Disclaimer: Harvest Moon 64 and all related characters are property of Natsume. This story is written for entertainment purposes only, and not one red cent is being made off its existence. (As one would assume would be obvious, as it's posted on fanfiction dot net)
Coming Home
-Chapter 9: Gentle Music-
The amount of time between the autumn horse race and the beginning of winter seemed like hardly anything at all. Jack awoke on the first day of the new season to discover a thick coating of snow on the ground. He stared in astonishment for several minutes, wondering if the weather in Flower Bud Village was this predictable every year, or if it was just a coincidence that the first snowfall and the first day of winter had happened at the same time.
Well...whatever. Snow or no snow, Jack had animals to take care of, so he shook himself from his reverie and stepped outside to begin his morning chores. He had acquired a third sheep by this time, and also a second cow, whose names were Subaru and Nashiko, respectively. Feeding, brushing, and, in Umeko's case, milking, did not take a very long time at all. Jack was able to give plenty of attention to each of his animals in just under an hour.
Feeding the chickens was much the same - he had six by this time, and his chicken coop was full. Gathering eggs and spreading grain for the birds to eat took far less time than feeding, grooming, and milking the other livestock, and Jack found himself stepping out into the weak wintry sunlight at eight-thirty in the morning with nothing to do. No crops would grow in the winter, unless he had a greenhouse. While he sorely would have liked to have one built, the steep price and his greater desire for a kitchen prevented him from acquiring one at this point in time.
None of the shops in town would be open yet, and besides, it was a little too early in the morning for a bit of friendly visiting. Of course, he could always head up into the mountain to fish a bit, and maybe look for Cliff...Hmm. While that last thought did have a certain appeal, Jack brushed it aside nervously. It probably would be best to distance himself a little from Cliff...no matter how much he enjoyed the other man's company, he knew he wouldn't be able to stop himself from becoming more and more infatuated as time wore on.
Absence only makes the heart grow fonder.
Where the hell had that stray thought come from? Jack leaned against the wood pile stacked against the east wall of the chicken coop and groaned.
As far as he could see, he had only two choices. He could either moon about away from Cliff and angst, which would suck, or he could moon about around Cliff and angst, which would also suck. But perhaps he wouldn't feel so bad if Cliff was there...? Gah! Who could tell?
In an attempt to distract himself from his increasingly uncomfortable thoughts, Jack squinted his eyes tightly shut for a moment, then opened them and looked around the farm.
He had, by this time, cleared the field of all but a few of the largest of rocks and stumps, which were mostly at the eastern end of the property, as it was the furthest from the shipping bin and the animal pens.
Distraction! he thought triumphantly, and jogged back to his cabin to pick up his hammer and axe.
It felt good to work up a sweat in the bitingly crisp winter air. Unfortunately, Jack ran out of rocks to smash and stumps to break up quite a bit sooner than he was ready to. Now his entire field was well and truly bare. The only irregularity that could be discerned now was where the snow had settled over grass, as opposed to bare earth.
Determined not to think depressing thoughts, Jack decided to run up to the bakery for some tea and company. He always enjoyed chatting with Jeff, the thirty-something proprietor of the bakery. The man was given to nostalgic fits at times, but Jack didn't mind listening to him prattle on about "the good old days." In fact, he rather enjoyed hearing about the things Jeff had done as a young man.
After replacing his tools carefully in the tool box inside his cabin, Jack made his way to the bakery. He greeted Ellen, Elli's grandmother, with a smile and a nod before entering.
"Oh, hi Jack!" came a cheerful voice. Blinking, Jack saw that it belonged to neither Jeff nor Elli, but to Popuri. She was seated at the single table in the room, holding a cup of steaming tea in her hands.
"Hi, Popuri," Jack responded, nodding at her as he made his way to the counter.
"The usual?" Jeff asked, after the two men had exchanged greetings.
"Please," Jack said.
