Chapter Text
A duo stood by a stand in the farmer's market.
The man had light vermilion skin, short blonde with darker highlights at the roots, a goatee, and shades on his head with an earpiece. He wore a light teal-green button-up, brown khaki pants, dark brown sandals, and an ankle bracelet on the left calf of his leg.
The woman had tan skin, back-length wavy black hair, dark red lipstick, and clearly had on eyeliner. She wore a dark red button-up, a brown leather jacket, black pants, heeled boots, and a watch.
"Hey, Chip." The girl said, he didn't reply. "Chiiip!" He still didn't answer, she cleared her throat, then taking a big breath, ready to yell louder.
"WHAT, Aya?! What?!" He suddenly yelled.
"Is your name short for Christopher or Christian?"
". . . I'm not telling you that."
"Why not?"
"Because I don't feel like it.
Aya heavily inhaled then huffed. "Christmas Whistler it is."
"I'm not answering to Christmas—"
"SHH!" She suddenly exclaimed, hitting him on the shoulder. "Look! Ten o'clock!" She pointed at a family of three at a stand. "Easily impressionable and possibly uneducated children."
Chip smiled. "Good eye."
The two walked over and Chip repeatedly snapped his fingers at the father. "Hey, buddy. Guy. Buddy. Hey, are these crops organic?" Chip asked.
"If you're askin' if my crops are grown the way nature intended, then yes!" The father replied.
"Ha-ha, yeah! The simple farmer bit, that is . . . great!" Chip chuckled and looked at the two kids.
"We love theater." Aya smiled and Chip nodded. "You even dressed your kids in rags to complete the picture." She took their picture with her phone, blinding them. "Very 'Children of the Carrots.'"
"Ugh!"
"Ahh! I can't see nuthin'!"
"Chip." Chip introduced himself, shaking the father's hand.
"Aya." Aya introduced herself, shaking the little girl's hand.
"I'm the manager of the local grocery store and I am, uhhhhh . . ." Chip realized the father's severed finger and pulled his hand away, giving a fake cough. Meanwhile, Aya casually rubbed her hands off on one another after shaking hands with the girl, much better at hiding it.
"Sir, we had a problem with our organic shipment, so there's an opening for an alternate supplier this week." Aya explained to the father with a wide, fake smile. "And before you ask, yes, you'll get paid."
The boy grinned. "Ooooh!"
Chip elbowed the father. "Chumps'll pay twice as much for organic whatever, am I right?"
He chuckled nervously. "Yeah. . . ." He sighed.
"I also like good food."
The boy walked over. "And we've got plenty of it." He shook both of their hands. "Hi, Cricket Green, vegetable specialist."
"Perfect." Aya grinned. "We need twenty heaps of assorted produce, if we could pay you for that it'd really help out."
Chip handed the list over as she spoke. "Are you our guy?"
"Wow! . . . Oh, uh . . . I'm sorry to tell you this, guys, but . . . I don't have enough to fill the order. I'm gonna have to respectfully decline." He handed the list back.
"Wha . . . ?" Cricket was in shock.
"Your loss, trucker hat. Have a nice life." Chip said, the two then leaving.
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The two stood by another stand when Aya smacked an apple against her head. "Super dense, that's bad, right?" She asked, now knocking on it.
"How do you not know?" Chip questioned.
She casually put it back with a glare directed toward him. "I've consumed nothing but lattes, salad, and the rare diet soda for the last two years." She folded her arms. "I don't even remember what an apple tastes like."
"Uh, sir?" A voice said from below.
Both looked and jumped back to see Cricket, Chip even jumping back into Aya's arms. "AAAGH! No handouts today, street urchin!" Chip yelled.
"Oh, wait . . . Chip, it's just that farm kid." Aya said, the name was blanking on her. "Uh . . . Cockroach?"
As she put Chip down, Cricket chuckled. "It's Cricket. When my dad said we couldn't make the orders, see, he was drivin' one of them hard bargains. Of course we can come up with enough produce . . . what kind of farmers would we be if we couldn't?"
"Bad ones? I don't know. I don't know anything about farming." Chip dismissively said as Aya shrugged. He knelt down and shook Cricket's hand. "But you have got a deal, little guy!" He handed him the list. "Here's your list, give this to your old man.
