Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon, Karen, or any related characters or
events; to the best of my knowledge, they're all owned by Natsume. Any
resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or events is purely
coincidental. This story is based primarily on the plot of Harvest Moon 64.
Wine Red no Kokoro
by flame mage
Part 22: Domestication (or Not)
**********
I was still jazzed waking up the next morning, the first rays of sunlight slicing in from the window to fall across Jack's face. He opened his eyes and smiled.
"Good morning, Jack," I said softly. "Or should I say 'dear'?"
"I like the way that sounds," he teased, throwing off the covers and getting dressed.
"No honeymoon, huh?" I asked.
He sighed. "Guess not. It's too early to harvest anything, but I have to water the crops and take care of the animals. And I have to get to Moon Mountain today too. I'm trying to stock the fridge with Veryberries. After that, I think I'm free. And if you can handle dinner tonight, I'll do it tomorrow night."
Whoa. Total freeze in the whole wedded bliss thing. "Ummm, Jack?" I almost squeaked. "I kinda have a problem with that."
He looked at me. "I know. I don't like it either. Well, I should have enough money for a greenhouse later in the season, so I can probably blow off the watering, but I have to at least get the animals fed."
"No, it's not that. The problem is...Jack, I can't cook," I said.
He started to laugh, but stopped when he saw my face. "Sorry. I was just worried it was going to be something tougher, like a major objection to my doing farmwork. Okay, scratch what I said about dinner. We'll work on the cooking lessons at night instead."
I looked at him. "You'd do that? My dad just went out for dinner whenever my mom couldn't cook."
He shrugged. "Sure, no problem. I'd been doing most of the cooking back in the city since my mom died, and here I've been doing all of it. I'm not a master chef, and I probably couldn't whip Elli and Jeff in a bake- off, but I've collected a bunch of recipes and they're not too hard to follow."
"Thanks a lot." I got an idea. "And in return, I'll give you dance lessons!"
"Really? So I don't look like a moron at festivals anymore?"
"I never thought you looked like a moron," I said loyally. Actually, it wasn't too far from the truth. He'd been able to wing it okay from the start; the problem was that he was too self-conscious.
"Yeah, but my problem is feeling like a moron. Still, I'd appreciate the help." He dug his gloves out of the pockets of his overalls and put them on. "Did you happen to notice where my hat landed last night?"
I shrugged. "Probably across the room somewhere. You really thought I was gonna let you sleep with that thing on?"
"Sleeping wasn't the problem--ah! Found it." He put it on and straightened it. "Okay, then, I'm off. Any idea what you're going to be doing today?"
"Hmm...probably drop by the vineyard and maybe the ranch, then—any idea what we're going to start with for dinner tonight?" I asked.
He thought for a moment. "I've got a recipe for some simple tomato soup, and I think Cliff can do something with eggs. We'll start with that."
"Okay, then, I'll go into town and see if Lillia has any tomatoes in her greenhouse. And when I finish the shopping, I might go down to the beach for a while."
"All right. I'll catch you there when I get the work around here done. Maybe do a little fishing." He brushed a kiss on my forehead, then picked up his rucksack and started for the door. "See you in a few hours, darling."
How cute. I got up and blinked around for a couple seconds before realizing that most of my stuff was still in boxes in the corner of the room. All right, fine. That was first. I got dressed, got most of my stuff put away in the room organizer, and tried to run my fingers through my tangled hair for a few minutes before giving up and heading out.
The whole thing was strangely surreal. I'd been here, in this yard, outside my old home, just yesterday. Not even twenty-four hours ago it had been home, and I wasn't sure whether it seemed like just yesterday or a thousand years ago. Certainly something had shifted--it was quieter. Mom and Dad greeted me as if they hadn't seen me in years, and Kai called me Miss Karen once again before blinking and correcting himself. There were a few things left to get from my room, but that would keep until another day. I couldn't bring myself to unlock the door again now.
Instead, I kept moving, heading for the ranch. I could hear shouts coming from the back pasture--Ann and Cliff fighting again, of course.
A hunk of grass uprooted itself and sailed overhead, landing and exploding directly on Cliff's head. Score one for the redhead.
"Ugh, you're almost as annoying as my brother!" Ann was belting when I came around.
"Hey, Cliff?" I hollered over the din of fighting and animals. "I just wanted to know if you had any egg recipes for dinner!" He wasn't listening to me. "Hello?" I yelled. "Hey, you!"
"Give it up, Karen," Gray said behind me. "They'll go on like this for hours."
"Fine. Do YOU know any good egg recipes?" I asked.
"One. Paper?" I handed him a piece and he scrawled something out. I squinted to make it out. Okay, I could just barely read it, but only because I'd had practice. Yep. It was the legendary omelet recipe. Poor guy probably just felt sorry for Jack.
