I hope this story is alright with you so far. ^_^

Disclaimer: I own nothing but this story. All Harvest Moon Characters belong to Natsume Productions, right?

Enjoy~

Chapter 4: Hint

Akari's pov-

My gloved hand instinctively moved upwards to my forehead to wipe off the beads of sweat forming on my face. I looked up to the sky with the same hand shielding my eyes from the sun. With a light pant, I dropped the twenty pound hoe behind me. I dropped down to the ground with a 'thump'. I raised my head up to let the cool spring breeze go through my face.

The fourth day of spring and the fourth day of living with the men finally came by. For about a few hours today, I tilled in a few more patches of turnips, seeing as there wasn't very much to do at the time being. Wizard did tell me that the lesson was tonight; as I thought it was in the morning. I recalled what just happened in the morning-

~Flashback~

I hurriedly speed-walked to Wizard's room, still a little worried that I have to learn about astrology as I knew nothing about it. I stopped at the entrance of his room and gave out a few small but firm knocks. I waited for the door to open, but nothing came by. I patiently waited for a minute longer, and heard a *click* come from the door.

In front of me was Wizard, but it seems that he probably just woke up from sleep. Now Wizard didn't have a bed head, but it seems like the braided part of his hair was undone and now was a long trail of silver down to his neck. Wizard's garments also told me that he just left a bed. The clothes he was wearing was only a black T-shirt and sweats. I gave out a confused look at the unprepared man, as he gave a plain look with a small hint of confusion himself. I decided to speak first.

"Umm… The lesson… It's today, right?" I asked with my head tilted in confusion. Wizard then gave a hardly noticeable sigh, looks like he understands what I mean.

"At…Night…" Wizard stated. I gave out an embarrassed 'Oh' and scratched the back of my head with a lopsided grin. I gave a deep bow to apologize and turned away to make myself useful at the time being. Once I started walking away another *click* came through the hallway to signal that the Wizard closed his door.

I quickly made my way down the stairs to meet up with Kevin. Kevin gave a smile to say hello and he started to make his way outside; that's when I stopped him.

"Kevin… I don't really have much to do at the moment, so... uhh… can I get some more turnip seeds and work on the farm some more?" I asked, hoping for a yes.

Kevin gave a surprised stare and gave a nod. I nodded back in thanks and happiness. Kevin dug in his pockets and pulled out a few bags of turnip seeds and handed them to me. I quickly made my way outside and started my work.

~End of Flashback~

I slowly opened my eyes up again to stare at the sky some more. The clouds wisped around the bright sky blue atmosphere and the sun brightened the settings of day. My breathing has now finally calmed down and I released a satisfied sigh from the cool breeze that whistled in my ears.

While I was busy staring at the sky, I felt a cold, wet sensation come on my cheek. I gave out a surprised gasp as I felt droplets sliding from my cheek. I turned around to where the sensation came from and found Chase holding two cans of coke. Chase gave an amused smile and held the cans of coke up to my seeing range.

"Hey, I thought you needed something to cool you down, it wasn't easy to get your attention though, I thought you fell asleep." Chase grinned. I looked back at him with my eyes widened slightly.

After a few seconds of just staring at each other, I gave out a small giggle at the odd silence.

"Thanks. I didn't have much to do at the time so I decided to just work on the farm; it seems I went overboard just a bit." I gave a smile to Chase as I took the can of coke. I popped the tab open and started drinking the fizzing liquid as I looked over my farm.

All of the weeds, branches, and rocks have been removed from the farmland, now only revealing the patches of seeds I planted. The patches of turnip seeds almost filled half of the farm, and by count, it seems that I planted about five squares of those seeds. I reviewed my farm once more, satisfied with my work.

After us both finished our drinks I quickly checked over my watch.

6:45 pm

Ahh… It's getting late… I looked over to Chase, knowing that at this time he should be getting dinner ready.

"Whoa! It's already this late? Sorry Akari gotta go!" exclaimed Chase. I gave a small nod, but he already left before I gave out an answer. Since Chase was going to start dinner, I ran into the mansion and quickly made my way up the stairs to my room.

Once I got to my room, I changed into a new outfit to get prepared for both the lesson and dinner. I pulled on a black T-shirt and knee-length jeans; I quickly combed my hair down to a presentable look, and finally made my way down the stairs to the kitchen where the smell of freshly cooked food was wafting around the whole house. As soon as I entered the dinning room, loud sounds and laughs echoed in my ears. The all too familiar scene with Luke was starting all over again.