"I'll be just a few moments, then," he was told, and Jeff turned and busied himself with the tea kettle and stove which was kept behind the counter.
"Why don't you join me, Jack?" Popuri invited. Jack smiled and nodded, seating himself at the table across from her.
"How've you been?" He asked, once he was settled.
"Fair," she responded. "I don't like the winter, you know...Everything seems so...lifeless." She seemed a little downcast as she spoke.
Jack nodded noncommittally, though he was privately thinking that it was too bad that Popuri disliked three of the four seasons so intensely - She hated summer because it was far too hot, disliked autumn because all the green and flowers were gone, and now he learned that she wasn't even fond of winter. "At least when Winter comes, you know Spring is just around the corner," he said, trying to cheer her up.
"That's very true!" she replied, a smile coming to her face. Jack smiled back, pleased to have succeeded in lifting her spirits.
"So what are you up to these days?" she asked, taking a sip of her tea.
"Not a whole lot," he told her, glancing at Jeff to see how his own tea was coming along. The water had finished boiling and now Jeff was straining the leaves. He enjoyed watching Jeff prepare tea - When he made it for himself at home, he just used a tea kettle and a tea bag. Jeff, however, was something of a tea purist, and went about preparing it in a very proper manner.
"Just have my animals to take care of, now that there's snow on the ground," he continued.
"Mmm, yes. You know, you can grow strawberries in the Winter if you have a greenhouse," Popuri said.
"Can you, now?" Jack asked, intrigued. He hadn't known that before.
"Any plans for a greenhouse in your future?" she asked, curious.
"In the distant future, yes," Jack grimaced. "I need a kitchen first."
"Do you cook?"
"A little. I'd like to be able to properly prepare my own meals from time to time, at least," and share them with a certain someone...
At this point, Jeff arrived with Jack's tea, which he gratefully accepted. He closed his hands carefully around the hot cup, warming his fingers with the heat of the beverage inside. He spent the next half-hour chatting amiably with Popuri, and eventually bought each of them a slice of Elli's famous cake when their conversation began to show signs of outlasting their tea.
(x)
Popuri returned home once Jack had left for his farm, and sighed.
"Is something wrong?" Lillia asked from across the room.
"Oh, no," she lied. "You know how I am in the winter,"
Her mother smiled indulgently. "This is true,"
Popuri retreated to her room and flopped down on her bed, sighing again.
(x)
In a fit of boredom one afternoon, Jack meandered about his farm, poking into various nooks and crannies to see if he could turn up anything interesting. He didn't expect to, but he wouldn't know unless he tried, and anyway, he was tired of chopping wood in the mountains, as he had been for the past few days.
Moving from the woodpile beside the chicken coop to the lone tree in the north-eastern corner of his farm, Jack sighed. He was so bored! He'd half-heartedly looked for Cliff on a few occasions, but had not met with any success. Tea at Jeff's was all well and good, but there was only so long he could sit still once he had drunk it. If only something interesting would happen between now and when the mine opened...
Blinking, Jack noticed a large hollow on the far side of the tree that he did not recall seeing before. No surprise, really, as it was facing the wrong direction for him to see it from the angle he usually approached it at. He peered inside, not expecting to find anything, but was surprised when he made out a shape in the shadows. He carefully extracted the object and examined it.
It was a bit of yellowed paper, on which a set of instructions had been written with grave care by a young child:
Walk down from dog house until you see tree on right. Dig.
-Jack, 5 years old
Jack blinked in astonishment. He racked his brains, but could not remember either writing this or what could possibly be buried at the specified location.
"Treasure hunt!" he exclaimed out loud, glad he'd finally found something to do. He didn't know if it would be disappointing or not, but he was grateful for the distraction nonetheless. Taking up his hoe, he quickly found the specified location and began digging.
