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In Sheep's Clothing	By : ParisWriter Category: +G through L > Harvest Moon Views: 2169 -:- Recommendations : 0 -:- Currently Reading : 0
Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon/Story of Seasons, nor the characters from it. I do not make any money from the writing of this story.

Chapter List
- 23
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- 25
Chapter Twenty-Three

"You look like shit."

Weary brown eyes with dark circles under them slowly lifted to match Raeger's smiling blue ones, and while he did his best to keep his smile in place, it faltered at the sight of utter dejectedness sitting before him.

"Thanks," Avery quietly muttered before she turned back to picking at the food on her plate. She felt just as horrible as she was sure she'd looked.

Ever since she'd seen Iris and Klaus together on the first day of Fall, she'd barely left her house. She still made a point of tending to her animals each morning, and put them away into the stables at night, but it was more automatic than anything else. She still hadn't planted her crops for the new season, even though they were already four days into it. Instead, she spent her days lying on her couch under a blanket, watching re-runs of stupid kids' shows or just leaving the weather channel on to provide enough background noise so that she didn't have to think.

She had hoped that Klaus would come looking for her, wondering why she'd blown him off for their usual date on Thursday, but he didn't. She assumed Jonas probably informed him that she wasn't feeling well, because Klaus wasn't so stupid that he would have surely realized that the unmanned wine cart belonged to her and he likely would have said something to the other man about it. The only person who had shown up at her house that day was Cam, who had seen everything and was concerned about her, but she'd turned him away at the door and told him to go spend time with his wife and daughter who had come so far just to see him.

Then Raeger had shown up that morning, and Avery had tried to close the door in his face, too. He'd have nothing of it, though, and pushed his way inside her home at the ungodly hour of sunrise and refused to leave until she agreed to go with him into town so he could make her something to eat. He stood there with his arms crossed over his chest, unmoving, and in her weakened state Avery couldn't do a damn thing to make him budge. So she'd taken an extra-long time in the bath in the hopes that he'd get tired of waiting for her. Instead, he began pounding on the bathroom door after about an hour had passed, and broke it down when chose not to respond.

"You really scared me this morning," he told her, sliding a fresh, steaming pancake onto her plate next to the bacon and eggs she had barely touched. "When you didn't answer me, I thought maybe you'd hurt yourself."

"I'm heartbroken, Raeger, not suicidal," he told her at the same time her stomach growled audibly at the smell of her favorite breakfast treat. She picked up her fork, deciding maybe it really would be best if she ate something, but Raeger's hand caught her by the wrist before she got a chance to cut into the fluffy pancake on her plate.

"Don't say things like that," he said, his voice quiet and trembling just a little. Avery looked up and found him looking more serious than she'd ever seen him, his eyes glistening with tears. "Don't even joke about that sort of thing, okay?"

Avery nodded wordlessly and after a moment he released her hand and turned his back on her to clean some glasses. She watched him silently as he took a few shaky breaths, wondering what had him so worked up. Maybe he was really just that worried about her, but she had a feeling there was something more to it. She wanted to ask, but she knew better than to try to pry into parts of Raeger's personal life that he hadn't already opened to discussion. Instead, she quietly began eating her breakfast, ignoring the eggs which had gone cold and instead focusing on her pancake and bacon.

"What happened?" he finally asked her, his back still turned.

"Nothing," Avery told him, staring at her plate.

"Dammit, Avery, talk to me!" Raeger yelled, slamming the glass in his hand down on the counter before turning toward her. She started at him with wide, frightened eyes, and he closed his eyes and took a deep breath as he ran a hand back through his hair before continuing. "You can't keep this shit bottled up inside you or it's going to slowly kill you."

"Raeger..." She said his name quietly, getting him to look at her once more, but didn't say anything else for fear of another outburst.

"Look, I already know about what happened the other day at the trade depot," he told her, going to stand in front of her and leaning against the counter with his hands on either side of her plate. "Cam brought his family in here for dinner and pulled me aside to tell me about what he saw. He's worried about you, too, you know."

"I don't know why you two are getting so worked up over this. It's my problem, not yours."

