Conflicting Loves

Chapter 6: Matchmakers

A/N: Dedicated to the loving memory of Mage.

(-)

The three Harvest Sprites were sitting in their little tree house, discussing their role in Forget-Me-Not Valley. "Spring harvests?" Flak asked, going over the checklist he had in his hand.

"Great, budum! The Harvest Goddess was very kind this season." Nak commented.

"Check. Animals?" Flak noted, moving on to the next item on his list.

Nic smiled from ear to ear, "Puppies are nice."

Nak shook his head at the other Sprite, "You shouldn't torment the poor puppies."

"I wasn't tormenting them, I was ridding them." Nic retorted.

"Same thing, budum!" Nak shot back.

"Animals, check. Blue Feather?" Flak interrupted.

All three Sprites turned their heads to where they had placed the feather. By some sort of miracle or purely accidental, it wasn't quite clear, they had managed to stick the blue feather on top of a really tall mushroom, far out of their own reach. "Uhhh…" The Sprites groaned as they realized what they had gotten themselves into. "Check?" Flak whispered.

(-)

Jack awoke at the first hint of the morning sun. Jack groaned as he slid out of bed and into his work clothes. Sure enough, the puppies were waiting to be fed, just like every other morning. Both dogs barked excitedly upon seeing their master, running from Takakura's feet and over to Jack. "Hey boys, what do you want?"

A and B gave Jack a glare that almost looked like they wanted to say, "What do you think we want? Are you an idiot or something?" Jack merely smiled at the puppies, producing a pouch of dog food that he had gotten Takakura to purchase. The dogs' eyes lit up at the sight of food and they began barking more intensely.

Takakura shook his head in annoyance. Clearly, the elderly farm assistant wasn't much of a dog person. Takakura issued a low grunt, vanishing off to go about his daily chores while Jack tended to the young pups. Jack didn't seem to take much notice, knowing that it was usual for Takakura to do what seemed like it needed to be done, but Jack could never be sure exactly what Takakura had done each day. It was almost a mystery if he did anything at all other than sell the milk at the market, wherever that was.

Jack proceeded to go about his regular chores, which ranged from milking the sole cow to watering the crops. It was amazing that the crops were still alive, much thanks to Jack's rather forgetful nature of being distracted. You can't really blame a young man, barely an adult, when he has two women on the mind, both of whom he loves dearly.

Once he had his part of the daily chores done, Jack was at a loss as to what to do. There was only one thing that came to mind. Go and see Nami. It had now been four days since they had kissed and Jack knew that Nami wanted to see him. So much had been proven after last night. If only he hadn't been so lazy, then maybe he would have had that much needed conversation the night before.

Jack made his way over to the Inner Inn, hoping that he could catch Nami before she left for her morning walk. That had been one of the main problems. One could never be exactly sure where Nami was at any given moment of the day. Some days, she would go down to the beach first, others over to Vespa's farm, and still other days when she would go up to visit other townspeople. Jack was never sure where he would run into Nami, so he had to make the most of times when he knew where she was.

"Hey, is Nami still in?" Jack asked when he entered the Inn.

Tim looked up from his desk, quite surprised that he had a visitor so early in the morning. "Uhhh…" Tim scratched the back of his head as he thought, "Nope, she left really early this morning."

"Did she say where she was going?" Jack prodded.

"Nope." Tim replied, being about as much help as he had ever been.

"Well, thanks anyways." Jack muttered as he turned and walked out the front door.

Another set of footsteps, this one descending the stairs, caused Tim to look over at the other person who had just walked into the lobby. "Who was that?" Nami asked, rubbing the last bit of sleep out of her eyes. "Duh, I thought you left… That's what I told Jack." Tim replied, confusion reigning supreme as he tried to figure out exactly what had just happened.

"Not again…" Nami silently cursed as she took off after Jack. That had to be the billionth time this week that the befuddled Tim had messed up a chance for her and Jack to speak. But then again, she had messed it up the night before, when her own nerves were too much for her. She could have said anything, anything at all, and Jack would have known she was there. Instead, she balked under the pressure and ran. Maybe, she wasn't quite ready for love and that was her body's way of telling her not to try.

Nami rushed out the door, looking both ways in search of the farmer. No luck. Jack must have already gotten to the next building and gone inside. The young traveler was about to choose a direction to go in when she felt a tiny tug on her pants. "Excuse me." A little voice called out.

Nami looked behind her to see who it was, but nobody was there. There was another tug, forcing Nami to look down. At her feet was a tiny little pixie-like person, no taller than a toddler. He was wearing a blue tunic that was much too big for him, making him look even more like a midget. "Who are you?" Nami asked, a little bit afraid of the unusual person.

"I'm Nic and I'm a Harvest Sprite!" The little Sprite said with a huge smile.

"And what does a Harvest Sprite do?" Nami was looking around, hoping that somebody else was there to witness this strange conversation. She had heard folk-lore about the Harvest Sprites, but had never actually believed any of it, until now, of course.

