Chapter Text
You hop off the bus, bag of belongings in your hand and longing to see what the future held for your new life. A second chance dawned and you weren’t going to let it go. The late evening air-
“Y/N? That’s you, right?” A man in his thirties asked you, calling you out of your sentimental state. The man had a black-haired side part and wore a scuffed-up blue jacket. “Yes! That’s me. You’re Sh…Shane?” The man nodded and turned around, expecting you to follow him. You scurried to him, not expecting him to begin his move so soon. “So- Shane! How have you been? Uhm..we haven’t seen each other since I was in kindergarten!” “Yeah whatever, nothing much has changed. I feel the same as I did ten years ago.” He said not seeming that interested in the small talk. A silence had fallen before you as he took a right turn towards what looked like a run-down farm.
“Are we heading the right way?” You asked not being sure about the decision to trespass on private property. “It’s a shortcut, besides nobody lives here anyways, owner kicked the bucket recently.” “Hm, I see.” You walked on a little path that had formed over the years of it being used.
You dragged your suitcase through the rubble and grass until you finally got to a little passageway, heading through it finding the familiar sight of Marines ranch.
Shane picked up the pace seeing a ginger woman exiting her house/cottage in the distance. “Pick up the pace,” Shane told you, clearly not wanting to engage with her. You tried your best to catch up with him only for you to fail and for the suitcase you were dragging to fall with a loud thud, causing the ginger woman’s attention to be placed upon the people a bit further away. You picked up the suitcase to be met with a begrudging look on Shane’s face.
Shane sighed in annoyance and stood there just counting down the seconds until this would finally be over. The woman walked up to you both with a beaming smile. “Hello Shane, nice to see you! And who is this? Is this a new addition to the town?” The woman said. “I’m Y/N, I’m planning on living here yes, I’ll be staying over at Marnie’s for a little while until I get my own place in order.” “I’m Leah, and great! New people in the town are always exciting, you should make sure to say hi to the rest of the townsfolk as well, we’re a nice quant little community, where everyone knows everyone, so making connections is important!” Leah advised. “I..I’ll be sure to do that.” You answered keeping in mind what she said. “Well, I’m off to see Elliot, he’s a friend of mine, he lives on the beach, be sure to say hi to him as well. Goodbye Y/N and Shane.” Leah said and went on her merry way to the town beach.
“annoying…” Shane mumbled under his breath. “Sorry about that.” You apologised following Shane to the front door of Marnie’s home. He opened the door and without keeping it open for you went straight to his room and slammed the door, not acknowledging Marnie in the kitchen, who had been waiting for your arrival.
She jumped up at your sight and ran straight to you. “Y/N! There you are, sweetheart! My favourite nephew is finally back home..how have you been? Excited about your stay in Pelican Town? Oh my Yoba, you’ve grown so much, you’re such a handsome young man—“ “Haha..I’m happy to see you too auntie, you haven’t aged a bit!” You embraced your great aunt and eventually let go. “I made you some apple pie, treat yourself, I’ll get Shane to call Jas over so we all can have a nice meal together,” Marnie said getting ready to call out for Shane.
Not wanting to bother him any further you put away your belongings ready to go search for her yourself. “I’ll go get her, let my uncle enjoy his Sunday off from work-“ “No no, all he’ll do is mope around and get drunk anyways, going out will be good for him. Shane! Please come out!-“ The door to his room flung open revealing a pretty pissed-off-looking Shane. “Can I at least accompany him then?” “Oh well, I guess, Shane, could you please go with Y/N to look for Jas? I want us to share this apple pie I made together.” Marnie asked. Shane seemed to cheer up a little hearing the sound of the apple pie.
Without saying anything he walked through the kitchen out the front door leaving you behind, you running after him as usual. “I uh— I’m sorry you have to-“ “Will you shut up already.” You kept quiet not wanting to make him mad any further.
You found Jas near a tree playing with a skipping rope. It was your first time seeing her. She was born after your move to Zuzu city, and since you hadn’t visited since, she wasn’t someone you were that familiar with. Jas stopped her hopping and looked in your direction and with her big gorgeous eyes just stared. Judging you from head to toe.
“Hello, Jas! I’m your godfather's nephew, we haven’t officially met but- I’ve heard a lot about you!” You greeted her keeping your distance. Jas didn’t answer and just went to Shane’s side throwing you an angry look before focusing her attention on Shane. You sighed, not understanding what you had done to evoke this reaction.
You three went back to the home and all entered one by one. You looked at Jas who ran to Marnie to give her a big hug, completely not mirroring her affection for you. You looked at your uncle with a “What did I do wrong?” face, but he just turned away with a suspicious look on his face, as if he felt guilty or something.
“Great! Now that we’re all here, how about we start on the apple pie? It’s not going to eat itself!” Marnie said as she sliced it and set it on some plates, handing the first one to Jas, followed by you, Shane, and then herself. “Now that everyone has got their plate, go ahead, dig in!” She offered and everyone dug into the pie.
You put a fork into your mouth that you had chipped a piece of pie with and savoured the sweet taste. “Mmm! Marnie you have outdone yourself! This is just great!” You praised her. “Why thank you, I picked the apples out from Pierre’s shop, his products are great quality but the price doesn’t compare to the prices at Joja Mart…but since you were coming over I decided to get the best of the best!” Marnie explained. You smiled at her, showing your gratitude, still feeling two eyes burningly staring at you.
“Talking about Joja Mart, Shane works there! He has to go to work tomorrow, so I was thinking, he could take you along and show you around town a bit. How does that sound?” Marnie said. You didn’t want to bother the guy any further so you refused. “Oh uhm- well that sounds wonderful but- I’m sure Shane is busy as it is, especially during a work day, I’ll go to explore the town by myself, I’m sure I won’t get lost or anythin-“ “Actually Y/N, I’d like you to come with me.” Shane interrupted.
You looked at him confused, you were sure he wasn’t interested in guiding you around early hours in the morning. “Well alright then, Shane tour it is.” You said gulfing down another bite of the pie. “Thank you auntie for the pie, I’ll head to my room now. Bye, Shaneyboo!!” Jas said hugging Shane and running off to her room. Shane blushed embarrassed at the nickname. “Yeah, bye Shaneyboo~” you giggled at the name. “Shut it or you’re sleeping in the hallway,” Shane murmured.
Marnie picked up the rest of the plates and put them in the sink, getting ready to wash them. You and Shane thanked her for the meal and both went into his room.
If you were being honest, it didn’t look the best, tons of knocked-over beer cans and other trash was laying around, but at least he had a pretty cool gaming setup. There was a blue inflatable mattress on the floor with some covers messily thrown on it. “You want to sleep on the bed or the floor?” Shane asked you. “The floor I suppose…” you said trying to be nice, expecting Shane to object. “Alright then.” He nonchalantly said and hopped onto his bed.
You awkwardly kneeled onto the floor, tidying the lazily put-on sheets and blanket on the mattress. Once you were happy enough with the makeshift bed you quickly changed into some more comfortable clothes while Shane was busy moping around on his bed and got under the sheets.
It was quite late and you did have a long trip so tiredness eventually overtook you and you drifted into sleep.