The farmer studied intensely the inn keeper's daughter's actions. Claire knew some technique in cooking, assuming a recipe was provided. But the certain food item Ann pushed her to learn she never heard about.

"I still don't understand how these things are not regular dumplings." the blonde spoke up, remembering the beginning of 'the lesson' as Ann called it.

"Claire, girl, please do not make me freak out about this again..." the ginger calmly-not-so-calmly said. "Different type of flour."

"Which mysteriously is only available near the Moon Festival or whatever you guys call it..." Claire mumbled enough for Ann to hear. She continued to watch Ann slave away at the kitchen counter.

"See, this is how I know you and Andrew are related. He said nearly the exact same thing the first year he came."

"Well there you go."

"You're not ruining this for me so shush and pass me more of the dumpling mix." Ann quickly responded. "Jeff only gets the mix once a year, and I make sure I cook a ton to last me at least a week!"

"A week?" the blonde surveyed the kitchen. She knew not how many dumplings were so far made, but she noted the counters barely had enough room for more. "This amount can last for much more than that."

"Hence why I said at least a week." the ginger countered. "Minus what you take, obviously, for your date with Gray." the ginger glanced mischievously at the blonde.

Claire's cheeks flushed. She forgot momentarily that when she had entered the inn she had been asked by Gray if she were free that night, after accidentally bumping into him. At least the encounter was not like the one at the beginning of spring. If it were not for Ann, she would have thought nothing of Gray asking if she were free. This was a guy who periodically visited her on the farm, after all. But of course, Ann had to make a big production out of it. In the end, the ginger dragged her into the back where she was now helping said ginger with making moon dumplings.

"For the umpteenth time, Ann, it is not a date."

"Ah," Ann began bringing out her lawyer voice as she continued to mix, "let me present to you a conjecture: you would not be saying this if this had happened in the city."

"If this had happened in the city, one, I would not be here having this conversation, this moment with you. And two, my answer would have been a 'no' for lots of different reasons."

Ann paused, pondering her response.

"Them the facts, Ann. Kind of hard denying them."

"Touche but I still stand by my statement."

The two women continued making more moon dumplings, much to the farmer's annoyance. At least it kills some time... she thought to herself, more watching Ann than actually helping. Her thoughts kept circulating around Ann's insistence of declaring hanging out with the young blacksmith a date, Is Ann right on this? Minus the fact that she practically ships us together...

Her train of thought left when she noticed her brother entering, deciding to raid the kitchen. He placed one finger on his mouth, indicating to his sister not to say a word to the focused ginger. He gingerly grabbed a full plate of moon dumplings, trying his best not to create a disturbance. Tip-toeing along, he piled more moon dumplings onto his plate. The blonde raised her eyebrows causing him to again place one finger on his lips. He gently headed for the exit, thinking he was home free.

Whack!

"And just where in all of this island, nay, in all of this planet you think you are going with all of that?" the ginger questioned right after throwing a moon dumpling at her boyfriend. "And why in the hell, Claire, did you not speak up!?"

"Ann, darling, sweetheart, leave Claire out of this. She only did what I motioned her to do." Ann crossed her arms, her glare demanding answers. "You got a little..." the dark haired motioned at his chin.

"Andrew!" the ginger grew more impatient.

"You know I like your moon dumplings. A lot. They are the best in town." Andrew side-talked the latter to his sister.

"Mmmhmm." the blonde somewhat acknowledged trying to avoid being dragged into the little spat.

"That doesn't give you the right to just waltz right in here and try to sneak some without my knowledge. I don't care if you are my boyfriend! Your paws do not touch any when I'm making for storage!"

"Got to get my share, somehow," Andrew bit into one on his plate, "since you are known to hog them."

"I do not!" Ann snorted.

"Oh you do, my fair maiden, You do indeed." the chocolate-haired man tried sounding posh, failing miserably, "but tis alright. I have figured out a way to get my share."

"What!? Are you saying that you have done this before? This explains last year..." Ann muttered the last part.

"Welllll..." he winked at his angry ginger-haired girlfriend.

The blonde glanced at the basket Ann had assigned for her to take for the evening. She knew her brother was pushing his luck with Ann. She had no intention in sticking around for that blow up. Remembering the basket had some moon dumplings, she stealthily snatched it off the one of the kitchen counters then scurried as quietly as she could out of the room.

