Chapter One - Come On!

A/N: I decided to continue on with this story! I just got in a Mineral Town mood I guess~ I have all the chapters planned out so this should get finished! Thank you for reading, now on with the story!

"Come on Gray!" Kai grumbled, shaking his friend. Despite all Kai's efforts Gray didn't seem to be any closer to getting out of bed. Kai had been shaking his sleeping log of a friend for almost ten minutes and all he could get out of him were incoherent words and drool. He wasn't surprised. Gray had been out very late last night, not to mention he was sloshed when he came in.

Kai crossed his tanned arms and looked crossly at the bed where his friend laid. He didn't want to do this but drastic times called for drastic measures. "Oh shit Gray!" Kai said, faking his best freaking-out voice he could. "Your grandfather is here and he is pissed! You better get your ass outta bed!"

As if these were magic words Gray jumped from his hotel bed and scrambled to his feet. "Oh geez!" He grumbled as he rushed around his room trying to get ready in a mad panic. His golden hair was sticking off in every imaginable direction and he was still wearing his clothes from last night. There was even sand pouring out of the creases in his clothes. Ann was going to kill him when she saw the bed...

Kai let out a slight chuckle and Gray glared backward at him. "What's so funny?" He asked as he threw on a new clean white t-shirt and pulled on his trench coat, ignoring the sand as it scratched up on his arms. Damn the beach…

"It's Thursday." Kai said with a wide grin and all the rushing stopped. Thursday's were the only days Gray had off, and Kai had done that? Gray glared harder at his friend. "Well you wouldn't get up and you promised you'd help me, hung-over or not." Kai couldn't help but remember Gray's state when he had come home last night. Not to mention Gray was squinting in the light that filtered into the room as if it was blinding him.

"What am I helping you with?" Gray asked angrily, as he scanned the room for his hat. Where had he tossed it? Kai sighed, looking at his friend slightly disappointed, they had gone through just yesterday…

"You're coming to Claire's with me, remember?" Kai said, pointing in the direction of Claire's farm hoping this would revive some memory. But Gray just looked at Kai, nothing registering in his mind. Had he really promised this? "We're going to check on the pineapples she's growing for me…" Kai added, hoping to make something click this time.

"Oh. Right. The pineapples." Gray said running his hand through his blond hair, causing more sand to fall from his coat, clothes and hair onto the inn floor. Kai shifted his focus to their room which was becoming a sand box now.

"For the love of the Goddess…Did you leave any sand at the beach?" Kai asked looking at his friend with a slight smile, a smirk hiding beneath the surface "I don't understand how you managed to get so much sand in your clothes. What did you do? Roll around in the sand?"

Gray looked away, shaking as much sand as he could from his self. "Something like that…" Gray mumbled under his breath. Something a lot like that…

Kai looked at him, intrigued. "What were you rolling around in the sand for?" He asked with a smirk on his face. "Did you and Claire do more than drink last night?"

Gray stopped, turning towards Kai. Gray's eyes seemed alarmed. "How'd you know I was with Claire?" He hadn't mention to Kai that it was Claire he had spent the night with so how in the world did he know? What else did he know? Who else knew what Kai knew? Gray reached up to nervously fiddle with his hat, only to remember it wasn't there.

Kai placed an arm around Gray, a playful smile on his face. That bastard was enjoying making Gray dance. "So you did do more than drink then." he said, pointing at the hickey on his friend's neck. "Nice man, nice."

Gray pulled away, slightly grumpy now. "I didn't do anything last night besides drink," He spoke, defensively covering the hickey on his neck. "And that's a bruise! I fell on my way home."

"…On your neck?" Kai asked, the doubt clear in his voice.

"I was drunk." Gray spoke, his defensiveness raising the more he was questioned. "And how'd you know I was with Claire anyway?" Gray changed the subject back as he rubbed his neck. He would need to find something to cover up the mark…he didn't realize Claire had left such a large one.

