I don't own any of the characters or places mentioned in this story. They belong to Marvelous Entertainment.

It was Jack's second summer on Waffle Island and it was hot. He had helped make three rainbows and was working on the forth. He was just having trouble getting the bear to move…

Now was the season when all the bugs started to come out. So Jack made sure to double check all of his crops and animals for any signs of the wretched things. He was surprised to find Hamilton and Gill knocking on his door one of those summer days.

"Jack I need you to keep my son at your house. It's only temporary." Hamilton said pushing his son closer to Jack.

The rancher scratched the back of his head. "Why?"

"Our house got infested." Gill said quickly before his father could come up with some lie.

Hamilton crossed his arms. "Yes well… You're the only one I can count on to watch my son while I'll be staying at the inn."

Jack knew Hamilton wanted some alone time with Yolanda (everyone knew). So Jack accepted and Gill protested but one stern look from his father shut him right up. Hamilton waved goodbye and walked away leaving Gill and Jack standing in the door way.

Jack showed Gill to the guest room upstairs and he began to unpack. Jack told Gill he would be in the Barn if he needed him.

Jack was feeding his cow when Gill came in. "I'm going to the Town Hall." Jack told him goodbye and Gill was gone leaving Jack alone again.

He sure was acting strange Jack thought while sheering his sheep. Jack shrugged it off and continued his farm work.

Mean while at the Town Hall Gill was mentally cursing his dad. Why him? Of all the people on Waffle Town why Jack?

Elli noticed Gill was spacing out about something so she took it upon herself to jolt him out of his thoughts. She screamed, "Hey Gill!" and slapped him on the back making him yelp.

"Elli! What the hell?" Gill whined rubbing his back. Elli was laughing so hard tears came from her eyes. Gill was blushing madly when he heard giggling from the front counter. He turned to see none other than his new house mate standing there. He must have seen the whole thing. Gill collected himself and calmly asked, "How can I help you?"

Jack laughed a bit more before answering, "I just wanted to know if you were okay. You were acting kinda strange."

"I'm fine." Gill said coyly looking at his feet for comfort. The way he was standing made him look very cute and Elli was the first to point it out.

"Aww Gill you're so cute sometimes." This made Gill's face turn the color of the tomatoes he loved so much. Jack laughed a bit more and remembered why else he was there.

"Oh and my tomatoes were ripe so I made you some juice." Gill accepted the juice gratefully and Jack went back to his farm. Elli began to smirk as soon as Jack had left.

Gill saw this and had to wonder. "Why are you smiling like that?"

"You like him don't you?"

Gill's eyes went wide. Was it really that obvious? "How did you…"

Elli looked Gill in the eyes and smiled a comforting smile. "Women's intuition. I can help."

"You're joking, right?"

Elli shook her head. Gill shrugged and accepted the help. Elli grabbed Gill's hand and dragged him out the door. "What about the town hall?" Gill said.

"No one was coming anyway. It's already 1:00 and the only people to show up were Maya and Jack." Elli placed a closed sign in the door just in case.

Jack wasn't home so they just walked right into the house. Elli rushed to the drawers Gill used for keeping his clothes in and told Gill to sit on the bed.

She threw the clothes she thought were perfect at him. He tried to catch as much as he could and place them on the bed. Elli then placed them in groups, a pair of pants and a shirt in each pair.

Gill objected to most of the outfits but was quickly silenced by Elli. "Just try them on at least." Gill sighed and put on a fashion show. Elli kept most of the outfits but some were put back.

Elli also taught him a few cooking tricks, how to look cute, be polite, and by the time they were done with those was already 5:00.

"Good luck" Elli waved and walked out the door. A minute later Jack walked in. "Gill, I'm home!" he called placing his rucksack in the corner, "What smells so good?"

Gill walked from the kitchen to Jack. Elli had cooked a wonderful meal. "I made dinner. If you don't mind," Gill lied.

Jack was surprised. "Of course I don't mind it's just surprising. This is your first day and you're already making dinner."

"It was my pleasure." Gill closed his eyes, tilted his head and smiled warmly like Elli told him. Jack flushed at the cute expression. They both took a seat at the small dinner table set up in the middle of the room.

Suddenly Chase burst through the door. "Jack you have to hide me!"

"Hide in the barn." Jack said gesturing with his thumb, not even looking away from his dinner.

"Thank you!" Chase said running for the barn. A second later there was a knock on the door. Jack answered to see a teary eyed Maya. "Have you seen Chase? I wanted to give him this blue feather but he ran off."

Jack shook his head. "Sorry I haven't." Maya walked away crying like someone had died. Jack made his way into the barn to see Chase hiding behind his goat. He folded his arms and smirked. "What happened?"

"She wants to marry me for my food. So I told her no but then she started crying so I ran here and she followed me." Chase said wiping pieces of hay of his clothes to properly thank Jack.

Gill pocked his head through the door to see what happened. Chase blinked curiously at Gill. "Oh, hello Gill. Are you hiding too?"

"No. He's staying with me while his house gets fumigated," Jack stated putting a hand on Gill's shoulder. Chase smiled sadistically. Jacked cocked his head. "Why are you smiling like that?"

