Hanaki sat at the small glass table in the garden, staring at the wildflower she found several days ago. It was much healthier now, the red petals strong and bright. Today it was going to be planted with the rest of the flowers since it had time to recover. She could hardly wait.

Zetsu told her to stay here while he stepped out for a moment, leaving the toddler to listen quietly to the endless voices in the garden. There was a sort of conversation passing between the wildflower and the others. The wildflower was talking about the person who tried to take her away, saying he threw it into the trash on purpose without the stand keeper knowing. Then not long after that was when she discovered it.

The other plants agreed, creating a small chorus of 'On purpose', 'Trap', and 'Horrible.'

Trap... Hanaki didn't know the word very well. Especially in this context. Did it mean something like 'trick'? Something about that seemed accurate and got her picture-book thought process going. It led her to wondering why the guy wanted to take her away. She didn't know him, did she? But then, why was he so scary and mean? Why did he try to pretend he was nice at first?

After a while of trying to think through it all, her head began to hurt. It's been like that for a while now. Whenever she thought about the incident she got a bad headache as if something didn't feel quite right. She didn't tell Zetsu though. He already looked stressed about something without having her little problems added to it all.

She heard a click as he re-entered the greenhouse and closed the door. Hanaki lifted her head to watch him while he took the flower, gesturing for her to follow him to the middle of the greenhouse to a nearly vacant flowerbed. As she scooted off the chair she asked, "Where'd you go?"

"I had an idea," he explained. "I wanted to discuss it with Konan right away."

Her curiosity nagged. "Why?"

"It is important."

"Oh." Hanaki sighed inwardly, knowing he was deliberately not telling her everything. She thought of asking again but she remembered how Miss Blue-hair said nagging was rude, which she also had to explain what 'rude' and 'nagging' meant.

The thought of Zetsu's idea being important was enough to spark her interest, and it made her want to know what it was. However... Not worth it.

Uh... Worth what exactly? The toddler's ears burned with anxiety and she paused as an image flashed through her mind. Some lady with a really mean look on her face. Like that guy from before.

Her head began to ache again only worse this time, and now she had a pretty good idea of what it meant. Something was familiar. It was the lady probably. But why? Who was she?

"Runt, get over here. We don't have all day." The dark voice grabbed her attention. Zetsu was kneeling on the walkway at the edge of the flowerbed. Earlier he said he would show her how to plant the flower and how to take care of it because she asked him to. And after all the headaches today she was happy to have a change of subject.

As she hurried over she rubbed her head to ease the pain. "O-okay."

Soon the flower was planted, and Zetsu left to tend to the rest of the garden. For a while Hanaki was poking its stem to see if it could stand any straighter because it leaned to one side. Maybe the leaves were too heavy. "You're floppy," she said to the flower as she poked it again.

'Stop that.' The wildflower's voice was stern.

"What?"

'The poking. Stop the poking.' Oops. Hanaki immediately withdrew her hand, brushing the dirt off onto her clothes in an apologetic fluster which turned to embarrassment when she heard a few of the plants giggle at her expense. She couldn't be sure whether they were mocking her or not. Gosh, it wasn't her fault she had such a bizarre fit of confusion. It was the constant headaches. At least some of the voices hushed the others in understanding of that. Then there was a thoughtful hum from the wildflower. 'Find support. Need support to grow better.'

Tilting her head, she tried to process what it meant. "S'port...s'port..." It didn't sound like a word, but she figured it meant something to hold the flower upright. Hanaki thought hard about what might work and quickly came up with an idea. She glanced around to find Zetsu trimming wilted leaves from a sort of vines winding around a thin, unsteady-looking, fence thing at the back of the garden. "Panda, I need to go ou'side," she said without so much as a second thought.

He stopped a moment and glanced toward the skylight of the greenhouse. Hanaki followed his gaze. Plenty of sunlight was shining through despite the garden being underground but everything she could see above appeared white. "Like hell you do," he said grudgingly then returned to his task with a disbelieving shake of his head. "It's snowing again. Do not be ridiculous." To her surprise the garden's voices were saying similar things only with far more emphasis.

'No way!'

'Flower, that is not smart at all.'

'Yuck! Too cold!'

'Stay here. Much warmer.'

With a huff Hanaki realized no one agreed with her. "But I need a stick," she insisted and got to her feet to face him. "It's import'nt!" She copied what Zetsu said earlier, gaining his attention and using the most serious face she could think of. Really all it did was make her look angry. Though, it didn't have the exact effect she was aiming for. He did seem to relent, stopping what he was doing and heading back toward the door along the stone path, only pausing next to her.

She cringed due to the earlier pain when he set his hand on her head for a brief moment, but there was no telling the difference between one expression and the other. "Don't make faces like that. It doesn't suit you." The toddler mentally paused. Those words sounded familiar but she couldn't place them before Zetsu continued, right after glancing at the wildflower. "We'll go get what you need for the flower, but you have to stay here."

Hanaki blinked then trotted after him. "I wanna come with you."

"No."

"Why?" She dared to ask despite there being no use in arguing when both of his voices answered like that. It took until they left the greenhouse for him to respond. In fact, they were already starting down the hall leading to the living room.

"It is too dangerous for you."

With a quiet yet sudden inhale Hanaki looked up at him, though he didn't return her gaze because he was focused on the dimness ahead. Her mind hung on the slight echo his voice gave off here. But mostly what he said. Eventually she returned to watching her feet as she walked. D...dan-ger...ous... That word... It seemed like it was her first time encountering it, but her shadowy memory said it had already been rolling around in her mind. Even the whole sentence. An odd chill came along with it, more uncomfortable than scary. Ominous.

If only she hadn't left her teddy bear in the living room...