Last Night, Good Night

Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon beyond owning copies of a couple of the games. However I do suck at playing the games I own, so I've learned to compensate for this issue by instead writing fanfics of things I think should happen in the games.

This night, your hand I will hold, sleep my dear. . . . Good night. –Last Night, Good Night sung by the Vocaloid Hatsune Miku

Beep beep beep beep beep beep beep. . . . .

The ever so constant beeping of the machine next to me shattered the fragile state of sleep I'd succumbed to, I awake from what I think to be a terrible nightmare to find that my dreams were all too real, and were only repeating themselves to me while I slept. Again, I can feel the tears rim the waterlines of my eyelids, and before any more of them can escape my eyes, I clench them shut and sniffle, fighting off a sob. The room is mostly silent, save the beeping of the heart monitor nearby, and the sound of the breathing machine.

Wiping my tears away with the sleeves of my shirt I open my eyes again with another sniffle and look at the face of my unconscious lover. There he slept, looking like he could break at anymore. His skin had faded now to a ghastly white, though it had been pale to begin with, what looked like purple bruises had formed under his shut eyes, and he was hooked up to more medical machines then I could count on one hand. Most of them I couldn't name, I only knew what they basically did. An IV was shoved into one of the veins in his inner elbow; he had a heart monitor on him to keep track of his pulse, a breathing machine that kept air going into his lungs. . . . And several other things. Thinking about all of this, I couldn't hold back another round of fresh tears and yet another sniffle.

Why. . .? Why did this have to happen? My mind asked what my mouth could not form as I gingerly reach my hand out to his. Upon even brushing my fingertips over the flesh on the back of his hand, I seethed outwardly and my hand flew back to my chest. He was so very cold to the touch; it was hard to hold onto his hand. Sighing however, I slowly withdrew my hand from my chest and placed it overtop of his icy hand, ignoring the urge to pull it back. I couldn't help but wonder to myself, How many times have we held hands? How many times have our hands touched I wonder? A bit of a smile formed on my lips at that question, and I tightened my grip on his hand a bit.

I think back on the time the two of us had spent together, the time that led up to this moment. "Heh, hey, Skye, do you remember how you and I met?" I muttered to him quietly, a sad smile on my face. "It's been two years, huh?" I laughed just a bit at the memory of our meeting. "Heh, I remember when I met you, that I hadn't the slightest ideal of what to think of you due to how you introduced yourself. And then the next time we met, after I found out that you'd robbed Lumina, I socked you in the jaw hard enough to send you to the ground." I sniffled again as I felt hot tears starting to speed down my face, I wiped them off of my cheeks with my free hand and looked at the face of the thief I'd come to love. Here he slept now, soundly teetering between the brink of life and death thanks to him performing one of his 'jobs.'

What would mom and dad think of their little Claire now? Having fallen in love with a thief? Would they think me a fool? Or would they tell me to be safe and to be happy? My shoulders started to shake as I couldn't hold back anymore sobs. I was alone in the world now, my mother and father had died three years ago and left me alone to take care of the Silver Ranch all on my own. Shortly after I had met Skye, and soon he and I had fallen in love with one another. After I'd punched him in the jaw even. He's been here for me for so long now, so long. . . . "Please don't leave me Skye, please, God please let him stay with me." I pleaded so quietly, taking my other shaking hand and gripping onto Skye's, one hand holding onto the top of his hand, the other clasping onto the bottom.

Skye had introduced himself to be as, 'The Prince of the Stars' and at the time I'd thought of him as an arrogant ass for such an introduction. However as time went on, I grew to think of him as a Prince, maybe not one of the stars. But to me, Skye was a prince who'd come and rescued me from my perpetual loneness. He saved me. He'd become my crutch, my life, and I'd come to depend on him so much that I'd forgotten what life was like alone again. . . . I don't want to be alone again, I don't want to be left behind in the world and not have anyone like before.

I bit down on my lower lip, tears now streaming down my cheeks. "God please, please don't take him from this world yet! Please let Skye stay with me. . . ." I sobbed out, bending my torso forward, pressing my forehead onto Skye's hand as I cried. I couldn't imagine going back to living without him, I didn't want him to die like this, looking like a zombie in a hospital bed. No, he deserved to live a long life, a long and happy life. Skye was a thief, and he stole things, but really he's a great person.

"Skye? Do you remember when you sent the fake note to Carter and Flora in hopes that you'd see me again? That I'd help them look out for you and make sure you didn't steal anything from them. . . ?" I whispered to him, "Remember how we talked about curry on the beach for hours? How you told me that you loved to cook, and especially curry?" I lifted my head up and looked at his face with a hiccup. "I remember I said I'd love to try it without a second thought, no t even realizing I said I wanted to see you again. I remember that's when it all started, that was when my heart started pounding when I thought of you, when we spoke or when I saw you. . . ." I set my head back down, and pressed my forehead into his hand again as I cried.

