A Chaotic Production

One-Shot: This is Your Life

(A/N: Inspired by the scene in StH where Lyla has a moment of sadness with the hero and opens her eyes. The main hero will be referred to as Hiro just cause I don't remember him having an official name/I forgot it. Lyrics in the description and in the story are songs by Moony and I don't own them.)

Looks like Summer is about to be over. It's a shame, I've grown quite close to that Blue Mist Flower. Although, this might just be because I got to spend so much time with the beautiful florist Lyla. She was the first person who I met when I moved to Sugar Valley back in early Spring. Boy, it sure has been a while, hasn't it?

I should probably explain everything that's happened and why I'm even here in Sugar Valley, but now that I've mentioned Lyla, I can't get her out of my head. So, I'll explain her instead. She works in the flower shop in town, she has long pink hair, and she always wears a nice dress. I've never seen her open her eyes except maybe that one time when we were taking a picture together… Anyway, Lyla is very nice and sweet. She always has a smile on her face and she seems very entranced by romance and love and all that. I think she's the most mature out of all the girls in the valley.

Now, don't get me wrong, I like all the girls in Sugar Valley. It's just that whenever I think of who I would woo, I only see the bad in everyone besides Lyla. Dia is way too quiet and too independent, Gina is too plain, Gwen is so abrasive, and Katie is… well, too young, for starters.

The only problem that I see is that Lyla seems to be quite enamored with a botanist named Parsley. I don't know about his feelings towards her and don't plan to ask, especially seeing as he's left the valley anyway. And then on the other end of the spectrum, an inventor named Louis is head-over-heels CRAZY in love with Lyla. I think Lyla's the only one who doesn't know this…

"Hey, Hiro!" a voice called out. Please don't be Lyla, please don't be Lyla. I turned around and, to my joy, it was Gwen. I let out a sigh of relief and greeted her.

"Hey, Gwen. What's up?" I asked her. We were out at the Goddess Pond.

"Not much. I just wanted to check on the Blue Mist," the blonde explained. I told her that I was still watering it. Even though we got the picture to save the valley, I still wanted to take care of the beautiful flower. "Great! Keep up the good work!" she told me.

"Oh, Gwen! Do you know when Lyla's coming back from… wherever she said that she was going?" Lyla left a couple of days ago without really explaining why to anyone; she simply asked me to watch over her shop for her and left. Gwen put her hands on her hips and leaned close to me.

"Why do ya wanna know? Got a little crush on her?" she asked.

"Wha! N-no! I-I was just wondering!" hopefully, Gwen would be her usual oblivious self and not notice how flustered I was. I was even scratching the back of my head and my face was a little pink. How pathetic! However, Gwen simply let out a hearty laugh. Bob probably taught her the laugh.

"Nah, I don't know when she's coming back," admitted Gwen with a small shrug, "so just keep taking care of the store until she gets back!"

"Will do," she gave me her typical thumbs up and walked off. I smiled and continued tending to the Blue Mist. It would probably die soon, although Lyla referred to it as more of a rebirth type of thing? She compared it to a phoenix and something about the flower turning into mist and seeds staying… but I don't quite remember it. I'll have to ask her about it when she comes back to Sugar Valley.

The next day, I took care of the crops on my farm and the animals in the barn. It was another nice day, so I let them out to graze. I made my rounds around the valley and decided to check in on the Blue Mist before going to Lyla's store.

"I'm lucky here, you know," I started humming a happy song that Lyla taught me, "I try to make my days so wonderful," being such a positive song, it reminded me of her so much, "that I would like to, live it again!"

I made my way to the Goddess Pond and walked over to the Blue Mist. Looks like the Azure Swallowtail decided to come back to the flower. I crouched down to see the thing, but while being careful to not disturb it and make it fly away. I was so entranced by the flower that I didn't hear Lyla walking up behind me, looking down, and then looking back up at me.

"I'm home," her sweet voice said. I slowly stood up and turned around to see her bright smiling face. Lyla turned to the butterfly. "I see… the beautiful blue butterfly came back…"

"Yes. It did," I nodded. I saw Lyla reach into her belongings and pulled out a Pink-Cat Mint Flower. It's her favorite flower.

"… They gave this to me. It's a little wilted, but it's the bride's bouquet," I didn't really understand what she was talking about, but her voice sounded a bit more sad than usual. Lyla seemed to be offering me the flowers, so I took them and put them away.

"I see…" I murmured. Lyla walked a little closer to me and the Blue Mist and I turned to face the both of them.

"The bride was really pretty," she continued, "and I'd never seen Parsley look so handsome… and happy…" Lyla was looking up as she said this. I was starting to piece it together now. "They were having the wedding when I got there to tell him how I feel… How's that for rejection…" her hand was on her cheek and she was looking down.

"Wow…" was all I could breathe. Her voice seemed even sadder, but she seemed to keep the same face that she always had. That was, until Lyla turned to me, put her hands behind her back, and turned away for a moment before revealing to me her open eyes and a frown.

"I guess I just put too much thought into fiction, especially with matters of the heart," the florist explained to me. "This isn't a story. This isn't a book. This is my life."

"This is… your real life," I whispered, repeating what Lyla said. She didn't move and kept her eyes open.

"You wouldn't mind if I… got depressed for just a moment, would you…?" Lyla asked me.

"I don't mind…" I said quietly. She looked off distantly, giving me time to look at her beautiful eyes. They were purple and, even though they showed a lot of joy in them, they showed some sorrow in there, too. It was weirdly nice to see Lyla actually have a fault without hindering my opinion of her at all. Quite some time, or at least what seemed like it, passed by.

"Oh, wow! What a big butterfly!" Gwen's loud voice said. I didn't mind and Lyla didn't seem to mind either. She blinked and smiled (she looked really nice with a smile and her eyes open) and we both turned to where Gwen's voice came from. Lyla's eyes were closed before she turned around. Gwen and Kurt were walking over.

"So this is the Azure Swallowtail… It's kinda gaudy," Kurt admitted. He and Gwen hadn't seen the butterfly before.

"Lyla… welcome back," Gwen greeted her close friend. Lyla smiled and put her hand close to her face.

"I'm home," she said sweetly. Lyla put her hand to her mouth and looked to the sky with a smile. "Well, tomorrow it's back to work for me. I'm gonna do my best!" I started looking back to Kurt to start some conversation, but saw Lyla out of my peripheral vision. Gwen leaned in closely to Lyla, who was holding both hands on her cheeks and smiling. Gwen nodded and gave her a thumbs up.

"Looks like the butterfly's heading off…" I noted as it slowly started flying to the sky. Kurt seemed to be hiding his emotion that he was enjoying the butterfly, but then quickly left. Gwen followed suit and Lyla started leaving. I followed her and then she turned around.

"Thanks," she whispered to me. I smiled and nodded. We kept walking until we were out of the Goddess Pond. Lyla didn't kiss me passionately or give me a big hug that led into a montage of the future. Like Lyla said, this is not a story. Nor a book. This is life. Sugar Valley wasn't going to be turned into an amusement park anymore. Looks like I've got a lot of living to do.