It was slow going, as the earth was frozen quite hard, but Jack was determined to find out what he had buried. He had worked up quite a sweat by the time the ground at the bottom of his hole crumbled a bit. Not wanting to accidentally break whatever it was with his hoe, he bent over to brush away the earth to see if his buried treasure was close to being unearthed. His caution was well founded, for after probing and digging with his fingers for a few moments, he uncovered a decomposing shoe box, stuffed with slightly less decomposed newspaper. Cradled in the newspaper was a small music box, about the size of both of his fists held together.
He let out a surprised laugh. Where had he gotten this? Turning the music box over in his hands, he carefully examined it. He was about to conclude that it had somehow survived over fifteen years buried underground intact, until he carefully wound it and set it to play. The pretty wood of the box had survived, but the mechanism within had not been so lucky. It still played, but the music was off-key and out of rhythm.
Still though, this was a wonderful discovery - a great relief of tedium and boredom, to be sure. And perhaps Rick or Saibara could fix the broken mechanism and get it to play properly again.
Smiling, Jack tucked the box carefully into his knapsack and headed off to town to see if he could talk to Rick.
(X)
Rick was, miraculously, puttering about in his shop, which was, just as miraculously, open. Jack had lost track of the number of times throughout the year he'd tried to stop in to purchase something, or even just to say hi, and find the door locked and the inventor nowhere to be found.
"Hi, Jack!" Rick said when he looked up to see who had stepped into his shop.
"Hey, Rick, fancy seeing you here," Jack responded, teasing. Rick grimaced.
"Sorry my shop's closed so often..." he apologized.
Jack grinned and waved one hand vaguely. "No worries," he said. "You're usually around when I need something important, so it's no big deal."
Rick grinned, rubbing the back of his neck in an embarrassed fashion. "I take it to mean that you need something...?" The two men both looked around the sparsely populated interior of Rick's shop. Jack had bought most of the items that had come through the small store at one point or another, and there was nothing Rick was selling right now that he didn't already own.
"Actually, yes," he said in response to Rick's question, swinging his knapsack off his shoulder so that he could extract the music box, which he then offered to Rick.
"What have we here?" Rick half muttered to himself when Jack handed it over. "Hmmm..." He opened the lid, starting the mechanism and setting the 'music' to playing. "Oh, this is no big deal," the red-head told him. He opened a drawer behind the counter and removed a small screwdriver and a few other odds and ends. He then proceeded to carefully crack the case open and prod inside, muttering all the while.
"Bit of oil here...tighten a screw or two there..." were the sort of things Jack caught. He watched, amused, as Rick prodded the little music box back to life.
"There we are! No problem!" the inventor proclaimed, carefully refitting the casings back together. He wound the key on the bottom of the box and opened the lid. The two men listened as a sweet, romantic sort of tune emerged from the freshly resuscitated music box.
"Heeey...you know, this is a love song you give to a girl," Rick said, glancing slyly up at Jack from where he was leaning on the counter. Jack raised an eyebrow.
"Is that so?"
"Indeed."
Jack snorted. "I see...well, how much do I owe you?"
"Ah, no worries," Rick said. He closed the lid carefully and slid the box across the counter towards Jack, who picked it up and carefully replaced it in his bag.
"Are you sure?" Jack asked, reaching for his wallet.
"Yes, I'm sure!" Rick laughed. "Now if you've nothing else to say, scram! I'm a busy man!" he made shoo'ing motions with his hands, grinning while he did so to prevent Jack from taking offense. Jack did as he was told, grinning.
"Thank you very much," he said as he opened the front door.
"Any time, friend," came the reply.
Smiling, Jack stepped into the street and began to make his way back to his farm.
(x)
A few days later, the winter mine was opened to the public, so Jack packed a lunch and his hoe up to the mountain to have a go at mining. By the time he ducked into the cave entrance, it was snowing lightly, and the chilly air was causing his nose to run.
