True to Haruo's word, Phil had to go over daily to the dumpster and stick his head in...to see what new things he could find; a task for which his stomach gave him what-for afterwards. After all being stuck headfirst into a pile of rotting leftovers and other offal would leave him a candidate for a raging infection if not an upset stomach causing him to spew all over the ground.
Meanwhile, the perpetrator of Phil's ever-present misery, Haruo, sat and read a recipe book, which ironically was Chili Con Carne which would make everyone miserable from capsaicin poisoning. Yay for ghost chili peppers. The hotter the better. Haruo was at Level Six so the recipe books that he bought were several levels below but well, if he wanted to learn extra recipes, such catch-up reading would have to be done.
Everyone had things to do. Noel irradiated bugs hoping to turn them into plasma bugs as the return on such insects was astronomical. To take a fifteen simoleon bug and turn it into something that was over three hundred percent more valuable by forcing it to transmogrify into a plasma bug would be quite handy.
Haruo and River were inseparable and the house that they were now living in on the deck over the water allowed them the privacy that they sought to have some time to themselves rather than be constantly on guard against having to watch their personal displays of affection so that it didn't gross the rest of their friends out. After all constant kissing would be enough to make someone want to wretch out the contents of what edibles were still in one's stomach.
Except that this particular time was not within their private confines, it was in the kitchen.
Watcher: "Get a Room if you're going to slurp each other's faces off!"
Teaching Aaron to walk was the job of Haruo while River taught Aaron how to talk. They would debate on who was responsible for the smelly job later.
Aaron finally mastered walking and Haruo picked him up holding him up in the air as both Aaron and Haruo grinned at each other, "Way to go kiddo..." Haruo stated as River watched them indulgently. She loved the both of them deeply without question and watching her husband teach their son made her love Haruo that much more.
Finding a replacement for Clarissa was quite the task as the elixir shop position was hard to fill with no-one moving into a barren town with nothing but a few businesses in the area. The area was ripe for house-building and Noel had just started on building his and Clarissa's new house. After all, he'd been smitten by the elixir shop attendant. And the Watcher loves a romantic story.
But poor Noel and Clarissa weren't sure what they'd returned home to find.
Haruo had been in the process of making dinner when he was approached by River's friend, Bebe Hart who had this look in her eyes; perhaps one could call it longing. She had spurned Phil's advances towards her because she preferred someone else...but that particular longing was unrequited as the person she was interested in was already in a conjugal relationship.
"Haruo, can I talk to you?" Bebe asked as Haruo stepped away from the cutting board to give her his full undivided attention. "I have a favor to ask..." she continued..
Haruo nodded silently, pondering what sort of favor that could be. "You know how I'm doing science experiments, right?" Bebe continued keeping her eyes steady on Haruo who was now starting to feel like the subject of one of her experiments himself.
It was at the point when Bebe asked Haruo if he would donate a DNA sample to her that Noel and Clarissa had walked in.
Noel's face would have precipitated laughter if anyone else had been paying attention to the looks on Noel's and Clarissa's faces. Noel's was a Do I really want to hear this?expression while Clarissa's was a What the hell nuthouse did I just walk into?.
Frozen in place, the two of them could only watch the drama play out.
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