Harvest Moon: More Friends of Mineral Town; Gray/Mary
Fandom: Harvest Moon: Friends of Mineral Town
Pairing: Gray/Mary
Theme Set: Gamma
Rating: Light PG
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#01 - Ring
The first time they met, she flushed beautifully at his enthusiastic admiration that she could run this whole place by herself, and as he left, Gray, who couldn’t make a decision on anything without months of deliberation, thought whimsically that he might like to make his and Mary’s wedding bands himself.
#02 - Hero
Gradually, since that grandson of Saibara’s started coming every afternoon, Mary has begun to picture the dashing heroes in her novels as redheaded and just a little bit sulky, but with beautiful smiles when they’re not.
#03 - Memory
Mary knows that Gray has a terrible memory, so she tells herself over and over that she won’t be hurt when he forgets her birthday, until she almost trips over a clumsily wrapped present that someone’s left on the doorstep of the library despite the snow.
#04 - Box
When she opens the box, she gasps at the beautiful pearl necklace nestled in between layers of tissue paper, but she squeals in open delight at the prettily-decorated hardcover journal, and the scribbled message on the inside of the front cover: “Happy Birthday, Mary; maybe you can use it to write our story.”
#05 - Run
Gray likes to go for a run through town early each morning, but when he passes Mary’s house and she comes scurrying out to run with him, it usually turns into a walk, which turns into a pleasant stroll, which turns into a sit on the nearest bench until they’re both almost late for work and have to run again to make it on time.
#06 - Hurricane
Despite her alarmed protests, he goes upstairs in the Library before she’s had a chance to organize the second floor; and her annoyed pout when he says it looks like a hurricane’s been through here turns into a grateful smile when, without a word, he starts alphabetizing and shelving the boxes of books.
#07 - Wings
Mary has always heard falling in love compared to soaring up with the wings of an eagle or a dove, but now that it’s happening to her, she feels more like she’s floating gently on a soft, warm, comforting sweet-pink cloud.
#08 - Cold
He’s kind of glad they both have their birthdays in the winter, because it’s nice, celebrating by the light of a roaring fire, in a room as drowsily, headily warm as he knows it is bitterly cold outside.
#09 - Red
Of course Mary is spending the Starry Night Festival with her family; but it is the crowning glory of Gray’s day when she comes by Grandpa’s shop late that evening to wish them both a happy Starry Night, with a little red velvet cap pulled down over her long dark hair, left uncharacteristically loose around her shoulders.
#10 - Drink
Gray likes wine as much as the next guy, but what he really likes is Mary’s cheeks flushed brightly pink and her arms tight around his neck, chin against his shoulder, petite frame curled up in his lap, when they’ve both had a bit too much.
#11 - Midnight
They had only planned to go for a short walk that evening; but time had slipped away on them, and by the time they caught up again, it was close to midnight and her mother was frantic, close to panic but refraining because Gray was such a nice, responsible boy.
#12 - Temptation
When they realize that they’re all alone on Goddess Peak and likely to be for a few hours yet because no one in their right mind gets up this early, they both grow very red, her in the cheeks and him in the ears, and they scramble to make up reasons to head back now, before they do something stupid.
#13 - View
He’s never been up to her room before, so he spends a long time at that little west-facing window, thinking, Wow, what a view before she tugs him around gently to kiss her and windows become the last thing on his mind.
#14 - Music
He’s glad she plays the organ instead of the flute or the violin, because an organ makes such a good, solid sound - a sound worth listening to.
#15 - Silk
When he tells her in a fit of poetic sentiment that her skin is like silk, she asks with an impish smile if that means she gives him rashes, and he swears he’s going to kill whichever of the guys told her about those boxers he got from his mom his last birthday.
#16 - Cover
The whole time he’s reading her book - the parts she’ll show him, anyway - he’s thinking at the back of his mind of the perfect picture for the cover; and she exclaims in horror when she finds him sitting by the pond in the middle of winter, numb from three hours in the biting cold, because he didn’t want to miss the sunset.
#17 - Promise
She doesn’t need him to promise that they’ll be together forever; it’s good enough that he told her so, because Gray doesn’t say things that he doesn’t mean, and he doesn’t change his mind without a really good reason.
#18 - Dream
She doesn’t understand why it embarrassed him so much when she found out by accident that he keeps a dream journal.
#19 - Candle
The day after she tells him that the smell of cinnamon inspires her, she finds a whole box full of little red candles on the counter at the Library, their spicy scent filling the air when she lifts the lid.
