Note: Yay! Another fic, this one about Gray and Claire. Lots of stuff going on. Hope you like it!

Chapter One

Leaving

"I still don't see why you have to leave." Gray said with his arms crossed.

I sighed once more, trying not to feel horrible about leaving my lover to stay in this dinky town. "Gray, I love you. But I have to explore other places. This place..." I looked around my old farm. "It's just too-" I thought of a word to describe my pitiful farm. "It's just not what I hoped for." I had lived in Mineral Town for at least two years, and all I had was a horse and a few crops. The soil here was just terrible. Plus I hardly was paid for anything I shipped, leaving me in debt.

"It doesn't make any sense." Gray said, angrily. "I can give you some money to help start a new life here. As long as we can stay together." For the first time since I'd known Gray, I saw tears in his eyes.

I shook my head. "I've already sold the place to someone else. Someone who knows how to take care of it. I know I'm moving straight for another one, but I heard life is better down there." I moved my blonde hair out of my face. "Please Gray. If you love me like I know you do, then you'll understand. I-I just can't stand it here. I need to get out of this place." I fought back tears that were forming in my eyes.

"I'll come back and visit." I assured him. "And you can visit me, too. We really aren't that far away." I looked at my watch. Seven thirty. "I have to go. It's a bit of a long walk." I kissed him, hopefully not for the last time.

"I love you!" I shouted at him when I was at least thirty feet away. He shouted back and I smiled. It really wouldn't be that bad, would it?

I arrived in Forget-Me-Not Valley at around, 9:00 at night. It really wouldn't have taken me that long, but I stopped many times, for long times, causing me to get lost, and then when I finally found my way there, I was exhausted. I needed to find my house.

No one greeted me when I arrived. I didn't really expect anyone to, but it was dark and I had to find my house. When I first arrived, I saw a huge field and two buildings. I figured that could have been my house. I walked up to the door and noticed that it was locked. Okay, so that wasn't my house. I knocked on the door. Maybe the person living there could help me.

When the door opened, my eyes grew wide. A lady that looked a bit manly opened the door. She had a booming voice, and the black night gown that she was in brought out the fact that she was, well, fat.

"Hello dear. How can I help you at this time of night?" She boomed. I wanted to plug my ears. I was surprised the whole village didn't come to see if a bomb went off.

"Who in the flippin' world, is knocking on the stupid door at this our?!" A heard a grumpy voice in the backround. A man with black, curly hair came to the door and glared at me. I'd have to say I was a bit scared. "Whadda you want?" He asked coldly.

"Marlin shut up!" The manly lady said. "She looks lost. Are you lost dearie?"

I refrained from rolling my eyes. I wasn't two years old. "Uh, yeah. I'm new here. I, um, run the other farm. Well I'm going to. But I have no idea where it is." I forced a smile. "Could you help me find it?"

Marlin rolled his aqua blue eyes and went back into the room. I couldn't see where though, since the lady was in my way. "Don't mind him, he's a grumpy one." She laughed.

"I can hear you, you idiot!" I heard Marlin call from the room. The lady stuck her large hand out. "I'm Vesta, and obviously, that was Marlin. He may be one of the grumpiest people you will ever meet., and unfortunatly he's my brother." I took my hand out from my pocket and shook with Vesta. My hand seemed to disappear in Vesta's and I giggled nervously. "I'm Claire."

"Well, I can't wait to see your farm. I'll just have Marlin take you over there. He knows where it is." She smiled brightly.

What?! Are you kidding? He may kill me! This has to be a joke. He'll take me to some graveyard and bury me alive.

"Marlin! Get your lazy butt over here!" She spoke in her inside voice. I wondered what her outside voice was like.

"God, what do you want? I'd like to get some rest too, ya know?" Marlin walked over to his sister.

"Take Claire over to her farm. And hurry up 'cause you have to get up early." Marlin opened his mouth to argue, but saw no point in doing so. His sister dug her green eyes into his, silently demanding him to walk me over to my farm or he wouldn't be living much longer.

Marlin began to walk away, toward my farm I guess. Vesta said good night and I ran to catch up with Marlin.

"Don't get used to this." Marlin said. "I'm not much of a people person. Plus, your the competiton. I can't become friends or even acquantinces with that. Your the enemy, and that's it. Don't expect me to babysit you through this." He stuffed his hands in his pockets.

