Winter 9th

One of the things Claire loved most about living in the countryside was the greater likelihood of finding a traditional-styled onsen. Standing outside the hot spring for the first time, the day it re-opened following the storm this Winter, the short blonde marveled at the stylish calligraphy symbols -- female in red, male in blue, and pushed open the door on the left.

Her upper chest tightened inside, slowing her heartbeat while she beheld the simple picture: snowflakes spiraling down from the bleak gray sky, close to none of them touching the surface of the clear, steamy water. The bath was the size of a pond, bordered with large rocks, the floor tiled sea-green with a pattern of orange and black spotted koi fish. A tall, secure bamboo barrier stood strong in the center, and to the left, a bamboo bench and hangers on the walls. A strip of the floor surrounding it was like a trough, or a moat, deep and tiled and lined with buckets and water spickets, for washing.

Merrily, Claire savored her quiet privacy, slipping off her shoes and socks, then unclipping her overalls. Neatly she folded her clothes and set them on the bench. Being naked outside wasn't as exciting when your shower was attached to the outside of the house, but here it was blissful. Light snow dusted her hair and shoulders, and she twirled around to enjoy the rushing feeling of the chilly air.

It took only a few moments to scrub her body thoroughly and meticulously with bran soap and rinse, and now she was squatting in front of the bath, moving the water around with her hand. At first it was stinging, then it was tingling, and eventually it became numbing and soothing. And so clear!

"A--ahhhhhh," she sighed heavily, lowering a shapely foot and then dainty ankle into the bath. Soon she was up to her hips in the heat, and the dramatic differences between the cold around her ears and the burning in her ankles became more pronounced. Sinking in carefully, she sucked her breath in through her teeth in a hissing noise, and finally draped her hair over the rim of the tiny pool. Her eyelids felt weak, but she fought to keep them open, to enjoy the sight of the falling snow that couldn't reach the ground, stuck at a glass ceiling, and the blurry rippling across her body under the water.

"This feels so good," Claire said to herself, touching her shoulders and wringing out the knots that had been there for way too long.

"I know," replied a soft male voice from behind the bamboo wall.

Claire was way too relaxed and blissful to care.

"The only thing better than this…. No, there isn't anything better than this," she added.

"I don't mean to be corny, but do you come here often?" The voice sounded somewhat-familiar, but try though she might, Claire just couldn't place a name or a face. In any case, this was a holy place of relaxation and peace.

"This is my first time here. I love it." Claire lifted her feet up from the water, then squeezed and released her toes. The loose, released feeling in her feet was so wonderful it almost evoked tears.

"I have to come here frequently for my illness, although I have to get out after a few minutes because my body can't take too much heat," confessed the man on the other side. "But coming here in Winter really helps me breathe better."

Claire's eyes snapped open, and instinctively she drew her legs in and crossed her arms at her chest.

"This is Marlin, isn't it?" she asked darkly. Never before, until she moved to this valley, did she ever have to associate a really attractive guy with trouble.

"Yeah. Why? Who's this?"

"You forgot me already. Thanks," she replied with sarcasm. "This is Claire. Does that ring a bell?"

"… Oh. Hey."

"Hey."

"So what's up?"

"Is that all you have to say to me is 'what's up'? You blew me off and didn't talk to me in ages. But it's all right though -- if you don't want to see me, that's fine. The problem now is your womanizing habits, which I'm sooo glad have nothing to do with me," Claire said grumpily.

She heard a splash.

"What the hell! It's not like anybody can tell me what to do! What am I supposed to do? Rock told me that you're… uh… anyway, he told me the truth, and I got shocked! And then --"

"And you never even came to me first to talk about it. So you think who-the-hell-knows-what about me using you or something, but then you turn around and do the same damn thing with your stupid love letters -- or should I say, harassment letters. What a childish way to handle things!"

"I never meant to cause anyone harm," Marlin explained, his voice deep and grumbling. "I don't even know why I wrote those stupid letters in the first place. It's like it wasn't me doing it."

Claire sighed. She recounted her first day here, going all the way back to the walk from Flower Bud Village, bags in hand and the pants of her overalls cuffed around her ankles. She had never been outdoorsy, and she knew that there was a difficult adjustment in her future, but with a breath of fresh, clean natural air, Claire had actually believed she was leaving all the drama behind in the city.

