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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.

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Chapter Twenty-Four

Avery yawned as she cooked eggs and grits in her small kitchen, a kettle of water heating up on the back burner of her stove. She hadn't slept much the previous night, thanks to a certain someone who stayed with her at her farmhouse. She'd gotten up extra-early simply because she was sick of tossing and turning, and by the time she would have usually gotten out of bed she'd already tended to her crops and moved on to taking care of her animals.

"Mmm... Smells delicious," Klaus said as he wrapped his arms around her waist while standing behind her, leaning down to nuzzle her neck. "And you smell good, too."

Avery shivered a little as his hair – still damp from having recently bathed – brushed against her ear. With a soft sigh, she leaned back against him and grabbed a handful of cheese she'd grated off a block she kept in her fridge, then tossed it into the grits.

"You do realize people are going to talk, once it gets around that you spent the night here, right?"

Klaus chuckled quietly and kissed her neck. "Let them talk, love. Most of them already thought we had sex the day of the concert."

Avery grunted a little and began stirring the pot of grits more vigorously. She knew quite well what people assumed had happened between her and Klaus that day. Granted, it probably would have happened that way had she not been so sleep deprived that she'd barely been able to keep her eyes open once he had her on his bed. She had assured him she was okay to proceed – which even she knew was entirely unconvincing since half of the statement was drowned out by a loud yawn – but he'd insisted they just rest together instead.

She'd fallen asleep in his arms, and when she woke up later that afternoon she found he was still out and watched him sleep for a while before kissing him awake. The two of them had then freshened up and gone into town to have dinner at Raeger's restaurant, and if the slight cold shoulder they'd gotten from Veronica when they greeted her outside of Town Hall hadn't been enough of a tip-off as to what the residents of Oak Tree Town had believed happened between them, then Raeger's knowing smirk would have told them.

The next three days had been spent explaining what had really happened to everyone in town, and while their closest friends and most of the other residents had believed them and laughed at how much things had gotten blown out of proportion, there were still a few who doubted that things had been so innocent as they really were. The one exception had been Iris who – seemingly back to feeling much more like her usual self – had believed them but still continued to tease the two of them as though they actually had been having sex but were just making up some sort of excuse to hide it.

"You know, I sort of wish we'd actually gone," Avery lamented, turning her attention to the eggs. "You heard about who were named the Sweethearts this year, right?"

Klaus chuckled once more and released her to move the now-whistling kettle off the back burner. "I imagine that would have been quite the sight to see, the three of them dancing together."

"I think it would have been sweet," Avery mused, pointing up to the cabinet where she kept her coffee mugs. "I imagine Cam was probably holding little Lucy while he and his wife were dancing together."

She let out a wistful sigh and Klaus pulled down a couple of mugs before going over to her and raising a hand to turn her face toward his. He leaned down and kissed her, then brought his lips to her ear to whisper something.

"Give it a couple of years, love, and that will be us."

Avery smiled, blushing a little at the thought of dancing with Klaus while he held their child, and turned off the stove. She fixed their plates while he made coffee for the two of them, and soon they were sitting together at her table having breakfast. She couldn't help but think how natural the situation felt, the two of them sharing a meal in her home as if they were already a married couple.

"How did you sleep?" he asked her suddenly, no doubt having noticed the way she was constantly twisting in her seat in a vain attempt to work out the kinks in her back.

"Fine," she lied, and he frowned at her until she sighed in defeat. "Like shit, actually. That couch really isn't comfortable to sleep on, at all. I'm thinking I'll get a new one after Gunther finishes the upstairs addition."

"I offered to sleep on the couch last night," he reminded her, and she shook her head.

"That couch was almost too small for me to lay down on. You never would have fit."

"Then you should have joined me in the bed," he remarked with a smirk and a wink.

"You and I both know what would have happened if I'd done that."

"Would that have been such a bad thing?" he wondered.

"You were drunk, Klaus," she told him flatly.

"I was not drunk," he argued. "I'd just had a bit too much wine and was having trouble walking straight."

Avery laughed. "That's the very definition of being drunk!"

"So what if I was drunk?" he asked her, setting his fork down and folding his hands together before him so he could prop his chin upon them as he looked at her across the table. "Do you doubt that I would have been able to perform in that state?"

