Author's Note

So, I think the last chapter was nice. Sweet. Yup.

-

"Never gets old, huh?"

"Nope."

"It kind of makes you wanna…break into song?"

"…yup."

I love the mountains, I love the clear blue skies.

I love big bridges, I love my great white spine.

I love the whole world, and all it's sights and sounds.

BOOM DE YADA BOOM DE YADA BOOM DE YADA BOOM DE YADA!

I love the ocean.

I love real dirty things.

I love to go fast!

I love Egyptian Kings.

I love the whole world, and all it's craziness.

Boom de yada boom de yada BOOM de yada BOOM.

I love tornadoes!

I love arachnids.

I love hot magma!

I love the giant squid.

I love the whole world, it's such a brilliant place.

Boom de yada boom de yada boom de yada BOOM DE YADA,

Boom de yada boom de yada boom de yada boom de yada…

I love the whole world from the Discovery Channel

-

I tugged at the hem of my dress nervously as I waited on my porch. Chase had asked me to go with him to the Flower Festival, and I'd said yes. So there I was, in my little pale blue sundress and sun hat, ready to go, but sitting on my porch.

I stood and walked over to the few tomatoes plants I'd started growing. One of them looked a little dry, so I cupped some water from the pump into my hands and poured it on the base of the little plant.

"Hey, what're you doing?" Chase said as he came walking over, dressed in his normal clothes. Well, minus the apron at least.

As I wiped my wet hands off on my dress, I said, "Making sure my plants don't die of thirst." He just sort of laughed at me, and motioned for me to follow him. I didn't say anything, but he kind of made me a little mad.

"So, what's with the getup? Going to church, are we?" Chase teased as we walked along. I just stuck my nose into the air and started to walk faster than him. He laughed again, and sped up to keep pace with me.

I refused to look at him. I was too proud to. Yet, I keep feeling my eyes drift more and more to the right, until I caught him openly staring at me. So, being ever the lady, I took off my hat, smacked him in the stomach with it, and took off running. I heard an "oof" when I hit him, and then heard him start after me almost immediately.

As I ran, easily staying ahead of him now that my sprain had healed, I thought about well, what I thought about Chase. He routinely agitated and annoyed me, yet at the same time, I found him attractive. It was like by being irritating, he was even more attractive.

I ran all the way into town before he finally caught me. I'd fallen for his gasped surrender, and slowed down, when he tackled me from behind. He didn't knock me to the ground, but instead, wrapped his arms around me from behind and started blowing on the back of my neck.

Being extremely ticklish, I started spazzing out and try to squirm away from him. However, Chase, like most guys my age, was quite a bit taller than I, and had more mass by a fair margin. So I was just sort of squirming in place, since he didn't intend to let me go.

"Hello Chase," Owen said as he came walking by. He glanced at me once, and did a double take. "Hey…there August," he said as if he didn't really believe that I was, for I really was, in Chase's arms. Chase had stopped messing around, and I shrugged out of his embrace. I stepped away from him, popped my hips, and stood akimbo.

"Hey Owen. How're you today?" I smiled as I said it, and put my hat back on in an attempt to keep the wind from blowing it all over the place.

"I'm good. Just going to meet Kathy at the festival," Owen said as he looked from me, to Chase, and back again. He gave me the kind of look that asked what was up, and I just threw him a, I'll tell you later. He shrugged, and waved over his shoulder to Chase as he left. "See you there, August."

I shook my head as he walked away. Honestly, I'd been expecting Owen to ask me to the festival, but Kathy had asked him before I'd even gotten here. That's part of why I'd let Chase bring me. That, and I found Chase to be a rather yummy guy.

Speaking of the devil, Chase came up behind me once again, and wrapped his arms around my waist. "Are we going?" he asked into the hollow of my neck. I took one hand that was inching it's way up, and pushed it firmly into my hand on Chase's side, effectively removing myself from the embrace.

"Yeah."

So we started walking to the festival, and I noticed all the decorations that had been put up. It was so quaint. I listened to Chase talk about his latest culinary achievement as we walked up the stairs to the main square, where I was nearly throttled by the onslaught of scents that hit my sinuses like a baseball bat. I have a really sensitive nose, and all the perfume in the air was going to give me a headache. Oblivious to my discomfort, Chase paraded me around like the arm candy I let him treat me like.

We passed toward the outside of the festival, and I took the opportunity to skip away from Chase. I told him that he should check out some of the culinary stalls, that I was going to look at the sea. He shrugged, and let me go. I almost ran to the old tree on the opposite side of the square, plopped down into the grass, and let out a breath I'd been holding for far too long.