"… Do you want to talk about it?"

What was meant to be a sigh came out as a horse-like sputter from Marlin's lips. From the sound of his constrained breathing, Claire could tell that he was frustrated about something, but he didn't know how to express it. This was a flaw in him that Claire initially adored.

"My ex in Mineral Town got married after… after we stopped seeing each other."

"I'm so sorry," Claire told him honestly, deeply harboring sympathy in her heart.

"So I went crazy, especially since whatever could have happened between you and me was over so quickly. Then this girl came around and she was so pushy and bitchy, and got mad because I didn't have any real interest in her. She's so vindictive. It's like she's been filling my head with ideas about those lame-ass letters, and being mad at you for lying… which… you never actually did."

Claire nodded in satisfaction. Now he was starting to see it.

"Is that your special way of apologizing?"

"I guess it is. I'm… not good at this, but… I really am sorry."

"It's cool," she decided, then added with a laugh, "But you totally pissed off Muffy a while back."

"You mean Muffy got one of those? Oh God…."

"So you didn't send those letters on purpose?"

"No! No…. This crazy girl, she told me to write out a letter like that to release my feelings. She just kept pushing and pushing until I wrote down my emotions and my thoughts, and then I think she must have turned them into those stupid letters and gave them out to everyone. She's crazy! Psycho-bitch."

"… Is this girl… does she have wavy blond hair and ugly dark clothes?"

"That's her!"

'Oh, maaaaaaan.' These dreams were becoming more and more realistic by the day. There was really a Harvest Goddess, and in this case, the conniving Witch Princess really did exist.

The good news was, none of the goings-on were anybody's fault. But that was it.

Claire was just so damn tired, and not just from the hot bath. "Marlin… do you still want to be friends?"

"Well, yeah."

"Good."

The water on the other side of the wall splashed around and was pushed over to her side in a strong current. In the tiny slit in the bamboo poles, she could barely make out traces of Marlin's feet on the floor, walking away toward the bench on the male side.

"I'm just going to stay out of the dating circle for awhile," he said.

"I think I should too."

"Okay then… see ya."

"Bye."

The amazing thing about it was, for some reason there was absolutely no temptation to look any further, for the entire time they sat just inches away from each other, separated by just one wall. Inside, the most troublesome and mischievous part of Claire just didn't bother. She was beginning to see him as a real guy, not a fantasy in a magazine ad for cologne or designer jeans.

'I'm over him,' she realized, mouthing the words silently. In revelation, she leaned back and shut her eyes, surrendering to the deepest calm she'd ever felt in her life. The door on the male side creaked and shut again.

Only moments later, Claire had been half-dreaming about butterflies and vegetables in Spring, and just began to wonder why she was looking forward to staying for at least another season, when the door on the female side creaked open again, and a figure in a hooded wool traveling cloak began slipping off her shoes.

"Lumina?"

The hooded girl held a finger up to the dark hole in place of her face, hissing, "Shhhh! Nobody's supposed to know I'm here. My grandmother would be furious! Our spa at home is incredibly expensive, but I'd rather come here instead. Promise you won't tell?"

"Secret's safe with me," Claire assured her with a shrug. At the sight of Lumina, Claire felt a strange tugging in her heart. It was something about how funny and charming she looked in the traveling cloak. Lumina lived in a fairy-tale world of proper princess behavior, but seemed to be full of intriguing knowledge and a few mischievous tricks up her own sleeve. Which was why it was so painful for her to be snubbed by such a fascinating friend. Claire simply shut her eyes again and reclined, trying to ignore the younger girl's presence, but it lingered there like an annoying itch.

"This is fantastic," Lumina commented as she slid in on the adjacent side of the bath, not needing to tie her hair for its neat bobbed cut that didn't reach her shoulders. "Don't you think so, Claire?"

"Mm, yeah, it's great," Claire said uncomfortably. Why should she be this rosy and pink, and so cheerful, when she was seated naked, close to someone she deemed unfit to associate with? The farming apprentice concentrated on keeping only her right eye half-open, so as not to seem rude when Lumina spoke to her. No matter how many different ways Claire assessed the situation, it was awkward.

It only got worse from there.

