Chapter Eight: The Grower Of The Rosemary
Hi everybody! I hope you are enjoying the fanfiction, cause if I weren't the author, I'd be dying to find out what happens next. I hope you read the Author's Notes. I know they might be so lame, but read them anyway. I hope you liked Chapter Seven. I loved it. So anyway, here's chapter eight. My third and final OC is introduced in this chapter, and some of you might know who it is. But if you don't, read the chapter right now. Oh and Chapter Seven was NOT a wedding scene, it was their Engagement party.
**********Bijou's Balcony**********
Bijou awoke early the next morning, and last night was still fresh in her head. Right after the song finished, she and Hamtaro instantly broke apart surprised.
**********Flashback**********
"Merci" Bijou quietly whispered to Hamtaro, as the song finished.
"Anytime, I had fun dancing with you" he answered. Hamtaro quickly realized that the Hams were applauding them, so Bijou did a quick curtsy, and Hamtaro gracefully bowed. Then they hurriedly went to opposite sides of the room, but quickly passing glances at each other the whole night. Besides the handshake, neither Bijou nor Hamtaro noticed Boss and Andre's strange behavior. Well, Hamtaro did notice Andre's awkwardly smug face, but he thought it was jealousy, and the thought of one of his best friends going out and betraying his trust never crossed his mind.
**********End Flashback**********
"That night ended so soon." Bijou thought to herself. She stretched on her balcony, then noticed something-or better yet, someone.
She was a young girl, or Ham-Human girl rather, traveling on the rocky path by the villa. Bijou figured that she was a farm girl, since she had a huge basket of herbs. She had medium length dark brown hair and matching eyes. She wore a light brown long-sleeved blouse, with a sleeveless, darker brown pinafore, that came down to her ankles. She looked to be no older than the age of eleven. She was looking at the villa with marvel in her eyes. When she noticed Bijou staring at her, she quickly walked back up the road.
"Who was that girl anyway?" asked Bijou to herself.
**********The Breakfast Table**********
"Showers are evil." Hamtaro said as he sat down at the breakfast table. "They're so..... wet."
"Savages like you know no cleanliness." Andre snickered. "You can't even take a shower because of your fear of water. I'm braver than that."
"Says the screams we heard while you were in the shower, Andre." Panda whispered to Stan. Yosei had told them that to be clean, they'd have to take a shower everyday. Not a good idea in the Hams' case.
"Anyway, where was I? Oh yes, so I tell him that you can give me more seeds, or I can sell to someone else." Andre added.
"Remind me why I would care about your business deals?" Cappy asked, ignoring the obnoxious Ham, and trying to eat his scrambled eggs.
"Remind us why anybody would care?" Hamtaro questioned.
"Because, unlike you, savage, I have made myself a true Ham in my life. I am a rich Ham with bountiful seeds, perfect for a husband" Andre ended with a smirk.
"The only reason you have a bountiful amount of sunflower seeds is because you steal them from the poor Hams." said Bijou entering the Breakfast nook. Shivering from the after-effects of a cold shower, she sat right next to the heater.
"I told you that wasn't what it looked like-" He stopped dead in his tracks when he saw Hamtaro sitting across him with a victorious look on his face.
"Boss better have some dirt on this guy." Andre mumbled.
"I can hear that too." added Stan from down the table. "And what do you mean by Boss better have some dirt on Hamtaro?"
All eyes were on Andre. Boss got a little nervous and started playing with his glass of orange juice.
"Well, first of all, I was not talking about your Boss, but about my boss at the factory-" he was interrupted by Bijou.
"But you never leave your cage. And if you're so rich, why do you need a job?"
"Ummm, well the thing is, I am co-boss. Anyway, we supervise the Hams in the field, and this one guy keeps getting dirt on me, so I tell my co-boss to get him back by hitting him with dirt."
"What factory?" Bijou asked raising an eyebrow. Andre lived in a huge flat in the middle of Paris. There wasn't a field in sight. Somehow, she knew he was lying, but then again, he always lied. The conversation would've gone on and on, if Josie hadn't entered the room.
"Beautiful day, no?" she asked.
"Peachy." mumbled Andre.
"Pretty good." said all the Hams noticing the angered look on Andre's face.
"Bijou, why don't you and Hamtaro take a walk up the road? We can't stay in this one house for the whole month." Josie explained.
Bijou and Hamtaro looked at each other, "They'd love to." all the Hams except Boss and Andre, and Hamtaro and Bijou, answered. The Hams were hoping that the spark they saw between Hamtaro and Bijou last night would ignite once again. Boss kicked Cappy under the table since Cappy was one of the loudest to answer Josie.
