Every now and then she would come sit in my garden. And every now and then I would look over at her. And I would see her dark brown hair and piercing blue eyes and remember another, much younger girl with the same hair and the same eyes. And I could see that little girl running around the garden, laughing, smiling, smelling the flowers. And I could remember telling her, "Mommy won't be happy if you pick those," or, "Careful honey, those have thorns."
Once Xenos leaned over to smell one of the roses. "Careful," I told her, "those have thorns."
"I know," she said. She sat in silence as usual before she spoke up again. "Marluxia, why do you do this?"
"Do what?"
"This," she waved her hand around. "The garden. Why do you keep the garden?"
I wasn't sure if I wanted to tell her. But it had been years. I might as well talk to someone about it. "My wife… she used to have a garden just like this. I guess it reminds me of her." I paused. "My little girl, too. She loved the flowers."
"What was her name?" Xenos asked. She sure did have a lot of questions.
"My wife's name was Laura," I told her.
"And your daughter?" Her voice seemed… hesitant, almost.
"Rose."
"What happened to them?"
"Nothing happened to them," I said. "It's me something happened to."
"Oh." She fell silent once more, and I was glad that she knew when to keep her mouth shut.
But later I wondered. Why did she care so much? Why did she hesitate as she asked her questions? Why did she remind me so much of my little Rose?
Why had she felt the need to bring up the thorns of my past?