"Hey Jack, up for a little mining today?" asked the carpenter's apprentice stationed at the door. Jack had never had the opportunity to learn the man's name...not that he thought it would help much, because he was identical in looks to the two other apprentices who studied under the old carpenter.
"That's why I'm here," Jack responded, smiling.
"Right. In you go, then." And without further ado, Jack was ushered down a short staircase and into the mine.
The mine was a fairly large, rectangular cavern that was lit by lanterns hanging from the ceiling. After pausing a moment to take in his surroundings, Jack set to work with his hoe.
After a few hours of nearly non-stop digging, Jack had uncovered several chunks of iron ore, a valuable moonstone, and a rather nasty headache. Attributing that last to hunger, Jack removed his lunch from his bag and paused for about fifteen minutes to eat it. Feeling slightly better with his stomach full, he renewed his efforts and uncovered a staircase leading down to the next level of the mine. Here the precious moonstone was slightly more abundant than above, though there was still plenty of iron ore as well. The headache he'd acquired continued to plague him the longer he worked, so that by the time five o' clock rolled around and the mine closed for the evening, Jack was feeling decidedly unwell.
"Come back tomorrow, hey?" the carpenter's apprentice at the door called after him as he nearly staggered out of the cave and into the snowy twilight.
Good food...Hot shower...Warm bed... were the thoughts that made their way through Jack's mind as he made his way home. Sadly, he only had one out of those three options available to him. Something that hadn't really bothered him before now, but there it was. Stupid...why're you taking so long to get a kitchen? And you really ought to get a bathroom too...stupid... he berated himself as he made his way down the path to the crossroads. He was so tied up in his thoughts that he didn't notice Karen until he'd run into her.
"Oi, watch where you're going!" she exclaimed with some heat, glaring at him.
"I'm sorry," he apologized meekly.
"Oh, never mind...Hey," Karen's irritated expression became one of puzzled concern. "Are you alright? You don't look so hot..."
"'M fine...I'm just tired," he told her.
"Oh...Okay," Karen didn't seem convinced, and she watched him shrewdly as he waved good-bye and made his way past her down the road onto his farm. "Working so hard in weather like this, I'll be surprised if he doesn't catch a cold," she muttered to herself as he disappeared from view.
Shaking her head, Karen flicked a stray bit of hair back over her shoulder and continued on her own way home, making a mental note to check in on Jack tomorrow morning.
(x)
Cliff emerged from the carpenter's cabin to greet the rays of the morning sun. It had snowed pretty hard last night, so the carpenters had insisted he bunk down with them instead of staying in that freezing cave as he usually did when the weather turned foul. He was prepared to go fishing down at the beach - the fish there tended to be bigger (and therefore more filling) than the ones in the river, so he stepped lively across the small footbridge and out onto the path.
The foraging had, as he'd predicted, become more or less non-existent as the first snows settled on the ground. It looked as though he was going to be subsisting on fish stews for the most part this winter...not that he minded, too much. He had a small store of herbs and mushrooms that he'd gathered in the fall, so with those to season his stew, he wouldn't be too bad off at all.
Cliff slowed as he passed Jack's farm on his way to the beach. There was no sign of the young farmer, though judging from the distinct lack of crops growing in the snowed-under field, that probably shouldn't come as too big a surprise. Probably taking care of his animals or holed up in his cabin, Cliff thought. Maybe I'll stop by on my way back and share some of my catch.
He hurried on, both nervous and cheered by the thought. Talking to Jack had become much easier after the horse race, but he still didn't see much of the other man - his fault entirely, of course.
Still avoiding the issue... he told himself. He was now tromping across the wet sand at the high tide mark towards the pier where he usually sat and fished. He had come to the decision that it was probably best if he kept his encounters with Jack to a minimum. As the object of Cliff's affections became easier to talk to, he knew that it would also become much easier to blurt out something he would live to regret.
Ah, well, he thought as he gained the pier and prepared to make his first cast of the morning.
