"You said to go to Pierre's to get fruit! Tomatoes are a fruit!"

Robin stopped what she was doing, setting the varnish-loaded brush aside and being careful not to get it on anything but the wood she was working on. "I said, 'hey, I'm baking a cake for Maru's birthday and need something for the filling. Can you go to Pierre's to get fruit?' But I guess I'll just make our daughter a tomato cake, I'm sure she'll love that."

"I… did not hear that first part."

She scoffed. Of course he hadn't been listening. He was never listening. Shame on her for expecting anything different. She should have just gone to the store herself. "Even so, why would you get tomatoes? Any normal person would think of an actual fruit, like melon or blueberry or starfruit. You had so many options. How did you pick the wrong one?"

"Well, why didn't you just tell me what fruit you wanted me to get?" he sputtered.

"Because I didn't think I would have to baby a fully grown man. It should have been common sense."

"In my defence," he said. "Tomatoes have seeds. Hence, fruit."

"Please keep your scientist bullshit out of this," she snapped, causing his eyebrows to raise. He was no stranger to his wife's short temper, but was surprised to be inciting it over something as trivial as this.

Just then, the front door swung open and in strolled the farmer with the usual spring in her step. She paused in the doorway, clearly noticing the tension between them. "Sorry, am I interrupting something?"

"Ah! Farmer! Perfect, you can help us put this argument to rest."

Robin pinched the bridge of her nose. "Demetrius, she doesn't need to be dragged into this–"

"Are tomatoes a fruit or a vegetable?"

"For context, I needed fruit for a cake and that was what he got," Robin quickly piled on. If he was insistent on involving the farmer, she could at least get her side of the story out.

The farmer looked between them. "They're a vegetable."

Demetrius frowned. "Really? I thought that, as a farmer, you'd know the correct classifications."

Pretentious bastard, Robin thought with a scowl.

He cleared his throat. "It doesn't matter. I can run back to Pierre's this evening. But right now, I have some readings to take in my lab, so if you'll both excuse me…" He exited without another word, leaving them both in awkward, uncomfortable silence.

"Sorry about him," Robin apologised. "I didn't want him to put you in an uncomfortable spot."

"That's okay. I just came by to buy a workbench."

"Oh! Yes, of course! Hang on." She disappeared to grab one from the back, and when she reappeared the farmer was deep in thought.

"So I do have the gold for this, but if you wanted…" she began, taking the item from Robin. "I have some fresh fruit growing on the farm. I even have strawberries in the greenhouse. Maru's birthday is coming up, right?" she deduced from the calendar hanging by the counter. "I assume that's what the cake is for. You can come by to pick some if you want, then we can call it even?"

Robin blinked, heart warmed by the farmer's offer. "That would be lovely actually. Strawberries are Maru's favourite. They'll be perfect." See, Demetrius? she thought to herself. Was it really that hard?

The farmer beamed. "Great."

Together, the two of them transported the workbench into a newly constructed shed on the farm, one that the farmer intended to convert into her dream workshop. Robin had to admit she was a little jealous. All she had was a tiny extension on the side of the house. The farmer was going to have plenty of room for whatever projects she could think of.

After that, she led Robin into the greenhouse. The carpenter gasped in amazement when it was actually… standing. And not just standing, but flourishing. "This place was in ruins just a season ago. How did you manage to fix it up so quickly?"

The farmer shrugged, a knowing smile on her face. "Trade secret."

Inside, a variety of crops were growing in neat plots. Mostly strawberries as spring had just ended, but Robin noticed starfruit and even a couple of ancient fruit too. A few fruit saplings lined the perimeter, with a couple of feet in between each of them. She wondered what fruit those would yield. It was too early to tell from the saplings alone.

The air was hot and humid, even worse than the surrounding summer temperature, but Robin didn't mind. The heat was what made the best produce. Or, at least she assumed. She wasn't a farmer.

"Thank you for this," Robin said, twisting a ripe strawberry off the vine and dropping it into the basket the farmer held out for her. "Demetrius has just… really been getting on my nerves. It's like just because he's a scientist, he thinks he knows best. Like he's always trying to prove that he's better than me."

