(A/N: God! FINALLY UPDATED! Because I have my own Notebook now. :D *angels singing hallelujah beyond the heavens* First time opening Mic. Word and I'm off writing my HM fanfic. XD Can't help it, love the game, love the current bachelor ending. :P So here we are, folks! The long looooong awaited Cliff's ending! ..He's my favourite bachelor too. XD)

CHAPTER 10: 10:00PM – 11:00PM

This time, I won't stay back on some random chair waiting for Doctor's blood to magically disappear. Nope, after the mess I managed to cook up within only half an hour, I'm determined to at least mop the clinic floor while Elli's busy with treating Cliff, and Doctor at the sideways holding an ice bag.

That's what I'm doing currently, actually.

"Mopping the clinic, yeah~! Mopping all the blood off, woot woot!"

"For heaven's sake, Claire. This is a clinic, and you're mopping blood, this is not a good time to be singing, of all things."

I spun around with the mop, facing a very infuriated Trent holding up the bag of ice against his slightly cerise face. I simply don't feel like apologizing, no matter how pitiful he looked, so after a very long inhale, I sang even louder.

"Ain't my fault, ain't my blood! Yet I'm mopping the floor filled with your blood-flood~!"

Doctor Trent's face malformed into the most hideous-looking glare I have ever seen. Now I strongly blame Doug's alcohol, for making me this loud and hyper.

Moments after that, with the mop being wrestled off from me, I was sent to sit at the corner of the clinic, holding Doctor's bag of ice, silently watching the said doctor with the mop, roughly swabbing the floor with a grunt. It was partly my fault to blow his fuse when things aren't looking up for the poor (poor) man...

I need to try and make him feel better, or distract him from his misery. ...That's when Doug's alcohol suddenly entered in my mind.

"OH!" My loud outburst ranged through the quiet air, which startled Doctor and resulting him to drop his beloved mop in sync of my sudden disturbance. Thankfully, he had already finished wiping the floor clean, so he didn't need to pick it back up. Plus, he has Claire to order around to do so.

Said Claire though, was busy ransacking her rucksack, and it took her until Doctor was within 5 meters that the blonde farmer pulled out the very item that was the source of a miracle for her to even survive nature. ...By nature, I mean both the weather and a hot-blooded doctor.

"I present to you...the Miracle Booze!" With such enthusiasm, I announced. My grip tight around the barrel of the newly created wine. I figured that Doctor Trent needs to know of this, since it literally cured me from being a living popsicle. "Doug made it! It's still untested, but I drank it, and it saved me, so now it is! I think you should check it out. Maybe it can be used as a cure."

I handed the wine bottle to the stoic black-haired, and sure enough, he does seem rather intrigued. I grinned broadly, figuring he would forgive me for gallantly granting him a new subject to test on, but instead...

"I'm glad to have you as my lab rat, Claire."

"..WHAT?" 'Oi, c'mon, not again...'

Doctor didn't seem fazed at all and took my sign of objection as a yes. I sighed in depression, since it's probably the only way for him to literally forgive me, but when I turned to face him, I almost squeaked seeing him staring at me with such intensity...or was it focus?

"Claire, are you wearing a dog's collar?"

'Damn, not another Gray.'

My hand flew right onto the ribbon on my blonde hair, insulted. Or since this is the doctor I'm speaking to, maybe that's what he was aiming? "It's a RIBBON, for Goddess's sake! You men are so unperceptive..."

Doctor's clever reply was the least of what I expected him to say though, "No. We're just acting insensitive to tease you."

My mouth flew open for a retort, my tongue trying its best to form something, anything to say, but unfortunately, no words came out. One thought did echo inside my head for the longest time, 'That was...SO TRUE!'

The black-haired doctor chuckled at how speechless I am, and then added, "It looks cute, Claire. You don't need to pull it off." And with only that said, my hand swung back to my side, and continued to grin ear-to-ear at him. At the sight, the doctor breathed out heavily, "And you women are so fickle sometimes..."

Right after he said that, Elli came out of the patient room, along with a silver tray filled with all of Cliff's medicine on it. She seems like she's about to report something, but her attention was inquisitively drawn towards my gloved hands at the time, so she halted her news for the time being to focus on my mittens instead.

"Claire, hand me your mittens. I'll clean it for you."

That caught me off-guard. Out of all the questions she can ask, she took interest of my mittens? "What? No, that's okay, Elli. It's awfully nice of you to, but I don't want to burden you."