"So I've been dumped too," Lumina broke out in confession, her shoulders shaking and her chest rising as tough she couldn't hold it in anymore. "It's Skye. Rock warned me time and time again not to go near him, and I ignored him. I was out with Skye last week and we almost… well, you can imagine… and when I thought he was going to kiss my neck, he reached up and took my keepsake necklace, and ran with it. My mother gave that to me, and I trusted him, and I can't believe he did something like that! Now I understand Rock's over-protectiveness…. Oh, gosh, you must think I'm an absolute fool! What an idiot I've been!" The girl buried her face in her open palms.

"… I'm sorry," Claire offered nervously.

"Oh, Claire." Lumina took her hands down and moved a little closer. "I've been wanting to apologize to you for so long. I was so rude to you. I really wanted to be friends, but my grandmother wouldn't let me. And I suspect that Rock's been rude because he's trying to suck up to Grandmother Romana. You know how she is; so old-fashioned!"

"Don't worry about it," Claire reassured her. "I've been fine."

"That was so awful of me. I've tried and tried to get my grandmother to realize… that's someone's personal choice, you know? Nobody ever has any right to decide for someone else." Lumina's eyes, olive and amber depending on the angle and the light, shone with sincerity. "I hold absolutely no ill will against you whether you love men or women, I swear. And I've missed talking to you. I have no one to share my innermost thoughts with, and I wanted you to be that person, Claire. Really, I did."

"Then… let's dump the sorrow and move on, shall we?" Claire said sweetly. Poor girl. It was as if Lumina walked straight out of an actual storybook, a wealthy princess that could have everything she wanted, but still oppressed.

"Yes, let's. There's been so much on my mind that I wanted to share with someone, as I'm so close to reaching womanhood. And it's so exciting! For instance… look at you, Claire. I've always wanted to look like you. Shining long hair, a few inches of extra adult height, full breasts, a mature feminine figure…."

Claire cleared her throat and stared at the wall in embarrassment, almost able to feel the girl's eyes sweeping over her body. As far as she was concerned, there was really nothing special or particularly attractive about her. For her entire life, Claire had only hoped that there was merit in the idea that what counted was on the inside. And there weren't many things in the world that were more important to her than staying true to herself. Tacky jokes from Jack and Rock aside, Lumina was the first person that had actually insinuated that she was attractive. Oh crap.

"Well! Thank you. You're quite pretty yourself." Claire kept her gaze on the wall, intent on not looking at Lumina's body even though the younger girl was staring intensely at hers.

"Thanks." Water rushed around the two girls' waists as Lumina stood, and took one pace further. The younger girl's head eclipsed Claire's perfect view of the sky past the rims of the towering walls, and her eyes blinked down at Claire's face. Descending to a kneel, Lumina's facial features softened, quite baby-like, and nervously she put her palm over Claire's eyes.

'What kind of game is she playing?'

Lumina's lips were soft, moist, and freshly coated with waxy lip balm, with a faint mint scent and flavor to it. When she pulled away, Claire's heart hammered so fast inside her chest that she thought of making a mad dash for Dr. Hardy's office. Lumina looked at her with guilt written all over her face.

"I'm sorry, Claire. I wanted to know what it felt like."

"Well. Uh… I never would have imagined that you were curious! Heheheh…."

Lumina sat down in her usual prim, polished manner, preening her hair and then looking at her fingernails. "Did I make you angry?"

"No, no. It was just confusing."

"I hoped you might like it."

"Okay….Since the topic is inevitable, I should let you know that I'm really not, you know, like that. I'm not actually into girls."

Lumina looked stunned and hurt. "Oh, now I feel terrible. I'm so, so sorry. I don't suppose you can forgive me for something like this. The thing is, I'm not either, but I was just trying so hard to understand."

"Don't worry about it. Let's just not do that again, though," Claire warned.

"But…" Lumina sighed. "I know that was selfish of me. But I just keep thinking, what if I never find love? What if I never have a good, real first kiss with someone I can trust?"

"That's something we're both waiting for," Claire pointed out as she stepped out of the bath, making her way to the bench to retrieve her towel. "Until then, though… do you still want to be friends?"

'Oh brother. Now I'm going to keep sounding like a broken record.'

"I'd love to."

"We'll just keep this a secret. No, we'll forget all about it. And nobody will know a thing. It never happened," Claire insisted.

"Of course."