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Morning farm duties were finally done for Y/N; as they stood up and stretched, a few cracks popped out, and relief rushed out of them. “Oh!” They just remembered that yesterday they had collected a couple of geodes from the mines and couldn’t get them processed. It was only 8:30 AM, so the blacksmiths wouldn’t be open for another 30 minutes. Though the walk over there should take long enough. They went to one of their trusty chests and rummaged through it, trying to find the much-needed geodes. “I hope I can get something interesting today… Scott will really appreciate some new gems.”
Y/N found their goods and stuffed them into their backpack, closing the chest afterward and slinging the gear on. A small puff of breath escaped them from the new weight on their back, adjusting slightly before patting their pockets for their gold. “Good, everything is there… Ah, I forgot their gifts!” Quickly they ran inside and opened their fridge, grabbing two small bottles of fruit juice and putting them in their backpack as well. “Perfect,” They mumbled as they proceeded to close the door to the refrigerator and hurry back outside towards the town.
As they walked, they looked around at the fresh summer foliage growing everywhere, taking in both the bright colors and immense heat from the sun’s rays beating down the small town. They would mumble to themselves while walking, murmuring about what to do later, what they are doing, or how they will interact with the two Sanchez brothers. Sometimes when passing another citizen of Starlet, they would smile and wave to them. Talking with Erica for a while before scurrying off as usual when heading to the Blacksmiths’ store.
Upon getting closer, Y/N was suddenly rushed by a ball of fur, almost knocking them back on their butt. A laugh drawled out of them as they instantly recognized this cuddly creature as Bonbon. “Hey bud, scared me there for a second,” their smile spread wide across their face as Bonbon barked and gave them a long lick right up the side of their face. “Alright, alright. Down, buddy.” Bonbon quickly hopped down and wagged her tail ferociously out of excitement. Y/N chuckled a little, picked a small snack out of their pocket, and held it up. “Ready?” Bonbon sat down and watched the hand with the snack intensely. Y/N then stood a moment in tense anticipation and quickly tossed the treat back toward Emma’s food truck.
The dog rushed towards it and caught the treat, gobbling it up quickly. Y/N watched, and their smile still plastered to their face. Then, after a moment, they shook their head and looked towards the left, where the Blacksmith was. Perfect, they thought, the shop had their ‘OPEN’ sign flipped over. They quickly made their way inside and inhaled the scent of a hearth burning brightly and a lot of sweat. The brothers did make sure to clean up around here, but no matter how much they did, it couldn’t hide the scent of their working BO. Slowly they made their way up to the counter, poking their head a little bit forward to see which of the two was manning the desk.
Pablo’s figure stood straight up once he took notice of Y/N, and a smile graced his features, “Well, if it isn’t the cute farmer! How’s it going today?” He leaned a bit on the counter, placing his chin on his hand. Y/N smiled sheepishly and blushed a little, “I’m doing pretty good.. Just had some geodes I wanted to get processed.” They took off their bag and rummaged around for a couple of earth geodes, placing them down gently on the counter. Pablo picked one up and looked at it, “looks really good; you’ve been down in those mines recently, haven’t you?” He placed it back down and started walking around toward the processing anvil.
Y/N nodded and watched as he walked, “I’ve really needed to upgrade some things on the farm, so I guess it’s just a part of the process.” Pablo nodded as he picked up the geodes from the other side of the counter and brought them over. “Well, good on you for doing it. It keeps Raf and me busy around here.” Once again, they nodded to what he said and looked towards the stairs behind the counter. “Speaking of Raf… Where is he?” A loud clang was heard, and one geode was opened. Pablo placed it on the table next to him and prepared the next one. He wiped the sweat off his brow and shrugged, “he was here earlier but not too sure. Might have gone to clean up the graveyard or something.”
“I see. I’ll have to check then,” Y/N mumbled to themself, and another loud clang rang out in the workshop. Pablo prepared the next geode, “once we are done here, you can go check his room; he can be a bit of a sneak. So I might not have heard him come back in.” He brought his hammer down again, and the last geode was broken open. He scooped up the three broken pieces and placed them on the refinery table. “In fact, this might take me a minute, leave the money on the counter, and you can go look now.” Y/N smiled a little at his statement, “you don’t trust me to pay you after I look?”
