This story will be updated monthly. Since this fanfic has been uploaded on August 1, 2007, the next chapter will be uploaded on September 1, 2007, and so on and so forth.
Disclaimer – I don't own Harvest Moon or any of these characters, blah blah blah, you get the point. I'm not doing this every chapter.
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Torn - PrologueBy Fairy Friend
On the second day of Fall, the most gossiped-about series of events in the usually cheerful community of Flowerbud Village would occur.
The girl was fishing at the corner of a river, next to the wooden bridge that led to the Twilight Farm and the Carpenter Shop. She pulled her fishing rod from the water and sighed. Exhausted, she removed the two pink rubber bands from her damp, matted brown hair and rubbed her bloodshot brown eyes, then counted the day's catch. Two fish. She would be lucky if she could even get 100G that day.
At the same time, the two teenaged boys from the Carpenter Shop, Joe and Kurt, were on their lunch break. Although brothers, the two looked nothing alike, except for the same shade of brown hair and eyes. While Kurt's eyes were deep and serious, Joe's eyes expressed a playful and sociable look. Where Joe would fix up his shoulder-length hair by tying on his common red, white, and blue bandanna, Kurt would spend every morning before going to work to make sure that the spikes in his hair all pointed toward the same direction. However, the two men clearly shared an interest in doing construction work, where they spent every morning and afternoon working to their hearts' content.
As Joe and Kurt made their way toward the same river, Joe caught a glimpse of the girl sitting at the corner of the river and felt his breath run short. To him, she was the most beautiful girl he had ever laid eyes on. He sighed wistfully. If only she could be mine, he thought to himself.
"I could fix you up with her," Kurt interrupted as though he'd read his older brother's mind. Joe jumped a mile out of his shoes and looked up at his younger brother, startled.
"Wha- how did y... I mean, you could?" he stuttered clumsily, twiddling his thumbs.
"Sure," said Kurt. "I'm getting sick of seeing you ogle her every time you even so much as find a strand of her hair on the floor."
Joe grimaced. "Whatever, man."
Kurt kept his usual icy stare. "You want me to go talk to her?"
There was sort of a hesitant pause as Joe pondered the possibilities of this idea, but he finally decided that it couldn't hurt.
"O-okay," he relented, blushing and scratching his head. With that, Kurt drifted away from his brother and headed toward the girl. When she caught a sight of him, he nodded his head at her to motion that he was acknowledging her presence.
"Hey. Lily Bennett, right?" he asked as she nodded her head quickly. "C'mere a minute. I need to talk to you."
Lily did as she was told and ran toward him. They secluded themselves behind the nearest tree to where Joe was out of their sight, so Kurt could have a word with her.
"Um," he started as though he was trying to find the right words to say, "You see that guy right there?" He motioned toward his brother. Lily nodded. "That's my brother, Joe. You know him, right? He's kind of, um... how should I say this. He's looking for a girl to date and he was wondering if he could take you out tomorrow night to go fishing at the beach."
"Me?" Lily squeaked. Her heart tempo increased rapidly at the thought of dating the cute carpenter boy she had always admired from a distance. "I-I'd love to!"
A smirk came across Kurt's face. He knew it would work. "Alright. I'll go deliver the good news to him." He walked over to his brother and Lily came out from behind the tree.
"She said she'd love to," Kurt told Joe. Immediately, a smile brightened up on Joe's face.
"Thanks, bro," Joe whispered, giving his brother a nudge. Lily walked over to the two brothers and glanced at Joe, who gave out a nervous smile. She giggled quietly.
"I'll leave you two alone," Kurt said quietly, satisfied. He took one last look at them and then headed on back to the Carpenter Shop to finish the rest of his duties.
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"Lily, what ARE you doing?"
The Bennett residence was a mess. Next to Lily was a stack of make-up, along with a little, pink clock she had brought along with her from home. Not wanting to be late for her date tonight, she glanced at the clock. It was five-thirty, which meant she had thirty minutes to get ready. However, today, she was unusually panicky and rushed.
"I'm looking for my hair scrunchie! Have you seen my hair scrunchie? I can't find my hair scrunchie!" Lily shrieked, hyperventilating as she searched frantically through her furniture.
"Calm down, honey," Gwen said to her friend, "Here, you can borrow mine." She removed her blonde hair from her ponytail, taking out the scrunchie she had been wearing, then lent it to her.
Gwen had been the very first friend that Lily had made ever since her arrival in Flower Bud Village. After the realization that the two of them were both into the biannual Horse Races, they became fast friends, and after two months, they were the best of friends. Lily had always admired Gwen for being a natural beauty, with her fair blue eyes at the right size and the little mischievous smile she gave off whenever she was thinking of something funny.
"Thanks," Lily said as she put the colorful band in her hair. She then took a look into the mirror, brushed some stray bangs away from her eyes, and then smiled nervously at her reflection. "I'm just so... so nervous. I'm actually going on a date with Joe, the cute carpenter boy! Do you know how long I've liked him?"
"Yeah. Forever." Gwen rolled her eyes. "You look cute, by the way. I think Joe's going to fall head over heels for you once he sees you." Lily's dog, Lucky, barked.
Meanwhile, Joe was also getting ready for the date. He took out a pair of khaki pants from the closet and pulled them on. Then, he removed the red, white, and blue bandanna that he occasionally wore and set it onto the table. His eyes scanned the table as he looked for the other bandanna he was supposed to wear, but he couldn't find it. He bit his lip.
