Pretty Ore

Summary: Graire. "I'll take my jacket off when I get hot, which would be never," said Gray. "Oh, so I'll never get to see what's under there?" Asked Claire innocently. Welcome to the world where Claire always seemed to put him and herself in awkward situations.

Author: BabyPan

A/N: This story was written in 2008, back then I had no idea you shouldn't capitalize the first word in a dialogue tag, so I apologize for getting this simple rule wrong throughout the entire story. I also apologize for having two people speak in the same paragraph, which might confuse some people. I also did not know that blonde is female, and blond is male, so I apologize for using only the 'blonde' version. There's some parts I don't like, some parts that make me cringe, but all in all, it's not a bad story and you'll probably entertain yourself throughout.

If my grammar was really bad in one place, please do point this out to me. Don't just say 'your grammar is bad', point out the actual sentence I used, so I can see my mistake and fix it, okay?

One last thing, search for 'Pretty Ore' on YouTube and you'll find 10 videos (each representing a chapter of this story) that are fanimations created by me. You'll probably like it, so it's worth checking it out. I stopped after chapter 10 though, so finish the story first before you start the fanimations.

Okay, I'm done now, enjoy your reading.

Chapter 1 – Pretty Ore

There was a shattering sound as something fell onto the ground, breaking into a thousands of pieces. It was followed by a thick silence. The blonde boy grimaced and prepared himself to be scolded on by his grandfather. The old man looked at his grandson with furious eyes, as if he had fire burning in them.

"How many times have I told you to be careful!" Bellowed his grandpa while he swung dangerously around with a large hammer. Gray tried to hide his face underneath his large cap and sunk to his knees to scramble up the rest of what was left from his necklace that he was making earlier. He carefully picked up a large piece which he could still use and stuffed it into his pocket, all the while trying to ignore the old guy swinging his hammer around like a madman.

"If you keep going like this, you'll never do good!" Saibara complained again, frowning with his white eyebrows.

Gray quickly stood up and scowled, he was fed up with his gramps! "All you ever say is that my work sucks and that I need to give up! There was nothing wrong with the necklace before it shattered," the blonde boy fired back as his blue eyes sparked courageously.

Saibara scoffed at him before he returned behind the counter. "Of course there was something wrong with it. Now clean up and get back to work," the old man ordered him. Gray just glared at him from beneath his cap as he picked up the remaining pieces before throwing them into the garbage.

He would be glad to go to the library and spend his time reading stories. Then he would pretend to be one of the main characters to escape his worth-for-nothing life. Gray sighed and stared at the boiler with his blue eyes, trying to get a hold of himself. It's not like he didn't like his 'apprentice' work. It's just that he wanted to get it over with and start making things already. Alas, his grandfather was always criticizing everything he did, never saying something good. So, the library was his escape from the clutches of his evil grandfather.

Suddenly, the doorbell rang; indicating that there was a customer and startling Gray out of his thoughts. Gray didn't give it much attention as he started working on creating a new necklace. He just had to prove himself to his grandfather. This was going to be one necklace that he'll never forget! Lost in his thoughts, Gray gathered some glass and started working, determined to get it right.

"Hello. Are you new here?" He could hear his grandfather say. Gray turned his head, but his view was blocked by the rather chubby Saibara. He should really lose some weight sometime. It would help.

"Yes, I'm the new owner of the farm that I was put up with." He heard a female voice say with. "My name's Claire."

In the back of Gray's mind, bells were ringing. He could faintly remember the gossip about a girl, renovating the old and forgotten farm. As far as he could tell, the Mayor had set her up, tricking her into buying a farm that would be best to tear it down. The blonde let out a tired sigh when the necklace broke again. Gray quickly hid the shattered pieces into his hand, not wanting to get scolded again.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Saibara, the blacksmith. Did you come to buy anything?" He heard the old man ask.

"Well, actually, I thought you could buy something from me," the female voice once again spoke.

