Author's Note: I'm chugging right along with this one, folks. I keep asking myself if it's too soon for an update, but I guess it doesn't matter since I have up to Chapter 12 typed and ready to go. If you catch any glaring errors or want to make a suggestion, please feel free. I am trying to become a better writer, after all. :D

Sorry that Marlin and Takakura aren't that much fun drinking this time around.

--

Chapter 5: Once Upon a Time

"She's pretty miffed at you, you know."

"It's not like I haven't noticed," I grumbled back. Marlin kept staring at the dirt while he propped himself on the counter with his elbows. We hadn't drank alone for some time, and now I was wondered why the hell we decided to in the first place. The once comforting building now felt like little more than a prison cell where my cell mate and I shared the toilet brew. As far as Stone Oil was concerned, it was close enough.

"You're usually not this irritable," he observed taking a sip.

"And you're not this gentle. Things are going well for you and Celia, eh?"

The man blushed, smiling all the same. I took that to be my answer, and although I was in a troublesome spot, I had to glad for him. "Nice to know you'll be a happier man soon."

"In all honesty," he replied quietly, "I really wasn't unhappy there in the first place. Celia's been... very good to me... all this time."

"I'm very happy for you."

"Too bad I can't say the same for you at the moment." He seemed a little smug for my tastes. Must've been a side-affect of his newfound confidence in love. Whatever the case, I didn't care for it.

"Well, that's something I have to figure out on my own," I replied gruffly.

More silence and a couple more shots into my system stagnated the conversation for a while. On that day when Tanya bulldozed me with her accusations, I was already out of sorts given my bummed up knee and scolding. When the flood of realizations had slammed into me, I felt mortified at what I found dwelling in my heart. There was a chance it was a blessing she was ignoring me. Perhaps all these feelings might blow right over, and then I would've have to think them over anymore.

"You can't help being yourself," he said after a half hour or so of solemn throw backs. "As far as you're concerned, you've always thought of yourself as an old man. It's not out of the ordinary by any means."

"But she cried, Marlin. It was like... at her father's funeral. She knew nothing other than he had left her and her mother to start a farm with a friend of his, yet she cried as if he'd been her everything."

"Maybe he was the one who gave her hope in that city? She gets angry whenever she remembers that place. There's the possibility that dreaming of one day being with her father on your farm gave her something to look forward to. After he died, she was probably scared that her dream was over, too."

"I understand your reasoning, but what does it have to do with me?" I asked.

He thought on it for a brief second before concluding, "She's afraid of losing the only other person who could support that dream... and maybe more."

"Don't be a damn fool. What else could she want with me?"

The smile he had was unfamiliar compared to his scowl, but I recognized the laughter in his eyes though his were blue and hers were violet. "Nothing if you're gonna keep this old man act up," he joked casually, another first.

--

Once again I found myself sitting alongside my old friend in the ground. The grass had long since grown over him, but I still could tell where he lay. He was smiling that timeless grin for eternity here. I, being the sole heir seeing how his wife refused the family's share, was given the choices and means of burial as well as his appearance for the viewing and beyond. I was the one to request he keep the smile he had passed with instead of lie solemn until death truly ravaged him.

That would've never suited you. We both agreed on that point from the beginning, and I can't say I regret that statement, either.

Aaron was rarely caught without his signature smile, and even while he had no reason to, his lips settled into a grin at rest. It's hard to believe I could have hated such a jovial young man, but I suppose I was merely envious. He was an individual who could have everything without owning anything, and he preferred that kind of lifestyle.

When I first met him back stage with Alexandra, I think it was his nature that first enraged me. As I said before, he wasn't overly masculine, yet that endless smile horrified me. How could anyone genuinely express that much joy? His jeans were torn and grease stained as was his button-down shirt, but though he looked worse for wear, he was content, perhaps elated, with that. Even shooting him my most bitter scowl, he merely laughed it off.

You knew I was all for show, didn't you? I never met anyone that determined to make a friend before Alexandra introduced us. Funny how the woman who threatened to tear us apart was the one to first bring us together.

I overheard someone's footsteps coming towards me, and I was brought out of my one way conversation with a dead man. Not surprisingly, Tanya rounded the barn with a set look on her face. She was trying unsuccessfully not to meet my eyes, and though it was forced, she stifled an urge to greet me. "Evening," I said simply. "Not talking to me yet?"

She flashed a smile without realizing it, and I knew I had her. After hearing me chuckle, she muttered a half-hearted, "Dammit."

"How about a drink since we're on speaking terms again?" I offered.

"What? Is Marlin no fun now that he has Celia?" she asked curiously, an eyebrow raised.

"Unfortunately."

"Fine, but only because I don't want you to get too lonely by yourself," she teased.

--

Given how much Tanya was telling me that night, it was an easy guess that our silence had been killing her. She rattled on and on while putting away more and more liquor. Dr. Hardy and Galen glared at me from their corner of the bar, but I didn't give them much thought. I wasn't feeling like an old man these days, so I had the mindset not to give their opinions any strength. Whether it was love or not, I enjoyed hearing her stories. She was a good storyteller.

"Rock is such a block head sometimes, you know? He never seems to think these things through. Lumina's a proper young girl, and he's just being obnoxious. Maybe that's her thing, but I'd prefer someone a little more mature. I mean, all he talks about is partying without realizing you need the finances for such things."

"He's never been responsible," I replied calmly. "To tell the truth, I'm relieved to hear you don't care for him much. I wouldn't be able to tolerate him on our property for long."