"Kurt!" Joe called out to his brother.
"What?" His voice rang from the upstairs bedroom.
"Where's my bandanna?"
"What bandanna?"
"The black one with the white stars, dummy. Which other one, besides the one I wear, would I be talking about?"
Joe waited as Kurt made his way down the staircase. In an utterly annoyed manner, Kurt pulled open one of the drawers, revealing the black and white bandanna. Kurt scoffed at Joe.
"You're pathetic," he said sharply, turning around. Joe took out the bandanna from the drawer and tied it around his head, strands of his brown hair sticking out from the back and the front. He then turned to Kurt.
"How do I look, bro?" Joe asked him.
Kurt raised his eyebrow at the idiotic question. "Like you always look. Like something I scraped off of my shoe."
"I'm serious!"
"So am I."
Joe glared at him. Kurt grimaced and, giving up, rolled his eyes.
"Alright, fine, you look spectacular and I think Lily's going to fall head over heels for you once she sees you. That better?"
"It helps," Joe said with a hint of high hopes in his voice, obviously not catching the sarcasm. He then cuffed his hand over his mouth and checked his breath. "Hey, bro, should I take some breath mints too?"
With a smirk, Kurt opened the door and shoved Joe out of the shop. "Shut up and have fun on your date." Kurt told him. He watched his brother walk away and then slammed the door.
At that moment, once Lily had thrown on her usual red boots, she examined herself in the mirror one last time. She was wearing a frilly pink shirt with tiny flowers and she had removed the red scarf she usually wore for farming purposes. Beneath that was a denim skirt that went right above her knees. Her hair was up neatly in a ponytail, and to top it off, she was wearing a pink lip gloss. As a last minute touch, she smoothed a little extra on with her fingers, then smacked her lips together to set it even.
"Quit fixing yourself up, will ya? You look fine," Gwen said. "Why don't you go occupy some time and check to see if Joe's outside?"
She didn't have to. She heard three knocks on the door, knowing immediately that it was Joe. Her eyeballs bulged and she began to hyperventilate.
"Omigod, omigod, omigod, it's him, it's Joe!" Lily screamed, running around in circles. Gwen rolled her eyes at her crazy best friend.
"Chill," Lily's best friend said, "and just get the door. You'll leave him waiting if you keep this up."
Lily opened the door and there stood Joe, holding a fishing rod in his right hand. Lily, liking what she was seeing, smiled at him as cutely as she could, hoping it was making a good and lasting impression on him.
"You look, um... you look really beautiful, Lily," Joe said, looking at the girl.
"Thanks. So do you." Lily said, then caught her words and gasped. "Uh-um... I mean you look, um... you look handsome." Her face, on cue, went from pale to tomato red. Gwen, in the background, buried her face in her hands and shook her head, trying hard not to burst into laughter.
Embarrassed, Lily grabbed the fishing rod from her tool chest and walked up to Joe. "Well, shall we go?"
"Sure." And with that, they were on their way.
- - - - -
The night sky was almost the perfect setting for the date. There were hundreds of thousands of tiny, iridescent little stars, splattered across the dark blue palette. In the center of it all was a big, circular yellow moon shining down across the earth.
Joe and Lily both sat against the cold sand, their bare feet freezing from the weather, listening to the soothing and gentle sounds of the waves crashing against the shore. Joe cast his fishing rod into the water while Lily relaxed, watching him.
"This is so peaceful," she said serenely. "Calm waves, soft breeze, a perfect navy blue sky..." Lily's voice trailed off into a sigh.
Joe looked at the beautiful girl and listened to her talk. How lucky was he, to be on the beach, fishing, with someone like Lily Bennett?
"You know," Lily said, "the legendary king fish is said to swim in these waters. Have you ever caught one?"
Joe laughed. "Well, I'm no pro fisherman," he started, trying to play it smooth with his incredible, yet entertaining, lie, "but yeah, you could say I have. I'll tell you a story about the first time I ever caught a king fish. It was my first time fishing, and it was a cold, stormy night. It was just me and my fishing rod, and- whoa!" Joe yelled, being yanked forward by the fishing rod. Lily started to giggle.
"I think this is it!" he called out to her as she watched him try as hard as he could to pull against the fishing rod. "It's the king fish! I've got it!"
Suddenly, the rod and Joe came flying at Lily, who tried to move out of the way before Joe ran right into her, but he ended up smashing right into her back, forcing the two onto the sand. Lily looked over at Joe, laughing.
"Did you get it?" She asked him.
"No... it was just a boot," he replied. He looked over at the girl. Their eyes met. They shared a laugh.
However, at that moment, a rush of joy began to flow through Joe. Lily could feel it too. Their smiles started to fade and suddenly, the only things existing in their worlds were each other. Joe got closer to Lily, and she brushed her hair away from her face. He closed his eyes and she did too, and not even a second later, their lips were on each other's. The kiss was short and sweet, and it was just enough to make Joe want more. He leaned in again for another one, this one being longer and more passionate. When they were finished, Joe could only look into Lily's beautiful, glimmering face. Although he hadn't caught the fish king of the ocean, he had caught something that, in his mind, was even better: the girl of his dreams.
Meanwhile, from the windowsill of the Carpenter's Shop, Kurt had seen it all. He started to smile, but something in him just felt... off. He couldn't quite place his finger on it. Whatever it was, he knew he was more than happy for his brother for finding the girl of his dreams. Now, if only he could find one for himself...