A/N: After stalking the Harvest Moon ToTT section, I've found that almost all of the stories star the main female protagonist. And, of course, as a yaoi fangirl, I like to put my own twist on things...

Warnings: Boy love. Don't like? Don't read.

Disclaimer: I own nothing!

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Low Fidelity

Chapter 1:

"No."

Ash's shoulders slumped immediately, the hopeful grin on his face turning south at the corners into an uncharacteristic frown. His plaid hat fell slightly over his eyes in defeat, the pretty flower in his hand theoretically wilting in his rejection. Blue eyes widened in embarrassment as he uttered a squeaky, "What?"

Gray (almost silver, really) orbs sparkled back at him in what might be mischievousness. Slowly, the girl shook her head, her short brown hair swishing in the air. "I said no, Ash."

The boy visibly deflated, leaning on the wooden fence of his farm where the girl was sitting. It was sunny out, not a cloud in the sky, and he and his friend Lillian had decided to spend the day together, as they had been the last season. Ash had decided it was a good time to take the relationship to the next level. Lillian, it appeared, did not. "Thanks for thinking it over so much," he grumbled under his breath.

Lillian giggled softly, taking his hat from his head and rustling his soft, strawberry-blonde hair. He closed his eyes in content. Damn her, she knew that was his weakness. "M'sorry," she apologized. Though, if Ash had to give his honest opinion, he'd have to say that she didn't sound the least bit sorry at all. She hummed under her breath and the two sat in surprisingly comfortable silence. "You don't really want me, anyways," she told him after a moment.

Ash's lids snapped open in surprise, and he looked up at his friend. "What do you mean, I don't want you? I think I know what I want, Lil... I just wanted a chance."

The farm girl sighed, placing his hat back on his head so that she could take the carnation from his hands instead. It was a pretty, pink rose. She twirled the stem in her fingers, and they both watched as a petal fell off and fluttered to the ground. She stopped spinning the thing, and smiled down at him instead. "No, you don't," she told him with total confidence that she was right.

"You're weird," he murmured, for lack of anything better to say.

She was probably one of his very best friends. Lillian had moved to Bluebell two seasons ago, and they had gotten close fast. They had many things in common—they were both hardworking farmers with a sense of adventure and sometimes crude humor, both liked to go for walks around town, both liked to eat Doria, and they both liked each other's company. She was pretty and they made each other laugh. Even Cheryl loved her dearly. But, still, she had rejected him.

Why?

"Maybe," she finally admitted to his previous statement, "But I'm right about this."

It was Ash's turn to sigh now. Hopping up so that he could sit on the fence next to her, he watched his animals graze. A calming pastime, yes, but not very productive. "How can you be so sure?" he finally asked, letting his curiosity get the best of him.

A smirk spread across Lillian's lips. "Woman's intuition," she responded, flipping her hair and jutting out her chest to show that she was, indeed, a woman with an intuition. Ash scowled at the show, and she continued, "Tell me, where'd you get this flower?"

Color flooded his cheeks. "Cam let me have it," he answered. Geez, now it wasn't romantic that she knew he had ripped it off his friend. Not that it had been overly romantic in the first place. His shoulders slumped further.

"Hm."

Ash's head shot back up at the sound. "'Hm'?" he asked. "What do you mean, 'Hm'?"

She smiled again, that secretive, conniving grin. Was that something one could only pick up in the city? "Nothing, Ash." Lillian giggled, flipping tawny hair over one shoulder. "Don't worry about it." She kicked her legs back and forth, all innocence, but Ash knew better. The city girl, while cute and child-like on the outside, was anything but.

Made the male farmer glad he never spent more than a few hours in any big city. City folk were crazy.

Then again, Lillian had said the same thing about country folk when she first arrived...

Narrowing his eyes, Ash replied, "Whenever you tell me not to worry about something, it ends up coming back to bite me in the ass."

The girl gave a decidedly unfeminine snort. "So not true. What about that time I told you not to worry about scavenging with me in the mountains?" she asked.

Ash threw up his hands in exasperation. "And I didn't worry about it. What happened? A bear chased me, and almost quite literally bit me in the ass. A bear, Lillian. Do you know how hard it is to run from a bear when your best friend is too busy laughing to help you?" Exhaling slowly from his nose, he brought his arms back down to rest by his sides.

Of course, the recollection had Lillian burst into giggles. "Oh, right," she said, wiping a tear from her eye, "Something like that did happen, didn't it?"

"Something exactly like that happened, Lil."

The girl guffawed loudly in response, clutching her sides. "I promise you," she said between laughs, "Nothing will happen to your ass." Bursting into yet another new round of giggles, she cried, "At least nothing you won't enjoy!"

The boy's face burst into instant flames. "Wh-what's that supposed to mean?" he demanded, already knowing he wouldn't get a straight answer. With Lillian, the most innocent expressions could be turned into a dirty joke. Usually, it was entertaining and caused Ash himself to keel over laughing. When it wasn't directed at him, of course. Because, when that happened, it was invitation for a full out war.

Most of the time. Unfortunately, Ash was blushing so hard he was quite sure he couldn't come up with a very witty retort, so he settled for glaring at the girl. "You know," he said, "You could show me some sympathy, Lil. You did just reject me, after all." He crossed his arms over his chest because, yes, he just went there.

Slowly, the girl's giggles died down to a more tolerable tone. "M'sorry," she repeated.

"So," he prodded, "Who is it you like, anyway? If not my amazing self." His false boasting made him feel a little better about the whole ordeal. After all, of course he was a catch in this teeny, tiny, off-the-map town. Right?

"No one."

"Liar."

"No, really." Lillian lifted a shoulder in a lazy shrug. "It's not that I like someone. It's that you like someone else. But, you don't want to admit you do, so you pretend that the feelings are directed towards me, an acceptable partner—might I add, by the way, you have excellent taste. However, no matter how far the relationship should progress—if I had taken you up on that offer, of course—it never would have been the real thing you wanted, and we both would have been disappointed." At Ash's blank stare, she offered him yet another shrug.

The strawberry-blonde rubbed the bridge of his nose awkwardly. "I thought you were a farmer, not a psychologist."

She chuckled lightly. "I'm a woman of many faces." She accompanies the statement by jutting out her chest again and flipping her hair. Also laughing, Ash bumped his shoulder into her own gently.

"Yeah, yeah." He shook his head, wondering what had made Lillian so crazy. Must have been some childhood, city-induced trauma. "So then, Dr. Phil, who is it that I really want? Since, evidently, it's not you. Oh, and if you say Laney, I won't hesitate to hit you. I don't care if you're a girl." Ash grimaced at the thought. The normally friendly blonde had been awful... invasive as of late. She'd often showed up at random times to give him some meal she had made. Why they were always good, the gestures made him slightly uncomfortable. He'd known her for too long—she was like her sister. His mom said that he was getting at that age where the girls he had once played with would be looking for a more sturdy relationship, but honestly, he wasn't sure he could get into that without feeling weird about the whole thing. I wonder if that's how Lillian feels, he mused to himself.

Lillian did that stupid, sneaky smirking thing again before handing him back the flower she had taken earlier. Hopping off the fence, she waved at him and told him she still had work to do before turning on her heel and setting off. Ash watched her with a scowl, wondering how the girl got so damn good at avoiding questions like that.

Looking down at the pink rose, he wondered just what that crazy girl had meant.

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A/n : And so it begins.

Drop me a review if you want me to keep going.