Fakir was working in his garden, gloves on to protect his hands as he pulled weeds, wearing his most beat up clothes, and a straw hat on to protect him from the late spring sun. The garden was doing better than when he had moved in a few months ago. It was much neater, certainly, all his flowers, vegetables, and herbs were in neat rows with stones from a nearby stream lined between them. Unfortunately the weeds seemed to be doing better than the things he had actually planted. His beans and lilies were wilted and small while the weeds were sprouting every time he turned his back. With great frustration he pulled another dandelion from his garden and threw it on the weed pile to be burned later.
It wasn't much of a surprise when he heard a familiar voice ask: "What are you doing?"
"I'm weeding my garden." Fakir paused, wondering how many of those words would be new to Ahiru, "That means I m taking care of my plants."
"You're not doing a very good job of it, you're tearing up all your plants."
"Yes, these are weeds that I don't want in my garden."
"What? Why?" Ahiru exclaimed with surprise.
"They choke the useful plants and crowd them out, most people also think they are ugly and generally don't want them in their gardens," Fakir replied as he inspected the wilted leaves of a seedling.
"What?!" Fakir wasn't looking, but he could hear the forest spirit puff up in anger. "These aren't ugly, who are you to say such mean things about these poor plants? They just want to grow and be loved too!"
"I did not say they're ugly, I just said most people think they are ugly. I m pulling them up because they're killing the things I did plant!"
"Well, maybe if you didn't plant things where they didn't belong they wouldn't be so weak and miserable!"
"These things are right where they belong, in my garden! Not these useless weeds!" At some point after the yelling had started Fakir had stood up and turned to face Ahiru, completely forgetting her nakedness for the moment, and began pointing wildly at the pile of weeds he still planned to burn.
"You- you're just awful! No wonder all the plants in your garden are so sad and miserable when you treat them like this!" The two of them glared at each other before Ahiru turned and stomped off Fakir s property and back into the forest. Fakir sat down and began angrily pulling weeds again.
It wasn't until two days later that Fakir saw Ahiru again, he had gone out into the forest for some fresh air and writing inspiration when she found him. She seemed very shy and nervous when Fakir finally noticed her, the forest spirit was surprisingly quiet despite how clumsy he knew she could be. Fakir suddenly felt nervous too, the blush on his face wasn't just from the fact that she still wasn't wearing any clothes.
"Um Fakir? I m sorry I yelled at you the other day."
"I'm sorry too, the situation got out of hand and I should not have yelled at you." Ahiru's face split into a wide grin at Fakir's words, he couldn't help smiling in response. It was clich and overdone, but her smile really did remind him of the sun bursting forth on a cloudy day. "Would you show me how to properly care for the plants in my garden?"
Ahiru's eyes widened at Fakir s request, it seems she wasn't expecting him to ask her for help. "Oh uh sure! That would be wonderful!" She ran up and began tugging on Fakir's hands.
"W-w-what are you doing?" Fakir had to look off into the distance, Ahiru's naked body was far too close for comfort.
"Trying to get you up, of course! C'mon, let's go to your garden right now and we can help the plants grow big and strong and happy!" The writer hastily grabbed his things with his free hand and stuffed them into his bag before letting the excited little forest spirit drag him back to his home. He couldn't help smiling along the way, she was already babbling on about the plants and he didn't understand half of it, but somehow her excitement was contagious and he was starting to learn not to resist it.