Conflicting Loves

Chapter 10: Decision

A/N: It took me a long time to figure out how I was going to end this fic. I racked my brain for nights on end since posting chapter 9, searching for a believable ending. Well, judging from the way that I've had some of the characters developing, this will make sense. Well, thanks for reading this fic and I hope you enjoy the ending.

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Jack had never been good at making decisions. He was the proud owner of two dogs, where the normal farmer would only raise one, only because he didn't want to choose between the two. The decision to leave Mineral Town for Forget-Me-Not Valley was not his; rather, a family tradition forced the decision on him. Now, Jack was forced to decide between two women he loved. In addition to making this decision, he also had to convince her that she was the only one for him. With Jack's way with saying the worst thing possible, he had better make sure that he had a very good explanation for her. Wait… if he said the wrong thing again, he could always go for his second choice!

The farmer had spent the entire length of the night after his latest screw-up trying to make up his mind. As usual, Jack had his two assistants, A and B, present to assist him with the final life-changing decision. There were so many implications to this choice, all of them weighing heavily on Jack's mind.

After a full night of going over every single detail, Jack was no closer to making up his mind than he was when he started. The two Blue Feathers were resting on the pillow on the bed. Jack had labeled the feathers with the girl's name that it was intended for. Nami's feather was in near perfect condition, while Elli's carried scars and blemishes just like the owner now had.

Jack had come up with a great argument for both girls, but also had found a few good reasons why not to choose them. Elli had all of the memories, the history, the way that things used to be. Nami represented that crucial turn in life where a boy became a man. If Jack chose Elli, he'd be stuck raising the child of a man who he hated. If he chose Nami, he would have destroyed the last hope that Elli ever had. The more that he thought about it, the harder it was to make up his mind.

"Takakura!" Jack called out. Even though it was still in the early hours of the morning, Takakura was guaranteed to be up. Maybe the elder farmer could offer Jack some words of wisdom to help him make up his mind. Within seconds, the door to Jack's house swung open and Takakura stepped inside, rubbing his eyes, "What is it?"

Jack held the two Blue Feathers out to Takakura. "I can't make up my mind. What I want you to do is tie one feather to A, the other feather to B. I'll have my back turned, so I won't see which dog has which feather. Then, I want you to chase the dogs outside and get them to run. I'll come outside and try to catch either A or B. Whichever one I catch, I'll marry the girl whose name is on the feather."

Takakura stared at Jack, "You're leaving an important decision like this up to chance?" Takakura was having difficulty comprehending Jack's motives.

The young farmer nodded his head solemnly. "I love them both and I don't want to hurt either of them. This is the only way that I can choose with a clean conscience." Jack had his back turned to Takakura as he went about tying the feathers to the playful dogs. Takakura knew that once the dogs figured out that they were going to be chased, they'd run all day long. That was the one part of Jack's plan that made sense.

"There, done." Takakura announced, ushering both puppies out the front door. Both A and B seemed to understand their purpose, considering the feathers tied to their collars as toys. Takakura kneeled down next to the two pups and whispered, "Run from Jack. He wants to catch you so that he can let the Harvest Sprites ride you." Never before had Takakura seen any type of animal run so fast. "You can chase them now." He told Jack.

Jack took a deep breath as he stepped outdoors. Maybe he should have instructed Takakura to release the dogs inside the pasture. At least in there, they were confined. Now, they had access to the entire valley. "I hope you don't mind taking care of the farm work today." Jack commented as he looked around to see if he could spot one of the dogs.

"It won't be any different than any other day." Takakura commented sarcastically. Jack shot his helper a quick glare before starting his chase of the dogs. He had heard one of them barking from somewhere in town. If only he could find it.

Takakura watched as the youngster rushed out of the farm, making sure that he was well out of sight before reaching into his pocket. "If you can't make up your own mind, somebody has to do it for you." Takakura told himself as he returned the Blue Feather that he had kept to his pocket.

(-)

"Have you seen one of my dogs?" Jack asked. This marked the fifteenth time that he had asked somebody the very same question. Almost everyone had seen the dogs come bolting through town, but nobody could point out exactly where one was at that very moment. Jack had even caught a glimpse of A once and had given chase, but he was no match for the boundless energy that the young pup had.

Rock made a motion down towards the beach. "Yeah, I saw one of them running by the ocean about ten minutes ago. Do you know what? You're a lucky guy, Jack. Last I heard, you've got two beautiful women interested in you."

"Trust me, Rock. It's not as cracked up as it's rumored to be." Jack rolled his eyes at his own statement. He had been having enough trouble trying to date one girl when he had memories of another. Now with both of them here, in person, his love life was turning into a living nightmare.

Right then, Jack spotted B making his way back up the hill. Without saying another word to Rock, Jack took off after the pup. B spotted Jack, gave a frightened yip, and then scampered back towards the beach. "You aren't getting away from me that easily!" Jack shouted.

B cast a frightened glance over his shoulder only to see a madman hot on his heels. Jack was a man possessed. B turned to the right, hoping to double back around a tree and sneak out of Jack's sight. One thing that B hadn't counted on was the tiny pond. There was nothing B could do but flop into that water. It just happened that Jack was in the midst of diving at B, not seeing the pond until he was headed on a crash course with it.

