#brought to you by: i was trying to do homework while listening to the sdv soundtrack but my brain did this instead

[thehuntyhunties]

stardew valley adjacent AU where Killua just up and absconds to scraggly-ass farm in a tiny little town in a quiet little valley fairly far from any city and very, VERY far from his family. He brings Alluka with him because arguably she needs new start even more than he does. Together they claw their way through figuring out how to clear out the land, grow a few crops, make new things from various resources. Alluka practically moves into the town library for a full week and a half reading every book she thinks will help. Eventually they buy some chickens, then a few goats. Killua attempts to train the goats to head-butt people on command, but only one of them gets it, and the rest are frustratingly relaxed. A few weeks into the farm life they find a kitten in an overgrown tangle and they name it Marshmallow but Alluka insists on referring to it as Killua’s son/child/baby every chance she gets and Killua pretends to be annoyed but secretly loves it.

They slowly get to know their neighbors, although initially Killua just keeps handing extra rocks to people (they have SO MANY rocks piling up in their storage) which pisses off nearly everyone in town except for the son of the lady who runs the saloon. Killua tries to break into the sewer. Alluka drags him up into the caves north of town because now she’s the town librarian’s favorite patron and she’s determined to find all sorts of cool things to fill the museum. They get the kitchen fixed up properly and get better at fishing. Killua keeps giving rocks to the town doctor just to piss him off and purposefully starts a feud with the manager at the local JojaMart, because their family has a stake in JojaMart and neither of them wants to see any connection to their family now that they finally have something that’s theirs. The guy who runs the farm supply store lets them know about a small cave on their farm that’s been growing weird mushrooms. Alluka finds a shadow person in the basement and they bond immediately, and she seems very young and they don’t want her out on her own, so now they have a roommate. Killua gets overly-invested in the various contests and competitions that take place throughout the year and obsesses over the melon plants and blueberry bushes while Alluka coaxes jam and pickle recipes out of the local grandmas.

They run into the saloon owner’s son at 1:30am while they’re leaving the caves because he’s going INTO the caves to collect slimes in a bucket (he’s been studying them in his free time because as an animal they make absolutely NO sense). Later he introduces Killua and Alluka to the junimos, who absolutely adore him because he’s spent his whole life in the forest getting to know them. And he also tells them “oh yeah and watch out for the big bear in the far west part of the forest, I think maybe it’s magic” and Killua says “wait what bear” and he says “oh don’t worry, even if you could get through the massive tree in the path i’m pretty sure the bear is friendly, anyways have a good night guys!” and Killua says “Gon wait come back WHAT BEAR” and Alluka makes a mental note to ask the blacksmith how much it will cost to get a stronger ax so she can bust apart the tree and meet the magic bear. 

#brought to you by: i was trying to do homework while listening to the sdv soundtrack but my brain did this instead #i could go on FOREVER i love sdv and it's a fun game and i like the oddball elements in it and i haven't played it in three months :') #does it all make sense for the hxh context? no but arguably neither does my ghost hunters au #everybody needs some fun concepts they're just vibing with i think. good for the soul #my post #text #killua #alluka #btw if anyone is wondering i imagine that kurapika is a weird guy who lives in a little cabin on the beach #he's friendly but a little reclusive and there's a lot of gossip in town about what his deal must be #killua's heard that he's an author writing a book AND that he's a former mafioso in hiding and he's decided that both is a fun option #he isn't basing this on anything except that it's fun to imagine

[sleepydew-valley]

Quanrantined Shane: Day 3

Day 1

Day 2

So I know I haven’t updated this story in forever, but why not try and continue it right before I started SDV artober and also while doing university. I mean how else am I supposed to feel too much responsibility and stress and make myself more miserable than necessary [insert nervous laughter]. 

Anyway, previous part of the stories can be read in the links above. Hope you enjoy. 

Also, @dragonindigo245 I didn’t see you reply until recently, but you asked to be tagged in case I updated it. So here you go if you’re still interested.

Day 3 

Nico opted for letting Jas join him in his farm routine. At first, he thought he had to change his entire schedule for Jas, but she seemed excited about joining him. At least she wanted to feed all the animals and luckily for him it was still a sunny day, so they could be let outside while Jas played around with them which made it easy to keep an eye on her while he plowed the field for his future crops. He had already sowed some of the first seeds as soon as the ground was ready for it. Winter had been hard and next time he would try to prepare for it better.

