I did fall asleep, but I still finished it! And, by the way, happy New Year. It's going to be a new decade-can you believe it? Let's hope things go well for everyone in 2011! Especially Vaughn and Chelsea, eh?

By the way, in response to an anonymous reviewer, this fic is, in fact, named after the Lady Antebellum song "American Honey". The song is what inspired this version of Chelsea. It's a wonderful song. One of my favorites. xP

NEW FEATURE - CHAPTER STATS

Word Count (excluding A/N): 1655

Date Updated: 12/31/10

Current Review Count: 135

Chelsea woke up on Wednesday morning feeling especially cold. She groggily sat up in her raggedy bed, her hair flying every which direction, her legs covered in goose bumps. Where were her blankets? She wasn't usually this cold in the mornings. It was normally just a little, biting feeling all over and numb feet. Today, she was shivering. Now, Chelsea's half-asleep brain takes twice as long to process information as her alert brain does. She immediately knew that her covers had been kicked off and onto the floor, but it took her a while to figure out why there was a small puddle of melting snow on the hardwood beneath her window.

Oh, crap. She forgot to close the window last night. And she never really opened it, either—it just had to be the one time she did that this happened…

Yawning hugely, she rolled out of bed, shuddering as her feet hit the icy floor. She needed to invest in some slippers or something. She smirked at herself—right, because she could totally afford to buy slippers. She just wouldn't need to eat for a week.

Sighing, Chelsea brought her hands up above her head in a stretch. She shook her head, trying to wake up completely. Another day of farm work was calling her name, and there was no way that she could ignore it. She trudged over to a cabinet and grabbed one of her few, old towels to sop up the slushy snow littering her floor. As that was soaking it up, Chelsea grabbed onto the freezing window to pull it shut—but it wouldn't budge. She squeezed on it and yanked harder, but still, it wouldn't move. One more time she tried, but her fingers were turning purple and really starting to hurt from the cold pressure.

"Well, crap," Chelsea muttered, rubbing her hands together and studying the still-open window. At least it wasn't snowing out. Sighing, she decided that she'd just have to come try again later—maybe the window would thaw out a little in the midday temperatures. She sighed once again, a short, quick feeling of defeat washing over her. Then she went to go get ready for her day.

Ooo

Vaughn stepped onto the island a little later than usual—his boat had been delayed because of some sort of pending weather conditions that he didn't know about. Apparently it wasn't that urgent if they let the boat go through.

Vaughn scanned the beach one time before padding his way over to the animal shop to do some work. He pushed open the door and a cow bell sounded off above him, startling him. He turned to glare up at it—had that always been there? Damn bells…

"Oh, Vaughn, you're back," Mirabelle smiled at him from behind the counter, "I'm afraid to say that we don't have a lot of work for you today. Julia already took care of the chickens and I fed the others when I wasn't sure your boat was going to arrive."

Vaughn frowned. What was he supposed to do now? Winter was starting to come in full-swing, so he couldn't be outside for too long. And Goddess knew how few indoor activities there were to do on Sunny Island. Vaughn was about to just turn and leave when Julia flew into the room.

"Hey, Ma, I—oh, Vaughn," she stopped, turning to face the cowboy. She looked him over once and smirked slightly, her eyes getting a mischievous glint to them. "Nice coat."

Vaughn narrowed his eyes at her, suspicious. He'd been using one of his older, dark brown coats since he got back to the city. Julia was teasing him. He scowled, turning to leave. He heard Julia begin laughing as the door shut behind him.

Ooo

Chelsea walked sullenly down the path from her farm. That window still wouldn't budge. She'd gone to take care of Daisy and then tried to open it again, but to no avail. She looked down at her numb, red hands. One of her finger was cut a little bit from slipping and jamming it into the side of the window sill. She continued studying her hands, completely forgetting to watch where she was going until she ran right into someone. A hand reached out and steadied her before she could fall. She looked down sheepishly.

"Sorry," she blushed, her hands falling back to her sides. Her eyes widened slightly at the grunt in reply—she knew that grunt. She looked up and smiled, "Vaughn! Is it Wednesday already? Yes—I'm so lucky!"

Vaughn raised an eyebrow at her. What was she getting so worked up about? He was here every Wednesday and Thursday—what was so special about today? Had she been… waiting for him? He shook that ridiculous thought from his head. What was he thinking? No one waited for him to come. If anything, they couldn't wait for him to leave.

"What're you talkin' 'bout?" Vaughn finally asked, frowning slightly. Chelsea folded her hands in front of her and Vaughn noticed that she was wearing his coat. It looked absolutely huge on her. She had the sleeves rolled up, but it was still obviously too large. He rolled his eyes internally, but couldn't feel remorse for giving it to her.