#20 - Talent
He doesn’t understand why it upsets her so much whenever he says that she’s the talented one, and he’s so proud of her that he doesn’t even mind being the boring one.
#21 - Silence
Much of the time, they’re so quiet together that strangers can’t believe they’re even friends, let alone almost married.
#22 - Journey
Over the months, his restlessness has shifted from the need to get as far from Mineral Town as possible and never look back, to the whimsical hope that someday he can take Mary all over the world, because a lot of travel is good for a writer.
#23 - Fire
There’s something she loves about watching him work, heating metal over a slow, hot fire, eyes focused and expression intense with concentration, so she’s a little sorry that Saibara won’t let her watch often, because Gray always seems to hurt himself when she’s around.
#24 - Strength
In spite of all the possible clichés about the unshakable strength of metal, he thinks that Mary might be far stronger than him, and he believes it so entirely that he can’t bring himself to be mad when Gramps nods gravely and agrees.
#25 - Mask
It was almost a relief the first time they fought, because it meant that Gray was comfortable enough to stop putting his best face forward, and be himself around her.
#26 - Ice
He finally found the courage to ask her tonight, while they were walking by the lake, and he moved to brush the droplets of melted snow from her hair; since he was this close, and the Blue Feather was right there, tucked into his coat, he might as well do it, right?
#27 - Fall
She thinks that falling in love is another silly phrase, but he’s not so sure - he kind of feels like a bumbling klutz tripping over his own feet when she’s around.
#28 - Forgotten
Gray knows that he was in a bad mood when he left the forge, but when Mary gives him that smile, kind of blushing a little like she does sometimes, he’s damned if he can remember why - although, he remembers why he’ll never be a poet.
#29 - Dance
“I think a dance might be the wrong word for it,” Mary giggles as they snuggle happily into their corner together and sit out yet another song at their own wedding party.
#30 - Body
Mary has always heard that the man is supposed to be obsessed with the things they do in bed, while the woman just puts up with it; but then, they’ve hardly done anything the right way, she thinks, pulling his clothes joyously aside.
#31 - Sacred
If family bonds are supposed to be sacred, Gray wonders, why is it that he gets along way better with Basil and Anna than he ever has with Mom and Dad?
#32 - Farewells
When Mary comes home from a book tour to a crushing hug, sweet slow kisses over her temples, and a gentle protective hand stroking her hair, she thinks that the hello again just might make the goodbye worth it.
#33 - World
Saibara tells his grandson one night that he’s going to have to grow up very soon, because an ignorant traveller might as well not even bother, and he still needs to take Mary all over the world.
#34 - Formal
No one will ever be able to convince her that it’s inappropriate, or anything other than adorable and wonderful and perfect, when he wears that silly hat with his tuxedo to all those publishers’ galas.
#35 - Fever
He knows that she’s probably made herself sick staying up until dawn every night with that book, but he also knows that writing is like breathing to her, and he thinks that the doctor and his nurse and wife must have some idea too, because they don’t sound more than half-sincere when they warn him not to let Mary get this run-down again.
#36 - Laugh
Most authors puff themselves up with pride when they manage to make a reader cry; when she found Gray doubled over with laughter over a light-hearted little story she’d been working on, she wondered if she could actually feel her head swelling.
#37 - Lies
She’s always been glad that Gray is practically genetically incapable of lying; it’s hard enough, getting him to share his thoughts and feelings without having to worry if they were genuine or not.
#38 - Forever
This must be what happiness is, Gray thinks, wrapping a protective arm around his wife, spent and trembling with exhaustion, and running one finger very lightly over his tiny son’s cheek; the feeling even if this lasted forever, it might not be long enough.
#39 - Overwhelmed
Even though they’re an old married couple by now - they’ve just celebrated their third wedding anniversary, after all - they always make sure to set a little bit of time aside for just them, because it’s too easy to get so caught up in the everything they have to do that they forget to just be in love.
#40 - Whisper
One crazy, secret night, they snuck away from a party in full swing, into an empty room - mercifully, with a door lock - and let their clothes fall to the floor and their hands and lips roam, and laughed very quietly so that no one would hear, far more elated by the possibility than she thinks uncomfortably that they should have been.
#41 - Wait
She’s usually too busy throughout most of the day to be lonely for him, but there’s something inside her head that just tells her when there’s only half an hour left before he gets home, and that’s when she starts checking the clock every few minutes.
#42 - Talk
When she finds three generations of blacksmiths - for, at three years old, Daly is already adamant that he’s gonna be one someday, too, y’know - crowded around the television, she asks if the movie’s any good; when she receives three nearly identical wordless shrugs in reply, she collapses in a fit of laughter until Gray and Saibara insist worriedly that she take a rest and watch with them for a while.
