Kays...xD I apologise now for going on about OMG THIS CHAPTER IS DEFINETLY A T TROOLOLOL. And it ended up being anything but that. I wrote that before I wrote the chapter, so it did apply at the time, but then I had to go back and edit the scene, as it was pushing T too much than what I was comfortable with. If anyone wants to read the original scene, then you can pm me for it, as I kept it in another file just in case. xD (This was the last chapter just to make it clear, not this one. )

Sorry for the increasingly slow updates...

Disclaimer: What do you think? I don't own Harvest Moon. ;D

"About 11000G...not too bad."

Standing up and stretching, a satisfied Molly looked on into her shipping bin, full of the first Harvest of Buckwheat for the winter season.

It had been almost two weeks since the incident in the Brass bar, and since then, her relationship with Chase had only been getting better and better.
They would see each other most days, either when Molly went into the bar to relax during the cold evenings, or as she passed by his house in order to buy some more seeds from the Marimba farm.
They would spend as much time as they could just talking about anything and everything which came into their minds-they found they were actually pretty similar after having proper conversations, which weren't just them insulting each other for once.

Looking at her watch, Molly found that it was earlier than she had expected-the Marimba farm wasn't going to be open for another hour, which gave her some time to relax before she had to head over and start her next crops of the season.
With a sigh, she walked back into her house, thinking about what she could make for the picky chef to sample today.

"Why can't he just accept the same thing everyday...It's easy to make things like cake and various drinks...but nooo, he has to have something different."

As much as she complained about his habits, Molly couldn't help but admit that she enjoyed thinking about what she could make Chase each day...she also couldn't help but admit that she gained a rather happy feeling inside of her when he nodded his head in approval at her work. To Molly, it was almost like it was only his opinion which mattered to her. As much as she loved Kathy and Luke, they would always say her cooking was excellent, even if she had burned the hell out of whatever she was making. Besides, she didn't need to impress them anymore, they were her secure best friends and she doubted that much could change that.

Blushing as she carried on with her daydream, Molly didn't realise she was cutting precariously close to her fingers until it was too late.

"Shit!"

Running over to her sink, she quickly turned the tap on and put her rather slashed finger under the running water, causing her to grow slightly faint at the sight of how much blood was being washed down the drain.

"Okay Molly, calm down...it's just the water making it look like there's a lot of blood, right? Yeah that's right, there's probably not much there at all...now what did Dad say to do when you cut yourself? "

After standing with her finger under the water for a couple of minutes, Molly eventually remembered vaguely what to do, and grabbed a towel out of her bathroom to press onto the wound to stop it from bleeding. Shaking slightly, she removed the towel after she felt the bleeding stop as much as she thought it would do, and wound a small layer of bandage around her finger.

"There..." Looking up at the ceiling, Molly gently gave her thanks to her Dad for teaching her at a young age what to do if she injured herself, before turning to the clock which sat pinned upon her wall.

7:30.

Staring at the clock for a few moments as if she were wishing the time to rewind, Molly eventually gave in and cleared up the mess on her cutting board.

"I don't think he'd appreciate me giving him a blood flavoured pie...unless he's a vampire."

With a slight smile at the thought, she threw the remains of her cooking attempt into her bin, before heading out to the Farm to get the seeds. It was still early, but from previous experiences, Molly knew that it was best to get started as early on in the day as possible.

As the bell on the door to the shop gave its little jingle, Molly was greeted by a rather energetic Taylor bounding up to her.

"Hey Molly!" he practically shouted before being hushed by Anissa, who, by judging by the copious amounts of smoke which was coming from the oven, was apparently having her own problems in the kitchen.

"Hey...you okay there, Anissa?"

Looking round and giving a weak smile, the also young farmer (Who Molly had also started to become close too) silently mouthed 'no' as if saying to Molly 'Don't say anything, or else my Mother will come into here and kill me.'