The nurse took a step closer to me, so we're both standing face to face with Trent watching us from the side silently. Elli shook her head meekly and smiled at me, "No, it's truly fine. I have the right bleach to get rid of any blood. Plus, you're much busier than I am."

"Elli, come on, busy as I am, I always have time to do my laundry. I can get rid of the blood like any animal poop that stained my overalls, you know?"

"Oh, I see... But those are woolen gloves, and I understand it's very delicate to simply clean it like you usually would, Claire. Please let me."

"Hahah, Elli, you're too nice sometimes, which is why I won't take advantage of you. I'll manage to figure out how to clean it—"

My words were cut short when Doctor Trent suddenly took a frontal step in between us, one of his eyebrows twitching, "Just...let ME clean it."

Both Elli and I shot him a bewildered look and chorused, "Doctor!"

"It's my gift, it's my fault that it got stained, and that's my blood. I'll clean it."

Elli was stunned silence, and I was left speechless and dumbfounded. In its entirety, Doctor Trent was thoroughly right. While I was still in that dazed state, Trent had pulled the mittens off my hands, and was surprised by what he sees around my wrists.

"Claire."

The red skin marks from my earlier fight with Gray. Doctor didn't say anything else, merely calling out my name, and just studied my eyes with his discriminating gaze. I didn't respond, jolted by the doctor's sudden calling, and blinked at his stare. After he's satisfied of how my eyes somehow responded that no one has done something to me, Trent heaved out a silent sigh before turning around to get back at his office. This wakens Elli to deliver the patient's description she was supposed to do earlier.

"O-oh! Doctor, Cliff refuses to spend the night here," the nurse reported, and then switches her attention to me with her eyes hinting something, along with a certain glint I didn't managed to catch.

I blinked at her, and slowly after a few moments, it dawned on me. "Oh, oh!" Complete with one of my arms raised up high enthusiastically, "I can send him home! Back to the inn! Leave it to me!"

Of course Doctor would rub the bridge of his nose at how typical I sounded, "That's Cliff's choice, Claire. Stop deciding things for others, it's not your place."

"Actually...I would like to take Claire's offer...if it's alright..."

Everyone turned their heads to the opened door of the patient room, and there stood Cliff, with bandage cloth around his head, I noted, thanks to me. Elli smiled, and then swings her attention to Trent, who seems to be so deep in thought that his eyes literally darkens.

"Are you sure, Cliff?" Obviously, the doctor didn't trust me even if his life depended on it, considering he's the only one that drags me to the clinic whenever I fainted out of exhaustion after working with my field too much. I was known too well by the townsfolk to frequently overexert myself. Doctor Trent even took a glance at his watch, noting it's beyond 10pm, and concluded in his head probably that I'm not going to last for another half an hour.

Though, he forgot I took a gulp of Doug's Miracle Booze.

Surprisingly, Cliff didn't answer to the doctor's uncertainty, but rather, responded to my ribbon look, "Wow, Claire, are you wearing a ribbon?"

Not only that Cliff's the first man that ever said it's a ribbon, he's also the first guy that said something about it before he even said hi to me. Unlike the others who commented about it just when I'm about to leave.

"No, it's my dog's collar."

"...You're wearing Max's collar?"

Somehow, Cliff's question made me smile. Maybe it's the fact he remembers Max's name...and the fact that he knows I even own a dog named Max. The traveller's next statement made me smile even wider, "Huh. Well, it looks like a ribbon to me."

Cliff didn't really commented how I look with it, not that I expect it since he's so shy, but just saying those things he said is equal to a compliment, somehow.

"Cliff," Doctor's deep voice almost startled me, and according to how Cliff tries to regain back his posture, it seems like the ponytailed lad was just as surprised.

"Yeah?"

"Are you sure that you can trust Claire to get you home?"

Cliff shot Doctor an odd look initially, blinking his eyes a couple of times to process those set of words in his subconscious, then chuckled, "I think you got that backwards."

Doctor seemed fazed a bit, but Elli quickly steps up in front of the doctor to protect whatever dignity he may have left, "Let me rephrase that question. Cliff, can I trust you to take Claire home?"

The chocolate-haired man just smiled as a response, and delivered a nod to both Trent and Elli. Clueless to how men communicate to each other, I didn't even take notice Doctor approved of Cliff's unspoken question.

"Be careful!"
"If you throw yourself to anything ever again, Claire, I'll put you in a straitjacket."

And after those two had spoken their goodbyes, both Cliff and I waved off to them as they close the clinic door. The weather, though still can be considered as a wild blizzard, is at least a bit softer than before I entered the clinic.