"Hm? Oh, no reason I was just thinking. Would you care to go fishing with me tonight at 9:00?"

"Sure. Gill, do you wanna come?"

Gill thought. "Sorry I can't. I'm meeting with Elli." Elli asked to come over to check if he forgot the lessons or not. She knew Gill's memory was like a steel trap but this was just to be sure.

"Okay. I'll see you at nine on Maple Lake." Chase said walking back to the one place Maya would never expect, the Ganache Mines.

At 9:00 Jack stood patiently on the dock at Maple Lake with his line cast out. Chase saw this and decided to scare him. He walked up quietly behind him and grabbed his shoulders. "Boo." He whispered in his ear.

Jack almost jumped into the water if not for Chase's firm grip on his shoulders. "The hell, Chase?"

Chase laughed. "Sorry couldn't resist."

"You have weird temptations but I guess you are a weird person in general.

"I take that offensively." Chase said huffing and turning his back to Jack. He crossed his arms trying to seem hurt.

Jack put his hand on his shoulder reassuringly. "Don't sweat it Chase. We're all a little weird. So, why did you call me out here?"

Chase turned to face Jack and smirked. "I wanted to say how cute I think you and Gill are."

Jack took a step back as if hit by a physical blow. "What? You mean like me and Gill in general or like me and Gill like a couple."

"Take a guess genius." Chase said casting his own line.

Jack reeled his back in and placed the rod in his rucksack. "You mean it?"

"Yeah why? Have you thought about it?"

Jack slapped his forehead. "Promise you won't tell?"

Chase patted him on the back. "Promise."

"I think about it a lot."

"I knew it! When you put your hand on his shoulder you were watching his reaction." Chase said reeling in his line. He caught a carp.

Jack looked at Chase in the eyes to see if he would lie or not. "Do you think I have a chance at him?"

"Of course. Look at you. You're buff from all the farming and you're great with animals, so how bad could you be with people?"

They had given up on fishing and sat in the meadow talking about Gill and Jack's best features but Jack had to wonder about something.

"Why are you helping me?"

"Do I need a reason to help a friend?"

"You, yes. Someone else, not so much." They both laughed.

Chase shook his head. "If you must know I'm repaying a debt."

Jack scratched his head. "You don't owe me."

"It's not you. I owe Gill, he saved my life once. When we were kids it was storming out and I wanted to play so I went to all my friends' houses. Everyone said no. Gill happily accepted but Hamilton disagreed with his choice. Gill snuck out and we walked to Praline Forest." Chase smiled as he remembered that day.

"We were playing ball when the wind began to pick up and lightning came out of nowhere. We were both wearing jackets and we didn't know any better so we just kept kicking the ball back and forth. Lightening struck a tree next to me and it began to fall.

I was too scared to move and just stood there watching the tree get closer and closer. Gill screamed my name trying to wake me. He pushed me out of the way and the tree fell on him instead." Tears began to fill his eyes.

"I was just a kid I didn't know what to do. So I ran to Yolanda and told her what happened. She scolded me and went with Irene to find him. It took an entire day to get the tree off of him. That's how big it was. When I visited him in the hospital they said he broke his leg and cracked his skull. He had bruises and cuts all over him and it was my fault. I apologized so many times and he said it was fine as long as I was okay."

Jack was beginning to cry. "But you didn't feel like it was okay."

Chase nodded. "He was the only one who wanted to play on that stormy day and look what happened? He couldn't leave his bed the entire summer and it was because I didn't move fast enough. I feel like if I can put you two together it will make up for that one time."

Jack hugged Chase trying to make the memories go away. Chase hugged back and more tears streamed down his face. "If you saw his body you would know why I feel so bad. Irene explained he got hit with the axe that was cutting the tree a few time and some branches punctured his skin."

Chase pushed away from Jack. "Sorry I didn't mean to bring that up but… thanks for listening," he said wiping away his tears.

"It's what friends do," Jack said checking his watch, "Come on. It's 11:00. Let's go home." They both got up and Jack walked the chef back to his house. Maya was waiting inside with her feather. "Chase!" she screamed glomping him. "You're finally home."

"What are you doing in my house?" Chase said trying to wriggle free from her grasp.

She giggled. "We're going to get married so we have to live together silly."

Chase grabbed Jack's wrist and ran to his house. Maya just shrugged and closed the door.

They were at Jack's door trying to catch their breath. "Can I stay at your house?"

"Sure but you need to use on a sleeping bag." Chase hugged Jack and said thank you multiple times. They went into the house and Jack told Chase to wait while he got the sleeping bag. He walked up the stairs and turned on the lights forgetting that Gill was staying on the second floor.

He quickly shut off the lights and looked at the sleeping figure. Gill just stirred a bit and continued his snoring. Jack sighed and took a closer look at him. He looked so adorable when he was sleeping. Jack replayed that last bit over in his head realizing how stalkerish it sounded.

He got the sleeping bag and laid it on the floor for Chase. He hopped into his own bed and dozed off quickly. It was a long day for the rancher.

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