A/N: Chapter 2 as promised. Thank you for all the reviews. I feel really inspired when I get good reviews. I don't have much to say here, so on with the fic!
Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon: Island Of Happiness or any of it's characters.
Chapter 2 - Thank You
"Chelsea! Wake up! You've got some explaining to do!" I groaned at the sudden cold. Opening my eyes, I found my two best friends looking down at me. Sabrina was hovering anxiously at the end of my bed, while Natalie towered over me, the covers she had just pulled off my bed were rolled up in her arms. Sometimes I regretted giving spare keys for my whole farm to Natalie's family, but they needed them in case I was ill one day or something. Someone had to keep the farm running. I looked down at myself as I sat up and wondered why I was still dressed in my normal clothes.
"What are you two doing here so early?"
"We saw Lanna. She said you got carried home by a savage man yesterday."
"Native, Natalie. She said native," Sabrina corrected with a smile. Natalie shrugged.
"Savage, native, same thing. The point is…" Here she stopped to give me her best no-nonsense glare. "What, Chelsea, were you doing in the jungle with a half-naked wild man?"
"Nat, what on earth are you…" I started to ask before it all came flooding back to me. My trip to the jungle. Following Shea to his home and making friends with him and Wada. Fainting from exhaustion and getting carried in his arms. Denny and Lanna leading him to my farm and him watching over me as Lanna tucked me into bed. The last thing I could remember before I dropped of to sleep was Shea leaving. Denny had followed him out, as if making sure that he actually went.
I groaned and tried tugging my covers back from Natalie. A glance at the clock told me that she'd come over extra early to make sure I couldn't make excuses about having farm work to do.
"Oh no you don't!" Natalie said, pulling the covers out of my reach. "You have to get started early today, so that you've got time to go thank wild man for looking after you."
"His name is Shea," I told her automatically, as I clambered out of bed. Stifling a yawn, I started to pack my things for the day into my rucksack. Carrying the necessities around with me saved me the trouble of having to go back and forth all the time.
"Ooh, Shea now, is it?" Natalie said teasingly. Now that I was up, she put the covers down and made the bed for me. At least she had the decency to do that after waking me. With Natalie silent for the moment, I began searching around the timber cupboards for my misplaced watering can, but then Sabrina came over and flashed a mischievous smile.
"So what's this Shea like?" she asked. Clearly neither her or Natalie wanted to drop the subject. "Are you interested?" I sighed and got down on my knees to look under the bed, earning a disgruntled noise from Natalie for messing up the covers.
"I met him yesterday, Sabrina. Right now, I'm just embarrassed that I fainted the first time I met him." I said, frowning as I stuck my head under the bed. "Aha! Got it!" I jumped to my feet, triumphantly waving the watering can in the air. Natalie had sat down on the bed, flashing Sabrina a look and grinning.
"Maybe you were so overwhelmed by his rugged, wild-man, good looks that your body just couldn't stand it."
"Don't be ridiculous, Natalie."
"So you don't think he's good looking?" Sabrina asked, joining in on Natalie's teasing.
"I never said that…" I said, starting to defend myself. Natalie, of course, cut me off.
"So you're attracted to him?"
"That's not… I didn't… Stop twisting my words!" I cried, my face burning up as I tried to glare at the two girls who had now burst into a fit of giggles. Natalie had fallen back on the bed and was clutching at her sides, howling with laughter. Sabrina was polite enough to hide her uncontrollable chuckles behind her hand. I glared at them both. "Don't you two have better things to do than pick on me?"
At my words, Sabrina gasped. She pushed past me to get a good look at my alarm clock, picking it up in her hands as if she couldn't quite believe what time it was telling her.
"I have to go!" she exclaimed, dropping the clock onto the bed and running for the door. She looked back and waved as she hurried out. "See you two later".
"Bye Sabrina! Good luck!" Natalie shouted after her, recovering from her giggle fit. I frowned. Good luck? Had I missed something? My friend must have seen the quizzical look on my face, because she shook her head at me and sighed. "She's giving that porridge to Vaughn today".
"Oh! I almost forgot about that," I replied with a slightly nervous laugh. I was really slow on the uptake that morning. Must have been the result of getting woken up so early.
