Chapter Text
The valley in the spring is just as vibrant as Gem remembers it. The birds singing, the squirrels running from tree to tree, the river winding its ambling path through the valley–it all calls to mind the time she spent here as a child. The freedom she felt here, even then.
It is good to be back in Pelican Town.
She’s spent the last few days of late winter pulling weeds, chopping trees, and ridding her grandpa’s old farm from more stones than she could ever have imagined. It’s been hard, ceaseless work that isn’t yet done, and it’s kept her from anything close to a social life, but it’s been worth it. Today–the first day of spring–she’s finally ready to till the dirt she grew up treading and put some crops in the ground.
She grabs her hoe and makes her way to the modest plot she’s cleared so far and is about to get to work before she has a realization. It might be smart to actually buy some seeds, first.
The fifteen parsnip plants from Lewis were a kind gesture, but if Gem’s gonna make it as a farmer in this valley, she’s gonna need a lot more than that. Some potatoes, some cauliflower, and some kale for sure. Now, if she can get all she needs with her rather miniscule budget… that’s a little up in the air right now.
The only way to find out is by heading into Pelican Town proper for the first time and meeting some locals.
Sighing, she puts away her hoe and watering can, dusts her hands on over overalls, and makes a rather pathetic attempt and smoothing her hair before she’s on her way down the well-trod path connecting Emerald Hills Farm to the rest of the valley.
As soon as she leaves the farm, it’s as if she steps into a memory. Nine years old, racing from the bus stop to Grandpa’s front door and back. Six years old, climbing a tree all the way to the top, then being too scared to get back down by herself, her best friend having to run back to the farm and get help.
Her best friend, she remembers. Grian.
As she comes up on the old, broken down bus, she can’t help but look to the well-worn path just on the other side of it–the one that leads to the small fishing hut that she knows Grian still lives in to this day, considering, for maybe the millionth time since coming back, going to say hi. And maybe for the millionth time, she thinks better of it, and keeps walking into town.
They hadn’t left things on the best of terms. They’d gotten into a huge fight the week of her very last summer here, and then… Grandpa had died before she could ever come and make amends. And now it just feels too late.
Sighing, she forces the thoughts from her mind as she pushes open the door to the general store and enters.
“Well, if it isn’t Farmer Gem!” a friendly, distantly familiar voice calls–Pierre, the owner of the store, and the only respectable person in the valley to buy seeds and produce from.
“Good morning, Pierre,” Gem happily trills, and begins looking around. The place really hadn’t changed much in the decade she’s been gone, and she isn’t certain if it’s a good or a bad thing. At the very least, it means she still knows where to go to get what she needs.
She takes her time, carefully measuring her coins against the seed packets, and eventually makes her way to the check out counter. She’d settled on getting at least two of every spring crop available, and spending what she had left over on potatoes, figuring they probably kept the longest and sold the best. Versatility, and all that. She thinks.
“It’s nice to have you back in the valley, Farmer Gem. It’s always been such a shame that Emerald Hills Farm was left sitting for so long, but… I think it’s best that you have it now,” Pierre tells her as he scans all of her items. “By the way–have you said hi to Abigail yet? I’m sure she’ll be ecstatic to have you back in town.”
Gem smiles, flushes from the kind words, and tries to forcefully unstick her throat, and get used to talking to people again beyond pleasantries.
“I haven’t yet, no. I’ve been a little busy getting the farm ready for spring, but once I get these guys planted, I’m sure I’ll have the free time to make my rounds and say hi,” she carefully answers. For some reason, she’s more afraid of saying the wrong thing than she’d ever been before.
Maybe it’s stemming from the years and years slaving at a job where everything she said was incorrect, and everyone she met was cruel.
Pierre, however, just smiles and tells her that that’s a good idea, wishes her a good day, and waves goodbye.
Autopilot marches her legs back out the door, grocery bags in hand, and she’s thankful for it. She’s very happy to be back in the valley, but it’s going to take a little more getting used to than she anticipated.
* * *
The sun has sunk below its apex by the time she has the seeds in the ground and watered, somewhere close to late afternoon. It took… way more energy than she thought it would, and she’s covered in dirt. And hungry. Very hungry.
She sighs, spends a few minutes washing up, and looks through her dreadfully bare food storage, and decides that she’s going to The Stardrop Saloon for dinner.
Gem is proud enough that she’s avoided it so far–and her wallet is proud, too–but she’s pretty sure that if she has to eat one more foraged salad, she’s going to go crazy. Nothing in the world sounds better than warm, cheesy pizza and something refreshing to wash it down with.
