Writing fanfic is a great way of putting off an essay which you don't know how to answer! Anywho, I like this chapter, and I hope that you enjoy it also! –goes off to fight with said essay now-
"Ugh..."
Blinking as sharp rays of light hit her face, Molly sat up in her bed, rubbing the sleep out of her half closed eyes. For once, it was a bright, crisp morning, and as she looked out of the window, Molly couldn't help but feel that it was going to be a beautiful day – no falling snow to have to bear working in, no clouds blocking out the sun's golden rays, just...wait, what was that smell?
"Oh God, I didn't leave the oven on again, did I?" panicking at the potential fire which could have broken out in her kitchen, Molly ignored the neatly folded sheets on the sofa, instead focusing her attention on avoiding a repeat of previous events. (Events which she wasn't going to tell anyone else choice fully, not now, not ever. 'Forgetfulness at its finest', as Kathy called it.)
"OhGodOhGodOhGod." Throwing open to the door to the room at risk, Molly stopped in her tracks when she noticed a familiar face standing at her work top.
"Chase?"
"Morning. Say Molly, you had some funny stuff in the bottom of your pot, so when I turned it on, this God awful smell started to waft around the room. What was in there, exactly?"
With another grunt, the now calming down girl slapped her hand to her head once again, recalling the last person to have used her cooking utensils. "Luke..." she mumbled before slouching into one of the kitchen chairs.
"Luke was in the pot? The hell Molly."
"No! He wasn't physically IN the pot, but he was using it."
"Ahh..." turning his attention back his work, Chase decided to leave it at that, just knowing that Luke was the last person to use the cooking utensil enough to automatically answer all of his further questions.
"So...what are you doing cooking at this early hour?"Stretching in her chair, Molly focused her attention on the back of Chase, watching the swift and skilful movements which he made during his cooking, moving almost as if he was in a trance.
"Cooking breakfast, maybe? It's the least that I can do for you letting me stay here over night."
"It isn't that big of a deal, it's not like I made you anything...you practically made your own bed as well, after those sheets attacked me!"
"Well, you were looking out for me...I think that that's worth more than any material thing."
"You're getting so soppy lately, you know? Where's the Chase who normally insults me somehow in every sentence?"Finishing up her statement, Molly padded across the wooden floor and over to her bathroom, muttering something about how she 'looked like her cow had rolled over her', or a similar idea.
Staring down at the almost finished food, Chase let Molly's words run around in his mind.
"I...I don't know where's he gone. I think you took him away, Molly." He sighed as his thought about it, plating up the food, hoping that somehow the process would take his mind off of the subject.
Xxxxxxxxxxxx
"Aww Chase! This is so good! I don't know why you put your cooking down so much."
"Thank you, Mol. But I'm not going to get completely arrogant, until I better Yolander."
"That won't be too long, then." Piling up the plates after the contents on top of them had been well and truly devoured, Molly carefully set them down in the sink, before turning to Chase with a happy look upon her face.
"Well then!" she brightly exclaimed whilst clapping her hands together. "Since you're here, you can help me with my farm chores! And after that, we're going to take a trip to the general store."
Giggling as she watched Chase's eyebrows rise, giving her the 'you have got to be kidding me' look, Molly skipped over and pulled him up out of the chair, almost as if she was a small child again.
"Molly, I don't think that this is a good idea, I mean, I have no idea how work on a farm goes!"
"It will be fun, though, just you wait and see!"
Deciding that it was useless to protest, Chase let himself be dragged outside by an over-eager Molly, trying to remember the numbers on the numerous adverts for the accident claims which he had seen on tv.
"OKAY." Declared Molly, hands now placed on her hips in a very authoritative manner, "Since I haven't planted anymore buckwheat yet, all we have to do is tend to the animals."
'Oh, well that can't be too bad, right?' was Chase's final thought before he was taken inside of the animal barn.
As expected, he was wrong. Incredibly wrong.
After what seemed like endless hours of shovelling dirt and...other animal products, Chase thought that the task was finally done, until Molly pointed to the chicken coop next door. There, he suffered what he assumed to be was something pretty similar to hell itself – a large mix of plump chickens and ducks flew straight at the pair as they entered, pecking at their legs and squawking as loud as...birdly possible. In the midst of all the chaos which Molly had called 'feeding' she had ordered Chase to collect the plethora of eggs laid overnight, which admittedly wasn't a bad job, until the ones which had finished eating started attacking him. He tried to call for help, but it was in vain, all which he could hear above the tremendous noise was Molly shouting at her animals, telling them to 'calm the hell down!' and 'stop pecking each other on the butt!'
"Molly...how the HELL can you do this each day?" when the chores were finally done, an exhausted Chase collapsed against the coop wall, dusting of the pieces of straw and sawdust which clung to his clothing.
