Fruit Salad- A My Time at Portia oneshot, because I was bored.

Maven (Check chapter two for insert edition)

Emily sighed a sigh of relief. She had just finished up feeding her chickens, it was about sundown time, she was ready to put the animals up for the night.

"Bawk Bawk!"

Emily turned around to find the reason Sanmao was startled, and found her neighbor, Maven, sprinting across Emily's wheat fields for the third time that day. Maven was a good friend to her, and even though he had only moved in around three seasons ago, she felt close to him. He was trustworthy and always made sure to check on Emily on the farm every day. But today, he seemed different. Stressed.

     Emily watched as the young builder came speeding up to her. He stopped with a halt right in front of her, almost collapsing trying to regain his breath. Emily, very concerned for her builder friend, elected to speak to him first.
     "Maven, are you alright? You're going to pass out from lack of oxygen if you don't slow down."
Maven continued to pant at the ground, just barely looking up before heaving; "I need...... more eggs."

     Emily scratched her head at her neighbor's unusual behavior, as the black-haired builder had already picked up eggs twice that day. "Maven, I just sold you almost four dozen eggs an hour ago, whatever do you need more for?"
     Maven's gaze broke from Emily as he looked to the side for a second, afterwards standing up straight and clearing his throat a little. "Well, uh, I'm making salad sauce."
     "Who in Portia would be commissioning that much salad sauce??"
     "I'm making fruit salad."
     "Good lord, Maven, how many are you making?"
     "iM mAkInG fRuIt SaLaD"

Emily prided herself in being a good friend, and her next-door builder was also a good friend to her, therefore Emily felt the need to get to the bottom of Maven's strange new behavior.
"Maven, are you having financial problems? If you are, you know Granny Sophie and I could always-"
The young farmgirl watched her neighbor's face turn slightly red for a second, before being cut off by the seemingly flustered builder.
"N- No, it's not that! It's just..."
Maven uncharacteristically found himself at a loss for words. To Emily's interpretation, Maven was having quite the difficult time explaining his sudden rush to make hundreds of plates of fruit salad.
"People need to be fed, you know?"

     Emily, not even close to being convinced, came to notice that even this earlier this morning, Maven had been acting strange. Almost every day since he had moved here, Emily has watched her favorite builder leave his workshop at precisely 7:05, and head straight to the commerce guild, most likely to take commissions. She didn't see Maven do that today, instead she just watched him feed a fish to the town cat and go back home.
"Maven, you haven't even taken a commission today! I'm all for taking a day off, but you've been going back and forth for hours!"
Emily gave a concerned look, causing Maven to fiddle with his hands ever so slightly. He doesn't usually do that.
"The commerce guild doesn't post commissions on weekends." Replied the builder.
"I've seen you go on weekends, though! Maven, whatever's going on, I can help! I'm your friend, am I not?"

     Maven, quite appreciative for his friend, took a deep breath and calmly provided his explanation.
"I didn't go to the guild today because.... I had a pretty scary dream, I'm a little afraid of going in there today."
Emily, finally in belief that her friend was telling the truth, was actually quite surprised that someone like Maven even had worries at all.
"A.... bad dream? Why, Maven, I'm sure you're all right. If you want, you can hang out with me for the rest of the day. Mind if I ask what this dream was about?"
The builder smiled softly, happy that his neighbor understood.
"Thank you, Emily. I'll tell you about it later."
"All right, but that doesn't explain why you've been spending so much on eggs. Don't get me wrong, I appreciate the support, but the market's high today, it's not the best time to be mass-buying eggs."

     Maven's facial expression changed, before he managed to veil his anxiety with a calm smile. He gave Emily an empathetic look, deciding it was better to present his whole case as opposed to hiding it.
"Well... So, you know the secretary who goes to work at the commerce guild every day?"
Emily gave a puzzled expression, attempting to figure out what her neighbor was implying.
"Oh, you mean Antoine? Of course, he's another good friend of mine. What about him, did he put you up to this?"
"Oh, no, no he didn't, it's only that- He has horrible eating habits, and I'm really worried. Xu told me he's quite underweight, and the only way I can get him to eat in the mornings is by delivering him salad."

     Emily, piecing together what Maven just said and figuring out how Maven's behavior today made sense now, provided more evidence to the builder's worries.

"Come to think of it, I don't think I've seen him eat when he takes his lunch break with Sonia and I either. I didn't know that you were also friends with him, that's cool!"
Maven's face went a little pink when Emily said that, in a hurry to correct what his friend had just said.
"Well, I mean, technically, I'm not. Well, I'd like to, but uhhhhhhhhhh...... The salads are really helping!"

Emily is once again incredibly confused.
"Oh? Well, I'm sure that once you tell him you're concerned for hi- ....wait, Maven?"
The blonde farmer, ideas gradually clicking in her head, stops talking abruptly when she notices that her best friend is attempting to quietly shuffle away without being noticed.
The builder stops the second he realizes he wasn't being as subtle as he thought in his getaway technique.
"Maven, what's wrong? Wait a second, Maven, what are you implying?"
"AbSoLutEly noTHinG, I dOnt See whAt yOu meaN!"
"hEy WaIt A mInUtE gEt BaCk HeRe-"
     Emily ceases her slight chasing after her builder friend and giggles quietly, seeing as Maven has once again fallen asleep in the middle of her crops, surrounded by fireflies. She quietly whispers to herself, gently removing the sword from her friends back and laying down beside him.

"Hahaha, oh my...."

(It's done! Imma be honest, I planned for this to be a oneshot, but I ended it so nicely that I want to write another chapter now???? So maybe I'll do that???)

(I also put this on my A03, MaxwellJacksWrites)