The golden tinges of what is swiftly becoming the sunset accompany her on her third trip down the town path today, and she basks in it. She’ll grow to dread the heat of the sun come summer, but in the early spring, it’s as welcoming to her as the valley itself.
The saloon is bustling when Gem arrives–something that, in her hunger, she had failed to account for. This late in the day, most of the townspeople are done with their various labors and are just as hankering for Gus’ food as Gem herself is. She sees several people that she remembers: Pam on her stool next to the bar, Willy and Clint at a table by the door, Dr. Harvey right up front. In the far room, some of the town’s young folk are gathered around the old pool table laughing.
They’d all been young kids the last time Gem was in the valley. Her last summer here, she was 12, and now they’re all grown up. Still, she can recognize the kids she grew up with as easy as anything. Sam, laughing loudly and losing badly at pool, Sebastian pretending not to be entertained by him, and Abigail, as cool as ever, between them. Gem’s happy to see that their trio seems as close as ever.
Most everyone seems too preoccupied to notice her entrance, and she’s fine with that. Gus smiles knowingly at her nervous, furtive glances around, and takes her order quieter than she assumes he usually would. Gem mentally grimaces at the price of her meal, but thanks Gus repeatedly before tucking into a table near the door, across from Willy and Clint, but mostly out of their sight.
The pizza looks and smells better than she even could have imagined, and her work-weary body relaxes at the experience of some really, really good food. The meal is worth every exorbitant penny that Gus charges for it. She’s three and a half slices deep (don’t judge–you do a hard day of labor and see how much of an appetite you work up), when the bell over the door jingles with the arrival of a new person.
Red jumper, sandy brown hair covered in a thick beanie, crooked glasses, and the smell of the ocean. It’s Grian, sauntering in with a grin that freezes Gem in place, slice abandoned halfway to her mouth.
He looks good. Healthy. He laughs with Gus and it sounds like when they were kids. Reminds her of them spending mornings in here, hours before the saloon was actually open, with special permission from Gus to play the arcade machines. They never did manage to beat Junimo Cart, she remembers.
She doesn’t realize that he’s turning her way until it’s too late, until he’s already as frozen as she is, mouth agape and staring at her.
There’s a standoff for a few moments that feel like they drag into infinity, and Gem doesn’t know what to do, doesn’t know if he’s still angry with her, doesn’t know if she can handle the answer being yes, but then Grian smiles, unfreezes, and makes his way to her.
“Gem?” he asks, somewhat disbelieving his eyes, his plate of spaghetti forgotten on the counter behind him.
“Hi,” Gem tries. Something about the smile on his face and the way he’s looking at her makes her feel small and fragile, like she’s six years old and stuck in a tree all over again.
It’s another awkward few minutes of just looking at each other before Gem comes back to herself.
“Bring your food,” she decides. “Join me, if you have time.”
Grian shakes his head, like he’s also snapping himself out of a memory and does exactly that. He pays Gus his coin and ferries his plate of spaghetti to the table and his… coffee?
“Are you drinking coffee with your spaghetti?” Gem can’t help but ask, incredulous that she’s seeing what she’s seeing. Her tone startles a laugh out of Grian as he sits, and she flushes, suddenly a little embarrassed at her outburst.
“Dude, don’t knock it ‘til you try it. It really cuts the acidity of the tomato sauce,” Grian rebuts, taking a big bite and washing it down with the rich dark coffee, as if to prove his point somehow.
“Hard pass,” she laughs and goes back to her very normal pizza and beer.
A beat. They make eye contact. Then they both devolve into giggles, mouths too full to laugh correctly, brains too frazzled to think to swallow for a second. Then they’re laughing like the last 10 years hadn’t separated them, cut them off from each other. They’re laughing like they’re 12 years old and getting into trouble somewhere.
It’s really nice.
The moment can’t last forever, though, and they recoup from their giggle fit eventually. Grian looks at her with eyes full of questions that she knows she’ll have to answer–that she wants to answer.
“You’re back?” he starts.
Gem nods. “I moved into Grandpa’s old place last week, but this is the first day I’ve made it into town. I… I had a lot of work to do to get the land ready for spring, but I did it. I was going to tell you I was here, but…” But I didn’t know how to. I didn’t know if you cared. I didn’t know if I was welcome.
Grian nods like he hears all of her unsaid answers, and says, “I’m happy you’re here.” Simple as that, he wipes away all of her fears. “How’ve you been? How are your parents?”
“They’re good, they both still work at their lab in the city,” she answers. “I’ve been, uh. Well, let’s just say that I am very happy to be back in Pelican Town.” She’ll tell him the full story later, if their friendship rekindles the way she hopes it does. “How about you?”