"You don't like flowers?" Owen said as he came around the other side of the tree, scaring the bejeebus out of me. I placed my hand to my breast and shook my head.

"No. Heavy scents give me a headache," I said as I breathed in the salty scent of the sea and the natural smell of the nearby flower.

"Does Chase know that?" Owen said as he settled into the grass next to me.

"I mentioned it, but I don't think he heard me. Where's Kathy?" I said, looking around and realizing she wasn't there.

"Jin came and told me Kathy checked into the clinic this morning. Apparently she wasn't feeling too well." Owen plucked at the grass by his feet.

I sighed, and laid back in the grass. "You know," I said as I ran my hand through the grass, "this is just like high school."

Owen chuckled, and said, "How do you suppose?"

"Well," I said, shutting my eyes and letting the sun play in little patterns on my skin. "There's the flirt. Chase. The nice guy, you, obviously. The vicariously kind and energetic girl Kathy, Candace the little shy girl, Julius, who's the fashionist-o? Think about it, everyone here fit's a high school stereotype."

Owen was quiet. "Then what're you?"

"Hell if I know. I had the epiphany, you get to do the labeling." I laughed at my own joke, and sighed. My head was really pounding. I groaned as the light hit my eyelids and tried to cover my entire face with my hands. I felt kind of nauseous all of a sudden.

"Are you okay, August?" Owen asked the question quietly, but just loud enough so it wouldn't hurt my ears, which was kind of him. My stomach roiled, and I felt the egg soup I'd had for breakfast start doing back flips in my stomach.

"Sinus headache," was the only thing I had time to save before I pitched to the side and heaved my lunch up all over the grass. I really, really hated throwing up, almost as much as sinus headaches, namely because when I had a sinus headache, the nausea didn't go away after I threw up.

"Holy crap, come on August, you need to get to Jin." Owen was already picking me up as I tried to shove him away.

"It's just a sinus headache. It happens, Owen, I'm fine," I protested meekly as I sluggishly tried to wiggle out of Owen's grasp. It wasn't any use though. He had a killer hold on me.

Oddly enough, no one noticed us leave. Owen was obviously freaking out a bit. I guess he hadn't seen anyone empty the content of their stomachs recently, other than me, of course. He all but ran to the clinic. No one but Jin was there, since Irene and Perry had taken the day off.

So Owen ran straight in, and nearly knocked Kathy down.

"Slow down there, big fella!" Kathy said jokingly, fidgeting a bit. She seemed pale, and stressed. "August, what're you doing here?" she asked as if she was asking me where I'd gotten my shoes. Yeah, something was definitely up.

Instead of allowing me to explain, Owen just started shouting for Jin. I tried to climb out of his arms again, but he just kept shifting as I moved to keep me from gaining any leverage.

"What is it Owen?" Jin asked just before he entered the waiting room. He froze, but the rest of us kept moving. Kathy was swaying side to side, trying to find a way around Owen, who was moving rapidly to keep me from scrambling out of his arms.

"What is it today, August?" Jin asked tensely.

"Just- ungh- a sinus- Owen, put me down- a sinus headache," I said, not even pretending to enjoy this new habit of Owen's. Jin motioned to Owen for him to bring me into the examination room, and I grew as pale as Kathy had been. I waved to her as she left, and gulped.

Owen walked behind the curtain, and just stood there. He didn't let me go, which, you know, I would've really liked.

"Owen, put her on the bed, if you will."

As Owen set me onto the bed in a rather mechanical manner, I had to ask. "You don't see people throw up often, do you Owen?"

"No," he said, looking a little pale too. Damn, aren't we just a bunch of albinos.

Jin took down my vitals, and ran a quick blood test to make sure none of my internal organs were failing. I checked out a-okay for everything except my temperature, which was two points higher than normal. He verified that I had indeed suffered from a sinus headache, which could occasionally result in nausea and vomiting. Owen looked really relived, which I had to admit, was sweet. Jin asked Owen to make sure I got home safely, and got straight into bed. Jin even gave me a bottle of cold medicine, just to help me get better faster.

As we walked out of the clinic I laughed. "What's so funny?" Owen said a little worriedly.

"Oh, it's just, I was suppose to be on a date with Chase, and it kind of turned into a date with you."

We walked in silence the rest of the way home. Note to self: don't bring up Chase around Owen.

When we got to my house, I opened the door and let the two of us in. I offered to make Owen some dinner for everything he'd done for me, and he said I could make us dinner another time. The way he said it made me a bit suspicious.