Good luck, Andrew. I think you're going to-you know, I don't think you will need it. Claire laughed to herself, realizing her brother must have dealt with Ann's temper many times before. Probably explains why he pushes his luck a lot.

Claire muttered to herself, "Now all I have to do is worry about-"

"Claire!" a gruff voice interrupted her self-conversation.

Perfect timing.

"I was about to go look for you. I had thought you would be at your house or something." he continued.

"Never got the chance, Gray. Been stuck here this whole time cause of Ann and her moon dumplings." she blew her bangs away from her face.

The young blacksmith's countenance brightened, "So I assume that is what is in the basket then?"

"Yes..." the farmer sighed, "cause apparently they are the best in town..."

"They are." he responded as the two of them left the inn. He held the door open for her as they did. "And the way you said that indicates to me that you haven't tried them yet."

"Astute as ever." she said with a hint of sarcasm. She adjusted her grip on the basket.

"Here, let me." he grabbed the basket from her.

She mumbled a 'thanks,' sticking her hands into the pockets of her light jacket. It was a fairly decent evening, especially in the aspect of no clouds in the sky. But it was also a bit chilly which never agreed with Claire's hands. She regretted not bringing her gloves. "Gray? What exactly is the plan tonight?" the blonde inquired as they passed by Barley's.

"Well," he started, "it is the Moon Festival tonight."

"Yeah, what exactly is that?"

"Every year on the same day, the moon appears its biggest and brightest."

"Sooo, more or less like any other month then..." Claire trailed off, not seeing the appeal.

"Trust me. It is a lot different than any other."

"Sounds ominous, but I'll bite. What exactly do we do during this time?"

"We look at it." Claire cocked her head at him as they now passed by Gotz's. "You know, view it? Watch it? Observe-"

"Yeah, I know what you mean. But... that's it?" the blonde scrunched her face.

"Pretty much."

"Why even call it a festival then? I mean, had I known it was just about viewing the moon on a specific date, I would have made a makeshift telescope from items around the house..." she abruptly stopped her train of thought. A familiar feeling crept up on her, one in which usually told her to end her ramblings on any matters which indicated how clever she truly was.

"Come on, you know you can finish that thought," Gray said, lightly nudging her, "and deep down you're itching to do so."

Claire remained silent. She knew he was entirely right. But after awhile of always being somewhat reserved on the matter depending how well she knew the person, being the opposite and willing to show that full side of her seemed hard. Not 'farm-work' hard but more like 'an-extremely-shy-person-who-has-to-present-in-front-of-people' hard.

"I mean, it wouldn't be state-of-the-art or anything..." she managed to mumble out.

"Mmmhmm." he sounded, ready to listen.

"A legit one, that probably would challenge even a newfangled one, would take a bit. But for the simple purpose of viewing an object that is far away? A magnifying glass, paper or even cardboard, and the clear cover of an analog watch. You wouldn't be able to see say Mars with it but it would give you a closer look of say the moon than with the naked eye." she paused, unsure what else to add, but at the same time felt amazing she could rattle stuff like that to somebody other than her family.

"That's if you had known, right?"

"That's if I had known." the blonde affirmed. A small smile crept on her face.

She observed that they were nearing the path to Mother Hill's. As she veered in that direction, a guiding hand pulled her to another. "Gray, I thought we were going to the peek. I mean, that was my assumption." she quickly said, dropping one of her hands out of her pockets.

"Nope, everyone goes there. I have a better place in mind." he instinctively grabbed her hand, leading her beyond the lake.

As they journeyed through the quiet forest their feet crunching through the leaves, Claire wondered what would be a better place than on top of a large peak. Far as she knew, it was the tallest spot on the island, so it was logical to assume that the peak would be their destination. She thought about questioning Gray on why trekking further through the woods was a good idea, especially in the dark. But more importantly, how would going in the woods be better. That subsided when she started noticing some familiar details.

That place! she exclaimed in her head.

