Writer's note: Thank you once again to those of you still reading! I've been glued onto other Story of Seasons fanfic recently and realized how much behind I am when it comes to writing. Man, those stories out there are AMAZING! And I also realize I didn't give my story a title.. So, after a considerable amount of thought, I've decided a title: Flambéed Love. It's a cooking-related title since our bachelor here is a chef ;)! I'll update all the previous chapters with the title as well! I am writing this chapter to commemorate a certain famous celebration in February, the month of affection.
In case anyone of you are curious, here's some explanation on the title I've chosen. To explain, flambé is a cooking technique to ignite foods with the help of liquor and it brings out the flavour even more. And from what I've seen, most of the dishes requiring a flambé are desserts.. which are sweet!
In my fanfic, I want to portray Minori's and Raeger's initial relationship to be a sweet and budding one, that would progress into something wonderful, with the help of some 'push' that creates a spark for their love.
To read the other chapters, click the links below:
In case anyone of you are curious, here's some explanation on the title I've chosen. To explain, flambé is a cooking technique to ignite foods with the help of liquor and it brings out the flavour even more. And from what I've seen, most of the dishes requiring a flambé are desserts.. which are sweet!
In my fanfic, I want to portray Minori's and Raeger's initial relationship to be a sweet and budding one, that would progress into something wonderful, with the help of some 'push' that creates a spark for their love.
To read the other chapters, click the links below:
Disclaimer: I do not own any of the pictures
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flambéed Love
~Wishes~
Minori laid motionless on her bed and let out a deep sigh as she stared into her ceiling. It was winter the thirteenth, which marked no special occasion until this year when she arrived and became a resident of Oak Tree Town. The picture of a present box was drawn on this date on the calendar located by her bed side, and right beside the picture a name was written: Minori. It was her birthday, something that Minori has been rather anticipated of. She wanted to see who actually remembers and cared enough to shower her with congratulatory words. To her gratitude, all of the residents she talked to that day had wished her a happy birthday, along with some of their personal wishes for her; and the people she was close to showered her with thoughtful gifts in addition.
Iris and Agate gave her a set of presents together placed inside one box and they made a personalised birthday card for her, handwritten by Iris because the novelist's handwriting was much neater than the ranger's. The present box was wrapped in mint green wrapper, decorated with white ribbons; and Minori discovered along with a leather-covered journal for the upcoming year, two orichalcums tucked carefully at its side. The girls had known of her plan to upgrade her big house and add another storey to it, but Minori was still lacking in materials, despite her having more than enough money to pay Gunther for his service. Minori was astonished at the sight, and while she very much loved her gifts, she felt somewhat guilty to be receiving such an exquisite gift for her birthday. Orichalcum is a very rare stone, after all. Apparently, Agate has spent the past few days trying to find them at the mine inside the safari.
The girls were the only one who went through such length to personalise Minori's birthday gift though, as the others preferred to hand it to Minori in person while explaining to her what the gift was. Klaus, who has assumed the role of 'big brother' for her, delivered to her house a medium-sized glass bottle filled with his latest creation, a limited edition perfume to be released next spring, with the scent of rose - which is Minori's favourite.
Fritz, her fellow farmer and good friend, surprised her early in the morning by doing Minori's share of farm work for the day. Fritz hasn't been the best farmer around, but for that day, he did the best he could - perhaps even better than his usual standard - and Minori appreciated that very much. "Today is your day, Minori. I want you to relax and enjoy it to the fullest!" Fritz grinned warmly and Minori smiled sweetly in return, and was reminded yet again how grateful she was for his presence.
Corona, Melanie and Otmar are the people Minori felt close to that don't belong in her age group. Corona is the person Minori would usually look for to get some advice, especially when it comes to every day problems that girls face - Minori would look for the wise Klaus when it comes to other issues. On the other hand, Minori sees Melanie like a younger sister and Otmar just like her own grandfather. For her birthday, Corona gave Minori her special homemade baked cookies that she loved; Melanie made a flower bouquet for her; and Otmar gave Minori his treasured old fishing rod, thinking that it would be put to better use in her hands - considering Otmar's age. Minori was grateful for every single one of them.