"Cam's concerned about you, as a friend," he said, pausing to reach up and tuck her long hair behind one ear before it got into her maple syrup. "I'm worried about you because you and Fritz are the closest thing to family I have in this town. Hell, in the whole world. Seeing either one of you this upset tears me up inside because I feel like I'm completely useless and there's nothing I can do to stop it from happening."

He didn't need to tell her what was wrong. She understood, now. His father had walked out when he was just a toddler and he hadn't been able to stop it, and then both his mother and grandfather had gotten sick and passed on and there had been nothing he could do to stop that from happening, either. It was no wonder he was acting the way he was toward her. In fact, Avery was sure that was the root of him being the way he was with women, too. Everyone he'd cared about had left him in one way or another, so he refused to develop feelings for others out of fear that they, too, would leave and there wouldn't be anything he could do to prevent it from happening.

"I'm not going anywhere, Raeger," she told him, placing her hand on his and giving it a squeeze. "Even if... even if Klaus decides he'd rather be with Iris than me, I'm not going to just pack up and leave town. This is my home, now."

Raeger silently nodded, squeezing her hand a bit tighter in her grip but saying nothing.

"That said," she continued, "while I appreciate the concern, I would also appreciate it if you and Cam and everyone else in town stayed out of this. It's something that I... That Klaus and I need to work out on our own, one way or another. If people on the outside start meddling, that's only going to make things worse."

"Then why haven't you gone to see him in three days?" he asked her in an accusatory tone, finally meeting her eyes again. "He was in here yesterday, asking about you. He's worried, too, you know."

"If he's so damn worried, why hasn't he come to see me?" Avery replied, the volume of her voice increasing slightly.

"Jonas told him you were sick."

"That's a shit excuse, and you know it! We're supposed to be a couple now, right? If I'm sick, he should be checking in on me himself, making sure I'm okay. Not... asking around to other people about my well-being."

"I... I don't know what to say to that," Raeger admitted.

"You and I both know he's probably been shacked up with Iris all weekend, glad for the lack of interruptions from me," she said, stabbing angrily at the remainder of her pancake with her fork as she spoke.

"Or," Raeger said as he cupped his hand under her chin and forced her to look away from the breakfast she was mangling and into his eyes once more. "Maybe he's planning something for the Music Festival today."

"Like what?" Avery angrily snapped.

Raeger shrugged a little and forced a smile. "You told me that some of what he said to you on your birthday sounded a bit like a proposal. Maybe he's going to ask you to marry him during the sweethearts dance."

"I wish," Avery said with a rueful sigh, her gaze returning to the mess on her plate which had once been food.

"Hey, is Avery here?" Lillie asked as she poked her head into the restaurant, holding the door open just far enough to peer inside. "She's not at her house."

"Yeah, she's here," Raeger informed her, standing up straight and gesturing to his lone customer. "Why?"

Avery looked over to the normally-cheerful young woman and saw an uncharacteristically worried expression on her face. Her cheeks were flushed – probably from having run all the way up the mountain and back down again looking for her – and her eyes were a bit red and puff as though she had recently been crying.

"Um..." She hesitated, clutching a rolled-up newspaper tightly in her hands as she approached the counter to stand next to Avery, biting her lip nervously. "You and Klaus... You're still dating, right?"

Avery's posture stiffened. She wanted to say yes, but her voice failed her and all she could do was nod in response to the question.

"I'm... I'm so sorry," Lillie said with a shake of her head, a fresh round of tears forming in her eyes.

"Sorry for what, Lil?" Raeger asked her, a note of frustrated annoyance in his otherwise comforting tone of voice.

Lillie let out a shaky sigh and wordlessly unrolled the newspaper she had been carrying around, then handed it to Avery and pointed to a large color photograph of Iris and Klaus. The two of them were dressed up in formal attire, looking at each other and smiling. Iris had one arm around Klaus' waist while her opposite hand was pressed against his chest, and his arm was wrapped around her and holding her close. Avery shook her head, denying the existence of the photograph even though it was right before her eyes, and then her gaze moved down to the boldfaced caption below the picture.

Bestselling author Iris Ingersson appears to have successfully managed to snag one of the city's most eligible bachelors – perfumer Klaus Albrecht. The two of them made their public debut as a couple Wednesday evening at the 43rd annual charity ball, this year held at...

