Author's Note: Harvest Moon: Island Of Happiness belongs to its creators and does not belong to me.
Thanks to my friends great help! Love you, mitsuki93.
My Deviant username and story by: x3Bella
Notes: Finally I have completed Chapter 13 took a long time to complete it and I apologise. Please enjoy!
Please enjoy Chapter 13.
The door to Mirabelle's slammed open with Vaughn's back laying on the door. His face turned red and was breathing heavily; his thoughts were corrupted by the fever he was having, he could not think straight.
"Julia is that you? Did you get back the stuff from Taro?" Mirabelle walked out the kitchen, wiping her wet hands on her aprons.
"Vaughn? What are you doing here? Aren't you supposed to be at Chelsea's?" Mirabelle walked over by Vaughn's side and helped him up; he shoved her hands away and stumbled away from her, his hands rested on the wall near the stairs to give him support.
"What was I thinking?" Vaughn mumbled under his breath, slowly, he climbed the stairs up to his room and plopped his head in the pillow on the bed. Squeezing it tightly in his both hands, he rolled around the bed with the pillow buried in his face.
In his mind, he was really confused by what he did earlier. He could not forget how abruptly he 'proposed' to Chelsea just to spite Mark and make him give up on her.
Just then, Julia walked up the stairs which it made loads of creaking noises but none of the noises seems to disrupt Vaughn from his rolling. Julia peeped through the small opening from the door, with her camera in her hands. She was smirking at how Vaughn looked so cute dwelling over stuff like romance and love.
"Damn! This is so confusing!" Vaughn shouted as he threw the pillow towards where Julia was hiding. The pillow hit the wall directly and fell beside the door but Julia was not discovered by Vaughn and he continued to speak to himself.
"Why did I even kiss her?" Vaughn ruffled his silvery hair that was glimmering under the lights.
"Because you like her." Julia mumbled to what Vaughn had said and sighed by how stupid Vaughn was.
"Why did I accept that idiot blonde's challenge?" Vaughn scolded himself over and over again.
"Because you want to fight for her, you dumb cowboy." Julia murmured again, she really could not stop laughing by the fact that Vaughn was seriously in love with her but dare not admit it.
Vaughn ruffled his hair, realising that his signature hat was not on his head, it was left at Chelsea's. He messed up his own hair even more, trying to erase the thoughts that were corrupting his mind and he quickly fell asleep.
The harsh sun glared into the glass windows with Vaughn sleeping soundly and was woken up by sounds from downstairs; he wanted to silence the different voices of people so he walked down the stairs to see different faces he did not want to see.
"Vaughn! You're awake! Guess what, the whole villagers are here to celebrate you and Chelsea's wedding!" Julia put her hands together and clapped for Vaughn's arrival down the stairs, as confetti started to pile up onto Vaughn's head. His eyes squinted to see faces he hate, even Mark was there, he was leaning on the cream coloured wall.
Vaughn placed his hands in his black skinny jeans pocket and walked over to Julia, his stern amethyst eyes glaring at her. It looked as if Vaughn was gonna eat her alive.
Beads of sweat were starting to form on Julia's forehead as it rolled down her cheeks, her open palms trying to calm Vaughn down while different shades and colours of eyes were following him around the room. He tried to avert his own eyes away from the crowd and noticed Chelsea talking with Mark with a smile on her face.
Her fingers pointing upwards as she giggled, talking about the wonderful wedding she will have with Vaughn. Mark's face was not filled with jealousy, but instead, he was glad that Chelsea was this happy. He thought in his head that Chelsea would definitely make a wonderful bride.
Murmurings got louder and louder as the villagers asked when will be the big day for the two new couples in the island. Vaughn was sandwiched by the crowd as he really dislikes noises, his head looking down at the floor with an evil aura emitting out from him that only he could see.
"Quiet!" Vaughn shouted as he glared everyone with his intense amethyst eyes, narrowing down those whom were noisy.
"Come on people, don't pick on Vaughn. The wedding invitations will be sent and you will know the date when it comes." Julia chuckled as she send the villagers out of her abode, it seemed as if Julia was the one getting married, Vaughn sighed as his silvery hair covered his left eye.
Julia closed the door behind her and rushed over to Chelsea and Mark. Her eyes scanning Mark from head to toe, trying to see if Mark has any intentions of trying to steal Chelsea away again.
Julia created space for herself while pushing Mark away into the background as she whispered something secretive into Chelsea's ears. Her sapphire eyes gleaming with excitement, Vaughn and Mark wondered what Julia had told her.
"Vaughn! Get ready by noon; we're going back to the cities." Julia winked at Vaughn, he wondered what she meant by going back to the cities, but he is not gonna go back without his hat!
"Chelsea! I need to have a word with you." Vaughn pulled Chelsea by his side and started to talk very softly, Chelsea claimed that he was nervous with the preparations for the wedding but actually inside his mind, he wanted back his hat.
"Chelsea, I need my hat back…" Vaughn's hands was still grabbing onto Chelsea's arm, trying to whisper in her ears but his conversation was broken by the blond.
"Say, Vaughn. Is this what you want?" Julia swing the hat using her fingers as Vaughn released grasp of Chelsea and tried to get it back from Julia.
"No no, Vaughn. You're not getting this back until you agree to go to the cities with me, mum and Chelsea." Julia knew that Vaughn is gonna reject her so she got ready her triumph card to get him to agree to go to the cities with them.
"Fine, Fine! I will go, just return my hat to me will you?" Vaughn was already annoyed by the fact that she was playing along with Julia and had to go back to the cities even though he was on a job in the islands.
"And for your information, you will be staying on the island till spring starts! Isn't that fabulous?" Julia added with a hint of sarcasm.