Eventually Jas also became interested in what Nico was doing, and seeing as she loved flowers, he gave her the Blue spangle seeds he had left over from last spring. They made a tiny field for Jas to take care of on her own, and Nico promised she was welcome back to water it even after she went back to the ranch.

Once it was noon and time for lunch, Shane called them, and Jas had to tell him about all the fun they had had on the farm. She immediately wanted to show the field of seeds she had just planted and ran out with the phone, so Nico had to run after her and coach her back inside, but it was too late she had already soiled her hands in the dirt.

“Nico said these are my flowers.” She said excitedly. ”Soon I will have grown beautiful flowers, just like Nico does.”

“They’ll probably be the most beautiful flowers in the valley.” Shane said. “You have to remember to listen to Nico when you’re taking care of them, okay?”

Jas nodded enthusiastically and finally Nico was able to bring her inside again. He had to admit he loved Jas and Shane’s interactions together.

He sent Jas out to wash her hands again so she could help with preparing for lunch. She handed the phone over to him and Nico propped it up against the wall of the kitchen counter, so Shane could still see what they were doing.

“It’s only the first day and she already loves it.” Shane said with a smile.

Nick felt embarrassed but somehow happy at the same time. He was only happy to hear Jas was enjoying her time here, but to see Shane’s reaction to it was even better.

"You have to remind her about her homework. She usually finishes it quickly, but when she's excited she tends to forget it." Shane said.

"Got it." Nico said. "Anything else?"

"Do you mind walking her to the library tomorrow?"

"Of course not." Nico said. "I expected that much for when I send her to school tomorrow."

"Great. Normally she can walk alone but seeing as she would be walking from your farm, I just want to make sure everything is okay and she gets a feel of how long it takes from there."

Nico nodded.

"Also, Marnie will be stopping by later."

"What?"

He stopped his movement and that's when Jas entered the kitchen.

"I'm ready now." She said.

Nico strained a smile as he found a small stool for her to stand on for her to reach the counter.

"Hey, sweetie!" Shane said. "Aunt Marnie told me she would stop by later to check on you."

Jas was excited by the news. Much more than Nico. It made sense Marnie would stop by and Jas probably also preferred her Aunt to come. She probably wanted to share her day with her Aunt since it was the first day at Nico’s farm.

Nico wasn't sure why it freaked him out. He was on good terms with Marnie. He also knew Jas meant a lot to both Shane and Marnie and of course they weren't going to let her be taken care by some random villager without at least checking to see if she was doing okay.

"Did she by any chance mention when she would stop by?" Nico said, trying to hide his panic.

Shane merely shrugged his shoulder as an answer, which wasn’t really helpful.

Could he take deep calming breaths without anyone noticing? Did anyone notice he was panicking? He wasn't sure why he was panicking. It felt like a test. It felt like Marnie thought he wasn't capable. Maybe he wasn't good enough to take care of Jas. Maybe they were just waiting for the right moment to take Jas away from him again. Did Nico have to prepare anything for Marnie? Was she going to join them for dinner? Would she be angry if the farm was a mess? It was now Nico realized he wasn’t all that close with this family and Jas was his responsibility now, and if Marnie took her away today it meant he had failed. It meant he probably wouldn’t be able to talk to them again – he needed to calm down. He shouldn’t spiral like this.

“Jas, can you set the table?” Nico asked.

He pointed her to the directions of the plates and she happily hopped down the stool and went to fulfill her given task.

“hey, are you okay?” Shane asked.

Nico simply nodded.

“you sure?”

This time Nico put on a smile. “Yes. I’m fine, it’s nothing really.”

It was nothing. It was a stupid thing to worry about. He took a deep breath and then tried to be more convincing when he told Shane again he was fine. He was fine. He could handle Marnie coming over and checking up on Jas. He also wanted the best for her and if he wasn’t good enough at taking care of her, then there was no reason for her to stay here. Instead of worrying about the outcome of her visit, he just had to focus on having a good time with Jas and Marnie once she came over.

