You?! ° Tom Nook x Redd (ENGLISH)

5 ° the first meeting

PoV Leyla

I opened the town hall door while I was still holding Redd by the hand. "Hi! Look who I brought!" I said excited and pulled him next to me. I looked at him and saw how tense he was. He had an anxious look and stubbornly looked forward. He had his shoulders pulled up.

PoV third person

Mr. Nook looked up and frowned his eyebrows grimly. He looked his ex straight in the eye. Redd shallowed.

"Hello, you have to be Redd! I'm Isabel, Leyla's secretary and Tom Nook's colleague. Nice to meet you!" Isabel started. She held out her hand and Redd hesitated to take it. "Y-yes, I'm R-Redd.." He stuttered.

Silence came in. Leyla cleared her throat and spoke. "So since you two don't want to greet each other, I'm going to start talking about business."

"First, Redd will continue to sell us paintings. Second, Redd and I had actually agreed that he would come over several times a week and sell us the paintings, but I suggested something else and I need your support, Mr. Nook."

Tom Nook finally took his angry eyes off Redd and looked at me. "For what?" He asked. "Redd will move to our island and I-" Tom Nook interrupted the girl. "No." She looked at him angrily. She had expected that he would reject her suggestion but was still surprised.

"Yes! Redd will move here and you will build the house for him. I decide who moves here and who not." - "And it's still my business whether I build the house or not!" Mr. Nook got up and walked towards Leyla. "Are you dumb? You are building this house for me! Just because you have a problem with Redd doesn't mean you have to reject it on sight!"

While Leyla and Tom Nook continued to argue, Isabel walked back to Redd who was still tense. You could even think that he was a little more anxious then at the beginning and listened to them.

She tapped him on the shoulder and nodded towards the exit. "Come with me."

Together they left the town hall which the others didn't even notice. "So again. I'm Isabel and I'm glad that you are here! I thought we should look for a place for your new house!" Redd looked unsure. "But Tom said he doesn't want to build a house for me?" - "Oh, don't worry, if Leyla has something in her head, she'll do it. No matter how. And now come on! There is a lot to see!" Together they walked around to find Redd a place for his own home.

---

Meanwhile, the two others were still arguing and didn't seem to find a end.

"You are clearly going too far Leyla! It's bad enough that he's here! And now he should move here too?! You are crazy!"

"I'm crazy?! The only one who is crazy is you and your selfish behavior! That happened a few years ago and you're making a scene like that! My god people can change!"

"I know that but this idiot is the only exception! And just because it was years ago, it doesn't make it better that he lied to me and also cheated on me! I don't want to have anything to do with this pig!"

"You have nothing to do with him here on this island! You don't live right next to him and nobody forces you to talk to him! The poor man has no home, he lives on a goddamn boat! He is constantly working and traveling. The only break he gets is the night."

"And he doesn't even have a comfortable bed, which is on firm ground. The poor guy only eats ramen because he doesn't have a stove! Mr. Nook, I know he made a lot of mistakes, but I can't let him live on his old boat!"

"Redd has no home. He is homeless, how can I not offer him a place on the island. Please understand me."

The girl looked at the man desperately. Even she thought it isn't possible to like him after what Tom said but she kinda started to like Redd and didn't want to help him just because of his dumb situation. She wanted to help him from a good friend's point of view and she will not accept it if this ignorant asshole would just close every open door for him on this island.

Tom listened to her carefuly as she explained Redd's situation and his anger diapeared from sentence to sentence. He didn't expected that. He thought Redd would have bought a big house with expensive furniture somewhere on a big island, but he lives on his small boat without a proper bed? He couldn't ever imagined that in his dream. Tom was really shocked that Redd lives like this. He couldn't say anything. He first had to process what he had heard.

PoV Tom Nook

Redd lives on his little boat? What did he do with all the money that he had stollen from him? Did he maybe spend it on the boat? Did he invest that in the paintings? I'm confused.

But Leyla was right. We can't just let him die there on his boat. But wait..? He choose it! If he hadn't left me in the past, maybe we would both be living together on this island now! Maybe even have children. We already had names.

Before I could sink deeper into my thoughts, Leyla snapped me out again. ,,Hello? Are you there?" - "Yeah, I'm there."

"So what do you say? Do you help Redd and build him a house?" She asked me now.

I thought about it and took a deep breath. What do I have to lose? After all, the painting was real and if the others trust him maybe I should aswell? If he should cheat on us, we can still kick him off. I'll give him one last chance!

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[988 words]