Harvest Moon Fan Fiction ❯ My Enemy, My Friend ❯ Tim's Moment, Kai's Concern ( Chapter 14 )

Hey everyone! Before you all start hurling virtual rotten veggies at me, I'm super sorry that I didn't get to update when I said. My laptop was left in my room unsupervised, and someone turned it off, thus destroying my chapter….evidently some one thought it would be super funny to delete my fanfiction document- saving it on a USB…however, they didn't save it properly, thus destroyed the hole chapter, which was pretty awesome with jealous Gray's POV. The result of course was a very aggravated me, and then writer's block do to stress. Unfortunately jealous Gray will not make an appearance until next chapter, but I think you guys will be semi happy with what's here. I'm not going to make a liar out of myself by saying that I'll update on schedule, but Pro-chan and myself have made a pact to keep us motivated, so hopefully I can try to get a chapter out at least every other week, schedule allowing and no more interference from other beings in my household. Special thanks to Pro-chan for kicking me into gear, you guys can thank her for the update, because I was going to hold out until it was super long, but…she convinced me otherwise. I hope you enjoy, and here are the special thanks you notes for those who left reviews.

 

 

Scarlet Sky- Don't worry about it, it happens to all of us. I'm glad you liked it and I'm glad you liked Kai so much. Kai is turning out to be quite the character isn't he? Don't worry, Mary will be happy, no matter what happens to her ^ ^

Lumanova03- I'm going to do my best to update sooner, especially with the end of the term approaching. I'm sorry it took so long.

Suupaa Panda- NO! I love all reviews ^ ^ I hope you're happy with this chapter as well.

B4k4 ch4n- I hope my replies explained any questions you had that I was able to answer. As far as your questions, here is another piece to the puzzle that might help you out ^ ^

Elaine- Thanks so much. Hope you're happy with this next chapter.

Arianax3- I hope you like this chapter and it makes you laugh just as much as the last one.

Libra1- Yes ^ ^ there will be plenty of friction between the doc and Gray in the near future. But for the time being, Kai is the hot topic right now ( lol)

Hajischevalier12- Thanks. ^ ^ is Kai competition or annoyance? You help me decide XD

Hmgirly12- You such a big help to me, and I'm really glad you like Kai in my story. I'm having a hard time not jumping off the Gray bandwagon myself and joining the Kai one, but :P I really appreciate your support during this time of…computers eating my document due to pranksters in the house ^ ^

Harvest moon fan- thanks. I know I catch some after I post and try to edit, but…obviously I'm not that good at catching them ^ ^ but I'm glad you like the story, and yes, I have fallen even more in love with Kai as I've written this story, as will probably be obvious as you read the chapters containing him and his shenanigans

AdaLeon- Kai has a lot of tricks up his sleeve, but they will all come out sooner or later. He's determined to either get them together or make Gray miserable, I haven't decided which one it is though xD

Disclaimer: I don't own the rights to any character in this story: Harvest Moon or OHSHC.

 

Kai's POV

I watched curiously as Gray looked towards the group of women, a sudden wave of extreme irritation causing him to scowl in their direction. I followed his gaze and saw that Tim had approached the group, or more specifically, Mary and Claire.

Tim…was an extremely difficult person to understand. But me being me, had long ago narrowed his personality down to `conceited jerk.' Of course there were probably other unseen levels of his personality, and I would love to see them…but not if that included him interfering in my master plan. So now it was time for operation diversion, in laymen terms- get Tim away from Claire.

I looked back to a silently fuming blacksmith, and wondered if perhaps I shouldn't interfere, and watch him in his jealous fit. I would have to, if an amused laugh from a certain blonde hadn't brought me back to the reality that Tim was fast becoming a major liability to my master plan. I hate it when complications arise.

I looked about the beach, and realized that everyone that usually comes was already here. Wonderful, let's just start the race. Nice safe fun swim race, and then I could invite the girls into the snack shack for free snow cones, no Tim's aloud. Oh yes …I am a genius!

“Alright, all participants in the race should get ready, we're going to start in about five minutes. Rick?!” I called, despite whatever headache I would have to endure when and if he finally went off on me.

“What is it,…Kai” he growled out, obviously having been told to not insult me by an certain emerald eyed woman, glaring at him like a mother does to her misbehaving child.

