Haruka hated summer. Sun, heat, and sweat, those were the words that came to mind whenever someone mentioned the season. She'd thought she would come to enjoy summer in her new life, but after a few days into the hot season she had realized that was not going to happen. It was one thing to walk beneath the blistering sun, but it was an entirely different thing to plow fields, sow seeds, and water her crops.

The first day of Summer had been horrible. Being beneath the sun had marked her skin with angry blotches of red. Haruka had tried to water her crops in the morning to avoid doing heavy work during the sun's peak hours, but even walking to town to meet the new trader had taken most of her energy away. That's how Haruka became, once again, the reclusive farmer who only went to town to trade in her crops.

Haruka was inside her house relaxing in front of a fan when she heard a knock on her door. She jumped a little, no, she had not just been talking into the fan to make her voice sound like a robot, she was a respectable adult. She got up and opened her door to reveal Eda.

"Granny!" Haruka exclaimed, immediately making room for Eda.

"Hey, dear" Eda walked in and settled herself by Haruka's tea table. "Here, I brought you something for your skin." Eda handed her a basket filled with a mixture of herbs and flowers.

Haruka smiled. "Thank you, Granny. You shouldn't have." She recognized some of the herbs, they should help calm her itchy skin.

"If that is what it takes to get you out of the house, then I don't mind." Eda said. Haruka had noticed that Eda was a bit passive aggressive, and with that she meant VERY.

"It's just that I don't like the heat..." She wasn't lying. She preferred the cold. Let's put it this way, when you're cold, you could just add layers of clothing, but when you're hot, what could you do? Tear off your skin? Sacrifice a virgin to improve the weather? Actually, that didn't sound like a bad idea at all. She bet she could get Fritz to-

"It is just something you will have to grow accustomed to. Dear, do you remember how you loathed waking up in the morning? Now you are up before me!" Eda explained and Haruka sighed. Eda was right. When you are a farmer, you can't just negate an entire season. Seasons were supposed to be farmers' best friends. "Cheer up, dear. A nice trip to town will put you back in a good mood." Haruka sighed in defeat. She noticed she did that a lot when Eda was around.


Oh God...OH GOD, it was so hot. Haruka tried her best to stay under the trees. She hopped from shadow to shadow in hopes that it would spare her skin from the sun. She didn't remember summers being this unforgiving back in the island.

"Hey Haruka! What...are you doing?" She had been mid jump when she heard the voice. This was so embarrassing. She turned around to see Fritz. "Oh, you're playing? You should've invited me!" Was his easy response. She suddenly didn't feel that embarrassed anymore, after all, this was easygoing Fritz.

Haruka laughed, "No, I'm just trying to avoid the sun."

"So it's true?" Fritz got in the tree's shadow with her.

"What's true?" Haruka asked, curious.

"That you haven't been in town because of the sun." Oh...Now THAT was embarrassing. It was enough that Eda mildly mocked her aversion to the heat, but it was another thing having the entire town make fun of her. Suddenly the prospect of going to town didn't seem very appealing at all.

"I..." How could she explain in a way that wasn't both pathetic and weak?

"No worries! You'll get used to it! In my first summer here I was red for the entire season!" Fritz laughed, but Haruka was confused, wasn't he going to make fun of her? "Oh, and while you get used to it I'll play 'avoiding the sun' with you!" Fritz's goofy smile made Haruka feel at ease.

"I... Sure, thanks Fritz." she was still feeling a bit embarrassed, but it wasn't because of her heat problem, but because of Fritz's attitude. How could he say such embarrassing things out loud?

"Shall we get going then?" he said with his hands behind his head and a bright smile on his face.

"Yeah, let's go."

Fritz and Haruka entered town and she couldn't help but feel relieved to be back again. "I'll race you to Raeger's!" Fritz shouted as soon as they were in town. Haruka was startled, but raced Fritz nonetheless. Perhaps it was his own way of keeping her under the sun as little as possible. Fritz was being considerate and Haruka felt a tiny pang of guilt for not giving him the recognition he deserved.

Both of them arrived at Raeger's at the same time, still Fritz claimed it was Haruka's win, he was being a little too nice today. They opened the door to the restaurant and Raeger greeted them.

"Hey Fritz, oh and who is this? A new resident?" said Raeger with a smirk. Haruka rolled her eyes. "Oooh, the new resident has an attitude."

"Always a pleasure, Raeger" Haruka replied in a pleasant tone. At least Raeger was acting like his normal self and not being overly nice like Fritz.

