Remember December

Disclaimer: And the big ball of yarn says, "String Theory!" Ha, okay I don't own Harvest Moon.

A/N: Okay, and here is my third attempt at a one shot for this game, sorry it's been so long since I've updated or posted anything but I started back to school and I've been ill. Anyway, from the votes for which pairing my next one shot should focus on, it was sort of left as a three-way tie, and I had to break it. It was between Gray/Claire, Cliff/Claire or Kai/Claire. I wound up picking another Cliff/Claire one shot to do, I had decent ideas for the other pairings mind you, but the most solid one I had was for a Cliff and Claire story. Regardless of the pairing, I still hope that you all enjoy this story, I put a lot of thought and work into it so it would be my best yet!

"Shoot, shoot, shoot. . . ." I muttered to myself, "D-Darn it, why does Mineral Town have to get so cold? I know that this is suppose to be Winter, but I wasn't expecting to have to put up with Ice Age like temperatures. . . ." I grumbled to myself as I trudged down the short path that led past Chicken Lil's and Barley's Ranch. Every so often I would take my mittened up hands out of my coat pockets and breath into them, and rub them together in attempts to get some warmth back into them.

Although, that was of no use, it was so cold out that I would have been better off just letting my hands stay in my pockets. The snow was coming down in what seemed like bucketfuls. I kept having to shake my head in order to keep the snow from piling up on top of it. It was getting really old, really fast.

You're probably thinking right now, "If you hate Snow and Winter so much, then why didn't you just stay home today?", right? Well, I couldn't stay home today. As my luck, and horrible planning ahead skills, wouldn't allow that. Stupid me, didn't have enough stupid food to get me through today without half starving myself. But, the Supermarket isn't even open yet, so I'm stuck killing some time until it does. I know I could use this time to do my chores, but there is a problem with that; I finished them over an hour ago! Taking care of my animals is the least time consuming task on my plate. . . . And today just so happens to be the first snowfall of the season, and it is wet snow too.

Meaning with my coordination and balance issues, I can hardly take a step without nearly slipping and winding up flat on my rear or face.

I let out a low whine as I glanced at my watch, "Come on time . . . go by a little faster! Please, I want to go home and drink some hot cocoa. . . ." I begged, knowing full well that was going to do me no good, but it gave me an excuse to talk. I looked at the ticking second hand for several more moments, and then I let my wrist drop back to my side with an annoyed sigh.

"You just have to torment me don't you? When I don't want you to go by fast you go by like a blink of an eye, and when I actually want you to go by fast you just tick by so slowly that it is almost physically painful!" I grumbled, slipping my hand back into my jacket pocket as I started to walk toward Rose Square.

I still have over an hour to kill before the store opens, and I'm getting tired of just pacing back and forth on the snow-covered road. Plus, I keep getting the feeling that people are starting to stare at me, not that I could blame them for doing that. I'm wearing a red and black checked coat that looks something like the top of a business suit. . . . In the white snowscape, I had to stick out like a sore thumb. Even knowing that, I still loathe the creepy feeling I get when I think I'm being stared at.

When I came to Mineral Town from the City, it might have been a good idea to ditch the trendy looking winter gear and opt out for some warmer, more functional clothing. Right now I'm still wearing my normal overalls, the bottoms look like regular jeans since my coat is covering up the straps, and I have a scarf wrapped up so tightly around my neck, it looks like I'm imitating a mummy or something. My winter stuff is warm, but not warm enough. . . . Winters in the city were never this cold!

I breathed out, and watched my breath form a white mist against the dark colors of my coat as my black rubber boots shuffled a path through the deepening snow.

This is obviously my first winter living in Mineral Town. I've lived in this town for about half a year now, and I'm still something of an outcast to the rest of the villagers. Not many people are willing to talk to me casually due to the fact that most of them think I'm some kind of snobby city slicker. The few who do talk to me, like Rick, Popuri, and Karen, told me that most of the adults in town had a running bet that I'd give up on trying to revive my half dead farm in less than a year and hull it out of here and back to the crowded city.

When I was told that I smacked my forehead on a nearby wall and told them that when I moved here, I sold everything I owned in the city in order to have enough money to buy the old Ranch. Meaning, that even if I wanted to give up, I couldn't because I have nothing to fall back on, the Ranch is my only option of staying alive. As pathetic as that sounds, it is true, but I at least now have enough money saved up to not completely have to worry about where my next meal is going to come from. As opposed to how it was before, me having to dine on cheap packs of ramen noodles for two of my three meals. I ate real food for breakfast, and noodles for lunch and dinner. Now I can pretty much eat real food for all of my meals, something I am very happy about because noodles just don't cut it when you have a metabolism like a marathon runner!