Returning her friends smile with her own, Molly exited the kitchen as placed her order of seeds with Ruth.

"Thank you, dear, I'll just be a couple of minutes whilst I get them out of storage-not many people can be bothered to grow crops in winter, so there's no use in keeping them out."

Nodding her head as she put the necessary money down onto the counter, Molly looked around the newly thriving business, a sense of pride washing over her as she recalled that it was her who helped the farm evolve into such a great state.

"Why don't you go help out my sister with her cooking?"

"Huh?"

Looking down, Molly noticed Taylor staring up at her with a mischievous look on his face.

"I said why don't you go help Anissa with the cooking...Chase is your boyfriend after all right? You should know how to cook because of him."

Not knowing whether to laugh at his childish logic, or squeal about of embarrassment, Molly just stared at the younger boy for a while, much to his confusion.

"...Uh, Molly?"

"..."

"Here are your seeds, Molly, I hope you get a good profit out of them."

Quickly turning around to take the seeds of Ruth, she thanked the woman before hastily leaving the shop-it was all the excuse she needed for an escape.

Outside, she let the icy air hit her face for a while in order for her to cool down. It was true that ever since she and Chase had started speaking to each other more often, several rumours and gossip about them were now floating around. Even so, every time Molly heard a suggestive comment about them being a couple (Which believe me, was at least six times a day) she still couldn't help but get embarrassed over the situation.

"Molly...? What are you doing just standing there? You'll freeze to death if you stay there much longer."

Looking up, the girl is question inwardly kicked herself for picking that spot to go into another daydream. There, a few feet away from her, was a rather worried looking Chase leaning out of his house window, staring at her as she waited for a response. (Well, that's what she just assumed must be the reason.)

"Oh! Sorry, I was just...just checking if I had given Ruth the right amount of money or not! Yeah, that's right...wouldn't want to be a criminal now haha..ha."

"Whatever, just come inside."

Slapping her palm to her forehead as soon as the window closed, Molly couldn't help but wonder why she always acted so stupid around the man.

Well, she was stupid all of the time, she guessed. But why did she care so much about looking bad around him?

Opening the door to his house, she dumped her bag of seeds down on the neatly laid out kitchen table before slumping down into a chair which accompanied it.

"What's wrong with you today?"

"Nothing, nothing."

Frowning as he set down a cup of steaming hot tea in front of Molly, he debated whether asking the question again before sitting down in a seat opposite her.

He was cut off however, as he heard Molly speak again.

"Sorry I couldn't make you anything today, I was really pushed for time. "

Smiling at the worry which was evident in her voice, he simply leant on the table and shook his head.

"Don't worry about it, you always bring things for me, and what do I do for you?"

"You make me tea when I'm about to freeze to death?"

"True true...guess I'm just a life saver eh?"

Chuckling at the friendly debate which was going on, Chase again went back to his trademark frown as he noticed the poorly wound bandage around Molly's finger.

"What?" she asked cautiously, noticing the change in his mood all of a sudden.

"What happened to your finger?"

"Oh, this...I cut it when I wasn't paying attention to my cooking."

Sighing as he stood up and made his way over to Molly's side of the table, Chase gently brought her hand up into the light where he could see it properly, before sighing again and making his way over to a cabinet in the corner of his kitchen.

"Do you know first aid at all, Molly?" he mumbled whilst rummaging through the contents of the cabinet, trying to locate what he needed.

"No."

Stopping at the blunt answer, he turned to face the young woman with a look of confusion on his face.

"And they let you run the farm, despite this? A farm which has God knows how many injury risks to it?"

"Yeah, I guess that they did."

Angrily turning back to his search, Chase eventually found the small first aid kit which he was looking for.

Putting it down on the table, he opened the box and got out the items which he needed.

"I can't believe that they didn't even ask if you knew first aid, either Hamilton was really desperate for a new farmer, or they just assumed that you already knew. Either way, I'll be having some words with that idiotic man."