"Oh it gets easier after a while, once the animals begin to know you."
"I'll just take your word for it...so, what's next?" he asked timidly, scared of what the woman was going to be making him endure.
"Nothing!" flinging her arms up in the air like she was celebrating, Molly let the lid of the shipping bin fall back into place with a loud 'thump', indicating that today's profits were sealed.
"Great! You said you wanted to go to the general store right?"
"Yup, that's where we're going to go now."
Wiling himself to stand up, Chase wandered how Molly could do this every day, heck, sometimes even doing it on top of watering a field's worth of crops as well.
The walk which they took to the general store was a reasonably quite one, the only noise being the roar of the waterfall, and the idle chit chat which the couple made along the way, with not one insult being thrown. Molly had to admit, Chase's sudden change in attitude was really starting to make her worry.
'Is it really a sudden change, though?'
Molly decided that she would have to discuss the matter with Kathy later, since for now, they had arrived at their destination.
"HELLOOOO BARBARA!"
"Hey, Molly! And Chase, too? Well now this is a surprise."
Shifting on his feet at the suggestive tone in the store owner's voice, Chase decided to change the subject by asking why Molly had actually dragged him here in the first place.
"For a clock, obviously!"
Laughing slightly, Chase wandered why he hadn't figured it out sooner. "Well then, if you make me buy a new clock, then you have to buy a new pot! You'll get poisoned if you eat food made in that thing."
"A new pot eh, Molly? What happened to your last one?" The always curious Barbara made her way out from behind the counter, to lead the pair to the shops vast array of clocks on display, before indicating to where the pots where.
"Luke happened."
"Ahh. That boy always breaks things, I swear that most of our store's profit comes from him." Shaking her head, the green haired woman retraced her steps back to her previous spot, leaving Chase and Molly to their own devices.
"How about this one?"
"No, it's far too bright for my tastes."
"Okay, then what about this one? Nice and gloomy."
"Too gloomy."
Molly had never expected that buying a new clock was going to be such a difficult thing to do. Apparently Chase was just as picky when it came to choosing necessity's for his house, as much as a woman was picky when it came to choosing her clothes.
After several small arguments the two finally found a clock which they both agreed upon, and took it before either of them could change their minds. Next up was to find a new pot for Molly – this was less of a challenge as everything was pretty much the same save for the colours.
Making their purchases with a swift 'thank you', the two were about to take their leave, when Barbara called after them.
"Oh, and Molly! If I don't see you in the next couple of days, then happy birthday!"
"O-Oh...thank you so much, Barbara!"
"You...never told me that it was your birthday."
Looking down guiltily as she heard the hurt in Chase's voice, Molly just nodded her head, hoping that he wouldn't ask anymore about it. She knew that that was unlikey however, and she was right. As soon as she had nodded, she was barraged by a now angry sounding Chase throwing questions at her, the most protruding one of all being 'why'.
"Because..."she began meekly, overtop of the angry voice of her friend, "I haven't properly celebrated my birthday in years. I've had no one to celebrate it with, after all. I normally just cook something nice for myself and stay inside with my pets...that's how it's been for a long time now. "
"What do you mean you haven't had anyone to celebrate it with? Molly, you've been on this island for the best part of two and half years, you've made loads of friends, and yet you won't tell anybody when your birthday is?"
"I haven't got many great friends, Chase. Only you, Kathy and Luke really like me...sure, I'm pretty good friends with Candace and Phoebe too, but they're always so busy, being married and all..."
"Oh, Molly...what will we do with you?" giving her a sad smile, Chase wrapped his arm around her waist as they walked, causing Molly to blush at the sudden gesture.
"I, I don't know...maybe we can celebrate this year? Maybe..." giving it to the effect which she assumed the chef was trying to achieve.
"No maybe's about it! We're definitely going to celebrate it, Mol. Which is why we're heading straight to the brass bar right now to arrange something with Kathy!"
"Knowing Kathy she'll arrange something which includes tonnes of alcohol." Looking up at the man next to her as he laughed at her comment, Molly couldn't help but feel something. She knew she liked Chase, but this feeling was...different. Hearing him laugh, she decided, had become something which she had subconsciously come to strive for, desperately wanting to be the one which makes him happy.
She wandered...was this becoming more than something as simple as a crush?
I promise that I'll start writing longer chapters from now on!
Also, the part at the beginning with the oven is actually based on something which happened to me once lol. (A towel caught fire since we left the stove on and put it on top. From then on, My Mother's been really obsessed with checking that the oven is off at least 3 times before she goes to bed. One night, she was out, so didn't check, and when I woke up in the morning I could smell burning and panicked, but it turned out it was just my brother burning the toast.)
Your thoughts on this are loved like usual!