Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon
To Win a Woman's Heart
1st Day of Fall
Today was the day. I regretted it, feared it and yet welcomed it. Today was the day when Hatori would find out my favorite flower. He had avoided me, or I avoided him yesterday, I couldn't figure out which way it was. He had been so nice to me now and here I was still pushing me away. I hope he was going to find my flower, my favorite one. I don't want it to be easy though, but fall flowers are my favorite and I'm hopeless around them. Especially Blue Trick flowers, those I go crazy for. I absolutely love them, blue is my favorite color.
"Today is a very nice day," I observed sarcastically. "I can only think about what's going to happen on this fine day." I noticed Hatori was walking up towards me from across the bridge. Ah, my day truly begins.
"Good morning Nami!" Hatori said, and I watched him approach from the bridge as I stood near the benches by the river.
"Good morning," I said, "Um…listen; I think…if I was ignoring you…I mean if you think I was avoiding you yesterday, I apologize." I sighed with relief; it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to apologize.
"No, it was me. I had to tend to my animals today, one of them was sick," he said. Was that an excuse or was it the truth?
"That's fine, perfectly fine," I said and Hatori took something out of his pocket and quickly put it behind his back.
"So, do you know what day it is?" Hatori asked.
"No, tell me," I said.
"I want you to guess," he said. He was teasing me about this! About something as stupid as what day it was!
"It's the first day of fall," I replied, "The leaves are going to change colors and soon it'll be really pretty here. It was last year." Oh my god, I was having a conversation with him! I was conversing normally with him, the opposite of what I've usually been doing. Was he going to think I was weird? Not that…not that I cared or anything like that.
"Yep, the first day of fall and a new chance to guess your favorite flower," he said smiling, "You did offer that challenge to me and I gladly accepted."
"Um…well…" I
trailed, "Yeah, I did say something like that, so?"
"This is a new season and here, this
flower if for you," he said and presented me with a blue trick flower. My face grew hot and I think I began to
blush.
"Ha…Hatori," I said, "Um…well…" I couldn't believe this! I was acting like a girl in love, blubbering like a child!
"I think you like it, right?" he asked, the same smile I saw on his face every time I saw him.
"Yes, yes I do," I said, "I'm surprised that you…you got my favorite. There's more than one flower here in the fall."
"I know," he said, "But here, take it." I took the flower from him and held it as if it were precious metal or jewels or something. I hadn't received flowers in the longest time. I took a moment to collect myself, I had to, I couldn't let on I was falling from for him. I had to be tough.
"Thank you, I'll treasure it," I said, mentally slapping myself as I did so. I just said something my normal self would never have said. I was normal until I had come here! I was perfectly fine traveling around and now…here in this small valley…
"Have a good rest of the day Nami!" Hatori said, snapping me out of my thoughts. "You should come over to the farm sometime. I think you'd like spending time with me and all the animals."
"No way," I said.
"Why's that?" he asked.
"Sure, I'd love to spend time with the animals, it's you I have a problem with," I said boldly. He looked at me, raising an eyebrow and then began to laugh!
"I love your wit," he said and walked off, laughing at me still as he did so. I ran back towards the inn, flower in hand, ran up to my room and threw myself on the bed. What was going on with me?
"Mom, is this really love? Is this really what you felt when you met dad?" I asked to nothing. "Please mom, I want to understand my feelings!" There was no reply. Anyone overhearing me right now would probably think I was mentally ill or something. I couldn't understand what I was feeling! If it was true…did he feel the same way about me? Did he feel like I did? Was he just toying with my emotions, hoping to get some rise out of me? I stood up and looked at the flower again. It was my favorite, and really beautiful at that. What should I do?
"What should I do?"
…
I looked at the vase I had put the flower into. It would probably get fuller as the fall days went on but I wouldn't really mind, I couldn't mind. My favorite flower. I walked over to the desk and sat down at it, opening up the diary that lay there. I flipped through until I came to the page where I had labeled Hatori's name on the top. It had two hearts there now. I picked up my pen and put it to the page. Did that flower mean that much already? Yes, it had. I took the pen and drew a heart next to the two before it. It was the same size and shape as the others. I filled it in. Three hearts, now I knew. I was really falling in love with him. I didn't know what happening to me.
"Dinner is ready!" Ruby called from downstairs.
"I'm coming!" I exclaimed and shut my diary, no one needed to know what was in it or not in it but me. I stood and took one more look at the flower, sniffing it and inhaling a wonderful scent. Blue, my favorite color, the one color I liked more than anything. Of course, that wasn't saying much. Everyone had a favorite color whether they admitted it or not.
"Well hurry up, I don't want it to get cold Nami!" Ruby said, and I could tell there was a smile in her voice. Did Hatori talk to her or something today?
"I will be down in a minute Ruby!" I exclaimed.
"Okay, I'm just making sure you'll be eating something tonight. I don't want you going hungry!" she called back.
"Shut up," I muttered, not wanting her to hear me. It was trivial, this argument was and she was winning and she knew it.
Was I loosing who I was to Hatori? I couldn't believe it but that was how it seemed. What would I become if I fell more and more in love with him? What would become of me?
TBC
A/N: Sorry for the extremely long wait. Now that AP exams are over, I should be updating more of the stories I've been neglecting, and reposting stories I had to 'fix'. Anyways, review or not, it's your choice. I love all my reviewers, but I don't like flamers. (Kind of double crossing myself I know). Yeah, flames will be used to roast marshmallows and if this chapter did suck a little, I apologize. I gotta get back into the grove of writing this. I need to get my brother off of the X-box and get myself back on Harvest Moon! If Nami was a little OOC, I apologize.
