Harmony had fallen back asleep in Maika's arms just as Maika began to slowly stand up. He took another look at Harmony, smiled, then frowned. "What am I doing?" he thought. "Julia... what would Julia think of me? Am I to get over her so quickly? Oh, I pray that you are not watching me now with another girl-ham..." Maika, feeling ashamed, let Harmony down slowly on a soft patch of dirt. "Well, she'll be safe here... Wait, what am I thinking! She has a pretty bad wound... I can't just leave her!" He picked Harmony back up again, checked outside for cats, then headed west to the river. "I just don't know what's right anymore!"

Meanwhile, at the clubhouse, the ham-hams were growing a little impatient and decided to get a jump-start on the meeting.

"Okay!" began Boss. "Let's just assume that they wanna join our club. Are we gonna let 'em in? Speak up fellow ham-hams!"

"Well, I think it's a very good idea!" Maxwell started.

"Agreed," Dexter concurred.

"Yeah, they can help us find more seeds!" Oxnard's stomach grumbled a little, causing him to Blushie.

"Maika looks almost as strong as you, Boss! He could probably help with gathering any materials for our projects." Panda looked pleased with having a new helping-ham in the club. (A/N) Helping-HAM, you get it? xD Hahaha...

"Hey hey! They could be some customers to mah store!" Howdy said in his usual weird dialect.

Snoozer turned over and faced Boss. "Zuzuzu... Sounds good..."

"Heh, I guess that's cool. More Hamigos, ya know?" Stan shook his maracas.

"Yeah! It's always good to have more friends!" Hamtaro exclaimed happily.

"Alright, we've heard from the boys, so how about you girls?" Boss looked at Pashmina first.

"You know I'm not gonna disagree with that, Boss!" said Pashmina, smiling.

"Like, it'll be so much fun!" cheered Sandy.

"Good good!" replied Boss. "We still have to wait for the other hams to come back, but it's definitely looking like Harmony's gonna join our happy crew!"

Hamtaro looked at Boss a little confused. "Umm, Maika and Melodie too, right?"

"Uhh, yeah! Sure!" Boss Blushie'd a little with a sweat drop. Everyone else just sighed.

"Hey you four!" Maika Heyhoo'd to Bijou, Cappy, Penelope, and Melodie.

"Oh dear! What happened to Harmony?" Bijou rushed over to Harmony, who was standing now, and looked at the scrapes on her cheek. "Thees iz terrible!"

Cappy and Penelope brought Melodie over to look at Harmony. They started asking Maika what happened as Bijou brought Harmony to a small stump so they both could sit down.

"Well, Harmony met up with me at my old village... She saved me from a cat, but another cat caught her off-guard and swiped at her... We barely made it out alive."

Maika looked over at Harmony who leaned in to whisper something to Bijou. Bijou smiled and hugged Harmony.

"I think we should bring her back to the clubhouse to rest," Cappy suggested. Maika nodded his head in agreement and walked over to Harmony and Bijou.

"You need to recover, Harmony. Let's go back to the clubhouse." Maika grabbed her paw and helped her stand. She rested her left arm over Maika's shoulders as the six ham-hams trekked homeward.

"HARMONY!" Boss Daplunk'd down to the main level and ran to her side.

"Please, Boss," said Bijou. "We're taking 'er upstairs to rest. All of us weell talk about thees later." Boss looked disappointed, but allowed Maika to carry Harmony upstairs.

"I swear, if he hurt her in any way I'll... I'll..."

"Boss?" Bijou tugged on Boss's arm, snapping him out of his thoughts. "Have you decided eef they can join us yet?"

"Let's talk about that tomorrow. Harmony needs to rest, and I don't wanna decide anything without her here." Boss looked at everyone and raised his voice. "You got that, hams?" They all nodded, a little afraid of Boss's attitude. "Good. It's getting late, so let's have supper."

"Finally..." said Oxnard.

"We're running a little low on sunflower seeds, so why don't we go and look for some?" Boss agreed with Hamtaro, and so everyone set out to look for seeds.

"If we go in pairs, we can gather them faster," added Boss. "So everybody buddy up!"

"Oh wait," Boss thought, "Harmony's laying down... well, I guess I can search with Bij-"

"Hey Boss, can I come with you?" Cappy asked. "Pashmina got to Penelope before I did, so I was wondering, if you're not paired up yet..." Boss let out a low sigh and agreed.

So here's who's together (Snoozer stayed behind, of course):

Boss and Cappy
Oxnard and Stan
Pashmina and Penelope
Maxwell and Sandy
Hamtaro and Bijou
Howdy, Dexter, and Panda (Panda had to keep them apart so they wouldn't start fighting)
Maika and Melodie

"Wow, you're really growing fast, Melodie." She was starting to crawl much to Maika's surprise. "You really are a special girl... I'm glad that I could take care of you." Maika started thinking back to the special girl that he knew, the girl that he took care of, the one he's always had a special bond with. "I wonder what she said to Bijou...?" he thought to himself. He and Melodie kept moving along, and soon Maika started talking out loud to himself. "Well, if Julia wanted me to be with someone in case I was ever alone, it would probably have to be- ACK!"

Maika tripped over a small rock and landed face-first in some mud. Melodie looked back at him and started laughing. "Yeah yeah, go ahead and laugh, little one..." Melodie came over and started playing in the mud with Maika.

"Oh no, we still have to look for seeds! Come on, Mel- Hey, watch it! You're getting my face all dirty..." Maika sobbed, exaggerating how sad he was. He secretly smiled, took some mud and tossed it, hitting Melodie's stomach. She laughed even more and started to crawl on Maika's chest.

"Well, we can play for a little... but just a bit, ok?" Melodie sat down on Maika, lightly pinning him to the ground.

"Ok," she said.

Hamtaro and Bijou had gathered quite a large amount of sunflower seeds and decided to rest a bit before they head back to the clubhouse. Bijou lied on the ground as Hamtaro brought an armful of seeds and put it on Bijou's pile. They looked at the sun as it was setting. The light played upon the clouds around it, changing their colour to brilliant shades of yellow, orange, and red. There was a half-moon that barely revealed itself high above, with the night following after. Bijou stared dreamily at the horizon with Hamtaro.

"Hey Bijou... Do you think Boss would be ok with us being together? He's been after you for a long time..."

"I don't know, Hamtaro... I hope we can be together."

"But, he has an eye on Harmony now! So if he's after her, then we'll be fine together, don't you think?"

"I theenk she has an eye on someone else..."

"Really? I knew I was a good-looking ham, but I didn't think-"

"Oh stop eet Hamtaro" Bijou playfully pushed Hamtaro on his side, giggling. Hamtaro rolled back over ending up with his stomach on Bijou's, their eyes adoringly gazing at the other's.

"S...Schmubby-wubby, Bijou..."

"Schmubby-wubby, Hamtaro..."

Their noses rubbed against each other's and they Blushie'd uncontrollably. They both smiled, then Hamtaro laid next to Bijou like before.

"So what makes you think Harmony likes another ham?"

"Oh, just sometheeng she told me..."

I never felt safer... than when I was in his loving arms...