A/N: Thank you AtYourSide for reviewing! You are awesome!
DISCLAIMER: I do not own Harvest Moon.
Chapter 4: The Blue-Eyed Blacksmith
Claire POV
"Outfit, check! Now, for the hair…" I pulled out a brunette wig from Jack's bag. It's a good thing he brought a wig with him. Wait, why did he bring this again? Oh yeah, he said that there might be a 'twin day' or something since they celebrate a lot of festivals in this town. Jack's so weird.
I put on the wig and made sure that it would stick on my head. Then, I put on his hat and wore it backwards. "Wig and hat, check! Time to check myself out!"
I got out of the bathroom and looked at the mirror on the wall. I turned my body around, checking myself at all angles.
"Hmm, not bad…but you make me look kind of scrawny. I don't remember you looking like that last night." Jack barked.
"Well it's the best I can do. If the mayor asks, I'll just say that I lost weight." I said.
"What about your eyes? My eyes aren't blue." he added.
"Easy. I'll just say that I'm wearing contacts."
"And what about your skin? My skin isn't that-"
"Ugh, look Jack, we already talked about this last night! Don't worry about it, it'll be fine! Trust me. And don't be so nervous. You're making me more nervous than I already am!" Jack's not really helping me with my nerves. I'm sure Jack's nervous about all of this too, but I should feel way more nervous about this that he is.
"Right, sorry."
"Good. Alright, let's head out! Remember our code talk, right? From now on, I'll be calling you Ted in public. Don't forget the puppy talk."
"Yeah, yeah. Just don't screw it up for me, okay? Practice your voice real quick."
"Ahem…Hi, I'm Jack." I said manly.
"No, no. My voice isn't that deep. Try again. Do the one you did last night."
"Hi, I'm Jack." I said again, with a squeaky, high-pitched voice.
"Quit playing around! Seriously..."
"Alright, alright. Eh-heemm….Hi, I'm Jack."
Jack sighed. "Fine, that'll do. Let's go already!"
We walked out of the farm and followed the pathway up north. Then all of a sudden, my stomach growled.
"Looks like we should head out to the Inn first, huh Ted?" I hugged my stomach as if it would help suppress the growl.
I power walked all the way to the town square, with Jack trailing behind me. I turned to my left and kept walking until I saw a sign that said 'Doug's Inn' next to a two-story building. 'Looks like this is the inn' I thought.
I opened the door which triggered the sound of bells. A middle-aged man with reddish-blond hair and a thick mustache was standing behind a bar table, wiping a beer mug. He looked at me when he heard the door slam.
"Welcome! Haven't seen you around here before. The name's Doug. What can I get ya?" He grinned and waved at me.
I cleared my throat. "My name is Jack and this is my puppy, Ted." I came up to him and tried to do my best manly handshake. "I'm the new owner of the farm. You serve breakfast here, right? I need some to fill myself up for the day." I bent down and picked Jack up. "And this little guy needs some dog food. I ran out of some." I said this as I ruffled with his fur.
"Aren't you a cute lil' fella?" Doug was petting him too, and I could tell Jack doesn't like it.
"Hands off, old man!" Jack growled. I chuckled. Doug couldn't hear him talk. All he could hear was his bark.
"He's a lively one, that pup. So you're the new farmer everyone's been talkin' about? That's great! We've always needed one. I heard that you're the grandson of the late owner."
"That I am! I'm trying to pick up where he left off. I'm gonna make my farm the best this towns ever seen!" I said this as I swung a thumbs-up with a goofy grin. My best Jack impression.
"Claire, you look stupid. And I don't smile like that!" Jack barked.
"Hey, I like your attitude, son! You should meet my daughter sometime. And tell ya what, breakfast is on the house! I'll even give you extra bags of scraps for your pup!"
"Oh you don't have to…" This guy's being really generous. Is everyone in town this nice?
"It's no problem. I'll be back with your food later so just sit down and relax." He left us near a table close to the bar and went inside the back room. I put down Jack on the floor and sat on a chair.
"Phew. That wasn't so bad. He bought it." I think I can really pull this off. Ah Goddess, you were right! "So everyone's been talking about you? You only moved in here yesterday and you're already Mr. Popular!" I whispered to Jack.