Minori would have been elated and the day would have been perfect, if only one last remaining person had took even the slightest trouble to wish her. It was already five in the afternoon, yet there was still no word from Raeger - causing Minori to wonder if he actually had forgotten, much to her disappointment. Minori let out another deep sigh and rolled around her bed, as she watched the clock ticked one long second at a time.
...
The young farmer would normally head to bed the moment she finishes her farm work; but today, she stayed awake longer, waiting for the day to end when the clock strikes past midnight. She did everything she could to distract herself while she continued waiting: watched the television, opened her refrigerator a few times without actually eating something, flipped through her blueprints, rolled on her bed... But even as time continued passing painstakingly, there was still no word from Raeger.
By eleven, Minori started giving up on hope. 'I guess he forgot..' Minori thought to herself and let out a pathetic chuckle, mocking herself for having such a wishful thinking. 'What am I doing, hopelessly waiting for something that wouldn't happen? Just because he's nice to me, it doesn't make me special.' Disappointed, she let go of all possibility and slowly got out of bed; brushed her teeth, changed into her pajama... the usual stuff, and then proceeded to turn off the lights.
Just as she was about to turn off the last remaining source of light by her bedside, a knock coming from the front door interrupted the silence in her residence. The sound caught her off guard, making her jumped a little bit. There was only half an hour left before midnight, and Minori did not expect anyone to visit her this late. She was not even thinking that it might be Raeger - no, she had already given up on the very idea; and if she continues to expect further, she would just end the day with greater disappointment.
Minori tilted her head towards the direction of the front door, and after a brief pause made her way towards the entrance. Very carefully, she unlocked the door and slowly peeped out to investigate the bearer of the sound. Standing before her was a man Minori was very familiar with, gasping for air, and still dressed in his usual outfit. Minori could notice a few drops of sweat running down from his brown locks despite the cold winter air. Her eyes widened in shock at the sight, but kept her composure still. Not wasting any moment, she spoke, "Rae..ger? What are you doing here this late at night?"
Minori paused to wait for his response, but as Raeger continued panting quietly, Minori grew concerned. "Is everything okay, Raeger? Come in, it's cold outside!" She opened her front door wider to let the gentleman in, and Raeger, still speechless, quickly made his way into her house. The young farmer then quickly closed the door to prevent the outside temperature from coming into her place as well. Minori turned back the lights on, and brewed some tea for the two of them, but mainly for Raeger to keep him from freezing.
Upon her gesture, Raeger took a seat by her dining table and as he finally collected his composure, he spoke up, "I'm sorry for coming here so suddenly, Minori. Were you about to go to sleep?" Raeger questioned her as he took a sip from his cup of earl grey.
Minori smiled and assured him that it was alright, but more importantly she wanted to know what brought him panting in front of her house at 11:30pm in the middle of a cold winter night. As she asked him with a face full of concern, Raeger was immediately reminded of the original purpose of his visit. He jolted and quickly turned to see the time, and was relieved to see that the day has not ended yet. Of course, his action made Minori grew more and more curious.
"Raeger? Is everything alright?" Minori questioned him once more.
The young chef collected his composure yet again, and looked straight into her direction. "Minori, I'm really sorry this is so late.. work took much longer than expected and I could only come by now, but..." Raeger paused and dove his hand into his right pocket. He took out a small box decorated with ribbons, and as he placed the item on top of the dining table, he fixed his gaze into her eyes and spoke sweetly, "Happy birthday, Minori! I got you a little something for your birthday. I hope you'll like it."
Minori was dumbfounded at the sight right before her eyes. She was so upset about Raeger not remembering her birthday, that she did not even expect this to happen when the man himself came over to visit. She had to blink a few times, before slowly reaching her hands out to take the box closer to her. She stayed quiet for a moment, still dumbfounded, before finally asking Raeger, "You ran all the way here and up the hill, in the middle of a cold winter night to personally give this to me, Raeger?"
"Well.. why would I not? I didn't want to give it when the day is over. It's less meaningful that way. But I still feel bad for being late. I'm sorry, Minori." Raeger apologised.
Minori quickly exclaimed in protest, "No, no! There's no need for you to apologise! In fact.. I'm just happy you remembered.." Minori smiled sweetly. "Thank you, Raeger. Can I.. open it now?"
Raeger chuckled, "Of course! It's yours now!"