“Go on and get out there to the rock…and…” I trailed off, looking back to the beach when a sudden strong gust of wind picked up. “well…that's not good.” I turned to finish speaking to Rick, but he was already stomping into the surf, heading towards the rock.

“Claire…you're going to drown if you wear that,” Mary pointed out, concern and aggravation in her voice. “Kai, tell Claire she can't wear her over shirt in the race,” Mary pleaded and I looked from her large onyx eyes to the blonde who had removed everything but her thin white over shirt.

“If I have to take it off, I'm not going to compete.” She stated, arms crossed stubbornly. I looked back down to Mary, still giving me puppy eyes and sighed.

“Claire, you shouldn't wear something that will weigh you down…” I began and she glared at me.

“She said she wouldn't compete if you made her take it off,” a voice said hotly. I turned to see Tim standing a little behind Claire and I narrowed my eyes. Deep breaths, happy thoughts, just stay calm.

“Well she can't compete with it on, it's too risky.” I said with a careless shrug.

“What are you talking about?” came an irritated voice from behind me. “Her swim suit probably weighs more than that thin piece of material does sopping wet. If she wants to keep it on, let her,” I looked over my shoulder to see Gray with his arms crossed and glaring out at the ocean.

“No one asked for your input,” I muttered. Stupid Gray… I knew that the shirt wasn't that heavy. I just didn't want her to wear it.

“Whatever. We need to get this over with. In case you haven't noticed, the weather is going to go downhill fast when those clouds over there get here,” he pointed to some dark clouds in the horizon and I sighed in defeat.

“Fine, she can wear her shirt,” I muttered and turned to go to the starting line. “Hurry up and get over here. Gray's right, the weather is fixing to turn, and we need to get this over with.”

On the starting line was Gray, Mary, Claire, Karen, Cliff and myself. The other's watched from all over the beach, yelling out good luck and beat so and so. I bit back a laugh as I heard Gray and Claire bickering.

“I bet I beat you,” he began in his pitiful attempt at grade school teasing.

“Whatever,” she muttered, obviously trying not to take the bait.

“What's wrong, are you scared?” he taunted and Claire rolled her eyes, but a competitive fire began to burn in her eyes.

“I am not scared…not of you,” she began to take slow and deep breaths and I tried to figure out why,

The bang of the starting pistol rang in my ears, and I dived forward, swimming easily out ahead of the other competitors. In several quick and strong strokes I had made it to the rock, way ahead of the others, and got to watch them try to catch up. Karen was gaining quickly, as was Cliff. Mary was trailing far behind and Gray was quickly approaching Karen and Cliff, steadily passing them. But…I couldn't see Claire. I narrowed my eyes, standing up to look for her, but I couldn't see her anywhere. I turned to Rick, but he seemed calm.

“Where is Claire?”

“She dove under the water…hasn't come back up,” he said with a pause. “She should need air by now, though” he muttered and I tried to see any movement beneath the surface of the dark blue water. I jumped back in surprise and fright as a slender hand emerged from the water, slapping the rock a few seconds before Gray's and a sopping head of blonde hair broke the surface, gasping deeply.

“Kai…” she panted heavily and I let out a relieved sigh. “ Rick…did I beat Gray?”

“By a few seconds,” Rick chuckled and I reached down grasping her hand to help her up onto the rock, and she immediately made her way towards a defeated blacksmith, still trying to catch her breath as she went to rub victory in his face.

“Rick! Rick! I didn't come in last place!” Karen squealed as she tried to climb up the rock and Rick stood up at her enthusiasm. She lunged at him and the excited couple stumbled into Claire, who was rubbing her victory in Gray's face.

In agonizingly slow motion, the impact forced Claire to tumble forward, head first against the rocks and then upon experiencing a consciousness losing blow to the head, she disappeared into the water. There were the sounds of worried gaps and frightened shrieks. Gray had dived in after he, but so had I.

Being at the top of the rock, I was able to dive deeper than the blacksmith, and passed him as he tried to go after the sinking blonde. I grabbed her and began kicking for all I was worth towards the surface. When we broke the top, I turned on my back, one arm securely holding Claire's shoulders and head above the surface as the other paddled us towards the shore. I got to the peer and began to climb up it, but the blonde was immediately lifted from my shoulders by Tim and placed on the peer as he checked her over.

