Disclaimer: I do not own Harvest Moon or anything associated with it.

Author's Note: Hey everyone, thank you for the understanding with the pretty slow updates and for the reviews. I do want to stress one thing before I continue writing: this is not a love triangle story, haha. Ash's feelings are a catalyst, if you will. So if you are here to see something with Ash and Lillian, I'd recommend you look at my other stories instead. :P I just wanted to make that clear so people who have been clamoring for Cam/Lillian forever aren't like WHAT IS GOING ON haha. Also, I have to apologize again for the updates. I can't promise they will get better in the future, but I can say I feel terrible when these updates are late hahaha, so I will do my best. With that said, I hope you all enjoy this story and this chapter!


Daffodils are meant to bring happiness, but a single daffodil can foretell misfortune.


Lillian's laugh was loud and unbridled – it stretched all the way to Cam's flower stand from her position in front of Ash's house. Cam couldn't help but roll his eyes, though he knew it was cruel. What did Ash even know about her? Then again, what did he even know about her? He hadn't been given the stories Ash was graced with, but at least he knew better than to assume the face Lillian displayed to the rest of the town wasn't necessarily the face she wore when she was home alone.

He would have gone on ignoring them to the best of his ability had he not managed to catch her pointing in his direction. He looked up and caught Ash's eye – the boy waved, shouting out, "Why don't you take the day off?"

"Why?" Cam did not shout, but merely spoke in his normal tone as though Ash was right beside him. He knew they were good enough friends for Ash to be able to read his lips and grasp his replies.

Ash answered, "Do you need a reason to hang out with your best friend?"

"Yes."

"We're going to hike over to Konohana so I can show Lillian around a bit more! Nobody is going to buy a flower from you. Just say yes and come with us."
Cam made a face. It was one thing for him to acknowledge that his flowers weren't big sellers, but for Ash to say it…then again, he knew his biggest pulls were solely on rainy days, when everyone who had procrastinated buying a present for the birthdays of Bluebell's many residents rushed out to the only shop still open. He considered making up some sort of excuse to free himself from the weight of Ash's expectations, but nothing came to mind. There was nothing important he could blame his job on, there was honestly no reason to keep the stand open any longer (Georgia had already bought her bouquet), and he wanted to go. He turned the folded paper on his stand that read open over. Closed.

"Hello, Cam," Lillian told him, her smile bright and lively. Only the annoyed twinge in her eyes suggested that he was an unwelcome guest. For some reason he took pleasure in knowing she hadn't wanted him there. It meant he had caught her off guard – it meant that he was getting closer to knowing the truth.

"Hey."

"How's your day been so far?"

"Fine."

"Ignore him," Ash told her, patting Cam's shoulder in a bemused manner. "He doesn't talk much unless he's known someone for a long time. It's pretty futile trying to get him to say more than a word at a time."

"I hate you."

"I'm just lucky!"

Lillian giggled, which was a sound alien to the Lillian Cam believed her to be. He frowned at the noise, but realized it was fairly genuine – it showed in her eyes, which glistened with amusement. So she was capable of being happy. He was too, it was no big deal. It just so happened that she was happy even less than him. Her laughter was infectious in the worst way, however; it dulled his ability to decipher when she was being real and when she was putting on an act, and he found himself ingrained with the same amount of cheer. "It must be nice," she told him, "to have such a good friend."
Even Ash seemed to catch the wistfulness in those words. "You're our friend too," he told her.

Lillian turned pointedly to Cam.

"…Yeah."

"Like I said, please ignore him." This time Ash's words came through gritted teeth, as though he was resisting the urge to slap Cam and say what are you thinking? Just tell her what she wants to hear, it's not hard to make a friend, is it? Even for you?

"Yeah, you're our friend," Cam reiterated.

The smile that came onto her cheeks was a somber, tender one that Cam felt he was blessed with. She looked at him for a moment longer before she turned, facing the mountain path. "That's sweet of you two. We'd better get moving, then. Maybe if we hurry Cam can get back to his shop before it closes."

Ash caught Cam and held him back when Lillian started for Konohana. "Be a little nicer to her," he mumbled. "She moved far away from her family to live here all by herself. I don't know why yet, but it's hard for her. She just wants to know that she has some friends. So put aside your weird mind games for the day and just give her some slack, alright? She doesn't want to get to close to you – that's her deal, not yours."