Pablo chuckled; he continued to place his tools where he would need to quickly get to them, “no, it’s just business, sweetheart.” Y/N chuckled as well, dug in their pocket for the 60 gold, and placed it on the counter. Afterward, they dug into their backpack and put Pablo’s fruit juice along with the money. “There ya go, I’ll make sure to not make a giant mess, maybe….” Before Pablo could protest their remark, Y/N had already scurried towards the brother’s humble abode. It was cozy and felt so much like home to them; visiting now when they were adults felt a bit different than back when they were kids. Everything was so much smaller, it seemed, and less intimidating.
Immediately when they got to the top step, they looked to the left, seeing Rafael’s room through the open doorway. It was certainly an interesting choice to not have a door in either room. Still, it helped them figure out who was home without knocking and interrupting. Rafael wasn’t in his room. It was empty of its owner, no big gentle giant standing there looking at his childhood memories. Y/N hesitated on entering his room. Regardless of whether he was or wasn’t in the room, a wave of anxiousness washed over the farmer. They stepped in and looked around his room; without Rafael in there, the air of his aura floated about. It was warm and inviting but also had strong notes of sweat-drenched clothes, like much of the workshop. “He must need to do laundry soon,” they looked over at his laundry basket, and the small pile of clothes confirmed their suspicions.
Their gaze continued to travel around the room, landing on a chest at the foot of his bed. It held Y/N's interest because they couldn’t remember it being there. He must have just added or moved this here, they thought. Their fingers slowly traced the top of its flat surface. Curiosity bubbled up inside them for what Rafael could hide in there. Still, curiosity often killed the cat, so it was best to leave it alone. “I’ll just go looking elsewhere for him.” They turned around and headed back downstairs.
Pablo was just walking back behind the counter as Y/N came down. He was carrying the three treasures that were extracted from the geodes. “Perfect timing; I just finished up these bad boys.” He placed them on the counter as Y/N walked back to the front of it. “Thanks, Pablo,” they looked at what they got. Sadly, it was only some granite and fire agate. Same as usual. “I take it from that sad expression Raf wasn’t up there?” Y/N shook their head and gathered their stones to put them back into their backpack. “That’s a shame,” he trailed off as he looked over at the money and juice bottle on the counter. “Oh ho ho, I see you left a gift for him instead?”
A blush started forming on the farmer’s face again, and they shook their head quickly. “Nono, nothing like that. It’s actually for you.” Pablo had already taken the money as he watched them fumble with their words; he chuckled, took the fruit juice, and winked. “Then thank you, Y/N. I’ll rub it in Raf’s face that I got a bottle, and he didn’t.” They joined in a little with his chuckle and nodded, “he will be so upset. I can imagine it now.” Y/N's smile was wider at their sarcasm; Rafael was never known to get too riled up, so imagining him as such was a rare sight.
“Well, I have to head out. Plenty more things to get done!” The farmer slung their backpack on again and offered a wave to Pablo. “I’ll be seeing you around, Pablo!” He was opening the bottle and about to take a sip. He waved back and smiled, “stay safe in those mines and bring back plenty of things.” Y/N nodded and walked out of the workshop, taking a deep breath as the door closed behind them. Interacting with Pablo wasn’t unnatural or uncomfortable for them. Still, he was a big flirt and seemed to revel in the significant reactions that they would have. And what happened earlier was only half of it; when Rafael is working the anvil and hot metals, Pablo grills them even more.
They shake their head and take a deep breath, then look off towards the north, where Emma’s food truck is. When they see a familiar salmon-colored shirt with a prominent figure attached, they perk up a little and start to bound their way over there. At her truck, Emma converses with Rafael about each other’s day and the overall status of the island and other businesses. When she catches Y/N's movements toward the two, she smiles and waves to them. Rafael gets a bit confused and looks in the same direction. However, once he sees them lightly jogging over, a giant smile across their face, he cannot help but smile. Their energy was infectious, and whenever they were around him, he felt like his day was just a little brighter.
“Hey, you two!” Y/N yelled out as they closed the distance between them, “I saw you both hamming it up over here and need to say hi.” Emma chuckled and leaned across her truck’s window counter, “well, hi to you as well, were you busy this morning as usual?” They nodded and patted their backpack, a sound of shifting rocks muffled through the fabric, “Yep, had to stop by and get some geodes processed.”