"Oh!" My sudden outburst almost made Cliff tumbled into the snow, "Hey Cliff, can we take a quick visit to Zack's house? I have to deliver something," I suddenly paused, having remembered the doctor's words about me and my selfishness of others' choices, "If you can bare with the weather, that is."

Cliff blinked once at me and after a moment of silent pondering, twists his way from the path to the inn and stood by me to the other road towards the church with a nod of his head. As we passed the cemetery alongside the church, I noticed Cliff's pace had gotten slightly slower.

"Cliff...?"

That shook Cliff from his daze with a jolt, but he covered whatever that is he's hiding quite well with that sincere smile of his. The traveller has a very distinct set of smiles, I noticed after all this while hanging out with him, and each smile actually shows pretty much all there is to know on what he wanted to say.

Granted that I never had the gift to be so detailed and careful, it took me quite a while to gather up all that focus into each and every crinkle of his grins. This one, which he's currently beaming at me with, is probably saying something close to...

"I'm sorry, Claire. It's...not something that I can speak off that freely."

He suddenly said out. That's exactly my guess. "Yeah, I know. But just to note you, I can listen anytime if you want to talk about something." I looked up at him with a reassuring smile and I'm glad that even through that sudden uneasiness of his mind, he still managed to return a grin to me.

That's Cliff's specialty, after all.

At first, Cliff was an extremely shy boy, almost to the degree that it's unhealthy for him. But through the seasons, thanks to Carter, he eventually opens up to a number of people that hangs around him. His initial personality made me think of him as a very sensitive guy, that's how I became specifically wary of my words when speaking to him before. Even till now, actually. I don't want to push him and force him to spit out whatever I need to know. Embarrassingly, I'm softer to Cliff than the rest of the men in Mineral Town.

The winter gale combined with the breeze from the ocean certainly made Cliff's ponytail and my hair dancing wildly everywhere. Thanks to Popuri who had painfully tighten the ribbon on my hair, my blonde locks isn't ruined that much. The sand even felt stiffer and harder as we walked towards Zack's house, noting that if the once soft beach sand is like this, then the ocean could kill you with its temperature.

"Zack. Zack!" I banged my fist onto the door, and amazingly, now with my mittens gone, my slamming actually sounded decently loud, much to my giddiness. Though, even with my loud banging, nobody opened the door. I didn't even hear footsteps from inside that would open it.

"ZACK!" Now bringing my other fist, I started hammering the door continuously, frighteningly similar to how Fred Flinstone always does. I only paused my yelling and banging when I heard Cliff coughing from beside me. He motioned if he could give a try, so I stepped back.

"..Zack?" Unlike my wild banging, Cliff just politely used his knuckles to knock. Surprisingly, after a moment, the door opens.

'Wait...that's not Zack.'

"How can I HELP you?" A bespectacled Chinese man grunted. I recoiled instantly. It's the guy who tricked me into buying his stupid apple on my first week here. "Who's there, Won?" Finally, Zack appeared from behind the yellow-clad, selfish, greedy...thing.

Cliff's elbow hits my arm gently, reminding me it's not the time for my usual mental critic moment. So, I quickly fumbled with my backpack and after a moment, fished out the photograph of the cake I made. I was positively glowing as I handed the picture to Zack, completely ignoring Won beside him, and grinned.

"I can't wait till tomorrow. Can you ship this to Kai? Please?"

Zack took the item handed over to him. My smile grows even wider as Won seems to be loosing interest and went back inside the house. The large bulky man only laughed at how energetic I am even late in the night, and it seems it got rubbed onto him too as he nodded confidently of the task.

"Well, I'll be. I've never seen such a lively young lady all my life. I'll definitely do that first thing in the morning!" His laughter boomed through the night after that. I clapped in glee to even notice Zack's laughter almost broke through my eardrums. Cliff rubbed a finger inside his ear to give a check if his was really busted.

"Ahh! Talk about Kai, there's a delivery for ya, lad!" The shipper, upon noticing Cliff behind me, noted us. He then asked us to wait for a moment as he disappeared inside his home and after a few seconds, appeared at the doorstep with a letter in his hand, "Can't find ya all day, so I thought I'd hold onto it for tomorrow. But since you're already here, might as well take it."

Cliff took the letter humbly from Zack's grip, and both Zack and I didn't miss to see that absolutely thrilling face he tried to hide from our notice. For a guy that wrote about my pregnant cow, it's rather obvious to see Cliff likes a difference of his daily routine occasionally. A letter from a friend, being one.

