Summary: Haru Okumura Week Day 2: Garden/Food. Haru's Shenanigans with gardening.

Note: Look at me Crack Fic again.

Alt. title: 'Donna Okumura – Sleeping Cucumbers'

Warnings: Knocking People Out By Accident, Suddenly Guns, Crack-ish, Casual Reminder That This Is Still Set In A Mafia AU, Uses Dying Will Flames From KHR.

Disclaimer: Don't own P5.

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Haru was very young when she first fell in love with gardening.

She didn't have a name for it, back then; all she knew was that she loved digging her hands into the soil, loved watering the plants, loved watching the roses bloom.

The old gardener used to observe and direct her, telling her how to dig, plant, water, clean.

Or, he did until he couldn't anymore and her father brought a new gardener who didn't like having a kid around in his work space.

It was the first and last time she threw a temper tantrum- her father grounded her and banned her from the gardens for a full month while doubling her lesson load so that she wouldn't have the time to think about sneaking out into the gardens.

(Some of the tutors (or, at least, the ones who genuinely cared about her) took the chance to distract her from her sour mood and started teaching her about guns months earlier than they had originally planned. It worked like a charm.)

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It took Haru some time until she figured out that she could get potted plants to work on, on her balcony.

At first, she started off with flowers. No one would think twice about a little girl wanting flowers. Sneaking in supplies and tools, and convincing the staff to let her take care of the flowers by herself were more difficult, but she managed.

Her tutors let it slide, admitting that it was good exercise for her persuasion and negotiation skills.

She considered it the first step towards having her own garden one day- one she could work on by herself freely.

Besides, it was good practice to ease everyone in to the idea before she started working towards acquiring different plants- she wanted to grow her own vegetables and fruits.

One potted flower became two, became three, became four, became a tiny garden in the corner of her balcony.

And then she started to get vegetables to grow.

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Her first taste-tester ever was Mako-chan.

Initially, Haru didn't believe that she'd be feeding anyone anything from her garden until much later down the road, but Makoto had been overworking herself a lot lately, completely focused on the work she got her hands on as a mafia enforcer. And she was only fifteen! Haru was in awe.

"Mako-chan!" Haru called out, "I think it's time!"

"Hm?" Makoto turned to her with a head tilted inquisitively, "Time for what?"

"Try out my vegetables!"

"Your… vegetables?" Makoto's eyes widened, "They're ready?"

"I want you to try them out."

"I- I don't know if I'm a good choice to see how well they turned out, Haru. I'm not an expert."

"It doesn't matter! I want Mako-chan to be my first taste-tester!" Haru beamed.

"O-okay." Makoto's cheeks reddened and she reached for the small basket Haru nudged towards her; taking out a cucumber, she took a bite.

Haru waited with baited breath for Makoto's reaction.

Makoto blinked a few times before her eyelids drooped and she slumped forward a little.

"Mako-chan…?" Haru was terrified; she didn't accidentally poison Makoto, did she?

"Mako-chan!" Haru reached a hand to Makoto's shoulder and shook her gently. Makoto slumped sideways from the movement and fell against Haru's side, her head dropping to Haru's shoulder.

Thankfully, Makoto was still breathing, and she seemed to be fast asleep.

Haru furrowed her eyebrows, worriedly wondering if Makoto was overworking herself to the point of falling asleep while sitting up. Haru wrapped her arms around Makoto as she shifted in place before getting up from the couch the two were sitting on and laying Makoto down.

Haru's eyes fell on the cucumber somehow still in Makoto's grip and took it. Frowning at it, she took a sniff; it didn't smell suspicious, at least. She then took a small bite and recoiled, almost choking on the bite in her mouth, as the heavy taste of her own Rain flames flooded her senses, almost knocking her out with its intensity.

Reaching for a tissue, she spat out the piece in her mouth and dropped it into a waste basket.

She grimaced, hoping Makoto wouldn't be staying asleep for long and that the heavy Tranquility saturated in the food didn't hurt her.

And now her tongue was numb, she grimaced again. Honestly, how did she even infuse her Rain flames in her plants?

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Two years later, she'd be grateful for this accidental discovery when any one of her friends would neglect sleep too many days in a row.

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Extra

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"It was straight out of a horror movie." Ann stared into the distance, "I hadn't been getting much sleep that week- and then SHE appeared. All warm smiles and soft edges and radiating presence. And then. She shoved an entire cucumber in my mouth. And I knew no more."

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End.