I always wanted to write, but I have never had the time or the motivation to sit down and do so. I have some own ideas, but I figured that starting with fan fiction is a good exercise. Therefore I decided to write short one-shots for HM-couples inspired by different songs. If I don't get reviews, I might stop, since I am really busy and not getting good ratings or reviews might hint that I am just not cut out to write. Well, honestly I am afraid that I am not cut out to write… so maybe that is why I never tried to do so before. By the way, as you may have already noticed, English is not my native language, so please don't mind lapses in grammar, spelling or order of words too much. I really tried to avoid making a lot of mistakes, but like I said unfortunately English is not my mother tongue. Soooo…. Please enjoy the first chapter (if you can)

Everything [inspired by Livingston-Everything]

Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon or any of its Characters

Pairing: Claire & Kai (mFoMT)

He can still remember the first time he got lost in her beautiful blue eyes. Especially because of the fact that opening those blue eyes again

was a close call for her on that day...

Like every year, Kai was on his way to Mineral Town. The weather was exceptionally stormy; therefore he barely managed to keep his yacht under control. Lately that

seemed to be a pattern, letting things get out of control. He even thought of not going back to Mineral Town that summer after what had happened the year before.

He had had this fling with the chicken farmer's daughter. He had enjoyed the time he spend with her, but then it had dawned on him, that he had been the only one who

regarded their relationship as just a summer fling. And when her elder brother Rick had stood in front of his door, brimming with righteous anger he had finally realized

that Popuri had thought that he would confess his undying love and propose to her. Luckily the summer had almost drawn to an end, so he had left Mineral Town with

shattered pride after getting beaten up by Rick and apologizing over and over to Popuri and her mother. In his opinion it had not been solely his fault, since Popuri

had thrown herself at him. What was a healthy young man supposed to do?

Nevertheless, that summer on the way to Mineral Town he promised himself to be more careful and to showcase his regret to get back in the good graces of the

inhabitants of Mineral Town. While he was lost in his thoughts the storm grew even more rampant, to the point that maneuvering the grew difficult.

When a lightning strike illuminated the sea he saw something drifting in the water. Something golden haired and fair skinned….maybe he hadn't slept enough, since he

was already seeing mermaids. But when he looked again he saw that there was indeed a person drifting in the water scarcely holding its head over the surface.

Suddenly a big wave crushed over its head and the person did not surface again. At that point he finally shook off his numbness and dived into the sea without losing

another second. The water was pretty cold for the last day of spring; it closed in around him and took his breath away. Diving deeper he looked out for the drowning

person. Finally he saw a faint glimmer of golden wisps of hair vanishing deeper and deeper into the blue endlessness below him. He dived deeper and deeper, reached

out and finally got hold of the mermaid…the person. Holding the person near to him he couldn't get around noticing that it was most definitely a girl. Breaking through the

surface he recognized stupefied that the yacht had drifted away and now they were both literally lost at sea. The girl seemed to be unconscious but she was still

breathing. Holding her as steady as he could; he tried to hold both of them over the surface. He couldn't make out the coast but it shouldn't

have been far, at last he hoped it wasn't. "That's what you get if you try to be a hero", he thought sarcastically to himself. Finally he decided to swim straight on,

sometimes he should be the lucky one too…

After a couple of hours, minutes, days, he couldn't really tell, he started to grow really tired. But he still couldn't see the beach and the storm hadn't stopped.

Unfortunately he felt that he just couldn't go on anymore, he was numb and cold and his vision grew blurrier by the second. And the girl's breath seemed too grow

weaker too. Maybe he would be able to make it if he let her go. But somehow he couldn't bring himself to do so, even if that meant that both of them had to drown. For

some reason he just felt there was more to her, that it was important to hold onto her. Somehow…even if he couldn't see her face, even if he didn't hear her voice and

even if he didn't know a single thing about her, he felt drawn to her. So he decided to keep hold of her till the end, which seemed to draw nearer judging by the

accelerating pain in his limbs and lungs. Already he wasn't able to put together a clear thought and his consciousness slowly left him. The last thing he hard was a

faint humming sound …..

When he regained consciousness he found himself wearing a silly undergarment, lying in a big bed covered with white sheets. He felt warm and dizzy. Why was he

here? Wasn't he supposed to open his shed on the beach? Then it all came back to him. The storm, losing control over his yacht, the drowning merm… girl. The Girl! In a

matter of seconds he heaved himself out of the bed only to fall to the ground in an even smaller amount of time. As he tried to stand up again a young black-haired man

in a white coat charged into the room. Wearing an angry expression he told Kai not to try to leave his bed and that he should be lucky to be still alive since he had nearly

drowned the night before, if it weren't for the fishermen of the neighboring isle who rescued him and Claire. Claire! So that was her name….

"Is she okay? The girl…..Claire she is alright?" He inquired. "Well, she is still unconscious but she should wake up soon", the doctor said. "That's a relief; I tried to

rescue her but my yacht…" Kai said slowly. The doctor just muttered something about first thinking than acting, forbade Kai to get out of the bed and left the room.

Kai crawled back in his bed wondering who his mystery girl was. At least he knew her name by now...Claire…But where was she from and why had she been at sea in

such a storm? After a while grew tired again and fell asleep…

He dreamed of a mermaid with wavy golden hair, fair skin and sea-blue eyes, looking curiously at him. Her gaze slid over his face studying his features with a cute

lingering smile in her porcelain face. When she finally said that he was" a cute one" he realized that he wasn't dreaming at all but captured by the gaze of his mystery girl.

"I am Kai the owner of the shed on the beach; nice to meet you, Claire" he wanted to say while giving her a flirtatious smile but instead he stuttered "Are- are you okay,

Miss? I hope you are because…b- by the way my name is Kai". "Nice to meet you Kai, just call me Claire. And thanks for rescuing me….without you I could be dead by

now", said the breathtakingly beautiful girl in a warm and gentle tone. Normally he would have answered with a pick-up line, something in the style of "for you anytime"

but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. Instead he stuttered something like "no problem at all" and looked away for she shouldn't see him flush bright red. Later on

Claire explained him that she wanted to search for rare black pearls but then the storm came and she panicked and got lost at sea. Following she took something out

of her pocket and held it out to him. It was a smooth looking shining black pearl." I found it in my bed when I woke up, it seems that I held onto it the whole time" she

whispered with a hint of a smirk in her voice. Then she added that she wanted him to have the pearl as a token of her gratitude for rescuing her. Finally she suggested

that he could treat her home-made ice cream in exchange some time, before leaving the room and giving him a cute smile while stepping out of the door. When the door

closed behind her, the awestruck man came back to his senses and said with a soft voice "it's a date" before falling asleep once again.

Now 2 years later he is watching the jeweler who has already applied the finishing touch to a platinum ring decorated with a top piece made of a blue feather and a black pearl.

Today, if everything went well, the former "playboy prince" would take his everything, his "mermaid" to his castle on the other side of the deep blue sea.