Return of the Cousin

A note from the author: I'm totally sorry for the long wait between updates...volleyball has been keeping me busy (sort of) but now that that is over, I just might start becoming more consistent...?

Disclaimer: Don't own Harvest Moon.

oOoOoOo

"Somebody I want to see? Who?" I asked, lying back on my bed, the phone against my ear.

"Just come over, Karen," Jack said firmly.

I was slightly frustrated with him for just bossing me around, but decided to just follow his instructions. "This better not be some sort of trick or something, Jack. I am serious, I have plans this afternoon, so –"

"Trust me." Jack sounded like he was trying to hurry. "You'll forget all about your plans, ok?"

"Ok!" I moaned whiningly. I hung up without saying good-bye and sauntered, annoyed, down the stairs. "Hey, Kai," I said to the purple-bandana-ed man on the living room sofa. "Can we maybe go to the beach tomorrow sometime, 'cause Jack insists that I go to his house right now, and then I've got the all night shift at the bar."

Kai arched his dark eyebrows and stood. "Well, sure...Do you think he'd mind if I went with you?"

I smiled a little and shrugged. "Nah. Come on along."

The sky had clouded since that afternoon, so that a translucent layer of humid air covered the sun. The pathway before us was squishy with the thin amount of rain that had fallen since we'd been inside. Turns out, Kai declared, that it was supposed to storm again tonight. "Great," I complained. "I hope all this silly rain clears up before the Flower Festival."

"Thought you didn't like the Flower Festival," Kai said, hands in his deep pockets.

"Well..." I breathed. It was true. I'd never really been that big a fan of the festival. Since I was fifteen, the eligible age of qualification to run for Flowerbud Goddess, I'd participated in the contest, but never won. Up till now, all the flowers, frillies, and fluff had seemed boring, shallow, and stupid. But as I walked alongside Kai on the muddied pathway, I realized I was actually looking forward to the upcoming festival. The idea of getting all dressed up, spending time with the other girls, and being part of the center of attention for one flowery day actually looked like fun. Perhaps I had simply matured?

"Aw, you're so excited," Kai bumped his elbow against my arm, "I can tell by that glow-y smile."

My cheeks beamed a peachy pink, especially when he placed his warm hand in mine. After a few seconds of comfortable silence, I said, "I wonder what Jack wants. On the phone he said there was somebody at his house that he figured I'd wanna see." I was drawing blanks and hoping it was someone interesting.

As he opened the front gate to the Moonlit Farm, Kai let go of my hand and said, "Well, we'll just see." Once we had reached the ugly rust-red door to Jack's home, Kai rapped his knuckles on it.

"Oh, let's just go in," I said, twisting the doorknob with impatience. The door swung open, and the first thing I saw was Jack, pulling up his blue jeans over a pair of way-too-"flattering" plaid boxers. I laughed a little and muttered as I looked away momentarily, "That was some very white skin that I didn't really need to see."

Kai chuckled for a second, along with Jack, who didn't seem half as embarrassed as I would've been. But then a stunned expression electrified Kai's face as he looked to the end of the sofa on the right side of the room. "Oh my gosh! Cliff, is that you?"

I turned back around at the mention of my cousin's name. "Oh, my goddess, it's you!" I exclaimed, shocked and surprised, though I shouldn't have been.

And there was Cliff, his back hunched over as he sat on the armrest of the sofa munching on an overflowing ham and turkey sandwich. He quickly swallowed and stood from his slouched position. "Karen! Kai!" He held out his skeletal arms in a wide gesture of salutation.

I ran into them with fervor and squeezed him with all my might. "Oh, Cliff, you're all skin and bones! You'll need more than that skimpy little sandwich to fill you up..."

"It's his seventh one today," Jack put in. "Plus three bowls of cereal and practically an entire gallon of milk."

I stepped back so Kai could hug my cousin. They slapped each other's backs like the old friends that they were. "My goddess," I kept saying, "I've missed you so much."

As I again embraced Cliff, he answered, "I've missed you, too, Karen, I've missed you, too."

Jack, whose pants had long since been buttoned and secured by a belt, spoke up, "Well, I've got some errands to run in town, so I'll be getting outta y'all's hair. You can hang around here if you like, just don't steal anything." He smiled and winked and headed out.

"Dork," I said after he'd left. Kai bumped my stomach with his fist, a sly smile on his face. I smiled back, still acting gigglingly from how Kai had held my hand before. "Cliff," I said, "What are you doing here? Why didn't you just come home?"

Cliff shrugged. "I was tired and kinda weak, and this place was a little bit closer. I remembered Pappy and came in only to find Jack."