"You did forget," Natalie said, seeing through my ploy. She shook her head again, but she was smiling. At least, she wasn't holding anything against me. I wondered why that was. With all my stuff for the day ready, I moved to the door and waited for Natalie to follow me out. Then, together we headed over to the barn. If Natalie ever decided to help with anything, it was the animals. So I always made a point to take her to the barn in case she was feeling generous. Which she must have been, because once we were in the barn, she picked up a bucket and went over to Betsy.
"So how did things go at Pierre's house last night?" I asked, as I sat down to milk Millie. The two cows were stood close together, so it was easy to keep the conversation going. Natalie laughed. Not really the response I expected, but at least she wasn't angry.
"He apologised. The moment he saw me on the doorstep, he just started saying sorry repeatedly," she explained. Catching on, I laughed too.
"I assume you didn't play the loving girlfriend and say you were sorry too," I said, leaning over to look at my friend. A slight blush had appeared on her cheeks at the word 'girlfriend', but she didn't acknowledge my use of the word in any other way. I guess they technically still weren't boyfriend and girlfriend just yet.
"Damn right I didn't! I told him that he was right to apologise, but lucky for him I had come up with something to get rid of some of the ingredients" Natalie replied happily. Clearly it had gone well for her. She was on good terms with Pierre again, without any hurt to her pride. I just hoped that Pierre was as happy with it as she was. "And then I got Sabrina to explain about her porridge. He was more than happy to help."
"That's good, but porridge doesn't take up many ingredients, what's happening to the rest?" I asked curiously. If Pierre had been so apologetic, surely he would have come up with a solution. I couldn't imagine all that food going to waste after Natalie had reacted so badly to it.
"Oh! He donated it all to the diner! He said it would benefit everyone that way!" Natalie announced. "After Sabrina's porridge was done, the three of us took all the food over there. It took a few trips actually. Come to think of it… we were just leaving the diner for the last time when we saw Lanna." I frowned and put my head down. I had just been thinking about how successfully I'd moved the conversation away from Shea and it had been brought right back to him. Natalie noticed my silence, chuckling softly, she continued. "We were quite surprised when she said to not go see you again until morning. Even more so when she told us about wild man."
"It's… Uh… Was Lanna alone?" I asked, narrowly avoiding correcting the nickname for the second time that morning. At my question, Natalie gave a short laugh. I never figured out if it was because she noticed my slip or because of what she told me next.
"Yeah, she was. She said she had to send Denny home because he kept pacing around." I chuckled softly to myself. I could imagine Denny doing just that, but what was more funny was that Lanna had told him what to do and he'd listened. He must have liked her more than I'd realised.
"I'll go thank her later".
The rest of the morning passed rather quickly. Natalie and I finished tending to the animals together, then she disappeared to do her own work at home. All my other chores, I did myself. The crops were all watered, some were nearly ready to be picked. I went fishing and actually managed a few good catches. Once everything was done, I headed out into town.
On the way over to Chen's store, I spotted Sabrina and Vaughn walking together. She was blushing as he had one arm around her waist. Clearly he had appreciated his porridge, as it was so unlike him to show emotion or attachment like that. Deciding not to disturb the couple, I merely waved at them and disappeared into Chen's store. There I got some chocolate and some supplies for the farm, before heading over to Gannon's.
True to my word, I planned on telling him about my trip to the jungle. He greeted me as usual and listened patiently to my story. When I reached the part about me fainting, I stopped. I was seeing it all in my mind and the memory of Shea catching me made me blush. I purposely looked down at the ground so that my hair was covering my face. Gannon chuckled.
"There's no need to tell me the rest, Chelsea. Thanks to the combined efforts of Natalie, Lanna and Denny, everyone already knows about your trip home".
"Oh… uh… everyone?" I asked, rubbing the back off my head in embarrassment. Gannon nodded. That simple nod made me feel like doom was upon me. What were people thinking now?
"When our local farmer gets carried home like that, everybody wants to hear about it, ya know?" Unfortunately, I did know. I was just going to have to bear it. I thanked Gannon for his time and hurriedly left. It didn't take me long to reach Lanna's home, but I stared down at my feet the whole way there. I didn't want to see if anyone was watching me with curiosity.