Doesn't want to get close to you. Was that it? Was Lillian not just avoiding him and hesitating around him because he had seen her crying – was it because she simply didn't want to be the friend he told her he was? Or were those two things one, and she didn't want to get close to him because he had already seen something she was embarrassed of? Whatever the reason, when he looked at her he saw that she was staring at them with a crestfallen frown, as though she knew they were discussing her, and he decided to do just that – for today, he would forego the subtle interrogation. He wanted to know why she held him at a distance, why she had been crying, why she acted so cheerful around the rest of the townspeople but so cold to him; but today was not a time to ask any of those things. He nodded and Ash released him to surge after the brunette, his fingertips brushing against the small of her back as he ushered her forward. Cam found a rush of annoyance rise in his stomach that made him want to knock Ash to the ground and take Lillian on her tour himself.

Instead he fell into step on the other side of her, glancing silently around at the wildflowers sprouting everywhere while Ash babbled on about some sort of nonsense. He felt her eyes on him several times, but when he turned to prove it true all he received was a slap in the face from her hair as she spun to face Ash again. The only time she did continue looking at him was when she had a question. She was pointing at a flower to the right of his foot and as soon as he looked at her she asked, "What's the name of that flower?"

"It's a toy flower," he replied, pulling it gently from the ground. He was slightly impressed to see it. "They usually don't last this long into spring, honestly."

She took it from his hold without asking, but that only made him grin. At least she had developed a sense of familiarity around him that she felt free to act the same way Ash or Laney or Georgia would. She examined it closely before saying, "I've never seen this kind of flower before. I guess it doesn't grow in the city."
"Do you know a lot about flowers, Lillian?" Ash asked, offering up a gentle smile. As harsh as Ash could be at times in regards to people's feelings, he was remarkably in tune with them more often than not, and Cam soon realized he was attempting to steer the conversation away from painful memories of her past. Cam had to admit that he was rather impressed with it.

Lillian nodded, pointing out at different herbs and listing the names with ease. She was particularly amused by the chamomile growing in the mountains, pointing out that even in the city it grew in a much greater abundance. "My mom was a florist – like Cam," she told them, her voice full of wistfulness once more. "She also helped grow a lot of herbs for the town. I didn't believe much in their healing abilities, but a lot of people did and bought them from us. So I guess I know a lot about all plants now."

Ash and Cam exchanged a look and Cam smiled. So she liked flowers too. That was why she had asked him about his job as a florist – it only seemed natural to do so. And that was why – though her techniques did little to a town that was surrounded by flowers they could pick at will – her sales methods were rather impressive. "That makes a lot of sense," he murmured, more to himself than to her. Still, she turned to him with surprise.

"Does it?" she asked. "How so?"

"You were good yesterday," he explained hastily, feeling the weight of her suspicion return. What could her interest in plants making sense do that would worry her so? "You knew all the flower names and you were good at selling them, so it just makes sense that you grew up around plants."

She smile and nodded, a sense of relief emanating for her. "I see…thank you, Cam."

"No problem," he replied, exchanging another look with Ash. The boy shrugged, which at least let Cam know that he wasn't the only one who saw something strange in her actions. Sometimes he felt like Lillian's less happy side was a ghost troubling only him – a figment of his imagination, or something of the sort. Ash pointed out a hollowed out tree trunk animals often stored their foraging finds in, suggesting she use it to her benefit. She thanked him and snuck another look at Cam, and this time he looked away.


"Konohana is beautiful!" Lillian nearly danced around the town as they went, excitedly stopping to examine architecture and other characteristics of the village constantly. Cam followed her with an amused smile, but Ash looked rather fretful.

"Don't get too happy about this place," he told her gently. "Konohana is Bluebell's greatest enemy."

"Rutger mentioned that," she mumbled, frowning as she stopped examining Nori's farm. She met Cam's eyes rather than Ash and asked, "Why?"

Cam was startled to have the question thrown at him. "Er, I don't know, really. Some old feud Rutger's been carrying on that culminated in the tunnel collapsing between the towns and really making them separate. It's pretty pointless, honestly, but everyone takes it really seriously. So…don't question it when we get back in Bluebell. People will get annoyed."