"No... I have no doubts that you would have been fully capable last night," she replied, blushing as she recalled just how hard he'd been when he had her pinned down on the couch while they'd been fooling around shortly before retiring for the night. "But would you really have been at your peak in that state, Mr. I-want-your-first-time-to-be-perfect?"

Klaus made a thoughtful sound. "Fair point. In fact, a lot of what happened as the night went on is a bit fuzzy. Perhaps you'd care to remind me?"

Avery's face turned even hotter and she had to avert her eyes away from his gaze, causing him to chuckle. She knew he was bluffing about not remembering and using it as a way to get her to talk dirty to him – something she was still getting used to but had effortlessly slipped into doing the previous night thanks to her own inebriated state, much to her embarrassment.

"Hey," he said after a moment, and waited until she finally looked up at him once more before continuing. "I didn't push you too far last night, did I? I mean... I hope I didn't take advantage of the situation too much."

Avery shook her head. "I kind of liked it, actually."

"Really?" Klaus wondered, one of his dark eyebrows quirking upward in surprise.

She nodded, averting her gaze once more. She hated to admit it, but she'd been incredibly turned-on when he'd gotten a little more demanding than usual with her. Things had started out just like before, but he'd stopped mid-way and refused to continue until she begged him for exactly what she wanted him to do to her. She'd been reluctant to say at first, but after seeing the intensity of the love and passion in his eyes she'd given in and – thanks to the alcohol – she had no problem in giving him quite detailed instructions concerning what she liked. Then he'd asked her to touch him, too, and she hadn't hesitated one bit to do so.

"Next time, though," she said quietly as she scooped up some of her cheesy grits onto her fork, "I don't want to be doing it blind."

"If I had been naked, too, love, then I wouldn't have been able to restrain myself," he told her, and she could hear the smile in his voice. "It was hard enough as it was, with how good it felt to have you touching me like that."

"It certainly was hard," Avery quipped, raising her eyes to his and smirking a little.

"Was?" Klaus said, giving her a wink, and Avery let out a small laugh at the implication of his statement. She was about to come back with a teasing remark about how he was going to have to take care of it himself, this time, but a knock at the door interrupted them.

"It's a bit early for visitors, isn't it?" Klaus wondered, looking to the clock as Avery stood and went to the door to answer it.

"Who's there?" she called through the door, thinking it was probably Marian looking for Klaus since he hadn't been at home for their usual morning chat over coffee. If it was the doctor she would tell him off and leave him outside to wonder what was going on. Though the more she thought about it the more that seemed like a very bad idea, since Marian was likely to draw certain conclusions and then she and Klaus would have to diffuse yet another rumor about them having sex.

Before the person outside could answer, she pulled open the door and blinked in surprise at who she found standing there. He was quite tall – perhaps even a little taller than Klaus – with dark skin and white hair which fell over the front of his right shoulder in a long braid. He was well-dressed, his clothing suggesting that he came from some far-off land, and smiled politely as he bowed to her and held out an envelope in both hands.

"Miss Avery, I am Sanjay – loyal servant to Prince Amir Ranjit Raj Singh – and I beg your forgiveness for intruding upon your home at such an early hour, but I was asked to bring you this invitation to my master's wedding to your beloved cousin, Miss Adelia."

Avery continued blinking in surprise at the young man before her. He was, indeed, the servant of her cousin's fiance that Addie had mentioned numerous times in her letters, but not even those descriptions had been able to prepare her for the formality with which he was addressing her.

"Um... Thanks," she said awkwardly as she took the invitation from him.

"Master Amir has asked that I request your presence in Echo Village for the two days prior to the ceremony, as well, so that you may serve as Miss Adelia's maid of honor," Sanjay added, straightening back up to his full height. "He has also asked me to tell you that you should invite Master Klaus as your personal guest for the festivities."

"Of course," Avery assured him, nodding and smiling a bit. "So when have they finally set the date for?"

"The twentieth of this season," Sanjay informed her as she was removing the invitation from the envelope to check for herself. She froze with it still halfway in the envelope and looked up into his deep violet eyes, hers wide with shock.

"That's one week from today!"