She returned the gesture, and carefully unwrapped the gift box. As she finally saw what was inside, her eyes widened in surprise: tucked carefully inside was a small analogue wristwatch that Minori has been eyeing on for a while. She especially loved the classic design, and the elegant colour of rose gold - but she decided to leave her desire for later because she was saving up some money to upgrade her house and buy some materials to build new furniture inside. So when her wish is fulfilled, and especially coming from someone she held a special connection to, Minori felt truly delighted.
"Oh wow!! This is the watch I've been wanting to have! How did you.." Her sentence was cut before she could finish.
"Minori.." Raeger sighed and leaned his right arm on the table against his jaw. "It's not hard to notice when you come to the restaurant regularly, you know? And you probably munched the food twice as loud whenever you got excited from seeing that watch on Rose Country's catalogue." Raeger shook his head playfully and smirked.
As expected, Minori turned bright red and once again exclaimed in protest, "Wh..wha.. whaaat?! You can't say that to a lady, you know, especially not on her birthday!!"
Raeger laughed at her response and quickly apologised. "Ahaha! Sorry, sorry, Minori. You're just so fun to tease."
Minori pouted; but she couldn't pout for so long when she felt so excited from his gift. Thinking back, she felt embarrassed how she was desperately hoping for Raeger to wish her a happy birthday, and all the silly reasons she thought of throughout the day. Minori was a little bit of a pessimist after all, which was something she had been trying to change about herself.
She then carefully took out the watch from its box and wore it on her left arm. She smiled widely and looked towards Raeger lovingly, "Thank you, Raeger! It's really thoughtful of you to do that. I really like it! What did I even do to deserve something so amazing?"
The young man looked at her and showed a confused expression. He lowered his eyebrow and replied, "What are you talking about, Minori? You're special, of course I'd do this for you."
'Sp..spe..special?! Did I hear that correctly??' Minori thought to herself while feeling flustered. 'By special, he meant.. as what?!?!'
Noticing Minori getting flustered, Raeger immediately felt embarrassed and quickly realised how suggestive his words had been. He didn't want Minori to feel uncomfortable.. or even creeped out!, but at the same time.. 'wait, at the same time.. what? Why do I care so much about Minori anyway?' Raeger had so many thoughts running through his head, but he didn't have much time to think about this for now, he had to rephrase his sentence fast!
"Uhm.. what I meant was.. you're a great friend to me, Minori!" Raeger stammered, which was unusual.
'Oh..right. Yeah, that's what he meant.' Minori felt disappointed. But she did not want things to be weird between them, so she chuckled nervously. "Haha.. yeah. You're a great friend to me too, Raeger." She smiled, and then changed the topic of conversation to break the air of awkwardness, "So what kept you busy at work today, Mr. Chef?"
"Ah, there was some problems earlier just this afternoon. The supplier was late because the wheel on his cart unexpectedly broke, then the water suddenly leaked from the pipe and it made a huge mess at the restaurant. Out of all days, there had to be so many problems today.." Raeger poured out his frustration to Minori, but was relieved that she quickly changed the topic of their conversation. Otherwise he might not have known what to do, or what to say. "Enough about me, how has your birthday been?"
...
And with that, the two of them continued exchanging conversation, until they finally realised that more than 2 hours had easily passed since Raeger came, which meant dawn would soon be approaching. Raeger and Minori were truly enjoying themselves, sinking deep into each other's conversation, but they knew they had to put it on hold for another day.. considering the amount of work waiting for them when the sun rises later on.
"Oh no.. look at the time, Minori." Raeger signaled.
"Yeah, time passes so quickly.." Minori replied gloomily and stayed silent.
Raeger looked at her thoughtfully. He wanted to stay.. but he couldn't. "I have to go now, Minori.." He stood up from his chair and put on his black coat and maroon scarf back around him. Minori followed his gesture and stood up from her chair too, then walked closer towards the young man himself.
She faked a smile, "Hhm yeah it's getting late. I should probably head to bed soon too.."
An awkward silence filled the room temporarily, until Raeger smiled and tilted his head down to look at Minori in the eyes. In return, Minori tilted her head up and looked back into his eyes, trying her best not to plead him, 'don't go!'. He took a step closer, reached out his right hand and caressed her hair as usual. "I know the day is now over, but.. happy birthday once again, Minori. It was great talking to you tonight."
