(Exactly 200 words. Written to the prompt 'bad company')

"This certainly is…spectacular," says the voice behind her. Ifalna feels rather than hears the soft snap as a flower breaks at the stem.

She turns, expression impassive. Hojo twists the bloom between thumb and forefinger, observing her over a pair of glasses fogged by the humidity in the greenhouse. She gives him half a smile; feels earth between her palms as she clenches her hands together.

"I didn't know you liked plants."

"My interest is in the extraordinary," the scientist answers quietly. "Which you certainly are, to be able to keep such an impressive garden."

"A green thumb is nothing extraordinary, professor." Ifalna watches the flower trapped in the man's vacant gesture - a whirl of dead, vibrant colour. "All you need is patience and some basic knowledge of soil biology."

"Really." The stem spins faster as Hojo grins, making her feel mildly sick. "Surely it requires other talents? I doubt any patience or knowledge on my part could cultivate a species believed to have been extinct for twenty years."

The colour drains from her face as the flower falls from his hand, his smile as much a lie as hers.

"But you're full of surprises, aren't you, Miss Ifalna?"