Sanjay gave her an apologetic smile. "Forgive the abruptness, Miss Avery, but Master Amir does not wish to wait any longer to make Miss Adelia his bride. He has been waiting for quite a long time, as it is."

Avery laughed a little, recalling a letter she'd received the previous year from her cousin in which she had ranted about how the prince had flat-out told her he intended to marry her even though they barely knew each other at that point.

"I understand," she assured Sanjay, reaching out to gently squeeze his arm to let him know she wasn't angry at him for bringing her the news of the wedding with such short notice. His cheeks immediately turned bright red, and she had to bite her tongue to keep from laughing at how cute and awkward he looked.

"Tell Amir that I will be honored to attend the wedding as Addie's maid of honor, and that I will do my best to bring Klaus with me."

"Oh, I'm going," Klaus said from behind her. "I'll let my clients know tomorrow that I won't be coming back into the city on Sunday so they don't have a fit when I'm a no-show."

"In that case, let him know Klaus will be attending, as well," she told Sanjay, and the servant bowed to both of them before heading toward the path leading away from the farm and down the mountain. He had to step aside, however, when Marian came storming toward the farm.

"Just great," Avery groaned as she watched Sanjay bow in apology to Marian for having nearly run into him, and Marian checking Sanjay out in return as he continued on his way.

"Why don't we just lock the door and pretend we're not here?" Klaus suggested, his thoughts having obviously gone to the same place hers did in regards to the confrontation they were about to have with the doctor.

"Avery!" Marian cried out her name as he waved one arm about frantically above his head, quickening his pace as much as he was able to in his heels. When he finally reached the front door of her farmhouse he was doubled over and out of breath, bracing his hands on his thighs.

"Marian, what's wrong?" Klaus wondered, stepping around her and placing a hand on his best friend's shoulder.

"I need your help," Marian told Avery as he looked up at her, his face stricken with worry.

"Sure," Avery agreed, nodding. "I mean... if I can help, I will. What's going on?"

"It's the Fashion Show today, and I need a model," Marian said. "The girl I was going to use got sick, and you're about the same size as her so I was hoping you'd do it for me."

"That's what this is about?" Klaus asked with an annoyed sigh, dropping his hand back down to his side. "Goddess, Marian, I thought there was an actual emergency."

"This is an emergency, Klaus!" Marian insisted, turning to look at him. "If I don't have a model for the show, I'll have to forfeit!"

"Why me, though?" Avery wondered. "There are other girls in town who are much prettier than I am."

"You're the only one tiny enough for the outfit I made."

Avery sighed and crossed her arms over her chest. "You mean I'm the only one short enough for the outfit you made."

Marian shrugged and smiled a little. "Yeah, but I was trying to make it sound like a compliment."

Avery remained silent for a bit, contemplating the situation. She didn't want Marian to have to forfeit after he'd worked so hard on making an outfit to enter into the competition, but she still had her doubts about how good of a model she'd make and she knew the judge took the models into consideration as much as he did the clothes they were wearing when making his decision. She worried her bottom lip between her teeth and rocked up and down on the balls of her feet as she twisted the invitation she was still holding in her hands and looked to Klaus.

"It's up to you, love," he told her, and she let out a sigh as she turned back to Marian.

"Are you sure you want me to do it?" she asked him. "I'm not exactly model material, you know."

"Oh, don't worry, sweetie," Marian assured her with a cocky grin. "I've got a master waiting who will make you look like the most glamorous vixen who ever set foot on a catwalk."

"Fine," Avery finally agreed. "I'll be your model. Let me just get things cleaned up from breakfast here and we can get going."

Marian squealed and clapped his hands together excitedly, then threw his arms around her and hugged her tightly for a moment before letting go, and he offered to help her clean up as he followed her into her house. Klaus bought up the rear, closing the door, and the two of them nervously watched the doctor as he took stock of things and realization finally settled in.

"Wait," he said, looking from the to breakfast plates on the table to Klaus, then back to the table and to Avery before finally turning to Klaus once more.

"You spent the night?!" he excitedly asked, going over to Klaus and laughing merrily as he hugged him. "This is wonderful! So you two finally did it!"

"No," Klaus informed him with a straight face, shaking his head.

"Klaus was drunk and could barely walk straight so I insisted he spend the night here," Avery explained as she started to gather up the dishes from the table.

