"You've got two months now..."
I stood there perplexed as Takakura stated that under his breath as he quickly walked right by me and coughed; his words sounding like a quiet threat towards me.
Disturbed, my eye twitched.
WHAT THE HECK DOES HE MEAN BY THAT?! IS THIS ABOUT ME GETTING MARRIED AGAIN?!
A sigh escaped my lips as I continued on with collecting both Trick Blue and Sagesoil flowers by the Turtle Pond; the only flowers that are available during the fall.
Autumn is here. The fall flowers are here.
Nami's birthday is... here.
I felt my heart shake of uneasiness. I haven't seen Nami since last night, after that whole dramatic ordeal with Skye. I woke up a little late today by accident since I was still struggling to fall asleep; but ever since I awoke from my slumber around 10:00am this morning, I've been collecting these fall flowers like mad for Nami's birthday. It's around noon right now and I've collected probably about fifty flowers while roaming all around the valley. This whole time I've been collecting, I've been debating what to do with these flowers, on how to exactly make them into gifts for her, and-NAMI!
My heart leapt when I suddenly saw her approaching from the distance, her possessing a rather cold-looking demeanor as usual while she walked with her hands in her pockets and I swiftly stuffed more fall flowers into my rucksack. She hadn't seen me quite yet, but it appeared she was heading towards the beach.
In a panic, I jumped into a pile of fall-colored leaves so she wouldn't see me. I don't want Nami to see I've been collecting these flowers and ruin the surprise for her!
I cringed feeling all the leaves on me, my nose taking in that familiar aroma from them. I started to shudder at the very thought of any bugs crawling on me as I lied there hidden in the pile for a few minutes. I really, really hate being on the ground because of getting dirty or because of my fear of bugs, but Nami is worth it to me! I-AHHHH!
It felt as if a bug was crawling on me and as I silently screamed in my mind, my body began to roll out of the leaves, and I instinctively began to sprint towards the the villa so Nami wouldn't see me. I know bugs usually start to go away around in the fall time, but still... I've got my trauma.
Hands on my knees, I panted as I now stood on the path that lead to the villa. From the distance, I saw Rock talking with Lumina, well...more like hitting on her.
"And that's how I miraculously saved the day yesterday!" I heard Rock pompously tell her as he was flexing his arm-muscles at her and he smirked while flipping his blond hair. "Well, then again, it's only natural for THE ROCK to save the day! So, are you gonna go on a date with me now or what, Lumina? The Rock is very busy you know, in the next hour or so, I'm scheduled to watch the clouds while lying down at the beach! My time is very precious since I don't work, you know!"
I rolled my eyes in annoyance at his idiotic ways as I brushed off some remaining leaves on me and checked my outfit for any bugs. He must be talking about that whole Skye incident yesterday... I swear Rock is always delusional.
Soon enough, Lumina spotted me from the distance, and brunette immediately ran up to me, Rock following suit.
Lumina's cheeks grew scarlet red as soon as she locked eyes with me and she shyly played with her hair. "Kayla, hi! Were you perhaps planning on visiting the villa today...? I can teach you how to play piano, and I-"
"How come you refuse to teach me piano every time?!" Rock roared at her dramatically, waving his fist as he growled in pure jealously. "Every time I ask, you always say no! IT SHOULD BE ME YOU OFFER TO TEACH, NOT HER!"
Lumina sighed and whispered quietly, "Because I'm scared you'll break it..."
Rock didn't hear her, so he just shrugged and waved his finger at me. "Tsk, tsk Babe... I see what's going on here. You're upset you can't have me all to yourself, so you're trying to steal Lumina away from me!"
"WHAT?! That's... T-That's delusional!" I immediately roared, my face growing red as I clenched my fists.
But Rock kept stupidly blabbing on and on. "You see Babe, you can't expect me to be tied down to commitment with anybody. I mean, you're still mine either way Babe, but you've gotta accept that I want to have a little fun with Lumina every now and then-OOF!"
Lumina immediately slapped him. Hard. "I cannot stand your moronic ways anymore!"
Rock's mouth was bleeding slightly as he winced in pain and held his face. "Ouch, Lumina! You could have really damaged my beautiful face, you know! But, it's okay... I forgive you. Not everyone can handle The Rock's awesomeness all at once, I know it can be overwhelming. You literally almost did the same thing that Nami did to me last night. She couldn't handle my greatness either."
My eyes widened slightly once he mentioned Nami. "Huh? What do you mean about Nami?"
As Lumina's red hand-print was evident on his face, Rock chuckled and flipped his hair, a smirk forming onto his lips. "Oh, that? Well, you see Babe, after I walked you home last night, Nami demanded to know if you got home okay... And so, to get back at her a bit for always stealing my hair gel and thunder, I told her that you were more than fine, considering we had some fun in your bed, heh heh... And then... Nami wrongfully slammed me against the wall, and threatened me! I told her to take a chill pill, and that she should be INSTEAD laughing at my brilliant, genius thought-out joke! It was seriously so uncool of her!"
Eyes widening in shock, I blushed ferociously at imagining Nami being so protective over me and fuming, but then in a matter of seconds my blood began to boil as I glared at Rock.
"You seriously told her that we were sleeping together?! That's MESSED UP!" I hollered angrily while adjusting my hands onto my hips.
Lumina looked over at me. "Want me to slap him again?"
"...Yes."
"ARGHHHHHH!" Rock screamed as Lumina began to chase after him and soon they were out of sight.
I giggled, but then a frown then slowly adorned my lips. If Nami really doesn't have romantic feelings for me, then why did she sound so jealous and get so over-protective to that point of almost hurting Rock when she thought he did something to me? It could be that she just really cares about me as a person, and...