"Thanks!"

I almost giggled at the sudden outburst of excitement flowing out of his tone unexpectedly. Cliff even bit his lower lip in embarrassment at the sudden surge of happiness overcoming him. Zack only laughed at his antics, and bid his goodbye, "Well, you kids have a safe trip home. Thanks for the barrel of laughs! G'night!"

The moment Zack closed the door is the same moment the ponytailed traveller quickly but carefully tear the letter open. As we walked our way back to the stairs, it suddenly strikes me how completely opposites both Cliff and I are. I literally ripped through my letters till the envelopes didn't even exist, Cliff here just politely tore it that the envelope can be recycled and used again.

I stared at him as he started to unfold the letter. Somehow, this gentle quality of him made him so...admirable.

I didn't even realize I was gazing at him till the lad himself turned his attention to me. One of his hands travelled all the way to the nape of his neck, his eyebrows creasing slightly, his bangs somewhat dancing with the winter wind and his cheeks grows slightly pinkish, "Come on, Claire, don't do that. You're making me feel awkward..."

Amazingly, by that sheer sentence alone, it's enough for me to ball up my fists under my face to constrain a sudden fangirlish shriek almost escaping my throat. Cliff is unbearably adorable by the way he acted just now, and I would honestly scream out how cute he was if it wasn't for the fact that my statement could scare him off. Literally.

"Sorry, sorry," I managed to coughed up, successful in restricting myself, or I would have lunged myself towards him to give him a hug. 'Wait...that's exactly what Doctor warned.' I blinked at how creepy the reality of it is, as if Trent could read my mind, or what I'm about to do in the future. If he ended up possessing clairvoyance, then Doctor Trent had long broken the Gary-Stu factor...

We're already at the Town Square when Cliff suddenly broke into this heart-warming laughter that echoes through the area. I can't help the curve crinkling at the sides of my lips. It's especially rare for me to see Cliff truly enjoying himself, and the mere sight of him chuckling is definitely enough for me to sleep peacefully tonight.

He turned to me excitedly as he motions the letter, his chuckles ceasing into a smile, then stated, "Kai is the most humorous man I have ever known."

"I second that."

We exchange smiles before chuckling again. Cliff was so absorbed in the letter, he probably didn't realized he was smiling widely all the while when he's reading it. I unconsciously decided to stare at him again, but this time more warily and occasionally took a glance somewhere else whenever his cheeks turns cerise, in order not to embarrass him.

Suddenly, to my surprise, his smile falters out of the blue. His pace was paused, right in front of Barley's farm. I was about to ask him what Kai wrote, when Cliff abruptly directed all his attention to me, his eyes widening, and to my utter shock, grabs a hold of my shoulders as he stared right at me.

His hand's shivering, his eyes indicating he's trying to process something huge in his head, and his lips trying to deliver words, "K-Kai found...my sister..."

It took me a while to really understand what he meant, but now that I did, my eyes widened the same way Cliff's are, "WHAT?"

A singular chuckle escaped his throat, then a smile, then a hearty laugh, and finally, unexpectedly, Cliff pulled me in his embrace, hugging me as tightly as he could, truly so happy and relieved and a surge of wild curiosity of his sister's well-being overcame the lad that he didn't take notice whatsoever of the farmer blushing in shock over his shoulder.

His happiness is at a degree so high, that when he released me, he didn't even take into account of what he did would actually be considered as 'awkward' for him on normal terms. I didn't mind, though. In fact, I thoroughly enjoyed that... Ironic how I was constraining myself to hug him just a few minutes ago.

Cliff's focus was back towards the letter as his eyes skimmed through the words at blinding speed. "Kai clipped Clarice's letter here..." He mumbled with a smile, and I just stood there, staring at him in wonder, trying to solve the puzzle in my head. Then, I laid out all the clues in my head in neat straight file.

Those two women in the picture, they must have been his mother and his sister. His sister's name is Clarice. Cliff is somehow separated from them, and according to how he reacted at Kai's surprise, he's probably looking from them.

"She's married..." Those two sets of words bubbled over his mouth in shock and surprise, "She's only about Ann's age, my sister..." He turned to me, his eyes slightly glassy at the new discovery. I offered him a smile, and then pat his shoulder in hopes of calming him down.

