Aloha! How've you all been? I'm fine, thank you very much for asking :) Well, here I am with Chapter 4 of Country Lovin'! I've gotta say, I'm updating this a lot more slowly than I first intended too, but life, anime and a lil' bit of writer's block keeps getting in the way. Ah well, the main thing is, I'm updating right? In that case, enjoy the chapter, with my apologies for it being a quite short and more of a filler if anything.

Disclaimer: 私は自分のゆうしていない 王 ああ！やアニメや文字のいずれかに言及した。私のOCは、カーリン、私が所有している唯一のものです。

(That basically says that I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh! or any of the anime or characters mentioned, just Carlin, in Japanese. Feel free to translate it, but it made no sense to me whatsoever, so meh)

"Hey, Fia?"

"Yeah?"

"How long have you been writing that encyclopedia for?"

The blonde's head turned from the said book to look at me, her hand poised above the page she was writing on.

"Erm..."she hummed, tilting her head back and putting a finger to her chin, "I'm not really sure. I guess about a year now..."

I "Hm"ed and lay back, my hands behind my head and the large tree preventing the sun from reaching me. When the sun was too hot, I found it was quite helpful to have this tree next to my aunts' house. Sure, the heat still got to you, but at least you were spared the agony of the sun beating down on you too.

"So Carlin, what do you normally do in your spare time? I write the encyclopedia and go for runs, you...?"

"I guess I like to draw... I'm not sure if I'm any good or not, but I like to anyway, and I like watching anime and reading manga too."I explained.

"You're an artist, huh? Can I see some of your drawings?"she asked. I sat up and considered. On one hand, she may like my drawings. On another, she may hate them and come out with the harsh truth. On the third hand, she may not like them, but not want to say anything bad.

My conclusion: I didn't know I could have three hands.

"O-okay, just let me go and get some for you."

Fia smiled as I stood and walked into the house, then laughed as she heard my shriek when I was caught off-guard by the low, low temperature of the air-conditioning in the hallway. Once I was up in my room, I pulled my bag onto the bed, and searched through for my sketchpad.

"Pen... pencil... pencil... ruler... another pencil... Fullmetal Alchemist keyring? What the hell's that doing in here?"I stared at my Edward Elric keyring for a moment, before tossing it aside and continuing my search, "Rubber... pencil... ah! Sketchbook!"

I held it up to the light in a very dramatic fashion as I took in the sight of my beautiful sketchbook. With a starry sky pattern on the covers and a picture of Shigure Sohma glued to the inside of the front cover, it was my dear sketchpad. Taking no notice of the mess I'd made on my bed when upturning my bag, I bolted from my room and headed back to Sophia.

"I've got the book with all my best drawings, so just have a look through, 'kay?"I said as I handed her the book. As soon as she opened the front cover, she smirked.

"What?"I questioned sharply, as the smirk turned into laughs.

"Someone has a little crush on a certain dog."

It was then that I flushed a hard red and tried to grab my book back from her. How could I have forgotten? As she laughed hysterically from my failed attempt, she rolled onto her back and let the pad fall onto the grass beside her, showing what was making her laugh so. The picture of Shigure. How could I have forgotten that I'd put a heart around it in red marker pen, and then proceeded to fill the entire page with things such as 'I love Shigure' and 'Shigure Sohma 4 ever'?

Snapping the book shut, I huffed at the older girl who was gradually calming down and sitting back up. So what if I had a crush on Shigure? He was the funniest pervert I'd ever seen, and just completely gorgeous in any case.

"Okay, okay, I won't say anything to anyone, just let me look at the drawings."she smiled. I sighed and handed the book back over to her, watching as she opened the front cover again, doing her best to ignore the Shigure shrine and concentrate on the first drawing. It was one of Minto from Tokyo Mew Mew, quite possibly my favourite character from the show.

"That's quite good... the shading's almost perfect at least..."Sophia mumbled, turning the page to the next pictures. Edward Elric (hence my keyring) and Misaki from Junjou Romantica.

"I didn't know you liked yaoi animes."Fia said, raising her eyebrows at me. Smirking I replied,

"Didn't know you knew what they were."

Smiling and choosing not to reply, she turned the page again. On one page was Sasuke Uchiha, the other, the Ouran Host Club.

"Good job with Sasuke, you've really captured his emo side."I chuckled, then let her continue, "That's a good picture of the Host Club too, even if you prove the fact that you can't draw the same thing twice with the twins."

I shrugged and agreed as she turned to look at my final pages of drawings.

"Some guy who looks like Marik and another, really curvy guy, who I've never seen before?"

