A/N: Hi, everyone! Thanks for all your feedback, as always :)

Raeger's just starting to figure out and piece together his own feelings while trying to understand Annie's here, so things are finally starting to pick up a little bit. I hope to keep the chapters right around this length, as chapter two was pretty short.

Raeger (well, this version, anyway) is surprisingly hard to write about as the main character. More surprising is when he creates his own dialogue and thoughts even though the outline of the chapter is already completed. So he's pretty fun to write, I'd say, and it gives the whole story a different edge, y'know?

Annie made her rounds in the morning, stopping and being stopped by nearly everyone she crossed paths with. She was full of energy and enthusiasm, and her bag seemed infinitely spacious as she brought out gift after gift for the townspeople.

Raeger watched her from afar, admiring her high spirits. She'd do anything to make people happy, wouldn't she?

She bowed to Veronica after bestowing a gift and walked away. Her eyes landed on Raeger from across the plaza and seemed to light up instantly. He stifled a laugh. At least that hadn't changed; she always wore her heart on her sleeve.

Annie's footsteps sounded quietly as she made her way to him. "Um, Raeger..."

A playful smirk crept onto his face. "That's no way to greet someone, is it?"

She looked down and frantically shook her head. "N-no. Good morning!"

He chuckled. "Relax, silly." On instinct, he reached out to ruffle her hair, but then he thought better and retracted it. She was probably bothered by that, as she didn't like it when they held hands during the scavenger hunt...

He vaguely remembered trying to keep that in mind before, and he felt guilty thinking back. How uncomfortable had he made her already?

His hand hanging awkwardly in the air, he tried to play it off as a stretch and added in a yawn. "So what brings you here so early?"

"Oh!" She perked up. "I, um, wanted to know what your favorite food is."

Favorite food? She should have already -

Right. Even though it hadn't changed, she didn't remember. He rubbed at his neck. "Annie, I'm a chef. I can make pretty much anything I want."

"S-so you don't have a favorite?" she asked, looking dejected. She kicked her feet at the ground.

"Well, that's not... Okay, okay." Time to stop brushing it off. He couldn't stand seeing her like that. "I'm quite fond of seafood, and I'd have to say rice with sea urchin is my favorite dish."

Annie nodded all too eagerly. "Okay. I'll try making it sometime soon."

Sometime soon... It was vague, and his birthday was still a couple weeks away, but could it be? Was she implying that she would make him a birthday meal? Did she remember summer ninth?

He smiled sadly and banished the thoughts with an inward sigh. There was no way she remembered, as he never made a big deal out of his birthday when they were younger. He doubted she even knew it back then.

"Don't trouble yourself," he said simply.

"I won't." Annie bowed her head and started walking away. As he watched her go, he spotted Marian in the distance and got an idea for later.

His eyes followed Annie until she stopped to talk to Mistel a short distance away, then he suddenly felt a pang.

"Raeger!"

He turned around to see Fritz running towards him. The redhead seemed out of breath but spoke loudly anyway.

"Hey! We got a new trader in town. You wanna go see him? I think he's an easterner 'cause he's really super polite. He kinds reminds me of – Annie!"

After he shouted her name, she turned around, smiling and waving at Fritz. Mistel didn't pay any mind to him, but for some reason Raeger couldn't shake the strange feeling inside him.

It wasn't like he and Mistel were on bad terms – in fact, they often cooperated to increase their numbers of customers and sales. Mistel would pitch an idea and Raeger would execute it. They actually had another meeting coming up at the end of the season. So why did he get such a dreadful feeling seeing him now?

"Oh, looks like she likes Mistel," Fritz commented, only adding to the feeling as they watched the two converse. "Or Mistel likes her and she just doesn't know how to get away. Hey, Raeger, d'ya think we should tell her to let him down easy? Or if she really does like him, then - "

"That's enough."

