goddess spiel on me, Sephia; I'm past that stage." Molly quipped.
Pursing her lips in annoyance, the Harvest Goddess realized the farmer wasn't about to leave the subject alone. She stared at the clouds above her suspiciously – was Ignis getting all of this?
"Why can't you just talk to him? Am I missing something? What's the matter?"
The Harvest Goddess leaned forward, bangles jingling like Christmas bells. Molly tiptoed forward, eager to listen. In a whisper, Sephia said: "He's scary!"
"What?-!" Molly rolled her eyes. "You can't be serious!"
"Well, I'm not going to be the first to say fire doesn't bother me," She stated, leaning protectively against her tree. "We've never gotten along. It's just the way things have to be, Molly."
Molly bit her lip, blinking her dark eyes at the leaves of the Mother Tree. "Compromise!"
"Excuse me?"
"Compromise!" Molly repeated unnecessarily. "Meet him halfway. He'll leave his mountain when—"
"—she'll leave her tree." Molly finished her pitch to the Harvest God.
Ignis wasn't amused. Normally, he could shrug off the farmer's silly fancies and terrible puns but this was… "Ridiculous."
"Oh, come on!" Molly whined.
"Never. The Harvest Goddess and I are separate beings. We do not communicate," Ignis repeated this earlier argument.
Feeling somewhat defeated, having had the same rejection from Sephia, Molly blew the brown bangs from her forehead with a huff. "You know if you two weren't so stubborn, this island probably wouldn't have gone to crap in the first place."
"Hm?" The Harvest God raised a warning eyebrow.
"Yeah!" Molly challenged. "You could've helped the Harvest Goddess long ago! And she could've asked you for help! But nooo! You guys are too 'big' and 'mighty' to rely on each other. You need a puny girl like me to do all the work for you!"
"That's not true!" Sephia said.
"Is too!" Molly argued back, once again before the Harvest Goddess. "I do everything around here. The least you can do for me is to finally sort things out."
"What do you want me to do?" The Harvest Goddess shrank.
"Make up!" Molly demanded, putting her foot down upon the mountain.
Ignis shook his fiery red head. "It's too complicated. Nothing a mortal could understand."
"I'm not believing that," Molly glowered.
She raised her hand, showing it to Ignis. The Harvest God watched her with suspicion before groaning inwardly.
Molly removed the gold band from her ring finger and showed it to him. "See this? Remember what it means?"
"You said you would never—"
"Drastic times have called for drastic measures!" Molly declared. "I'll never visit you again and I'll chuck my wedding ring off Mt. Gelato if you don't come to the base of the mountain with me."
"You would never!" Sephia gasped.
Molly bat her axe handle in her hand like a club. "You wanna bet?"
The Harvest Goddess flung herself over the trunk. "You wouldn't dare!"
"It only depends on how much the Mother Tree means to you!" Molly mused. "Enough to leave the forest? For five minutes?"
Ignis stared at his mortal wife, wondering how on Earth he got himself into this. The golden ring hung threateningly under his nose and Molly's eyes flashed in waiting.
Sephia speculated whether Molly's threat was real. Chop down the Mother Tree?-! She couldn't! But that axe looked awfully sharp…
"Glad everyone made it!" Molly announced happily.
Ignis made a point never to tread this ground. It was so beneath him. Oh God, Molly's puns were already rubbing off on him—
Sephia had never left her tree. Ever. It was wrong. It was probably lonely. She should go back. She could run away. She could—
"Alright," The farmer settled her hands on her hips, standing between the two by the mine cart. "We're going to do this like adults… or if you make problems, we'll consider Dr. Phil."
The royals refused to even look at each other. Molly tapped her foot impatiently.
"So! Let's start easy, hm? Shake hands!"
"Shake hands?" Ignis quoted.
"What are we – four?" Sephia scoffed.
"You're acting four," Molly sniffed haughtily. "But fine – let's start with Sephia. Why have you not called the Harvest God?"
The Goddess mulled this one over. She could make a problem out of this, or she could play alone with Molly's little friendship patching game. She could be immature and make a stubborn fool of herself or she could play the bigger being and cave in to Molly's request. The latter would show up Ignis, so Sephia chose that one. "I have refused to contact Ignis because…"
"Well?" Molly prompted.
Sephia hit a block. She bit her lip, staring at the ground in thought.
"Well?" Ignis prompted too, only his was much snarkier so Molly elbowed him.
"Um…" Molly sensed the awkward pause. "Maybe you'll go first, dear? Why haven't you contacted Sephia?"
"I don't need Sephia!" The Harvest God stated indignantly.
"Oh, please!" The Harvest Goddess retorted. "I do everything for the island! You just sit up on your little throne and watch—"
"Dais," Ignis crossed his arms. "I stand upon a dais."
"Whatever! All you ever do is stand there," Sephia huffed.
"What about you? I don't see you leaving your precious tree!" Ignis argued.
"The Mother Tree needs attention and love!"
"Some love you gave – it died!"
"Guys! Guys!" Molly cut in. The two quieted down and the farmer let out a sigh of relief. "So I think we figured out the problem here. Ignis – you need to participate more."
"Ha!" Sephia laughed in victory.
"Take her side…" Ignis grumbled.
"I wasn't finished," Molly calmly said. "It's true though. You need to interact more. It's not exactly healthy standing on your dais all day."
The Harvest God respected his wife's decision but rolled his eyes anyways.
Molly turned to the Harvest Goddess. "And you need to ask for help when you need it. Brewing hatred because Ignis isn't around isn't helping anything – which I'm sure you've discovered. But the main problem here is that the two of you need to suck up your pride. Now shake."
Sephia looked up with big doe eyes swimming with shame and nerves. Ignis looked down contemplatively but he seemed to have shrunk to half his height. Molly watched in excitement as Ignis held out his large hand first.
The Harvest Goddess bit her tongue and lunged for his hand. She quickly shook up and down and thought about pulling away, but she found she couldn't. She was too busy staring. In shock.
"Well, would you look at that!" Molly laughed. "You're a step closer to humanity."
Sephia's icy touched extinguished the flames of Ignis' firm grip, but the heat from the god radiated and melted the cold from the goddess. All that was left was skin from fingertip to wrist. They stared at their interlocked hands a moment, seemingly at awe, but their faces contorted with horror at the aspect of mortal traits. Ignis and Sephia pulled their hands away and rubbed them as if wounded. The fire returned to Ignis and Sephia was once again cool to the touch.
"See, that wasn't so bad, huh?" Molly smiled. "Are you two friends now?"
"Do I have to touch him?" Sephia asked, still spooked.
Molly frowned and wrinkled her eyebrows. "Well, I suppose not—"
"Good," Ignis nodded. "Friends."
Sephia smiled in agreement. "Friends."
"Whoo-hoo!" Molly fist-pumped the air. "Now who wants to reunite the Witch and Wizard?"
They went home.