A/N: I decided to start the story from where Claire was still in the city, describe how it made her want to get out of there and how she ends up at Mineral Town. Just then would it start the story about Claire and Gray. Obviously, this story is going to be slightly slow as I tend to have troubles with my transitions, but on the bright side it would make the story quite detailed and properly sequenced. This is obviously my first ever fanfiction, so please take it easy on me. Please R&R! :)

Disclaimer: I do not own HM.

Chapter 1: Ogres and cheese puffs

I have no life.

I have been in hiatus with my social life since the Goddess knows when. All these paper works piled up in front of me are enough indication that my poor relationship with my social life will only be more prolonged. This is just utterly insane! I should be having the time of my life now that I'm twenty five, not worrying about where to fit in my boss' yoga class in her schedule. Why does this kind of tasks even fall into my hands?

I wrote down and scheduled the yoga class right after the meeting with the accounting department.

"Ms. Anderson?"

Of course. The old hag gets to work out and stay fit when I slogged my ass around 24/7. I deserve a freaking break from this! What if I also want to work out and get my ass real tight? What if I also want to flirt with a cute gym instructor by nipping seductively on the bottle's mouth of my Fit & Right drink with half lidded eyes? Or go relax at the beach and sip on some Piña Colada? Or get really wasted in clubs with my girlfriends and dance like-

"Ms. Anderson."

Ugh. Great. I could even hear the bitch's forceful voice in my head. I shook my head a bit violently wishing the voice would somehow fall from it. This hell of a job is driving me nuts! I rolled my eyes and realized I had been gripping the pencil so hard that I had torn a bit of the sheet I was writing on.

I need my life back. As soon as I get my paycheck this month, I am going to get out of this freaking hellhole and escape the evil clutches of that… that…

"Ms. Anderson!"

"VICIOUS OLD CUNT!" I blurted out, breaking the pencil in half. The whole office suddenly seemed to stand still, the noise of the xerox machine was the only thing alive in the room. Just then did I realize that she actually called me in real life. I had just caught the attention of all my officemates, earning myself a fair amount of gasps. And on the second of recovery, the office was encompassed by whispers and giggling.

I found the courage to look at her and check her response at my exclamation. It seemed like she hadn't recovered yet. Her eyes did not show any signs of shock yet her mouth was slightly open forming a small o. She was standing there as if she was contemplating on something. A retort perhaps? A harsh way to fire me? How the hell would I know what was going up there? Just thinking about it gave me the creeps.

"Ms. Anderson, I want my meeting with Mr. Baxters arranged by one o'clock," she finally said.

She shrugged it off. I can't believe she just shrugged it off like it was some kind of a normal incident. Well, who could blame her? I mean for that kind of personality and attitude, I bet a dozen of assistants had also lost it and blurted out harsh comments and not to mention absolutely perfect descriptions about her in the middle of her orders.

"And, Ms. Anderson? Please do notify Borris to get the interview with your replacement be moved to this week instead of next. Make sure you do something with that hair of yours when you leave the establishment. I don't want people going around thinking you just took part in a gang bang in this building."

It had been a week since I got fired, wait no.. since I intentionally got myself fired from my work. The freedom I was actually longing for turned out to be a very depressing state of boredom. All the plans I had thought back then were ridiculously impossible when I think of them now. I couldn't hang with my friends as they were all swamped with their works as I had used to be. My longing for the beach had been gone when I discovered that it was just a tidbit painful for my pocket since I was running low in cash. I didn't want to apply for another job just yet as it had the possibility to take me to another goddess-damned boss, and to be honest I wasn't quite ready for that. My situation wasn't of course worse than that of when I was working. But I had to admit that it wasn't any better either.

My life had become idle. Easy what-movie-shall-I-watch-again decision making was basically the main dish of my underused brain. It felt like forever since the last time I had left the couch. I had been repeatedly selecting DVDs and plugging them in my overdriven player. The piece of machine was probably how I was when I worked for that old bitch; abused and pushed too hard.

I reached out for another bag of cheese puffs when I realized that I had already eaten all of my month's supply of my favorite snack. Just absolutely splendid.

I put on my jacket and combed my hair with my fingers as I got ready to go out to the store for more cheese puffs. I winced on the brightness of daylight when I opened the door of my apartment. It's been so damn long since the last time I went out, seeing my eyes couldn't adjust easily to the light.

I strolled on a few blocks from the store after purchasing a couple of bags of cheese puffs, some toiletries and kitchen necessities. It suddenly occurred to me that I was just a bit outdated about what was going on with the world so I stopped into a news stand to avail a copy of today's newspaper.

I crouched down on my old spot in my living room and started reading the newspaper. When did all these happen? I was absolutely certain I had been idle for a week, not for a freaking year. I furrowed my eyebrows, browsing the newspaper amusedly before I came across the ads.

I guess it's too soon for me to find another job seeing I hadn't even recovered from the trauma, but I guess it wouldn't hurt to see if something would interest me.

I ran my eyes on the page, not finding anything interesting enough. But my eyes came into a halt when-

What the-

Farm life?

I blinked at what I just read, my mind flying. Would you want to enjoy a peaceful and refreshing farm life? A farm, eh? I then got sudden visions of myself clad in overalls lying on a field of flowers and crops. No paper works. No bosses to bitch around. No stress! Oh Goddess this is it! Something came over me and I just found myself dialing the number beneath the ad and arranging the terms of transaction.

Next thing I knew, I had three huge bags with me and an anxious look on my face at five in the morning. I was on a ferryboat destined to an island that happened to be called Mineral Town. Shit. Everything happened all so soon. Was I even ready to leave everything behind? What just came over me? Oh Goddess what did I just do?

I closed my eyes and breathe in deeply, shaking both of hands and shoulders to loosen up. This happened to be an evident way for me to release anxiety and stress. Whenever I was about to present a report for the company or I had to work overtime at the office, I did this regardless of how foolish it made me look. It often earned me a bunch of raised eyebrows from people around me, still it worked so well for me nonetheless.

Stretching my neck to both left and right and hearing a couple of soft cracks, I felt the ferryboat coming into a stop. I grabbed the bags I brought and started my way down the ferry. This is it. I am finally going to meet my new life.