At the moment, Sho hadn't had the slightest idea that Arrietty was here, and he naturally had even less of an idea that she was building up her strength in much the same way that he was.<br/><br/>Of course, the chores were at a different size for her than they were for him, but that didn't mean that they weren't just as tough for either of them.<br/><br/>Ironically, too, he owed her his life every bit as much as she had his, considering that he would have given up and never had the bravery to make it through that surgery without her.<br/><br/>He had thought he had heard something once he was done packing the hay bales, but Sho figured that he might very well have been imagining things. Eventually he had made it back into the barn, exhaling just a bit, and it was there that he saw the farmer.<br/><br/>Naturally, at this point, he was still unaware of the fact that Spiller and Arrietty were there.<br/><br/>"Oh my, Taishou!" Apparently he had taken to using the nickname for the farmer that he worked with, "You shouldn't be doing this all yourself..."<br/><br/>That being said, it seemed that the other had already taken the pail and went to carry it off by himself before he had come in. Had it meant that Taishou the farmer had filled it alone?<br/><br/>Getting a brush, Sho moved over to gently stroke the cow that had produced the milk, and considering the movement of the cow's tail along with some slight muscle twitches, she apparently really liked Sho's motions quite a bit.<br/><br/>"Oh, Hikage-chan, what are we ever going to do with him?" Sho laughed to himself, "I know that I am not the strongest person around by any means, but he shouldn't be doing that kind of work himself."<br/><br/>The cow, who apparently had a name spelled with the kanji for sunshine, looked back with a giant bovine eye, seeming to listen to everything that Sho was saying. He was as gentle with the animals as he had been with everyone before when he was still back in the home that he had met Arrietty and the others at.<br/><br/>While he might have needed to mature in areas of self-confidence before, he seemed precocious when it came to aspects of respect and he always seemed to be quite respectful of all living things.<br/><br/>Certainly he didn't know what she was thinking about at the moment, but ironically he had been thinking about that clip that she gave him that was once used in her hair as well. He used to always keep it on his key chain, but his keys had a tendency to get dirty out here and needed to be soaked in order to prevent any foul odor from coming into the farmer's house.<br/><br/>Nowadays he actually kept it in a little area by his bed with some of his other important things. It really meant a lot to him, and Sho had always wanted to keep that precious treasure nice and safe for her.<br/><br/>After all, he had been thoroughly convinced that it was the only thing that he would have ever really had to remember her by so that meant that he had been essentially obligated to hang onto it as best as he could have.<br/><br/>It was the only thing to remind him that those events weren't simply a dream before.<br/><br/>They had really happened.