Lillian gazed at him for a moment and then glanced at Ash, who looked highly uncomfortable with the entire discussion. "It's just a part of our town's culture," he tacked on. "Konohana is our rival. That's why we compete against them in the weekly cooking competitions. To Mayor Rutger and a lot of people around town, winning is the most important thing possible. Everyone will be counting on you to participate as well."
Once again Lillian spoke to Cam instead of Ash. "Do you participate?" she asked.

"Yeah," he muttered, his voice bitter. "I don't have much of a choice. Sometimes Rutger just stops by and ropes me into it. I usually just enter something Laney has prepared, though."

Ash jammed his elbow into his side, catching his ribs. "Don't say stuff like that when we're inKonohana," he hissed. "Do you want to be permanently disqualified?"

"Yeah, I do, actually."

Ash glared at his friend, but Lillian burst into laughter. It was not free and wild like it had been when she spoke to Ash earlier, but it was genuine and happy. This was her true unbridled laugh. "Cam, you're funniest when you're not trying to be," she told him teasingly. "Let's move along, then. I won't ask anything else about the rivalry."

Cam smiled at her, though the compliment was as vicious as it was sweet, and followed her as she hurried towards Yun's shop. Ash lingered behind them, his eyes narrowed and annoyed. He had never heard Cam say that he was opposed to the entire issue before, but to have him do it now, at a time when it would one up him, after all those years of keeping quiet…he fussed with the collar of his shirt to distract himself and expel a little energy as he followed behind them, albeit at a small distance.


When Lillian had been able to meet all of the residents, try some of the unique treats Yun had to offer, and been granted a ride on Kana's treasured Hayate, Cam and Ash began to lead her back home. And Ash was doing a fantastic job of leading, Cam thought, considering he was a good ten feet ahead of them.

"Is he angry with me for my questions about the Bluebell/Konohana thing?" she asked worriedly. A look of genuine concern and anxiety was etched into the lines that her narrowed brows created. The sky ahead was glorious and bright – they would manage to make it home before nightfall. Ash walked in silence up ahead, hands slung in his pockets and shoulders squared.

"No," Cam answered. "I don't think he's mad at you at all. He's probably upset with me. I'll be right back."

He jogged up ahead to clear the distance between them, leaving Lillian to worry alone, and said, "What are you doing up here?"

Ash shrugged. "I don't want to interrupt anything."

"What are you talking about?" Cam's voice was edged with exasperation. "She doesn't even know what to say to me. We haven't spoken at all this entire time except for her to ask if you were angry with her. I don't know what you're getting at but-"

"You have never disagreed with the way Bluebell and Konohana compete until today," Ash began. "And if you look back at this entire day, could you really say that you didn't have anything to talk to her about? It's your who has flowers in common with her, it's you she split her asazuke salad with, and it's you who sat on the bench beside her while she pointed out the trees that were nearby. Do you know what I did all those times?"

Cam hesitated before asking, "What?"

That clearly was the incorrect answer, but Ash didn't fault him any further for it. "Watched," he snapped. "I tried to intercede at first, but I just gave up. If you have a thing for her, just say so."

"I do not," Cam protested, rolling his eyes. "She asked me to share the salad because she didn't have enough money to buy it alone! I didn't want to turn her down and say no, just starve. And when we sat on the bench together, what was I supposed to do? Ask her to get up and say that I was sitting by myself? You told me to treat her like a friend, and that's what I was doing. So why are you so pissed off at me?"

"Because I wanted you to treat me as a friend too!" Ash's voice was hot and Cam could feel the anger rising from him. "You know I like her! This day was supposed to be a day to help me get closer to her. Anyone else in the world could have put that together, but no, you decided to continue carrying out your weird investigation on her and didn't bother to consider my feelings in it. I have always considered you to be the most caring person I know. You always knew how me, Georgia and Laney felt. But today, you never thought about my feelings. You only thought about your own. Walk her home yourself, and tell her I had a nice time and I'm not angry with her."

With that Ash stomped off, and Cam stopped, watching him go. He wanted to shout after him that Ash shouldn't have taken his kindness for granted – that expecting it was unfair – but he thought better of it. He expected Ash to consider his feelings as well, didn't he? That wasn't something that was just a personality trait of his, to be "caring." It was what friends did. Ash had made it clear that he had feelings for Lillian, but Cam hadn't bothered to acknowledge them fully beyond hoping they went away. He looked over his shoulder at her as she stared miserably in the direction Ash had gone.