"Rick mentioned something about me making him ruin his romantic beach date, and Claire is kind of Rick's girl so I just put two and two together." Kai the detective, said with a shrug. "Plus, you also said you were drinking with her last night. You were a real mess…"

Gray sighed softly. Claire was Rick's girl? He had learned that last night, but he wasn't aware they were serious. This was great, just great…

"So can we go check on my pineapples now?" Kai asked, looking at his watch impatiently. Gray sighed and nodded. How was supposed to face Claire? Was she just going to let it go or was it going to be the other extreme of her wanting a relationship? How did he even bring it up? Or should he stay quiet? He had a feeling that this was going to become awkward really fast…

"Claire, you are so awesome for doing this for me!" Kai said excitedly as he inspected the pineapple sprouts that were bursting up from the tilled farmland. Pineapples were Kai's absolute favorite food and he was just about jumping out of his skin with excitement.

Claire laughed at Kai's child-like excitement. "Really Kai, it's no big deal. I'm a farmer, it's what I do." She said, pushing her hair back from her face.

Gray looked over at Claire, taking her in as Kai babbled mindlessly about how great pineapples were. Claire was back in her jean coveralls today, her make-up from last night was replaced with dirt smudges from her garden, and yet Gray couldn't help but think she looked just as beautiful. He absently reached up and rubbed the hickey on his neck, recalling how the blond farmer had been his last night. He wondered if there were any marks hidden under those coveralls.

"It'll take twenty five days for them to finish growing." Gray watched Claire's pink lips say before focusing back on what was going on in front of him.

With this new breaking news, Kai became a shell of a man. "Twenty five days?!" Kai exclaimed sadly. "Summer will almost be over by then." Kai whined, looking distressed. Kai placed his hands on his purple bandana, thinking for some kind of solution. "Is there away way you can make them grow faster?"

Claire just stared at Kai as if this was the most stupid thing she had ever heard. "Please tell me you're not serious Kai…" Claire crossed her arms. "I can't control how quickly the plants grow, I go by their schedule."

Kai sighed; feeling defeated as he decided Claire was much more of an expert at this than she was. Not to mention that if he pissed her off too much she might not sell them to him at all.. "They better be good then Claire." He huffed.

"Of course they will!" Claire said with a bright smile. "I raise all my crops to taste their absolute best~" Everything was raised with love on her farm and Claire believed this brought out the best flavors.

Kai smiled happily. "If that's the case, I don't mind waiting then! But I have to go open the shack now." Kai said looking down at his watch. "Gray can you stay here with Claire and get how many pineapples I'm going to get and how much it's going to cost? Come see me at the store when you're finished." Kai said all this as he walked backwards then made a sprint to street, not giving Gray much of a choice.

Gray sighed softly and looked over at Claire, who was just shaking her head slightly at Kai. "Ha! 'Is there any way to make them grow faster?' I can't believe he was serious." She said with another soft laugh as she headed towards her farm house. "Come on Gray, I have all this stuff written down inside."

Gray followed after her reluctantly, watching her hips sway from side to side as she walked. Were they just going to pretend nothing happened? Gray thought this as they entered the house. Did he imagine last night? Why was he annoyed that she hadn't brought it up yet?

Gray surveyed the house as he entered since he hadn't really been inside before. Claire's house consisted of two rooms. One was the bathroom and the other was, well, everything else. Her house was very open, like many of the house in mineral town. There was single bed and a double bed placed in the corner with two small brown coffee tables placed to the left of them and that was considered the bedroom area. Then there was a TV and a book case right across from door which could be considered the main spot of the house. There was also a nice table for four sat near the TV.

"You can sit down, Gray. It might take me a minute to find the book…" Claire said, heading to her book shelf.

Gray sat down at the table and continued to look at the house, so he wouldn't have to focus on Claire. He looked over at the kitchen area on the left side of the house and then looked to the fridge. He wondered if Claire cooked a lot. He ate all his meals at the inn and never had he cooked for himself…

"There it is." Claire said as she pulled out a book and began to skim through the pages. Her voice interrupted his thoughts and brought his attention to her. Feeling Gray's eyes on her she offered a slight smile as she flipped though pages. "So how are you doing this morning?" Claire asked, without looking up from her book.

Gray leaned back in his chair and looked up at Claire's fair face. "Are we really going to do this?" Gray asked, feelin increasingly annoyed and now a little offended. Was it not good enough?