"Excuse me, but if you hadn't noticed, I'm not exactly fond of you either. I'm not exactly happy about this either. So why don't you just show me where my house is and then stuff your face."

Marlin seemed taken aback by my rude comment. Not that I cared. He had no right to be mean to me. I didn't even know him, nor did I want to.

"Sorry" He muttered.

"Uh, ditto." I muttered back. I didn't think he was one to say sorry. Especially not so quickly.

After a few minutes of no talking, only the sound of our pattering footsteps against the stone pathway, we finally reached my home.

Marlin fiddled with his hands as he looked down at the ground and muttered, "Well, uh, goodnight." After that he quickly walked away.

I didn't feel like taking a tour of the farm that late at night, so I quickly went inside and changed into a blue silk nightgown. I hopped in my bed and was out in a few minutes.


"Gray, we're always going to be together, right? No matter what?" I quietly asked Gray.

Gray wrapped his arms around my back, pulling me closer to him. "Of course." He whispered in my ear. "No matter what happens."

I nodded, wondering if I should tell him my news or not. "Alright then." I decided to leave it for now. He could tell I looked a little sad. "What's wrong?" He asked.

I looked away, but his face followed mine. "You can tell me." He said quietly.

"N-Nothing. It's nothing." He wasn't satisfied, but he dropped it. And for that I was grateful. I thanked him by giving him a kiss. It was going to be just a quick one, but I think we both just wanted to keep it going.

It seemed like the kiss went on forever. We were so wrapped up in it that we didn't even notcie the door opening.

"Gray!" Gray and I jumped, seperating our lips. It was Saibara, Gray's boss, and grandfather. "What in the world are you doing?! Get in here!" He walked out of the room and Gray blushed.

"Sorry, I think I'm in trouble." He said. I laughed. "Alright, well Ill see you later." He quickly gave me a kiss before leaving to see his grandfather. I smiled while walking back home, but it faded quickly once I remembered I'd have to tell him the news.

I awoke the next day, beginning my life as a farmer. Well, a farmer on a new farm. It was the second of Spring, according to my new calender. I finally got to look at my new house. There was a chest that I was able to put my clothes in, but I only had three pairs of overalls. I changed into the blue pair. I looked around a bit more. The house was incredibly small. It had only one room, and there was no kitchen whatsoever. I took a look at the bookshelf sitting next to my bed. Inside was four books to help get me started, which I might need if I wanted to get this farming thing right. There was also thirteen books about different shops that were here in Forget-Me-Not Valley. There was also a few from Mineral Town as well. It didn't seem that I could buy animals or anything from here. I'd have to call and have them delivered. I noticed a rucksack sitting next to my door. It contained a hoe, a watering can, and other tools. I also found two bags of Turnip seeds. I guess I would need them.

As I stepped out of my house, the rucksack on my back, I bumped into Thomas, the Mayor of Mineral Town.

Oh God. What's he doing here?

"Oh, Claire!" He said. "I was just about to knock." The Mayor chuckled. I'd never liked the mayor. He would constantly be teasing me about how I never worked hard enough. Now it seemed as if he was haunting me. After a few moments of silence, Thomas finally answered the question of why he was here.

"As you know, I help around Forget-Me-Not Valley, quite a lot." He smiled through his bushy mustache. Didn't he ever comb that thing? My response was silence, so Thomas continued. "You may or may not know this, but the man who did the shipments here retired." Thomas said discouragingly. "At the meeting yesterday, I unfortunatly lost the Rock, Paper, Scissors match." I was afriad that he might be the new shipper. "So...here I am. I'm the replacement shipper."

Dang!

"I could understand if it was Mineral Town." He began to fiddle with his hands. "But why here?" Thomas began mumbling something about scissors. I crossed my arms, annoyed.

"Oh don't mind me. Just talking to myself." He chuckled. Once he noticed my arms were still crossed, and my noticable annoyed face, he cleared his throat and began speaking again. "So, I guess I'll be handling your shipments from mow on." He looked around my fields. "Not that you have much to ship at the moment." He laughed.

"Excuse me?" I said, my tone hardened. Thomas took notice of my clenched fist.

"Ah Claire." He patted my shoulder. I quickly took a step back and I leaned against my wooden door. Thomas laughed nervously. "I'm only joking. I know you've only just moved here." My angered expression stayed the same.

