DISCLAIMER: I own nothing. This is a fanfic written for entertainment only.
A/N: English is not my first language. Pardon the bad grammar and stuff... n.n;
Italic words – Thoughts
IT WAS YOU
Part 10
This is seriously uncomfortable. Claire released her grip on the hoe in her right hand and used said hand to wipe away the beads of sweats on her forehead. Again she felt the eyes of the ginger on her and quickly turned to him only to catch him turning his head away; afraid that she might notice that he's staring at her. Too late, jerk. You've been caught.
"He seemed to be very interested in you, Claire," the black cat sitting casually on a big rock in front of the blonde commented. "Including that last peek of his, he's been throwing glances here for 15 times in these 10 minutes you're working on that brown-earth-dust."
"Soil," Claire corrected him. "And here I am wanting to use the potion so badly without him noticing it," I nodded once to the direction of the young man across me – there's quite a distance between them which was why she was not worried about him seeing her talking with Konoe; he'll think she's a weirdo for talking to a cat even though he could understand nothing the words that came out of Konoe's mouth.
"Find one then. You're the genius here, right?"
"With those frequent glances he's been throwing here? I found none. Agh! I will definitely use it now if not for that Peeping Tom," the blonde rolled her eyes and fixing her grip on the hoe in her hand once more she proceeded on digging. "There's one thing I'm wondering about now though; I'm trying to find an ore but why am I digging holes instead of smashing rocks?"
Konoe shrugged. "Ask the captain over there. I'm just a cat who can't even stand on two feet and work on that brown-earth-dust although I wanted so much to try that thing in your hand – what's it called again? Ah, yes. Hoe."
"Soil, Konoe. Soil," again Claire corrected him. "I'm not really in the mood to play word games now," she added, pausing from the work in hand and bent down to examine the dirt. Nothing here. She rose and resumed working. "This job is tiring. I still think it's stupid to dig for ores. My hands hurt. And I definitely didn't sign up for this!" Claire exclaimed the last sentence as she slammed hard the hoe in her hand onto the ground – the tip of the hoe disappeared into the ground below.
"Yeah? Remind me again who's been whining about Orichalc Ore for her precious little necklace?" she heard the ginger's voice as he approached her. "And pray tell me who's been pestering my Grandpa to get one?"
Claire dropped the hoe in hand and turned around, both hands rested on her waist. "I did not whine!" she glared at the young man in front of her. "And I most certainly didn't pester Mr. Saibara for one! It was he who volunteered to help!"
"And here you are, complaining and grumbling, obviously not feeling grateful at the person who's been trying to help you search for an-impossible-to-find-in-this-season ore," Gray replied at a same tone, arms crossed over his chest. "Do you think I wanted to do this as well? If it wasn't for you, I'll be sleeping peacefully on my bed in my room right now."
What a productive way to spend a day off. "If you want to blame someone for ruining your holiday, go blame your grandfather!" Claire spat. "Gosh, darn it! Why must I be stuck in this stupid cave with a stupid person like you?"
Gray stared at her for a couple of seconds before letting out a deep sigh. "You're one crazy woman," he said as he scratched the back of his head with his right hand. "And you're 24/7 with that black cat of yours is not helping your image. You should try to control your temper more."
"Says the one who lost his easily," the blonde retorted.
Gray's eyebrows narrowed. How the hell-? "Who told you that?" he asked the young woman.
If Claire heard his question she gave no answer in return and shrugged. "I'm tired. I demand a rest," she said him.
Calm down, Gray. Take a deep breath. If you screw this up you'll be getting a 'wonderful' lecture from Grandpa. Just…ignore…her... "The faster we work, the faster we will finish this and you're free to rest as much as you want afterwards," he told her. "For now just get back to work." Please. For the sake of both our sanity and patience.
"I loathed the fact that I found none but Junk Ore with all these diggings," the blonde-haired young woman replied and pointed a finger at the useless ores scattered around the big rock her cat was sitting on, wagging his tail left and right and watched the scene in front of him in amusement. "And why are we digging anyway? I thought ores are found in rocks? Shouldn't we be smashing those rocks over there?" she nodded towards some rocks located not far from where her cat was sitting.
Gray faked some coughs. "D-digging will give you better results," he answered while tearing his gaze away from the figure of the young woman he had his eyes locked onto for several minutes now – he had his interest on the couple of Junk Ores lying messily behind the blonde. "Err…There's a higher percentage of finding the ore by digging the soil in this cave."