"What?" Vaughn's total attention was focused on Julia with his amethyst gaped open and leaving his mouth hanging wide open. He could not take in the 'surprises' that Julia is throwing at him, it's too much for him.
"Don't worry. I took care of everything; your boss is very supportive you know. He even said he will come to your wedding, what a nice guy. I even told Nathan, he agreed to be the priest for your wedding, what a nice guy." Julia giggled while telling these events to Vaughn.
"All guys are nice to you…" Vaughn mumbled under his breath.
"What?" Julia snapped out of her giggling and asked Vaughn.
"Nothing." He mumbled, knowing Julia's attitude, he had no choice but to follow them to the cities in the afternoon. He also wondered what Julia was up to this time, it could not be something good. He gulped down his saliva down his throat thinking of what might happen to him.
"What's all the commotion?" The door opened and in came Mirabelle; she noticed Vaughn all irritated by Julia.
"Mum! I'm just telling Vaughn to go to the cities with us all." Julia pouted, her cheeks filled with air like a little girl.
"Chelsea. Why don't you bring Julia to your place? I guess you girls have lots to talk about." Mirabelle signalled to Chelsea, giving her motherly smile and the girls' got out of the house, nodding their heads.
Vaughn's amethyst followed them till they were out of the room and turned back to Mirabelle, her soft baby blue eyes looked into his mysterious amethyst eyes.
"Vaughn, come with me." Mirabelle spoke very motherly to him and walked slowly to her room, Vaughn calmed down and he followed Mirabelle to her room.
He slumped as he walked in, noticing Mirabelle rummaging through her drawers and he straightened up to peep what she was searching for.
"Vaughn, why don't you sit down?" Mirabelle spoke while she continued to search for something, a few minutes later she dug out a thick brown album with dust collected on it. Vaughn sat on the edge of her bed and watched as she blew the dust away from the book, his eyes fixing on the album that she was holding.
"Here." Mirabelle handed the album over to Vaughn and he received it with two hands.
"This is a photo album of you; there are lots of pictures of you when you were young." Mirabelle smiled at Vaughn, he held it tightly in his hands. He wondered why Mirabelle had his pictures when he was a young boy.
"Why did you-"Before Vaughn could finish speaking, Mirabelle beat him to it.
"Your parents hired a photographer to take it." Mirabelle looked down at her hands placed on her lap while talking.
"I thought that after you have found someone precious to you, I would give it to you. So that, you could share all these precious memories with your loved one." Mirabelle gave a warm smile as she shifted her warm hands to Vaughn's, holding his hands tightly.
"Thanks, Mirabelle." Vaughn returned the hold.
"Your parents always love you, Vaughn. Even though they always say harsh things, they do love you. You should go back and see them sometime, with Chelsea." Mirabelle released the grasp of his hands and patted him on the back as she got on her feet and walked out of the room.
He went back to his room and sat on the edge of his bed, slowly admiring the photos. The hint of brown at the edges of the photos signifies that this album and the photos have been kept for a long period of time.
There were pictures of him as a baby, sucking on a pacifier. There were pictures of him when he was trying to crawl and walk. All of his moments were captured in the photos; there was one photo that surprised him. It was the brunette haired girl with him, the young girl's head leaning onto young Vaughn's shoulders, sleeping soundly together with a bunch of baby's breath in the girl's hands.
He smiled to himself, his fingers slowly brushed down the girl in the photo. He had an intuition that girl in the photo was Chelsea but he needs to make sure that is was her; he really hoped that the girl in the photo was Chelsea.
"Stupid me. That girl couldn't be her, what am I thinking?" Vaughn tried to destroy the suspicion in his head and quickly stood up. Knowing Julia, she should be at the beach by now, and will blame him even though he was not late.
He placed the album on his study table and quickly padded out of his room to the open air. He stuffed his hands in his front pockets and strode down the pathway. His hair danced in the wind, it feels cooling without his hat placed on him.
As he guessed, Julia and Chelsea are already there, with Mirabelle standing with them.
"Vaughn! You're early!" Chelsea noticed him and ran over to him, tugging onto his arms and pulling him over to where Julia and Mirabelle were.
"It's rarity of you, Vaughn. Coming so early…" Julia raised one side of her eyebrows and looked suspiciously at him.
"I knew that you all would be early. So I just came early, got a problem with that?" Vaughn retorted back coldly, walking to the direction of the ship.
"Where are you going, Vaughn?" Chelsea asked, stupidly.
"Didn't you say that you all were going to the cities? I just want my hat back." Vaughn replied with a smirk on his face.
Everyone hurried on the ship as it honked to signal it's moving out.
The hustle and the bustle of the cities were familiar for Vaughn but not for Chelsea, letting her remember her pain and the memories in the cities.
"Why are you clinging onto me so tightly?" Vaughn stared at Chelsea while they were walking down the roads.
"Because I like it." Chelsea replied with an innocent smile embedded on her face. He sighed as he turned his head to the front, looking at Mirabelle and Julia talking to each other softly.
"So where are we going?" Vaughn asked while Chelsea walked by his side, still tugging onto his arm with Vaughn's hands tugged into his front pockets.
"I'm not sure. Mirabelle and Julia both told me they made arrangements in the cities."
"Surprises are not good for my mind; I've been receiving them since just now…" Vaughn trembled at the thought of another 'surprise', what has been installed for Vaughn by Julia?
"We're here." Julia open her arms wide and pointed up at the sign while the two couples scanned the surroundings of the shop, leaving Vaughn in shock with his mouth gaped open and arms hanging by the side. While Chelsea, her sapphire eyes twinkled in excitement.
What was the surprise that made Vaughn and Chelsea react this way?
End of Chapter 13