A Place To Stay

Claire woke up early on the morning of the Starry Night Festival. She was excited about getting everything ready to make the celebration really special. She lay in bed for a moment and ran over her plans in her mind. Curry bread, curry rice, and chocolate mousse. Claire smiled at that. She was going to attempt that for the first time. It shouldn’t be that hard. Sasha at the supermarket had given her a simple recipe and directed her to the correct ingredients she would need.

Claire turned over in bed and snuggled on Cliff, who was still sleeping. She found his hand and laced her fingers into his. Cliff pulled her hand over him and placed it on a very hard spot on his body. He groaned. “Oh, Claire…it aches…Claire…”

Claire was a little shocked and looked at him, surprised, but then she realized that he was still sound asleep, and he was talking in his sleep. Still…

“We can’t have you hurting,” she said, giggling, and disappeared under the covers.

Cliff’s eyes flew wide open and he was suddenly awake. “Hey! Whoa!” He picked up the edge of the covers and peeked down at what Claire was doing, then melted back into the bed, sighing in pleasure.

A few minutes later, Claire reappeared above the covers, and cuddled up to Cliff, who was trembling with satisfaction. “Now that’s…the best way to start a day,” he gasped.

Claire just kissed him on the cheek happily and jumped out of bed, leaving him to recover for a while. Preparations for the festival went smoothly. Claire hummed and buzzed around the kitchen. Finally, Cliff appeared from out of the bedroom after a short, post-recovery nap, looking refreshed and cheerful. He went out onto the farm to get all the chores done.

The day went by quickly, and before long, it was sundown. Claire had been relieved that Ann had not come by to ask Cliff to come to the inn and spend the Starry Night Festival with her. Ann didn’t know that Cliff and Claire were serious now. As far as Claire knew, only Elli, and maybe the doctor (Claire giggled remembering that) knew. But, Ann had suddenly stopped glaring at Claire when she ran into her, so Claire guessed she had finally given up

.Cliff had returned to the house about an hour before and gotten cleaned up, and was dressed quite nicely. He sat at the table in anticipation as Claire set the dishes of completed foods on the table. Claire sat down too and they ate. Cliff loved the curry bread, and of course the curry rice. When they had finished with the main course, Claire said, “Okay, now the big finish!” and leapt up from the table, hurrying over to the fridge. She returned with two beautiful glass dishes of chocolate mousse.

Cliff smiled widely. “All right! Chocolate mousse!” He ate it energetically, practically licking his dish clean, and Claire gave him a few spoonfuls of hers as well. When the meal was over, Cliff leaned back in his chair and sighed. “That was wonderful, Claire.”

Claire looked at him slyly. “What? The dinner or this morning?”

Cliff blushed and grinned. “Heh heh…both.”

They got the dishes cleaned up and then bundled up to go out for the traditional Starry Night walk. Along the way, they ran into some of the other couples in town. Karen and Rick were cuddling on a tree stump outside of Gotz’ shed. They waved at each other. Karen pointed and raised an eyebrow at Cliff and Claire’s intertwined hands. “Oh, so it all worked out after all! No catfights necessary, eh?” Karen chuckled.

Cliff looked at Claire quizzically. Claire just laughed nervously.

Rick’s face lit up and he motioned for them to come closer. “Oh, speaking of that…why don’t you take a look on the other side of this building?” He laughed quietly.

Claire and Cliff looked at each other, shrugged, and walked around Gotz’ shed, peeking around the corner. There, on a snow covered pile of wood, sat Ann and Harris, the local constable. Ann was holding a basket in her lap, and feeding Harris a forkful of some kind of baked good. Harris struggled to keep a smile on his face as he chewed it, but he managed to swallow it, and laughed happily, telling Ann that it was wonderful. Claire snickered to herself, remembering Cliff’s tale of Ann’s horrendous cakes.

Claire pulled Cliff out from behind the shed by the hand. He was initially reluctant to be seen by Ann, standing immobile as she pulled at him, a look of panic on his face. Claire whispered, “It’s okay,” and Cliff sighed and followed her.

When Ann saw them, she waved cheerfully, no hint of the jealous banshee she was made out to be. “Happy Starry Night!” she yelled. Cliff winced a little bit as Ann’s already loud voice echoed against the snow. Claire nodded. “Happy Starry Night to you as well. What are you eating there?” Claire asked, biting her lip to keep from laughing.

Ann beamed. “It’s my special triple pineapple surprise cake! Well,” she paused, “It’s really quite a surprise because two pages got stuck together in the cookbook and I poured beef gravy into the batter by mistake!” Harris blanched and gagged. Ann punched his arm. “Dummy! I scooped most of it out!”

Claire smiled broadly. “Well, we’ll leave you two alone then…” Cliff and Claire quickly made their exit as Ann bullied at Harris lovingly, and he sheepishly took every bit of it.

Claire and Cliff walked up to Rick and Karen again. Rick smiled and laughed. “What did you think about that?”

Claire sighed in relief. “I’m just happy she shifted her focus off of Cliff. I REALLY did not want to be her rival!”

Rick shrugged. “That’s Ann for you. When she likes a guy, she likes him hard, but she finds new crushes pretty quickly. They’re actually a pretty good match,” he mused. “Harris has been so lonely since Aja, Duke and Manna’s daughter, left town. She was his girlfriend, you know. Ann’s perfect for him because she has the same bossy personality that Aja had.”

Claire laughed. “I don’t know if he will survive her cooking, though.”

Rick grinned. “Oh, that. Well, it’s better than the mud pies that she made ME eat when she liked me! And Harris has a tough stomach. He’ll be all right.”

The two couples waved goodbye to each other as Cliff and Claire set off, continuing their walk. They walked up the slope to the Goddess Pond. They walked around, admiring the glassy, sparkling ice that had formed over everything, making it seem like everything was made out of crystal. As they walked around the side of the hot springs, they saw Gray and Mary enjoying the Starry Night in their own way. Mary was reading to Gray out of a book that she wrote, while Gray nervously nodded and picked at the threads on his jacket.

Cliff and Claire left the Goddess Pond and headed for Kappa Lake. There, they spotted the Doctor and Elli. Doctor was holding a piece of white grass and lecturing very seriously to Elli on its medicinal properties. Elli saw Claire and rolled her eyes. Claire stifled a laugh and waved to them. They waved back. Poor Elli. She wanted the Doctor to be romantic so badly, and here on this most romantic of nights, he was still being his serious Doctor self.

Claire and Cliff walked around to the edge of Kappa Lake, and sat on a bench there. Cliff smiled contentedly at Claire. Claire responded by resting her head on his shoulder.

Claire sighed happily. “Everybody is happy. It’s nice.”

Cliff squeezed her hand. “Claire, do I make you happy?”

She lifted her head and turned to look up at him lovingly.

“Very.”

He looked so relieved and happy. “Good,” he said, and kissed her.