As Rio huffed, she managed to rake the last of the leaves up from her farm land and put them into a pile. Looking over her land, she nodded as her eyes took in several piles of leaves she'd managed to make since that morning. A triumphant smile on her face, she dropped her rake and turned to run towards town, ready to gather up all the children from town and Rod as she had promised them they could play in her yard when she'd managed to make leaf piles.

When Rio entered town, she looked left and right before noticing Allen, Neil, and Rod all standing near each other. Neil and Allen appeared to be arguing about something, and Rod stood between them with his hands up as if to placate the two. With a frown, Rio ran over just in time to hear Neil complain, "Look, I've always cut my own hair. I wouldn't mind trying your salon once, but I don't want to right now."

Allen stood with his arms crossed as he complained back, "Your hair is so scruffy. You really need to clean up, it frustrates me just to look at you." As he turned his head, the stylist noticed Rio approaching and hid his irritation as he took in her hair. The second the farmer reached the little group, the stylist grabbed her.

"A-Allen!" Rio gasped as the red-haired man grabbed her face between his hands and stared at her. As the farmer turned pink with a blush, Allen declared, "Rio, you need a haircut too. You've let your hair get unruly again."

Dropping his hands from the farmer's face, Allen grabbed her wrist and all but yanked her into the salon. As the two started down the path towards the salon, Rio's weak protests could be heard. Thinking it was the end of the conversation, Neil turned to go when Rod grabbed his arm and said, "Nope, you're going too! If Rio has time for a haircut, so do you!"

"What! Rod!"

Using all his strength, Rod managed to pull a complaining Neil with him all the way to the salon before throwing him through the doors.


"Just sit here and relax, okay?" Allen's reassurances did nothing to calm Neil as the animal trader sat impatiently in a salon chair next to Rio. As the stylist gave both of his customers a look that told them they'd better stay put, Neil looked over and saw Rio fidgeting uncomfortably in the chair.

Bluntly, the animal dealer said, "You could've just said no; then I wouldn't have been dragged in here by Rod."

Rio flushed a little at his accusatory statement before pointing out, "It isn't like you're weaker than Rod, couldn't you have just said no yourself?"

Neil fell quiet at her comeback, and said nothing else as Allen came downstairs again with a few more styling tools.

Making Neil sit back, Allen covered his eyes with a cool washcloth before doing the same to Rio. When she asked why, Allen said it was so that they could both see the new haircuts at the same time. For an hour, both farmer and animal dealer sat in the salon chairs while Allen worked on their hair.

Just as Neil was about to fall asleep, Allen said happily, "Alright, done! I've made you both presentable to the world!"

Nearly ripping the cloth off his eyes, Neil stared into the mirror before giving a sigh of relief; his hair actually look good, despite his fear that Allen would give him some sort of weird haircut. The spikes he normally maintained were still there, but shorter and slightly lighter at the tips; when Neil reached up to pat them he noticed they felt softer than usual. Sure that Allen had used some sort of hair substance on him, Neil turned to thank the stylist when he caught sight of Rio. His breath caught in his throat, and he stared before blinking and staring some more.

Rio sat watching the mirror, completely oblivious to Neil's staring and Allen's bragging. As she made faces at herself, Neil swallowed and took in the way she looked; her hair seemed so light that it was nearly white looking, but the color (or lack thereof) brought out the blue in her eyes. Her overgrown bangs had been fixed into a blunt fringe, and her long hair looked soft enough to touch, the ends of it curling just past her shoulders.

Neil had never thought Rio was ugly, despite not liking her, but with her hair actually fixed she looked rather pretty. It was almost like looking at a doll; her skin was still pale despite all the work she did out in the sun, and her cute features seemed emphasized by the way her hair framed her face. The more he looked at her hair, the more he wanted to touch it.

His hand began to reach out of its own accord before Neil blinked and withdrew his hand before anyone could notice what he had just been about to do.

As he wondered why he was suddenly noticing all this, she turned her eyes on him. Neil froze before muttering, "What're you looking at?"

In an attempt to be nice, Rio said softly, "You look nice, Neil." As soon as the words came out of her mouth and she turned slightly pink, obviously embarrassed at having said something so nice to him. Shaking any thoughts of her out of his head, Neil cleared his throat before replying back, "You…you don't look that bad either."