Fritz blinked in confusion. "Wha...? Oh, I get it!" He grinned as if he'd just made some sort of discovery. "You're jealous."

Raeger crossed his arms almost instinctively. "You're delirious."

Fritz laughed. "You are sooo jealous! That's okay, I understand."

"But I'm not - "

"Raeger, Annie's really pretty. It's fine to be a little... possessive of her. You like her, and you wanna be closer to her, right? You wanna hug her and comfort her when she's sad and ki - "

"Fritz!"

Fritz clammed up, shocked at the outburst, and Raeger sighed. This wasn't good. He was starting to lose his composure.

He didn't want to be upset with Fritz, and it wasn't like Fritz was trying to make him upset – then again...

If only there was someone who knew the circumstances, who wouldn't judge or prod from the outside. He needed someone to confide in... with confidence... like someone restricted by laws of confidentiality.

He remembered Marian, and his earlier hesitant idea came back to him.

…

"All right, honey, tell me what's wrong."

Marian filled up two teacups with piping hot herbal tea and brought them over to the coffee table, setting them down on coasters. Raeger gratefully accepted it but didn't sip any.

He sighed heavily. "Hoo, boy, where do I start..."

He slowly opened up about the girl who'd been troubling his life recently. Ever since she came back, he'd been second-guessing himself, acting foolishly, and lashing out at others more often. He wanted to understand why, as this was hardly normal behavior, especially for someone so usually reserved as him. He'd never felt like this before.

But at the same time, Marian wasn't a therapist, and just barely passed the qualifications to be a doctor...

"You said she's just now re-entered your life?" Marian asked.

Raeger nodded. He might have left that part out. "We grew up in the same town. I guess you could say we're... childhood friends." He rubbed at his neck. Saying it like that made him feel childish. Wasn't there another way to put it?

But... they were only friends when they were younger. They weren't nearly as close as they used to be. What were they now?

"So, if you two go way back... are these new feelings or old ones resurfacing?"

Raeger stared at him in confusion. "Huh?"

Marian chuckled. "Don't tell me you haven't noticed, honey."

"Noticed what?"

Marian smiled and leaned back on the sofa, crossing his legs as he stared at Raeger. "You're interested in her."

Raeger sighed. He should have known that was where this was going. "Sure, I'm interested in her, I guess, but only in the sense that I want to know what happened to her. What made her forget about me like that? I mean... all that time we spent together... I know we were just kids, but it had to have meant something to her, right?"

Marian shook his head. "I don't have the answers for your questions, but riddle me this: did you already feel this way before seeing her again? Love or not, this newfound interest in her brings questions of its own."

Strange wording aside, Marian had a point...

Had he actually been thinking about her all this time, or was it just her sudden appearance that brought all those memories back? It was hard to try to understand which it was.

He tried thinking back on his life without Annie, without his best friend, for the thirteen-plus years she was gone. Did he miss her at all, past the initial year or so? Did he really hold other girls to the standards that little Annie seemed to possess?

Throughout his life, especially his teenage years, he'd gone through quite a number of girlfriends, but he'd thought of it as nothing more than them just wanting eye candy or something to brag about. He'd never understood why he was popular, but he'd just gone along with it, anyway, to more or less pass the time.

All the girls were clingy, emotional, needy, mean, or some combination of all of those, so his relationships never lasted longer than three months. Now, he hadn't had an actual girlfriend in probably two years.

That was hardly Annie's influence, right? His failed relationships were because of his commitment issues – but he couldn't let the girls go completely blameless, either.

Other than that, he'd finished school without a problem, his family wasn't too much of an issue after the passing of his grandfather, and life in Oak Tree was about as eventful as an outsider would expect it to be. There was nothing to remind him of Annie here, other than the rare instance that she would move here herself.

He sighed, resting against the back of the chair. So this was just a phase. It would probably pass. He would give up trying to regain her memories of him and just say it was a misunderstanding, that there just happened to be two girls named Annie in the small town of Grandsville. Then they would go back to being perfect strangers, and he would be nothing more than a villager she brought daily gifts to.

