Chocolate freckles peppered rosy cheeks, playful demeanor further enhanced by the wide grin splayed across the young woman's full set of lips. Slender, wanton frame was disguised by masculine garb; a plain yellow shirt beneath the bib of faded denim coveralls. Lithe hands grasped the wicker basket between slightly calloused palms, nimble digits tracing up the sides only to curl tightly around the gnarled handle.

Ann Green eased her way down the dusty pathway, intent on reaching Jack's house before he woke up and had the chance to prepare himself something to eat. It was his birthday, and being the good friend that she was, she had decided to surprise him first thing that morning by making him some breakfast. Before she could go knocking on his door, however, she had some other items to fetch.

She hurried to the summit of Moon Mountain, where Baba and JiJi ran their small restaurant. Thankful that the old couple opened at what could only be the crack of dawn, it did not take her long to make her purchases. Some fifteen minutes later, she emerged from the building, a small package tucked alongside the half-dozen eggs in her basket.

On the way down, she also collected a couple of sprigs of fresh herbs, a few plump mushrooms, several vibrantly-colored pieces of orange fruit, and a small handful of flowers. Whistling a cheery tune to herself, she continued on to Jack's farm. Setting the basket down at her feet, she dropped to her knees and began digging a hole in the earth to the direct left of the bottom porch step. A few well-placed swipes had her fingers scraping the cover of a small box, which she eagerly extracted from the small hole. Popping off the top, she removed the old-fashioned iron key and unlocked the door, returning everything to its proper location before slipping inside the house.

By squinting out into the dark, she was able to determine that Jack was indeed still in bed, fast asleep. Smiling at her luck, she quietly padded across the hardwood floor in direction of the kitchen. Glad that this room was separate from the room in which he slept, she hastened to throw open the curtains above the sink, allowing rays of the still-rising sun to filter in and provide her with the light she would need for her task.

She located the frying pan and proceeded to grease the bottom of it while she waited for the range to heat up. When it was of a suitable temperature, she placed the frying pan atop the foremost burner and deftly cracked two of the six eggs over the pan. Normally she would have used three, but these eggs were unusually large.

While they were cooking, she fetched both of Jiro's bowls and a small bag of dog food out from under the sink, where they were placed each evening after the dog had finished eating and was sent outside for the night. Filling one with cool water from the tap, she dished out some food into the other and set it to the side on the counter. She returned to the stove every couple of minutes to attend to the eggs, but otherwise left them alone to finish cooking.

She removed the orange fruits from the basket next, and spent a moment or so groping about in the drawer's for Jack's juicer. Snatching up a knife once she'd found what she was looking for, the sliced each of the fruits in half and proceeded to milk them over a large pitcher. Tossing in a couple ice cubes when she was done, she set the pitcher in the refrigerator.

The first of the eggs were finished, so she took the time to scrape them from the pan with the large spatula she'd run across in her previous search. Spreading them out across Jiro's dry food, she set the bowl off to the side once more, this time so the eggs could cool.

It did not take her long to whip up the remaining eggs--two each, for the both of them. She began to hurry when she heard stirring from the next room, knowing that Jack was liable to wake up any minute. In a flash, she'd gotten out two dishes and scraped the eggs out onto them, taking special care to arrange the mushrooms and herbs she'd chopped up earlier. Tossing a couple of the dumpling's she bought onto each plate, she loaded everything onto the small serving tray she'd run across.

Hurrying out into the main room, she was just in time to see Jack sitting up in bed. He appeared extremely startled by her presence, but it did not take him long to break out into a grin. Ann returned the sentiment as he tucked his legs underneath him so there'd be room enough for her to set the tray down on the end of the mattress.

Jogging back into the kitchen, she grabbed two glasses from the cabinets and poured them both a glass of juice. Taking both these and some silverware back to Jack, she set herself to opening up the windows while he admired her creations. Lastly, she let his rambunctious dog inside, who immediately got started on the treat she'd left him in the kitchen.

Finally able to plop down next to the tray, she picked up her own tray, immediately shoveling in a mouthful of yellow fluff. "So…" She began, upon swallowing. "Happy birthday?"

Jack stared at her a moment, as if unsure of how to respond. Finally, he began to laugh. "Ann, Ann, Ann…" He shook his head, finally having regained his composure. "What am I going to do with you? All of this for me?"

It was her turn to laugh. "Well, yeah. Your birthday only comes once a year, you know."

He gazed at her thoughtfully for a moment. "That's true, I guess. Thanks, Ann. This… Means a lot to me."

She shrugged. "It was the least I could do to repay you. It always seemed like you spent the better part of the year helping me out of some kind of scrape or jam, so I wanted to show you just how much I appreciated that."

His expression softened. "I knew you appreciated it, Ann. You didn't have to repay me for anything."

Another shrug on her part. "I feel better this way."

After a moment more, he gave in to her will and flashed her another grin, this one quite roguish in its delivery. "Well, if you insist…" He wiggled his brows as he reached to pluck a dumpling from his plate and sink his teeth into it.

She snorted with amusement, taking a sip from her glass as she watched him devour his breakfast. On occasion, she would take a small bite of the food she'd prepared for herself, much more interested in watching him than feeding her own stomach.

Jack was… a puzzle. He was a sweet man, very caring. With a subtle frown, she noted that he was also hard-working and a little too devoted to his farm. He'd woken up not ten minutes ago and yet he appeared as if he'd been up all night plowing the fields. He'd always claimed he was too busy to date, but she could tell that a little female companionship was just what the doctor ordered. He needed someone to distract him from his duties from time to time, or else he'd work himself into an early grave.

She let herself laugh at something he'd said, but she was concentrating meanwhile on the little cogs in her head, which had just begun spinning in overtime. She had just the person in mind…

A/N: I've had the first paragraph of this written out for quite some time. Knew what I wanted to have happen in here, too, but I just couldn't get from point A to point B for some reason or other. But today I sat down and forced this out. About ten minutes into it, I found my comfortable little groove and was able to pump out what I hope is a chapter of fairly decent content. I was a little leery about this at first, because the idea seemed to scream Ann/Jack, which I do not ship. I reached a compromise, however, when I realized that this would make something of a cute prequel-type thing to my full-length, old, and very crappy story, 'Vagabond'. So if you've read that, then you'll know exactly what person Ann had in mind.

Anyway, this is the last chapter! While I enjoyed writing this, I've been in a state of on-again/off-again writer's block for the past several years, so I'm very glad it's over and done with. Hope new and old readers alike enjoyed.

Please Review!