The fish were as eager to rise to the bait the morning after a heavy snow fall as they were after a heavy rain. Cliff's basket was full of large, wriggling fish before the sun had risen much past nine o' clock, and he smiled happily as he made his way back up to the mountain to clean and cook them.
He ran into Karen in front of Jack's farm.
"Oh! Cliff!" she seemed surprised to see him.
"Hi, Karen," he said cheerfully. "What's that you've got there?" he asked, catching sight of a woven basket much like his own, covered in a grape-colored towel.
"Food for the idiot who worked too long in the snow yesterday," she replied with a small smile. Then she blinked, and stared speculatively at Cliff. "Actually, though, I'm really rather busy...you wouldn't happen to have any free time right now, would you?" she asked, pointedly ignoring the over-full basket of fish he carried.
"Well, er..."
"Oh, good!" she exclaimed. "Here, let me take this for you, I'll put it in the freezer for you - come by and pick it up whenever, my mother's always home." As she spoke, she pulled Cliff's basket out of his unresisting hands and replaced it with hers. "Thanks so much!"
Without even giving Cliff enough time for a token protest, she smiled prettily at him, whirled, and was stalking off back up the hill to the vineyard, where she was soon lost from sight. Cliff stared after her for several moments, mouth agape.
What...what just happened? he thought, shifting his new burden in his arms. He could feel the heat of the food radiating from the wicker-weave, and his own stomach growled. Hope there's enough for two... he thought dumbly as he turned and stepped onto Jack's property in a daze.
His polite knock on the front door elicited a groaned "Come in," from the occupant, and Cliff cautiously entered. The first thing he saw upon stepping over the threshold was Jack, stripped to his boxers, laying spread-eagle on his back in bed with the covers kicked off and a pillow over his head. Cliff's stomach immediately tied itself into knots at the sight, and his heart began to pound. He barely registered Jiro as the dog made a mad dash between his legs and out into the yard.
"Uh...Hey, Jack, how're you feeling?" Cliff asked, moving further into the room.
"Cliff?" The pillow shifted slightly and one dull, brown eye emerged to regard the visitor.
"I, uh, heard you were sick," he said, truthfully enough. "I've got food..."
"My hero," Jack murmured, smiling a little before he replaced the pillow firmly over his face.
Cliff's stomach tied itself into even tighter knots, and he was glad Jack had covered his face once more and couldn't see him blush. He set the basket down on the table in the middle of the room and pulled off the towel, to see what Karen had packed.
Inside was a large ceramic container full of hot tomato soup, a slightly smaller container full of white rice, and four grilled cheese sandwiches tied neatly in another grape-colored towel.
"Do you have any bowls?" Cliff asked, looking over his shoulder at Jack's prone form.
"Next to the tool box," Jack said, pointing vaguely to the corner. Cliff quickly grabbed two and filled each with some of the hot soup. He made other necessary preparations with the rice and so forth, and then moved one of the two stools to Jack's bedside.
"Ready for some food?" he asked, trying not to stare at Jack's naked torso and failing miserably. Nearly a whole year's worth of farm-work had done some very nice things to Jack's former city-dweller physique. Clearly defined pectoral muscles, broad shoulders, and lean, muscular arms were what dominated Cliff's attention, though the area around Jack's waist wasn't very far behind in the running. Jack's boxers, however, were strictly off-limits...or so he told himself.
I'm really bad at listening when I tell myself "no", Cliff thought as his eyes strayed to the plaid cotton construction that was the only barrier between Jack's interesting bits and the rest of the world.
"Mmmm...food..." Jack groaned, providing a welcome distraction to Cliff. He turned around and busied himself with moving Jack's portion over to the bedside table while Jack sat up and pulled a sheet and a blanket over his legs.
Cliff quickly had Jack situated with a bowl of soup and a napkin containing two of the sandwiches in his lap. Cliff himself was seated on the stool next to Jack's bed, enjoying his own soup.
