Ok. Don't be mad but I actually had this chapter written the day after I posted the first one, it just didn't feel right. Though looking at it now it seems okay for some reason so I thought, "eh, I'll post it."
Though I think I may be done with one shots, I just don't feel right without all those chapters of build up.
Fall was now around the corner. With work done for the day and no where he had to be, Neil lounged on his sofa next to an open window which filled the room with what was to be at least another hour of natural light as well as the scent of crisp leaves. He closed his eyes, enthralled by the silence. "Neil!" A very close voice said breathlessly and he jumped a little with a start, bracing himself on the couch's arm and glaring at the culprit out the window. Rod stood on his lawn outside, clearly winded from the urgency in which he rushed over to deliver the message.
"What?" He asked he asked, hiding the concern growing in him as he watched the pet seller gasp for breath . Rod held up a finger, "One *wheeze*, one sec…. I just.. gotta… breathe."
Finally looking a little more together, Rod hopped the window ledge landing on the couch where Neil's legs would have still been if he hadn't retracted them in alarm. "You couldn't have used the front door right beside you like a normal person?!" He began to protest in irritation but Rod simply clamped a hand and either of the dealer's shoulders. Neil craned his neck back, a little uncomfortable at the close proximity. "Allen." Rod finally said.
"Yeah?" Neil prompted, standing up and stepping out of his pincer grip.
"He's asking Rio to go see the fireworks!" He reported urgently.
The blonde felt a lump grow in the bottom of his chest but he ignored it. "Why should I care? Goddess! I thought someone was dying or something!"
"But-" Rod pouted.
Neil growled, "I'm telling you now, if the next thing you say has anything to do with this unfound fantasy you have of Rio and I, I swear to the Harvest King that-" Rod shook his head violently so he let the threat hang. "Good."
"I have to go now." Rod said, standing and backing away quickly toward the door, "I actually ran straight here from a conversation with Allen." He admitted, "he thinks I'm in the bathroom but really I snuck out."
"His bathroom's on the second floor!" Neil exclaimed.
Rod rubbed the back of his head sheepishly, "I climbed down/ fell into his bushes."
Neil shook his head in disbelief. "Why?" He asked.
"This was important!" Rod argued. "You only have now to go ask her first, I'll distract him, I mean he's my best friend but you-"
Neil sighed and followed Rod to the front door, "Listen, I'm really grateful that'd you'd do all this for me but this just isn't going to happen."
Rod shot him the puppy-dog eyes and he grimaced, said a quick goodbye, and shut him out on the other side of the door.
Only once it closed did he sigh and walk defeated to his bed, sitting on the edge and squeezing the sheets under his grip. The whole Allen thing didn't matter to him one bit, or at least it shouldn't have. It's not like he ever had any plans to go out with her or anything, and he didn't want her to be alone forever, not after she admitted how badly she wanted to fall in love.
Allen, was a good match. Well, he was an egotistical piece of work but at least that meant that he wouldn't treat her like she was too good for him.
So what if Neil had some affections for her? Those were quick to squash.
Yet he dwelled on the thought of seeing them together every day, seeing them walk hand in hand through the town and could just see that guy leaning over and kissing her head with a pompous smirk in the animal stall's direction.
He slumped down, laying face up on his mattress. Come tomorrow he'd forget about it but maybe just for tonight he'd lament on what would now never be.
The next day seemed a little brighter. Until of course ten am hit. He was open for business and now once again had nothing better to do than get lost in thought. And of course below the plaza was the roof of the stylist which reminded him of a certain something he was giving his everything into forgetting. He looked away.
The day only really got worse from there, of the customers he did get he was especially curt and the animals, sensing his mood, simply wouldn't calm down.
Perhaps the worst of all of it though was the worried looks Rod cast at him from the other stall when he thought Neil couldn't see. He could.
The day really couldn't end fast enough, and when it did another surprise was waiting for him. A surprise in the form of a pretty blonde waiting outside his house with a jar of yak's milk. "Hi Neil." She smiled when she noticed him approaching. He nodded.
"I brought you some yak's milk! It's been awhile since you tasted it and I want your opinion." She said and handed him the glass without waiting for a response.
He took a sip. "Not bad." He nodded, "Great improvement." He added for good measure. This was pretty much the highest praise he could ever bestow. With that he began to head into the house.
"Wait!" She said desperately.
He turned back, "what?"
She looked at a loss. "Um, I don't know we just haven't spoken in a while. I thought it'd be nice…"
The absolute last thing he wanted to do was let her in yet his body betrayed him and he opened the door wider to allow room for her to walk past him, she shuffled into the house and they sat at the table.
"So," He started, "I hear Allen asked you to the fireworks." He wanted to punch himself, and now they were on a topic he was planning to avoid at all costs, AND IT WAS HIS OWN FAULT. Stupid, stupid Neil.