#43 - Search
They’ve spent the entire afternoon looking for his hat, and she hasn’t one suggested that things might be easier to find if he puts them where they belong - which makes him reflect complacently that he’s married the perfect woman.
#44 - Hope
Still, she can’t help but hope that he’ll learn how to put things where they belong eventually.
#45 - Eclipse
Gray is furious when Mary’s newest novel, subtly sweet and deeply intelligent, is overshadowed in the eyes of publishers and public alike by what he scathingly calls more of the same, and all of it’s crap; when Mary looks from her husband, scowling on her behalf, to her son, asking with wide confused eyes what made Mommy so sad, she somehow can’t be so disappointed that she won’t be leaving them for another round of negotiations.
#46 - Gravity
They’ve both learned a lot in that library; Mary learned for the first time what it felt like to think more about a special someone than about the books surrounding her, and Gray learned anew the concept of gravity when he walked into one of the shelves because he was too busy watching the dark-haired librarian at the counter, and shouted in pain and annoyance when half a dozen books bounced, one by one, off his head.
#47 - Highway
On the night before they leave on a trip, just the three of them, Gray recalls aloud that he’s heard Gramps’s old life is a study speech hundreds of times, and wonders if he has one for life is like a highway stretching off into the distance; Mary swats him and tells him to be nice, but laughs anyway.
#48 - Unknown
When Mary asks timidly one day if Saibara is feeling okay, and is he trying to take on more work to give his grandfather a rest, it really occurs to Gray for the first time that Gramps won’t be around forever, and somehow, he doesn’t even want to think about what Mineral Town will be like without him.
#49 - Lock
Gray’s told Mary a few times that if she ever wants to move to somewhere more convenient for an author, he doesn’t mind leaving Mineral Town for the sake of her career, but Mary’s sweet refusal is always the same: she doesn’t want to leave her parents, or his grandfather, and anyway, it’s kind of nice, living where you don’t have to lock your door at night because you know everyone and trust them all.
#50 - Breathe
They started taking Daly up to Goddess Peak this year, and even at eight years old, he loves it as much as his parents, because it’s easier to breathe all the way up here than it is in town, isn’t it, Dad?
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Pairing: Gray/Mary
Theme Set: Gamma
Rating: Light PG
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#01 - Ring
The first time they met, she flushed beautifully at his enthusiastic admiration that she could run this whole place by herself, and as he left, Gray, who couldn’t make a decision on anything without months of deliberation, thought whimsically that he might like to make his and Mary’s wedding bands himself.
#02 - Hero
Gradually, since that grandson of Saibara’s started coming every afternoon, Mary has begun to picture the dashing heroes in her novels as redheaded and just a little bit sulky, but with beautiful smiles when they’re not.
#03 - Memory
Mary knows that Gray has a terrible memory, so she tells herself over and over that she won’t be hurt when he forgets her birthday, until she almost trips over a clumsily wrapped present that someone’s left on the doorstep of the library despite the snow.
#04 - Box
When she opens the box, she gasps at the beautiful pearl necklace nestled in between layers of tissue paper, but she squeals in open delight at the prettily-decorated hardcover journal, and the scribbled message on the inside of the front cover: “Happy Birthday, Mary; maybe you can use it to write our story.”
#05 - Run
Gray likes to go for a run through town early each morning, but when he passes Mary’s house and she comes scurrying out to run with him, it usually turns into a walk, which turns into a pleasant stroll, which turns into a sit on the nearest bench until they’re both almost late for work and have to run again to make it on time.
#06 - Hurricane
Despite her alarmed protests, he goes upstairs in the Library before she’s had a chance to organize the second floor; and her annoyed pout when he says it looks like a hurricane’s been through here turns into a grateful smile when, without a word, he starts alphabetizing and shelving the boxes of books.
#07 - Wings
Mary has always heard falling in love compared to soaring up with the wings of an eagle or a dove, but now that it’s happening to her, she feels more like she’s floating gently on a soft, warm, comforting sweet-pink cloud.
#08 - Cold
He’s kind of glad they both have their birthdays in the winter, because it’s nice, celebrating by the light of a roaring fire, in a room as drowsily, headily warm as he knows it is bitterly cold outside.
#09 - Red
Of course Mary is spending the Starry Night Festival with her family; but it is the crowning glory of Gray’s day when she comes by Grandpa’s shop late that evening to wish them both a happy Starry Night, with a little red velvet cap pulled down over her long dark hair, left uncharacteristically loose around her shoulders.