"Oww" Cappy cried.
"Oh, was that you?" Boss asked innocently.
"Very well then, Hamtaro and Bijou you are excused." Josie added, then left the room.
**********The Grand Foyer**********
"What do you want now?" Boss asked Andre who had brought him there.
"You know that walk they're going on?"
"Yeah what about it?"
"It's time to put our scheme into action." Andre sneered like a child preparing his Christmas list.
"Just what are you going to do?" Boss reluctantly asked, still regretting the events of last night.
"I am going to secretly follow them on that walk, and spy on them."
Boss was a little relieved. For a Ham whom Bijou described as so devious, he sure didn't have such a devious plan. "What do you need me for?"
"I want you to find out all the dirt you can on that savage."
"You mean Hamtaro?"
"Fine, Hamtaro-savage, I see no difference." Andre said, as he cringed by even saying Hamtaro's real name.
"O.K." said Boss, this wasn't such a terrible plan "Like if he stole a crayon from Laura..."
"I want the color and manufacturer of that crayon." Andre finished. "That will be step one of our plan."
"Plan?"
"I'll inform you on the plan as we get closer to each step. Now you do your part, and I'll do mine."
"Uh-huh" said Boss knowing that he would probably sit around all day, eating something. And when Andre got home, Boss'll just say that Hamtaro's cleaner than a whistle, which he probably was.
"Good"
**********The Rocky Road By The Villa**********
Hamtaro and Bijou were keeping mostly to themselves, sometimes pointing out the weird wildlife, and plants that grew there. But after a while they got tired of something.
"We know you're back there." said Bijou casually speaking as she looked at her nails.
"You saw me?" Andre asked, baffled on how they new he was there as he stepped out from his place behind a tree.
"Fortunately no. But it's a gravel road, how can we not hear you? And it doesn't help your cover if you keep on mumbling savage at me every five minutes, because you can't whisper." Hamtaro added.
"So they found out!" Andre thought to himself. "No matter, this can be useful to my investigation."
The three of them walked up the road a little farther until a lovely scent hit them.
"Hmmm" said Bijou as she hiffed the air as if she was getting a first-class massage. "Oh, what is that lovely aroma? It smells so familiar."
"Hiff-hiff. Yeah not bad." said Hamtaro as he took in the fragrant aroma.
"I for one think it's a girly smell-" but Andre couldn't finish. Whatever the smell was, he was allergic to it. "Achoo, achoo, achoo" Andre broke into a sneezing fest.
"Whatever the smell is, I like it." said Hamtaro crossing his arms and smiling as he watched Andre sneeze.
"Maybe we should investigate the smell." suggested Bijou as she got tired of watching Andre sneeze.
"Yes. You go. I'll stay here and wait." said Andre as he held his nose.
"Fine, but then you'll be off here, all alone. You don't even have a map of the Ham-Human Valley. It's gonna be pretty easy to get lost." Hamtaro explained as he and Bijou left Andre on a rock.
"Lost? I think I will come with you, I mean, I wanna see what this infernal smell is." Andre hastily muttered as he caught up with the two.
**********The Rosemary Field**********
"Oh, I don't know what the smell is, but it is ever so familiar." Bijou sighed as she searched all around her for the source of the smell. Then she spotted the rosemary growing on top of a hill. "I knew it smelled familiar! Andre do you remember the summers that Carlos and Maria used to take us to the wild rosemary fields?"
"Not really-achoo! I never went because Carlos knew I was...achoo!"
"Allergic!" Bijou reminded herself as she remembered how she used to adore those summers, particularly because Andre never came. "This smells just like the freshest rosemary in France, no?"
"I don't know about the freshest rosemary in France, but this here is the freshest and probably the best rosemary in all of Ham-Ham Land." came a sweet voice. The same girl Bijou noticed that morning came up on top of the hill.
"It's you!" cried Bijou, "The girl I saw this morning." the girl smiled back warmly.
"Well, my name is Kiran, and I grow this rosemary. Yup, this whole crop here is my hard work and dedication put into herb form."
"It smells beautiful." said Bijou as she hiffed the air once more. "Your parents must be extremely proud of you." Kiran looked down at this last statement.
"Yeah, I guess they might be happy if I win a blue ribbon at a fair or something, but they usually just want me to milk this rosemary for all its worth. All they care about is how much money I can gain from it."
"Oh how terrible." replied Bijou
"Yeah, it's a waste of talent." agreed Hamtaro, who hadn't said anything in the past five minutes.
