Author's Note: I just finished binge-reading The Gentlemen's Alliance Cross. Whenever I finish reading something really great that I love, I feel hollow and sad inside. So I needed some happiness. So I've brought a new chapter! Read. Review. Enjoy~! :)
I was sitting on the edge of Hiro's bed and watching as he sat at his desk. Ayame had instructed him to do some studying so he was reading one of the books his father had given him. In fact, the majority of the books lining his shelves had come from his father.
"All I'm saying is that I really don't need it. You know?"
Hiro let out a sigh and carefully pushed his book away. He shifted in his chair so he could look back at me without straining himself. "A hearty breakfast is indeed the most important meal to be consumed. You work a rather strenuous job and without proper sustenance, you risk passing out."
"I'm fine, really. A little coffee and I'm good to go for a large chunk of the day." That apparently didn't assure him because he squinted his eyes a little and started waving his finger at me.
"Furthermore, an overabundance of caffeine consumption can be a hindrance to your health." I'd managed to make him angry. He really was adorable when he was angry. He had a really youthful face so he was a cutie pie in general. The two of us had bonded over cooking. In fact, he'd recommended a really helpful cookbook to me at Town Hall at one point. Long story short, I felt rather affectionate toward the doctor-in-training.
I stood up and walked over to where he was sitting, patting him on top of the head. He blushed a little, but I could tell that his anger was dissipating. "I'm sorry, okay? I'll have breakfast tomorrow, I promise. But I can't cut out the coffee. Try not to worry so much, alright?"
He looked to the right and poked at his chin as he considered that. "Alright. Please make an attempt to take more proper care of yourself, though. I may not yet be a doctor, but I do feel responsible for your well-being."
"I know. And you're a total sweetheart for that, really. But if you wake up really early one of these mornings with me standing over you holding a plate of french toast and poking your cheek then you should know you brought it on yourself."
"Oh no. Please don't wake me early from my slumber. I would be most perturbed because of that."
It wasn't the first time we'd had a conversation like that one. He'd definitely given me the breakfast lecture before. But I was just so busy in the mornings. Just as Jessica would always tell me, mornings were usually the busiest part of the day on farms. Howard had given me a good recipe for an omelet, though, so I could always try that out. It shouldn't take that long, either.
I was kind of being a bit of a hypocrite. There I was not doing something as simple as eating breakfast and I had the nerve to expect Kana to wear sleeves. Both of us could get sick. And I was the pot calling the kettle black.
It was late by the time I'd emerged from the clinic and I didn't want to hold up the rest of Ayame and Hiro's night. Besides, he still had to finish studying and cook something for dinner. Cooking. . .cooking. Now why did that ring a bell in my head? Oh yeah! The cooking festival! That was tomorrow.
Oh, but what was the category going to be? As I walked home, I made a concentrated effort to remember. I did not want to have to resort to looking at my calendar when I got home. Of course, I was so deep into my thoughts that I didn't even notice when I bumped into something. Whatever it was, it was incredibly solid and I fell straight back. At the last second, a pair of strong arms reached out and caught me.
"Whoa, there. Are you okay?"
I let out a sigh of relief. It was Kana! Kana had saved me from hitting the ground and ending up being sore in the morning. Thank goodness. I looked up into those dark eyes of his that were just barely visible in the moonlight and gave him a half-smile. "Yeah. I am. I'm so sorry I bumped into you! I wasn't paying attention to where I was going."
"Don't worry about it," he said as he steadied me on my feet and started walking toward his house. I assumed he'd just made it out of the pasture area when I'd gone and walked into him. He'd probably just been in the barn checking on on Hayate or something.
"Hey, wait," I said as I jogged to catch up with him. "Kana, I wanted to talk to you."
He stopped and let out a sigh. He even looked a little irritated at me, which I didn't normally see from him. "I don't really feel like talking to you today, Lillian."
