Chapter 9
The sun beat down in humid rays of light that day, the air was moist and hot, the grass dried. I stood outside, all alone, watering the garden. It was something I had been doing since I first came to this place. Gardening. It was something I loved. I used to grow flowers out of the widow of my bedroom, back at my father's dingy apartment. I loved to grow things. There was something about creating life with my own hands that had me feeling so happy, so powerful, and so peaceful. I loved to garden. And
I was welcome to do as I pleased here.
I was reeling the hose back in when Kaiba came out. He held a small brown bag in his hands. I wasn't quite sure what it was, but he seemed to be headed right for me.
He stopped in front of me, as I stood covered head to toe in grime, mud, and sweat. He didn't seem to be all that put off by my looks, in fact, he seemed rather fixated on it. I had to snap him out of his own mind, by snapping.
In some rather shitty form of signing, he said that the bag was for me, handed it over. He didn't move away after handing it over, he seemed rather intent on watching me open it. So I'd give him what he wanted. I'd open it.
Open it I did, and when I did? A grin the size of Jupiter crossed over my face, he had gone out of his way to get seeds, things I could plant. Inside were seeds for Strawberries, Kyoho, and Peaches, and Daidai. I would plant the daidai first, they had no season, whereas each of the others did, and they had a while to go, they would all have to grow first however, and that was all that really mattered to me. I would have to grown them, and if I was lucky? I'd get food out of the deal as well.
Without much warning I threw my arms around Kaiba, pulled him into a hug. He couldn't have known how much this meant to me, how much this made me happy. I was ecstatic, glad for the chance to start a garden, to create life with my own two hands. I loved this. And in that moment, I couldn't help but enjoy the hug I too got out of this. I liked him, I really did. I wont say love, because I do not wish to tarnish the meaning of that word, but I also wish that I could use the more flimsy, lackadasical use of the word.
When I let him go, Kaiba was flushed, bright bright red, I never would have thought that I'd see that look on his face, and it only made me more gleeful to know that I had been the one to put that red tint there.
He staggered away, thrown off of his usual funk by my actions. I had confused him, I must have. He must still believe that I hate him, that was it. I'd have to prove otherwise.
Near everyday I spent out in the garden, Kaiba would come out at least once to watch me, occasionally he'd pick one of our flowers, place it in my hair. I wouldn't have cared much if I hadn't gone through the trouble of taking care of them. He was killing my children, that was something I couldn't allow.
I would occasionally smack him upside his huge uppety head anytime he'd so much as touch one of my precious flowers. He shouldn't have been ruining the garden that I worked so hard to maintain for him. He really ought to learn a lesson in common curtesy. Yet, the flowers he did pick? I kept them in a vase, one that stood on the dresser in my bedroom. I would keep them there, cherish them until the day their last petals wilted away, and even then, I'd keep the petals, in a small round ceramic bowl, one that seemed to tie the entire room together. Thanks to Kaiba and his constant need to put flowers in my hair, my bedroom always smelt of my garden, and that? Well, that helped me to sleep calmly at night. That helped me to relax, it helped me to fall for him even deeper.
He was so cute.
