April 16th, Spring, year 20

It'll be time to run around town soon for the Egg Hunt. Everyone's been getting excited about it over the past couple of days, and Pony even showed up last night saying she wanted to play too!

Sucks that it's drizzling, but a spring shower won't hurt anyone, I guess. It could be worse, could be a full blown downpour.

I've seen Skye a couple more times, but I didn't want to stay up too late, so we don't really talk about much. I feel a little bad about that, but there's so much to do during the day… It's hard enough actually making it to bed before midnight, so I do sometimes see him wandering around the Valley. I wonder what he thinks when he's wandering…

Claire reached out absently, and groped for a pillow to throw at Jill. Her sister had arrived late and was still sleeping, but it they didn't hurry they'd never find any eggs or win any prizes.

Instead of a pillow, Tux came to hand and after a long moment of debate Claire smirked impishly, and tossed the cat onto Jill's stomach.

Tux, for all she was female, was a heavy cat. Jill came awake with a pained squeak noise that Claire pretended not to hear. In fact, she pretended not to have done anything at all, as long as Pony was unaware that it hadn't been just the cat, everything would proceed just fine.

"Morning sis!" the blonde grinned. "Ready to go hunt eggs?"

Jill blinked at her blearily for a second, then, as the words registered, sat up, nodding in excitement.

"Such a kid," Claire teased.

She promptly ducked a pillow.

Takakura had been the one to arrange this festival, starting from when the three farmers had been three farming kids. It had expanded from the buildings and places on the farm—including the pond, though not the animal watering areas—to include several other areas of the valley, and many more people.

And a long list of the eggs to be gathered. It seemed to grow longer with every passing year, even though there were only two children, age-wise, in the Valley. Not that it stopped anyone who wanted to play.

Jill and Claire were a natural team, having worked against Jack ever since he'd started being the "egg champion" during their childhood. Now, with more people to compete against than ever before, they were looking forward to the challenge.

At least, they were until Muffy ran up to Claire with a look of annoyed distress on her face. Claire immediately pushed the list into Jill's hands, and shooed her away, promising to catch up.

"Muffy, what's wrong? You look… frazzled."

"I feel frazzled," Muffy groaned. "Claire, you wouldn't happen to have some free time tonight would you?"

"Sure, but.. what's up?"

"Well… Here, take a look at this. Someone left it tacked to the door this morning."

Muffy pulled a letter out of her pocket and passed it to her cousin. Claire looked at the folded piece of paper with a sense of foreboding, and began to read.

I'm going to bless your bar with my presence at midnight for a drink.

Phantom Skye

Claire stifled an unhappy sigh, barely, and palmed her face

"He's pretty impressive to think he can just walk into the bar with no trouble," Muffy shook her head in annoyance. "But Griffin pointed out that he's a thief, so we should try and catch him, you know? Do you think maybe you could drop by and help out at all?"

Claire considered only briefly, then nodded.

"What kinda friend would I be if I let him steal your expensive imports," she said in annoyance.

"That's right, we'll make him pay gold for the drink!"

Claire smacked her forehead, and Muffy giggled.

"Kidding, kidding," she said. "Thanks Claire, I'll go let Griffin know, he'll be relived. Oh, and between ten and midnight would be good time to show."

Claire waved as Muffy hurried off, then looked down at the note from Skye that Muffy had left behind.

"This will not end well," she whispered.

Then, determinedly, she went to help Jill collect eggs. She would focus on the thief catching when it came time.

So, Skye's supposed to show at the Blue Bar tonight. To steal some of their money, or their wines. I hope not, some of those wines belonged to Griffin's great grandfather and are worth a small fortune to an expert wine-person.

Why's he stealing something again anyways? I thought… I hoped that since he hadn't sent any notices… Who'm I kidding? I was hoping he wouldn't steal anything so that I could just pretend that I liked a normal—if nocturnal—guy.

Oh, Pony and I won the egg hunt, but we almost lost to Gustafa and Nami. It was close!

And it's almost ten thirty, I should get down to the bar!

It was almost midnight when Claire knocked on the door to the Blue Bar, and poked her head through worriedly. Muffy and Griffin both smiled in a relieved sort of way as she made her appearance, and Claire smiled back.

"No sign yet?" she asked, closing the door firmly behind her. "Thank goodness, I thought I was going to be late."

"Nope," And Muffy smiled as Claire took a seat at the bar. "It's really great of you to come help out Claire."

And Griffin smiled too, that warmly crinkly smile of his.

"I really appreciate this Claire," he said. "I don't need a thief getting his hands on the wines we've got stored here."

"I kinda figured," she smiled a touch dryly. "But don't worry, we'll get him!"

The minutes ticked slowly past, Claire getting more and more nervous, and Muffy becoming puzzled.

