Why of all things did Alice have to work with the tractor? She barely knew a damn thing about machinery. When she tried to get the thing to work, it just didn't want to. Her sister ordered her to go buy some parts, even though she herself didn't know how to fix. Alice still had to go by the parts to see if she could fix it, but she had her doubts. If her sister didn't know what she was doing, which was a high possibility, then they were going to have to call in a professional.

Clenching her teeth, she carried a heavy box all the way back to the house. As she made her way to the tractor, her focus went more towards the tractor that her sister sat on and turned on. The tractor rumbled for a bit before it actually turned on. Her sister thanked the blonde stranger with a cheery smile waved at Alice who just arrived.

As her sister drove away before Alice had any say, she felt her eye twitch in irritation. She went through all the trouble of going and coming back from the shop to carry a heavy box of tractor parts. "Fuck it, it was her money anyway." She grumbled to herself, setting the box down and both hand on her back to push forward.

Alice roughly ran a hair through her hair as she huffed. Taking a few steps forward, she turned her head to the other woman who was already covered up from sweat and the dirt from what she assumed to be fixing the tractor. She felt herself slowly smile in delight as she eyed the other woman from head to toe. Muscles glistening, toned body, she was going to be honest, she definitely liked what she was looking at.

"Oh! Shit! Sorry!" Alice said, wiping the smile away as she came into realization from the fact that she was staring at the woman's body. "Uh... I guess you were the one that fixed the tractor... so thanks." She said, staring at the woman's body for a few more seconds and then looked back at her face. "Um... while you're here, if you don't mind, there's like 5 heavy boxes of apples that need to be moved into the barn over there. Again, if you don't mind." She said, pointing to stacked boxes of apples just a few feet away from the barn.

Alice could've done it herself since they were just at the right weight for her to carry, but it wasn't like she wanted to watch the woman carry heavy things or anything to fawn over her body or anything. Not at all.

Well her trip to the shop wasn't a complete waste along with using her sister's money to get the parts since the tractor was only on its last few drives before the parts need to be replaced. "Yeah, good call." She said, nodding. She was still going to have a little chat with her sister, but for now she was just going to leave it alone.

"I'm more than willing to pay you in other ways. Maybe a mean ol' lasagna will do the trick?" Alice laughed as she followed Mia to the crates. It was odd that the woman wouldn't take cash since she was more than willing, much to her minor obliviousness. Maybe food could be an alternative? Lasagna with fresh homemade cheese was always the best and something Alice enjoyed cooking so maybe that could be a way to repay the woman.

"Uh yeah, right there is fine." Alice said as she crossed her arms. "Oh and, if you also don't mind, I also want you to take out those barrels over there and move 'em up to the front." She asked, then pointing to the four barrels that were halfway to the end of the barn.

Alice softly chuckled to herself and a shake of her head at the scoff. "If the lasagna isn't enough, I can repay you in other ways." She said with a wink. Alice did feel bad for letting a stranger do work what she was supposed to do but where's the fun in doing heavy work when she had someone muscular, and easy on the eyes if she may add, to do all of it for her?

"Not so often." Alice said as she approached the other woman. Funny enough that she had asked strangers to "help" her do some work around the barn, usually from those that were initially helping her sister when she was in need. She'd then use that as an opportunity to get whoever helped her sister to do her work. "Besides, it isn't so often I get to enjoy the view of someone so fit like yourself doing heavy work. I wonder what other things you can do with that body of yours." She said with a teasing smile.

"Anyhow, I suppose that all you have to do or now. Don't want you getting too worn out. Once you're done, you're more than welcomed to hit the showers if you want. As much as I love a sweaty and greased up muscle-y woman, I also love a clean one. I can lay off some clothes for you and then maybe whip you up some lasagna." Alice said. It's the least she could do for getting a complete stranger to do some labor for her. After all, Alice would get to do the more "softer" work with cooking.

Alice put a finger on her chin in thought as she tried to figure out if she had any tank tops. She then looked back at the other woman and shook her head. "Nope, never really liked wearing those. I do, however, have a lot of sweaters, t-shirts, and definitely roomy pants that would look really nice on you." She said. Alice had a lot of clothes that were gifted from fellow wealthy relatives that were willing to expand her wardrobe, so she had options.

