Hello readers! I've been on both a writing high and a Harvest Moon high over the past few days, which is why updates have been coming in so quickly :D. I was looking at Harvest Moon fan art, and I came across a picture featuring my favorite harvest moon character of all time, Cliff. It was then that I realized that I had been so focused on writing about the newer harvest moon characters, that I'd completely forgotten about my favorite character! (Cliff was the only Harvest Moon boy I ever really had a crush on. When I was ten, I was convinced that we would get married someday xD). I knew that I had to write something about him, and then the idea for this just sort of rolled into my head. I sincerely hope that there are enough of you old school harvest-mooners out there that know who Cliff is! If you don't know who he is, then you should pick up a copy of MFoMT and play it as soon as possible. If you can't do that, then you should at least search him on Deviantart or Photobucket or something so that you can see what he looks like ;). If you aren't familiar with Cliff's character, don't worry; it shouldn't detract from your reading of this story.

This was my first attempt at writing something less than happy, so I'd love to get some constructive feedback on it! In other words, please review :).

Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon, or any of the wonderful characters that are a part of it.

Claire trudged up the long, winding mountain trail slowly, shortcake in hand. She knew that it didn't matter how fast she moved. Even if she took her sweet time, she knew that he would be there waiting for her.

The journey up the hill was a tiring one, but Claire didn't mind. She had made it up there before to see her husband. She never missed an opportunity to visit him.

When Claire and Cliff had first met, they were both new to the valley. She laid eyes upon him for the first time inside Carter's church. He was sitting in the front pews and muttering to himself. "I…can I be…am I…?" Claire wasn't extremely religious, and the sight of a man muttering to himself in a church does not often leave a good first impression on a girl.

As she was about to leave the church, Carter called her back up to the front, asking if she could "come here a minute". She conceded without much thought, as her and Carter had already grown to be good friends in the few weeks that she'd been living in Mineral Town. Claire could feel the priest's breath in her ears as he spoke to her. It smelled of peppermint and, more faintly, of cigarette smoke.

"You see that young man in the pew over there?" Carter didn't even try to disguise the finger pointed in Cliff's direction.

"You mean the one muttering to himself?" Claire asked.

Carter chuckled good naturedly. "Yes. His name is Cliff. He's new to town, just as you are."

"Oh." Claire replied, not knowing what else to say.

Noticing her lack of understanding, Carter continued, "It would be just splendid if you two were to become friends. Cliff seems a bit troubled, and I think that having a friend should help to take things off of his mind."

Claire sighed, nodded to Carter, and said that she'd do the best she could. She approached the mumbling man slowly.

"Um, excuse me." She said, tapping him on the shoulder. The muttering continued.

"Excuse me." Claire said, wincing a bit at the bite in her tone. This got the man's attention. He stopped muttering, and stared at Claire as if she were an alien from another planet.

Now that the man was standing up in front of her, Claire was able to get a better look at him. His shoulders were broad, his eyes were a deep brown, and his chestnut colored hair was tied back in a short ponytail.

"Hi, I don't believe we've met before?" The young man just shook his head.

"Well, nice to meet you then!" Claire continued, beginning to feel incredibly awkward. "I'm Claire." She said, sticking out a hand.

"Cliff." The man took her hand and shook it firmly.

Carter, smiling broadly, took it from there. "Claire is new to the town too, Cliff. Why don't you two explore the town together? I'm sure you could both learn some interesting things."

"B-but, Carter!" Claire had protested. "I have to get back to my farm; chickens don't feed themselves you know—"

"Oh Claire, don't worry. You're chickens will surely survive the night. Now go on, you two, have fun!" Claire thought that Carter's 'have fun' sounded like more of a demand then a friendly suggestion. He pushed them out the church door, and locked it behind them.

After a silence that seemed to last for ages, Claire finally spoke up. "Shall we?" She asked Cliff.

"Sure, let's go." He said, blushing madly.

Claire, having decided that it was too late to go exploring that day, suggested the two walk down to the Inn for something to eat. Cliff agreed without question.

Feeling the need to say something as they walked, Claire turned to face Cliff.

"So, when did you arrive in Mineral Town?" She asked.

"Four days ago." He replied without much feeling.

"Where do you work?" She tried again.

"I don't have a job." A similarly blunt response.

"Well, where did you come from before here then?" Claire prodded, starting to get annoyed at Cliff's lack of good, conversation building answers. Unlike the other questions however, Cliff didn't respond to this one right away with a nothing-answer. Instead, he paused for a moment, seemingly in thought.

"…I don't really want to talk about it." Cliff responded quietly. Was it just her, or had he choked on his words just then? In Claire's mind's eye, Cliff was beginning to resemble a sad puppy dog. Her annoyance towards him softened, and was replaced by a desire to cuddle him. To tell him that everything was going to be alright.

Unfortunately, even as the pair walked into the Inn, Claire still hadn't been able to come up with a solid subject for conversation. Cliff didn't appear to be thinking about things to talk about at all; he'd become strangely subdued after she'd asked him about his previous home.

"Welcome to Doug's Bar and Inn! I'm Ann, and I will be serving you today. What can I get for you?"