She couldn't read the rest, as by that point her hot tears had completely obstructed her vision. She felt Raeger's hand resting upon her shoulder, but his words were also drowned out by the frantic beating of her heart and the shallow gasping of her own breath. Something was said about how it was probably a mistake, a story concocted by an eager member of the paparazzi looking for a scoop at an otherwise boring charity ball. Or maybe it was a publicity stunt concocted by Iris, herself, in order to promote her latest book.

Whatever the reason, Avery didn't care. She was done. She wasn't going to let herself be jerked around by this – by him – any longer. If Iris wanted Klaus, she could have him.

Clutching the newspaper in her hand, she got up from her seat and marched toward the door, ignoring the voices of Raeger and Lillie as they called after her. She sooner she got this over with, the better. She strode purposefully through town, not bothering to return any of the greetings bestowed upon her by the townsfolk and those visiting for the day to attend the Music Festival. She was on a mission, and she wasn't about to let herself change her mind about what had to be done.

Klaus chuckled as Iris told him about a conversation she's had with an eccentric mining mogul at the charity ball, surreptitiously checking the clock behind her before returning his attention fully to the conversation. He still needed to go see if Avery was feeling up to attending the Music Festival with him, but he didn't want to be rude and cut the conversation short in the middle of her story. As luck would have it, though, the very woman he'd been missing for the past three days walked into the antiques shop at that very moment.

"Avery, love, I was just about to-"

SMACK!

Klaus blinked in surprise at the slap that had connected with his face as soon as she reached him. He was about to ask what she was hitting him for, but she spoke up before he got a chance.

"You asshole!" she yelled at him, her voice trembling. "I believed in you! I loved you... I practically gave myself to you! And this is what you do to me?"

She shook her head and turned to Iris, then, and her voice finally broke as she addressed the older woman.

"You win. You can have him. I don't care any more."

Klaus watched her leave, frozen by the mixture of shock and confusion he was feeling. What had he done to her? Why was she so upset? And... had she just broken up with him?

"Klaus."

Mistel's normally quiet voice had taken on an urgent tone as he said his name, and Klaus looked to Iris' brother and found him holding out a badly crumpled newspaper toward him. He took it from him and began looking it over, his eyes going wide in horror when he saw what had been printed upon the page.

"Avery dropped it on her way out," Mistel explained, but Klaus didn't need him to. He'd already figured out what was going on.

"I need to talk to her," he told them before rushing out of the shop, still carrying the paper with him.

He looked about frantically, but she had already disappeared from the residential district. Thinking quickly, he started toward the path which led up the mountain, but then stopped halfway up the stairs and changed course to head into town. He knew she'd probably want to be left alone by him, so she wasn't about to return to her home. She'd go somewhere else, to someone else who would be able to put a barrier between the two of them: Raeger. He dreaded the idea of having to face the chef, knowing he cared for her almost as fiercely as he did, but perhaps he'd get lucky and be able to talk Avery's best friend into letting him see her for just a minute so he could explain things.

As luck would have it, though, he didn't even need to contend with the younger man. He had just passed Gunther and Corona's house when he spotted Avery slowly making her way through a crowd of tourists. He called her name and she instinctively looked back to see who was calling for her, but once she spotted him she quickened her steps and continued in the direction of the trade depot.

Klaus also hastened in his pursuit, alternately calling her name over the chattering of the crowd and apologizing to those he had to push his way past in order to continue following her. He watched her cut ahead of the line which had formed at the entrance of the trade depot and duck under the ropes Veronica had placed there in order to keep people out while things were still being set up, and he followed suit. Having finally caught up to her, he reached out and grabbed her arm in an attempt to stop her, but she immediately twisted out of his grasp and turned on him.

"Don't touch me!" she cried, angry tears rolling down her cheeks. "You have no right to touch me now!"

"Avery, let me explain-"

"No!" she cut him off, shaking her head. "I don't want to hear whatever bullshit you've concocted. Besides, nothing you can say will explain that away."

She pointed to the newspaper in his hand and Klaus once more attempted to get her to listen to him, but she continued to shake her head as she backed away from him – right into the oncoming path of Asche's elephants.

"Avery!" he yelled her name and lunged forward to wrap his arms around her, pulling her to his chest and out of the way of the enormous creatures which were helping to set up the stage. Their owner quickly ran over to them and fussed over Avery, but Klaus assured the woman that she was alright and Asche apologized and bowed to them before returning to her task.