“Is she…alright?” I panted and Tim's face looked solemn. I watched as Gray climbed up the peer ladder, concern on his face as Tim responded.

“Everyone stand back,” he said calmly, though his voice was laced with panic. He tilted her head back and opened her mouth before descending on her and breathing into her. He pulled back and placed his hands over her chest and pressed down firmly three times, before leaning down to breathe into her mouth again.

He pulled back and the blonde let out a choke and jerked her head, sea water coming out from her lungs as she opened her eyes wide, sitting up panicked and her arms wrapping around the neck of the man that was hovering over her. She continued to cough and sputter as Tim slowly closed his eyes and wrapped his arms around Claire tightly, his hand rubbing her back as she tried to calm down.

Yet another unneeded complication to my plan. The line in the sand was drawn, and either Gray or Claire had to bend, or Tim had to go.

Tim's POV

If there was one thing that I've ever prided myself in, it was my ability to stay calm and rational in an emergency. It was a key asset to being a doctor. After all:

stress led to panic,

2. panic led to mistakes,

… and mistakes could mean the difference between life and death in my field of work.On this very day, at this very moment, I was quickly reminded why I made a point to not create physical attachments to anyone in this small village.

The reason simply being was that I couldn't bear to see someone I cared about die, and I could have been able to save them had I been able to keep a level head. And at this very moment, I really didn't give a damn if I panicked or not. All that mattered to me was the sopping wet, shaking and sputtering, most definitely alive woman that had wrapped her drenched long-sleeved clad arms around my neck.

I didn't know that I was able to feel so much relief and so much fear at the same time. What…what if I had panicked and hadn't been able to perform my job? What if I didn't respond quickly enough and Claire had brain damage from lack of oxygen to her brain? What if…

I closed my eyes, willing the `what ifs' to go away as I embraced her, rubbing my hand soothingly along her back as she continued to cough and gasp. I was extremely tempted to whisper comforting words as well, but being as I had an audience, I decided against it. It would only end up causing both of us embarrassment in the long run.

Being a doctor, I knew this really didn't help her in anyway, but it was more of a psychological `I'm here' gesture. For both of us. For me, it was me touching Claire, feeling her tremble, hearing her gasp for air as I held her in my arms. That was myself making sure she was alive, not some weird figment of my imagination. It should really be worrisome, how much this woman matters to me. What lengths would I go to be with her?

“Claire…are you alright?” I asked, my voice coming out soft and weak sounding.

“Hai….Yeah,” she gasped out, my eyebrow raising at her fist word, pondering over why she had said hi. She pushed away from me, her hand resting over her heaving chest as she shook her head. “I'm fine…” she seemed to be reassuring herself as she touched her head tenderly, and then she scooted away from me. I felt a small pang of rejection.

“Claire?” I said questioningly.

“I just…need space…she held out her hand, placing it between her and myself, and doing the same to Gray who had been approaching her from behind. He stepped past her outstretched arm and placed a towel over her shoulders, squatting down to grasp her face.

“Her head isn't bleeding Tim, but she did bump when she got pushed off the rock,” he muttered, moving her head this way and that and I looked over his shoulder. So now he was telling me how to do my job was he?

“I'm fine, damn it. Give me some space,” she slurred out as she closed her eyes dizzily. I watched her every move, looking for other signs of a concussion. `She opened her eyes, her gaze landing on Gray and she groaned. “Good Goddess, there are two of you…” she looked up towards me and pointed shakily “and two of you…” her voice trailed off as she looked utterly confused.

“Claire, what's wrong?” I asked, figuring she had indeed suffered a concussion as she was officially showing several symptoms of that.

“Nothing…I just…bumped my head,” she whispered, her voice hesitant as she looked towards Gray for conformation.

“Do you want to go home?” I asked her, offering her my hand so she could try to stand up. She looked at it blankly, no emotions showing in on her face as she tried to stand on her own, completely ignoring the hand in front of her.

“I think I would…” she muttered under her breath as she leaned to one side, stumbling back down and glaring at her legs, which she must have blamed for her dizziness.