"I remember how much I started to like you, and how desperate I was for you to stop stealing so that you wouldn't get hurt like this. I remember once begging you to stop; I remember how doubtful I was of myself even possibly loving you. . . ." I whispered, "I remember how I even neglected you and made you think that I didn't love you, I remember our promise, how we promised that we didn't believe in forever, how we thought that love wasn't eternal, that we were blessed for the fact that we got to share one more day together. We are lucky, we are blessed to have had so many days together since that promise. Skye, I want to keep sharing my days with you, I want to share my thoughts with you still. . . ."

Skye and I, we didn't believe love lasted forever. It was a fleeting thing we knew, we knew that love was fleeting and that it could end at anytime. Even still though, we fell in love with each other, and at our 'wedding' we swore that at that moment, that right then we loved each other, but Skye told me that he couldn't promise to love me forever, he didn't believe there existed a single certain thing in the world. And he asked me, "Knowing that this about me, knowing that sharing a single thought with me means not knowing whether it's filled with love or is just empty, do you still want to be with me Claire?"

At his words, I cried. I sobbed violently and clung onto him and nodded, I could never be sure whether he loved me when a new day dawned until he told me, "I love you Claire, I still love you right now, I promise." And in return I would always say that back. Even if our love wasn't a certain thing, even if it was always teetering between fading and blooming, Skye had been here for me. He'd been the one who'd embraced me when the anniversary of my parents' deaths rolled around, the one who helped me out when I fell deathly ill. . . . Skye has been here for me, despite some of the mean things I've done to him, he's continued to be at my side and has continued to share days together with me.

I lifted my head again and looking at his shut eyes, tears still pouring out of my eyes, I said to him, "Skye, I want to be with you, I want to continue sharing our days, I want to be blessed with you with the days we share. I want to still share thoughts with you, even thought I don't know what they are filled with, I want to share them with you. I love you Skye, I love you and I don't want you to leave me."

Beep Beep Beep Beep. . . . .

Only the sounds of the heart monitor responded to my words. And at this, I smiled a sad smile, knowing my words didn't matter. "I love you Skye, and I'll stay with you for as long as possible, I promise. . . ." Even though Skye had gotten hurt doing one of his 'jobs', one I had begged him to not do, I would be angry at him only if everything worked out . . . only if he pulled through this. During this last job, he'd taken a fall from a good height, and suffered a head injury that put him into a coma, one that the doctors weren't sure he'd come out of. And they told me that Skye had less and less of a chance of coming to as time went on. And already it had been two weeks since he'd fallen. . . . From what I'd been told, that meant that Skye had little, if any, chance to wake up now. But still, I was holding out hope.

Placing my head back onto his hand, I shut my eyes and repeated what I'd said minutes before, "I love you Skye, I'll stay with you as long as possible. . . ." before I drifted off to sleep again.

BEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEP. . . . . . .

It was the long drawn out sound of the heart monitor signaling that the patient had no pulse that woke me up this time. There was no constant, beep, beep, beep. No. There was just one long loud beep. I woke up with dread filling my heart, I knew that sound meant no heart beat, and that no heart beat meant no life.

"S-Skye!" I cried out as I rocketed up from my place of slumber, tears filling up my eyes. Expecting tragedy, I was ready to cry my eyes out now.

"N-Ngh. . . ." is what made me freeze though, tears still dripping down my face my eyes widened as I witnessed Skye, weakly removing the breathing mask that had been on him for some time now as he turned his head to look at me, "Cl-Claire. . . ?" he weakly muttered at seeing me.

"Skye?" I half whispered, my body going numb in shock. "Skye, you're awake?"

"W-What happened. . . ?"

My body moved on its own, and again, I grabbed onto his hand, and fell to my knees at the side of his bed, crying. "I-I-I thought th-that you w-weren't going to w-w-wake up!" I sobbed out, "Y-You've been in a-a coma for tw-two weeks!"

"What's going on in-?" I heard someone call out from the doorway of the room, and I looked up to see Skye's nurse out of breath looking in on him, as his heart monitor had ceased to function as it should. "He's awake. . . ?" the nurse asked, astonished, it seemed that even she wasn't expecting him to come out of it.

"H-He woke up." I said to her.

"Doctor, doctor I have to get a doctor." The nurse said turning out of the doorway to find one. . . .

In a limp manner, Skye turned his gaze back to me. "Two w-weeks. . . ?"

I nodded to him and sobbed a bit again, stood to my feet and embraced him as he lied there. "I thought I was going to lose you. . . ." I whispered, "I was so scared. I know we couldn't swear eternity Skye, but still, I still love you right now, I promise you that I love you right now. And I was scared that I wouldn't get the chance to spend another day with you, a real day. . . ."

"I'm s-sorry C-Claire. . . ." he apologized, haphazardly running his hand over my head.

I moved and again clutched onto his hand and gave him a weak smile, "I'm so glad that we get to spend another blessed day together Skye, I am so thankful for that blessing. . . ."

-Fin

A/N: Okay, I wrote this up in about an hour. Not my best work I know, but even still, I'm fond of this piece. I think it's cute, a bit sad, but it has a happy ending. Even if I did half rush this thing, would you let me know what you think of it anyway?