A quick, allegorical story.
Eli frowned.
The snow was finally gone. When her now-dear friend Nozomi had taken to tending the flower bed beside hers, the fingers of frost had retreated from both with surprising simultaneity.
Yet hers still refused to bear fruit. It was mystifying and disheartening; she had experienced resounding success with her lovely fuchsia cyclamens last season. The other villagers had even gone so far as to say she had a special talent, but alas, she was forced to give up on them. There had simply been too much competition; her cyclamens, good as they were, and as much as she had loved them, were unsalable in the face of the top-quality ones grown by the girl in the next village over.
As much as she was loath to replace them with a new flower, she had little choice in the matter; her's was one of the kingdom's floral villages, after all, and such was its purpose.
She was roused from her increasingly sour contemplation by the arrival of Nozomi.
"Oh...nothing's taken yet," she murmured, "but don't worry, Elicchi, I'm sure it won't be long now! How about we get in there and-"
"No, no, it's fine. Don't trouble yourself with my garden."
Though not exceptional by any measure, the first healthy stalks in Nozomi's were clear to see, in stark contrast to Eli's.
"I can handle it by myself," the taller girl concluded.
The first and only time she had accepted Nozomi's aid had been in the form of a nondescript packet of seeds. "I think they're just right for you. You'll see," she had told Eli with a wink.
"I hope I will," she thought.
But then another day passed with no progress, and a second, then a fourth, then a week, then two. All the while, she rejected Nozomi's offers for help over and over.
And once more today, her work in the garden was interrupted.
"Please Elicchi, you're going to fall behind soon, just let me try!" Worry for her friends gnawed increasingly at her as the days went by.
"Honestly, it's fine, I don't need any help."
"Do you not trust me to help?"
Eli froze, trowel in hand. Of course she did! It was just-
"I-I just don't want you to have to deal with my problems. You don't deserve having to trouble yourself when your garden is doing fine."
Nozomi frowned, submitting despite looking like she had more to say. Eli watched her return to her own garden and begin tending to it once again. She meant well, Eli knew, even if their methods occasionally clashed. Despite her unusual dialect and interest in the arcane leaving her considered odd by the other villagers, she was deeply loyal to Eli, and Eli likewise, hence her concern over the garden.
When the day came to an end, Eli found that Nozomi had already wordlessly slipped back home.
"How strange..."
Soft chatter was drifting in through Eli's window the next morning. She didn't recognize who Nozomi was talking too, nor could she make out their discussion.
Breakfast could wait; curiosity had the better of her.
Exploring her property, beside Nozomi, was an unfamiliar girl with amber hair and eyes of striking blue. She weaved about the barren soil as pair conversed, smile wide, each step bouncing with an unbridled energy. She quite clearly wasn't a local. The most unusual thing, however, was the item she carried. A glass pitcher was clutched to her chest, threatening to spill over as she walked about. The liquid flowed thick like mercury, and was dyed in the vivid hues of a sunset.
Slowly, Nozomi become aware of Eli staring at them, and reigned in the newcomer.
"Eli, I'd like to introduce you to my friend Honoka."
"Hi!"
"Hello. Not to be rude, but why are you two here?"
"Well," Nozomi began," I had Honoka bring...something quite special. She should be able to help with your garden."
Eli frowned, "Come now, I told you that I really don't need-"
"Do it, Honoka."
The strange girl whirled and cast the solution out over the garden before Eli could even cry out. She stood, fists clenched, bitter over the loss of control and disrespect of her wishes.
But then she witnessed something quite special.
There was a perceptible warmth in the air, and she could have sworn she felt the very ground thrum like a heartbeat for a few moments. The healthy sensation radiated outwards and up through her body as she stared, astonished.
A single stalk of green penetrated through the soil, stretched skywards, then erupted into a delicate, beautiful, deep-blue iris flower.
She could only stammer, "I-I...how?"
Honoka smiled widely at her, "It's a pitcher of spring. It's really not that amazing, I don't think, but maybe that's just 'cuz I know what goes into one. Really, it seems like the hardest part for everyone is just asking me to begin with."
"Some people just need a little push," Nozomi added with a nod.
It wasn't Eli's cyclamen, yet somehow she was just fine with that. The iris held a certain beauty of its own. She fell to her knees before it, taking in the delicate curvature of the petals, the hues, the elegance of its dance with the wind; the longer she stared, the more perfect it seemed. It was only the sensation of something scratching her at palm that gave her pause.
She looked down to find rows of green dotting the surface of the soil.
Blinking away tears, stood once more.
"Thank you."
And it was all she could do to restrain herself from hugging her friend and the beautiful stranger before her.
A/N: I finished this quite a while ago and probably should have posted it earlier, but oh well. This story sprang from the mental image of Honoka and the pitcher, and the symbol of the flowers as a passion. I decided to expand it into a fic as a holdover while I'm working on a much longer, Umi and Kotori focused one.