"Follow me." Alice said, walking out of the barn and guiding the woman to the house. She'd guide the woman to a countryside house with a Greco-Roman to its structure and coziness to its atmosphere. "Oh, and don't forget to take off your shoes. Can't get this place dirtied up." She said. Opening the door, she kicked off her shoes and guided the woman upstairs and points to the first door on the left. "That's the bathroom." She said. Alice proceeded to point at the door across from it. "That's where your clothes will be. Dinner will take some time to prepare and cook, so feel free to get cozy in the room when you're done cleaning up. Or join to cook with me, do whatever pleases you." She said.

Alice walked into her room to look for some clothes to lay out for the woman in her closet stuffed with them. It only took her just a few seconds to pull out a t-shirt and a pair of pants before she threw them on the bed. Once that was out of the way, Alice would walk out of the room and go downstairs to the kitchen, getting started on preparing the ingredients to cook some lasagna.

Alice was already cooking the ground beef in a large silver pot for a few minutes before she added in a few seasonings into the mix; black pepper, ground oregano salt, chopped basil, minced clover onions, and some chicken broth before she started to stir the mixture with a wooden spoon. She looked over to see that the woman was already done with her shower, but something told Alice she didn't take her sweet time as Alice would expect. Not like it mattered since the dish would take a lot longer, so no harm done.

"Alice." She said with a friendly smile, leaving the spoon in for a moment to shake Mia's hand. "I wasn't expecting you to finish showering so quick. You must be rally eager to eat some lasagna." She said, chuckling before letting Mia's hand go and return to. "I just want to thank you again for helping us out. If you didn't come along, we would've been stumped." She sighed, shaking her head.

"Oh! While you're here, do you mind if you could go in the cabinet over there and get the tomato sauce?" She asked, pointing to one of the cabinets. "And while you're at it, do you mind if you could just dump it all in and stir it for a bit? That way I could jump straight into making the cheese mixture and setting up the lasagna noodles." She said.

"Hey, it's okay. I sort of get that a lot whenever people pass by here." Alice laughed as she began putting in the ingredients to make her cheese mixture. "To be fair, I'm sort of in charge of more 'lax' activities, if you wanna call it that. Cooking, cleaning the house and barn, gardening, feeding the barn animals, and the list can go on. My sister, Allison, does more of the heavy duty stuff. It what keeps this place balanced." She said with another chuckle.

Alice's chuckle eventually stopped when she was asked how long was her family doing farm work. "Depends if you wanna count a year or two as long." She said as she began to stir around the cheese mixture. "It's just my sister and I. Our parents... passed away. We used to city folk, but when our parents passed away, we figured we could switch lifestyles for a bit. Find ourselves, see if we can adapt, try out new experiences, all of that stuff." She said with a weak smile. Of course only a tiny part of this was true, but it wasn't as if Mia really needed to know what actually happened.

As Alice was done with the cheese mixture, she went to one of the lower cabinets to get a tray and grabbed a pan to lay out the lasagna. "Okay, now I need you to spread about a cup of the meat sauce onto the pan. After that, I'll lay out the lasagna noodles, then the cheese mixture, then you spread out the meat sauce, then I'll lay out the lasagna noodles again, and then we'll repeat a few more time. Think you can handle that?" She asked.

"Heh, at least you have some humanity left in you." Alice pointed out. She would always reminiscence her younger years of being human in a world where almost anything or anyone could kill someone like her; someone who was just an average human being like Alice who never knew how to defend for herself. Maybe it was a good thing that she was turned, but the way she did was rather more unsettling when she looks back at it.

Alice looked at Mia and returned a smile of her own with a simple nod. "Yeah, we're doing okay. Better, even. In a place where it's so peaceful, little to no violence, your life isn't in danger, it'd be crazy to say we're far from okay." She said. She had her moments where she missed her old home, but she felt like she could breathe easier now that she was in Elysia.

Once they were done layering the lasagna, Alice opened the oven, placed the pan in, and closed the oven. "Okay, so that's that! Now we just have to wait for it to be done cooking." She said as she clapped her hands together. Alice motioned herself over to one of the dining chairs where she slumped herself in it.

"So what's a woman like you doing here in Elysia? Well, besides helping us get the tractor to work."