"Heard you have a sun phobia, are you okay leaving your cave?" he was maintaining a conversation while gathering ingredients, he was a true chef.

"I think I'll manage; we've been avoiding the sun." Haruka motioned at Fritz who pumped his fist into the air.

Raeger face palmed. "I mean...I kind of expected it from him, but you? Really?"

"Hey! What do you mean by that?" Fritz asked and Raeger turned to look at him.

"Nothing, Fritz, nothing." Raeger paused for a second, as if debating something in his mind. After a few seconds he turned to look at Fritz, "Hey could you go get me some flour from the back?"

"Sure, man. How many bags?"

"As many as you can carry." Raeger's sweet smile told Haruka he had ulterior motives. Fritz, however, was oblivious to the fact and jumped from his seat to help his friend. As soon as he was out of sight Haruka turned to look at Raeger.

Haruka narrowed her eyes. "Why did you do that?" Raeger's sickening sweet smile stayed in place. Haruka could only guess how many girls had fallen for that smile.

"I don't know what you're talking about, dear." Over 50, it had to be over 50 girls.

Haruka groaned, "'As many as you can carry', you do realize he's gonna injure himself, right?"

"I wouldn't even doubt it, but there's something more important." Raeger took a bottle from behind his counter and set it front of her. "Here, take it." Haruka looked at the bottle, it seemed to be...ointment? Cream? Raeger read the confusion in Haruka's eyes, "It's sunblock." Realization hit her like a brick, was Raeger being nice to her? "Don't look so startled. I am generally nice; you don't get to see it because you hang around Fritz too much."

Haruka felt herself smile, "Thank you Raeger, I appreciate it."

"You better, it's not easy to make." Raeger said offhandedly and Haruka's eyes widen.

"You made it?" She had never heard of homemade sunblock.

"Yeah, it's not your normal sunblock. This one is super strong, it'll help you adapt." Haruka examined the bottle, it was certainly not store bought. She had never seen the brand 'Raeger rocks' and never heard slogans with 'For idiot farmers' in them. Raeger was amazing, maybe there were other perks to being a chef besides food. "I gave some to Fritz when he first arrived, you should've seen him, he was worse than you." Raeger chuckled at the memory.

A thought entered Haruka's mind, "Is this why you sent Fritz away? To give me sunblock?" she asked, not really sure what all of this meant.

"Ah, well. He is a sensitive fellow, don't want him getting the wrong idea." Raeger almost murmured the last part, leaving Haruka with more questions than answers.

"I don't ge-" a loud crash was heard from the restaurant's storage room, both of them turned in that direction. "Ah, that would be your 'as many as you can carry'."

"Yep, I guess I'll go give him a hand. Watch the soup for me, yeah?" Raeger was patting his hands clean on his apron.

"No problem, make sure he's okay," Haruka's brow knit in worry, "can't farm with anything broken." Raeger smiled, but this smile was nothing Haruka had seen before. She had seen happy, flirty, sweet, heck even manipulative, but this one just seemed...strained.

"Sure, I'll tell him that." And with that Raeger went to his storage room.

The storage room wasn't all that big, he didn't own a five-star restaurant after all, but it still held everything he needed. Raeger opened the door and found Fritz on the floor. Well, he guessed Fritz was somewhere under the multiple bags of flour, hopefully uninjured. He heard a groan from under the bags and he rolled his eyes.

"Is anything broken?" Raeger asked.

"Nothing besides my pride," moaned Fritz, his voice muffled by the flour. He shuffled around and his face came into view, he looked around and sighed in relief. "You didn't bring her." Raeger smiled, he knew Fritz would not have wished Haruka to see him this way.

"Of course I didn't bring her. What kind of woman would want a man strewn across the floor covered in flour?" Raeger helped Fritz to his feet and patted him clean. "You shouldn't have carried more than you could..." He looked around and counted at least ten bags. Wow, impressive, Raeger's own limit was six.

"Oh, no. The flour wasn't the problem...I just tripped." Oh, typical Fritz. He was strong, his only fault was his balance...or coordination...or everything, really.

"You know you don't have to impress her, just be yourself. Or even better, impress her being yourself!" he suggested giving Fritz a pat on the back. Fritz gave a small sad smile.