"No shit," she remarked. She was getting a little frustrated, and I was beginning to wonder about whether I should let her have any more. She wasn't just down two or three glasses, she was up to two bottles of the stuff. "Goddess," she fumed, "might I pray you strike some common sense into that boy? For Lumina's sake if nothing else..."

"She's still asleep," I reminded her. The Goddess had been dormant long before we had settled the valley. As far as anyone truly knew, she might no even be in the spring at all. Heaven knows I hadn't caught so much of a glimpse of her or the Harvest Sprites which were legendary as the Goddess's little helpers. It was a nothing more than a children's bedtime story like that of maidens in peril and princes in armor. I had only meant that as a joke, but Tanya took it much further.

"Maybe it's time someone woke her up then," she decided, scooting her stool back from the counter. As she stormed out of the bar, I left the tab for another night and took to hot pursuit. I could hear Muffy and Griffin chuckle with the door slamming behind me.

For being as plastered as she was, Tanya certainly was quick. She might've whistled Surge over, but I doubted he would answer her call this late at night. I also questioned whether she had the coordination to handle such a maneuver. I surely wouldn't be able to throw myself onto any animal after consuming that level of alcohol. I hobbled along after her merely guessing she went for the spring. She was certainly peculiar tonight though it didn't take much speculation as to why. Next time I'd have to be sure to keep her to a one bottle limit.

"Tanya, where the hell are you?"

"Trying to wake the bitch up!" she answered whole-heartedly.

"Come on, it's late... and Carter and Flora are trying to sleep across the way..."

"They can't hear me over the waterfall!" she bellowed.

Well, now they can, I thought irritably.

"Goddess, Goddess in the spring, come now take the gifts I bring." Although tipsy, I had to admit the tune wasn't bad. She was nothing compared to her mother, but it was close enough to recognize a hit of that magic. "Quiet time has ended, now wake from time suspended. Please hear my simple wish..."

I waited with her for a time, but the spring remained lost in silence. The Goddess would sleep until the land was filled with "beautiful things" according to the legend. However, if one asked the people living here, it was already the most pristine land one could dream of. I had come to accept she might not ever show.

Still, there were people who continued to pray each and every day that the Harvest Goddess would one day appear to us. Apparently Tanya was one of those believers, and she was giving it her all that night.

"Damn her," she cursed harshly. "She's just mad because I haven't gotten myself a man after those Sprites gave me that blasted blue feather. I'm not alone... Why'd they have to give me something I don't need?"

"A blue feather?" I questioned, not bothering to wonder how she came to meet a sprite outside of her alcohol induced illusions.

"Yeah..." she said, slipping it out of her rucksack. It was a brilliant blue, far more startling than any other color imaginable. I had seen them in the cities going for over a 1,000 coin, but I'd never known anyone to own one. When Aaron proposed to Alexandra, it was a matter of keeping her honor, so a blue feather or a ring never came into the equation.

"Do you know what it's for?"

Tanya shook her head. "I have a guess, though."

"It's for proposing," I explained. "It used to be the way the poor folks would propose to one another because they couldn't afford something like a gold ring. Now it's pretty hard to even get a hold of one."

"I guessed right then," she said with a sigh. "It's special right, so should I drop it in?"

"What?"

"Should I drop it in to wake the Goddess?" she asked again. Given her expression, I knew my answer really didn't matter, she was going to do it anyway. So much for Rock's lack of common sense.

"Don't!"

Just as I went to take it, she gave a little yelp and fell into the spring. Of course, I fell in, too, but this time my knee didn't give. It couldn't seeing as how the brace was still secure, not to mention there was no sense of a bottom to the watery depths. Being drunk beyond reason, Tanya continued to thrash about in the icy water until I managed to swim over to her. She was insensibly frantic as she tried to keep her head above water. With some effort, I hauled her up on dry land, and her screaming stopped.

"What the hell, man?!" she gasped, struggling to stand.

I hoisted her up with one arm and chuckled, "When you're drunk off your ass, you tend to do stupid things. Besides, I think this makes us even." She looked at me blankly and then started to laugh with that cackle of hers. She shook her head, said something along the lines of going home for bed, and then she was walked off. The chill of the water might've shocked her enough to take off the edge of the Stone Oil in her system. However, I worried over whether I should job after her to make sure she made it all right. Then again, she could fair better without me interfering. After all, I had been the one to send her falling head over heels into the water with me.

I heard her singing as she drifted along the forest path, "I'm drunk an' I wanna go home... I'm drunk an' I wanna go to bed..." The last notes were cracking miserably in my ears...

Although I could hear past that, I knew the rest from when Aaron had had a few too many at the Blue Bar. I sang in the glow of the mysterious flowers in my husky tone, "I'm drunk an' I wanna go home. I'm drunk an' I wanna go to bed. Been drinking since an hour ago, an' it's gone straight to my head." It was a catchy tune that made you remember all the good times you've had until you just couldn't handle any more. I found it cute to hear her going on like her father always had.

While thinking on this, a sharp hue caught my eye. It was laying at the edge of the spring, untouched by the chaos that had ensued. Gently, I lifted it up into the light, and by doing so, I suddenly saw the green, indigo, and violet iridescent colors playing on its cerulean surface. If a man were to propose with this feather, this would be the perfect setting in which to show the special nature of his proposal. No other blue feather had this magic.

Reflecting on it, I decided to keep it with me because I was beginning to see that this had purpose. I couldn't deny that any longer.

--

Final Author's Note: That little diddy right there is something two of my uncles usually end up singing by the closing of every family get-together, and I couldn't help but imagine Aaron and Tanya singing it loud and clear into the night. So here's to my uncles, happy drunks though they may be.