"Really? I think it is better if I-"
"Just keep digging!" the ginger snapped at the young woman before stomping away, mumbling something to himself while leaving the shocked blonde.
Claire's eyes widened at Gray's angry reply and blinked at his words – a surprised look decorated her face as she wondered what in Caelestis had made him so upset. "Why was he angry?" she turned to the black cat behind him. "Did I say something wrong?"
"Other than you whining and complaining about being tired, I guess not," Konoe answered, still not budging an inch from his seat. "He's on his period – period did that to most people," the black cat grinned.
The blonde sighed. "Oh, please," she said, obviously didn't find the cat's previous statement funny. She turned to the ginger – he was digging like there was no tomorrow; it was obvious to see that he's clearly not in his best mood. "I can never understand that jerk. Maa. It's not like I wanted to though," she took her hoe from the ground and started digging. I might as well get this over – the sooner the better.
"Well, that aside, Claire," the blonde lifted her face from facing the ground to look at the black cat as he spoke her name. "This is a good opportunity for you to use that potion you've been wanting so bad to use."
Claire's eyes sparkled with excitement hearing her Guardian's words. She quickly dropped the hoe and moved towards the black cat, towards her blue backpack lying next to him. "You're right. This is the moment I've been waiting for!" she chirped happily as she unzipped the zip of her bag pack and rummaged through its content, searching frantically for a certain bottle she's prepared before going to sleep last night.
"You've forgotten all about it? Funny."
"Hey, the jerk's behaviour earlier distracted me, okay? That's all," the blonde replied, her hands still busy searching for the bottle. After a few seconds digging into her bag pack, she smiled triumphantly. "Got it!" she said as she took out a small bottle with a blue-colored liquid as its content.
Konoe stared at the bottle in the blonde's hand. "Uh, you're sure about it?"
"Huh? About what?" Claire raised an eyebrow.
"The potion – that blue-colored liquid in your hand. Are you really sure about wanting to use it?"
"Positive," the blonde nodded. "Because, well, duh? You and I-as well as that jerk there-knew that even if we spend the rest of our Summer digging, we will never find Orichalc Ore. This is the only way to get one," she stared intently at the bottle in her hand, shaking the bottle and its content once. "What's up with you, Konoe?"
The black cat was silent for some seconds as he scrutinized the blue liquid before replying. "I don't know how to put this correctly…," he answered and kept his eyes locked on the small bottle in the hand of the young woman before him. "It's just…I feel something bad will happen if you were to use it, Claire."
"Huh?" the blonde was shocked at her Guardian's answer. "Why? I've got permission from Mineral Town's Harvest Goddess herself. Surely by getting her permission using this won't make me break the rules of my task, right?" she added as she made her way back to where her hoe was.
"I know," Konoe nodded in agreement. "I don't know. My guts told me that-"
"Oh, stop it," Claire cuts in, waving a hand towards the cat and tossing the small bottle in her hand into her pocket, she picked up the hoe and started digging. "You're just being paranoid," she told him as she focused on her task, wanting to unearthed a Junk Ore in the hold she'd just dug. "It'll be fine." Konoe was never wrong when it comes to 'guts feelings'. But I can't think of any harm of this potion of mine – all it'll ever do is change a Junk Ore into an Orichalc Ore!
Knowing that it's somewhat impossible-if it's not extremely hard-for him to change the blonde-haired young woman's decision, Konoe sighed in defeat. "Suit yourself then," he told her and watched as she pulled out a newly discovered Junk Ore from the ground. "Don't say I didn't warn you if something went wrong."
"Yes, Teacher," Claire giggled as she brushed off some dirt on the surface of the Junk Ore in her hand. "Everything will be okay, Konoe. Trust me," she continued and placed down onto the ground the ore in her hand and fished out the small bottle from her overall's pocket.
Claire didn't remember what exactly happened after she poured the content of the bottle in her hand onto the piece of rock she'd just found while digging. Her memories of the event were hazy – her surrounding shook so hard, the jumbled up words of Konoe as he frantically shouting something at her and least but not last, the clear-worried-sound of her name being called before her vision became blurry and everything went dark in seconds; she was sure something had hit the back of her head as she felt tremendous pain on said area when she fell down and collapsed onto the ground inside of Waterfall Cave.
. TO BE CONTINUED .
A/N: It's almost Christmas and a new year is approaching. X"D