Rafael perks up a little bit and frowns, “really?” He trailed off and mumbled, “if I knew, I would have stayed an extra couple of minutes….” Y/N didn’t catch what he said, but he seemed to be a bit down about not being there from his demeanor. They wave again but dismissively, “it’s okay; Pablo took good care of me and my things. Well, as best as he usually does.” Emma and Y/N share a small laughter together, and Rafael rolls his eyes a little, “sometimes he doesn’t really know when to draw the line with his flirting.” Emma nods at Rafael’s response and sighs, “isn’t that the truth. So Y/N, ya feeling a little hungry?”
They perk up and look over at her small menu, humming a little in contemplation. “What is your specials for today, Ems?” She smiles and stands up straight with her hands on her hips, “why, what I usually sell on days like this, fish tacos!” Y/N smiles and nods, “I’ll take one of your famous tacos then!” Emma claps her hands and turns around, starting the cooking process. As she does that, Y/N reaches into their pocket and starts to get some of their coins out to pay. Rafael quickly interrupts by placing the payment down before they can pull theirs out.
“I’ll buy your order to compensate for not helping you in the shop earlier.” He has a slight blush dusting his cheeks as he leans over, hand still on the truck’s counter. Y/N looks from his hand to his face. “Are you sure?” They question him, “you don’t really have to, Raf.” He shakes his head and slides his money a little further, “no, no, I insist.” Y/N takes a moment to read any sign of him lying but doesn’t and nods, taking their hand out of their pocket, “okay, but next time I have to buy you some food. Promise?” They held out their pinky finger and looked at Rafael as straight on as they could manage. It wasn’t ever easy to look people directly in the eye, and Rafael was an even bigger issue to make direct eye contact with.
He looked down at their hand and then nodded, his blush getting darker as he wrapped his own pinky around theirs. His hand was substantially larger than Y/N's; both were equally worn down by all the work they would do. Y/N seemed to shake their hand up and down as they wrapped their pinky finger around Rafael’s. “It’s a deal then!”
Emma turned around and slid the fish taco towards both of them, “one of Emma’s famous fish tacos! Thanks for buying.” Her smile was wide as she quickly scooped up the coinage that Rafael had placed down. Y/N and Rafael looked over and let go of each other’s pinky. While Y/N picked up their taco and thanked Emma, Rafael scratched the back of his neck and turned away. His face was burning with a blush, and the feeling of Y/N's hand lingered on his.
The farmer turned to Rafael and put up their hand, “oh, I almost forgot! I have something for you.” They placed their taco down for a moment as they dove back into their backpack for his gift. After a couple of seconds, they pulled out a juice bottle similar to what they had given Pablo. Y/N held it to him and smiled, “I brought you a fruit juice I had left over.”
Rafael beamed at the sight at the mention of one of his favorite things and gently took it from them. “Are you sure about this?” Y/N nods and smiles teasingly, “I insist. Besides, when I stopped by the workshop, I had given one to Pablo as well. He thinks you aren’t getting one, so,” they winked and held a finger up to their lips. “It will be our little secret.” Rafael’s smile seemed to falter a little at the mention of his brother, but his expression softened again.
“Thank you. I’ll be sure to enjoy this later.” Y/N nodded to his response and then picked their taco back up, ensuring their bag was correct. “Well, I hate to eat and run, but I’ve got some more work today. So I will probably be seeing you tomorrow morning, Raf! And good luck with the truck today Em!” They quickly turned around and started to head back toward the forest. Rafael attempted to tell them that tomorrow was Sunday, so the shop would be closed, but it was too late. They had already disappeared into the winding roads of their little town.
He shook his head and looked at the bottle of juice. There was a small note on it: “have a great day! And don’t give up, cutie <3” Rafael covered his mouth with one hand to try and stifle the chuckle coming up from him. Emma smirked and leaned forward, “they write a good joke on there for ya?” He jumped a little, somehow forgetting that Emma was still there. “Something like that,” Rafael stuttered as he pocketed the juice for later. Emma laughed and went back to cleaning up a bit as Rafael shook his head again and began to walk back to the shop. “I’m gonna go back now. I have lots of work to do,” he waved to Emma as he left.
Pablo greeted Rafael when he came back and even attempted to raz him for the bottle of juice Y/N had given him and not Rafael. His brother simply shrugged it off and immediately got to work. His response left Pablo surprised, unsure if he was genuinely pissed off or preoccupied with something else. Either way, he thought it best to leave Rafael to do his work for the day.
Later that night, Rafael would take a break and finally relax from his time in front of the blistering heat from the hearth. Sipping the juice he had gotten from Y/N liberally to enjoy the taste and all the more reason to read their note to him.