"Well it is a small town. I'm pretty sure everybody knows everyone here. That's why you should be extra careful with how you act around here. Make one mistake and the whole town will know!"
"No problem, Jack. I think I can do this!" I was feeling confident.
As I was waiting for Doug, I heard footsteps of a person coming down the stairs in the inn. I turned my head, facing the stairs. I saw a tall-looking young man with reddish-blond hair. He looks pretty well-built under that light-brown jumpsuit he's wearing. When he turned around facing the bar, my jaw instantly dropped. I had a good look at his face as he walked closer and closer to the bar. His eyes were icy blue – yet they were dark and mysterious. He wore a serious expression on his face. Now normally, I'm not attracted to serious guys, but this guy was an exception. What a hunk…
"Claire, don't stare at him like that! And quit drooling!" Jack growled.
He's a cute guy, I can't help it. Don't you think he's cute, Claire 2?
Yeah, yeah. He's pretty good-looking. But Jack's right, don't look at him like that! You're a guy, remember?
Oh crap, that's right!
"Why the hell are you looking at me like that?" The cute guy said in a husky voice. Ah Goddess, even his voice makes me melt! But he sounded a bit angry.
"Daah…umm…" I blushed. Oh no, I'm at a loss for words!
Just then, Doug came out of the back room holding our breakfast. "Ah, Gray. Off to work?" He glanced at me. "And I see you've met Jack."
"Jack?"
"Yeah, the young man you're standing next to right now. He's the new farmer." Doug explained.
"Whatever. Have you seen my hat anywhere?" Ack! Whatever!? Meanie…
"Oh, here." Doug pulled out a hat under the bar table. It had the word 'UMA' on the front in big, bold letters. It was a strange, but cute baseball cap. He tossed it to Gray.
"Ann hid it under here while you were sleeping. Don't tell her I gave it to you."
"Hmph. Figures." Gray put on his hat and started to walk towards the door, but stopped until his back was facing towards me. Nice ass.
Cuh-laireee. You're a guy.
Right, bad Claire! Jack doesn't look a guy's ass. At least I think he doesn't.
"New farmer, huh? I wonder how long you'll last." Gray continued to walk towards the door and left the inn without another word.
"What a douche!" Jack growled. Yeah, despite his looks, he was kind of a jerk.
Doug came up to the table and placed a plate of pancakes, bacon, and eggs in front of me. My mouth was drooling again. He then gave me a couple of bags filled with scraps for Jack. "Enjoy your meal!" He grinned and placed a glass of orange juice on the table. "Oh, and don't worry about my son. He's not really good with new people, but he's a good guy at heart."
"It's okay. I'm sure he is. Thanks for the breakfast!"
Doug left the table and went behind the counter. I opened the bag of scraps, took out a piece of meat, and held it out for Jack to come eat it. Jack came up to me, but didn't take the meat.
"What's wrong, boy? Why won't you eat it?"
Jack just sneered at me and growled. "No problem, huh?"
I jammed the meat into his mouth. "Oh, shut up! I can't help my hormones." I whispered.
"Well you better straighten yourself up! I saw how you were looking at Gray! The last thing I need is a rumor that I'm…well…you know…"
"No one will think that, I promise. Now let's eat already. I'm starving!"
We wolfed down our food, thanked Doug, and left the inn. Taking a shortcut, we reached the supermarket in no time. A man with a thin mustache greeted me inside the supermarket. He told me that his name is Jeff and that he is the owner; but why is he dressed like a butler? Weird. Anyways, a young woman came out of the back room. She sported a purple vest, white camisole, and denim shorts. Her long, brown hair reached up to her waist, and her blonde bangs framed her face, bringing out her emerald eyes. I would have thought she was pretty, but she looked tired and miserable.
"Ughhh…" she moaned.
"Are you OK?" I asked, genuinely concerned.
"Mmm…hangover…"
"Ah, I feel you. Hold on a sec…" I took out my brown rucksack and pulled out a water bottle. "Here. I got some fresh water from the Goddess pond. You should drink a lot of water when you have hangovers."
"You think I don't know that!?" She kinda snapped at me and grabbed the bottle off of my hands. "…Thanks though." She guzzled down the water and wiped her mouth.