-

Which was the completely appropriate response. About half an hour later, Owen woke me up from my nap to surprise me with corn soup, mushroom rice and a pitcher of berry juice. He was beaming from ear to ear, and I couldn't help but be enthusiastic about eating dinner.

As it turned out, Owen was a much better cook than I'd given him credit for. The mushroom rice was just tangy enough, and the soup was creamy and delicious. Of course, I love berry juice, so it made the cold medicine that easier to swallow.

We ended up chatting for awhile, and eventually moving onto my bed because it was more comfortable. I drew back the curtains on the front window so we could watch the sunset. When the cold medicine started kicking in, I became incoherent and irresponsibly irrational.

"Owen?"

"Yeah?"

"It's gonna get dark…"

"Yes, that's what happens after the sun sets."

"I don't like the dark…"

"I know. I'll stay, okay?"

"Mhmm…"

"Get some sleep. I won't go."

-

It turned out Owen was a man of his word. I woke up in the morning covered by my fleece blanket, accompanied with a splitting headache. Damn cold medicine…

"Morning sleepyhead," Owen said from the kitchen, over the sizzling noise. Drowsily, I sniffed at the air, identifying the scent of eggs and tomatoes in the air.

Without unwrapping myself, I pushed myself out of bed and shuffled to the back of the kitchen counter so I could look at the frying omelet. There were diced tomatoes beside the skillet that looked like they'd been fried already. I looked up at him rather drearily.

"You tried to fry the tomato, didn't you?"

Owen laughed sheepishly, and nodded. He flipped the omelet and it nearly fell of the pan. I chuckled, and dropped my blanket on the back of a chair. Having regained a bit more consciousness, I stumbled to the stove, and sort of took over. I used the spatula to split the omelet open, and scooped the tomatoes into it. I handed the spatula back to Owen, and shuffled back to the table.

"So," I said as I settled into a chair, "you stayed here last night?"

"Well, until you fell asleep. I left around midnight, got a change of clothes, slept for a bit, and then came back. I got back here at six, but you slept for another couple of hours." Owen spoke levelly as he tried to concentrate on flipping the omelet without losing it.

"Where did you sleep when you got back?"

"I didn't," he said, just as his jaw started to tighten and went down a bit. I recognized that as the incognito yawn.

I laughed, and went to my dresser, and started to pull out clothes for the day. I settled on, that's right, you guessed it, a button up short-sleeved shirt, shorts, and my favorite woven leather belt. Today, instead of a blue shirt, I'd pulled out a bright red plaid patterned one, and after thinking about how I would wear it, I grabbed a black tank top from my wardrobe, and compared it to my previously choices. Unfortunately, the red clashed with the shorts I'd picked, so I had to dive back into my bottoms drawer to find something comfortable. I settled on a skirt, and discreetly slipped a pair of trusty spankies into the mix. Don't knock those things, they may sound funny, but if you have to wear a skirt and don't want to look like a hoe, spankies are the best way to go about it without being obvious.

I looked over my shoulder to peek at Owen. It was a little funny, 'cause as soon as I looked at him, I saw his spiky mess of red hair move. I giggled, and turned a little more, letting my cute little blonde semi-bob fall all messy like around my head, like a little halo.

"You know the drill."

Owen chuckled, and shook his head while he kept cooking. Though I trusted him, I was glad I'd been smart enough to bring a few decorative furniture pieces with me. In this instance, it was my dividing screen I was thankful for. It wasn't very large, smaller than my bookcase, but it would do the trick.

My large wad of clothing in hand, I ducked behind the screen, and started pulling off my clothes. When I got down to my under things, I looked out from behind my hiding place, to make sure Owen wasn't looking.

He was. Just staring at me, with this really odd expression on his face.

And then he started laughing. Like, roaring with laughter.

With a bit of a huff, I moved back behind the screen and changed into a pair of bright pink panties with lavender polka dots and lace, and a bra in a similar color scheme. Patting my hair down a bit, I peeked outside once more, and frowned at Owen. "What?" I said, drawing it out.

Owen just shook his head, and flipped the omelets onto plates before getting a bottle of the berry juice I'd made, along with some of the coconut juice he'd brought with him. I smiled, and moved back behind the screen. I slipped the black tank-top on, and pulled on the spankies too. I got the skirt on and tied the belt where it should be, since there were no loops on it. I stepped away from the screen as I pulled the button up on, and only did half the buttons so it looked relaxed. Tank-top, remember? No whorish clothing for me, thanks.