Before her thoughts could formulate further, she beheld the scenery in front of her. The moon shone brightly on the field and lone hill just like a spotlight on a lone stage. The tree on said hill exuberated a sense of strength and stoicness, its colourful leaves shining from the attention. Compared to the surrounding trees, its leaves were still attached save for the odd barren branch. There was a sense of calmness around them, with the odd cricket noises breaking that stillness. Occasionally the owls hooted in response, but overall, the critters that Claire had previously seen around this hidden area were not to be seen.

"See here, nobody thinks to come." the blacksmith released his hand from hers. He continued to walk towards the lone tree.

It was at that moment Claire fully realized he had really held her hand. She stared at her hand as if it had secrets to show and tell her. Heat flooded her cheeks the more she stared at her hand. And if she were honest with herself, she liked her hand being held by a certain someone with calloused hands.

"Frick. It's going to be a long night." she sighed to herself, rubbing her hands together for some warmth. Now more than ever, she wondered why she even agreed to her companion's inquiry. She quickly caught up to him and joined him under the tree.

The two of them sat in silence while staring at the moon and enjoying the moon dumplings. Both were in the moment. A thought though occurred to the farmer, "Why does Ann make an insane amount of moon dumplings around this time of year? Wait, let me rephrase that," she paused, "why doesn't she save the dumpling mix for later instead of instantly making enough to feed this whole town?"

"Ann loves food." the blacksmith said, biting into a dumpling.

"Well, shoot, Sherlock, tell me something I don't know."

"Okaaay," he narrowed his eyes, "in addition to her affair with food, she tried that one year."

"And?"

"For some reason, the mix spoiled after a few days."

Claire grabbed another dumpling from the basket, "And the made ones don't?"

"She freezes them. I guess that keeps them or something."

"Do you know if she has tried freezing the mix? I assume it has some sort of flour base, and I do know that you can put flour in the freezer to keep longer."

"From my understanding, she doesn't want to risk trying anything else other than what has been working. Honestly, Claire, you would get more information out of her than me."

"Oh, trust, I would be asking her instead, but she gave me the sense that she is very protective of those moon dumplings and by even attempting to question her on them is like kicking a puppy or something..."

"That sounds about right. Dunno what else to tell you then."

The two continued munching on the dumplings till they could not anymore. Even though the two of them ate quite a bit, there were still leftovers.

Claire occasionally glanced at the young blacksmith, wondering why she felt more comfortable in silence with him than previously. Her thoughts then drifted off to conversation she had with Kat the day after visiting Forget-Me-Not valley. She had told her best friend all that had happened on that day, leaving out the certain details concerning the new sprites she had encountered. What she specifically highlighted in that conversation was her conflicting feelings for Gray. And it did not help matters when Kat squealed at her dream she had of him while she had been unconscious, rattling off that that alone should had been a sign.

The blonde stared off into the distance, reflecting on certain words Kat had mentioned, "You're going to have to ask yourself this one question: have you ever felt this way about any other guy in your life? And I'm not talking about crushes here where you just had a crush, and the guy either didn't know you existed or never bothered to even spend time with you, let alone talk to you." She knew that talking to Kat was always therapeutic, even if she still felt somewhat uncertain about a matter. But those specific words stuck with the blonde more than anything in that conversation with her friend. Kat was dead right: no crush she had ever had bothered nor went out of their way to spend time with her.

And here, near her, was a young blacksmith's apprentice who did. She quickly realized that perhaps her feelings were a lot clearer than she had first realized after her conversation with Kat.

"You alright, Claire?" Gray disrupted Claire's deep thoughts.

"Yup!" she chirped, not intending for her response to be an awkward upbeat.

He grunted in response. He then decided to spark a further conversation, "You like necklaces, right?"

"Weird question but yeeeaah?" A slight blush crawled onto her face while confusion lingered in her head.

"Then I want you to have this." he grabbed a small flat box from inside of his jacket then gave it to the blonde. He immediately pulled his hat more over his face.

Claire, puzzled at the gift, opened it. Inside, she found a delicate teardrop silver necklace. Its stone was a sapphire, much like the one on the brooch Gray before had given her. No words came to her, making the blacksmith rather uncomfortable. Even if she discovered the right words to say, she knew it would not be enough. So instead of words she drew closer to him and kissed him on the cheek.