Cliff in a jumble of emotions is a very rare sight to see, honestly. Though I wouldn't blame him. If my brother somehow lost contact with me and finally found out I'm alive married to a man, he might react the same way. But Jack will trust that man to take care of me, since he's not there to do so, and he knows sisters needed protection. Brothers are simply predictable that way.

The sound of a slap startled me from my thoughts, and there I saw Cliff, with a hand covering his whole face. It took me a while to notice that his shoulders are jerking up and down continuously, and my hand slowly covered my lips. There's a man...crying...in front of me.

"Ohh...Cliff..." Without a moment's thought, probably out of womanly instinct, I wrapped my arms around the lad in an attempt to comfort him. Cliff didn't object the hug surprisingly; in fact he returned it, his whole arms covering my small stature. He rested his head on my shoulder, truly needed a hug more than anything right now, I suppose. As shy as he is, there are moments when hugs are inevitable.

"I'm glad...you found your sister," I whispered into his ear. The snow flakes kept on raining in Mineral Town, thickening the snow on the walk paths. I stared beyond his shoulder as I said that, towards the white crystals of frozen water covering the ground. It must have been quite a shock to Cliff, but he seems to be taking it well.

"Thanks, Claire..."

I may not know the real story, but at least Cliff's happy.

After a moment, we're back on track, with Cliff carefully folding the letters back and store it in his shirt. I can't help but to beam him a smile, and like I expected, he returned the gesture. As we walked pass the Poultry Farm, I thought it might be the perfect time to return what he owns.

"Out of curiosity, is this your sister?" I handed him the photograph from my overalls pocket, still with that same smile. Cliff was so surprised; he let out a singular laugh at how random I am.

"Yes. This is Clarice, my sister. And this is our departed mother," he pointed to the respective women in the photo with a light smile. He took the photo in his hands to stare at it for a long while.

"I'm just glad Kai found her...and she seems so happy with her life. She wrote about this one man who rescued her from the kidnappers, and the only way for them to make it safely across the borders is for them to get married."

I was stunned silent. Kidnappers? 'Goddess, I really need to know the whole story. Agh! ...That's alright, I'll ask Manna tomorrow.'
"Oh. Are you okay with that?"

"Yeah. If it's for her safety, then of course. ...Plus, I think she really likes the guy."

I burst out my signature giggles as we're nearing my farm, and Cliff shot me a smile as a response. To my amazement, his smile seems so different now, much more open and unconstraint. It's like...a huge burden has finally been lifted off his shoulders. It's such a magical sight, I've never saw Cliff this genuinely happy all my life.

The ponytailed man was nice enough to send me to my door, and the moment I opened it, Max suddenly flew out lunging...probably passed down from my habit. Of course, I already expected this, so I deftly evaded the auburn dog. So Max ended up knocking Cliff down, then licks him.

"Ah! Hahah! Max! Long time no see, boy!"

Max only weighted down the poor man more and more at the statement. It wasn't long for Cliff to be covered with dog slobber all over him. When the evil dog finally releases its prisoner, Cliff stood up; attempting to dry his face, but then was caught off-guard by a towel flying in his direction.

He blinked dumbly at me for a while, and then used the towel anyhow. I already have that towel hanged at the side of my door specifically for Max's slobber, so I'm prepared in any way possible.

"Thanks," Cliff handed me back the towel and was about to wish me goodnight when something struck me.

"Wait, wait!" I took a glimpse of the time. Noting that it's 11pm, I sighed in relief. The day's not over yet, which means...

"Happy Thanksgiving Day, Cliff~!" Pulling out the remaining piece of chocolate cake and settling it on my palms, I outstretched my arms towards the surprised traveller and shot him one of my widest grins.

Cliff seems to be frozen for a while, chained to the ground, until the slightest colour decorated his cheeks. 'Hah! So now even after founding his sister, Cliff's still Cliff.'

"T...T-thanks, Claire..." He stuttered like the cute guy he is, I can't stop the growing smile on my lips. Though blushing, he was smiling nonetheless, and the presence of that smile is just the perfect ending for today.

Winter, Friday the 14th, Winter Thanksgiving Festival.

Best festival ever.

(A/N: WOOT! Hahah, that was a handful. I though that since Cliff's moment wasn't possible to write with him fainting and all, it was only fair for his ending to be longer than everyone else's. :3 Epic fail on his past, doods, that's why I decided for Cliff to never reveal it. :P Yes, I backspace two whole paragraphs. XD How'd you like it? Took my entire morning to finish it. Hmmm...is this the last chapter, though? O.o Has the fanfic ended? ...That's for you to guess. ;D )