"Do you use ketchup?" Owen asked as I walked to the table.

"Doesn't matter; I don't have any," I said as I sat down and started tearing into the omelet Owen had put on my side of the table.

We bantered back and forth as we ate, just having fun and chatting. Owen told me a bit more about the people on the island, and I told him about Meg and where I'd come from.

"Don't you have work today?" I asked while we were cleaning dishes. Owen shook his head.

"No, Ramsey's got a lot more help than he used to, so we get to take days off every once in awhile. I was wondering if you might want to do something today, to be honest," Owen said as he scrubbed a particularly stubborn bit of fried tomato of my skillet.

"Sounds fun," I said while I dried the plates we'd used. "But I have to do my farm work first, remember?"

"No problem, it'll go faster if I help you." Owen said that confidently, as if it would be no hard task. I laughed, shaking my head. This would be fun.

Owen grunted as he pulled another weed from the plant bed, and I had to laugh. I checked to potato plants' leaves for any bite marks or discoloration, and moved to the next. Originally Owen was going to water the plants, but he insisted on weeding, since it required more stamina, and "let's face it, I'm obviously stronger". I rolled my eyes, and moved to the next plant. Owen had gotten himself in a little too deep.

I heard one more "oof", and then a loud thud. I stood and brushed the dirt off my hand.

"Need some help there, strong man?" I asked, smirking at him as I held my hand out to him.

It seemed Owen had fallen down the slight incline from the field to the road when he'd pulled a weed from the ground. The little clump of green was sticking out of his scarf, which, to be perfectly honest, made me giggle.

Owen smiled bashfully as took my hand, and pulled. Which, unless you're the same size as Owen or are extremely strong, can be a bit of a problem.

So, Owen effectively pulled me off of my feet and onto the ground. Or rather, on top of him… and he was on the ground, so okay, on the ground too. Thankfully, I was already used to this sort of thing around Owen, so it wasn't nearly as odd as it had been in the very beginning.

"Fancy seeing you here," Owen muttered as he sat up, maneuvering me around him. Keeping his hands on my shoulders, he pulled both of us to our feet rather easily.

"Are you done yet?"

"I think so."

"Well then, what do you want to do now?" I asked, pulling my hat off and wiping my brow. Owen rubbed his chin in a comically quizzical way, and then turned to look squarely at me.

"Let's go to the mine."

I just looked at him for a moment, shocked. "The mine?" I asked incredulously. I hadn't thought for a moment that he would suggest that, and I wasn't too confident in my mining ability.

Owen shrugged, and smiled. "Well, yeah. I've seen how you work, and I figured it might be fun to show you how I work. The mines can be a really fun place when you go with a friend," he said brightly, before adding, "and it doesn't hurt when you're well prepared." Owen took my hand in his, and pulled me back towards the house. I smiled, and stumbled after him.

The two of us made some food that we'd be able to take down into the mine without mess. "You know," I said idly as I chopped up cucumbers, tomatoes and boiled egg to make egg and vegetable sandwiches, "we can't always eat at my house. I don't really have a big source of income yet…"

Owen laughed as he packed the rice he brought into little triangles. "Sure. I'll just take you by Ramsey's place and we can make all the rice balls you want. That is, if you life a four-piece audience."

I blushed and snatched the loaf of bread from the other side of the counter. I pulled out a couple slices and stared at the bread so I wouldn't have to look at Owen as I started shoving pieces of lettuce onto the loaves. My face felt red hot, which was so strange. Since when did Owen make me blush?

"Hey, shortie, I'm talking to you." Owen shoved my a little bit with his body, and I gasped, starting a bit. The knife slipped out of my hand and clattered to the floor.

Owen arm slipped his way around my waist, and his face was suddenly in my hair. I froze, not knowing how to react. I tried to breath evenly, but even that sort of tension was obvious in my body. I was small, and you can only spread emotion into so much space. I mean, if you had the same amount of emotion in someone Owen's size, you can spread it around and make it thin. You don't have to concentrate it in any one spot. When you're as small as I am, you don't have that much room to spread it around. Emotion is apparent with me, no matter where I try to put it. It always has been.

"You're not careful enough, shortie. You could really hurt yourself," Owen muttered quietly, reaching around me and taking my hand, the one that had held the knife. He checked the top of my hand, and then flipped it to check the palm. For once, there was nothing wrong with me. Owen released me so smoothly that I didn't know he had until he bent back up, holding the knife. "Let's finish up. The mines aren't that safe after dark."

"But aren't they always dark?"

"… That's a damn good point."