“Fishing is always good business, so I’ve been well. My old man retired a few years back, though, so it’s just me doing the processing these days. It ain’t much, but I love it,” he answers, and Gem can see the honest truth of it in his eyes. A simple, quiet life… Gem looks forward to starting that here, too.
“I’m glad to hear it. It must be a lot of work on your own, though,” Gem says.
Grian grins, “It can’t be more work than managing an entire farm by yourself.”
“That’s… fair,” Gem admits. Maybe they’re both a little crazy. Maybe that’s why their friendship always worked so well.
“Have you seen many people yet?”
Gem grimaces, and Grian laughs. “Not many. Pierre, Gus, you… Lewis and Robin met me at the farm on the day I moved in. But that’s all so far. Like I said, the farm has kept me incredibly busy.”
“I can imagine. I go for walks on the neighboring paths sometimes, or cut through to get to the rivers in the forest, so I’ve seen how overgrown it’s gotten. It’s gonna take you the year just to clean it all up, let alone get any industry set up…”
“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Gem groans, pillowing her face in her hands. “I still have so much to do. But it’s gonna be worth it. I know Grandpa would love to see it all fixed up, so… I have to.”
Grian must see the emotion behind her eyes, because his grow to match it, and he shakes his head. “I miss that old man. The valley lost some of its magic when he died, and when you left.”
They sit in the heaviness of their decade-old shared grief and eat their dinners. It’s been a long time since Gem has talked about her grandpa with someone who knew him as well as she did. Honestly, Grian might even have known him better, since Grian lived in the valley year round, and Gem was only here in the summer and on holidays. Of anyone, Grian will understand her desperation to get the farm back to its former glory, and for that, she is thankful.
“Well,” Grian says eventually. “I’m going out on the boat at first light in the morning, so I’ve got to get home and get to bed.”
Gem’s eyebrows hit her hairline as she checks the clock on the wall. “Oh, jeez, I need to get back to the farm, too. I didn’t realize how late it had gotten.”
“Walk back together?” he asks, just like when they were kids, and she smiles as the memory washes over her.
“Yup,” she agrees.
They swiftly gather their plates and their leftovers and bid Gus goodbye as they pour out into the freezing night. At some point while they were eating, the golden sunlight gave way to the silver of the moon, and Gem’s breath dances in puffs ahead of her.
There’s a silence that falls over Pelican Town once the sun sets that you just can’t find in the city, or anywhere else, really. The serenity is mixed with some sort of wild magic that Gem has never felt in any other place. She breathes it in deeply, and summons a little bit of bravery.
“Race you to the bus stop,” Gem dares, and doesn’t give Grian the mercy of waiting for him to answer before she dashes off.
“Wha- not fair!” Grian cries as he chases after her, their feet falling heavy across the stone of the town center.
Gem runs like a child, runs free, huffing laughs at Grian’s growing expletives behind her as he fails to catch up and overtake her. As the stone gives way to packed dirt, she slows, turns to watch him close the distance, and still makes it to the bus before he does.
“I win,” she huffs, breathless, as she touches the cold metal of the abandoned bus.
“Because you cheated,” Grian bites, but it’s toothless as he collapses next to her, heaving deep breaths.
“Yeah, whatever. We’ll play fair next time,” Gem teases. I really hope there’s a next time.
“I’m too old for this,” Grian groans as he stands and dusts himself off, and Gem laughs.
“You’re 22, you clown.”
“Definitely too old for this,” he repeats, and they fall into laughter again.
Gem walks next to him until they get to the start of the overgrown path to his little fishing cottage, and they both pause there. She doesn’t really want to say goodnight, but they’re both adults with responsibilities now, and they can’t stay up exploring the woods until dawn anymore.
“Well…” Gem starts, but it’s heartless, and it fetters into silence.
“Want to do dinner tomorrow? My place? I get in from my trip around 4,” Grian asks, and Gem has to bite her tongue to keep from agreeing too quickly.
“Yeah, yes, that sounds nice. I’d offer to bring food, but it’s all currently in the ground,” Gem says. She likes the sound of him laughing in the quiet of the night.
“Right… nice. Good. I’ll see you tomorrow, then,” Grian tells her, then lingers another second longer before actually turning and heading down his path.
“Goodnight, G,” she calls after him, then turns and heads home, too.
The dusty paths and overgrown crop fields are there to welcome her in, as is her tiny cabin. Suddenly, they seem a lot less lonely.
Or maybe it’s just Gem.