But... he wasn't sure if he wanted that. He didn't have feelings for her, but maybe, just maybe, if he could coax her into remembering him, their friendship could blossom again.

"Raeger!"

Raeger looked up from his notebook just enough to see Annie covered in dirt and grime. Her yellow dress was ripped where she would kneel down, her hair had come out of her own braids she was so proud of earlier, and her arms and legs were covered in scrapes and scratches. But despite all that, she wore a crooked smile and held out her cupped hands to him.

"Look, look! I caught something!"

Was that why she was so dirty? She was always chasing after something or other... wait, caught?

"Is that another bug?" he asked tentatively. Seriously, why did she - "Aah! Get it away! Get it away!"

"No!" she cried, closing her hands back up immediately to keep the bug contained. "You'll scare it, Raeger!"

He nestled himself back up against the tree. "Well, stop it from scaring me first," he muttered.

"What?"

"N-nothing!" he shouted dismissively. "Anyway, get rid of that thing or your mom'll get mad at you again."

Annie pouted, stomping a foot on the ground. "I'm not taking it home this time... and plus, I wanted to show you! Its wings look like a fence, and it's really pretty... But I guess if you're scared, I can let it go - "

"I'm not scared! Show it to me!" he protested a bit angrily.

She pulled back. "You're really gonna scare it away like that..."

Raeger crossed his arms. "Am not."

Annie giggled suddenly. Raeger looked up and saw her peeking through the cracks in her hands again. "It's moving around! It tickles!"

He watched her for a minute or so, then cleared his throat. "What does it look like?"

"I thought you didn't want to see it."

He shook his head. "Just describe it to me. It won't be scary then," he added under his breath. He grabbed his notebook and pen from the ground beside him.

Annie gaped at him. "You're gonna think up recipes from the bug?!"

He laughed, smiling. "It might give me some inspiration."

"Oh!" She suddenly perked up. "W-well, I think this one'll be perfect, then. It's called the... coffee bee hawkmoth. Did I say it right?"

"How would I know?" So it was a moth? He picked up the pen and began moving it.

"Um, anyway," Annie continued, "I was with my dad when we saw one just like this. He went to the library and came home and told me all about it later. It... it's like a yellow and green, and there's a red stripe that wraps around it at the butt, a-and its wings are black and really thin and look like a fence..."

Every now and again she paused to peek at the moth through her hands, while Raeger's hand went to work. He couldn't be sure that this was what it really looked like, but it wasn't as terrifying as seeing it up close, and this way Annie was still happy.

She continued her half-baked description of the moth until he was done sketching, and not a moment later when she tried to take another peek, it escaped from her hands and flew off.

"Ah!" she cried, watching it helplessly. "The moth! Mr. coffee bee hawkmoth...!" She jumped up towards the sky in futile attempts to reach it.

Raeger got up and grabbed her arm before she could run after it. "C'mon, Annie. We should go home. It's getting dark out."

She glanced up at the sky and nodded slowly. She turned to him. "Did you think of a good recipe?"

He nodded. "Yeah."

Annie kicked at the dirt with her shoes. "Will you ever make it for me?"

"No way!" he said immediately, a bit taken aback. He saw her face, though, and cleared his throat. "I-I mean, you have to wait until me and my dad start our restaurant."

She tilted her head. "Aren't you gonna work with your grandpa in that faraway restaurant?"

"No. Dad said we'll expand the bakery to make it a restaurant someday."

"When will that be?"

He stopped in his tracks, thinking about his parents and wondering himself. "After I graduate."

"Wow..." Annie trailed off. "That's a long time."

He shook his head. "Not really. It's nine more years before you graduate, but for me it's only seven."

Annie nodded, then started giggling. Raeger looked back. "Wh-what?" Did he say something funny?