I looked at the pictures and rolled my eyes, realising she needed to have the characters explained to her.

"The guy who looks like Marik is called Melvin, he's from a show called Yu-Gi-Oh!: The Abridged Series or YGOTAS for short. The other one is Dento from Pokemon. He's the new male travelling companion. I think his name's Cilan in the English version."

"Ooooh... right."

Closing the book and setting it aside, Sophia smiled and left a silence between us. The only sounds were the distant murmur of the village and the little bird nesting in the tree next to us.

"So...?"I asked, anticipating her thoughts on my art.

"So what?"she asked, arching her eyebrows at me. I sighed and continued,

"So what do you think of my drawings?"

"Oh, that!"she emphasized, snapping her fingers as she 'remembered', "They're not the best drawings I've ever seen, but you're well on your way to being a good artist. A little more practice and a little colour to your work, and you could sell it. I know I'd definitely buy it."

A grin spread across my face as I reflected on her words. 'Not the best I've ever seen' meant nothing to me, because someone liked my art. Someone actually thought it was good. They thought I could sell it! They said they'd buy it!

"Hey, don't let it get to your head! You'll never improve if you don't take advice seriously!"Fia snapped, bringing me out of my head. Geez, I needed to learn how to take a compliment. I cleared my throat and replied,

"Yeah... thanks though. I never thought my art was that great, but knowing that you think it's okay is a relief!"

We both smiled and lay back, basking in the heat that slithered under the tree and relaxing in the midday melancholy. It felt nice to be able to do this, and my mind drifted back to my parents in Domino City. I'd only been gone 5 days, but I already wondered how they were. I'm not the type to get homesick though, don't get my priorities wrong. I mean, here I was, relaxing in the fresh and lush countryside, when my parents were most likely working, my father as head chef at 'Las especias Cielo', a popular Mexican restaurant, and my mother as a secretary at Kaiba Corp. I shuddered at the thought of ever having to work for Seto Kaiba. While it was said that the young CEO was very handsome and popular with the ladies (hell, even my mother thought so), it was also said that he was cold-hearted and cared for no-one but himself and his little brother, Mokuba. He also happened to attend Domino High, which would have worried me, had it not been the fact that he was about to start his last year there. Thoughts of home, my parents, Kaiba and school whizzed around my head as I failed to notice Joey, Yami and Marik appearing in front of us, evidently carrying news. I was still too wrapped up in my thoughts as they told Sophia the news, and she agreed to help them with something. I was finally dragged out of my mind as Joey crouched down next to me and yelled, "BROOKLYN RAGE~!", right in my ear. I screamed a little and jolted upright to the laughter of everyone around me. I blushed and laughed along with them, but not before giving Joey a 'friendly' clip around the head to say thank you.

"So Carly, you going to help?"Marik asked, helping me to my feet. I stared at him and immediately realised that I'd missed something.

"Help with what?"

"Help Ryou find his horse. I was down there earlier today, and he said that he was going to go out and look in the valley for him. I told him that I'd get some help."Yami explained, "It actually took me quite a while to get him to agree, he was insistent on wanting to find Kuroi by himslef, something about, 'Not wanting to inconvienience anyone'."

"He's looking for Kuroi? I guess I may as well help. I can't guarantee I'll be of much help though, I'm not the most observant person ever."I said, as we began to walk down towards the village.

"It doesn't really make much difference, as long as we're helpin' Ryou, dat's the main thing. And anyway, da more help we get, da better our chances of findin' his horse."Joey told me.

"I suppose."

As we kept walking, my mind wandered to Ryou, and how upset he was when Kuroi ran away. If anything, it would be nice to cheer him up by returning his horse.

'I still can't believe I stood hugging him when I'd barely known him 1 hour though...'

I rolled my eyes at the thought, and concentrated on following Yami and Fia, proudly leading the group down to the ranch. It was then the heat reminded me of something quite important.

I'd left my sketchbook outside, under the tree.

Well, frick.

Well, there's your little filler! While writer's block has been unkind while writing this chapter, I know exactly what I'm gonna do for the next one, so I can promise you that an update will come more quickly for the next chapter :) Before I go though, did anyone like the YGOTAS reference? XD I couldn't resist, since Melvin is such an awesome character. Oh! I'll tell you what, if my next update takes more than a month, I'll let Melvin hug me and give me cancer as a punishment.

Melvin: I'll be waiting, my dear... My arms are open for you...

MMR: Oookay... As much as I would love to hug him, I don't want cancer, so I'll see you for an update in less than a month!

Ja Ne!

Mew Mew Radish ='.'= & Melvin O_O