#10 - Drink
Gray likes wine as much as the next guy, but what he really likes is Mary’s cheeks flushed brightly pink and her arms tight around his neck, chin against his shoulder, petite frame curled up in his lap, when they’ve both had a bit too much.
#11 - Midnight
They had only planned to go for a short walk that evening; but time had slipped away on them, and by the time they caught up again, it was close to midnight and her mother was frantic, close to panic but refraining because Gray was such a nice, responsible boy.
#12 - Temptation
When they realize that they’re all alone on Goddess Peak and likely to be for a few hours yet because no one in their right mind gets up this early, they both grow very red, her in the cheeks and him in the ears, and they scramble to make up reasons to head back now, before they do something stupid.
#13 - View
He’s never been up to her room before, so he spends a long time at that little west-facing window, thinking, Wow, what a view before she tugs him around gently to kiss her and windows become the last thing on his mind.
#14 - Music
He’s glad she plays the organ instead of the flute or the violin, because an organ makes such a good, solid sound - a sound worth listening to.
#15 - Silk
When he tells her in a fit of poetic sentiment that her skin is like silk, she asks with an impish smile if that means she gives him rashes, and he swears he’s going to kill whichever of the guys told her about those boxers he got from his mom his last birthday.
#16 - Cover
The whole time he’s reading her book - the parts she’ll show him, anyway - he’s thinking at the back of his mind of the perfect picture for the cover; and she exclaims in horror when she finds him sitting by the pond in the middle of winter, numb from three hours in the biting cold, because he didn’t want to miss the sunset.
#17 - Promise
She doesn’t need him to promise that they’ll be together forever; it’s good enough that he told her so, because Gray doesn’t say things that he doesn’t mean, and he doesn’t change his mind without a really good reason.
#18 - Dream
She doesn’t understand why it embarrassed him so much when she found out by accident that he keeps a dream journal.
#19 - Candle
The day after she tells him that the smell of cinnamon inspires her, she finds a whole box full of little red candles on the counter at the Library, their spicy scent filling the air when she lifts the lid.
#20 - Talent
He doesn’t understand why it upsets her so much whenever he says that she’s the talented one, and he’s so proud of her that he doesn’t even mind being the boring one.
#21 - Silence
Much of the time, they’re so quiet together that strangers can’t believe they’re even friends, let alone almost married.
#22 - Journey
Over the months, his restlessness has shifted from the need to get as far from Mineral Town as possible and never look back, to the whimsical hope that someday he can take Mary all over the world, because a lot of travel is good for a writer.
#23 - Fire
There’s something she loves about watching him work, heating metal over a slow, hot fire, eyes focused and expression intense with concentration, so she’s a little sorry that Saibara won’t let her watch often, because Gray always seems to hurt himself when she’s around.
#24 - Strength
In spite of all the possible clichés about the unshakable strength of metal, he thinks that Mary might be far stronger than him, and he believes it so entirely that he can’t bring himself to be mad when Gramps nods gravely and agrees.
#25 - Mask
It was almost a relief the first time they fought, because it meant that Gray was comfortable enough to stop putting his best face forward, and be himself around her.
#26 - Ice
He finally found the courage to ask her tonight, while they were walking by the lake, and he moved to brush the droplets of melted snow from her hair; since he was this close, and the Blue Feather was right there, tucked into his coat, he might as well do it, right?
#27 - Fall
She thinks that falling in love is another silly phrase, but he’s not so sure - he kind of feels like a bumbling klutz tripping over his own feet when she’s around.
#28 - Forgotten
Gray knows that he was in a bad mood when he left the forge, but when Mary gives him that smile, kind of blushing a little like she does sometimes, he’s damned if he can remember why - although, he remembers why he’ll never be a poet.
#29 - Dance
“I think a dance might be the wrong word for it,” Mary giggles as they snuggle happily into their corner together and sit out yet another song at their own wedding party.
#30 - Body
Mary has always heard that the man is supposed to be obsessed with the things they do in bed, while the woman just puts up with it; but then, they’ve hardly done anything the right way, she thinks, pulling his clothes joyously aside.
#31 - Sacred
If family bonds are supposed to be sacred, Gray wonders, why is it that he gets along way better with Basil and Anna than he ever has with Mom and Dad?
#32 - Farewells
When Mary comes home from a book tour to a crushing hug, sweet slow kisses over her temples, and a gentle protective hand stroking her hair, she thinks that the hello again just might make the goodbye worth it.