Minori beamed, "It's my pleasure, Rae. Thank you for coming all the way here, for the gift, and for accompanying me tonight." She paused, squeezed Raeger's arm and gave him a look of concern, "This town is safe, but you never know what could happen this late at night.. get home safely, okay?"
"Thanks, Minori. I'll see you again tomorrow!"
She walked him to the front door, and parted their ways there. He waved her good bye, and she smiled bitterly as she returned the gesture. Minori walked back in and closed her front door for the last time that night, turned off all her lights once again, and immediately proceeded into her bed.
'How I wish some nights would last forever...'
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Flambéed Love
~Wishes~
Minori laid motionless on her bed and let out a deep sigh as she stared into her ceiling. It was winter the thirteenth, which marked no special occasion until this year when she arrived and became a resident of Oak Tree Town. The picture of a present box was drawn on this date on the calendar located by her bed side, and right beside the picture a name was written: Minori. It was her birthday, something that Minori has been rather anticipated of. She wanted to see who actually remembers and cared enough to shower her with congratulatory words. To her gratitude, all of the residents she talked to that day had wished her a happy birthday, along with some of their personal wishes for her; and the people she was close to showered her with thoughtful gifts in addition.
Iris and Agate gave her a set of presents together placed inside one box and they made a personalised birthday card for her, handwritten by Iris because the novelist's handwriting was much neater than the ranger's. The present box was wrapped in mint green wrapper, decorated with white ribbons; and Minori discovered along with a leather-covered journal for the upcoming year, two orichalcums tucked carefully at its side. The girls had known of her plan to upgrade her big house and add another storey to it, but Minori was still lacking in materials, despite her having more than enough money to pay Gunther for his service. Minori was astonished at the sight, and while she very much loved her gifts, she felt somewhat guilty to be receiving such an exquisite gift for her birthday. Orichalcum is a very rare stone, after all. Apparently, Agate has spent the past few days trying to find them at the mine inside the safari.
The girls were the only one who went through such length to personalise Minori's birthday gift though, as the others preferred to hand it to Minori in person while explaining to her what the gift was. Klaus, who has assumed the role of 'big brother' for her, delivered to her house a medium-sized glass bottle filled with his latest creation, a limited edition perfume to be released next spring, with the scent of rose - which is Minori's favourite.
Fritz, her fellow farmer and good friend, surprised her early in the morning by doing Minori's share of farm work for the day. Fritz hasn't been the best farmer around, but for that day, he did the best he could - perhaps even better than his usual standard - and Minori appreciated that very much. "Today is your day, Minori. I want you to relax and enjoy it to the fullest!" Fritz grinned warmly and Minori smiled sweetly in return, and was reminded yet again how grateful she was for his presence.
Corona, Melanie and Otmar are the people Minori felt close to that don't belong in her age group. Corona is the person Minori would usually look for to get some advice, especially when it comes to every day problems that girls face - Minori would look for the wise Klaus when it comes to other issues. On the other hand, Minori sees Melanie like a younger sister and Otmar just like her own grandfather. For her birthday, Corona gave Minori her special homemade baked cookies that she loved; Melanie made a flower bouquet for her; and Otmar gave Minori his treasured old fishing rod, thinking that it would be put to better use in her hands - considering Otmar's age. Minori was grateful for every single one of them.
Minori would have been elated and the day would have been perfect, if only one last remaining person had took even the slightest trouble to wish her. It was already five in the afternoon, yet there was still no word from Raeger - causing Minori to wonder if he actually had forgotten, much to her disappointment. Minori let out another deep sigh and rolled around her bed, as she watched the clock ticked one long second at a time.
...
The young farmer would normally head to bed the moment she finishes her farm work; but today, she stayed awake longer, waiting for the day to end when the clock strikes past midnight. She did everything she could to distract herself while she continued waiting: watched the television, opened her refrigerator a few times without actually eating something, flipped through her blueprints, rolled on her bed... But even as time continued passing painstakingly, there was still no word from Raeger.