"My name's Jack, by the way. And this is Ted, my puppy."
"I'm Karen. Nice meeting you, Jack and -" She looked down at the pup. "Uh…I'm more of a cat person. Sorry."
"Aw, I wouldn't mind if you pet me." Jack barked. Ha, too bad.
"It's cool."
Karen placed her hand on my shoulder. "Thanks for the water, really. You're a nice guy and you know… you're pretty cu-"her cheeks suddenly puffed up. Oh she better not –
"BLEEEEEEGH!" she threw up on my red scarf. She threw up on me!
"AW! WHAT THE FU-"
"Sorweeggh!" Karen covered her mouth with her hand and sprinted back to the back room. Jeff saw everything and his mouth shaped an 'o'.
"Oh my Goddess! I-I am so sorry about my daughter!" he gasped. "H-hold on, let me get you something." Jeff took out some paper towels and what looks like 3 bags of seeds.
"Here, Jack. Again, I truly apologize for Karen's behavior. Consider the seeds as an apology." Jeff handed me the items and I roughly wiped the sour-smelling substance off of my scarf.
"It's…nothing." I tried to not let it get to me, I mean, who throws up on a person? That's disgusting! "Uh Jeff, thanks for the bag of seeds. I think I should be going back to my farm now."
"Ah…well…p-please, come back again."
We left the supermarket and quickly headed back to my farm. Jack couldn't stop himself from laughing at that whole Karen incident on our way.
"Hahaha! You should have seen the look on your face when she did that to you! Priceless!"
"You think that's funny!? I think that's disgusting! How would you feel if she did that to you?"
"Of course I would be mad like you right now if that happened to me. I mean, that's such a turn off. It's only funny when I'm not the target."
"Well she threw up on me, who's supposed to be you, and…augh I smell like crap! Does she look familiar to you? Because I sure hope that's not your mystery girl!"
"Uh, I forgot what she looks like, so not really. It could be any of the women in this town. But hey, look at the bright-side; at least she almost called you cute. Heh, so she thinks Jack is cute huh…"
"Well what she did was anything but cute."
We finally reached the farm. I so wanted to change my clothes but I was supposed to fix up the field and plant some seeds anyways. So I spent the entire day working on the field smelling like Karen's crap. When I was done, I wiped off the sweat on my forehead and looked at my watch. 'It's almost 4pm' I thought. 'Oh that's right; I should check myself in at the inn soon. But first, I have got to wash these horrible-smelling clothes and take a shower. I should probably relax at the hot spring, too.' I washed Jack's clothes and hung them out to dry. I placed the baseball cap and wig in my rucksack. Then, I took a quick shower and put on a white bath robe.
"Hey Jack, I'm going straight to the inn after I take a dip at the hot springs. I'll see you tomorrow!"
"Bye Claire. Come here early, OK?" Jack stayed inside the house and I closed the door. It's a good thing there's a pet door, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to get in and out of the house with his own will. Anyways, I went off to the hot spring while carrying my bathing supplies on a basket.
When I got there, I quickly went inside the women's changing room, took off my robe, and dipped my naked self into the hot pool. I let out a long sigh and further immersed myself into the water.
"Ahhh….this feels so good."
Just then, I heard ruffling noises coming from the men's changing room. 'Oh, that better not be some old pervert' I thought 'didn't he read the sign I made?' I placed my hand on a smooth rock, readying myself to throw it at the upcoming slime-ball. The changing room door opened and I couldn't really see the male figure before me really well because of all the steam in the way. But without hesitation, I threw the rock at him, for I didn't want him to get the chance of having even a glimpse of my naked body.
"FEEL MY WRATH, YOU PERV!!!"
I must have hit him pretty hard in the head because he instantly fell onto the floor. Is he unconscious? I quickly got out of the water and covered myself with a towel. I was shocked to see who I had hit.
Gray?
Gray POV
- hours later -
"Ooh…" I moaned. What the hell just happened to me? I slowly opened my eyes to see…a girl?
"Gaah! What the- "I quickly sprung up and distanced myself from this girl – a good 10 feet away.
"Eyaaah!" She screamed. Why did she scream? And why is she covering her eyes…oh. I looked down at myself, realizing that my towel was on the ground. I-I'm naked in front of this poor girl!