Wow. That took me by surprise. I was a little taken aback. He'd never acted like that before. I stood there shifting from one foot to the other and bit at my bottom lip as I considered his words. I didn't know what I'd done to upset him. So I did the only thing I could do even though I was confused as to why I felt I needed to do it. "I'm. . .I'm sorry. I'll go home, then. I'll see you around some other time. Uh. . .goodnight, Kana."
The next thing I knew, he was jogging backwards in front of me. I paused and raised an eyebrow at him and he came to a stop. "Wait. It was nothing. Just something that was bugging me, but it's okay now." And then, out of nowhere, "Hey, would you like to come over to my house for a little bit?"
I looked down at my watch and then up at his apologetic face and shrugged. And that was when I noticed. . . "You're wearing sleeves," I said, pointing at one of his arms. "Well. I guess that means I have no excuse not to eat breakfast now. . ."
"Wait, what?" he asked, looking at me in a thoroughly confused way since he had no way of knowing how him wearing sleeves and me eating breakfast could possibly be connected.
"Nothing, nothing," I told him with an amused little laugh.
"So was that a yes or a no?"
"Hmm? To what?" I queried.
"You. Me. My house. You visiting me at my house for a little while?"
"Oh! Oh yeah, you did just ask me that. Alright. I'll come over for a bit."
He gave me a relieved little smile and led the way. He held the door open and shut it behind me. It was warm and cozy in there. One of Kana's dogs ran up to me before wagging its tail and barking to get my attention. I crouched down to pet him for a while before Kana interrupted. "Come on, you little straggler. It's time you got settled down for the night." Kana whistled and the dog immediately followed behind him to join all the rest of the animals.
I stood there waiting for him to get back and noticed something out the corner of my eye. Wow. It was like. . .a statue. It was a horse statue. Had that always been there and I just never noticed it before? I did have a tendency to look over things sometimes, so that was probably the case. I crept closer and leaned in to get a better look. When I heard footsteps I suddenly jumped back and saw Kana standing there.
"Whoa, you scared me," I said, putting a hand against my chest..
"Huh? What's up, Lillian?" he said, coming out the doorway and over to where I was. He didn't have far to walk.
"Well I was just taking a look at this statue and I didn't hear you come back in the room, so. . ." I said, feeling a little silly since he was the only other person in the house to be making any noise behind me. "Anyway, I've never noticed this statue before so I was over here taking a look at it." I had a very artistic background so I was kind of in awe of the detail that went into it. I leaned back in to take another close look at it.
"Ah, yeah. My dad made that wooden horse. Isn't it awesome?" he asked with a happy smile.
"I'd definitely say yeah to that. It's kinda amazing, you know? I mean, look at all these little details. What kind of tools did he use?"
"Whoa, whoa. I was really young when he made that so I don't really remember." He stopped talking and looked off into space for a minute before laughing.
"What's so funny?"
He smiled at his own thoughts and got close to the statue, running his hand across it fondly. "I was just thinking about something. As a kid, I used to climb on that statue and pretend to ride. My dad would get mad."
"I bet," I told him with a shake of my head. "I don't think you've ever mentioned him before, though. Your dad, that is."
He looked surprised as he stopped to think about that. After about a minute of mentally combing through our various conversations, he apparently decided I was right. "Yeah? Well, my dad loves horses. He travels all over the world to find good horses." He rested a finger on his chin and looked a little worried. "It's actually been a long time since I've heard from him."
"Really? Wow. I hope that he sends you a letter soon or something." It was kind of unfathomable to me since I was in such constant contact with my own father. I felt sorry for Kana. Especially since I knew he'd lost his mother at an even younger age than I did.
"Knowing my dad, I'm sure he's doing just fine. But. . .I can't help worrying some."
"Well, since you both love horses I guess it's safe to say that you two are alike, huh? And if he's anything like you then I'm sure he's doing fine!"
And just like that, he was back to his normally happy self. "Yeah, you're right! I'm sure he's fine! And he'll come home with the best horse in the world someday soon. Anyway, getting all worried about stuff isn't my style."
I nodded my head and drew in a breath. "You're right, it's not. Just keep the positive thoughts going and I'm sure he'll get in touch someday soon."