By eleven, Minori started giving up on hope. 'I guess he forgot..' Minori thought to herself and let out a pathetic chuckle, mocking herself for having such a wishful thinking. 'What am I doing, hopelessly waiting for something that wouldn't happen? Just because he's nice to me, it doesn't make me special.' Disappointed, she let go of all possibility and slowly got out of bed; brushed her teeth, changed into her pajama... the usual stuff, and then proceeded to turn off the lights.
Just as she was about to turn off the last remaining source of light by her bedside, a knock coming from the front door interrupted the silence in her residence. The sound caught her off guard, making her jumped a little bit. There was only half an hour left before midnight, and Minori did not expect anyone to visit her this late. She was not even thinking that it might be Raeger - no, she had already given up on the very idea; and if she continues to expect further, she would just end the day with greater disappointment.
Minori tilted her head towards the direction of the front door, and after a brief pause made her way towards the entrance. Very carefully, she unlocked the door and slowly peeped out to investigate the bearer of the sound. Standing before her was a man Minori was very familiar with, gasping for air, and still dressed in his usual outfit. Minori could notice a few drops of sweat running down from his brown locks despite the cold winter air. Her eyes widened in shock at the sight, but kept her composure still. Not wasting any moment, she spoke, "Rae..ger? What are you doing here this late at night?"
Minori paused to wait for his response, but as Raeger continued panting quietly, Minori grew concerned. "Is everything okay, Raeger? Come in, it's cold outside!" She opened her front door wider to let the gentleman in, and Raeger, still speechless, quickly made his way into her house. The young farmer then quickly closed the door to prevent the outside temperature from coming into her place as well. Minori turned back the lights on, and brewed some tea for the two of them, but mainly for Raeger to keep him from freezing.
Upon her gesture, Raeger took a seat by her dining table and as he finally collected his composure, he spoke up, "I'm sorry for coming here so suddenly, Minori. Were you about to go to sleep?" Raeger questioned her as he took a sip from his cup of earl grey.
Minori smiled and assured him that it was alright, but more importantly she wanted to know what brought him panting in front of her house at 11:30pm in the middle of a cold winter night. As she asked him with a face full of concern, Raeger was immediately reminded of the original purpose of his visit. He jolted and quickly turned to see the time, and was relieved to see that the day has not ended yet. Of course, his action made Minori grew more and more curious.
"Raeger? Is everything alright?" Minori questioned him once more.
The young chef collected his composure yet again, and looked straight into her direction. "Minori, I'm really sorry this is so late.. work took much longer than expected and I could only come by now, but..." Raeger paused and dove his hand into his right pocket. He took out a small box decorated with ribbons, and as he placed the item on top of the dining table, he fixed his gaze into her eyes and spoke sweetly, "Happy birthday, Minori! I got you a little something for your birthday. I hope you'll like it."
Minori was dumbfounded at the sight right before her eyes. She was so upset about Raeger not remembering her birthday, that she did not even expect this to happen when the man himself came over to visit. She had to blink a few times, before slowly reaching her hands out to take the box closer to her. She stayed quiet for a moment, still dumbfounded, before finally asking Raeger, "You ran all the way here and up the hill, in the middle of a cold winter night to personally give this to me, Raeger?"
"Well.. why would I not? I didn't want to give it when the day is over. It's less meaningful that way. But I still feel bad for being late. I'm sorry, Minori." Raeger apologised.
Minori quickly exclaimed in protest, "No, no! There's no need for you to apologise! In fact.. I'm just happy you remembered.." Minori smiled sweetly. "Thank you, Raeger. Can I.. open it now?"
Raeger chuckled, "Of course! It's yours now!"
She returned the gesture, and carefully unwrapped the gift box. As she finally saw what was inside, her eyes widened in surprise: tucked carefully inside was a small analogue wristwatch that Minori has been eyeing on for a while. She especially loved the classic design, and the elegant colour of rose gold - but she decided to leave her desire for later because she was saving up some money to upgrade her house and buy some materials to build new furniture inside. So when her wish is fulfilled, and especially coming from someone she held a special connection to, Minori felt truly delighted.
"Oh wow!! This is the watch I've been wanting to have! How did you.." Her sentence was cut before she could finish.