"You're like a big brother."

He turned away from her and started walking again. "Don't call me that."

"Ah! Wait for me..."

Annie caught up and clung to his arm, keeping them both at a steady pace. Raeger's sketchbook was securely tucked underneath his other arm, his pen in his pocket. Truthfully, he wanted to show her all his "recipes," but first he had to get better at creating them.

"Well?" Marian's cheerful voice abruptly brought him back from his memories. "Have you thought about her before now? Are your feelings just threatening to spill out, being carried over from so many years ago?"

Raeger pursed his lips and stared down at the coffee table. "I... I'm not sure. But I don't think so."

After thinking back, he remembered he was actually kind of a jerk to her back then. Was it the age difference making him feel superior or something? Maybe he was taking his frustration at home out on her? The year he turned eleven was definitely hard on him.

But was he just bullying and being mean, or was he hiding his feelings beneath that exterior? Did he like her? Was it even possible to like someone in a romantic sense before puberty?

Those feelings were so simple and easy to understand back then, but looking back on it now, they were rather complicated. Children seemed to think much more than adults gave them credit for.

Putting that aside... how did he feel about her now? Admittedly, he'd never really given her a second thought until she came back. Along with that, he'd hardly spent enough time with her to distinguish his feelings yet – at least, if it were anybody else, he wouldn't have had enough time. Was he letting nostalgia get in the way of who she was now? Maybe he'd been inadvertently pushing her new self away while clinging to the past. The past that they didn't share.

He sighed, resting his head in his hands. "What do I do...?"

"Rae Rae..."

Marian moved over to where Raeger was sitting and patted his back. "Honestly, I've never heard of this happening – somebody losing their memories of a person who was once precious to them. It sounds like the premise to a movie. Ha!"

Raeger didn't budge. Marian cleared his throat. "I'm not basing this off anything, but just off the record, perhaps there is something blocking her memory of you. Something painful, something big, some kind of trauma..."

Raeger stared wide-eyed. When he asked why she didn't remember him, he didn't quite mean it like that. But maybe that made sense... He did think she was "damaged" somehow, and saying that was just a nicer way of saying traumatized.

Then... what if how he treated her contributed to that? What if she didn't want to remember him because of how mean he was to her? Did he cause her trauma? But she was always smiling so happily...!

He groaned and palmed his face. He was overthinking this and he knew it, but he couldn't stop. Annie was quite the outspoken girl for her age. If something was wrong, she definitely would have told him, right?

"Don't beat yourself up over this," Marian told him. "It cannot be an easy situation to be in."

Raeger stayed silent.

"Look, honey, you want my advice? Talk to her more. Bring up things from the past that only you two would remember. What was her favorite food? What was her favorite pastime?"

He'd already tried that, though. He thought he'd scared her away by bringing up Grandsville and those pork buns already. Was Marian suggesting he get even more personal? She just might move away without warning again.

He sat upright. Maybe that was why he was so hung up over this? She and her family – well, her mother – left without saying anything. He'd probably just been searching for some closure all along.

He turned to face Marian. "Thanks. I think I know what to do now."

"Oh, no problem, Rae Rae honey." Marian waved it off. "You're welcome here any time, you know. And next time, I'll have Angela brew the tea. You haven't even touched what I prepared."

Raeger looked down at his full teacup, a pang of guilt washing over him. "I'm sorry. Honestly, I'm not a big fan of tea."

"No? I always see boxes of tea leaves in your restaurant, though."

He smiled sadly. "My grandfather taught me to use them as garnishes and air fresheners, like potpourri."

"I see, I see," Marian replied with a nod. "I vaguely remember him doing that... Ah, Rae Rae, your grandfather was a wonderful man. We all miss him dearly."

Raeger stood up, starting to feel uncomfortable. "Yes."

