I'd love to say we partied until dawn and things only got wilder as the twilight hours bled to morning. But like... we're adults. With jobs. Eventually the talking and joking had to end, and I had to get the fuck to sleep.

Derrick did promise to return in the morning and do the official inspection, but he told me he wasn't worried.

Which meant I was super worried.

Mel finally made me go to bed about an hour after they left, because she reminded me about that whole adult with a job thing and I couldn't find a way to argue with her. Not so soon after having a massive migraine.

So I went to bed. And stared at the ceiling from there, while Mel gently snored a cot away.

I found myself worrying about a thousand things no one told me were an issue.

What if no one showed up on opening day?

What if we got so busy we couldn't feasibly seat or feed everyone?

Did I need to get more chairs?

Could I fit more chairs into that tiny space?

What the hell was I going to serve?

How would I make my food stand out among the other eateries in town?

Was all of this really a concern when Duncan was just going to either take every quarter I owned or drag me back to Kinon, or Mari Belle decided to magic me into some twisted man-donkey when she realized I'd played her against Duncan?

And why the hell was everyone in Mystic Falls so absolutely hostile to me at first, but warmed up after getting to know me? Was I really such a great conversationalist (hahaha - oh, almost kept a straight face through that) or was my increased Charisma really such a boon?

Did I have a way to utilize it?

I struggled with these questions and a thousand more well into the morning. I must have eventually fallen asleep at some point, because I was immediately awakened when Mel climbed out of her cot to visit the public toilet outback.

Ah yes. Toilet. Just another thing to add to my list of "deal with this later, asshole."

Future!Harper was going to be grumpy when he saw how much shit I left him to do.

Since there was little chance I was going to get back to bed, I threw myself out of the cot and got about my day. I wanted one more look at the place before Derrick returned to do his official look over.

It was as if I was seeing Ambition with a fresh set of eyes. Sure, they were bloodshot and caked with some gnarly eye goop, but perhaps that's why they saw the place for what it was.

Ambition was, to put it nicely, a hole in the wall joint. The dining room space was barely big enough for the five tables it sported, and the chairs that were paired with them almost filled the entire floorspace. It was going to be an absolute nightmare to navigate all this when people were sitting. Not only that, but because the walls of the place were just brick, the acoustics sucked. Every footstep echoed so hard its echo echoed, and when the floor creaked as I stepped on a bad board, I thought I'd find a madman with a knife hiding around the corner.

The kitchen was somehow worse. Whoever laid this place out had zero cooking experience when he did it, and I immediately regretted leaving Past!Harper in charge of the floorplan. The wood-burning stove was on the other side of the room from the preparation space, which was next to the washing up area, which was also on the opposite side of the room from the cellar, which still had a flip-top trap door. Every trip down those stairs to fetch ingredients would take a whole minute and a half longer than it had to, and without a secondary ice chest to keep up here, I would be making that trip a lot.

Worst of all, somehow, was the front decking area. It was still empty, and...

There was no life to the building. None. No personality, no reason to think it was anything worth visiting.

"No one's going to come," I said, aloud, to no one.

"Of course they will," Mel responded, having returned from her trip to the toilet at some point during my (mostly internal) existential crisis.

"We don't even have a sign, Mel."

The human-sized pixie took one look at me (into what I assumed were the maddest eyes she'd seen on a human), and clicked her tongue against the roof of her mouth. "What you need is something to do."

"I need to get this place presentable."

"Mm, pretty sure you need to do the opposite." Mel took me by the arm and led me to one of the tables in the dining area. "You're going to sit here and think of something to do that isn't working on Ambition. As soon as Derrick returns and gives this place the thumbs up it deserves, we'll go do whatever it is."

"And if I say shopping for paint or getting a sign made, are you going to yell at me?"

"Oh, good. You've already thought of the dumbest question. Saves us a lot of time." She smiled, a wicked thing that told me she was going to put me through the fucking table if I didn't sit down. So I sat down. "I'm serious, Harper. I'll take care of getting us some paint and accouterments."

I rubbed at my tired eyes. "That reminds me - I need to give you some money."

"I have money, Harper." Mel laughed humorlessly. "How do you think I've been getting things?"

"Hell if I know," I said, resting my forehead against the table. "Didn't Lizbeth say you coerced her to give you food?"