"He's mad at me," he told her. "Don't blame yourself. He asked me to tell you that he's not upset with you at all and that he had a great time hanging out with you today."

Lillian swept up a sprig of lavender still barely hanging on from the winter. "I still feel bad," she murmured. "I should have tried to include him more."

"Why didn't you?"

Cam knew the words were wrong after he said them, but she didn't scold him as Ash would. She perched herself on the edge of a fallen tree trunk and sighed. "Because I'm trying to figure something out about you."

"Huh? What would you want to find out about me?" He mimicked her frown and sat beside her, hesitating every moment. He knew she wouldn't, but she could just push him right off his seat and leave him humiliated. She could do a lot of things. She could run off and ignore his question and tell everyone that when given the chance to comfort her Cam had turned her confession against her.

She didn't, and he didn't expect her to. He had a feeling that Lillian would never do anything that would cause the townspeople around her to get riled up. She seemed to want to slip under the radar past them for as long as possible. When she was ready to speak she turned towards him, stared at him dead in the eye, and said, "I can't tell which of you is the real one. Everyone says how shy and quiet you are, but you talk freely with Ash, and I don't think it has to do with comfort. I think you simply choose who you want to talk to. Ash says you talk plenty to him, but Laney says it's hard to get a word out of you. You're close with both of them, so…why? Why don't you even ask me about…you know what?"

"It seemed rude?" he provided. "And I'm not the one who comes across as fake."

"Excuse me?" she snapped, her voice definitely not as sweet as it was when she spoke to the villagers of her town.

Cam forced himself to stand his ground, though his instincts suggested he bow down before her and beg forgiveness for his transgressions. "Well…you treat me differently than you treat Ash and everyone else in town, and I'm trying to-"

"I treat you differently because youtreat me differently!"

"But you treated me weird first," Cam argued, his voice low and frustrated. "And then you avoided me, and you never seem to want to talk to me…"

"Because I'm embarrassed!"

The words hung in the air between them, the tumult of her exasperation. She had practically screamed them in his face. He stuttered as he mumbled, "There's no reason to be…"

"That's a lie," she retorted, her voice fierce and biting. "I don't need people to know about the person I was before I came here. This is the person I am here, and this is the person I want to be judged by. I'm embarrassed that you saw me…just forget about it, Cam! I can find my way home by myself."

She turned, tossing her lavender to the ground and stalking off. Cam hesitated, always hesitated, and then surged after her in quite an uncharacteristic manner, catching her wrist. When she spun on him he released her, holding his hands up in defense. She almost laughed at the reaction. "I just want to tell you," he murmured, now speaking gently. "I don't think you need to be embarrassed. I…I just thought that…you were lying to me all along about who you were. I mean, you were…so I thought that this happy face you put on…was a lie. And I thought you were treating me weirdly and it was frustrating because everyone was always talking about you, and…"

"You're talking a lot now," she noted, a reluctant smile winding its way onto her pale lips. Lillian was beautiful the day he met her, the day he worked the flower stand with her, and now – it didn't matter that he could see a scar etched in the corner of her forehead, and it didn't matter that her bangs were sticking up, and it didn't matter that the edges of her right index finger was bloodied from hangnails, and it didn't matter that when she looked at him she didn't exactly want to smile. She was beautiful for everything she was and everything she wasn't and everything she could be. She was beautiful. Beautiful. That was all Cam could think. As he looked at her so instantly move past the issue that had rested between them, he realized that he thought she was not objectively beautiful, but he thought she was beautiful. It was his opinion. He was no longer quoting the entire town. He was looking at her and thinking that he wanted to press his lips against the faint white line of her scar and he wanted to wrap a bandage around her finger and he wanted her to smile when she looked at him. No longer did he solely want her to like him as a person. He wanted her to like him as much as Ash wanted her to like him. Perhaps more, he told himself. Maybe more. But to say that was to throw Ash's feelings away again.

"I have more to say today."

"Is that why you don't talk other times?"

"Yeah. I don't have anything to say."

Lillian laughed, but it lacked humor. It was a matter-of-fact statement on the mediocrity of his answer. He had nothing to say, so he didn't say anything. How very like Cam. She gestured towards the town and said, "Let's head back."