"She was worried I'd wander off the path and drown in the pond," Klaus added with an amused smile.

"Pfft... Honey, I've seen him so drunk he could barely stand, let alone walk," Marian said, waving off the notion. "He's always made it home just fine."

"Cut her a little slack, Marian," Klaus requested, crossing the room to Avery – who was now blushing – and kissing her softly as he took some of the dishes from her to lighten the load. "She didn't want anything bad to happen to me."

"Or maybe she just wanted you in her bed last night, drunk and vulnerable," Marian teased, grinning and crossing his arms over his chest.

"I slept on the couch," Avery informed him as she and Klaus placed the dishes in the sink and she went to the stove to retrieve the empty pot and skillet she'd used to cook their meal.

"Wait... You slept on the couch, and he slept in the bed? Alone?"

"Yep," Klaus said, retrieving his coat from the back of the couch in question, where he'd laid it the previous night.

Marian looked back and forth between the two of them, his mouth agape. "I'm starting to think you two are never going to have sex."

Klaus chuckled and turned him around, ushering him back out the door, then waited for Avery to slip on her boots and held out a hand to her which she took as she joined him and they left her home together. Once she had locked the front door, Marian began rushing them into town, once more in panic mode over the Fashion Show and seemingly having forgotten completely about the conversation they'd all just been having. Klaus smiled at Avery and squeezed her hand when her worried brown eyes met his gaze, silently reassuring her that everything was going to be fine.

"Here," Marian said once they reached the large tent which had been set up to the side of the trade depot to serve as makeshift dressing rooms for the models who would be participating in the competition. "Klaus, you can come in, too."

He held open the flap covering the tent's entrance and waves Avery and Klaus inside, then entered behind them and directed them toward the first section on the left which had been blocked off. Avery felt more nervous with each step she took, and when she saw the young man leaning against the dressing table as they entered Marian's section her apprehension increased tenfold. He was probably a few years older than herself, with dark red hair and bright blue eyes framed by stylish black glasses. It wasn't his appearance which bothered her – though she thought he was quite handsome – nor was it the stylish way he was dressed... It was the pair of scissors he was wearing in a holster on his right leg, almost like it was a gun.

"I... I don't know if I can do this," she said as she started backpedaling, but Marian stepped behind her and grasped her by her upper arms to prevent her from escaping.

"You'll be just fine, sweetie," Marian assured her.

"But my cousin is getting married next week and I'm supposed to be her maid of honor!" Avery protested. "I don't want some guy messing up my hair before that."

"Your cousin?" the redheaded man asked, taking his glasses off and looking at her with a more critical gaze. "Okay, yeah... I see it. You do look a lot like Addie, now that I think about it. Hair's a slightly different shade, but just as limp and lifeless."

Avery let out an annoyed sigh and closed her eyes. "You must be Allen. Addie's told me about you in her letters."

"Well, it's good to know my reputation precedes me," Allen said with a cocky grin as he slid his glasses back on and turned the swiveling chair in front of the dressing table toward her. "Hop on in and I'll show you just how right she was."

"She never said anything about you being a good hairdresser," Avery remarked with a smirk. "She just told me what a superficial, conceited ass you are."

"Like I've never heard that before," Allen replied, scoffing a bit as he glanced briefly at Marian. "Didn't she tell you I was the one who helped her deal with being without her precious prince for an entire season last year?"

"In your own, slightly condescending way, yes."

"Hey!" Allen shouted, pulling the scissors from their holster and pointing them at her. "That's slander! I was in no way condescending toward her. I was genuinely worried about her."

"He was," Marian confirmed. "It was sweet, seeing him fawn over her like that."

"You say that now, but you were sure as hell jealous about all the attention I was paying her back then, weren't you, Marian?" Allen asked the doctor, cocking his head to one side and smirking devilishly, causing Marian's cheeks to flush. Avery looked back and forth between them two of them before turning to Klaus, who had wrapped his arms around himself and was holding one of his hands against his mouth in a fist to contain his laughter.

"Am I missing something, here?" she asked him. Klaus lowered his hand and smirked, then winked at her.

"How were those madelines, Allen?" he called to the hairdresser, and Allen turned wide blue eyes to him with his cheeks burning the same color as his hair.

