A/N: Thanks for those who have reviewed. :) I hope you guys stay throughout the end! If you do have any suggestions on improving the dialogue, please tell me. I'm not really familiar to how casual English conversations flow. Bear with me!

Oh, and this would be in Gray's POV.

Disclaimer: I do not own HM.

Chapter 4: What Blooms Over Spring


I stared back at the woman from the forge as she came towards me. I, on the other hand, just froze there on the spot.

"Shouting inhospitably on an innocent stranger and trespassing, I see? Gee, what kind of trouble does that await you?"

I gulped nervously. I stiffened like a young kid caught sneaking out for the cookie jar in the middle of the night. I looked at her, terrified. I knew damn well how my grandfather would punish me with a mortifying lecture about civility and manhood the whole day at work tomorrow, but only the Goddess would know what would happen to me if I had to endure another ordeal.

"Imprisonment for a while? Or a half year in community service perhaps?"

Goddess, she's enjoying this, isn't she? I shuffled fretfully in my seat like I used to whenever I got scolded by parents. I glanced at her tiny frame. How could this little person have the power to give me such terror like that?

"But then, you are a lucky bastard because I am such in good mood today to let this slide."

I sighed heavily in a broken draft of breath, my nervousness very evident. I mentally thanked the Harvest Goddess. That was very kind of her to-

"However,"

Uh oh. I didn't like the sound of that word. The mere sound of the word just simply took back the fear and uneasiness that left my body a second ago.

"I'm going to be in need of a helper to revive this hell of a farm for the following weeks, the whole season maybe, and your unforced offering to help me might just get your butt out of the trouble you've caused, depending on the quality of your work, of course," she snickered and reached out her hand. "Deal?"

"Yes, yes! I'm going to help you. It's a deal!" I shook her hand a bit too excitedly, earning myself a pair of widened sapphire eyes to look at. Hell, who could blame me?

She smiled, "Good. I'm Claire. And yeah, as obvious as it is, I'm the fortunate new owner of this farm."

I nodded, "Gray."

She sat down next to me on the stump, silence forming between us.

Okay, this is awkward.

"I-I'm sorry… I'm sorry for shouting at you earlier," I started, breaking the silence. "I'm not usually like that to people. It's just that my grandfather has this way of getting on my nerves." I looked away, a bit ashamed at the admission of my bad temper.

"It's all good. I used to have a boss like that too. So I completely understand."

We chatted until we noticed the sun was setting. She was pretty steady; a typical city girl who just seemed to be a little… boyish and childlike. It's good because honestly, I really do not have quite the strength to talk normally with a girl, let alone, with an attractive one. With her, it didn't even feel like I was talking to a girl. It felt like I was just talking to my sister. Her scratching of armpit and proceeding to smell her poor hand in front of me a while ago didn't even help to make her seem like a girl either. But then again, what kind of sophisticated lady would want to work in a farm?

I grinned to myself, walking on my way home. Well, this would be interesting.


I yawned widely, stretching my already worn-out limbs. Where the hell is she? She's not expecting me to work here all by myself, is she?

It's been a week and a half since I've been helping out Claire in the farm, and to tell you the truth, it's been tiring as hell. After the deal is off, I'd feel pretty bad for just leaving Claire with all the works. It's probably one of her tactics, because she knew I wouldn't be able to leave her like this. I sneered.

At first, she would seem to be this sweet and fragile little girl. She might also open that little pretty mouth of hers and let out a gentle voice to compliment on how you look better without your cap on, but you just don't let that fluster and deceive you. It's all just a tactic.

She is a manipulative clever witch in young attractive woman's body.

I saw her running structure through the corner of my eye. "Hey, sorry, I went to mine," She panted out. "Here, I figured you might need more of this as spares," handing me a couple of silver ores. "Saibara told me you mess up quite a lot in the forge."

I grimaced at the remark, yet still touched that she bothered to get me these. Maybe she isn't that bad. Why does she go through that much trouble just to get me these ores? She's been doing this quite a lot lately, for whatever reason I do not know. My eyes widened at a sudden thought. It's not like she has a crush on me or something, right?

I blushed at the thought, forcing my mind to dismiss it.

Nah. This might be one of her tactics again… or not. Who would know? But I saw her once giving a bunch of wild grasses to the doctor, and Little May once told me that Claire had given her flowers a couple of times too when I was on my way from work. So this treatment isn't any unusual. Maybe she's just that considerate. I bet she'd make a good wife. Her future husband would be so lucky to receive gifts like this from such a charmi-

What the fuck? I was just taken aback by my own thoughts. What the hell am I thinking?

I shook my head.

"How old are you?" I asked her, now that I thought about it, she doesn't seem too young to get marr-

Ah! Stop! I scolded myself mentally. What is up with me today?

She looked up from her work, a bit surprised at my random question. "Turning twenty-six on the 14th. Why'd you ask?"

"Oh yeah?" I realized her birthday was pretty near from now. "You know, you've been giving me a lot of silver ores lately. I'm getting better at work, and the ores kind of just stacked there at the forge. I could make a necklace for you out of them as a birthday gift, if you want."

She turned to look back at me for a couple of seconds, her mouth slightly open. Then, proceeded back to her work.

"Eh," she wrinkled her nose. "Not my style."

I snarled. How could she be so discourteous? I'm being nice enough to offer her a present. Can't she at least be more polite to refuse? "What is your style then? A bicycle chain around your neck?" I laughed at my own joke as she mustered all her might to give me one of her most mortifying glare; only to find myself laughing harder. "But seriously, that would be a lot easier for me."

"Why do you even bother? Do you always go around town giving out presents to random people on their birthdays?"

"Wow, asked the girl who gives out ores and stuff to townsfolk every single day!" I barked.

She opened her mouth for another retort, but found nothing to come out.

Ha. Touche. What up?

"Why does it even concern you? Anyway, forget it. You don't need to get into that much trouble. It's not like you owe me or something." I watched the tightening on her face loosen as if something had just hit her. "Oooh. I see now. You're trying to bribe me to call this deal off, aren't ya?" She snickered. "Not gonna happen, sugar."

"I am not! Jeez. I just felt like I just had to give you something back because of all the gifts you've given me. If you really don't want anything, then fine. I'm just being nice here."

But yeah, there's that too.

She shrugged and then we proceeded to work in silence.

After an hour, I saw her replacing the watering can in her rucksack. Seriously, how many things can occupy that bag? I swear, it's just like a freaking Doraemon pocket.

She dusted off the dirt on her hands, a signal that the work is finished.

"Thanks for helping out. We're done for today. I'll see you tomorrow." She gave me one of her rare smiles, then turned towards the house.

Now that I realized, she could really be kind of cute when she's not frowning.

A/N: Ehh. Sorry for a corny ending. I wanted to highlight how giving gifts in the game increased the affection of the bachelors. And yeah, that's the best I could come up with. I hope you enjoyed that. Watch out for the next chapter: Claire helps Gray make chocolate cookies for Mary, on Claire's birthday! Yup, Claire's birthday is the same day as the Spring Thanksgiving. See you there! Review please!