"Hi, Karen!" Ann called cheerfully. She hopped up on the fence. Cliff collapsed on his back, breathing hard. I didn't think this was the most brilliant thing to do in a cow pasture, but hey, he was the one who'd have to do the laundry. "How's married life?"
"How should I know? I've been married for, what, eighteen hours?" I shrugged. "I like it. I'm gonna learn how to cook."
"Oh, good. I was wondering how long he'd make it on your grapes/raw- veggies/whatever's-growing-by-the-river-when-you-get-down-there diet," she said agreeably. "Want to learn to knit, too?"
"Maybe some other time," I told her. "Don't want to get too domesticated, y'know?"
She laughed. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Where you headed?"
"Town. Gotta pick up some tomatoes and then hit the beach."
"Sounds cool. Take care of yourself, okay?"
"Sure thing." I headed into town, bought a few pounds of tomatoes from Lillia. I munched one raw for lunch and took the rest back to the farm to put in the fridge. Then I set out again for the beach.
I was waiting for only a couple minutes, watching the surf and studying a crab when Jack arrived. "Hi, Karen," he said, plunking down beside me. "You ever fish?"
I nodded. "Sure, sometimes. Fishing, climbing trees, riding horses and swimming are the four things all of us around here learn to do about as soon as we can walk."
"Good." He pulled a rod, some bait, and a box of tackle out of his rucksack and got them set up. "I figured we'd do the eggs-tomato soup thing tonight and work on frying fish tomorrow, if we can catch any."
We passed the rod back and forth for a while, just talking. We caught some things--the tiny blue ones we threw back, but Jack got a couple nice- sized orange trout, and I managed to haul in a huge silvery blue fish. Around six it started to get dark, and we packed up and headed for home.
"Okay," Jack said, getting pots and pans set up. "Here's what we're going to do. You take an egg, crack it on the edge of the pot like so--" he demonstrated, "--and pour it into the bowl. Then you take this thing--it's called a whisk--and you beat the egg, and then you pour it into the pan." It poured in, nice and smooth and yellow. "Like that. Okay, your turn." And so on until we had the eggs scrambled and cooked and the soup all made up. We sat down, I lit the candles to celebrate, and we ate. It actually turned out pretty good, and I started thinking, maybe I can do this after all.
After dinner, we did the dishes--I washed, he dried--and then went back into the bedroom for the dance lesson. Jack pushed the rug and the table to the side wall, and I started showing him basic steps. I began with the traditional festival dance, the one we'd been able to wing twice but never gotten perfectly.
We worked for an hour, and by that time we were both pretty tired. As we got into bed, he said, "I like it. It's fun" and I found myself grinning.
Wine Red no Kokoro
by flame mage
Part 22: Domestication (or Not)
**********
I was still jazzed waking up the next morning, the first rays of sunlight slicing in from the window to fall across Jack's face. He opened his eyes and smiled.
"Good morning, Jack," I said softly. "Or should I say 'dear'?"
"I like the way that sounds," he teased, throwing off the covers and getting dressed.
"No honeymoon, huh?" I asked.
He sighed. "Guess not. It's too early to harvest anything, but I have to water the crops and take care of the animals. And I have to get to Moon Mountain today too. I'm trying to stock the fridge with Veryberries. After that, I think I'm free. And if you can handle dinner tonight, I'll do it tomorrow night."
Whoa. Total freeze in the whole wedded bliss thing. "Ummm, Jack?" I almost squeaked. "I kinda have a problem with that."
He looked at me. "I know. I don't like it either. Well, I should have enough money for a greenhouse later in the season, so I can probably blow off the watering, but I have to at least get the animals fed."
"No, it's not that. The problem is...Jack, I can't cook," I said.
He started to laugh, but stopped when he saw my face. "Sorry. I was just worried it was going to be something tougher, like a major objection to my doing farmwork. Okay, scratch what I said about dinner. We'll work on the cooking lessons at night instead."
I looked at him. "You'd do that? My dad just went out for dinner whenever my mom couldn't cook."
He shrugged. "Sure, no problem. I'd been doing most of the cooking back in the city since my mom died, and here I've been doing all of it. I'm not a master chef, and I probably couldn't whip Elli and Jeff in a bake- off, but I've collected a bunch of recipes and they're not too hard to follow."
"Thanks a lot." I got an idea. "And in return, I'll give you dance lessons!"
"Really? So I don't look like a moron at festivals anymore?"
"I never thought you looked like a moron," I said loyally. Actually, it wasn't too far from the truth. He'd been able to wing it okay from the start; the problem was that he was too self-conscious.
"Yeah, but my problem is feeling like a moron. Still, I'd appreciate the help." He dug his gloves out of the pockets of his overalls and put them on. "Did you happen to notice where my hat landed last night?"
I shrugged. "Probably across the room somewhere. You really thought I was gonna let you sleep with that thing on?"
"Sleeping wasn't the problem--ah! Found it." He put it on and straightened it. "Okay, then, I'm off. Any idea what you're going to be doing today?"