I then inwardly hit my head. Oh yeah! I'm supposed to be thinking that Nami is already mine! I'm supposed to believe that Nami really does have feelings for me like Chris says! ...Or, at least I have to try to. I seriously need to stop over-analyzing. Sigh. It's just hard, when Nami told me otherwise, and... ...
Looking up at the clear-blue sky, I smiled a small smile as the chilly wind and autumn colored leaves rush through my brown hair, my two pigtails flowing ever so elegantly.
Time to make Nami's gifts...
- About Two Hours Later -
Thankfully, Lou gave me the key to Nami's room after she assured me that Nami was still outside roaming the valley, the older woman understanding my plan to surprise Nami for her birthday. I think Lou did kind of tease me about it though under her breath, but I couldn't really hear what she said exactly. However, that didn't stop the blood from rushing to my cheeks when I walked up the stairs to enter into Nami's room. As I began to place my three gifts that I got her in her bedroom, I noticed on her desk that same diary still remained wide-open and still had the same thing written on it from last time.
Nami's diary still said: 'She is... Four Hearts.'
I felt myself blushing as I glanced over at it a few times and wondered if Nami was going to write more in it. Are the hearts really about me...?
Suddenly, I heard the door open, and before I knew it, I was witnessing Nami's shocked face as she stood in the doorway.
"Happy Birthday, Nami!" I sang cheerily, while holding a large bouquet of fall flowers in my grasp and I handed it to her. Nami was taken aback as her elusive sapphire eyes scanned the rest of her room. A hand-made flower crown that consisted of only fall flowers was placed on her desk right next to her diary and next, a humongous white poster board that had only fall flowers glued to the edges of it. The poster board had written in the very center "HAPPY BIRTHDAY NAMI!" in red sharpie marker and it was place onto her desk behind the flower crown and her diary, her bedroom wall keeping it up as support. My handwriting isn't very good, but I did my best to make it neat for her...
Nami was silent for awhile and her expression was unreadable. I began to nervously twirl one of my pigtails while averting my emerald eyes toward the floor, hoping that she wasn't mad at me for going into her room like this - or for me even celebrating her birthday at all. I know she said she doesn't like to celebrate her birthday at all, but... She deserves to have her birthday feel special for once.
"S-Sorry... I wanted to make you a cake too, but Lou insisted that she'd make you one later to celebrate tonight, and... She let me in here when I told her I wanted to surprise you, and... I'm sorry, I-I... I hope you're not mad."
Putting the bouquet of fall flowers on her bed gently, Nami then finally spoke and confessed her thoughts; somewhat hesitantly, but her voice was serious as always.
"I'm in disbelief that you would actually do something for my birthday... I thought you hated me after what I said to you the other day, or I assumed that you wanted nothing to do with me from now on."
My eyes grew wide in shock. "H-huh? W-Well... Even despite what you said before, I thought we were still friends anyway? ...I don't see why not?" I said carefully, my heart pounding, as I was trying to resist any pain that was stabbing my heart at merely remembering when she told me that she didn't have any feelings for me before.
Nami nods quietly as she looked downwards at the floor, there appeared to be some regret lingering on her face, but I really can't tell; it's always so hard to read her facial expressions.
A nervous giggle erupted from my lips and I then spoke without really thinking, "And, um... I didn't know you liked any flowers at all! I'm glad you like fall flowers though!"
I then literally squeaked out loud from realizing that I said that by accident and I flinched, covering my mouth as my face grew cherry-red from embarrassment.
Nami raised an eyebrow slightly, growing suspicious. "Uh... How do you know that again? I don't recall ever telling you."
"A-Ah... D-Don't worry about it!" I stuttered. Oh great, eek! Now she's going to think I'm a stalker! "B-By the way! Phantom Skye randomly gave me back my money yesterday!" I relayed to her, trying to force my tone of voice to sound more cheerful to disguise my pure panic. Good thing I thought of something else quickly to change the subject!
"..." Nami didn't look too happy that I mentioned him, when suddenly she walked up to me and wrapped her arms around me, pulling me close to her in a hug. I felt my heart almost lurch out of my chest as my cheeks flushed just as red as her hair, I felt the warmth radiate from her body and I thought I was going to faint from all the armies of butterflies invading my stomach now. "N-Nami..."
"Thank you..." Nami quietly murmured. "You really didn't have to go through all this trouble... My birthday is nothing special and I don't really like to celebrate like I've told you before, so... Thanks, I guess."
My heart was pounding as she slowly pulled away from me, it feeling as if she was going to kiss me, but of course it didn't happen. I frowned inwardly, wishing she had hugged me for a longer amount of time. That hug was way too fast. It seems unlike Nami to hug anyone so suddenly like that though...
Suddenly, Nami shyly looked away from me and put her hands her in pockets, her face turning somewhat red as she began to quietly speak up, her voice low.
"Hey, uh... You should grow some sweet potatoes on your farm this fall."
I stood there, mouth completely agape.
Sweet potatoes. Sweet potatoes...
I'LL GROW ALL THE SWEET POTATOES IN THE WORLD IF THAT'S WHAT NAMI WANTS!
Author Note: It's ironic I'm finishing writing this chapter on my actual birthday today, August 21st, and I'm writing about Nami's birthday! XD It's all too funny! Lol! Thank you guys for reading and reviewing, I've enjoyed reading everyone's thoughts as always! I've been so busy lately, especially since I got sick recently, and then I celebrated my birthday EARLY with family when I was sick, and then with friends, and then I had other stuff going on, haha. I'm glad I got to write this chapter today though. Hope you guys enjoyed! I shall definitely update when I can! And the last bit was basically my reaction when Nami told me she wanted me to grow sweet potatoes in the game! XD HAHA.