"But you…"

"Enough of this detective game you're playing." Her voice was firm, like she was scolding a child. "Stop trying to figure out who the 'real Lillian' is. This is it. Alright?"

He didn't believe anything she was saying, but he smiled and nodded. It appeared that he would have to be cleverer to prevent her from noticing that he was noticing everything she did. He wanted to know who she was. Not just to discover how much of her was for her audience and how much was her leaking out. He wanted to know who she was so he could know who it was he liked. Until then, he would stay silent and bide his time. After all, he had nothing to say.

Amaryllis. Splendid beauty, worth beyond beauty. There was more to her than the outward appearance Cam had grown to appreciate. It was the muddled personality buried beneath layer upon layer of caution. Until he had managed to pull each layer away, he would continue to have nothing to say. He had no right to speak to someone he didn't know. He had no right to demand attention from someone. He had no right to her at all.


Three days passed and Cam hadn't heard a single word from Ash, who moved through town like a phantom image of himself. When Georgia stopped by to purchase a new bouquet, she wore a violet ribbon wound through her hair and an anxious smile. She told him that Ash had recently complimented the ribbon, culminating in her decision to wear it everywhere she went. Cam didn't have the heart or the guts to tell her that he probably only liked the color because it matched Lillian's eyes. She held it up to his vest and said, "Look – almost the same color. Maybe that's why Ash likes it."

"Maybe."

He gave her a colored bouquet - a mix of the popular spring flowers. Anything else required too much thought and concentration, which were not his strong points for the day. She watched as he accidentally triple knotted the ribbon, which left the bow lopsided and stubby. "Are you angry at Ash?" she asked. "I haven't seen you two hanging out much lately."

Georgia and Cam had been friends for many years. He wouldn't consider them as close as he and Ash or he and Laney – in their group of four, they knew each other the least. It wasn't that he disliked Georgia at all, or liked her less than the other two. It was simply that they led entirely different lives. Through his and Ash's differences, Ash's determination to befriend the only other boy in town had allowed them to become close. Laney and Cam shared many interests, and found it easy to bond. Georgia got along easily with Laney, the other girl in town, and with Ash, who also took care of animals like she did. But Georgia and Cam…what they had in common was Ash and Laney. That was it. It was hard to get closer to someone when the only thing tying you together was mutual friends and a long term bond.

So that was why Cam did not confide tp her his troubles – he did not say, no, Ash is the one mad at me, and for a good reason, maybe, or maybe a not so good reason. Do you think it's a good reason? It is normal for friends to get upset about this? I don't know. I don't know much about friends. He said, "No, I'm not mad at him." And then he held out his hand for her money.

"Oh," Georgia said. "Hey…do you think Ash gets annoyed with me?"

Did Ash get annoyed with her obvious and uncomfortable crush on him? Annoyed seemed too strong a word. To be honest, even Cam felt awkward dealing with her clearly unrequited feelings that she felt the need to push constantly. However, he also felt sympathetic towards her, who had a pick of two boys in the town and had been hopelessly in love with Ash since they were children. He felt frustrated at Ash, who straddled the line between being a good friend and leading her on due to his reluctance to make a clear point that he would never be interested in her. Ash made a continual mistake of giving her hope in the middle of his letdowns, which did nothing to dampen her feelings – it convinced her that if they were stronger he would return them.

But was Ash annoyed with this frequent routine? "I don't think he gets annoyed with you," Cam told her. Maybe he felt uncomfortable, maybe he got tired of it sometimes, but more than anything Cam sensed a constant stream of guilt emanating from his friend. Guilt for hurting his best friend, guilt for not loving her, guilt for being too much of a coward to cut the string that held them together. Cam understood it a bit more now. What was Ash doing at that moment? Cam had never considered his feelings. He knew Ash liked Lillian. He knew it. So why did he not feel the slightest bit bothered when she asked him questions rather than Ash? Why did he feel so smug when she asked him to share a salad with her? He was always aware that Ash was being left out. Why did he pretend otherwise?

"Thanks, Cam," Georgia murmured, her expression somber and worried even with his reassurance as she took her bouquet and turned towards home. Cam didn't bother answering her. Amaryllis. Worth beyond beauty. …Worth hurting his best friend? Maybe, he answered himself. Maybe she was worth it. That only made him feel worse.