"Hmm...probably drop by the vineyard and maybe the ranch, then—any idea what we're going to start with for dinner tonight?" I asked.
He thought for a moment. "I've got a recipe for some simple tomato soup, and I think Cliff can do something with eggs. We'll start with that."
"Okay, then, I'll go into town and see if Lillia has any tomatoes in her greenhouse. And when I finish the shopping, I might go down to the beach for a while."
"All right. I'll catch you there when I get the work around here done. Maybe do a little fishing." He brushed a kiss on my forehead, then picked up his rucksack and started for the door. "See you in a few hours, darling."
How cute. I got up and blinked around for a couple seconds before realizing that most of my stuff was still in boxes in the corner of the room. All right, fine. That was first. I got dressed, got most of my stuff put away in the room organizer, and tried to run my fingers through my tangled hair for a few minutes before giving up and heading out.
The whole thing was strangely surreal. I'd been here, in this yard, outside my old home, just yesterday. Not even twenty-four hours ago it had been home, and I wasn't sure whether it seemed like just yesterday or a thousand years ago. Certainly something had shifted--it was quieter. Mom and Dad greeted me as if they hadn't seen me in years, and Kai called me Miss Karen once again before blinking and correcting himself. There were a few things left to get from my room, but that would keep until another day. I couldn't bring myself to unlock the door again now.
Instead, I kept moving, heading for the ranch. I could hear shouts coming from the back pasture--Ann and Cliff fighting again, of course.
A hunk of grass uprooted itself and sailed overhead, landing and exploding directly on Cliff's head. Score one for the redhead.
"Ugh, you're almost as annoying as my brother!" Ann was belting when I came around.
"Hey, Cliff?" I hollered over the din of fighting and animals. "I just wanted to know if you had any egg recipes for dinner!" He wasn't listening to me. "Hello?" I yelled. "Hey, you!"
"Give it up, Karen," Gray said behind me. "They'll go on like this for hours."
"Fine. Do YOU know any good egg recipes?" I asked.
"One. Paper?" I handed him a piece and he scrawled something out. I squinted to make it out. Okay, I could just barely read it, but only because I'd had practice. Yep. It was the legendary omelet recipe. Poor guy probably just felt sorry for Jack.
"Hi, Karen!" Ann called cheerfully. She hopped up on the fence. Cliff collapsed on his back, breathing hard. I didn't think this was the most brilliant thing to do in a cow pasture, but hey, he was the one who'd have to do the laundry. "How's married life?"
"How should I know? I've been married for, what, eighteen hours?" I shrugged. "I like it. I'm gonna learn how to cook."
"Oh, good. I was wondering how long he'd make it on your grapes/raw- veggies/whatever's-growing-by-the-river-when-you-get-down-there diet," she said agreeably. "Want to learn to knit, too?"
"Maybe some other time," I told her. "Don't want to get too domesticated, y'know?"
She laughed. "Yeah, yeah, I know. Where you headed?"
"Town. Gotta pick up some tomatoes and then hit the beach."
"Sounds cool. Take care of yourself, okay?"
"Sure thing." I headed into town, bought a few pounds of tomatoes from Lillia. I munched one raw for lunch and took the rest back to the farm to put in the fridge. Then I set out again for the beach.
I was waiting for only a couple minutes, watching the surf and studying a crab when Jack arrived. "Hi, Karen," he said, plunking down beside me. "You ever fish?"
I nodded. "Sure, sometimes. Fishing, climbing trees, riding horses and swimming are the four things all of us around here learn to do about as soon as we can walk."
"Good." He pulled a rod, some bait, and a box of tackle out of his rucksack and got them set up. "I figured we'd do the eggs-tomato soup thing tonight and work on frying fish tomorrow, if we can catch any."
We passed the rod back and forth for a while, just talking. We caught some things--the tiny blue ones we threw back, but Jack got a couple nice- sized orange trout, and I managed to haul in a huge silvery blue fish. Around six it started to get dark, and we packed up and headed for home.
"Okay," Jack said, getting pots and pans set up. "Here's what we're going to do. You take an egg, crack it on the edge of the pot like so--" he demonstrated, "--and pour it into the bowl. Then you take this thing--it's called a whisk--and you beat the egg, and then you pour it into the pan." It poured in, nice and smooth and yellow. "Like that. Okay, your turn." And so on until we had the eggs scrambled and cooked and the soup all made up. We sat down, I lit the candles to celebrate, and we ate. It actually turned out pretty good, and I started thinking, maybe I can do this after all.
After dinner, we did the dishes--I washed, he dried--and then went back into the bedroom for the dance lesson. Jack pushed the rug and the table to the side wall, and I started showing him basic steps. I began with the traditional festival dance, the one we'd been able to wing twice but never gotten perfectly.
We worked for an hour, and by that time we were both pretty tired. As we got into bed, he said, "I like it. It's fun" and I found myself grinning.