"Yeah, on our first few days in town. We've been here a bit over a week, Harps. I've done some odd jobs around town to scrape up a bit of coin. You'd be surprised how many people here need an extra pair of hands and are willing to pay for 'em."

"I'd make a dirty joke but I'm too tired."

"Good. Because I'd really hate to have to kick your ass."

I lifted my head slightly to see that Mel was smiling, and then I let my forehead thump back down against the wooden surface. "So what am I doing again while I'm in time out? Kicking myself for thinking I could ever do anything better than the lot I was already given in life?"

Mel made a noise I wasn't familiar with. It sounded like a tea kettle that was ready to be pulled off the fire.

It was also followed by a forceful kick to the back of my chair.

"I swear to the Forest Spirits that I will kick the everloving shit out of you if you don't stop being a depressive asshole. Because you aren’t depressed, you're just depressive." She kicked the chair again. "You've done a lot of great work so far, Harper, and with a lot less shit than most people have. Every inch of this place is better because of you. You have friends in town that are willing to help you, because of you. You're away from the fucking people who tried to abuse you, and you're doing so much better, mentally, because of it. Do not let one shitty night's sleep and a bit of a sour mood throw all that away."

A queer laughter bubbled out of me. I couldn't seem to help it.

She was right.

She was fucking right.

Sure, there was more work that had to be done. But it was surface shit. The last of the last.

I needed to get my ass moving, and now.

Yeah, I was tired.

And yeah, I was in debt up to my eyeballs.

But I'd done something I never thought possible.

And I was going to do more.

"You're absolutely right," I said, when the laughter dried up and all that was left was the tears leaking from the corners of my crusty eyes. "Absolutely fucking right and I am a giant asshole shaped into an idiot."

"That's a vivid description, and one I'd like to forget I ever thought about."

"Too late. Out of my mouth and into your brain. Enjoy thinking about me as a puckering sphincter shaped as a human."

A gentle hand touched my shoulder, and I peeled my head away from the table top.

Ow. I think I had a fucking splinter.

"Um... you... you have a splinter in your head, asshole."

Great.

"Insult and injury. Gee, thanks, Mel. I'd say kick a guy when he's down, but you literally just did that."

"Twice."

"Hey, Mel? While you're out in the town, can you look for something else for me?"

Mel blinked, confused by the abrupt turn of conversation. "Uh, yeah. What do you need?"

"For you to go find a way for you to fuck yourself really hard."

"Aww, Harper, I knew you cared." She ruffled my hair (a thing I hated and she knew it) before she reached down and yanked the splinter out of my face.

"Fucking ow!" I grabbed my head with a hiss. "Moon’s Light, pixie! Warn me a little bit next time!"

Mel tossed the splinter to the side. "Oh, so you can tense up and whine about how I should use tweezers or it's taking too long or whatever? Hell no. Out and done. Just like this fucking eatery." She grabbed either side of my head and squished a little. "Don't be an idiot sandwich." With a flourish, she planted a small kiss to the aching center of my forehead. "But, seriously, do you need anything else while I'm out?"

"Mmm..." I blinked twice, having to focus on her words. "Uh, besides some pride?"

"Don't worry, Harper - you're only human. You never had any to begin with!"

And with that (and a bit of sarcastic laughter), the pixie turned into her winged form and fluttered out the front door. This, of course, left me alone.

But somehow I wasn't concerned with thinking about how much I'd fucked everything up.

Maybe it was Mel's inspiring words, or the distraction of literal pain that still had me rubbing my forehead. But I was feeling motivated. And the motivation was to do anything other than sit here and feel sorry for myself.

I thought to Mel's original instructions: to think about something that wasn't Ambition or ways to fix it.

But that did seem a bit impossible, surrounded by so many things that needed doing.

Until I thought of her.

See, I'd been saying for days that I needed to do something nice for Mel. And sure, I'd already done little things along the way to make things better. But I needed more. Some giant 'thank you' that would show her how much her continued support and companionship meant to me.

But I had no place to start.

Until my savior arrived.

Derrick looked annoyed as hell to be awake so early in the morning. Even though it was nearly midday. He also looked sour as hell to be back here, and I had a feeling that was because he remembered that we became best buds and he couldn't figure out how.

"Harper."

That was it. His entire greeting.

A man of small words.

Delightful.

"Derrick," I said, just as grumpily.

"Are you ready to be done with this inspection?"

"I mean, absolutely... but can we spend two minutes talking like friends before we get to business?"