"Oh...weak from hunger I guess, then?" I asked. My cousin nodded meekly before we headed into a moment of silence.

"So," Cliff began to speak through a visible mouthful of ham, turkey, lettuce, and tomato, "Jack tells me you guys are together now. Since when?"

I was too busy blushing up a storm to answer, so Kai said, "Well, it's kinda complicated. I guess, officially, you would say since the ninth, so about...a week and a half."

"Oh," Cliff dragged out the syllable. "So what's been happening around here? I heard the horse race was yesterday, and it went okay. No freak accidents like last time, then?"

Kai chuckled dryly, but I remained silent in remembrance. "No," said the boy next to me, "thankfully. But things are weird nowadays with no competitors from Green Ranch. That's where the money is, too, so nobody's really enjoying it as much as usual. Ann 'bout had a breakdown yesterday."

Cliff's eyes sparked when he suddenly remembered the girl with freckles and hair as noticeably bright as a forest fire who had a strong opinion against practically everything Cliff ever did. "So I guess the girl's not doin' so well, eh?"

"No, no, she's fine," I replied, scratching my head, "She just got upset yesterday because her dad is being an idiot about the whole racing situation. Other than that, she's okay."

Cliff nodded, his brown eyes distant and vague. "What about the others? Gray, Elli, Jeff, Popuri...? How is everybody?"

"Ah, nothing's changed much," I said. "Other than Pappy's..." I couldn't spit it out. I couldn't say it. It was even too much to think.

Death.



I felt a wave of grief pass through my veins, slowly bringing me to painful tears. Literally painful. They were hot, stinging, and bitter to the touch. I didn't want to look like a fool in front of the guys so I tried hard to suck it up and pretended to just itch at the corners of my eyes.

But the insightful Cliff could see right through the silly act and immediately reached forward to wrap his arms around me. I buried my face in his shoulder and shut my eyes tightly as if to force out any tears brave enough to try and escape. Murmuring consoling words into my ear, Cliff gently rubbed and patted my back.

With a final sniff I pulled away and wiped at my nose remorsefully. "Yeah, and now Jack's here, so..."

"Yeah, he seems like a nice guy," said Cliff.

I rolled my eyes, puffy though they were. "Yeah, he's great," I answered sarcastically. Kai and Cliff looked at each other; Kai shrugged with a look on his face that said, "It's beyond me."

"What's wrong with Jack?" Cliff asked, still chomping loudly on his sandwich. "You don't like him?"

I scrunched up my shoulders and shook my head a little, holding my hands out in question of my own emotion. My dislike for Jack was still unexplainable. I really had no logical reason to dislike him; it was almost as if I was purposefully trying to abstain from having any good feeling toward him at all. So much for having matured. "I don't know, he's just so – "

"Friendly?" Kai said. His voice indicated he was making a point. A point that stated I didn't like friendly people.

I scowled at him. "Don't mess with me like that," I uttered, my tone sharp and mean. "Jack is pushy. He crosses lines that just shouldn't be crossed."

"What kind of lines?" Cliff asked after swallowing a huge morsel of meat. "If I remember correctly, you said to me on the phone – "

"You called him?" Kai said suddenly. "When?"

"When Jack got here," I answered Kai's question in an attempt to keep Cliff from saying what I know he was fixing to say.

"You said to me on the phone," Cliff persisted, "that this Jack believes the same things Pappy believed, and the same things I believe. So are you pointing out that Jack is too pushy about his faith?"

"His faith? Faith in what?" I questioned harshly. Before continuing to interrogate Cliff I had a second thought and then said, "Let's just talk about this later. You just got here, and already we're arguing about...about...STUFF. Let's just talk about this later," I repeated.

Cliff's expression sank. "Fine," he mumbled reluctantly. "And we better. We better talk about this later."

I smiled. "Now there's my Cliffy! What's say we go pick up Ann and head to the bakery for some goodies!" I grinned in spite of myself, remembering I'd just returned from a night spent at the bakery.

The boys nodded. "Sounds good to me."

oOo

"Ann!" I poked my head in the doorway of Ann's bedroom. "Get dressed!"

Ann looked up at me from her desktop. "Karen, I can't go out right now. Daddy's sick, so I have to do all this lame stuff to figure out all this information about cows-"

"Ann!"

"WHAT!" she hollered. "I told you, I can't go out right now!"

"But Ann, Cliff is here!" I skipped over to tug on her arm.

"WHAT?" Ann yelled. "CLIFF IS HERE?" I was sure these were screams of aggravation but when her mouth curved into one of the wider smiles I'd seen from her since Gray's accident, I realized they were squeals of excitement. "OH GODDESS, I have to get dressed!"