"My window is jammed—I can't close it. I accidentally left it open last night and it's like the arctic in my house. I can't live with that for the rest of the season," She explained, tracing a shape in the snow with her boot. Vaughn raised his eyebrows, still frowning slightly.

"So? What does this have to do with me?"

Chelsea bit down on her lip and looked up nervously. "Well, I was kind of hoping that—maybe—you could help me out? Like, can you get it closed for me? My hands are too numb to get a good grip, and, well…"

Vaughn rolled his eyes as she trailed off, but started walking up the path to her farm. Chelsea beamed and skipped after him, thanking him all the way. He rolled his eyes again. It wasn't like he had anything better to do.

Ooo

The window finally budged after three hard yanks from the cowboy. He slid it shut and turned to Chelsea, who was watching incredulously.

"Wait, wait, wait," she said, gaping at the closed window, "How did you do that? That's exactly what I've been trying all morning!"

"Well," Vaughn looked over at her from beneath his hat, "your arms're like twigs."

"Hey, watch it. I run a farm, you know? It's not my fault my muscles aren't that visible," Chelsea frowned, feigning hurt. Then her face softened some as she smiled, "Thanks, Vaughn. I owe you. Again."

Vaughn glanced over at her and felt his face heat up. There she was, smiling again. It made him so confused. It was like his palms got sweaty, his heart went into overtime, and his stomach turned over every time she looked at him like that. He hated it, but he kind of didn't. He couldn't decide—all he knew was that it was troublesome whenever she did that.

"Stop smilin'," he grunted, pulling his hat down to hide his colored face. He didn't want her to know how absolutely baffled she made him.

Chelsea tilted her head quizzically. He wanted her to stop smiling? Really? Just because he never smiled doesn't mean that she couldn't. She bit down on her lip, thinking as she watched him hide his face from her view. "You know, Vaughn, you really should smile more."

"Why the hell should I do that?" Vaughn mumbled, still trying to get the extra blood out of his face. Chelsea shrugged.

"Because it's nice to smile. People might like you more, you know?"

"I don't care about what people think," Vaughn rolled his eyes, turning to walk down the path. Chelsea walked with him.

"Fair enough," she said, still watching him. She back in the beginning of the season, when he'd chuckled in her house. She wanted to hear that again. She wanted to see that again. She placed her hand on his arm, stopping him. "But… I'd like to see you smile."

Vaughn looked down at her sheepish grin, a bit taken aback. No one had ever—ever—said anything like that to him. No one cared if he smiled or not. No one cared if he was happy. But here Chelsea was, saying stuff like that to him, smiling all timid-like at him, waiting for whatever he would say. It must have been something in those blue eyes at that moment that made him believe it.

She really did care.

"Hey, Chelsea!"

The two jumped and snapped their attention towards the path where the voice had come. Elliot jogged up, huffing slightly as he came up to them. Vaughn glared at the glasses-clad boy. He'd never really liked him—he was too much of a wimp. Elliot noticed the glare and shy over towards Chelsea, glancing confusedly between the farmer and the cowboy. He looked like he was going to ask something, but Vaughn cut him off in a gruff voice.

"What d'you want?"

Elliot let out a barely-audible squeak and turned to face Chelsea, still glancing nervously over at Vaughn out of the corner of his eyes.

"Chelsea, my grandpa wanted me to come over to warn you about the snowstorm that'll be blowing in tonight—he said to make sure your calf is inside." He explained.

"A snowstorm?" Chelsea furrowed her eyebrows, glancing over at Vaughn before looking back to Elliot, "Well, that doesn't sound too great. Thanks for letting me know, Elliot."

Elliot nodded and turned to leave, staying as far away from Vaughn as possible. Chelsea watched him go and then let out a long sigh. "It looks like it was a good thing you fixed my window."

Bahahaha. Finally, it's all set up. Kind of. I still feel like I'm rushing now. Believe it or not, the pace I'm going with the plot is still too fast for my liking. Sure, it's been nineteen (twenty?) chapters and Vaughn and Chelsea still haven't done anything too blatantly romantic, but it's still going to quickly! I swear, for what's going to happen next, we should be at at least chapter twenty-three.

Woah. Hold on. Plot bunny! I just got a plot bunny! Bahaha! It's PERFECT! Alright, that solves a problem or two. Cool beans. I'll see you guys next chapter-it looks like a storm is blowing in, just in time for Vaughn to realize that Chelsea honestly cares. Boo-yah. Review and tell me what you think! :D