Nic reached up and grabbed hold of Nami's hand. "Come, follow, budum."

Curiosity always was one of Nami's weak points, so she let the Harvest Sprite lead her. Nic waddled past Jack's farm, up the tiny stairs towards the waterfall. Nic led Nami right to the edge of the stream before ordering, "Stay, and something good will happen to you, budum!" And with that, Nic was gone. Nami could only wonder what Nic's definition of "good" was.

(-)

"No Muffy, I'm sure that Nami isn't in your room, so I don't need to check." Jack called back into the Blue Bar as he made his exit. He shook his head in disbelief. Muffy was so eager to begin a lust-filled relationship with Jack, but he didn't want to be a part of that. If he made even the slightest move that suggested that he was interested in Muffy, it would signal the end of work on the farm for him. Every spare second that he would have apart from wooing the two women would be spent retelling the tales to A and B.

It came as a surprise when Jack nearly walked right over both Nak and Flak, who were both standing right outside the door of the Blue Bar. "Hey guys, what mischief are you up to today?" Jack smiled as he knelt down to the same level as the two Sprites.

"None!" Flak denied, sounding somewhat offended.

"Honest!" Nak added. Nak then proceeded to pull out a red bandanna and held it out to Jack. "Cover your eyes." Nak ordered.

"And you don't consider this mischief?" Jack chuckled as he complied with the orders of the two Sprites. As soon as Jack had the bandanna over his eyes, Nak and Flak grabbed hold of his hands and began pulling him after them. "Where are you taking me?" Jack suddenly felt a little worried as to his own personal safety.

"We have gift for Jack." Nak called out.

"That's right. No peaking, budum!" Flak added. Jack felt himself heading uphill. The sound of running water was to his right, so Jack guessed that the Harvest Sprites were leading him to their house. So, it came as a surprise to Jack as he felt the Harvest Sprites' hands slip out of his and leave him.

Jack knew where he was, right at the base of the waterfall. Just the sound of the water crashing down as it followed the work of gravity brought back so many memories of Mineral Town. He and Elli had sat and watched the waterfall together on more than one occasion, so he felt the pains of loss twinge in his heart.

The farmer was about to reach up and remove the bandanna, but another hand stopped his. This hand definitely didn't belong to a Harvest Sprite, being much larger and more delicate. Jack found the hand to be rather familiar, although he could not tell who it was; he had a pretty good idea that it was Nami. Her hand reached up and removed the bandanna, her eyes instantly connecting with the pair opposite hers. "Hi." Nami whispered.

Jack smiled down at the red-haired maiden, "Hi," he whispered back. That was all the conversation that was needed. Jack smoothly landed a kiss on Nami's lips, much to the girl's surprise. Nami seemed hesitant at first to kiss back, but when Jack went to part the kiss, Nami held on.

Meanwhile, the matchmakers were witnessing the event. Upon seeing the kiss they began to celebrate. "Jack and Nami, together, budum!" Nic almost yelled.

"Blue feather in summer, budum." Nak added, equally as loud.

"Love is in the air, budum!" Flak shouted.

"Keep it down, you might ruin the mood." A fourth voice added, hushing the Sprites.

All three Sprites hung their heads in shame, "Sorry, Master Takakura."

Takakura smiled, actually smiled. The chances of Jack carrying on the family tradition were becoming better by the day, now that he and Nami had gotten over the initial stages of love. The first kiss, the awkward meeting after the kiss, all the way up to the second kiss. They had all been taken care of.

"What does the Harvest Goddess want us to do next?" Nak asked, snapping Takakura out of his daydream.

Takakura shrugged his shoulders, "She didn't say anything about what to do next." Takakura served as the messenger between the Harvest Sprites and the Harvest Goddess. That was one secret that he had to be sure that Jack didn't find out. It was dangerous enough that he was here with the Harvest Sprites. If Jack saw him alongside the Sprites, his cover would be blown. Jack was still at the stage where he believes that he was the only one who could see the Harvest Sprites.

"Actually, there is one thing that the Harvest Goddess wants to tell you Sprites." Takakura started, remembering something that the Goddess had told him during his last visit.

The Harvest Sprites were practically begging Takakura to tell the Sprites their next order. "What?" They all demanded in unison.

Takakura pointed over to the base of the tree house, to the mushrooms growing out front. "She wants you guys to quit eating the mushrooms, they're making you guys stupid."

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A/N: Sorry for the short length. These last few days have been really hard on me, since it is one month since… I'm not even going to say it; I don't want to remember that day. I've just had trouble with all the memories. Although they are painful, they are the key to my future.

Oh, if you have been viewing my author alerts or noticed my other story, which is not my big final project. That's just something that's I'm working on while I finish this one. I'm going to do my final story after I finish this one, but that won't be for some time. If you want details on my final fic, I wrote some stuff about it in my profile.