"Ah…s-sorry!" I felt my face heating up. I quickly picked up the towel and wrapped it around my waist. I've never been in a more awkward situation like this in my life! What do I do?
The girl spoke. "Um…s-so you're alive? Thank Goddess…"
"…" I didn't know what to say because there's so many things that I wanted to know at once. Like why was I lying down on that girl's lap near the Goddess pond? And why am I naked? I rubbed the back of my head and rubbed my forehead. Then I remembered. I was going to take a bath at the hot spring after mining. When I went inside, someone threw a rock at me, hitting me almost right in the middle of my forehead. That's right…
"Dammit, who did that!?" I said out loud, without thinking.
"I-I'm so sorry! I didn't mean to hit you so hard. I was just defending myself!"
My face flushed and I quickly turned my back at her. "Y-you could have at least put a sign that said you were using it!"
"But I did! Didn't you see it? Come here, let me show you!" she grabbed my wrist with her tiny hand and dragged me to the hot spring. "See, I put a sign right- huh? Hey! Where'd it go?"
I looked down and saw a piece of paper with some scotch tape stuck at the bottom of the entrance door. I picked it up and read it: 'IN USE. NO PERVERTS ALLOWED!'
I showed it to her. "Is this it?"
"Ah that's it! That's the sign I placed on the door. I knew I should have used stronger tape!"
"Hmph…argh!" I suddenly felt a sharp pain on my right temple. I rubbed it with my hand. This girl really did hit me hard…
"Oh no…does it still hurt? I should probably take you to the clini-"
"No! I mean, no…t-that's fine. Let me just…put some clothes on."
The girl turned red. "Ah, y-yeah, you do that."
I went back to the changing room and put on my black t-shirt, jeans, and cap. I carried my bag, which contained my work clothes and mining tools, on my shoulder. Who was that girl? I've never seen her around town yet I feel like I've met her before…
When I was done putting on my clothes, I came outside and was startled to see that the girl is still here. It looks like she changed too; instead of the white bath robe she wore, she wore a pink t-shirt and white shorts. I quickly turned around and lowered my hat.
"You know, you didn't have to wait for me…"
"B-but I wanted to. It's my fault that I got you unconscious."
"…" the thought of that just hurts my male pride.
"…take off your hat."
"Huh?"
"I want to see the injury myself. I may be able to treat it."
"…i-it's fine."
"No, it isn't fine! Come over here." She pulled my arm again and dragged me back to the Goddess pond. We sat down near the edge of the water. "I should have looked at it more closely."
She took my hat off and touched my forehead. I blushed a bit when she moved part of my hair to the side. She let out a small gasp.
"Ah, you're bleeding! Hold on a sec." she pulled out a first aid kit from her rucksack and took out an antiseptic and a bandage. "This will sting a bit."
"…" I didn't want to show any more signs of weakness in front of this woman, so I bit my tongue as she wiped the bleeding bump with a cotton ball.
She blew the wound and I blushed even more. Her face was so close to mine that I had a good look at her. She had long, blonde hair, fair skin, and eyes as blue as a cloudless sunny sky.
…so cute
No! I meant 'so close'. Yeah, this girl is too close to my face!
She placed a small bandage on my bump. "There!" she said "That should do it."
"…"
"What? Not even a thank you?" she puffed her cheeks and folded her arms.
I put my hat back on and looked away from her. Why should I thank someone for hitting me with a damn rock? But then again, I couldn't blame her for defending herself, even though I had no idea she was using the hot spring. And, well…she's nice, I guess.
"Hmph. Th-thanks…"
"Good." She smiled and stood up."Well, I have to go to the inn right now, so-"
"I…I'll take you there."
"You don't have to..."
"Well I'm headed towards the inn anyways. I stay over there. And besides, I – you shouldn't be walking alone at night." It's already night time…damn, how long was I out?
"Um, alright. Thank you."
We walked down the stairs and continued on our way to the inn. Not a word was said, and all you could hear were cricket sounds. But that soon changed when the girl finally broke the awkward silence between us.
"…My name is Claire."
"Gray."
"…"
"…"
Another awkward silence...