"Minori.." Raeger sighed and leaned his right arm on the table against his jaw. "It's not hard to notice when you come to the restaurant regularly, you know? And you probably munched the food twice as loud whenever you got excited from seeing that watch on Rose Country's catalogue." Raeger shook his head playfully and smirked.
As expected, Minori turned bright red and once again exclaimed in protest, "Wh..wha.. whaaat?! You can't say that to a lady, you know, especially not on her birthday!!"
Raeger laughed at her response and quickly apologised. "Ahaha! Sorry, sorry, Minori. You're just so fun to tease."
Minori pouted; but she couldn't pout for so long when she felt so excited from his gift. Thinking back, she felt embarrassed how she was desperately hoping for Raeger to wish her a happy birthday, and all the silly reasons she thought of throughout the day. Minori was a little bit of a pessimist after all, which was something she had been trying to change about herself.
She then carefully took out the watch from its box and wore it on her left arm. She smiled widely and looked towards Raeger lovingly, "Thank you, Raeger! It's really thoughtful of you to do that. I really like it! What did I even do to deserve something so amazing?"
The young man looked at her and showed a confused expression. He lowered his eyebrow and replied, "What are you talking about, Minori? You're special, of course I'd do this for you."
'Sp..spe..special?! Did I hear that correctly??' Minori thought to herself while feeling flustered. 'By special, he meant.. as what?!?!'
Noticing Minori getting flustered, Raeger immediately felt embarrassed and quickly realised how suggestive his words had been. He didn't want Minori to feel uncomfortable.. or even creeped out!, but at the same time.. 'wait, at the same time.. what? Why do I care so much about Minori anyway?' Raeger had so many thoughts running through his head, but he didn't have much time to think about this for now, he had to rephrase his sentence fast!
"Uhm.. what I meant was.. you're a great friend to me, Minori!" Raeger stammered, which was unusual.
'Oh..right. Yeah, that's what he meant.' Minori felt disappointed. But she did not want things to be weird between them, so she chuckled nervously. "Haha.. yeah. You're a great friend to me too, Raeger." She smiled, and then changed the topic of conversation to break the air of awkwardness, "So what kept you busy at work today, Mr. Chef?"
"Ah, there was some problems earlier just this afternoon. The supplier was late because the wheel on his cart unexpectedly broke, then the water suddenly leaked from the pipe and it made a huge mess at the restaurant. Out of all days, there had to be so many problems today.." Raeger poured out his frustration to Minori, but was relieved that she quickly changed the topic of their conversation. Otherwise he might not have known what to do, or what to say. "Enough about me, how has your birthday been?"
...
And with that, the two of them continued exchanging conversation, until they finally realised that more than 2 hours had easily passed since Raeger came, which meant dawn would soon be approaching. Raeger and Minori were truly enjoying themselves, sinking deep into each other's conversation, but they knew they had to put it on hold for another day.. considering the amount of work waiting for them when the sun rises later on.
"Oh no.. look at the time, Minori." Raeger signaled.
"Yeah, time passes so quickly.." Minori replied gloomily and stayed silent.
Raeger looked at her thoughtfully. He wanted to stay.. but he couldn't. "I have to go now, Minori.." He stood up from his chair and put on his black coat and maroon scarf back around him. Minori followed his gesture and stood up from her chair too, then walked closer towards the young man himself.
She faked a smile, "Hhm yeah it's getting late. I should probably head to bed soon too.."
An awkward silence filled the room temporarily, until Raeger smiled and tilted his head down to look at Minori in the eyes. In return, Minori tilted her head up and looked back into his eyes, trying her best not to plead him, 'don't go!'. He took a step closer, reached out his right hand and caressed her hair as usual. "I know the day is now over, but.. happy birthday once again, Minori. It was great talking to you tonight."
Minori beamed, "It's my pleasure, Rae. Thank you for coming all the way here, for the gift, and for accompanying me tonight." She paused, squeezed Raeger's arm and gave him a look of concern, "This town is safe, but you never know what could happen this late at night.. get home safely, okay?"
"Thanks, Minori. I'll see you again tomorrow!"
She walked him to the front door, and parted their ways there. He waved her good bye, and she smiled bitterly as she returned the gesture. Minori walked back in and closed her front door for the last time that night, turned off all her lights once again, and immediately proceeded into her bed.
'How I wish some nights would last forever...'
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
