A/N: This is my contribution to Accidentally the Whole Fanfic's Pumpkin Equinox prompt at The Village Square forum! The goal was to write something that takes place in autumn, basically - hopefully this is fall-ish enough to fit the prompt. When I thought of autumn, it reminded me of how Kai always leaves Mineral Town just when the season starts, and then that got me thinking about how Popuri might feel about it. It kinda turned into more of a comparison between summer and autumn than a focus on just the latter. -CCM

Happily Ever After

In summer, she greets him at the dock with a smile on her face, and when he replies with a flash of those perfect white teeth and wraps his arms around her, it's like all the withheld stress and tension melts away within her, if only in that moment. She can barely keep her tears of relief at bay, because oh how she missed him, and wonders if he can feel just how fluttery-fast her heart beats against her chest as she buries her face in his shoulder.

But in autumn, he takes off again with the lone promise to come back and see her next summer, and she stands on the dock and waves to the retreating form of the ship until it gradually fades away into the night, with a very different kind of wet, salty tears now flowing freely down her face, mixing with the briny sea spray off the gently tossing surf all around her. Though she's been through this so many times already, it doesn't hurt any less and her heart already feels like it has broken.

In summer, her birthday rolls around and they share a chocolate cake that he baked himself just for the occasion, and all her friends are there at the snack shack, too – Karen, Ann, even Claire and Cliff and Gray and the others – and it makes her feel like she is actually wanted, appreciated. Afterward she goes home and tells her chickens all about it, because she tells them everything good that happens to her and they're much better listeners than her own brother Rick, who only reprimands her for hanging around with him.

But in autumn, after it finally sets in that he is gone again, that he left her once more, there comes an empty feeling that slowly begins to build up deep inside her chest, and it just won't go away. All she can do is plaster a smile on her unwilling face and go about her day, help her family with the chickens and try to spend some time with her friends without letting them see how hurt she is inside.

In summer, when the cheerful walls she has built up around her finally crack in a split-second and she can't help but cry to him about how she feels so forgotten in this world, so overshadowed, he brushes a gentle hand against her cheek and reassures her that yes, she is important, and she is beautiful. When their lips meet, she savors that sweet taste of pineapple, even hours after he's left.

But in autumn, he's not around to tell her that it will all be okay when she just wants to let out all the pent up emotions inside of her. Her father is gone, her mother is only getting weaker, and although she loves her brother, he is controlling as ever. She just wishes to be free, and she feels free when she's with him, however fleetingly. She feels free when she dreams of leaving this small town, escaping on the open sea. Instead, she is trapped.

In summer, she rolls her eyes as she listens to Rick lecture her, again, about the dangers of hanging around that boy with the purple bandana all season long. I love you, Popuri, he says, I just don't want you to get hurt. He'll put ideas into your head, he says, and that can only mean trouble. She knows her brother means well, but he just doesn't understand. He might not trust him, but she does, with all her heart.

But in autumn, her brother and her mother are all she has by her side, along with her beloved chickens, of course. She has friends in town, yes, but with each passing year another girl is married off, and she can barely keep the envy from engulfing her heart with each wedding she attends. Your time will come soon enough, they always tell her, just you wait and see. Easy enough to say that when you've already earned your own happily ever after.

In summer, she feels the roughness of his tanned skin at her fingertips and catches a whiff of cologne masking the underlying smell of sea salt as he presses against her, and it smells wonderful to her and feels so good, so right, and the stars glimmer above them on the beach while waves crash and break in a comfortingly familiar rhythm. If she could freeze her life in this very moment, she would.

But in autumn, she sits on the beach alone and the sand is unusually cold beneath her bare toes, and there's a chill on the breeze that blows in from the ocean, and it all just feels so different, so dead. Even the stars glitter coldly above her, disapproving; the leaves rustling in the trees beyond the beach are crumbling, falling, dying.

In summer, she feels like she's on top of the world as he tells her stories about his travels across the oceans, all the different places he's visited, and she looks out over the limitless crashing seas beyond, feels the breeze ruffling her hot pink curls and the sunlight warming her shoulders and imagines. He promises that some day, he'll take her along with him on his journey. Some day, she would get to leave Mineral Town and see the world at his side, just as she's always dreamed about.

But in autumn, the loneliness sets in dark and heavy, just like the nights that grow ever longer and colder, darker, and she wonders whether they'll both just go on like that forever until all that's left is an endless night in both the skies and in her mind. Her heart aches; it seems like every free moment is spent waiting, wondering, worrying whether he'll truly return just as he always says he will. He's never broken his promise yet, but there's a first time for everything, isn't there?

In summer, the love she has for him grows within her until she feels she might just burst, the warmth spreads across her whole body right down to her very fingertips, and when she looks into his deep brown eyes she believes that he really might love her back as much as she loves and adores and admires him with all her heart. For once, she can find it in herself to believe that everything can be good again, and maybe happy endings aren't just the stuff of fairy tales.

But in autumn, when he leaves her cold and alone, again, the fear inside her grows; maybe he doesn't really love her after all, a voice nags at the back of her mind. A traveler, a wanderer, he never stays for long. She cares, more than anything. He cares, but does he care enough? Maybe he really isn't worth your time, like everyone else says. Maybe he leaves you waiting on him for far too long.

Popuri hates autumn.

But only because she fears the day he leaves, and never comes back.

With every moment he leaves her waiting, she fears that in the end, she will never get her happily ever after.