[Stardew Valley] On the Edge - Shane

6

The next day, much to Aria's delight, was sunny and unseasonably warm. Before she got up to go on and start her daily farm duties, she laid in bed an extra moment, staring up at the ceiling.

All she could think about was the previous evening. Truthfully, she always dreaded any form of talking about her feelings. But she felt comfortable, talking to Shane about her grieving. She thought about how receptive and understanding he was. And how vulnerable he'd been with her in an effort to comfort her.

After tending to her crops and letting her cows and goats out to graze, she made her way to Marnie's ranch to finally grab some chickens for her new coop.

"Oh, hi Miss Aria," Marnie greeted her as she walked in, smiling.

"Hi Marnie, I'm here to buy some chickens now that my coop's all built." She mentioned.

"Oh, of course! You just missed our resident chicken expert, but I'm here to help you instead," Marnie joked with a wink. "Let's go look at the chicks."

They walked in and Marnie explained the basics of making sure the chicks are happy and well fed, and Aria paid close attention. "If you have any additional questions, definitely ask Shane. He's wonderful with the chickens and spends the most time with them." Marnie mentioned, When Aria had all of the chicks she'd selected, Marnie hesitated before they left the coop.

"You know, Jas has been so excited to see you again," She said to Aria with a small smile. "Even Shane seems to be in slightly better spirits, in his own way." That part secretly piqued Aria's interest, considering that she'd only experienced Shane opening up just the day before and was quite used to his quiet, serious nature.

"You are always welcome to come here, Aria." Marnie assured her kindly. Aria smiled back as they left the coop.

"Oh, and speaking of being welcome - you should come tomorrow evening, we're going to have some cake for Shane's birthday," Marnie mentioned, brushing feathers off of the storefront counter as she sat.

"His birthday is tomorrow?" Aria repeated. "What does he like?"

"Well besides beer," Marnie mentioned with a disapproving but brief stare at the ceiling, "He loves anything with hot peppers in it. Also pizza, and those frozen pepper poppers he gets from his job. But he likes them even better when they're homemade..." Marnie rambled, and then she seemed to catch herself and blushed.

"Thanks so much, Marnie," Aria thanked her, "I'll be back later."

And she went off back to her farm to introduce her chicks to their new home. She got two brown ones, a white one, and one that she was particularly fond of that had an odd silvery blue down on it. There was still a little time before Penny would drop Jas off back at the ranch, so Aria sat in her living room, fabric spread all across her floor and trying to brainstorm a present for Shane.

Thanks to Marnie, Aria knew what Shane liked...Or, at least she knew what he liked to eat. She'd buy him a pizza with peppers on it, she'd already decided, but wanted to give him something additional.

And then the idea struck Aria as soon as she remembered Marnie mentioning Shane's affinity for chickens. She cut and sewed and pinned until her alarm went off, and she gathered her things and headed in the direction of the ranch.

The second Aria entered the house, Jas grabbed her hand and dragged her to the living room, where instead of lots of dolls spread out everywhere, there's a MegaStationXL connected to the TV. Shane knelt in front of it, unaware that Aria had walked in, plugging the console in.

"Well, hello to you too," Aria chuckled at Jas.

"Hey, Aria," Shane turned around once he was done fiddling with the TV. "Jas insisted on video games today. Hope you're down for some Junimo Kart."