"You idiot," Klaus said to Avery, his voice holding no anger but shaking nonetheless from the intense fear he had just felt. "What were you thinking? You could have gotten yourself killed."

He tightened his arms around her, holding her close, and bowed his head to breathe her in. He then kissed the top of her head and suddenly she began struggling to get away from him. Klaus didn't try to force her to remain in his arms, and instead let her go. She took a single step back from him and buried her face in her hands, sobbing quietly, and it was all he could do to keep himself from pulling her back into his arms so he could kiss away her tears.

"We need to talk," he finally said after a bit, his voice barely audible. Avery nodded and let out a short, mirthless laugh.

"No shit," she said as she looked up at him, her bottom lip trembling as she tried to hold her composure in order to stare angrily at him. She ended up losing that fight, though, and turned her gaze back toward the ground in front of her.

Klaus sighed and held out his hand to her, wordlessly asking her to go with him somewhere more private. Avery simply stared at his hand for a while, then hesitantly placed hers within it, and he dared to link his fingers with hers like he had so many other times. She tensed a bit at his actions, but didn't pull away, and Klaus waited until he finally felt her relax before gently pulling her back in the direction of town.

Avery hated herself. She had been determined to put an end to things with Klaus, but part of her – a really big part of her – still had hope that they could work things out. She was still angry with him, though. That single photograph in the paper had more or less confirmed all of her worst fears, and yet...

She looked down to their hands as they wove their way through the crowd, and a sudden warmth filled her. Shutting her eyes tightly, she quickly pushed it away, reminding herself of the betrayal that had been written out for her in black and white under that photograph.

He loves you.

She shook her head against the little voice calling from somewhere deep in the back of her mind, and did her best to ignore the way those three simple words reverberated in her heart. She couldn't let herself believe that lie, no matter how much she wanted to. Not any more. The strange thing was that it was the normally rational part of her brain which seemed to keep telling her that Klaus loved her, while the more irrational side refused to believe it and insisted that he was nothing but a cheating bastard.

She opened her eyes just as the reached the steps leading to the residential district, and she held her breath as they drew nearer and nearer to Klaus' home. Soon, this would all be over with, and all she'd have left to remember him by would be the shattered remains of her heart. To her surprise, though, he turned toward Iris' house. She opened her mouth to question him, but all she was able to do was make tiny confused noises.

"We're not the only ones involved in this mess," he told her as he stopped before the door of the antiques shop and turned to her. She nodded slightly and he opened the door for her, allowing her to enter before him. Mistel looked up from his latest project to greet whoever had entered, then went deathly pale at the sight of the two of them.

"Where's yous sister?" Klaus asked, and Mistel nodded toward the stairs.

With a heavy sigh, he began heading upstairs to the apartment Iris and her brother shared, and Avery hesitated briefly before following in his wake. With each step she took, her heart felt heavier and heavier, and once she reached the top of the stairs the tears had all but started falling once more from her eyes.

"This ends now, Iris," Klaus said, his tone stern. "I can't hide it from her any more. Tell her."

She heard Iris give a weary sigh before calling her name, but she refused to look up at either of them. Instead, she screwed her eyes shut and concentrated on her breathing as she balled the skirt of her dress in her fists. Klaus placed a hand on hr shoulder and she shrugged away from him, but he persisted until she finally raised her tear-streaked face to look at him. He gasped softly at the sight of her, and she saw his eyes fill with pain and regret.

"I know you don't trust me right now," he said quietly. "But I need you to. Please. Just hear what she has to say."

Avery sighed and wiped away her tears before looking toward Iris. She might be willing to give up Klaus, but she wouldn't give the other woman the satisfaction of seeing her cry.

"All of this is my fault," Iris said, bowing her head in shame. "I know I never should have dragged Klaus into this and demand he keep it a secret."

"Keep what a secret?" Avery asked angrily. "That you two have been fucking each other behind my back?"

"No, that I'm a lesbian," Iris replied, meeting her gaze. Avery almost laughed at how absurd the idea was that Iris Ingersson, the great romance novelist, was attracted to women... but then she saw the tears in the older woman's violet eyes.