"You're eating too, huh?" Jack teased between bites.
"Free food's free food. There's enough for two, and if Karen doesn't like it, too bad!" Cliff said defiantly.
"Karen?" Jack asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Yeah," Cliff nodded. "I ran into her on my way back to the mountain and she shoved her basket in my hands and told me to feed you."
"Did she now?" Jack was torn between feeling put out that Cliff hadn't thought to visit on his own and feeling grateful to Karen for sending Cliff as her proxy. Perhaps he'd thank her for it, later...
"Oh, by the way Karen, thanks for sending Cliff in to nurse me back to health."
"What, are you saying you'd rather have him than me? Am I not good enough for you, or something?"
...On second thought, maybe he'd not say anything after all. He could too easily imagine Karen becoming offended if he thanked her for something like...well, like this.
As he ate, Jack snuck several glances at Cliff. When he'd woken up this morning with his head feeling two times bigger than normal with congestion and a migraine, and burning up with a fever besides, he'd felt like crawling into a hole and dying to relieve his misery. But now that Cliff was here, he felt slightly less miserable, and certainly not like dying. The food was good too, and that helped a great deal.
"How are you feeling?" Cliff asked as he set his empty bowl aside. Jack regarded his own bowl, still at least half-full.
"I've been better," he said wryly.
"I see. Have you been worse?"
Jack grimaced. "This morning," he admitted.
"Didn't you eat any breakfast?"
"And get out of bed? I'm not even sure I could find the floor at this point," Jack said.
"You're doing tolerably well eating your food," Cliff pointed out jokingly. Jack mock-scowled at him.
"Hush," he said, turning back to his bowl, though not before noticing the wide grin that last comment elicited.
Cliff spent the rest of the morning and a good portion of the afternoon looking after Jack, though the farmer insisted that what Cliff was doing was completely unnecessary. He left at one point at around two to feed and care for Jack's animals. Umeko, the milk-cow, was distinctly unhappy, her udder swollen with unreleased milk. Cliff quickly remedied that problem for her, before feeding and grooming the other livestock. The chickens were quiet as he spread grains for them, but converged right away on the proffered food, making it easy for him to gather the six eggs left behind by the greedy birds.
When he returned to the cabin, Cliff saw that Jack had fallen asleep. He was laying on his side this time, and his head was on top of his pillow instead of beneath it. Cliff stared, entranced by Jack's peaceful countenance, for several minutes before he realized what he was doing. Quietly shutting the door, he sighed softly before making his way over to the vineyard to retrieve his dinner from Karen.
(X)
Jack slept peacefully through the rest of the day and into the night. When he next awoke, it was about four o' clock in the morning, and he was feeling remarkably recovered. A quick glance around the darkened interior of his cabin confirmed that Cliff had not hung around, and Jack couldn't help but feel disappointed, though he chided himself for hoping that Cliff would actually stay.
Sighing, he settled back against his pillow, tugging rogue blankets back up to cover him properly. He lay there for several minutes, wide awake. Suddenly, almost without thinking, he reached over to his bedside table, where he'd set the music box. He twisted the key several times in the dark, then set the box back on the table and opened the lid.
The quiet, soothing sound of the music filled the silence, and Jack settled against his pillow once more, remembering Rick's remark the day he'd gotten it fixed.
"Heeey...you know, this is a love song you give to a girl," was what the inventor had said. Jack closed his eyes, soothed by the music. Love song, yes, he thought drowsily to himself. Don't know any girls I'd give it to, though...
He dropped quickly back to sleep, lulled by the gentle tinkling and thoughts of someone he would like to give the box to.
(x)
The next morning after he'd woken properly and done his chores, Jack packed a lunch and the music box into his bag, and set out for the mountain. He'd search for Cliff all day if he had to, and he wouldn't give up until he found the man and thanked him properly for taking care of him while he was sick.