As she stared at him in confusion, he cleared his throat again before muttering, "You look good."

A light blush spread over his face as the compliment left his mouth, deepening when Rio broke out into a smile and thanked him. Before Neil could dwell on why he felt so weird, Rod walked into the salon and gasped, running over to compliment them both before talking to Allen about what a good job he'd done.

Rio turned from Neil to thank Allen as well, and as Allen proudly lifted a few strands of her hair between his fingers Neil frowned and shook his head. Getting up, he threw a thanks over his shoulder before walking out grumpily and wondering why he'd had such a weird moment.


While Neil restrung his bass, Rod slumped against the wall before complaining, "Neeeeeil…"

The animal trader looked up and glared at his friend before sighing and saying, "What, Rod."

"Let's do something."

"I'm busy."

"But I'm so bored…"

Neil gave his friend a sour look before returning to his instrument and muttering, "If you're so bored here then go hang out with Rio or something. Stop bothering me."

Knowing that Neil didn't mean to come off as rude, Rod just sighed before looking up at the ceiling and muttering, "But I want to hang out with YOU. Besides, even if I did want to go to Rio's she's busy today; she told all the kids that she and Tina would take them to the river area to pick flowers. You know that new couple with the little girl, Hina? They were so happy Rio and Tina were offering that they even told her they'd make lunch for when they all came back."

"You like kids," Neil pointed out at his worked on a particularly difficult peg. "You could've gone with them."

Rod looked over at Neil and said, "You like them too even if you won't admit it; we both could've gone."

With a grimace Neil held his bass to the light and mumbled, "Go somewhere with Rio? No thanks."

At his friend's grimace, Rod hesitated before saying, "You know, she's really not that bad. I know you think she's annoying and can't do anything right, but she's done a lot for this town. I mean, it's coming back to life and it's all because of her! Can't you just cut her some slack for whatever past problems you two had and just be friends with her?"

Neil's eyes lit up knowingly and he looked over at Rod before saying, "You like her, don't you?"

Rod turned bright red, confirming Neil's statement, and the two boys stared at each other in silence until Rod coughed and muttered, "So what if I like her…she's cute…"

As he watched his friend squirm, his expression bashful, Neil tried to hide a laugh but failed. While Rod pouted, Neil continued to laugh until he managed to say, "Why are you suddenly a middle schooler?" Getting serious again, the animal dealer shook his head and turned back to his bass before commenting, "I could care less who you like. I won't promise to be friends with her…but I guess I can tolerate her if you two start dating."

Rod started to smile, before a thought crossed his mind and he said in a dark tone, "Wait, Neil."

"Hmm?"

Neil looked up to see his friend staring at him intensely. With his voice serious, Rod asked, "You don't have a crush on her, do you?"

At the absurdity of the statement, Neil glared before saying, "Really, Rod? Really? Why would I hate someone if I had a crush on them?"

Rod held his friend's gaze for a minute before letting it go and muttering, "Well, she IS really cute. I just…if you do start to like her someday, tell me alright? I want to be the first one to know."

"What? Why would I ever like her? That's impossible."

"Just promise me, Neil. If you start to like her and I want to know…okay?"

Looking at his friend like he was insane, Neil gave his word before shaking his head again and turning once more to his bass. Neil's reaction to his words made Rod smile, but then he shivered a little as he thought of the weird feeling he had in his stomach whenever her thought of Neil and Rio together.

Glancing over at where the animal dealer was still stringing his instrument, Rod bit his lower lip and mouthed at Neil, "Nothing is impossible, you know."


Tina and Rio watched with curious eyes as a man who looked a few years older than them moved into the newest house that Rio had built for the town. He wore a traditional Japanese outfit, and his brown hair was unkempt in a way that had Allen itching to fix it.

The trio (who had become very close friends) stood and watched as he walked in after the movers and could be heard directing them to move things around before Tina asked, "Rio, who is he?"

"What? Why would I know? I don't make the restoration plans, I just do whatever's written and Dunhill does all the other stuff."

Allen pushed his glasses up and then coughed before saying, "Rio, did it ever cross your mind to pay attention to Dunhill when he talks about these plans? I'm sure that every time he's handed you one he's said something important about them…"

Rio frowned, and then shrugged before admitting, "He usually comes in the morning so I'm still a bit sleepy and don't really want to listen to him…besides, I'm already on what he's labeled as Restoration Plan number four. I don't remember much about the last ones, I just know that this one is REALLY going to bring in some people-even more than the Inn did when I built that!"