"I'm not attracted to men," Iris continued, giving her a small smile, "and I've been hiding that about myself for a long time. Lately, though, that's become... difficult. I hate living this lie, especially now that I've met someone who I might like to have an actual relationship with, and I've been rather depressed and conflicted recently. So I turned to Klaus, and I asked him not to tell anyone my secret – not even you."

"I... I don't..." Avery searched for any words to say, but nothing was coming to her. Her brain was a jumbled-up mess of thoughts and emotions ranging from relief to confusion. The most important things in her mind were that Klaus wasn't cheating on her and he did love her. But... Iris was a lesbian? How had she not seen that?

"I know, you had no idea," Iris said, laughing a little. "I've gotten quite good at hiding it. Trust me, though, Avery... If I was ever going to break the two of you up, it would be because I wanted you, not Klaus."

Avery turned bright red at the idea of someone like Iris pursuing her. Not that she had a problem with the other woman's sexual orientation, but the fact that someone as successful and attractive as her would ever be interested in her was rather unexpected. Then again, Klaus had been interested in her, as well, and he was just as good-looking and probably as successful as Iris was, judging by the fact he bought her that locket without a second thought.

"But your novels," she finally blurted out, shaking her head.

"It's not like I've never been with a man, Avery," Iris told her. "In fact, I used to think I was straight, just unhappy with the men I'd chosen. Then I sort of... experimented a bit, and realized that the reason I'd never been happy was because I wasn't actually attracted to men at all."

"Why not just come out, though? Why hide it if hiding it is just bringing you pain?"

Iris tensed a bit, and let out a heavy sigh before answering the question. "I'm scared of how others will react. The people here in town... Most of them seem pretty open-minded. The majority have accepted Marian with open arms, and he's much more... extreme than I am. But there are still a few people who don't approve of his lifestyle. Then there's my fans. How many of them do you think will continue to purchase romance novels about heterosexual couples that were written by some dyke?"

She closed her eyes and wrapped her arms around herself, and Avery felt even more horrible than she already did. Apparently, Iris had already faced some sort of hate for being who she was.

"More than any of that, though," she continued after a moment of complete silence, "I'm worried about Mistel."

"You don't have to be."

Iris' eyes snapped open and Avery turned her head to find Mistel standing just behind her at the top of the stairs, tears streaking down his face. He wandered past her and over to where Iris was sitting, then knelt before her and took her hands in his.

"How much of that did you hear?" Iris asked him, a note of fear in her voice.

"All of it," Mistel admitted, shaking his head. "But I already knew."

"You did?"

Mistel nodded in response to his sister's question. "I had an inkling, anyway. I can count on one hand the number of men you've dated. You always gravitated more toward other women at parties, and usually blew off any men who approached you after humoring them for a bit. But then the whole thing with Klaus happened and I started thinking maybe I was wrong."

"So you've been suspicious all this time, too?" Avery asked him and he shrugged.

"Maybe not as long as you have, but he was here a couple of weeks ago, and when he left there was some pretty damning evidence in here: Rumpled sheets, his cravat on the floor, and I could tell Iris had just reapplied her makeup."

Klaus groaned and reached up to rub the back of his neck as he uttered the first words he had spoken since he demanded Iris come clean with Avery. "The day of your breakdown."

Iris sighed and nodded, looking from Mistel to Avery and back again. "I got myself so worked up and physically ill with worry over who I was going to the charity ball with that I broke down and just curled up on the bed and started crying uncontrollably."

"And the cravat?" Avery asked Klaus, and he looked at her.

"I took it off to keep her from making a mess of it. You should have seen her. Mascara all over her face, snot running everywhere... Normally, she's rather attractive but at that moment she was not a pretty sight."

Iris yelled at Klaus and Avery smiled a little bit, finally feeling some of the weight lifting off of her. Still holding his gaze, she reached over and took his hand, then bit her lip nervously.

"Can we go somewhere to talk?" she asked him, and he nodded, then turned toward the others.

"Are you two going to be okay?" he asked them, and he and Avery both looked over to find Mistel hugging his sister.

"Yeah," Iris replied, nodding and smiling through her relieved tears. "I think we are. Thank you, Klaus. And, Avery... I am so sorry for all of this. I didn't mean to create such a horrible misunderstanding."

"It's okay, Iris," Avery assured her. "And if you still need someone to talk to, I'm willing to listen, too."