"We'll be back in an hour with a truck to pick everything up." Aya explained. "Bye now!" The two walked off away from Cricket and she dropped her smile and her voice to a whisper. "I'm gonna make my assistant check if we could've gotten any diseases from making physical contact with that kid. Just to be safe."
"I think that's best."
⊱ ────── {.⋅ $ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
Aya jumped back in complete shock as Cricket sprinted past. "Whoa! That thing was huge! What was that?" She asked.
Chip stared at her in slight shock for a moment before answering. "A child."
She stared. "How was I supposed to know that that was the same thing we just made a deal with?" She asked as Chip sighed, following him as he ran over.
"Hey! There he is!" Chip greeted.
"Huh?" Cricket turned around. "Oh! Chip! My man!"
"I'm also here." Aya muttered with a forced smile.
"Whoa! Green Family Farms is not messin' around!" Chip chuckled, ignoring Aya's comment as he looked at the large amount of food.
"That's right, and it's all above board — a hundred percent delicious. . . . Not a single tennis ball in the bunch." Cricket muttered the last part.
"'Tennis ball in the bunch?'" Aya asked, confused by the wording.
"Ha! I love your folksy country sayings." Chip smirked. "Well, the deal's a deal." He took out a wad of cash from his pocket. "Here's a little scratch for your batch."
"Ew." Aya murmured.
"Don't make it gross." Chip shot back, she rolled her eyes.
Cricket took the cash, entranced. "Oh, it was a pleasure doin' business with ya . . ."
"Don't go spendin' that all on one place now, unless it's at Wholesome Foods. Then spend away, baby!" Chip enthusiastically exclaimed as Cricket walked off.
Aya picked up one of the apples Cricket dropped off, knocking on it. "Those are some hard apples. . . . Is that better?"
"I still have no idea." He shrugged, she glared. "What? Did you expect me to suddenly figure that out in the minute and a half since you last asked me?"
⊱ ────── {.⋅ $ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
"Hey," Aya called to Chip, then briefly whistling instead of calling him by his last name. "That child is currently toppling the economy of this lone farmer's market with how much food he's selling." She gestured to the Greens' stand, where there were multiple people ready to buy.
"I'll take two, please!"
"Hey, I'll buy some!"
"So creative!"
"That is the most impressive, greatest thing I've ever seen a child do." Aya smirked.
"We went to a charity event run by a fourth grader just a few weeks ago." Chip reminded her.
She scoffed a laugh. "So?" She laughed some more. "Hey, what do you say we push this business deal up?" She asked, and they both smugly smiled.
The two walked over. "There's my favorite non-fictitious farm family!" Aya smiled, Chip pushed two customers out of the way while getting over.
"Whoa-ho, look at this." Chip said, seeing how a lot of fruits were missing. "Your stuff is flying off the shelf smack of the store, and I gotta taste what all the fuss is about!" He picked up an apple.
Cricket was alarmed. "No, don't eat that! It's fake!"
"You earned it, relax." Aya grinned. "Welcome to capitalism!" She enthusiastically told him. "It's the best thing ever."
"Oh, you humble farmers . . . learn to take a compliment!" Chip bit into the apple before he felt something weird.
The two stared in horror as the part between his two front teeth chipped it's way upward, revealing the apple was just a painted magic eight ball. "Ahhhhh . . . ?!"
It fell out, leaving a gap. In shock he threw the ball back at them, Cricket hit it to stop it from hurting him, making it violently hit Aya directly into her right eyeball, her not able to see it coming because she was staring at Chip's tooth in shock.
Aya immediately held her eye in pain and the two screamed. "Holy moly." The father muttered.
"I cannot believe this! Okay?!" Chip yelled angrily, him accidentally whistling while talking due to the chip in his teeth. "Look what your disgusting dirt food did to my PERFECT face!"
"Our perfect faces!" Aya corrected.
"Your disgusting dirt food did to our perfect faces!" Chip had one hand pointing to Aya's now black eye and the other at his mouth.
"We're gonna get you for this, Greens, or our names aren't Chip Whistler and Aya Black!" The two angrily stomped off.
The Greens stared in shock before Tilly smirked. "Wow, now their names fit their faces!" They all laughed.