#33 - World
Saibara tells his grandson one night that he’s going to have to grow up very soon, because an ignorant traveller might as well not even bother, and he still needs to take Mary all over the world.
#34 - Formal
No one will ever be able to convince her that it’s inappropriate, or anything other than adorable and wonderful and perfect, when he wears that silly hat with his tuxedo to all those publishers’ galas.
#35 - Fever
He knows that she’s probably made herself sick staying up until dawn every night with that book, but he also knows that writing is like breathing to her, and he thinks that the doctor and his nurse and wife must have some idea too, because they don’t sound more than half-sincere when they warn him not to let Mary get this run-down again.
#36 - Laugh
Most authors puff themselves up with pride when they manage to make a reader cry; when she found Gray doubled over with laughter over a light-hearted little story she’d been working on, she wondered if she could actually feel her head swelling.
#37 - Lies
She’s always been glad that Gray is practically genetically incapable of lying; it’s hard enough, getting him to share his thoughts and feelings without having to worry if they were genuine or not.
#38 - Forever
This must be what happiness is, Gray thinks, wrapping a protective arm around his wife, spent and trembling with exhaustion, and running one finger very lightly over his tiny son’s cheek; the feeling even if this lasted forever, it might not be long enough.
#39 - Overwhelmed
Even though they’re an old married couple by now - they’ve just celebrated their third wedding anniversary, after all - they always make sure to set a little bit of time aside for just them, because it’s too easy to get so caught up in the everything they have to do that they forget to just be in love.
#40 - Whisper
One crazy, secret night, they snuck away from a party in full swing, into an empty room - mercifully, with a door lock - and let their clothes fall to the floor and their hands and lips roam, and laughed very quietly so that no one would hear, far more elated by the possibility than she thinks uncomfortably that they should have been.
#41 - Wait
She’s usually too busy throughout most of the day to be lonely for him, but there’s something inside her head that just tells her when there’s only half an hour left before he gets home, and that’s when she starts checking the clock every few minutes.
#42 - Talk
When she finds three generations of blacksmiths - for, at three years old, Daly is already adamant that he’s gonna be one someday, too, y’know - crowded around the television, she asks if the movie’s any good; when she receives three nearly identical wordless shrugs in reply, she collapses in a fit of laughter until Gray and Saibara insist worriedly that she take a rest and watch with them for a while.
#43 - Search
They’ve spent the entire afternoon looking for his hat, and she hasn’t one suggested that things might be easier to find if he puts them where they belong - which makes him reflect complacently that he’s married the perfect woman.
#44 - Hope
Still, she can’t help but hope that he’ll learn how to put things where they belong eventually.
#45 - Eclipse
Gray is furious when Mary’s newest novel, subtly sweet and deeply intelligent, is overshadowed in the eyes of publishers and public alike by what he scathingly calls more of the same, and all of it’s crap; when Mary looks from her husband, scowling on her behalf, to her son, asking with wide confused eyes what made Mommy so sad, she somehow can’t be so disappointed that she won’t be leaving them for another round of negotiations.
#46 - Gravity
They’ve both learned a lot in that library; Mary learned for the first time what it felt like to think more about a special someone than about the books surrounding her, and Gray learned anew the concept of gravity when he walked into one of the shelves because he was too busy watching the dark-haired librarian at the counter, and shouted in pain and annoyance when half a dozen books bounced, one by one, off his head.
#47 - Highway
On the night before they leave on a trip, just the three of them, Gray recalls aloud that he’s heard Gramps’s old life is a study speech hundreds of times, and wonders if he has one for life is like a highway stretching off into the distance; Mary swats him and tells him to be nice, but laughs anyway.
#48 - Unknown
When Mary asks timidly one day if Saibara is feeling okay, and is he trying to take on more work to give his grandfather a rest, it really occurs to Gray for the first time that Gramps won’t be around forever, and somehow, he doesn’t even want to think about what Mineral Town will be like without him.
#49 - Lock
Gray’s told Mary a few times that if she ever wants to move to somewhere more convenient for an author, he doesn’t mind leaving Mineral Town for the sake of her career, but Mary’s sweet refusal is always the same: she doesn’t want to leave her parents, or his grandfather, and anyway, it’s kind of nice, living where you don’t have to lock your door at night because you know everyone and trust them all.
#50 - Breathe
They started taking Daly up to Goddess Peak this year, and even at eight years old, he loves it as much as his parents, because it’s easier to breathe all the way up here than it is in town, isn’t it, Dad?
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