Of course, her thoughts were on overdrive just before she did. Should she linger? And how long should she linger if so? What would he do in response? Would this lead to a very much desired make out session underneath the moonlight? She inwardly smiled at the thought but suspected would not happen, That did not mean she had to not think about it. She imagined the touch of his hands and the warmth of his lips – the emotions on both ends rising as emotions do in situations she was imagining. All this ran in her head in seconds before deciding on a basic kiss on the cheeks.

"Thank you, Gray." she tried getting a glance of his face, but his hat covered a good portion. The moonlight shining though caused her to surmise that her action threw him off.

Claire stared at the pendant, admiring the craftsmanship. She knew Gray had made it, given the close correlation to the sapphire on her brooch. The why she was unsure on. First a brooch, now a necklace? she paused in her thoughts then reflected on the fact that not many knew he had been working on these pieces of jewelry.

"I know you want to say it. So just say it." Regaining some of his senses, Gray peered from underneath his hat.

The farmer's thoughts halted, bringing her back to the present. She bit the inside of her cheek, not certain how to phrase it, then blurted, "Your grandfather should know."

The young blacksmith sighed, "Again, I don't want him to."

"What exactly are you afraid of, Gray? Criticism? I may be able to tell you the different elements of what each ore consist, the structure of each gem – of course, assuming I have the right equipment given how crazy this island is. For all I know that could affect the atoms... which... isn't... the point here – but you, Gray, you have talent in something I probably wouldn't know where to begin. And I assume what you know now didn't happen overnight.

"What I'm trying to get at here is this: learning a skill takes time. And with that comes criticism, usually from an expert, a master of the craft. That's how you improve. It sucks at times – I'm certainly not gonna diminish that – but it has its purpose."

Gray remained silent at the farmer's speech. She was not sure whether anything she had spoken stuck with him, especially considering she had said similar things to him in the past. His silence gave her a green light to continue, "Look, I sympathize with your hesitation and get the allure of not telling him. But I believe you can take it. You've made it this far to still be here."

Claire scooted more to Gray's side, joining him in leaning against the tree. She wrapped her arms around his closest arm to her, giving it a friendly squeeze, "Tell you what: if I'm wrong, we can circle back to this conversation, and you can tell me off. But I'm confident you've got this."

She then interlaced her cool hand with his warm one. He gave a small reflective smile, lightly squeezing her hand. Using his free hand, he reached over to the key she always wore around her neck then held the key in his hand, "Have you figured out yet who gave you this?" he changed the subject.

The blonde looked down, scrunching her face, "It hasn't been a priority. So no."

"I'm surprised, given how much you love the show and how much you obsess over it."

"Wait, a show? That I obsess with?" she took the key from Gray's hand, releasing her hand from his. "Oh my Rassilon. It is the exact same key design as in the episode Blink! This explains why it looked incredibly familiar."

"And?"

"And... therefore... wait, Gray, did you... did you make this? I mean, of course you did! You are the only one, other than my brother – at least that I know of – that has even seen that episode..." she trailed then continued, "You know, there were some pretty wild theories the other girls had. About the key, that is."

"Oh? Such as?" he adjusted his hat.

"Ann's you can probably imagine. Mary stated a common phrase in correlation. Karen suggested it was to a wine cellar. And Popuri suspected it would lead to a secret or abandoned building. Elli's was vague, but I suspected she had a wild theory but didn't want to express it."

"Not from who it was?"

"Come to think of it, they were more worried about what it meant or if it led to anything on the island." the blonde laughed. "Why didn't you say anything about the key back in summer? You could have told me right then."

"Was curious if you would figure it out."

"Well, you got me there. Then again, I told you it would probably be something staring me right in front of my face." she then lightly nudged him, "You know this further proves my point earlier."

Gray gave a small muffled laugh. He wrapped his arm around her shoulders, giving her a light squeeze, "You're a good woman, Claire."

She smiled, honoured to see a side of Gray not many did. Scratch it being a long night. I kind of wish this night never ends... the blonde sighed to herself, grateful she indeed had free time.

Gonna be real here: next two chappys I'm pretty excited about. You could say, well, I'll mention it next upload! ;)
Gotta get my creative juices pumping so that I can work out the details! Till next chappy! And thanks for reading so far, like always! :D