That seemed to perk him up even more and for that I was happy. I didn't like seeing him having to worry over something like that. "You're really nice to talk to, Lillian. When you smile and say he's fine. . .I feel like, yeah, he must be fine. I'm totally reassured."
I looked down at the floor as I felt my face growing a little hot. Hearing that he had such confidence in my words was quite flattering. And then the way he'd looked at me when he said it. . .I looked up and saw him rubbing the back of his head. And he was blushing, too. "Um, so, like. . .What I'm trying to say is. . ."
I felt like I must have a huge question mark hovering over my head right then because I didn't know where he was going with his words. "Yeah?"
"I mean. . .It's like this, Lillian! Hayate really wants to see you again. So I hope you'll come by soon."
I patted his shoulder and grinned at that. "Of course. I want to see Hayate again, too. And you be sure to tell her I'll bring another treat, okay?"
"Sure, I'll do that. Well, I'll see you later, Lillian. And. . .thanks!"
"You're welcome," I told him as I headed toward the door. "I'll catch you at the cooking festival tomorrow." And then with a wave I showed myself out. I had a feeling that something had happened in there. I wasn't sure what, though, and I was definitely confused.
So. . .I'd gone back to the farm. I'd done a quick check of every single animal to make sure all was well, and then I'd decided to just call it a night. I had a lot to accomplish the following morning and I wanted to be on top of my game so I could get it all done.
So when I awoke bright and early the next morning, I hopped out of bed and hurried out of my bedroom so I could get started. I noticed that my dog, Rufus, had taken to following me around like. . .everywhere I went. And I didn't mind that since I was such an animal person and everything. My cat Penelo, though. . .I mean, she obviously accepted me as her owner, but she had yet to warm up to me to the degree that Rufus had. I mean, I'd had her longer than my other dog, Night, and even he liked me more than she did. I'd even named her after my grandma! Well, kind of. Penelo, Penelope. Close enough!
Since I'd assured Hiro I'd actually eat some breakfast for once, I located the recipe Howard had written down for me and got onto making that omelet. And of course, after I sat the plate down on my table, I fixed myself a nice hot cup of coffee. Both of my parents had been coffee drinkers for as long as I could remember. My mom probably loved it more than my dad ever did, but the fact of the matter was I'd been drinking it since I was like. . .eleven. Well, there were a couple of years there that I didn't drink coffee. My grandma used to say that drinking coffee at a young age would stunt my growth. And I did not want Chelsea getting taller than me. Therefore, I stopped drinking coffee for a couple of years. And I'd drank milk as often as I could. During the summers when we worked on the family farm, it was fresh from the cow milk and Chelsea wasn't big on milk unless there was chocolate involved so I had hoped that would give me the edge I needed. It hadn't, by the way. Once I accepted she was going to always be taller than me, I said forget my self-imposed caffeine ban and welcomed coffee back like it was an old friend.
After I had properly nourished myself, I looked around and realized my pets were long gone by then, already outside and doing their job. So I felt it was definitely time that I got on with the rest of my morning. My livestock were in high spirits and it took me no time at all to get them squared away. I then turned my attention to my crops. Staring at where I had planted the flower seeds I'd gotten from Cam, I wondered if they were going to turn out as well as I'd hoped. He had yet to come to Konohana to check on them, but there wasn't really anything to check yet, so. . .I finished up my watering and went inside to get cleaned up and prepare for the festival.
The theme this time, according to my calendar which I had ultimately resorted to checking, was salad. That was a deceptively simple theme. Sure, it was salad, but I was going to put just as much effort into that salad as I would a main dish gosh darn it! I had a feeling. I just had a feeling, you know? Like. . .I felt like today was my day. Who knows, maybe it was the breakfast that made me feel that way. Perhaps it was just the power of positive thinking. Still, though, I felt like all my hard work was finally about to come to fruition.
'Look out cooking festival, here I come,' I thought as I left the bathroom squeaky clean and hurried to the kitchen to prepare a salad dish that would knock Pierre's socks off.