"Do you really think that will be enough? I mean, she just came here and she already has one of the most successful farms around." Fritz stared at the floor. It was weird seeing him like this. Raeger was used to seeing the upbeat Fritz that was always running around and trying to help everyone, emphasis on the 'trying'. He was not used to seeing Fritz feeling down, even worse, feeling like he wasn't good enough.

"Woah, slow down there, buddy. We don't want you moving to depression town." Fritz looked up, "You are good enough for her, okay?" Raeger felt himself turn into the coach that gives pep talks in movies. The storage room was his locker room and Fritz was his team. "You are a strong and independent man." Fritz's eyes were wide, "You have a great personality and run a farm all by yourself." Fritz smiled, a happy smile. "You are an educated fellow!" Raeger's voice was raising, Fritz's eyes were hopeful, "AND!" Crap, he had run out of things to say, he scanned his head for Fritz facts when... "you have a cow named Cocoa!" ...Well, that was a lame ending to an otherwise great speech, hopefully it wouldn't bother Fritz that he-

"I DO!" What? "And I love her! She gives the best milk ever!" Fritz punched the air and jumped up. Raeger watched him with a smile on his face. Oh well, this was Fritz he was talking to, he was quite unpredictable.

"Okay now, calm down champ. Let's clean up and go back." Fritz nodded and helped him clean, smiling the whole time. Raeger was happy for his friend, it had been a while since he had seen Fritz so excited about something.

The very day Fritz had met Haruka he had run to Raeger to tell him about how pretty she was, and how he bet, for some odd reason, that she liked fish. The moment Raeger had met Haruka he could tell why Fritz had become smitten by her. She was extremely cute. Her shyness and mannerisms making her even more so.

It was only after Raeger had gained her trust that she had let herself go. Her cuteness evaporated when Raeger realized that she could be as vicious as him. Sarcastic to the bone and a born cynic, Raeger could see themselves becoming good friends. That was it, a friendship. He would never intervene in Fritz's love life; it was in the bro code. Haruka was a good girl, and Raeger could totally see Fritz having a chance with her. Plus, they were the only two bachelors in town minus the kid, so she kind of didn't have a choice.

The boys finished cleaning the mess and went out to the restaurant. Raeger was busy picturing Fritz and Haruka together, yeah they would make a cute couple. He could get a girlfriend and they would be able to go on double dates! Yeah, it was a nice image.

"Hey Haruka, wou-" Fritz stopped dead in his tracks. Raeger turned to look at what troubled his friend and his nice image shattered in an instant. Klaus and Haruka were sitting next to each other, perhaps a little closer than they should.

"Hey guys, I was just telling Klaus about how you helped me bake his cake!" Haruka said with a bright smile. Her cheeks were red, and Raeger was sure it wasn't because of the sun.

"I appreciate your efforts Raeger, it was a lovely cake." Klaus thanked him. Raeger should say something, something insulting and nasty, but...

"Well, you don't have to, Klaus. It was all her." He said, smiling a little. He couldn't do that to Haruka, could he? She was as much a friend as Fritz.

Klaus turned his attention to Haruka, "Ah, it seems you still hold all my gratitude...Haruka." Raeger noticed the hesitation when he called her name. He had taken away the 'miss', just what in the world had happened? "Would you care to accompany me for a cup of tea?" Wow, when had Klaus become so bold? If he had known a little cake would cause this, he would never had agreed to help.

"No," Haruka answered, the three men in the room reacted differently to her words. Klaus looked taken aback, Raeger bit his lip in anticipation and Fritz dared look hopeful. "I'll have iced tea. I can't bear have something hot right now." Haruka smiled at Klaus and he composed himself in a second.

"Of course, as you wish." Haruka hopped off her seat and they went to the door together. Klaus opened the door for her and she turned to look at Raeger and Fritz.

"Bye guys! I'll see you later!" and with that they were gone.

Well...Raeger had totally forgotten about Klaus. How could he have forgotten about Klaus? Of course Klaus was the type of prince every girl wanted, still, he had never made a move on any of the girls in town. Why Haruka? Why now? Ugh, his life had just gotten ten times harder.

"How..." Raeger jumped a little. He had forgotten Fritz was in the room with him.

"What was that, Fritz?" he asked, afraid that Fritz had gone to depression town.

"How am I supposed to compete with that?" he whispered. Well, he wasn't in depression town yet, but he sure as hell had bought a train ticket, and Raeger was not having that.

"Don't worry, buddy." He said, "We'll just have to up your game a little..." he tried to sound convincing, both for Fritz's and his own sake.