"Yeah." She sighed.
"Well that's good." He said.
She looked at him in surprise. "It is?"
"Isn't it?" He countered.
"I said no." She said.
He stopped at looked at her, a wave of relief washed over him but then he shook his head. "Why? You're the one who was complaining about how no one would go out with her." He realized the second those words were out that they were worded very badly.
"Excuse me?" She said. She was mad, actually mad. Yeah Rio the happy-go-lucky farmer, go figure.
"Well-"
"Listen, I'm not so desperate that I'll just jump on the first person who asks me out! I have to like them first!" She said.
"You could come to like him." He pointed out.
"I don't want to! I have someone I want to ask me!" She rebuttled. He could see the realization dawn on her a moment later to what she had just admitted but she looked at him defiantly.
"Do you now?" He asked.
"Yeah, but Goddess knows why! He's such a dense uncaring jerk!" She ran out the door and a moment later it hit him like a two tonne block, was she talking about him?
If he were retelling the story he would like to say that he immediately sprang into action, chasing her dramatically down the walkway like in the movies she loved so much, but he didn't. He crossed his arms and closed his eyes, in deep thought and reflection. It was probably best this way… it was probably best… he knew this and yet there he was already half way out the door.
From his vantage point he could see a flash of her cow print stenson disappear at the turn into her property. Another moment of deliberation, "I'm an idiot." He said under his breathe and then broke out into a run.
He was panting by the time he made it to the old wooden dock at the other end of the farm. Forgetting his composure he caught his breath, kneeling over. It didn't really look good on him considering that she had just made the run herself and wasn't in the least bit phased by it.
She didn't turn to face him, instead opting to continue facing out to the stream. She sniffed and he realized she must be crying.
"I'm really sorry Rio." He said, forking out one of his rare apologies.
"I don't want us to fight, you're an important customer." He said.
She managed a single bitter laugh.
"But you're also someone who is important to me… in other ways too…" He admitted feeling his face heat up from the embarrassment. She straighted a little and turned her head a fraction so at least an ear faced him. A small droplet of salty water ran down her cheek and it gnawed at him inside. "I'm not really good with people… I try but I just always say the wrong things. Well, you knew that." He attempted a half-smile. It wasn't very successful. "I like to observe though, from my stall. When you talk to Rod about things you both like, you just light up. You smile when Soseki pets your head. You go completely animate when you show off the town to Amir and Sanjay but all I can ever do is make you feel bad."
She hugged her legs tighter.
"At the same time though, it tore me up when I thought of you and Allen." He admitted. She turned around again this time fully with a look of surprise.
"Yeah, I guess you could say I like you. Too much to want to drag you down." He averted eyes contact.
"Don't I get a say in any of this?" She asked.
"Do you really want to try this out? I mean I'm just me and you're Rio." He frowned.
She scowled. "I am sick of hearing that! You know what? I'm not perfect, you villagers are delusional there is no perfect! I can't stand carrots, I refuse to grow them. I failed at science and English in highschool and had to retake them on my summer break. Both of them Neil! Usually if you're bad at one you're at least good at the other, and it wasn't even that I didn't try! Some of the restoration plans Dunhill put in my hands I smiled and agreed to doing but then spent the next two hours weeping in my home. No matter what I do I can't seem to fit into this town, and I don't want to hear any of the 'too good' garbage! You know the reason why I chose movie nights? It's the least awkward form of interaction because you all just sit there and watch a movie! Also- yes. I actually am petrified of storms." She said all of this angrily, slowly rising to her feet. "What else? I-"
Neil cut her off wrapping her up in an embrace, "It's okay Rio, you can stop." His face was mere inches from hers but she made no effort to move, watching his lips carefully and a little hopefully.
He felt bad making her reveal everything in front of him so he began to share as well. "I'm so awkward that I can't talk to anyone without scowling, I've been playing guitar for eight years and still have never gotten the confidence to play in front of a single other person and worst of all, I keep making the girl I like sad, and I was so wrapped up in my little bubble of self-deprecation I couldn't even see that she felt the exact same way I did." She finally closed that agonizing gap between them with a soft and fleeting kiss before burying her face into his shoulder and shook, sniffing loudly and clutching at his coat.
"I was so lonely." She sobbed.
"Yeah." He said solemnly, "Me too."
Their first date was not like any other. They sat at the end of the dock, boots discarded as their feet splashed in the quiet waters. They spent the time continuing to list off every fault they had, but neither would ever say it was anything less than perfect.
At the end he entwined his fingers in hers and just looked at her, "So after all that are you really sure you still want to go out?"
She whacked his shoulder with her available hand, "You can't worm your way out of this now. You know every one of my secrets, either I'd have to kill you or you're stuck with me 'till marriage." That part was supposed to be a joke, but it was much funnier a year or so later when he playfully re-told it at the wedding's reception speech.