"I'm so glad you're excited!" I cried.

"Well, of course!" Ann exclaimed, swinging her closet door open to reveal a much smaller selection of clothing than what Karen called her own. "Why wouldn't I be?"

"Well, I thought you kinda...hated him or something," I said sheepishly.

"What, are you kidding? I don't hate him! Sure, some of the things he does are mildly irksome and considerably frustrating, but I don't hate him! Okay, I haven't got much of a choice here, so it's basically down to jeans with long sleeves or cargos with short. What do you think?"

"Hm, it's rainy, go for jeans and long sleeves," I answered almost thoughtlessly. "Okay, well, good, I'm glad. I'm glad that you don't hate him, because I love him."

"Yeah, I know, that's partly the reason I don't hate him," she answered jokingly as she slid hastily out of her overalls and nasty tee shirt.

"Oh, Ann," I said, once she'd gotten into her new change of clothes, "take your hair down."

"Ew, but it's so humid out!"

"Do it!" I commanded over and over until she finally released her pretty red waves. "There!" I fluffed it a little bit. "It's beautiful. He'll be stunned!"

"Whoa!" Ann stopped short. "What? That's not what I'm going for here, Karen! I don't wanna be your cousin's – "

"Eye candy? Come on, yeah you do!" I urged, pushing her through the door.

"No, no, no!" she shrieked.

"The boys are waiting!"

oOo

After a few hours of celebration of Cliff's arrival, I began my shift at the bar promptly at six. "Karen, you're late," Duke asserted when I walked through the front doors. "There are already customers here!"

I threw a glance at my father dozing off in the corner. Our only customer as of that moment. "Sorry, Duke," I replied half-heartedly, "My cousin just came into town."

The man scoffed quietly and continued to sit idly behind the counter.

It was my turn to scoff. "What-ever," I muttered under my breath. "Hey, you!" I called to my father from my current location in front of the door to the backroom.

Daddy quickly looked up at me. There was nothing on the table in front of him. "What?" he asked, clearly not annoyed, but rather actually polite. "What is it, Karen?"

"Do you want anything? You know, the usual beer, the occasional whiskey, the rare shot of brown liquor?"

My dad shrugged. "I'll take a short glass of whiskey, I guess."

"You heard him," I relayed to Duke.

The bartender glared at me warningly. It was then I laid off the smart- aleck comments. Duke prepared the drink quickly, and I walked over, grabbed it off the counter, and plopped it on the table in front of my dad. "Kai tells me Cliff got here today," he said. "Why wasn't I informed of this?"

"You were," I said smartly. "Kai told you."

"You know what else I wasn't informed of?" he asked, tucking in his bottom lip to make a retard face. "You and Kai being 'together.'"

"Oh, come on, Dad," I retorted, "I think we both know the Flowerbud gossip circuit covered that information pretty well."

"Well, not well enough this time, young lady! What if I decide I don't want you to sleep with Kai?"

My eyes went wide as golf balls and I gasped. "Oh, my GODDESS! Who ever said I was sleeping with him? Are you drunk already? God-DESS I do not believe this! Daddy, I am not doing anything like that!"

Dad snorted rudely. "So is that what you think of me?"

I whirled around from scrubbing a nearby table. "WHAT?"

"You think I'm just some drunk?" he asked, arching his eyebrows, again making the stupid retard face.

"You are!" I snapped the towel angrily as I turned back around to scrub at the table behind me. Apparently somebody had spilled a soda and not bothered to clean it up, so a mean sticky residue had formed over the surface of the wood. "That's all you do, is drink!"

"Oh, and I understand you never drink, Karen!"

"Actually, I haven't had an alcoholic drink since my birthday!" I growled at the stupid sticky mess on the table.

"Oh, wow, Karen, you have made it a whole two weeks!"

"Did I mention I was having a perfectly good day until YOU came along and insulted me and my intelligence!" I recounted the day in my head. Of course, the morning hadn't been the best, but starting at the point when Kai and I made up, it was wonderful. Kai had given me a sweet kiss, we'd gone home, I got the call from Jack, came over to see Cliff, gone to pick up Ann, and spent three fun hours with my two favorite guys in the world and my very best friend eating fattening but yummy stuff at the bakery. But then my daddy came along and... "You think I would do that? You think I would have sex with Kai?"

Suddenly I heard Duke clear his throat as if to send a signal. I looked at him, and then at the front door, where the boss's eyes were directed.

Kai and Ann were walking in.

Quietly, sheepishly I turned my head back towards Daddy and said, my voice barely above a whisper, "Can we just talk about this later please?" in full knowledge that the topic would never be brought up again. At least not until my dad and I got into another argument.