Ya think? Of course I just moved here you dumb-

"Err...sorry." Thomas interruppted my thought. "I didn't mean any offense." He seemed worried, probably hoping that I wouldn't punch him in the face.

I forced a smile. I had to be nice from now on. "None taken." I hissed through my teeth. "You freakin' idiot." I muttered.

That wasn't very nice. Whatever.

Thomas took no notice of my muttering. "Good good" He relaxed a bit. Thomas didn't bother to show me how to ship things. I already knew. "I'll be back at 5:00 p.m." He stated just before leaving.

"Loser" I muttered, and then began my first day in Forget-Me-Not Valley. Looking through my new fields, I noted the remendous amount of weeds sprouting everywhere. It reminded me of my first day of farming in Mineral Town.

I went along picking all the weeds in my fields, remembering every hard weed picking moment I had lived through in Mineral Town.

After picking up all the weeds, I thought of Thomas. I began to wonder what would happen if I 'accidently' placed the weeds in the shipping bin. I shrugged.

Only one way to find out.

My fields were covered with small stones and branches, but I figured I could worry about that later. Moving to the far right of my field, I brought out my hoe and began to till the land. I was only sweating a little bit when I finished. I then brought out the turnip seeds, which I planted each one carefully. I jumped, hearing a door slam from behind me.

An old man stared at me, smiling.

Creepy.

Okay, he wasn't that old. He didn't have grey hair, just a small amount of wrinkles. I stood up with one bag of seeds in my hands. We bagan to walk closer and shook hands. I introduced myself. "Nice to meet you, Claire." His voice was strong and deep. It reminded me of Vesta's. "You must be the new owner of the farm. I'm your farmhand, Takakura."

Takaku-wha??

He must have seen the puzzled look on my face, for he repeated his name again, only a bit more slowly this time. After speaking with him for a few minutes, he headed for the beach. I figured I could go check out the village once I was finished with my work. While finishing up, I tried repeating Takakura's name until I finally pronounced it correctly.

At noon I went inside for lunch, remembering that I had no food, or cooking utensils to make anything. I decided to ask Takakura if he had anything for me to eat. I exited my house and headed toward his.

No answer.

Is he still at the beach?

I walked over there, hoping to find Takakura. That is, if I didn't get lost along the way. After ten minutes of walking, I reached a large mansion. I began to leave the area when I heard a door open. I couldn't help but turn to see who was coming out. I didn't expect someone from Mineral Town.

"Mary" I said, calling her toward me.

"Oh, hello Claire. I didn't know you'd be here. I was just visiting Lumina, a friend of mine." She pushed her glasses up. Mary and I were not good friends, I don't think she liked me. Maybe it was because of Gray. Mary threw her long braided hair back and told me that all the villagers came on there days off. She gave me a list of everyone and when they came.

Why does she have a list of people in her pocker? Weirdo.

"It's too bad you moved." She lied. I knew she was happy because she thought she could get Gray, without me knowing. Just 'cause I wasn't there didn't mean I couldn't watch her.

"Oh and I'm really sorry to hear about you and Gray." She said.

"Huh?"

Mary gasped. "Oh no! He didn't tell you?" She covered her mouth, trying to hide the grin forming on her pale face, but I could still see it. "I thought he already broke up with you." She shook her head. "And, I guess I just ruined the whole darn thing." I fought back hot tears. She was lying she had to be. "Oops." She said before saying bye and walking down the path. Such evil inside what seemed as an innocent little girl.

"Wait Mary!" I ran after her, my voice trembling. She turned. I squinted down at her glasses. "I think you scratched your glasses." Mary looked worried. As soon as she took her glasses off, I punched her, right in the nose. She screamed and fell to the ground, moaning in pain. I softly nudged her with my foot and she went rolling down the path. Seeing her glasses on the floor, perfectly clean and unscratched, I took a step forward and 'accidently' stepped on them. I quickly covered my mouth, still unable to hid my smile. "Oops" I laughed.

Just kidding.

I was too busy crying to punch Mary's stupid face. I watched her walk away, probably off to flirt with Gray. I wiped away all my tears and looked in the fountain in front of the mansion to see if my face was red. It was. I splashed it with water and headed home, not sure what to do.