Jack found himself face first in the stagnant water, totally soaked. On the bank was B, wagging his tail happily at his owner's misery. Jack glared at the puppy, who barked playfully before running off towards the farm. But, Jack had enough time to notice something disturbing. He couldn't see the Blue Feather that was supposed to be attached to B. "He must have dropped it somewhere. Probably in this pond." Jack surmised. Now, not only was he wet, but he was playing in the water as well. Surely the other villagers were beginning to question his sanity.

About twenty minutes of thrashing about in the water, Jack still hadn't found the lost Blue Feather. Sure enough, a crowd was beginning to gather, pointing at Jack and whispering to each other. "What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen a grown man try to learn how to swim before?" Jack challenged.

The villagers merely shook their heads in disbelief before returning to their daily routines. "He's showing all the classic signs of mental instability." Doc Hardy whispered to Griffin, who nodded in agreement. "I heard that he proposed a few minutes ago. This must be his bachelor party."

"Really! To who?" Hardy probed, his interest clearly piqued.

Griffin shrugged his shoulders, "Dunno. Apparently Takakura went and did the deed for him. He's keeping pretty silent about the entire matter."

Jack, who had been oblivious to the entire conversation involving him, had just climbed out of the pond. His eyes were deadest on A, who had just peeked out of his hiding spot in the well. Jack was slowly inching his way across the grass, closing the distance between him and his target with deadly stealth movements. At least he could see the Blue Feather clearly attached to A's collar.

A had no idea what hit him. All of the sudden he was tackled to the ground and held so tightly that he could hardly move. Jack reached up and snatched the feather from A's collar. "And the lucky woman is…" Jack flipped the feather over to view the name of the woman that he would soon be proposing to. Elli. As soon as he saw the name, he felt a sudden wave of good feelings rush over his body. It was his gut choice, the one that he had been leaning towards. Now all he had to do was go find her and ask her.

Jack gently released A, who was immediately happy to see no Harvest Sprites around. A barked happily, but not at Jack, at the girl approaching him. Jack looked up and smiled. This was working better than he had planned out. He didn't even have to go looking for Elli, she had found him out. But, she looked upset, just like the day before. "What's wrong?" Jack asked, once again hiding the Blue Feather from her.

Elli stopped just a few steps away from Jack. She sniffled slightly before looking Jack directly in his eyes. "I heard that you made up your mind between me and my cousin." Her voice was filled with what sounded like contempt. Jack was obviously confused. How had she learned that his mind was made up so quickly after he had just decided himself? "Yes I did." Jack replied, rather cautiously. For all he knew, there could be something wrong elsewhere.

"Well, I hope that you and Nami are happy together." Elli spat out, catching Jack off guard. What was she talking about? He had decided to propose to her, not Nami. So why did Elli believe that he was getting married to Nami? Jack calmly reached out, grabbing hold of Elli's hands. "How can I be together with Nami when I want you to marry me?" He reached into his soaking wet pocket and produced the already worn down feather.

Elli's eyes became watery, her lips trembled. She had been dreaming of this moment for the last two seasons. Now that it was here, all of that pain that she had been feeling felt like it had just disapeared. All she could do was collapse into Jack's arms and whisper, "I accept."

(-)

Jack and Elli were making their way back to Jack's farm, where they planned on celebrating. Takakura was waiting at the entrance to his house and was obviously surprised when he saw Jack and Elli hand in hand. "Oh, you caught A. I didn't think that you would. Uh… don't go into your house." Takakura quickly moved to position himself between Jack and the main house.

Jack eyed his partner suspiciously. "What are you hiding?" Jack made to step around Takakura, but the elder farmer moved to block Jack's path. "This has something to do with B not having his Blue Feather, doesn't it?" Takakura meekly nodded. "Now I get it… You took the other Blue Feather and got me engaged to Nami, while I proposed to Elli."

Takakura was honestly surprised. This had to be either the greatest guess work on earth, or Jack finally used that brain of his. Takakura had his head hung low, feeling ashamed for what he had done. "I didn't want you to pick Elli, so I made sure that you would end up with Nami." Takakura looked up at Elli for a few seconds before continuing, "But, Elli, you look like a fine woman. I guess Jack really knew what he was doing after all."

Elli graciously nodded at Takakura, accepting his compliment. "What about Nami? You can't just go tell her that you take back the proposal, even if you didn't do it."

Jack carefully thought about what Elli had just said. There was another part of his brain remembering the conversation with Rock earlier. "Are you suggesting what I'm thinking?" Jack asked, a lecherous smile crossing his face.

"No! But I am suggesting that you take a liberal look at the situation. I know that you care about Nami as well as me. She told me as much last night after our little incident. We had even said that if there was a way for both of us to be happy, we'd do that. Well, this might be a way to make us both happy." Elli explained, pulling Jack past Takakura and towards the house.

Nami was waiting inside, seated on the bed. At the sight of Elli, she got up and appeared ready to storm out of the house. Elli stopped her, resting a hand on her cousin's shoulder. "Nami, would you mind sharing a husband?" Elli asked, much to Jack's astonishment. Jack's mind had been in the gutter so he hadn't thought up of an outcome like this.

Nami was just as shocked as Jack was. She looked at Jack, then at the Blue Feather that she was holding. Maybe it wasn't such a bad idea after all.

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A/N: I know that there are going to be people who don't like this ending. Truthfully, I couldn't make up my mind as to who I wanted him to end up with, so I did both. Please don't be too upset. As for the quality of writing, I feel that it was really sloppy for this chapter. See, this is the one problem that I have with my writing that I still need to work on. I can't do endings that well. Oh well, let's see if I can improve before I finish my retirement fic. Be seeing you and thanks for reading!