Daddy pushed his drink, not at all drunk from, aside and stood. "I'm outta here anyway. Put it on my tab, Duke. I'll pay you back on Monday. I got a big sale tomorrow. See you later."

The bar was devoured by silence until the door closed quietly behind my father.

Finally, I said, "So you guys want something?" and scrubbed a little more.

"Uh, yeah..." Ann said, clearly trying to break the tension by being cheerful. "I'll have a coke."

"'Kay. Kai?"

He scratched his head for a second. "What?"

"Drink? Food? Want something?" I asked.

"Oh, I'll have a be – "

I gave him a look to remind him of what he'd promised me earlier that afternoon.

"A coke."

"Two cokes," I said to Duke.

"I'm busy," the boss lied. "You do it."

I rolled my eyes discreetly and walked to the soda machine, realizing shortly after that Duke hadn't bothered to get the old thing going early. I was going to say something but decided I was already walking on thin ice tonight. "Sorry, guys, it'll be a few minutes," I said, cranking the thing up. "Want something to eat?"

"Oh, I'm stuffed from all those bakery goodies!" Ann said, rubbing her tummy after plopping down in a chair.

"Oh, come on," I said kiddingly, "You need some meat on those bones, Skinny."

"Hmph," she snorted. "Yeah, right!"

This would normally be something Kai laughed at, but he was silent. I looked at his face; his brown eyes were a little distant. "You want anything, Kai?"

"What?"

"Kai!" I laughed, shaking off the last few uncomfortable moments. "Want some food?"

"Yeah, I'll have a burger please."

"Mm-kay." The soda machine began to whir, so I started getting the drinks poured. "Uh, where's Cliff?"

"At Jack's," Ann answered, with a huge roll of the eyes and a haughty snort. "Bible study. I almost forgot Cliff was so..."

"Yeah, yeah, okay," I interrupted.

Duke swore. "These goddess condemned Bible studies are runnin' down my bar!"

"And didn't they just have one last night?" I asked quizzically.

"Yeah, they sure did; the biggest bar night of the year, aside from New Year's of course."

"Yeah, yeah, okay," I repeated.

Duke dragged out the hours until midnight, despite our obvious lack of promise for good business that night. We probably had a grand total of seven customers the entire night. He was really annoying.

Ann left early.

oOo

"What's wrong with you?" I asked Kai on the walk home. The sky was dark, being it midnight, but stars were not visible due to the rain clouds.

"Nothin'." Kai sniffed.

"Whatever!" I said laughingly. "Something is seriously wrong; you've been so quiet since..." I tried not to gasp. "...oh." I wasn't sure what to say.

I mean, did I want to have sex with Kai?

Well, no! We'd only been together for ten days! Ew! Cheap! No way was I going to sleep with him now!

But would I ever sleep with him? Like, after a few seasons maybe? Or would I want to wait until we got...married?

Married...

Not a new thought for me. I was already seventeen and just now starting a relationship. Late.

Dang it.

"I just didn't know you felt that way," Kai finally said. "I mean, I knew from the beginning with Ann that she would just never do anything like that before marriage, but I just assumed you'd wanna – "

"What?" I questioned, my feelings hurt. "So you're just with me because you think I'm some cheap sleaze who will totally have sex with you whenever you're ready?"

"What? No!" Kai answered aggressively. "No! I think you know I'm not like that."

"Well, now, I don't know! I mean, you just assumed I would crawl right into bed with you? Did you ever once think I would – "

"It's not like that! Okay? It's just that when you said that, you made it seem like you never wanted to...DO IT! Is that the way you feel? Never?"

"Well, no! Just...not now."

"Well, duh! We've only been together for what...ten, eleven days? Not even a choice! But I was just worried that...you didn't ever want to..."

"I know. I understand now."

"Thank you," Kai said, exhaling bottled up oxygen.

"Don't thank me," I said slyly, ceasing to walk in the middle of the crossroads. He stopped beside me. "Just kiss me."

He grinned and leaned in to kiss my lips with fervor, even hunger. I kissed him passionately back, wrapping my arms around his neck, touching his exposed hair with my fingers. His hands found their way around my waist. The perfect kiss.

Goddess, it'd been a while since I'd felt this good.

Finally, after an unsure amount of time, Kai cupped my head in his warm hands and tenderly kissed the top of my head. I looked up into his beautiful brown eyes lovingly and kissed him one more time. "Come on," I said when we'd divided, "let's go find Cliff."

oOoOoOo

A note from the author: Mmmmmm......I LOVE fluff! Don't you? Oh, and Cliff, too. I LOVE CLIFF! Review please!