"Why does the Supermarket have to open at 10 AM? Can't they open it a little earlier or something? I get up at 6 everyday for the love of Pete. . . . Ugh, if Rick or Karen heard me say this they'd tell me to not be so impatient, and that I was acting like a child–OH CRUD!" My rant was cut off midway when my foot got caught on a chuck of ice that was hidden under the snow and I was sent rushing toward a deep snowbank face first.

"Kyaaaa!!!!" I screamed right before I managed to make contact with the heavy white substance. I squeaked when I fell into it/

"Ohh, why does this sort of stuff always happen to me?!" I yelled as I began trying to wriggle my upper half out of the compacted powder.

After a few seconds I found myself free and back out in the open, only I was spitting snow turned ice out of my mouth. "Yuck! The snow made my spit turn into ice. . . ." I whined, "And it made half of my tongue go numb!" I groaned, and turned my attention back to the road in front of me. Careful this time to pay mind to my foot to avoid me taking another dip into the unforgiving cold snow.

I sighed heavily when I managed to make it to Rose Square without another incident, I peeked a glance at my watch for the umpteenth time that day and let out an exaggerated groan when I realized that I still had over a half hour to wait. I decided to brush some snow off a bench in the Square and sit and play the waiting game.

I glanced up, trying to spot a bench through the veil of heavy snow that was still falling in buckets. "What's that. . . ?" I questioned myself nervously when I spotted a small mound of snow in the middle of the square that didn't look like it belonged.

I squinted up my eyes, trying to get them to focus so I could get a better view at the mound, "T-That can't be a-a person c-can it?" I stuttered nervously when it registered in my brain that what I was looking at resembled a human figure. My first instinct was to turn around and bolt for home or something, my legs even started to work in that way. Only my common sense overtook me before that could happen and I started to inch toward the 'person'.

A high-pitched whine escaped from somewhere behind my lips when I stood right over top of the snow mound, "Please don't be a dead body. . . ." I silently prayed to the Harvest Goddess that what I was looking at was not someone who'd managed to freeze to death.

Shaking, I managed to work my knees enough to lean down next to the mound. I bit my lip to keep myself from flipping out entirely, I looked around me for a stick, or something I could poke the mound with. I didn't want to touch it directly for the fear that it might be a corpse or something! That'd give me nightmares for the rest of my life, and I already have a bad sleeping schedule, I don't think nightmare would help that.

I couldn't hold back a cry of disappointment when I didn't see anything I could use for prodding or poking. . . . "Why does this have to happen to me?" I cried.

With a few deep breaths, useless in trying to slow down my racing heart and calm my nerves, and after a few silent moments passed of me trying to think of what I should do, I decided upon the simplest course of action that came to my brain. I took my hands and nervously started to brush the snow off the figure.

All the while praying/chanting, 'Please don't be dead!' in my head over and over again while I worked the snow off the person. I managed to get enough snow off the person to recognize who it was, "C-Cliff?!" I squeaked in horror.

I didn't really know the guy too, too well, but we were friends and got along pretty good, so you can imagine the terror I felt upon finding him unconscious in the snow.

I started to shake him by his shoulders in attempts to get him to wake up, "Cliff! Wake up, you can't sleep out in the snow you'll catch pneumonia!" I cried, I don't know what was going through his head when he wandered outside earlier today, but the man wasn't even wearing a jacket! I knew he had to be freezing in his normal clothing. "Cliff, come on. . . . Please wake up!" I shouted one more time before I heard him let out a somewhat dazed laugh.

I scooted away from him a bit and managed to half hear something he was muttering.

". . . .it was snowing then too, every time it snows I remember the day I left home because it was snowing. . . ." he muttered almost incoherently before he dropped his head again and shut his eyes.

It took me a second to register that he'd passed out again, I shook my head, trying to gather my senses. "Come on Claire! Now is not the time to bug out, or to have a blonde moment!"

I had no clue what Cliff was talking about, something about him leaving home when it was snowing I think? Again I shook my head, "Seriously, not the time! Be curious later, right now I gotta focus!" I chanted that a few times, trying to get myself to focus on the task at hand here. Which was trying to figure out what I was going to do with Cliff, and how I was going to get him help!

At first I tried to rouse him again, by doing what I had done before, by shaking him by the shoulder and calling his name. "Shoot. . . . This isn't going to work a second time." I sighed upon coming to that realization.