“Woman, take some help if you need it,” Gray grumbled as he grabbed her writs and roughly yanked her upwards to her feet. So that was his solution was it? Forcing his help on others…I felt my eyes narrow and my face frown slightly at the scene, the farmer being steadied by the seemingly annoyed blacksmith. But…did anyone else see the emotion that his eyes held?

It was probably the same emotion that had until a second go had been mirrored in my own eyes. It was concern for someone that was dear to you, wasn't it? And that made me extremely annoyed and...well…angry wasn't the word for it. Hostile, perhaps livid...

“ My head hurts…” she muttered. Gray scoffed at her, crossing his arms over his chest.

“Of course it does…that tends to happen when you land on it. Even your head isn't that hard.”

I rolled my eyes and then saw Kai walk away from everyone to the end of the pier, helping the struggling librarian up the ladder. I saw that everyone was looking from Claire to me, and then back, and I realized that I had yet to declare everything was alright, and…being the doctor, they must be waiting for me to say that.

“Claire is going to be fine. She's just seems to be suffering from a slight concussion,” I said loud enough and heard a collective relieved group sigh. Wonderful…simply wonderful. Could this day possibly get any worse?

I looked at the ground giving a defeated sigh as the sky ripped open dropping water heavily upon the beach and the wind blew in large gusts, the villagers at the beach scrambling for their belongings and running towards the exit.

I really wish someone would tell me why the gods above seem to be against me when it comes to this woman. And it's not enough that she's being lead away in frenzy by the barmaid, blacksmith, pirate-want-to-be, and librarian. Oh no…now they taunt me with a rain storm. Isn't life just grand?

 

 

Summer 2nd , Claire's POV :

In all my life, I had never seen anything more pathetic than the sight before me. It was such a `I could have gone my entire life without seeing this' moment, it was hilarious. As much as I wanted to look away, I couldn't , and to top that off, I couldn't seem to keep my mouth shut as I continued observing, the situation getting weirder and more unheard of with every passing moment. I mean, this was completely absurd, and just trying to think of the reasoning behind it was causing my mild headache to turn into a severe one. There couldn't possibly have been TWO people like this in the world.

The fact remained that KAI was at the library, allegedly here to help clean up the mess that Gray and I had made in the winter. However, said person was doing anything but helping, and seemed to have been sent here by the Harvest Goddess to punish me in some way, as he could only succeed in making the mess more disorganized than it already was.

My patience was running thin, but not as thin as Mary's, who had seemed to have finally reached the end of her rope with the tan man a few minutes ago, leading to this situation. Mary scolding someone besides…Gray and I…well…maybe Stu, but....

“Kai, you are NOT helping in any way, shape or form, and you keep making things worse than they were before you got here,” Mary muttered, pushing her glasses upwards to pinch the bridge of her nose, something that she evidently did when extremely annoyed.

“But…but Mary, I…” Kai began, his face crestfallen and eyes brimming with tears as he clinched his fist.

“Don't you dare `but Mary' me, mister. I think I'm better off without your help anyways,” she chided, and I saw her stand there in disbelief as Kai literally squatted down, arms over his knees as he buried his head in his arms, audible sobs coming from his hunched down form.

“Tama-chan?” I asked the ten year old boy carefully, eyes full of worry as he sobbed, crouched in a fetal position in the corner.

“Belle” he sobbed, wiping his tear filled eyes on his sleeve. “Hikaru and Kaoru are so cruel.”

I bit my lip trying not to burst into laughter at his melodramatics. I turned to see the twins, both giving me blank looks and then shrugging.

“How so?” I asked softly, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“They say they won't miss me when I go to live with father,” he whined and I felt my playful expression falter. That's right…Tamaki was leaving at the end of the week…

“Mary, you are so cruel,” Kai whined out.

“Mary,” I began, nearly feeling a wave of pity for the sight of the grown man sulking. “Kai's is only trying to …” I was interrupted by the tinkling of the bells on the door, signaling the arrival of another patron.

“Why is that idiot in his corner of woe?” I snapped my head to the door, eyes landing on a very tired and not very amused blacksmith, removing his jacket, the summer heat evidently too much for him. His eyes traveled from Kai's form, to Mary's stupefied stare, to me. However, upon hearing Gray's voice, Kai seemed to snap right out of his tiny bout of depression, jumping in between myself and Mary, placing an arm on each of our shoulders.