Lanna pulled me into a hug the moment she opened the door. Gasping for breath, I explained to her I wasn't planning on staying, I'd just stopped by to give her something as a thank you for the day before. She released me long enough to accept the chocolate I'd brought for her, but then pulled me back into another hug as she squealed with delight.
"Oh! Thank you Chelsea! But you didn't have to do this for me," she said happily as she freed me from her grip once more. This time I took a step back, so I couldn't be easily pulled in again.
"I wanted to thank you," I said simply with a shrug.
"Alright then. So… if you're not planning on staying, where are you off to now?" she asked, smiling curiously. It was almost as if she knew my answer, but wanted to hear it from me anyway.
"I'm going to drop my stuff back at the farm and then I'm going to go into the jungle". Lanna cast me a look that was both disapproving and worried. I gave her a smile that I hoped was reassuring. It must have been close at least, because she sighed. "Just make sure you take food and drink with you this time. We don't want you fainting again". I laughed. She sounded like a mother. Sometimes it was hard to believe Lanna was a pop star. She just didn't act how you would imagine.
After promising several times that I would be extremely careful, Lanna let me head home to the farm. Once there, I emptied my rucksack of all my tools and shopping. Then refilled it with plenty of food and water. Finding an old newspaper, I wrapped up the biggest fish from that mornings catch and set off with my supplies.
The walk through the jungle was rather uneventful. Conserving energy by taking a slower pace than my last visit, I had time to look at the scenery I passed. It was really beautiful. The variety of natural greens was soothing, especially when combined with the clear blue sky above. I enjoyed the fresh air as I walked. It would have been perfect if time stopped just there. However, when I saw Shea's home up ahead, I quickened my pace, eager to see the young native again. And Wada too, of course.
"Hello? It's me, Chelsea" I said cautiously as I pushed open the door.
"Chelsea! You back!" Shea exclaimed. He ran over from where he'd been sat in the corner with Wada. It looked like they were sharpening spears. I hoped I hadn't interrupted a father son bonding session or something. Though Wada looked pleased to see me too, so perhaps not.
"Well, yes. I had to thank you for taking me home yesterday" I said, holding out the wrapped-up fish. "So this is for you." I watched as Shea took it and pulled off the newspaper. He stared dumbfounded at the fish for a moment and it occurred to me that Shea could probably get all the fish he wanted himself. I should have got something else. Then a smile spread across his lips, a smile that became an elated grin.
"Thank you Chelsea!" he cried. He carefully put the fish down in a wooden bucket, which I was pleased to see was filled with slightly smaller fish. Shea's reaction was making me smile back. Wada watched us both grin at each other, that newt still hanging from his mouth.
"Well, that was all I came for. So I guess I should -" My intentions were cut short as Shea grabbed me by the hand and led me over to where Wada was sat. His hand was warm and his touch prevented me arguing against him.
"Come! We show you how make spear sharp" Shea told me, pulling me down to sit between him and Wada. He put a spear in my hands and all I could do was stare at it dumbly. Clearly confused, I looked up at Wada.
"…Watch…… follow…." he said, picking up a stone and quickly scraping it across the spear head. I nodded and followed suit. It seemed that they only had two stones, as Shea sat and watched me. I yelped when the friction between the stone and spear created little sparks, almost dropping everything. Both Wada and Shea laughed at me. Shea gently put his hands over mine and guided them away from my chest, I had been holding the spear quite close.
"Hold away from you. Safer," he explained. He didn't let go off my hands, helping me to make sure the spear was sharpened properly. I never realised until he moved away again, taking his body's warmth with him, how close he'd been. I tried my best not to wish he hadn't moved.
I was in high spirits by the time I left. I had enjoyed sharpening the spears with the two natives. At some point we in the afternoon, we had stopped to cook and eat the fish I had brought. Then we went straight back to the spears. Now, Shea stood at the door, waving at me as I walked away. I had taken a bottle of water from my rucksack to drink as I walked back. I barely noticed the darkening sky, only focusing on what was straight in front of me. So when I got back across the bridge and saw the star-filled sky, I couldn't help but smile. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen.
A/N: End of chapter! Sorry Shea wasn't in it much until the end, I just wanted to make the point that even though it's about his and Chelsea's relationship, I wont be leaving out her farm life or her other friends. I promise lots more Shea in the next chapter though, I have plans. Until then, please rate and review!