My first try at fanfiction, be kind and review! :)

I don't own Harvest Moon!

Chapter 1 – The Morning After

Warm.

It was very warm, a comfortable sort of warm, but nonetheless warmer than usual.

Claire wiggled in her bed, snuggling under the covers. When had her bed gotten so cozy? She guessed that buying the larger second bed hadn't been such a terrible idea after all. Smiling, she lazily opened her eyes.

She was greeted with an eyeful of chest.

Claire paused for a moment, not exactly registering what she was seeing. It was indeed chest, very warm chest and it was definitely in her bed. In fact, she slowly noted, it was what she'd been snuggling up to all along. As her senses started to wake up she became quite aware of a pair of arms wrapped around her midsection, and the light breathing that came from above her head. Finally, it became very apparent to her that she was in fact, naked and slowly a sense of fear and dread filled her body.

Terrified and confused she very slowly began to unwrap the pair of arms from around her, she was too scared to look up at whom she was sharing her bed with. When she had almost slid out from the warm embrace a groan emanated from the person beside her. Claire froze and slowly tipped her head up.

She saw a man, well of course she'd see a man, but this man had very handsome features with soft brown hair and was mildly familiar. She almost didn't recognize him but when his identity dawned on her she couldn't believe it. She absolutely couldn't believe it.

His eyes fluttered open, as he woke his arms contracted around Claire again, pushing her right back up against his chest. Moaning he pressed his face into her hair and sighed. That was it. Claire couldn't take it anymore and she let out an ear piercing scream.

"D…don't touch me!!" She yelped in her best 'angry and assertive' voice and quickly sat up gathering the sheets around her bare body. The man was definitely awake now, his eyes were still bleary but he looked at her in shock.

"Claire?" His voice was low and husky and it sent shivers down her spine. But when he sat up and reached for her shoulder she panicked. Pushing his arm away she grabbed all the blanket she could carry and dashed off her bed and straight into her bathroom.

"I said don't touch me!" she cried after she had safely locked the door. Slumping onto the floor she wrapped the blanket around herself, shivering. What in the name of the harvest goddess had happened last night? Why was he in her bed of all places? With her mind reeling Claire tried her best to remember what had happened last night. She remembered the inn, and she remembered a birthday…

Suddenly the front door clicked open and shut. Carefully Claire opened the bathroom door just a crack, her house was empty, and so was her bed. Cautiously she tiptoed out of the bathroom and dressed as quickly as she could. After snapping her overalls into place she gathered all her sheets and threw them into the wash. Her mind was still doing summersaults and a horrid headache had begun to kick in. Checking the calendar she realized yesterday had been Karen's birthday and Claire remembered going to the inn to celebrate with the others.

If it had been Karen's birthday there must have been alcohol, and if there had been alcohol people must have gotten drunk. Which meant, in the best possible scenario, that this whole fiasco had occurred because of poor drunken judgment.

Miserable, Claire began to make breakfast but as she sat down to eat she felt something funny on her chair. She had sat on something; more specifically she had sat on a hat. She looked at it and the word UMA looked right back at her.

Well, I'm certainly not confident about this but I hope it's good enough to entertain you folks out there!

I love the Gray/Claire pairing. :)