I found myself starting to bit at the thumb of my mitten nervously, trying to figure out what I was going to do! There was no way I was going to be able to drag him to the Clinic, the guy is twice my size! He's always hunching over so people won't notice the fact that he's over six feet, but I knew that he was way taller than me by at least a foot, meaning he was going to weight too much for me to move. So, there was no point in me trying that one. I let out a high pitched whine.

My only other option, or at least the only other thing I could think of to do was to go get help from Ann and Doug. I didn't like the idea of leaving Cliff here alone, but given the circumstances I didn't have any other conceivable choices! "I'm sorry Cliff, but I'm going to go get you some help. Just wait here a little longer okay?" I apologized to him as I stood up.

I unbuttoned my coat and draped it over top of Cliff, I was wearing my overalls and my normal flannel shirt under the thing. Given the current conditions, I could live without my coat long enough to loan it to him until he was safe in the Clinic. I stood to my full height, ready to bolt for the Inn when something caught my eye. Something was sticking out of the snow next to Cliff, I bent over and picked it up without a thought, sticking it in my pocket for safe keeping until I could look at it while not in a hurry.

To be honest, everything until Cliff was safely laying in a bed in the Clinic, where he should have been, is a bit of a blur to me. I was acting on pure adrenaline the whole time I was running for the Inn and helping Ann, Doug and Carter get Cliff help. Only when I heard the Doctor say that Cliff was going to be okay, that he was suffering from a cold and a fever and just needed rest, did I start to calm down.

I breathed a sigh of relief at hearing that, my heart finally coming off of its adrenaline high. "Thank the Goddess. . . ." I muttered under my breath.

"You all can go home now, everything is going to be fine." Doctor Trent said with his usual monotone voice, I heard Ann sigh in relief and start talking with her father as they started for the exit. Carter thanked Trent for his help and started out the door, muttering a brief thank you to me for finding him. I nodded in response to him, staying behind them, not quite ready to leave yet.

"Huh, so much for my plans to go to the Supermarket. . . ." I muttered to myself as I took my scarf and mittens off.

"Claire?" I heard Elli call to me, "Claire you can go about your day if you want to, Cliff isn't in any danger." she told me.

The Doctor was already back at his desk, working on some paperwork, when I looked over to the brunette who was standing near me. "I know I can Elli, but I couldn't relax if I tried."

"You heard what the Doctor said though, all Cliff needs to do is rest for a few days, and he'll be fine."

I nodded, "I heard him say that but . . . I'm the one who found him, and I feel like I should at least wait here until he wakes up or comes to or something. . . ." I shrugged, "I don't know why I feel that way I just do."

She sighed, "Well it won't be a problem for you to wait here until he wakes up, just as long as you don't disturb Cliff I'm sure the Doctor won't mind." Elli replied, "I'll go get you a chair to sit in while you wait."

"Okay, thanks Elli. I appreciate that."

When the girl was out of sight I let out a heavy breath of air and ran my hand through my bangs. I set my hands on my hips and looked down at the apparently sick Cliff and frowned. "Man . . . just what was running through your mind to go out into the freezing snow like that. . . .?" I questioned, though it was more of a question to myself rather than him.

At that moment I remembered picking something up that was next to Cliff before ran to get help. . . . I reach into my back pocket and pulled out the piece of thickish paper and got a good look at what it was finally.

"A photo? Is this a picture of Cliff and his family?" I murmured to myself upon seeing it.

Upon hearing the sounds of a chair's legs scraping lightly across tiled-floor, I promptly hid the photo behind my back.

"Here's that chair for you Claire. If you need something, let me know okay?" Elli said with a smile.

"Uh-huh! I got it Elli, and thanks!" I chirped with a falsely happy grin on my face.

She left the curtained room again, and as soon as she was out of sight I dropped the fake smile and brought the picture out from behind my back. I took hold of the chair Elli had brought in for me and dragged it so I was sitting right next to Cliff. With a sigh I dropped myself into the chair and let my eyes go between looking at the picture in my hands, and at the face of the unconscious boy next to me.

"Is this what you were mulling over? I'm guessing the snow makes you think of some bad memories or something, doesn't it? If it didn't, you wouldn't have wandered out into it all confused like you were and got yourself sick. . . ." I prattled on quietly, trying to make some sense of the situation in my head.

Again, I didn't actually know Cliff that well, I just knew that we've always gotten along with each other. Even when I could hardly get him to speak a word, he would at least be listening to me while I talked. He's been one of the few people in this town that I actually could talk to I guess, and I've always felt sort of attached to him I guess. I can't describe what I mean when I say 'attached'. It is a weird feeling I have, and it's only around him. My heart starts to flip out and my thoughts get slightly jumbled. . . . It's been like this ever since I met him. I almost feel like I want to protect him all the time too, despite not knowing much about him I've always felt this weird urge to defend him from whatever it was that makes him act sad and quiet all the time.