"I appreciate the offer, but I think I'll probably be dumping my problems on my little brother from now on," Iris replied with a playful grin, causing Mistel to grumble in protest.

Avery nodded and gave Klaus' hand a small tug, then ushered him back downstairs and out of the shop. Without a word or even so much as looking at him, she led him the short distance to his house and, without her saying anything, he unlocked the door so they could go inside. She crossed the room to lean against the dining table as he locked the door, and by the time he had moved to stand behind her she was sobbing quietly.

"Avery? What's wrong?" he asked her, gently rubbing her back and making her cry even harder.

"I don't deserve you," she told him, shaking her head and causing the tears which had been sliding down her face to drop to the table in front of her. "I let my fear and my jealousy cloud my mind and control my thoughts. I should have had faith in you, and I didn't."

"I'm the one who doesn't deserve you," he whispered to her as he wrapped his arms around her and kissed her shoulder. "I shouldn't have hidden what was going on with Iris from you."

"You promised not to tell anyone," she reminded him, and he shook his head and held her even tighter.

"I almost lost you twice today," he said, his voice strained and his breathing shaky. "No secret is worth keeping if that's the price."

She turned slowly in his arms and looked up at his face, tear-streaked like her own, and reached up to place her arms around his neck. He closed his eyes and leaned forward until his forehead was touching hers, closing his eyes and crying quietly as they held one other.

"I need you, Avery," he finally said after several minutes had passed. "I love you, and I want to be with you for the rest of my life. I'm not... I don't think I'm ready for marriage, just yet, but someday..."

He pulled away from her just enough to look into her eyes, reaching up with one hand to brush her hair back from her face. "Someday, I hope to make you my wife... if you'll still have me, by then."

Avery nodded and pulled him closer until their lips met. His kiss was tentative, almost as though he was afraid to hurt her physically in addition to the emotional turmoil he'd caused her. She decided to take the initiative, increasing the pressure of her lips upon his while also teasing him with the tip of her tongue. When he finally met it with his own, she let out a soft moan to encourage him. He tightened his arms around her waist and lifted her up slightly, placing her upon the table behind her without breaking the contact of the kiss, though he didn't attempt to take things any farther.

"Do you need to hear me say that I forgive you?" Avery asked him between each gentle kiss. "I do. I forgive you, and I love you. I love you so much, Klaus. And someday, I'm going to be the proudest and happiest woman alive because I will get to call you my husband."

Klaus reached up to take her face between his hands and kissed her again. It was still gentle like before, but her words had certainly seemed to ignite the spark within him because he immediately swept his tongue into her mouth and began to slowly explore her warmth as he pressed himself between her legs. Avery could feel him starting to stir and whimpered softly as she slid her hands up under his coat and coaxed it off over his shoulders. Klaus released her just long enough to allow the heavy coat to drop to the floor, then wrapped his arms around her waist and pulled her even harder against his growing erection.

"Klaus," Avery gasped as she broke the kiss, placing her hands upon his chest to keep him at bay while she caught her breath. Their eyes locked, and she saw that his earlier sadness had all but disappeared, though a tiny bit still seemed to remain.

"What is it, love?" he asked her with a gentle smile.

"We really should start getting ready for the Music Festival," she reminded him, biting her lip. She hated to put an end to things, especially considering that – after what they had just been through – they both really needed it, but there was no telling what people would think if they didn't show up.

"Let's skip it," Klaus told her, tracing her bottom lip with his thumb. "Right now, I just really need to be alone with you."

Avery nodded and slid her arms around her neck, shyly looking down to where he was standing between her legs, then raised her eyes to meet his once more.

"Should we head over to the bed?" she suggested, and Klaus leaned forward to kiss her softly.

"Do you think we should?"

"The bed's a hell of a lot more comfortable than this table," Avery pointed out, and Klaus chuckled as he adjusted his grip on her and lifted her up off the table. Avery wrapped her legs around his waist as he carried her, their eyes never leaving each other's gaze.

"Don't let me go," she told him, her quiet whisper holding so much more meaning than a simple warning to not drop her on his hardwood floor.

"I won't," Klaus assured her, shaking his head a little. "I promise. I'm never going to let you go, Avery."
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In Sheep's Clothing