While Allen lectured Rio on paying more attention to things, Tina noticed that the man had walked out of his house and was now headed in their direction. Turning around, she hissed at her friends to quiet down just in time; the man walked up to them with a relaxed smile on his face before raising an eyebrow at them.

"Hello there," he said in a somewhat lazy tone. "I am Soseki, journalist by trade. Who might you three be?"

Introductions were made, but as soon as Rio introduced herself as the farmer who had built the house, the man broke out into an even wider smile before bowing slightly and saying, "You've done a wonderful job, Miss Rio. I expect you over for tea sometime, after I've settled in. It will be my way of thanking you."

Immediately flustered, Rio shook her head and laughed nervously, "Oh, it was no problem! You don't have to go through all that trouble!"

Taking Rio's hand, Soseki looked at her and said, "I insist, you must come next Friday. It is the least I can do to thank the woman who put such effort into building my house."

Prying her hand from Soseki's grasp, Rio said insistently, "I'm sorry, but I really can't. I already promised a friend of mine that I would spend that day with him." While Soseki continued to persist in asking Rio to spend some time with him, Allen and Tina exchanged glances behind the farmer's back.

Cutting into Rio's conversation, Allen stepped in front of her and shook Soseki's hand before saying, "Well it was nice meeting you but we've got to run. See you around."

Grabbing Rio's wrist, the redheaded man walked off with her in tow, the duo followed behind closely by Tina.

"So? Are you going to tell us why you're going on a date with Rod next Friday?" Tina giggled while Allen watched from where he was leaning against a wall of the reporter's study. At the suggestion from Tina, Rio turned pink before denying everything furiously.

"What? No, no, no, Rod and I aren't going on a date…wait…how did you know I was going to be with Rod?"

Ignoring her question, Allen asked quietly, "If it's not a date, then what are you two doing?"

"He invited me to go with him to restock supplies for his shop…why are you two being so weird about this?"

Tina and Allen exchanged glances again before Tina smiled at the farmer and said, "Oh, no reason. Hey, can you do me a favor?"


As soon as Tina had successfully gotten Rio out of the house, she came back up the stairs and with a sigh flopped into a nearby chair. While she grumbled to herself, Allen looked petulantly out a window and muttered, "She's seriously oblivious, isn't she? I worry for Rod…"

Tina's grumbling stop and the reporter giggled before a small smile spread across her face. Looking up at Allen, she winked at him and said, "Shouldn't you worry more about yourself and amount of information I get every time I hang out at your work? Every time I write the gossip column it's a wonder how no one figures out I got the information from you. I mean, Felicity for all her gossip never tells me anything new and Iroha doesn't seem to understand what gossip IS."

At this, Allen just waved it off before saying, "Whatever, at least those two aren't as oblivious as Rio. I just hope things don't turn out for the worse as far as Rod is concerned."

With a knowing look, Tina smirked at her friend before saying slyly, "You're such a softie, Allen, worrying this much about a childhood friend. I'm not even surprised anymore that he chose to move to the same place as you-he must have known you'd be trying to look out for him, even now that you're both old enough to be taking care of yourselves."

Turning a slight red at the accusation, Allen grumped, "So maybe I worry about him…but only a little. I can't help it, he's an idiot and a crybaby so I have no choice but to look out for him. I just do what you do to Rio."

Tina laughed before agreeing, "Yeah, you're right." Looking out the window as Rio ran back towards her house with flowers in hand, Tina smiled before saying softly, "I just hope nothing goes wrong next Friday."


Today was a two chapter day XD And yes, Neil has never once thought Rio was ugly (cause she's totally not) even if he is still annoyed by her friendliness. And to me Allen and Tina seem like they could be really good friends, mainly since Allen runs a salon where people tend to gossip to their friends when they get their hair done and Tina lives to find information to write news stories :) They're also comrades when it comes to mocking people for their obliviousness XD

Thanks so much for all the reads and reviews so far! You guys are an inspiration for me to keep posting even when I'm doubting that whatever I'm about to post will be read at all! Next update is going to be one of my favorite scenes that I've written out so far so...hope to see you all there :) Until then!