"I don't think it smells so wonderful!" proclaimed Andre as he held his nose. "May we please leave?" he nearly begged.
"You're allergic to rosemary?" Kiran asked, a little amused.
"Oh I don't think you should ask him to respond. How long can the poor thing hold his nose?" Hamtaro asked looking at Andre, waiting for Andre to break into another sneeze spree.
"KIRAN THERE'S A SLUG IN THE ROSEMARY!!!!!!!" shrieked a voice from the field beyond the sight of the Hams.
"Sorry, that's my annoying little sister." Kiran quickly muttered. "Sabrina, I'm coming, just don't try to kill the slug and step on the rosemary." she said as she ran down the hill into the never-ending field.
"I liked that girl." said Hamtaro.
"Me too, she was very sweet." Bijou agreed "But her sister has a LOUD voice." Bijou thought to herself.
"I don't care if you liked her, lets just get out of here!" Andre complained. And the three of them started up the road again.
**********The Dirt Road**********
"Where's Andre?" asked Hamtaro looking back to see why he hadn't been called a savage for the past two minutes.
Bijou searched around her. "Hmmm, I don't know. He really shouldn't wander off, like you said he knows nothing about the Ham-Human Valley. He could very easily get lost."
"Lost, you say?" asked Hamtaro imagining the concept of never seeing Andre again. Then he shrugged it off. "Maybe" he said trying not to get his hopes up. That's when both of them heard a sound. It got louder and louder by the second. They both turned around and noticed a huge truck full of potatoes. The truck had blinding yellow headlights that gleamed evilly.
"Potatoes?" asked Hamtaro. Then he noticed that the truck was charging straight at them. "RUN!" he hollered to Bijou, who quickly took to his command.
The truck was chasing them, but why? "I swear if that Ham has anything to do with this..." Hamtaro said as he panted while running away from the rapid vehicle. That's when both of them stopped.
**********The River Bank**********
The truck had chased them straight into a river bank. The river itself was a thundering competition of merciless water. "I'm not gonna jump in there!" Hamtaro declared as he saw a twig fall and break as the water hit it. Bijou was getting scared of the truck inching ever so slowly yet stealthily towards them. She grabbed onto Hamtaro's arm, but immediately released it when she realized what she was doing. Hamtaro noticed that the truck wasn't coming any closer to them anymore. Then he realized that there was a huge pothole, at least two feet wide, in the middle of the road. "So that's it." Hamtaro thought. But the truck seemed to backup, and it flew straight over the pothole, and it started to rampage straight for them once again, no not them, it was heading for Bijou!
"Bijou, get out of the way!" he screamed as he pushed her out of danger and left himself in a regretful position, then everything went black.
"Hamtaro!!"
**********Twenty Minutes Later**********
"I think he is waking up." an excited Bijou quickly whispered to someone. Hamtaro's eyelids fluttered a little, and then he finally got them opened.
"Oww, what happened?" he asked realizing a pungent aroma surrounding his nose.
"We're glad you're awake." said a familiar voice.
"Hi Kiran" Hamtaro greeted as he finally solved the mystery of the strong smell.
"We were extremely worried." came Bijou's voice. Her eyes looked red, as if she had been crying.
"What's wrong?" Hamtaro asked sitting up on the large flat rock he had been laying on. He didn't like seeing Bijou so worried. Apparently, Bijou did not want to speak of this for she quickly turned away.
"The thing is" started Kiran, "Bijou says you were hit by a truck. Apparently a potato truck. You see, after you guys left, I noticed Andre like five minutes later talking to the driver of that potato truck. Then, I heard the truck drive off down the road, but forcefully swerve back and head up the road. And after another ten minutes, I heard you scream 'RUN', and then I heard Bijou screaming your name. So I figured out what happened. I grabbed the first herbs I spotted, and headed up the road." She ended waving the leaf of many aromas in front of her face. "My natural smelling salts." she explained, "This leaf is dipped in the water of probably every type of rosemary I grow. So I understand if you think it's a little strong."
"I thought I had lost you." Bijou finally spoke. "Kiran had to use her strongest rosemary water to wake you up. And you're pulse was extremely faint." She quietly mumbled.
"You were worried about me?" Hamtaro asked not believing how much she cared for him. Bijou went red.
"Of course I was worried about you. You are a very good friend of mine, and I would be extremely upset if I lost such a good friend."
"Oh" was all that Hamtaro could say. He was very upset that she used the term friend.