"I'll have the shortcake, please." Claire asked. Shortcake was her favorite food, and she had been very happy to find out that the Inn had it on their menu.

"Certainly!" Ann chirped cheerily. "And you, sir?"

"I'll have the shortcake, too." Cliff said decisively. It was the first decisive thing that Claire had heard come out of his mouth. After Ann made her exit, she looked at him, surprised.

"You're having the shortcake?" She asked.

"Well that is what I ordered." Cliff told her. "It's my favorite."

Claire's eyes lit up. "Mine too! I've always loved shortcake!"

"Really, I thought that no one else did!"

"Same! All of my old friends used to think it was disgusting…"

And that, Claire remembered, was when the conversations between them really began. Talking about shortcake bridged its way into talking about food, animals, plants, seasons, and everything else that life had to offer. Perhaps the only thing that didn't come up on that first night was why Cliff had moved to Mineral Town.

After they'd finished talking, the two walked outside and prepared to say goodbye. Cliff asked if they could get together again sometime soon; he didn't know anyone else in the town, and he'd had a really good time at dinner. Claire said that they should definitely get together again soon, and that she'd had a good time as well. They awkwardly hugged goodbye before Cliff ran off in the opposite direction of Claire's farm.

Claire's walk home was a pleasant one as thoughts about the night swirled around in her head. She couldn't help but laugh about it now. At the time, she'd had no idea that she had just gone on a first date with her future husband.

Claire came up to a particularly jagged portion of the mountain and staggered a bit as she continued on. The shortcake in her hand wobbled, but she tightened her grasp and managed to hold on tight. Even though she was tired, she knew that she couldn't stop. He was waiting, and the climb was only halfway done with.

After that initial first date (that had been set up by Carter of all people), Claire and Cliff began seeing each other more and more often. They figured out that they had even more in common than just a love of shortcake. Finally, during the Starry Night festival on top of Mother's Hill, Cliff told Claire why he had come to Mineral Town.

"I was running away from everything when I decided to come here." He said. He looked at Claire uneasily for a moment, as if hoping that would satisfy her curiosity. She shook her head to show that, no, it didn't.

Cliff sighed. "Sorry, Claire. It's just that I've never told anyone everything before and…Anyway, I was running away." Claire leaned towards him, listening to his words intently.

"My father had abandoned my mother long ago, back when my sister was a little kid, and I still hadn't been born. So my mother, sister, and I lived together in a village far away from here." He looked off into the distance longingly, as if that village were a tangible thing that he could reach out for and pull towards him.

"Even though I had them…I didn't like the situation all that much. My Mom was bipolar, constantly switching between hope and despair. Her and my sister got into fights a lot, some lasting a few minutes, others lasting hours. I loved them both desperately; they were all I had, and it horrified me to see them fighting so much. Of course, amidst the fighting, I was never paid any mind at all. I think that they both assumed that I could just take care of myself. Half the time it was like I wasn't even there."

"Finally, when I was sixteen, I decided that I'd had enough with their constant bickering. In the middle of the night, I picked myself up and left. Didn't even bother packing. Just walked out the door and didn't look back."

"Was that when you moved to Mineral Town?" Claire asked.

"No, I'd left without destination. I travelled everywhere, never staying in one place for two long. It wasn't a bad way to live; sure, I was dirt poor, but I didn't have anyone or anything to tie me down. Nobody to answer to. That is, until…" Cliff turned his head downward and his words became so soft that Claire couldn't understand them.

"Until what?" She urged him on. "C'mon, Cliff, we've known each other for a long time. You can tell me anything." She put a comforting hand on his knee, causing him to look up. She could see that tears were forming in his eyes.

"…Until the fire." Cliff said, after a long pause. "I had been sitting in a hotel room, reading the newspaper of my old town. I liked to catch up on happenings there every now and again; it helped to keep me from getting homesick early on in my travels. But this newspaper was different. On the front cover, there was a big headline that read 'Fire in the Outskirts', and below it..." he stopped for a second to get rid of the tears that were beginning to form in his eyes.

"…Below it…there was a picture. A picture of my house." Cliff's voice softened and the tears travelled in streams down his cheeks. Claire was shocked; no matter how sad he'd gotten, she had never seen Cliff cry before. He didn't even bother wiping the tears away this time.

"Suddenly panicked and in denial, I read the article. My mother had left the stove on after her and my sister had gone to bed. The whole house burned down, and they didn't even wake up. They died in their sleep."

"I was in denial, so I went back there to see if what the newspaper had said was true. When I arrived, my house was nothing more than a pile of ashes and broken wood. I then ran away as quickly as I could. I knew that I had to go to some place far away, to escape what had happened. That's when I moved to Mineral Town and met you."

"Despite my desperate attempt, I couldn't escape it. What still haunts the most," he said, hands balling up into fists, "is that if I had been there, nothing would've happened! I was always the responsible one! I would've noticed the stove! But I wasn't there to notice a thing. They died, and it was my fault for not being there!" Without warning, Cliff stood up. He punched the air repeatedly, and all Claire could do was watch, horrified. He then let out a final despairing wail before he fell back to the ground, howling with sadness.

