6CattyGothLoli:This is my first time writing something for the Harvest Moon universe. I wrote this while playing Tree of Tranquility and I'm not sure if my portrayal of Chase and Maya fit, I find it hard to keep people in character. This one-shot has gone through some changes since I first wrote it and I hope it makes for a better read now. It isn't exactly what I envisioned, but It will have to do for now.
Pouting sourly, Maya threw the remains of the burned cake into the overflowing trash bin. "Chase!" she wined. "That's the sixth batch! I don't want to make this anymore!" Chase chuckled slightly, infuriating Maya even more and causing her to glare in his direction. He met her glare with a small smirk before averting his attention towards the the garbage bin filled with inedible cakes. He bent down, tied the bag and slung it over his shoulder before leaving to dispose of it. Maya watched him leave silently with a thoughtful look on her face. Why was she the only one that had such a hard time cooking in this town? Idly she wondered why he was even bothering to teach her when he had to pay for all of the ingredients she wasted.
She shrugged at her thoughts before moving to clean the used utensils. "You should start working on batch number seven... I think that will be enough for today and we'll continue next week," commented Chase when he returned. Maya let out a frustrated groan in response. "Chase I'm hungry. HUNGRY. I don't want to bake anymore cakes if I can't EAT them. Why don't you cook me something?"
"Once you finish with this attempt I'll cook us something for dinner." Maya let out an excited cheer and threw her hands up in the air, preparing for a victory dance, but she managed to knock over the flour in the process. "Whoops..." Maya began to measure and pour the correct ingredients into her bowl, effectively ignoring the mess she had just made so that Chase would clean it up.
Thirty minutes later, Chase was tasting Maya's last cake of the day. He managed to keep his expression calm before frantically searching for anything to get the horrible taste out of his mouth. When he managed to relieve his taste buds he fixed her with blank stare before speaking.
"Maya, are you sure you followed my exact instructions or did you rush through this because you were hungry?"
" I might have missed an ingredient or two... Or maybe I messed up on a couple of steps? I don't remember! It's hard for me to do anything when I'm hungry, Chase!" She whined guiltily. Annoyed with her response and frustrated with her lack of trying, Chase slammed his hands on the counter before replying.
"Maybe if you actually tried to pay attention and worried less about your insatiable appetite you would actually be able to do something right! You never try hard enough and you're always rushing through recipes! That doesn't work well when you're trying to cook, at this rate you won't be anything, but a failure when cooking. You should consider other career choices."
Maya felt her temper flare, she wasn't that horrible was she? Besides being hungry was a perfectly reasonable excuse in her opinion. "I never asked for your help Chase and if you were an acceptable teacher I wouldn't have this problem. Cooking doesn't just click with everyone like it does with you, so get off your high horse and teach me something useful! And while you're at it make me something to eat because I'm HUNGRY.." She added the last part with a huff before angrily crossing her arms over her chest.
Chase gave her a glare, lips molding into a thin line and the parting when he spoke. "Clean up the mess you've made," he paused before adding, "And while you're at it maybe you should eat your latest creation." He didn't feel like arguing with her today or dealing with her childish antics. She would feel better by morning and then they would continue their lessons next week. He moved towards the kitchen's exit without sparring her a glance.
Annoyed at Chase's suggestion and lack of response, Maya piled some leftover cake batter into her hands and flung it towards his head. She watched the batter soar towards him and a satisfied expression took hold of her face when it hit his head.
Chase was surprised when he felt something collide with the back of his head and then proceed down his shirt. Slowly his hands reached for the back of his head, swiping at the slime before moving to examine what was on his fingers. He heard Maya burst into hysterical laughter on the other side of the kitchen and soon realized she had thrown batter at him.
Maya let a smile light up her face when Chase turned around and fixated her with an annoyed glare. She grabbed the bowl of batter and saw him watching her movements carefully. His gaze was suffocating and she had to admit that he was cute when annoyed. She gave him a flirtatious wink, before she lost her courage and flung some more batter towards him.
Chase ducked, the batter missing him only by a couple of centimeters. He fixed her with a big mischievous grin before grabbing a bowl of suspicious looking batter from the sink and couldn't help but chuckle when Maya's cheeky expression turned into one of horror. He through a handful of batter and chuckled loudly when it hit her full in the face.
Maya shrieked loudly when the batter came in contact and shrieked once more when she felt more batter hitting other parts of her body.
"Chase, stop it! This isn't fair! I only hit you once!" Maya cried out dramatically. Idly she wondered why he had decided to stoop to her level. Her protests fell on deaf ears, Chase was enjoying this food fight and wasn't planning on stopping any time soon.
"And I thought I was supposed to be the childish one," Maya muttered under her breath while reloading her hands and throwing some more batter in his direction. She had forgotten all about her hunger and was having way to much fun. In the back of her mind she decided that she would have to suggest that Waffle Town have one big food fight at least once a year. Or maybe a snowball fight would do?
When Chase ran out of batter he noticed the state of disarray the kitchen was currently in and groaned. "Maya, stop." She froze and then glanced around the kitchen. She couldn't help but noticed that almost every inch of it was covered in batter, including Chase. She began to giggle and at his confused expression she pointed towards him. She watched him look down and then stare at her intently before replying. "You're covered in batter too, Maya."
She smiled. "You're right," her expression turned mischievous' "and that's why I should go take a shower while you clean this mess!" Maya began running towards the exit, but when she moved to avoid him she manged to slip in some batter and ended up slamming into his side. This resulted in Maya's back slamming into the counter, while Chase started falling forwards towards her. He quickly grabbed onto the counter on either side of her and stopped himself from falling. This ended up trapping her.
Maya felt his hot breath on her cheek when he straitened himself out and also felt her cheeks burn bright red. Tentatively she glanced towards his face, it was so close to hers. Sapphire met amethyst and Maya froze. Chase smirked and brought one of his hands up to brush some batter off her cheek. Maya felt as if tiny currents of electricity were shooting out of his hand when he touched her and her cheeks darkened in response. Chase smiled satisfied with her reaction, he had been denying his feeling towards this girl for far to long. Maya continued to stare up at him her gaze filled with such affection that he knew what had to happen next. Slowly he leaned in closer and was happy when she did too. Both of their eyelids slid closed as soon as their lips connected.
Their kiss was innocent and lasted only a mere seconds, but that was enough for them. Chase pulled away and gave her a slight peck on the cheek before leaving Maya in the kitchen stunned. She was pulled out of her daze when she heard Chase say, "Have fun cleaning this up.."
Before she could open her mouth in protest, Chase had already disappeared. She decided she could get him back for this later and she new exactly what she wanted in return; a delicious three course meal. Maya started to hum loudly and was halfway through with cleaning the kitchen when Chase reappeared crisp and clean. "I'll finish up here Maya, you should go take a shower. I'll have some dinner ready when you get back down."
Grinning Maya tossed the dirty cleaning rag in Chase's direction, managing to hit him in the face, before sprinting towards the exit. Chase stared after her annoyed, but more amused before proceeding to clean the rest of the kitchen. As promised, when Maya came back down there was dinner waiting and a note asking her to go with him to the Firefly Festival the next day.
CattyGothLoli: Please review and tell me if you liked this one-shot, criticism is encouraged. Don't be afraid to hurt my feelings, I have posted stories here in order to improve as a writer. I would like to thank Curimuch and CarlileLovesAnime for their helpful reviews!