I do, including now. I don't know why that is! I just know that I feel that way about him. It gets me so frustrated that I feel like screaming until I turn blue! I did do that once when I was younger, I don't recommend it though. . . .

I glanced at his sleeping face again and bit my lip, "Why do you do this to me? I know next to nothing about you, and yet I want to protect all the flipping time. You're the only person who makes me feel like this, whose ever made me feel like this."

I let myself recline back in the chair, only I forgot about the wall behind me and wound up smacking the back of my head on it. As always, my head let out a hollow resounding 'thunk', which was promptly followed by a quiet, "Ow. . . ."

I gazed up at the blank white ceiling of the Clinic for I don't know how long, just thinking about why it was that Cliff gave me these weird feelings. All the while, letting the throbbing in the back of my head die off. I kept a light grip on the photo, just letting it lie there in my lap for Goddess knows how long.

It wasn't until Cliff started to stir next to me did I move again. I looked over at him, wondering if he was coming to, or just experiencing a bad dream. . . .

I got my answer when I heard him whimper in his sleep, "M-Mom . . . I'm sorry. . . ." I let out a quiet sigh.

So, he was having a bad dream, and it was about his family. I could only wonder just what had happened to them, and to him as well in order for him to have nightmares about it. I knew that I couldn't be of much help to him, but I gingerly snaked my hand off of my lap and placed it over top of Cliff's.

I noticed that doing this made Cliff stop moving so much, his facial expression also relaxed again. A sad smile overcame my face and I sighed in relief, lightly squeezing his hand.

"I know that I don't know just what you've been through in the past Cliff, but I promise that I'm going to help you get over it. . . ." I quietly promised him, knowing that he couldn't hear me at that moment. In my head I made a silent vow that when Cliff started to feel better, I was going to get to know more about him. And I was going to learn about what happened to his Mom and what looked like his sister.

And, in the future I was going to figure out what these strange feelings are that he makes me feel. I will also figure out why it is that only he makes me feel them. . . . Yeah, I'll start on that after he gets better. . . .

-The End

A/N: Okay, and so concludes my third oneshot! I hope that you all enjoyed it. So if I may ask; how was this one? Was it better or just as good as my others? I hope so, I put a lot of thought into this one. Please let me know what you thought of this, I would very much appreciate it if you did! Reviews help me get better at writing, and I like getting better at that.

Oh and, I have another question to ask, what would you guys think of me attempting to write a full length Harvest Moon fanfiction? It isn't for More Friends of Mineral Town, but rather DS cute. . . . For the last few months I've had this story idea for that game circling around in my brain and I've been working on it for a while, and trying to decide whether or not I should actually go through with it. That is why I started to write one shots for MFOMT, to see if people liked my writing enough for me to go though with this.

I'll give you all some basic info on the story, and if you like the idea let me know and I'll write it out full length!

The title of the story is Legend of the Harvest Goddess, and it the story is told from a Third person's POV, focusing around Claire and Pony from AWL. The story is my own retelling of the events of DS Cute, in a much more epic way. First off, Pony and Claire are cousins who just got out of High School and are preparing to go to college in the Fall, and they are living in the city at the moment with Pony's parents, Claire's Aunt and Uncle. Claire's mom also lives with them by the way!

Claire's parents split up when she was just five, and her father died when she was thirteen. So, she hasn't been back to Forget-Me-Not Valley for about five years, same for Pony. The two of them would spend the Summer with Claire's dad on the Ranch. For some reason, both of them were able to see the Harvest Sprites and the Harvest Goddess when the residents of the Valley weren't able to. The reasons behind this were never answered to the girls, and Claire's father could see them too as well.

Life had been going smoothly for the two, that is until one day when Claire opens up the mailbox to find a strange silver envelope addressed to her that has no return address or a stamp for that matter. . . . Stranger still, since the only mail the girl gets is normally junk mail, or credit card offers. Debating whether or not to open it, the girl finds from that day on the life she thought she was going to lead not so plausible anymore as she cannot get her mind of off the contents of the strange letter and the Valley life she never got a chance to have.

Now she must decide to whether to follow in her father's footsteps and take up a pitchfork and be a farmer, or do what her mother wants to; which is go to college and get a 'real' job. Pony, upon finding out about this urges Claire's decision onward, telling her that no matter what she does, she'll back her up 100%. . . .

Well, that is a somewhat basic summary of the story's beginning. Oh, and just so you know, the pairings in the story are Skye/Claire and Pony/Cliff.

Let me know if I should write it or not please!