Claire waited for the crying to slow. Then, after a few minutes, she skillfully lifted him up by the shoulders so that they were facing each other.

"I'm so sorry that all of this happened to you." Claire told him. "Thank you for telling me about it."

Cliff smiled a small smile on his tear streaked face. "S'alright. If I had to tell anyone…I'm glad it was you, Claire." Cliff whispered. He looked nervously to the side for a second, as though he were inspecting his sleeve. As Claire leaned in towards him in hopes of figuring out what he was looking at, Cliff turned around and gave her a quick kiss on the lips.

Claire didn't know how to respond. He had just told her the terrible truth about why he'd moved to Mineral Town, and now he was kissing her?

"Cliff? Did you just…kiss me?"

"Y-yeah. It was my first, was it bad?" He asked, blushing nervously.

"N-no, not at all! In fact, it was my first, too." She admitted.

"Claire…" he began, grabbing her hands. "There's another reason that I wanted to talk to you up here. Besides telling you about me, I mean."

"Hmm? Yes?"

"I…I think we could be really great together." He said. Claire's eyes widened as she watched him pull out a blue feather. The kind that meant marriage. "I want to be with you forever."

"Oh, Cliff!" Claire said, grinning broadly as she dug through her rucksack. "I brought one too!" She was holding up a blue feather, identical to his.

"No way!" Cliff said, shocked.

"Great minds think alike, huh?" She giggled.

"Yeah, yeah I guess they do." He said. No official "will you marry me?" was exchanged. The pair knew that they both wanted the exact same thing; to live happily ever after with the other.

"You know what, Claire? You're the best thing that's happened to me in a long time." Cliff said, smiling.

And they kissed again, although this kiss lasted much longer than the first one.

The top of the mountain was in sight. Claire grunted with effort as she scaled the last few ledges. Just a bit farther…

Once she got close enough, Claire stopped for a moment and took a deep breath, preparing herself. With her free hand, she was able to grasp a rock on the top of the mountain and pull herself up.

She spotted her husband almost as soon as she arrived.

"Cliff!" She called to him. She could hear her voice reverberating across the stony peak. "Cliff…Cliff…Cliff…"

She walked up to him slowly, and knelt down beside him, a soft smile on her face. Claire had resolved early on to do her best to remain composed while she visited. He wouldn't want to see me upset. I don't want to disappoint him…

"Happy birthday, my dearest." She whispered, setting down the shortcake she had carried beside a smooth stone. His stone.

Here Lies Cliff

1981—2009

Husband and friend, you shall be missed dearly

"I know it's your favorite, so I made sure to bring you some on your special day." She said, smiling at the headstone.

Claire bent in close to her husband, and gave him a quick kiss. Cool, unfeeling rock met her lips. She then pulled back, and sat in silence for a moment. She observed what a queer combination sat before her; smooth, gray, stone beside soft, colorful shortcake.

"Well? Aren't you going to eat any?" Claire asked, even though she knew somewhere deep down that it was hopeless. Cliff couldn't eat any shortcake. He could never eat anything again.

Dead. The word echoed in Claire's mind. No! She tried to push it away. She had been trying to push it away for the past year. But her efforts bore no fruit. Because, here or not, she knew that there was no way that she would ever miss visiting her husband on his birthday. And each time she came back to the mountain peak and sat by the stone, the word came back to mind. Dead.

"C'mon, there's no need to be shy!" Claire spoke a little bit louder. "Eat it! I made it just for you!" But there was no response. No noise. No Cliff.

The shortcake remained untouched.

"Go on, eat it. Please? For me? Nothing's stopping you." She said, smiling delusionally and nodding to the headstone. Still nothing.

"God damnit, nothing's stopping you! Why won't you eat it?" Claire raised her voice, her face a peculiar mixture of feigned happiness, despair, and fear of the inevitable truth.

"For goodness' sake, Cliff! Eat the fucking shortcake!" She screamed. Her scream was met with nothing but silence.

Claire's knees buckled, and she fell to the ground in a miserable heap. The tears began flowing; she couldn't have stopped them even if she'd wanted to.

Why? Why did you have to leave me? She thought as she sobbed wretchedly. When you said forever? Didn't that mean anything to you?

Claire looked up, her face blotchy, and her bright blue eyes outlined with a ring of puffy red. A shadow had cast itself over the peak, and tiny droplets of rain began to fall.

Her attention was once again brought to the shortcake sitting beside the grave. The frosting on top of it was beginning to go runny in the rain. Suddenly, Claire felt her sadness melt into heated anger.

"This is all your fault!" she shouted accusingly at the piece of cake. "If Cliff and I hadn't gone out to that Inn, if I hadn't ordered shortcake…We bonded and it was all your fault!" Claire roared, her tears blending with the rain drops.

In a rage, Claire picked up the shortcake that she had worked hard to bring up the mountain safely. Without a second thought, she hurled it over the edge of the mountain. She watched it get smaller and smaller until it had surely fallen into oblivion.

The shortcake was gone. Cliff was gone. Claire wished more than anything that she could be gone with them.