"Why would Andre send a truck after you?" Kiran quizzically asked as she twirled the bracelet on her hand that had a bright yellow gemstone on it. The truth is, although Kiran wasn't even twelve ½, she didn't need to put two and two together. There was one girl, and two guys. You do the math.
"He's jealous." Hamtaro said. "What happened to the truck anyway?"
"It drove away as soon as the driver saw you were hurt." Bijou answered.
"Jealous, why?" Kiran asked very puzzled. She wanted the real story. "And how did that palatial chateau you live in appear?"
Hamtaro and Bijou exchanged glances. It'd be best to tell her.
"Well it all started when Bijou went to France this summer...." started Hamtaro.
**********Half An Hour Later**********
"So all this because you didn't want to see you're friend get married to someone she didn't love?" Kiran asked, bewildered by their story.
"Yup" Hamtaro answered.
"And you told Bijou's mom and Andre a different story?"
"Oui"
"When you guys first appeared in the Ham-Human Valley, I got scared." Kiran explained. "I was woken up the other night because of some sort of light, I don't know how to describe it, but it woke me up that's for sure."
"Blinding blue?" Hamtaro and Bijou suggested.
"Yeah, I think that's it. Well anyway, everyone was wondering what it was that appeared out of the blue, literally. The first time I got to see that huge mansion was when I had to go to market today." Kiran said pointing in the direction of the road that led to the market. "And that's why I was staring." Kiran reassured Bijou.
"I remember that." said Bijou who couldn't forget the sight of waking up and seeing the little girl staring at the villa with wide eyes.
"So you were Hamsters?" she asked touching her own Ham-Ham ears.
"Yeah, I guess." Hamtaro sighed as he still thought deeply of how Bijou regarded him as a friend.
"And you're faking this whole engagement?"
"Oui" Bijou sighed as she thought about how this would probably be over in about a month, and she and Hamtaro would be back as friends soon.
"It's okay, you can trust me. I won't tell a soul."
"That's good to know." Hamtaro said staring at Bijou. Kiran noticed this.
"You two better be getting back to that castle you call home. It looks like it'll rain soon." And she got up to leave.
"But wait!" called Hamtaro to Kiran's back.
"Yeah?" she called back,
"Could I have that leaf, I think it might come in handy?"
"Sure" and Kiran handed him the odorous leaf.
**********The Drawing Room Of The Villa**********
Hamtaro and Bijou entered the drawing room, noticing that Boss and Andre were sitting on the couch talking about something. But they stopped as soon as Hamtaro and Bijou had entered the room. Bijou had the same look on as the time she saw them at the Engagement party, but this time Hamtaro had it on too.
Hamtaro purposely sat down next to Andre. "Where'd you get off to?" He asked the disgusted Andre. Hamtaro and Bijou had decided not to tell anyone about the truck incident. They had a feeling that now wasn't the time to tell the Hams.
"None of your business. But if you must, I came back here because I couldn't get that repulsive smell out of my nose." He snapped.
"Ok" said Hamtaro, and with that, he pulled out the leaf that had been lounging around in his pocket. And then he did what he thought Andre deserved, he started fanning the leave around him, but mostly on Andre.
"What is that- achoo! Achoo! Achoo!" Andre was sneezing so much that he got off the couch and crouched on the floor.
"Hamtaro" Bijou said giving him a 'don't snoop down to his level' look. "You are above that." she said.
"Fine Bijou, I'll put it away." He promised, but right before he did that, he waited for Bijou to turn around, and when she did, he waved it one more time.
"Oh the poor dear." Josie sighed as she walked into the drawing room.
"Yeah, poor." Hamtaro retorted to himself as he poured Andre a glass of water from the pitcher on the coffee table. But when Andre accepted the water, he snatched it out of Hamtaro's hand.
"Feroce!" Andre spat at Hamtaro. "You'll never deserve her!"
Hamtaro watched as Bijou looked down and Josie quickly muttered "Andre drink your water." But neither of them denied it.
********************
Did you like that? I hope you did cause it gave me a huge back pain just writing it. And in case you're wondering, feroce is French for savage. Please R/R and I'll write more. And I'd like to thank the following for their reviews:
Anime Ambreen and Poke' Manic- I'm a huge fan of your work. Thanx for the
reviews.
Moonlitangel527- because you are the girl that inspired Kiran (seriously I based
Kiran on her)
Mr.E- Thanx for telling me Yosei's name it'll beat saying the fairy.
And those are just the top three. I reread your reviews everyday and I adore
them. From the way you love the S+M, to the way you think my fic is kawaii.
Thank you soooooooo much.
Tootles,
Celestial Night