/Author's Note: As I was playing through Harvest Moon: Magical Melody in my second file, I chose to play as a girl. I found it… amusing how little the dialogue seemed to change between the two genders (an instance of lazy translating in the HM series… what a shocker). Katie sent me an interesting letter that not only seemed to have vaguely sexual undertones, but seeing as I was playing as a girl, homosexual undertones as well. It was too good not to write a story about! Thus I was challenged by my friend to write this, though I did try to keep it pretty short and sweet. Enjoy! End Author's Note/

(P.S. Yup, the letter used in this fic is copied word from word from the game xD)

The Girl Next Door

The heart of a maiden in love goes pitter-patter.

She had been her fixation for the duration of her stay in the quaint village of Flowerbud. This stay had been, however, all of ten days - and yet, it took only ten seconds of staring dreamily out her window,for Katie to realize that everything she wanted in a life partner was living right across from her, in the form of a blue-haired librarian.

To Katie, Maria was beauty. Beauty personified. A parfait was perfected by synthesizing a number of layers in a harmonious balance - the layer on top would not crush the one beneath it, nor would that crush the other, and so forth. It worked so well because it had balanced qualities of perfection working together in a mellifluous mélange. And that, that, was Maria, and her layers were beauty, intelligence, and grace.

Katie just had to have her. Sure, they might not have ever met, but she felt like she knew everything about her by now! After all, people were in their rawest, most natural state, when no one's looking - or, in Maria's case, when they think no one's looking. It was really only a matter of time...

...That was, until the rambunctious, slovenly, unkempt excuse for a farmer had commissioned a re-location, and had dumped her house right on the vacant property that separated Katie's Callaway Cafe and Maria's Library, taking away her magnificent view of the gentle librarian.

Katie glared out her window the morning the relocation was done, glared with all her heart's contempt as the three carpenters wiped their brows and conversed jovially about the successful job. Then, out came Little Miss Pigtails herself, casually opening the door to her newly moved house and looking around in amazement (Had - Had she slept in the house while they had moved it? ... What?).

Those stupid pigtails and that irritating vest that looked so itchy and those Goddess-damned daisy dukes that showed off way too much leg and those eyes, so full of hope and dreams and...

...And it had taken no more than another ten seconds for Katie to realize that everything she wanted in a life partner was, now, living right across from her, in the form of the bubbly little farmer. Sure, she might be more of a peach crumble than a parfait, but dammit, Katie had tasted some damn good peach crumbles in her day. And she was determined to taste this one.

...Okay, that last bit sounded a bit weird.

Autumn trudged on, and surprisingly, Katie had made progress with the new object of her affections. Sure, it was irritatingly insignificant progress, but compared to her relationship with Maria, which mainly involved Katie's eyes and imagination working in tandem to create impossibly impassioned scenarios in her head, Katie and the Tina's had practically blossomed.

The brunette had made the effort to stop in every other day, carrying in her arms two sweet potatoes the size of eggplants, and hand one to Katie, and one to her co-worker, the meek blonde known as Carl. However, it didn't take long for Katie to notice the cherry-red blush that stained the farmer's cheeks every time Carl thanked her and gleefully bid her an excellent day. Then, she realized, the only reason she, Katie, was receiving a sweet potato too, was probably to dismiss any suspicions others might have about the pigtailed girl and the blonde haired waiter.

But why dismiss suspicions? Where was the fun in that? It was crystal clear to anyone and everyone ('anyone' being Katie, and 'everyone' being, well... Katie again) that she was smitten with the boy. This frustrated the ginger-haired waitress, though she shamelessly admitted to herself that half of this frustration was over her inability to have Tina all to herself. Still, it was about time the young farmer owned up to her feelings and grew up.

Watching the swish of her pigtails as they disappeared from her sight behind the closing door, Katie suddenly pulled out a pad of paper used usually to take down orders, and begin furiously writing out words, writing out a letter addressed to the one and only Tina:

The heart of a maiden in love goes pitter-patter.
And that's how she grows up
I'd like to spend some late, late nights with you exchanging secrets

-Katie

A night of female bonding. A night with the chaste intentions of getting some confessions off the young farmer's chest, when the only thing Katie truly intended to get off her chest was that tacky vest, and whatever else was underneath. It was perfection to the ultimate degree.

Slipping out of the Calloway Cafe and into the chilly streets, Katie snaked over to Tina's house (a few paces, really) and slipped the note into her mailbox, letting it stick out just enough that she'd notice as soon as she came home.

Heart going pitter-patter, Katie returned to the Cafe, and to her regular spot right in front of the window, watching and waiting...

Returning home after a strenuous hike in the mountains, Tina the farmer approached her humble abode, rucksack filled with mushrooms, chestnuts, herbs, and any other royalties she had managed to claim from conquering the beast that was the Mountain Echo Forest.

Setting her rucksack down by her wooden shipping bin, the farmer yawned and noticed out of the corner of her eye a slip of paper poking out from her mailbox. Casually snatching it out, she took it inside and let her tired eyes scan the contents.

Said eyes were suddenly wide and incredulous.

'She... She's good...' were the only words flitting through her mind, her heart beating loud enough to fill the entirety of her small wooden house. 'Real good...' she gulped.

'How did she know?' Tina thought to herself, letting her bottom sink into her bed as she plopped down on it. 'How could she have... figured it out?'

Lying down and closing her weary eyes, the letter still clutched in her hand, Tina sighed and let the last few thoughts her conscious mind could emit wash over.

'How did she know I was only bringing in an extra yam for Carl to dismiss any suspicions she had that I might have a crush on her?'

Cheeks burning red as the hair of the girl she couldn't get out of her mind, the young girl let the pitter-patter of her maiden heart send herself to sleep, suddenly craving, for reasons she couldn't quite comprehend, something... sweet.