The farmer nodded sympathetically. Even though she didn't know Demetrius that well, not nearly as well as she knew Robin, what with all the time she spent on the farm building barns or coops, it wasn't that hard to imagine him like that. Especially as he'd just shown it.

"I'm sorry." The older woman let out a nervous chuckle. "You don't want to be hearing all this."

"No, it's okay. Don't apologise." She helped Robin out with a difficult to detach strawberry. The carpenter obviously wasn't as adept at picking fruit as she was. "Sometimes you need to vent. And I know that's not the easiest thing to do in a small town where gossip spreads like wildfire. I'm always happy to lend a listening ear, and I promise that I will never repeat what someone tells me in confidence."

Robin smiled. It beat trying to find a way to complain about her husband at aerobics without fanning the flames of crumbling marriage rumours. Caroline would sniff something like that out in an instant and spread it to half the town before day's end. "He just has such a massive superiority complex and it's starting to become a problem." Once she started, the words tumbled out of her faster than she could control, words she had thought a million times but never said to anyone else. "He talks all the time about how important his work is, which I understand, but also carpentry is just as important. I built his lab and our entire house from the ground up! And Maru's a fellow scientist so of course he adores her, but he doesn't understand what Sebastian does and he keeps bringing him down for it. I want the kids to be happy here, I do. I want our whole family to be happy. But he's making it really difficult. Especially for Sebastian."

The farmer paused, seemingly thinking over her next words carefully. "You don't have to answer if I'm prying, but…. are you happy, Robin?"

"I…" Her voice trailed off. This was the first time anyone had asked her that. It was an invitation to be truthful. She could say exactly what she was thinking. It should have been a weight off her shoulders, but the thought of coming clean scared her, especially to someone who obviously cared so much. "I have a stable job and I'm good at it. My family is here and healthy. What more could I want?" she settled on replying.

A loving and attentive husband? the farmer thought with disdain, but she didn't voice it. If Robin wasn't ready to talk about it, she wouldn't force it. She would, however, offer some advice, and hope it could at least do something to help.

"It's okay to want more for yourself, Robin," she said gently. "Back when I worked for Joja, I kept telling myself I was satisfied with where I was. I had a stable job, a good apartment, I was close to my family, what more could I want, really? But a part of me also felt like I was in a rut, doing the same thing every day. When my grandfather left me the farm, I told myself it would be a fun retirement thing once I didn't have any more commitments in the city, but I… I didn't want to wait. I wanted more and I had to tell myself that even though I was leaving a lot of things behind, what I was doing was okay."

Robin was quiet for a long time, and for a moment, fear gripped the farmer's heart. Fear that she had said something wrong. "I can't… I can't just run from things," she finally said, her voice soft.

"You don't have to be running from anything," said the farmer gently. "Running towards something is just as valid a want. And you're allowed to want things, Robin," she added before Robin could even try and deny it.

The older woman felt an ache in her chest. Why did the farmer have to be so damn sweet? Of course Robin had thought about what she was saying so many times, especially in recent years. If only leaving, regardless of which direction she was running, was as easy as the farmer made it out to be.

"I love… that you care about me, Farmer," she said gently, putting on a smile she hoped was convincing enough. "My husband has… flaws. But hey, who doesn't? I've made peace with that. You're young and you have your whole life ahead of you. I'm not that lucky. A few disagreements and arguments aren't worth uprooting my entire life again when I've already done it once before."

As much as the farmer wasn't happy with her answer, she knew it wasn't her business. She was just Robin's friend, and a fairly new one at that. Not to mention she was young, with nowhere near the life experience her friend had under her toolbelt. It wasn't her place to push. All she could do was be there to listen. "Well if he's ever being a dick, you're always free to bitch to me about it."

Robin couldn't stifle an outburst of raucous laughter after that offer. So damn sweet. "I might just take you up on that."

A/N - Hello dear reader! I hope you enjoyed this chapter. I need your opinion on something. Robin with a mommy kink: yay or nay? Leave a comment and let me know because I am so torn on whether or not to have that. As always, let me know what you think and until next time, stay safe :)

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