I walked over to the closest chair I could find and sat down. I picked up the water that was in front of me and took a few sips, my ears listening on what Luke was going to talk about this time.

"After that, Bo jumped on my back and slammed the same chunk of wood I threw at him, and then we both fell backwards into the lake again!" shouted Luke, his hands waving all around showing the story with symbols. From the loud noises, I gave out a sigh, it seems like Luke loves to exaggerate things, huh?

Luke's little story was interrupted by the sound of the kitchen's doors opening. Out came Chase, a rolling cart with dishes on top with him. One by one, the dishes came by and placed in front of everyone, and the dish tonight was spaghetti, a very well made one at that.

As I took a closer look at the spaghetti, the spices were carefully sprinkled on top and the sauce was placed at a very precise position on the noodles. My eyes widened as the food looked like art itself. It was made so beautifully that I wasn't sure if I really wanted to eat it, more so being that I just wanted to stare at it. Nevertheless, I lifted up the fork and started to slowly spin up the spaghetti on the fork. Everyone else had already started eating as it was very obvious when Julius complemented on how well it was presented and Luke making chewing sounds when he took a mouthful of pasta. I lifted up the fork and slowly placed it inside of my mouth.

The taste was very comforting, giving a warm wave of heat all around my mouth and the faint sweetness of the sauce dancing around, and melting from the thickness of the noodles created a wonderful melody in your mouth. Then as the bites became smaller and smaller, I recalled that the taste was unusually familiar the more I had ate it. I feel like I tasted this before, just by tasting it I can recall what spices were used in this, or at least, the spices inside of a recipe I remember.

This taste… Oregano? I taste both dried and fresh oregano… Roseberry and Basil are in this too…

My train of thought ceased when I heard clamps of dishes being stacked and Luke letting out a satisfied sigh.

"Wooo~ That was great Chase! Thanks for the food." Luke complemented. I looked up and saw Chase gave a smile and a thankful nod. I looked back down at my plate and realized that every bite was gone from my plate as well. It seems that I was unconsciously eating while I was lost in my thoughts. I placed the fork down on the plate and lifted it up to place it on the cart. I soon gave a bow of thanks for the well made food and started my way to the stairs back up to the rooms. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Wizard now going in his room. My face went from a blank one to a curious one.

I have a lesson with him anyways, so I won't matter if I come there now. I thought to myself.

While thinking that, I was already moving up the steps to his door. I gave out some knocks and patiently waited for his answer. A *click* was quickly heard afterwards and the door slowly opened. There was Wizard in front of me and was probably expecting my arrival by the books under his arms.

"Come…" Wizard gave out a curt order for me to come inside of his room. I answered with a nod and entered his room, and the first thing that hit me was a strong smell of coffee beans. I looked over at the counter he had and saw a coffee maker with a bag full of coffee beans beside it. I'm guessing that he's not much of a night sleeper. I decided to take a look around his room, just curious on where he placed his belongings, but once I took a glace at the whole room itself my eyes slightly widened from the way his room was arranged.

Wizard's room had many things about astrology piled on one side of the room, as the other seems to be a research area with many mystical items placed on a desk. Shelves were filled with books about stars and foreign languages of what it seems to be of chanting spells of some sort. His balcony had a large telescope that was pointed right at the full moon, and lastly was his desk. The desk was covered with threaded beads and a large crystal placed carefully on a scarlet red cushion. The crystal ball was absolutely hypnotizing. The bright sparkles that shine on the ball seem to make out stars and planets, sounds crazy, I know, but the ball was mesmerizing.

I pulled my eyes away from the ball, knowing that there was a reason in being here. I searched around to look for the character of importance of this moment and found him at the balcony beside his telescope. I made my way out to Wizard and tilted my head slightly to question what we were doing. Wizard looked upwards to the sky and I followed his gaze, and from our position, the stars shined brightly with a shine coming off the edges.

I stared at the sky, the shine of the stars reminding me of his crystal ball. The bright white lights illuminated the dark night sky, now the full moon was the largest shine of all of them. I looked back at Wizard again, still in confusion as to why staring up at a bunch of bright stars had anything to do in my studies. He then started to speak.

"Constellations… name them…" a soft statement made its way out of Wizard's mouth. I then gave into a cold sweat, not because of stupidly understanding why we were here, but because I had to name a bunch of constellations when I hardly even know anything about the moon.