Claire looked up now. "Do what?" She asked, a confused look on her features.

Gray frowned. "Pretend that last night didn't happen." Gray spoke bluntly.

"Oh…That." Claire said softly, looking back down at the book. She walked over and sat in the chair across from him. "I was going to bring it up…eventually." She spoke quietly as she looked at Gray with soft blue eyes.

Gray sighed softly. "Is now eventually?" He asked, crossing his arms as he felt suddenly uncomfortable, and unsure if we wanted to have this conversation despite having been the one who brought it up.

"We should just forget it ever happened." Claire spoke in a way that suggested she was telling him rather than just suggesting. Gray almost was surprised. He didn't think that Claire was the kind of woman to just sleep around. Claire must have read Gray's mind as she continued. "I don't normally do stuff like that and I'm sure you don't either but… it's just that I kind of have this thing with Rick. I don't know where we are right now, if we're just friends or whatever but I'd like to find out." She paused for a moment, resting her eyes and Gray couldn't help but notice how long her eyelashes were as they swept closed. They were light too, meaning that blonde was obviously Claire's natural color. It reminded him of the starry night festival angel that his mother used to have when he was a kid. Claire's eyes fluttered open again and she added "and I'm sure Mary wouldn't be too happy if she found out either."

Gray looked confused now, perhaps dazed from studying Claire. "What does Mary have to do with any of this?" Gray asked, wondering how the young librarian was involved in the predicament which occurred on the beach last night.

Claire raised an eyebrow at him as if she knew something she thought was obvious. "I heard she liked you and I thought you liked her." She stated simply. "It's true right?"

Gray blushed slightly and went to pull at the brim of his hat. All Gray out was a handful of air. He sighed and blushed a little harder. He forgot he wasn't wearing his hat…

Claire smiled slightly, taking Gray's blush as enough as an answer. She walked over to her bed and reached under, taking something out. She walked back over to Gray and placed his beloved hat on his head. "You let me wear it home, remember?" Claire said with a smile.

Gray adjusted his hat, feeling much better with it back now. "Yeah…" He said, recalling how pretty Claire had looked in his hat. "I remember." She lingered close to him for a moment before speaking again, frowning as she studied Gray. "I'm sorry about your neck." She spoke softly, her hand raising to his neck.

The blacksmith gently batted her hand away. "It's no big deal…" He said, covering the marks with his own hand now. "Did you wind up with any?" He asked, trying to switch the focus off him.

He wasn't sure how he felt when Claire nodded, looking through her book once again and writing something down. Gray looked at her neck. It was spotless, not a mark anywhere. The young farmer saw Gray looking and smirked slightly. "I didn't say they were on my neck, or anywhere visible."

Gray blushed slightly, feeling embarrassed at the thought of where she could even be talking about. He cleared his throat, sticking his hands into his pockets. "Well, I should get going to Kai's…You got that stuff for him yet?" Gray asked, feeling uncomfortable and ready to leave.

Claire nodded, handing Gray a piece a paper. "Here's everything Kai needs to know." She said with a smile. "And remember Gray," Claire started, her eyes becoming serious. "Last night didn't happen as far as anyone besides you and me knows okay?"

Gray nodded, crumbling Kai's note in his hand. "Right. Nothing happened." Gray said, feeling a little better at the thought of keeping their night a secret. He didn't want to hear about it all around mineral town…

Kai was looking at the number's Claire had sent over and he noticed Gray was awfully quiet, even for Gray. "You okay dude?" Kai asked, focusing on his friend now.

Gray nodded quickly. "I'm fine…" He said, retreating to his thoughts. He was thinking about Claire, trying to block her out of his mind. He wasn't completely sure how he wanted to feel about the previous night. He felt a bit guilty since Claire and Rick were apparently getting close, but he also had a part of him that liked it. That loved it actually and didn't regret him in the least, but that made him feel guilty once more…

"Did anything happen between you and Claire?" Kai asked, as if reading his friend's mind.

Again, Gray shook his head. "No," He spoke, remembering the promise he made to Claire. "Nothing happened."

A/N: Thanks for reading! What did you think?