It came as rather a surprise to him that he found Cliff relitively quickly, compared with all the other times he'd set out specifically to look for him. The young man in question was fishing quietly on the riverbank.
"Cliff!"
Cliff looked up at the sound of someone calling his name, and smiled when he saw who it was. "Hi! Are you feeling better?"
"Loads," Jack responded, grinning back.
"Glad to hear it," Cliff told him, blushing slightly.
There was a moment of silence, though it wasn't too uncomfortable.
"Thank you so much for checking up on me," Jack finally said, working up the final nerve. Just do it! he ordered himself sternly.
"It was no big deal," Cliff assured him with another small smile.
"For you maybe, but it meant a lot to me," Jack said, and plunged ahead. "I wanted to give this to you...to thank you," he offered the music box as he spoke. Cliff looked down at it with a mixture of astonishment and confusion.
"I...Uh...Are you sure...?" he asked, at a loss for words.
"Positive," Jack told him, still holding out the box.
"But...well, shouldn't you...uhm...that is, I'm sure there's someone else you'd rather give that to," Cliff managed to say.
Jack shook his head. "If you don't accept it, I'll throw it in the river," and motioned as if to do so.
"Wait! It's wasted on me, but if you really want me to have it...I mean..."
"That's what I want," Jack confirmed.
Cliff took the small box in his hand with a shaky smile. Jack smiled happily at him and slung his pack back over his shoulder. "I'll leave you to your fishing, then," he said cheerfully. "And thanks again!" With that final gratitude, Jack turned and walked off, leaving behind a very bemused (and very happy) Cliff.
Cliff very carefully tucked the box into his vest pocket so that he could reel in his hook properly. That done, he settled his fishing pole to the ground and crouched to the earth himself, removing the box from his vest and opening it. He recognized the tune at once, and his stomach twisted itself into all sorts of knots.
This is a love song! Cliff thought, completely shocked. He probably doesn't know...no, there's no way he could know...he'd never have given it to me if he did!
Oh, but wouldn't it be wonderful if he did realize the song's significance? Cliff stayed where he was, crouched down low, and let the tune slowly wind itself down, so that the last notes drifted away on the winter breeze, light and ethereal.
(x)X(x)X(x)
-To be continued-
Authors Notes: Hmm...not much to say about this one. I feel I must extend an apology if anyone is drowning in the sappiness of it all. I know I am, and I'm writing the silly thing! I had a couple of alternate endings involving Ann and a different distribution of the music box, but I decided that Cliff needs a little bit of happiness to keep him going...to give him courage...you know, that sort of thing. /grins/
Minor technicality that I'm pointing out before someone else thinks to: In the game, you can't dig up the music box in the winter – the ground won't turn when there's snow on it. But since this is a bit of writing drabble and the mechanics of real-life apply over the mechanics of game-play, Jack was able to dig up the box.
I suppose I ought to mention something about the ladies I'm involving in this story. Firstly, a word about Popuri: I really, really like Popuri. In fact, she is my first choice for marriage in any Harvest Moon game. Due to the nature of this fic, however, there's not a huge chance that she's going to be marrying Jack. However, I do have a happy ending in mind for her, so please don't worry. :)
Now Ann, on the other hand, is not a character I'm particularly fond of...especially since she always marries Cliff, in the normal way of things, and as Cliff is my absolute favorite, I don't want anyone to marry him except my little farmer...who always has to be a guy. Drats. Why can't there be a Harvest Moon: Yaoi Edition? I'd buy that!
I'm feeling the need to make a small disclaimer at this point: Since I do not have a beta reader, I try to proof-read pretty thoroughly before posting my chapters, but sometimes mistakes and awkward phrases slip through, especially when I've been writing for a while and just want to get the silly thing posted. So apologies for any mistakes you may have noticed...No doubt I shall go through this at a later date and edit and fix up, but until then, what you see is what you get.
Comments, criticisms, and feedback are all welcome, as always. See you in Chapter 10:)