Disclaimer: I don't own Harvest Moon
A/N: Meh, whatever.
To Win a Woman's Heart
9th day of fall
Nami
Winter's coming soon, I can tell. It's gotten colder outside although not as cold as some places I've been. Right now, it's about five o'clock in the morning and I just got back from a really early walk, I had trouble sleeping last night so I was woken up in one way or another around 4 in the morning so I had gone for a walk. From what I had heard, Hatori never got up that early so I was just fine.
"Nami, you're back already?" Tim asked as I walked back into the inn with a shiver. Maybe I should fetch my sweater.
"I was gone for
an hour," I said as I walked towards him. "Why, is something the matter?"
"This letter came for you today,"
Tim said. "I thought you would want it as soon as possible." I walked up to him and took the letter in his
hands, opening up the back without even looking to see who it was from.
Dear Nami,
This is your father. I'm writing to you only to tell you that you need to get a job. No daughter of mine now is going to be lazy as she travels about so you have to find work. Your mother would be ashamed of you, taking advantage of me and my kindness. By the end of this year I'm truly cutting you off for good this time.
Sincerely,
Jacob
My hands froze on the piece of paper, shaking with silent anger. How dare he say mom would be ashamed of me! How dare he say he was being kind giving me money all these years! He wanted me to go and gave me money to travel so I wouldn't be around him anymore and now he's cutting me off! I blinked as I stared at the writing; it was my father's all right. I felt a tear well up in my eye, now I was really going to be in trouble.
"Nami, is something wrong?" A soft voice caused me to raise my head and I saw Hatori staring at me with his kind gaze. He looked at me sideways, gauging how I was right now. I quickly wiped my eyes, folded the letter and stuffed it inside my pocket.
"Hatori, would it be…would it be possible to get a job working for you?" I asked, cringing as I spoke those words. This was the hardest thing to do…to admit I needed help, or at least a job. Hatori didn't look at me with pity or anger and he didn't laugh at my outrageous request. Rather, he looked happy, really extremely happy. He smiled brightly at me and nodded.
"I'd be happy to give you a job," he said and I glared at him before realizing it would do me no good. He was the only one who really cared about me now, him and everyone else in this valley.
"Thank you, but I have to do this on my own," I said, realizing that he probably wouldn't understand the fact that I couldn't work for him. I didn't want him to be kind to me. I didn't want him to like me. I wanted him to hate me…it would be easier to leave here if he hated me! It would be easier to swallow all my pride and strength and go home if people out here hated me. "I have to get going."
"But Nami, it's okay, I can give you a job…" his voice trailed off as I walked past him out the inn door.
…
Did he really like me at all? I think he did, he acted like he did, but I couldn't be sure. How could I be sure of anything anymore? I was alone now, my father wanted nothing more to do with me, not that he ever did, and my mother was dead in her grave! How could this be my life now? How could I be so alone like this?
"Nami…" I heard Hatori's voice and I turned around. He stared at me with his big bright eyes and I wiped the fresh tears that had begun seeping into my own. I swallowed hard and looked at him.
"What do you want?" I asked him bitterly. "Just leave me alone."
"What was all that about?" he asked. "In the inn…that letter really seemed to shake you up, is something wrong?"
"No, nothing's wrong, just go away!" I yelled and he took a step back from me. I breathed heavily before calming myself down. "No, I'm sorry Hatori. I just… I just really need to be alone with my thoughts right now."
"All you had to do was say that," he said. "Listen; if you need to talk to me I'll listen, no matter how stupid it sounds to you."
"Why do you care about me so much?" I asked. "Why is it?"
"I don't know why really, I just do." He smiled at me and his smile was warm. He came up to me and hugged me. "Just go back to being who you are. I hate to see you depressed." He released me and walked away. "I'll be back later tonight with some special cooking. I can make Sashimi better now than I did the other day."
"Yeah, sure," I muttered and watched him walk away. I headed in the opposite direction towards the pond, feeling the urge to watch the murky depth. Maybe the turtle would be out right now, I wouldn't mind watching him for a while, even if he didn't do much. I needed something, anything to just distract me from my thoughts, anything to just make me feel less crappy.
…
That night I sat on my bed, full of Ruby's cooking and Sashimi made by Hatori. Both had been extremely well made and I was extremely full. I let myself fall back and traced a lazy pattern in a circle around a section of the comforter and sighed. I had nowhere else to really go now but back home, because by the end of winter my stupid father was cutting me off. He didn't want me to come back but I had no where else to go. If I didn't get a job I wouldn't have much choice. And seeing as how I really didn't want to work for Hatori even if he was offering, there wasn't really any other place to work here and make a living. I didn't want to work at the inn or a store for that matter; I wasn't really used to that kind of work. All I had ever really done in my life was farm, and even that was just when I would go there as a kid and a little into my teenage years to explore what a farm really was. I learned a lot there, but it wasn't something I really wanted…I mean, I couldn't want it. Hatori was the only farmer here who would probably take me as a worker.
I sat myself up in bed and forced myself to stand, making my way over to the desk. I sat down in the chair and opened up my journal to Hatori's little page. Three hearts, that's what was there and now…now I was about to add a fourth. Four hearts now that was what he meant to me. I picked up the pen and drew in the fourth, watching it scratch over the paper in a lazy line as I created the heart. I began to color it in then after I was done, watching the heart fill in with the slowest lines I had ever drawn. I couldn't deny it anymore…I think I was in love.
TBC
A/N: I'm cruel, unusual and cliffies are my specialty. Did you all like it? Lemme know in a review. This will be finished soon, hopefully by the end of this month, or within about 2 weeks, whichever seems easiest to me. If you like it, review, if you don't, bugger off and bother someone else. Don't worry; the next chapters will be just a little longer. I'm just so used to short chapters for this one it only seems right to me to keep them short, but I'll try to lengthen them.