"Maybe he won't show?" Griffin seemed relieved by the prospect. "I guess you can go…"

He trailed off as Muffy lifted her nose, inhaling deeply.

"What is that smell?" she asked. "I think I smell curry! Griffin, do you smell it?"

"I do," and the bartender had a puzzled expression on his face. "but who would be making curry at this hour of the night?"

First Muffy, then Griffin drifted around the bar. Claire, never having been fond of curry, kept her seat and watched them.

Muffy was the first out the door, which made Griffin start in surprise.

"Muffy, come back here, we have to wait for the thief!"

And he followed her. Claire gave an annoyed and tired sigh, and shook her head. Sometimes her cousin was just so… blonde.

She decided to wait a few more minutes, until their return so as to not leave the bar unguarded, when in walked Phantom Skye.

Claire was out of her seat in a second, eyes narrowed with suspicion.

"Well well, we meet again my dear Claire," and Skye smiled brushing some silver hair out of his face. "Would you believe that fate has drawn us together?"

Claire gut reaction was to deny any such ridiculous notion. But after a few seconds she had to admit that she couldn't deny the coincidences.

"Maybe a little," she said guardedly.

Skye chuckled, pleased.

"It makes me happy to hear that from a beautiful woman," he commented. "I wonder, could you hold still half a moment my dear?"

Annoyed now by his assumptions that she would let him walk in and take things from her friends, Claire moved. But she wasn't fast enough to avoid the spell that suddenly froze her voluntary muscles, locking her in place. The only thing unaffected was her mouth, which she could move freely, and she took advantage of that use to swear at Skye.

He seemed rather surprised by her choice of language, but then he chuckled.

"Relax, it will wear off in a couple of hours. Now then…"

Skye moved out of her field of vision, back behind the bar. She stood, fuming silently for a minute, before her curiosity got the better of her.

"Why are you a thief?" she asked, annoyance lacing her voice.

There was a short pause in the rattling of bottles.

"I don't know why," and Skye chuckled slightly.

This just served to annoy Claire further.

"No, seriously!" she demanded. "Are you just doing this for the fun of it?"

"Well, that might be it," and she could hear the smirk in his voice, "then again that might not be it."

"Eeergh…"

"You really wish to know more about me, don't you?" he inquired. "But if I simply tell you, that will take all the mystery out of the relationship."

"What relationship?" she muttered sulkily.

"Ah, I have it. If you can catch me," and he walked around to stand in front of her holding several old bottles, and what looked to be Griffin's cash box. "If you can catch me my dear Claire, I'll tell you whatever you want."

Claire gave him a sour look, making the phantom thief chuckle.

"You have my word."

He would have said more, but voices from outside interrupted him.

"You shouldn't have run off like that," Griffin scolded, his voice floating through the open window. "What if the thief has shown up? We left Claire all alone in there!"

"Ah well, it appears we have no time left to socialize my dear," Claire stuck out her tongue in frustration. "At the spring then."

And with that he exited out the open window, vanishing off into the night, just as Muffy and Griffin walked back into the bar. Claire gave them both sour looks as she felt the magic start to fade.

"…What?" Muffy blinked at her annoyed cousin. "Wait…"

"The thief showed up," Claire snapped. "While you were out hunting curry."

"What?!"

The shout was done in unison, and Claire rocked back on her heels slightly as more feeling started to return to her limbs.

"No way!" Muffy ran around behind the bar and nearly wailed her distress. "He took the cash box!"

"And the Okuhattan, and that bottle of Heaven's Gate," Claire added sourly. "If he hadn't freaking paralyzed me with that stupid spell I could have stopped him!"

"You were paralyzed?" And now Muffy hurried over to her cousin. "Are you alright now?"

"Working on it," was the sour reply.

"I'm sorry," Muffy hung her head in embarrassment. "I shouldn't have left you all alone like that!"

"I'm sorry too," Griffin said glumly. "Thanks for trying to help out Claire, sorry we didn't manage to catch him."

They waited patiently as Claire started moving her limbs again. When she could move with only a little stiffness, she reached out and gave them both hugs.

"It's okay. It wasn't your fault," the farmer shook her head sympathetically. "If I liked curry the way you all seem to, I probably would have followed you right out and never gotten the chance to talk to him. Arrogant jerk."

"You should go home and get some sleep," Griffin said awkwardly patting Claire on the back. "We'll have to figure out how much this is going to affect the Blue Bar prices."

Claire just shook her head again, hugged Muffy one more time, then headed out into the evening air. The rain had picked up, chill and icy, and she was glad to let it drench her. It made the anger less hot.

I cannot believe he used something like that on me! And taking the cash box of all things!

Ooooo, the next time I see that smug face of his, I'm going to give him a black eye!