I want to say that Derrick immediately relaxed and too on some of that slim personality I'd seen the night before. But instead he grew more guarded, looking at me like I was an oily man trying to sell him a wagon with only one axle. "What is it?"

"First of all, sit. I'm not going to say anything inappropriate or ask you for anything that'll take up too much of your time."

Derrick slunk into the chair across from me, but as soon as his ass touched the chair he visibly relaxed. "Oh, these are nice."

"Made in town. Great deal, too."

"Karl?"

"Is that what his name is? Carpenter, has a stall at the market?"

"Yeah. Good guy. From your neck of the woods, too."

"My only complaint is they could use a good sanding."

"Is that why your forehead is so red?"

I rubbed at the spot, almost self consciously. "No, that's because a malicious pixie ripped said splinter out of my flesh."

"It's always a good idea to get those out. Can lead to an infection otherwise." Derrick shifted a bit uncomfortably. "So, are we going to do small talk or are you going to tell me what the hell you want?"

"So, speaking of malicious pixies... I want to do something nice for her. I was hoping you could help me."

If Derrick looked uncomfortable before, now he looked downright agonized. "Why the hell would you think I could help with that?"

"Look, Liam has stuck around with you for a reason, right? And either it's something I don't want anything to know about, or its that you know how to treat him right. Guy like that could be with anyone, but he's with your grumpy ass."

The building inspector cracked a rare smile. "Alright, I guess that's a good point. And while I'd love to toot my own horn-"

"Hey-o!"

"-I guess I do have to say I treat Liam okay." He shook his head. "What did you have in mind?"

"Well, I'd love to kill two rats with one stone and take her out to a nice eatery."

"And what, scope out your competition while you're at it?"

"Tch, please. No one is on my level but me."

Derrick's eyebrows raised ever so slightly. "You are in a league of your own, Harper. But I wouldn't be so sure you're in good company."

"Hey, if you'd gotten here twenty minutes ago you would have gotten to meet Depressed!Harper and that guy's a dick, so be glad you got Overconfident!Harper and move on."

That gave Derrick pause. "Everything alright?"

"Yeah... just... regretting leaving Kinon because there's no way this place could ever be what I need it to be and I'm in way more debt than a human should be to make it happen."

Derrick was quiet for a moment. I tried to think of some way to play it off as a joke, but not even my most self deprecating gags could scratch the surface of how raw that was. Instead, I just rubbed at my sore forehead.

"I know we haven't been friends long," Derrick said, quietly at first, but then building in volume, "but if you need something, you come to me, okay? Even if its just money. I'll do whatever I can to help you and Mel."

I couldn't help but grin. "As much as I'd love to have a sugar daddy to make all my problems go away, I'm pretty sure Liam would want to fight me for dominance and I'm just way too much of a pushover for that." With a shake of my head, I officially declined before he could argue with me. "I appreciate the offer, Derrick. I really do. But I'd feel indebted to you, and I wouldn't be able to fuck you over nearly half as easily as I can my lenders. The guilt would be too all consuming." I clapped my hands together. "Instead, you could help me with this nice eatery idea for Mel."

It looked like Derrick wanted to say something, but he shook his head instead. "Alright. Just know that I'm here for you." Derrick looked up to the ceiling. "There's a place in Brenner, next town over, to the southeast. About an hour's travel by foot? It's a coastal town, and so the place sells a lot of seafood. Catch of the Day. But even if fish isn't your thing, they've got a pretty diverse menu. Really high quality stuff."

"I mean, it sounds great... but is this a 'so fancy I'd get kicked out for wearing the same clothes I've worn for four months' kind of fancy?"

"Yes. It means you'd need to diversify your wardrobe, Harper. But thankfully you have a friend who can show you to the local tailor and get you hooked up." Derrick stood up from his chair, although carefully, as if to not get a splinter anywhere uncomfortable.

"Don't we have an inspection to do, though?"

"Oh, right."

Inspection complete! Your building has passed inspection and is ready to open. Please assign a name to the building, set your hours of operation, and open for business!

"Well that was fucking easy."

"Yeah, well, you did good, kid. Now let's go make you fancy so you can take your pixie friend on a date."

"Woah. Hey. Buddy. Not a date."

Derrick laughed, louder and harder than I'd ever heard him laugh before. "Sure, kid. Keep telling yourself that."