"Uuuummmm…." My voice started trailing off, completely lost on what I was supposed to do. I then heard a soft sigh escape Wizard's lips and he walked over to me, opening a book in the process. I looked over at the book from the side and saw that he was on a page of lines connecting into an odd picture that slightly looked like a dipper with a bunch of lines pointing out all around it; information about that picture on the lower portion. I took a closer inspection of the words written on.

Ursa Major (Often referred by the Big Dipper) - This constellation holds a group of stars that is often called the Big Dipper. The Big Dipper holds as an easier reference to Ursa Major due to being found rather quickly when searched for. Best found in the Spring time.

Translation- The Greater Bear

Abbreviation- UMa

After finishing the small section of information my attention returned to Wizard. Wizard closed the book when he saw that I was finished reading and began to speak.

"Look up… Find this constellation…" Wizard's voice was very calm, and something about that gave me a bit of confidence. I gave a firm nod and stared up at the stars to search for this constellation. After a few seconds of silent searching I finally found the Big Dipper. I gave a wave to Wizard and he handed the book towards me, I turned the pages back to Ursa Major and traced the stars from the book to the real ones. I then gave out a large smile and grabbed Wizard's arm while jumping up and down in joy that I found a constellation.

Tell you the truth, I was never a 'search and finder' person, so the first constellation I found was this one and I kinda feel a bit proud of myself, if you know what I mean.

"I found it! There it is! That's the first constellation I ever found! Thank you so much for helping me!" I ringed out my thanks in a hyper voice, and by then I realized that I got a little too excited, mostly due to me still hugging Wizard's arm in thanks. I pause for a second and quickly let go of Wizard's arm, my face now flushed with the color red as I softly whispered a 'sorry'.

I turned to look at Wizard and noticed that his face held one of the faintest hints of a blush. By that, my blush only became brighter in embarrassment of making him uncomfortable with me, then an awkward silence forms. I made a makeshift plan to get ourselves out of this unusual silence by grabbing his book and blurting out on what we should do now.

"Ahh… Well, let us continue with the lesson! W-what should we search for next?" I nervously tried to change the odd silence into a lesson where we could get somewhere tonight. I flipped the pages frantically, just hoping to find one where we could find at this time of year. I flipped to a random page named Cancer. Now that I found the constellation, I waved my hand in a gesture for Wizard to come over and help me find this constellation. I gave out a silence sigh; thankful at Wizard quickly composed himself to his usual quiet, calm character.

Throughout most of the night, we stayed up with some sips of coffee Wizard made and staring up at the stars, quickly listing their names and constellations. After a few more minutes of stargazing, I took a quickly look at my watch to find out what time it was.

12: 45 am

My eyes widened slightly at the time, and was about to gasp at how late it was, but was replaced with a yawn. My eyes soon narrowed in exhaustion and my vision became blurry in the need of sleep for a moment. I raised my hands up to my eyes and rubbed them to get the tiredness out of them, a thought then rose up in my mind.

If Wizard stays up this late all the time, no wonder he wasn't ready this morning.

Wizard then noticed how sleepy I was and started to guide me out of his room to mine.

"You seem… tired… Get… some sleep…" Wizard whispered, knowing that at this time everyone was most likely asleep.

I gave a sleepy nod and was guided to my room. I entered my room and gave a lazy wave to Wizard when he made his way to his own room, and Wizard returned it with a small raise of the hand.

I came inside of my room and shut the door. I pulled off of my unsuitable clothes for sleep into a plain T-shirt with felt shorts. I didn't even bother to put up my removed articles of clothing as I was absolutely exhausted. Soon I collapsed on my plushy bed, my figure sinking into its softness. A few last thoughts span in my head, now coming back to the taste of the spaghetti that I had for dinner. Even with the strong taste of coffee clinging to my senses I was still able to remember the wonderful taste of the Italian pasta.

The past and the spices, the creator of it were stuck in my mind as well. I felt a vision of that person, the one who made that familiar spaghetti, it felt like that person filled up all of my thoughts, now interfering with my thinking process. That was when I lost myself to the darkness of deep sleep.

I hope you like this so far~ I'll try to make more updates despite having to move, and thank you to those who took the time to read this. ^_^

My updates will be very slow now that my family has just started moving to an apartment district, but nevertheless, I'll do my very best to make more updates. Updates will most likely be coming in about a week to 2 weeks, very slow, I know, but I'll try to get them in earlier if I can... Again, Thank you to those who reviewed me~ ^_^