It had been three weeks since Harry took the job, and it may have been the weirdest weeks of his life. Which is saying something since he is an immortal being that has lived longer than anything should be able to. It wasn't just magically things that were weird though, at one point Rigby tried to hire someone to do his work and the person tried to steal his life, another time Mordecai, Rigby, and Pops snuck out to wrestle, finally, there was a viral video competition between the immature staff members. On the magic front, Harry had helped stop a zombie apocalypse, witnessed a were-skunk transformation, and heard about some galactic space night owl race. He still wasn't sure about the last one but based on everything else, probably.
With all the contemplation in mind, Harry made his way to the stoop of the house to start his new daily work ritual. Each day began with a briefing by Benson, who turned out to be pretty cool and it's just Mordecai and Rigby that brought out his signature red face, going over the tasks for the day. This made absolutely no sense to Harry, everyone's tasks were basically the same every day, and the only things that changed were parties that were on the schedule months earlier. The only conclusion Harry could get to about it is that Mordecai and Rigby were so absent-minded that they didn't remember the chores they had done the day before.
"So Harry, I'm going to need you to help out with the community garden today." Now, this was a surprise, it seems like mentioning his herbology knowledge wasn't a smart choice. Before he could interject and hopefully get out of the hard labor in the sun, Benson had already moved on to the other chores for the day. "Skips, you're with Harry, fixing the raised planters. They got wrecked again."
Harry turned towards Skips to see the other man looking back at him. This would be the first opportunity that they had to talk since Harry had first arrived. Now Harry could finally ask about the death magic that surrounded the man and his apparent friendship with Death. The magic in this universe made no sense compared to the other universes that Harry had been apart of, maybe he would finally get answers. Skips seemed to be the only person with magic that actually exuded from him, every other magic thing Harry has encountered has been a surprise of magic. Like the were-skunk and zombie uprising, it seemed almost non-magical in nature, yet clearly magic was present, but Harry couldn't detect it.
"Oh, and before everyone starts their chores for today, this is a reminder that the first company bowling game is today. We are up against a team called Death Kwan Bowling, Harry you came after registration so you can't be on the team. But you can still come and cheer for the team." With that Benson turned and walked away, leaving everyone to their chores.
Harry walked over to where Skips was and nodded in acknowledgment, "So do you mind walking with me to the garden, I haven't actually encountered it within the three weeks I've been working here." Harry asked with a laugh.
Skips looked him over and then responded gruffly, "Follow me, you'll need some supplies from my garage before we can go to the garden." Skips then turned and began to walk in the direction of what Harry assumed to be Skips garage.
—.—.—
Skips garage was nothing out of the ordinary, but later Harry would remember this day for an altogether different reason. It had been a long time since Harry had been attracted to anyone, it was hard enough making human connections when you know you'll outlive everyone you meet and move on to another dimension. That all changed in that garage with Skips though.
"The gardening supplies is over there," Skips said while point to a shelving unit on the wall. Harry followed his finger and realized two things. The first is that he was going to have to do the gardening the muggle way, based on the supplies that Skips was pointing at. The second, which was slightly more of a pressing matter, was that the supplies were out of Harry's reach. Years of malnutrition from the Dursley's had left Harry with a little bit of a vertical deficiency. Looking at the ground around the box proved to bear no help either, there wasn't a step stool insight.
"I hate to be a bother," Harry began while turning to face Skips, "but I can't actually reach any of those tools. Would you mind bringing the box down for me?"
No sooner had Harry asked the question had Skips began moving forward to help. If one were to describe Harry as petite, coming up to around 5 foot 4, then Skips would be large, clearly topping 6 foot something. What was unreachable for Harry, Skips had no problem getting. And yet, that didn't stop Skip's shirt from riding up as his hands went above his head and he collected the box.
Harry knew objectively that Skips was handsome in a rugged way, and clearly, the man's physic benefitted from the hard labor he did daily. But this was the first time that Harry had seen the other man's body up close, and it was also the first time that he was able to actually see Skips skin. It started a low fire in Harry's lower stomach, a feeling he hasn't felt in many centuries. As Harry was lost in his thoughts he didn't realize that Skips was walking back towards him till the other man tapped his shoulder lightly.
"You coming?" Skips asked and nodded towards the entrance of the garage. Still carrying the box, Skips began to make his way over to the garden.
Harry knew he was in trouble now, the feelings were too close to the surface, and were almost unfamiliar. It had been so long, one could almost say that this was the first crush. Harry swallowed those thoughts, along with the pressing need to act on any feelings. He didn't even know if Skips was available or even attracted to other men. And all that was completely discounting the fact that Harry has no idea how many years he'd even be in this universe for. Best to keep the feelings hidden and move on, plus he had to train Pops, whatever the hell that means.
—.—.—
Unbeknownst to Harry's inner turmoil, Skips was having quite a similar conversation with himself. This wasn't the first time since Mona that Skips felt an attraction to another, but it was the first time that he was spending more than a moment with the object of his attraction. The shorter man seemed to be following him like a lost puppy as Skips showed him where the garden was, today was definitely going to be a test for Skips. When they finally reached the garden area, Skips turned around and was confronted with the large green puppy dog eyes of the shorter man.
"The box contains all the tools and seeds you'll need to get the garden going. Let me know if you need anything, I'm going to be right over there fixing up the planters" Skips point over to about 30 feet away, and then moved to go start his work. Looking back over at the man, he stopped for a second to admire him. Skips was amused by how befuddled Harry was with the seed packets. With the parting thought of how he would probably end up doing the work for the clearly confused man. Skips took out his tools and began to do his actual job, which should only him till lunch to finish.
The rest of the morning passed in silence between the two men who were hard at work. By the time lunch rolled around Skips looked over to see that Harry had actually managed to prep the soil and start putting in the seeds for a third of the garden. "It seems to be around lunchtime, we should take an hour break and finish up after. Would you like to join me for lunch?" Skips stated while standing up and walking over to the other.
Harry was wiping some dirt from his pants and looked over before replying with "That would be bloody brilliant. I haven't had time to make lunch, do you mind if we get something to eat from a place nearby?"
The men decided to get a quick lunch from Wing Kingdom, which was only a five-minute walk from the park. But it offered plenty of time for Harry to get up the never and ask "So how did you come by your immortality?"