"Well, honey, if it's any consolation, I'm sure you're making him proud. He would be overcome with joy to see you now. The restaurant is going strong, you're on fine terms with your parents, and just look at the young man you're turning out to be. Why, if I was ten years younger, I'd - "

"Thank you, Marian."

…

He didn't want to admit it, but he'd probably be relying on Marian a lot more often from now on. He hadn't spoken to him about his private matters in quite some time. Marian had a way of lightening the mood while still providing solid advice, and it was good to see that hadn't changed.

Now for the matter at hand.

It'd only been a few hours at most since he'd seen Annie, so he wasn't sure if he should be bothering her again so soon. But he just needed this one last selfish request granted, then he would leave her alone. She wouldn't have to deal with him anymore.

Raeger walked through the town, looking for signs of the girl, but everyone he asked said she'd left a while ago and pointed him in the direction of the hills.

He headed for the stairway leading out of town, and then the winding paths up the hills. He passed Fritz' and Giorgio's farms, the river, the bridge, and the rice paddy before stopping.

Would she be at her farm or in the meadow? He could see it either way – bettering herself at work or taking a well-deserved break in nature.

After a moment of debate, he turned to go to the meadow. If she wasn't there he could turn around and head to her farm instead.

The grass seemingly went on for miles, stretching as far as he could see. Pale pink petals floated on the gentle breeze, and birds chirped happily all around him from above, but Annie was nowhere to be seen. He really thought she would be here, too.

Just to be sure, he walked through a clearing in the trees. Maybe she was resting against a trunk like she used to. As expected, he didn't see her, because she wasn't the Annie he used to know anymore. Her pastimes had certainly changed by now – the bird-calling was just a coincidence.

He quietly made his way back, watching his steps as he went, but something he thought was a voice startled him. He turned around and nearly gasped.

There she was, under one of the larger trees he passed on the way through. He wondered why he didn't see her before. She slouched against the trunk, eyes shut, hair slightly disheveled, legs outstretched. The corners of his mouth tugged up into a smile. Some things hadn't changed about her, after all.

"...ger."

He looked at her face, her lips slightly parted. So that was her voice he heard? "Ger?" Was... was she calling his name?

He knelt down beside her and strained his ears, waiting to see if she would say anything else. It was strange – he never knew her as a sleep talker.

"Rae...ger." Her chest steadily rose and fell with each careful breath she took. "I... never wanted... to leave."

His eyes widened. How did she know that was what he came here for? More importantly... what?

"I... miss you."

Without thinking or realizing it, he pulled her in close to him, embracing her tightly. He stroked her hair and held her tighter, while she stayed fast asleep. She'd probably been burning herself out doing all that farm work. She was always extremely clumsy, but she'd never ask for help, despite how outspoken she was. That was just how she was.

She didn't ask for help when she ran her first errand, buying bread at the bakery. She was six years old and smiled and held it together even when she discovered she didn't have enough money to buy herself a treat. He covered for her and gave her a pork bun anyway, telling her to keep quiet about it.

She didn't ask for help when she was being tormented by the other neighborhood kids. She came into the bakery with her mother, all smiles again, and only showed the bruises to him in secret because she thought they were shaped like birds. Of course, he went out the next day and told the younger boys to knock it off "or else."

She didn't ask for help when her father decided to leave and her mother fell sick. They stopped coming into the bakery for a little while, but whenever he saw her at school she acted like there was nothing wrong. And then she vanished.

Annie just didn't ask for help. She always tried tackling things herself. But right now, hearing her say she never wanted to leave, she missed him... it sounded like a cry for help.

So he gave her body one more squeeze before resting her back against the cherry blossom tree. He could be selfish and indulge himself in the things Fritz teased him about earlier, if only for a little while as he waited for her to wake up on her own. He would keep watch, because even though she was headstrong and tried to do everything herself, she was still Annie, after all – a klutz, a girl.

He didn't know how he felt about her, or if this really was just a passing phase, but he didn't need to in order to stay close to her.

~CGA