****

Marnie decided to stop by right before dinner. She hadn’t planned on staying to eat, but Nico felt it was would rude to send her away without eating anything. Also, he had sort of planned for her eat with them, so he had made too much spaghetti for him and Jas to eat alone, which was a convincing enough argument for her to stay.

During the dinner he had called Shane, so he could feel like he was also a part of the dinner.

Jas talked about everything they had done on the farm, mostly how she was allowed to feed the chickens and she got to see how the cow was milked. All things she also did on the ranch, but maybe it felt different for her because it was someplace else. Although Nico hadn’t let her work with the tools, she took part in sowing the crops. At least a few them and that she took pride in, when she watered them. She said she would water them every day until they had finished growing.

Although Marnie had never explicitly said it, the only reason she had come by was because she needed to check on Jas. She almost seemed a bit disappointed when Jas was enjoying her time on the farm. Marnie had looked around the house, but Nico had already cleaned it to the best of his abilities and tidied the few places that were too messy. Jas was sleeping on his bed, where he had changed the sheets to clean ones, and he had taken out the madras he had in the beginning to sleep on himself for the time being. There was also space for the Jas to play with the toys she had brought, which she took out after they had eaten dinner. She had done her homework after they ate lunch. There was nothing for Marnie to complain about and for some reason she seemed to not like that fact.

At least she left in a good mood though. She cheerfully said goodbye to Jas and thank Nico again for taking on this responsibility.

When it was time for Jas to sleep, they called Shane again or rather they turned their attention back to Shane again as they had never hung up since dinner. Jas asked for a bedtime story which seemed to have surprised Shane. It probably wasn’t something she asked for a lot if ever. But Shane still said yes to her request and he managed to come up with something. It was clear he was improvising the whole thing, but Jas still loved it. Eventually she fell asleep.

Nico had barely noticed Jas was sleeping, it wasn’t until Shane stopped telling his story and he looked over at Jas to see she was fast asleep.

“It usually takes a lot more to get her to sleep.” Shane said. “She must have used a lot of energy today.”

“Yeah.” Nico said. “She has been running around all day and it’s a new place. I’m sure she’s exhausted.”

Shane smiled, but then his face turned serious.

“Hey, so I’ve meant to ask you something.” He said. “But something seemed kind of off with you today?”

Nico crawled out of the bed and went over to his own madras.

“What do you mean?” Nico said. “Everything is fine.”

“It just seemed you were a little bothered with Marnie’s visit, that’s all.” Shane said.

Nico shook his head and tried to put on a sincere smile. Except it was a lie. He was bothered. But he knew it was stupid he was bothered, and he wasn’t about to tell Shane that he was person who freaked out over stupid small things.

“Anyway, I just wanted to say if that was the case then Marnie probably didn’t mean anything with it. She just misses Jas, so any excuse to see her girl.” Shane said. “Actually, I’m sure she’s disappointed she doesn’t have a good enough reason to take Jas with her. She seemed almost annoyed with how well you were taking care of Jas.”

Shane chuckled at his own comment and Nico couldn’t help but smile. Shane was trying to calm him down and comfort him.

“Seriously, you are taking good care of her, Marnie and I are grateful for it.”

“It’s no problem, she makes the job very easy.” Nico said.

Shane looked at him with such warm eyes. Nico suddenly felt warm. He tried to suppress his smile. It wasn’t a big deal that Shane had just reassured him in the sweetest way possible. He realized he was being embarrassingly giddy.

He cleared his throat. “Uh, I think it’s time to sleep now. We’ll talk tomorrow. Goodnight.”

Shane barely got a chance to say goodbye before Nico hung up the phone. He put a hand over his heart as he felt it beating too fast in his chest. He shook his head, feeling the smile come on again when he thought about Shane’s words and how he had looked him. He tried to get rid of the smile, but it seemed impossible. This was pride. Pride of being able to take good care of Jas. Nothing more than that.

#stardew valley #stardew valley fanfic #shane fanfic #shane x male farmer #shane and jas #quarantined shane #I actually had this ready for awhile but my super critical self convinced me it wasn't ready #and now i say it is #at least I hope it's somewhat good #let's see how long it'll take me to write the next part #I actually thought quarantine stories wouldn't be relevant at this point #but this pandemic really is insisting on making us miserable