Gray grew very irritated and wished for the unknown Claire to be gone. He wanted to concentrate and make things better than his grandfather, this girl was not helping him with her sarcasm. The boy stood there, with his hands clutching the end of the table, while his back was turned from all the action. His blue eyes scanned the shattered pieces of glass on his worktable, which made him sigh again.

Behind his back, he heard that the girl had put something on the counter for his grandfather. "Oho, I see, I see." Gray's head cocked a bit to the side, wondering what had surprised Saibara. The pieces of glass were still on the table, staring at Gray – mocking him.

There was a long silence. His grandfather was probably studying the 'something', finding faults and then criticize it to the point there's nothing left to criticize. "Okay, enough examining – it's real. Will you buy it?" the female voice said impatiently and Gray was becoming more and more curious exactly what they were talking about, but still refused to turn around to look.

His grandfather grunted. "Normally, my grandson does these things – but he always messes things up. Would you be interested in delivering this to me every day?"

Gray's eyes widened and he turned around furiously, his index finger pointing at the back of Saibara. "What!" he yelled out incredulously, not believing his grandfather just told a perfectly stranger that he 'messes up'. Which wasn't even true! Even though he didn't know what his grandfather was actually talking about.

Saibara glanced at Gray before looking at the blonde girl before him again. "Don't mind him, so what do you think?"

Gray, now more frustrated then ever because he was also being ignored, walked up in front of the counter – shoved the girl away from his sight and slammed his fist onto the desk. He didn't even noticed his fist slamming into a copper ore, getting cuts in his hand, but barely noticed.

"Why do you always link every conversation to me! It's like; It's raining today. My grandson messes everything up when it's raining. I'm getting sick of it!" Gray said, insulted and feeling very, very angry, and still not noticing he was starting to bleed. His grandfather just stared at him, not really wanting to answer because he thought this was probably very uninteresting.

Without much further thought, Gray pushed past the girl that had been keeping herself quiet behind him and stormed out of the Blacksmith. The blonde quickly ran all the way to Rose Square and stood there in front of the Bulletin Board. He leaned against the board with his hand, his eyes were closed because he had so much rage in them. Still, he did not notice the blood on his right hand.

He had never felt this angry before. Why did his grandfather always had to put him down in front of everyone? Why couldn't he be happy with something he made for once? Why did he feel like crap whenever his grandfather insulted him? Gray let out a frustrated growl and punched the Bulletin Board. Finally, he saw the blood on his hand. It wasn't much, and it didn't hurt. Gray then noticed he was still holding the shattered pieces of the second necklace he was making.

His blue eyes looked at the pieces with disgust as he carelessly threw them onto the ground.

"You shouldn't litter the place like that," a voice said behind him. He recognized it as the one from the Blacksmith – probably the girl that he had shoved out of his way when he was angry. Gray scolded himself for acting so rough on someone he didn't even know. The young man calmed down a little bit from his rage and felt bad for involving an innocent girl. The blonde turned around, ready to apologize .. in his own special way.

He looked down at the ground, hiding underneath his big cap and gave one little glance at the person in front of him.

"I'm sorry I pushed you earlier," Gray said in a low voice, barely audible.

The blonde and short girl, clad in a blue jumpsuit, merely shifted her feet; as if she didn't really care. "You're the new one, right? The one from the farm?" Gray asked, now looking up into her own blue eyes. She looked back at him into his eyes. He couldn't tell what filled her eyes, but it seemed as if she was lost.

The girl just stared at him for a moment but then nodded. "Yes I am.." said the girl.

There was an uncomfortable silence and neither said something. Gray placed back on his guard and looked at the girl from underneath his cap. "The name's Gray," he nodded his head to her. The blonde haired girl – whom he had not so surprisingly forgotten the name of, looked at him with a smile.

"Claire."

Before this conversation could turn into one of those dreaded silences, Gray quickly tapped his cap and got ready to leave. "It's nice to meet you, but I have to go back to work now. See ya." And with that, the young man left behind a new stranger.

It started to rain, the glass pieces on the ground started to float away in the drain. The blonde haired girl stood there, watching the pieces disappear one by one.