“Good afternoon roommate,” Kai said with a large grin, and Gray slid his hand down his face in a `don't remind me' gesture. Kai's hand slid down my arm and to my hip, and I presume he did the same to Mary as he hugged us to him. “I'm just here with my two favorite girls…” I didn't give him the chance to finish whatever barb he was going to toss to Gray, my hand coming in direct contact with the back of his head, at the same time Mary's elbow made contact with his ribs.

Mary and I both stepped away from him, and he immediately went back into what Gray had referred to as his `corner of woe.' I couldn't help but roll my eyes, what little respect I held for Kai dwindling with each passing moment.

“Kai, if you're going to help, help. If not, leave,” Gray muttered coldly, and once again at the sound of his voice, Kai made an amazing come back from his abyss of sadness.

“Certainly, I am only here to serve my ladies,” Kai said cheerfully, waggling his eyebrows at both Mary and myself. He approached me and I let out a sigh as he grabbed my hand, kneeling forward to kiss it. I snatched it away at the last second, glaring at him with annoyance.

“Either help or get out,” I muttered, echoing Gray's ultimatum and then returned to placing books that Kai had disorganized on the shelf. Kai gave a slight pout before he walked to Mary, giving her a charming smile.

“Where does the lady require my assistance?” He asked her, successfully placing a kiss on her hand despite the fuming redheaded man who looked like he could literally set him ablaze with his glare.

“W-well I suppose you can bring the books downstairs and let Claire and me put them on the shelves…* Mary managed to giggle out, her face flushing crimson as I raised an eyebrow at her flustered reaction. Kai gave a flirtatious wink before rushing upstairs to gather a load of books.

“Well, that's interesting,” I muttered to myself, as Gray made his way over, arms crossed as he kept an eye on the man upstairs, his mouth twitching upwards into a small smile when a loud crash sounded in the library.

“I'm okay,” Kai called down, his hand waving from near the banisters.

“Klutz,” Gray snickered and I stifled back my own giggle as Mary looked upwards worriedly.

“My books,” Mary groaned, rushing up the stairs to see what damages had occurred.

“Mary…while you're up there, do check on Kai, will you,” I called after her, biting my lip to keep from falling into a fit of giggles, while Gray let a low chuckle come out fully, not even pretending to try t stop it.

This day had started off bad, gotten better, then went downhill from there. Not for me of course, but rather for Gray. But it could be argued that an unhappy blacksmith with a temper made for unhappy people in his range of reach.

Kai was far from helping matters, in fact, it could be seen that if he was doing anything, it was increasing Gray's foul mood with every passing second. Nearly an hour ago work in the library had ceased entirely, and I now rested on small couch, legs folded under me as I read a book, randomly glancing up to keep an eye on the situation.

Kai continued throwing out his flirtatious lines, and Mary continued to be randomly flustered by his comments and compliments. I rolled my eyes as Kai said a rather cheesy line, but snickered as Gray angrily approached me and plopped on the couch next to me, scowling at the sight . Mary sat at her desk, while Kai leaned over it, talking to her about his travels.

“He's such a player,” he muttered under his breath and I let out a sigh, closing my book and looking at him with amusement.

“He's only doing it because he likes to aggravate you,” I stated in a matter of fact tone.

“Well he's doing a cracker jack job,” Gray grunted, and looked at me with a raised eyebrow. “Why don't you get all giggly like the other girls when he talks to you?”

I bit my lip, trying to stop the giggle. “ Because, I have been exposed to a type of guy who has…for lack of a better way to put it…more charisma and a bigger ego. Kai doesn't begin to explain the type of guy Tamaki was…” I trailed off thoughtfully as Gray's eyes cut back to Mary and Kai, fist balling up as Kai leaned in as if to kiss Mary's cheek.

“I'm going to kill him,” he muttered under his breath and I placed a finger on my chin thoughtfully.

“Better yet, why don't you try to beat him at his own game?” I asked, a wicked smile appearing on my lips. I leaned in to Gray, telling him what to say and what to do while he listened intently. After he repeated what I said, I gave him the go ahead and sat back to watch the entertainment.