"Don't worry about it...this is the first time which I've ever even injured myself whilst living here, and it wasn't even through farming."

"I know...but the point is, you could have been hurt, and what if you got hurt really badly one day and no one found you until it were too late? I don't know what I..." stopping as he realised what he was saying, the chef carefully took Molly's hand in one of his own and began unwinding the bandage which was already there.

"Let's just look at this..."

"O-okay..."

"How the hell did you manage to do this, Mol? It's like you deliberately wacked your finger as hard as you could with the knife."

Slightly laughing at the wording, Molly just gave him the story of how it happened, earning an amused look from the listener as he cleaned up and sterilised her finger properly.

"Wow, I didn't realise that I had that much of an effect on you! I'll have to keep this in mind for future situations."

"Hey, it's not nice to use things like that as bribery! And I was only thinking about what to make you, it's hard you know, since you're a darn proper chef as it is!"

"So you tell me every day."

Sniffing as the antiseptic began to sink into her finger, Molly focused her attention on Chase's hands.
They were surprisingly soft, she thought, for the amount of times which he'd have to wash them. They were also quite small and dainty, making her hardened; farmer's hands look like a complete mess in their grasp.

"God my hands are so ugly." She thought out loud, earning another amused look.

"What? I think your hands are lovely. They show hard work, which to be honest is one of the amazing things about you..." trailing off as he finished the sentence, the also first aid trained man gently patted Molly's hand as he admired his work "...there you go, now you're properly bandaged."

"Thank you..."

Both of the adults now a delicate shade of pink, they focused their attention on the quickly cooling tea which was set out before them, in order to avoid anymore embarrassing conversations.

Looking around the room, Molly tried to fix her gaze on anything apart from the man sitting in front of her, who was also trying to do the same.
Eventually, her eyes landed on the calendar which hung neatly (Like everything else in the house was) on the wall next to the kitchen.

"Oh...the 10th." She mumbled before sadly taking a sip of her tea.

"You going with anyone to the starry night festival tomorrow?" she asked tentatively both wanting and not wanting to know his answer at the same time.

"Actually...that's something which I wanted to ask you, but I got distracted when I noticed your injury..."

"Well I'm not going with anyone obviously, if that's what you wanted to know."

"That's one thing which I wanted to know, the other thing was...w-whether you'd like to go with me, then?"

Almost choking on her tea at the invitation, Molly just stared at Chase who she noted was now sitting looking rather flustered.

She had to stop staring at people, she also noted.

"Um um...if you mean it, then I'd love to!" Somehow managing to form a coherent response, she looked back down into her cup which was now empty, a feeling of warmth surging throughout her body.

Smiling as he took in the happy reaction of the girl before him, Chase stretched his arms and leant back in his chair.

"Great! Then meet me at Moon Hill around 7pm. I'll cook something for us too, so you don't need to worry about bringing anything. Besides, I wouldn't really want to eat your blood."

"HEY!"

Xxxx

"Okay, I'll see you later then, if you're coming to the bar."

"Of course I am! I'll need something to relax after planting all these damn seeds."

"Which you left on the table."

"Crap, I didn't, did I?"

"You sure did...let me get them."

Returning from the house a few seconds later, Chase handed the bag to Molly as she embarrassingly apologised for her forgetfulness.

"What would you do without me, huh? Just don't forget our date tomorrow!"

"Haha even I wouldn't do that."

Turning around to walk back to her farm, Molly couldn't help but find herself grinning like an idiot.

'Date...' she repeated over and over again in her mind, whist she happily skipped back to her farm.

I REALLY need to stick my original plans. This chapter was supposed to just be the starry night festival, but the other ideas came into my head whilst thinking about it this morning. xD

And no Kathy and Luke in the chapter! I'm quite proud of not having to rely on them to bulk out the chapter, for once.

Anywho, you know the usual! ;