Avery giggled at the sight, now realizing that Allen was the person Marian had been hoping to confess to on White Day. She still wasn't sure if the two of them were actually together or not, though, since Allen's teasing could have just as easily been that of a close friend who was giving Marian a hard time for previously hitting on him – much like Klaus occasionally did. Either way, though, it was apparent that Allen and Marian were still on good terms with one another, at least.

"So are we doing this or not?" Allen asked, clearing his throat to hide his embarrassment and gesturing to the empty chair next to him.

Avery hesitated but, reminding herself how much this meant to Marian, she steeled herself and took a step toward the chair. As long as she set down some ground rules on what she didn't want done to her hair, she was sure things would turn out all right.

"Klaus? Is that you?"

All four of them turned toward the entrance of Marian's section, and Klaus and Marian both visibly stiffened when they saw who was standing there. The woman was thin and tall – almost as tall as Klaus, Avery noticed when she walked up to him – and had perfect olive skin and incredibly long black hair which shone under the lights in the room. In contrast, her eyes were a startlingly light shade of blue, and were made to further stand out by the long, thick eyelashes which framed them.

"Rebecca," Klaus greeted her with a single nod of his head.

"It's so wonderful to see you!" Rebecca said, reaching out to touch his shoulder, and Avery felt her hands tighten into fists for some reason. "It's been, what? Almost ten years now?"

"Almost," Klaus replied with another short nod.

"Wow," she breathed out the word as her eyes unabashedly roamed over his form, her crimson-stained lips turning upward into a seductive smile. "You look good."

"You, too," Klaus said, though Avery could tell he was just trying to be polite. His body language was making it quite clear that he didn't want to be anywhere near this woman, whoever she was.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him, her voice pitching up a bit in excitement. Klaus simply nodded toward where Marian still had a hold of Avery.

"Oh, right," she said a bit dismissively as she looked briefly at Marian before focusing once more upon Klaus. "I forgot the two of you were friends."

"And you?" he wondered.

"Giorgio always bugs me every year about how much he wishes I could be here to watch him show off his latest 'masterpiece of fashion,'" Rebecca replied, rolling her eyes. "So, since I wasn't busy this year I decided I'd do him one better and model for him."

"That's nice," Klaus said, then cleared his throat and turned toward Marian. "Look, I'd hate to get in your way so I'm going to head out and wait with the others."

"Oh, that's fine," Marian told him, his smile reflecting the tension Avery could feel in the room. Klaus' attention then turned toward her.

"Good luck out there," he told her before turning and heading back out, and Avery wanted to run after him and find out what was going on. She'd seen so much pain in his eyes when he'd spoken to her and that, coupled with the obvious discomfort both he and Marian had exhibited at Rebecca's arrival had thrown her for a bit of a loop.

"Fucking skank slut," Marian angrily muttered after Rebecca left without saying another word to another of them once Klaus was gone. "The nerve of that woman, walking up to him and acting like nothing ever happened."

Something finally clicked in Avery's mind. Klaus had said the woman he dated before her – the one who broke his heart – had been a model. He'd never mentioned a name, though, but she had no doubt this Rebecca was the one. Her blood boiled even more than it already had when the other woman touched him. Marian was right: how the hell could she act like things were just fine between them after what she did to him? Moreover, Avery was pretty sure she'd been coming on to Klaus and – judging by the way she'd been talking about him wanting her to come to the festival every year – it seemed like she might also be the fiancee that Giogrio had mentioned to her numerous times.

Without another word, she twisted out of Marian's grasp and marched over to the chair at the dressing table, then sat down in it with an angry scowl on her face.

"Don't chop off all of my hair, and don't permanently dye it any weird colors," she instructed Allen without looking at him. "Other than that, do whatever you want with me."

Allen chuckled as he turned the chair back toward the mirror once more and stepped on the lever at the bottom a few times to bring her closer to the proper height for him to work on her. Marian also laughed and went to stand in front of her, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned back against the table, smirking at her.

"Why the sudden change of heart?" he asked, and Avery looked up at him with eyes full of determination.

"Someone needs to put that scrawny bitch in her place for what she did to Klaus."
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In Sheep's Clothing