Chapter 3: Tending Our Garden

Although she didn't favor them, Blaze was used to social situations and being the center of attention. When ruling a kingdom, all eyes were often on the royal house and everyone wanted a bit of your time, to bend your ear for a plea, to be noticed and acknowledged, and to stand alongside the nobles to puff up their own importance. It was the unfortunate side of any social event.

What Blaze absolutely wasn't accustomed to was standing center stage and presenting herself like an entertainer of the court, performing for everyone's amusement. Staying beside Jewel, she muttered, "Again, I could just donate from our treasury to the cause. You'd make more than you would auctioning me off for the day."

"This is more fun," Jewel said out of the corner of her mouth. Blaze shot her a fiery look and she quickly added, "A-and, and, and it helps promote community fellowship. People like it. It's like a game with prizes."

Some people did seem to like it. The rich ones in the crowd, with eager faces no different from those of her own court who wanted to influence her and wield her power by proxy. Different dimension, same people.

Already she was up to two hundred, outstripping the common folk. "Three hundred!" a heavily tarted up woman called from the side.

"Three hundred rings!" Jewel called. "Do we have more?"

"Four hundred!" another yelled.

A whole day with some stuffy blowhard. She shuddered at the thought of long, tedious conversations of trying to form connections with her kingdom and other possible nobles. The only difference being that instead of suggesting some type of alliance or trade agreement, they would want to bring her to more social gatherings and parties, showing her off like a new painting they purchased.

Then again, there were a handful of business types in the crowd. Perhaps there was an afternoon of trade negotiations in the future. What she wouldn't give to get out of this place and the city. Maybe I can bribe Jewel with some family heirlooms?

The bidding increased further, encouraged by Jewel's constant reminders of Blaze's status. "We have a real genuine royal here, people. A princess, no less! This is a rare opportunity. Reach into those pockets and impress her, show her that your vaults are as full as a princess'!"

She wasn't half-bad at this. Blaze only wished the turnout was filled with better people. She heaved a sigh, resigning herself to her fate, when a brash voice from the middle of the room clearly yelled, "One thousand!"

All heads swiveled to the table where a lone hedgehog sat, sheepishly waving under the spotlight shining down on him. For the first time since she stepped on stage, Blaze gave a genuine smile and glanced at Jewel. "I think that should about cover it." With that, she hopped down from the stage, grateful to end this ill-conceived auction.

"Er, well, one thousand rings it is then! Going once, twice, sold!" Jewel said quickly before any of the other rich guests recovered.

Blaze squeezed and slipped through the crowd, avoiding nasty looks thrown her way, then pulled up a chair beside Silver at the table. "Thank you."

"Anytime," he said with a sunny grin. "You were starting to make me squirm with how miserable you looked."

She hummed a response and watched Jewel dismiss the crowd and thank them for attending the auction. When most of the room was empty, she asked the obvious. "So, where did you get a thousand rings?"

"That was, kind of, you know…" he shrugged. "I'll think of something."

"They expect payment tomorrow," she said.

"Oh." His ears flattened against his head and he chewed on his thumb, pondering the problem. "Would you be able to loan me about a thousand rings?"

"For getting me out of this? Sure. On one condition."

"Which is?"

She stood up. "Spend the day with me. You 'won' it after all."

"Really?" He perked up and hopped out of his chair.

"You'll be doing me a favor and keeping Jewel off my back." Already, the beetle was looking suspiciously at the pair. If they stayed any longer, she was bound to figure out Silver was short on cash. "Let's go."

"Sure thing."

"So she wouldn't let you just donate cause it was more fun?" Silver asked as they made their way out of the city.

Blaze shook her head. "I don't know how she managed to talk me into it." Jewel was surprisingly persuasive. No wonder the auctions for a day with a special guest had taken off. "I was a last-minute substitution. It was supposed to be Sonic again. But nobody has seen him lately."

"Last I heard, he was taking a vacation out past Floral Forest Village with Amy." Silver waggled his eyebrows suggestively. She chuckled and he made an exaggerated pucker, smooching the air, which sent her into further fits. Silver joined her, evidently pleased with himself at improving her mood.

She wasn't that surprised about the world-renowned hero. Amy had been chasing Sonic for what felt like years now and the blue hedgehog himself long ago mellowed out to her presence. It was only natural something should blossom between them. As her laughter subsided, she steered the conversation to Silver. "What about you? I thought you were heading back to the future?"

"Soon. Very soon," he said. The tall buildings faded into the background and the houses grew dilapidated, with broken windows, doors hanging off creaky, rusty hinges, and bombed out ruins. The unhabitable section of the city that the Restoration hadn't repaired yet after Eggman's attacks. Blaze knew exactly where Silver was leading her.

"Have to check up on your garden first?" she asked, already spying the green flourish abutting the ramshackle shed up ahead.

He nodded excitedly. "I'm hoping that if I can make it self-sustaining, then it'll grow larger in the future. Maybe have a whole field or a park."

She smiled. That was just like Silver, always looking ahead and planning for the future. Or his time, that is. Dimensional hopping was one thing, but time travel and the consequences surrounding each and every action was difficult to wrap one's mind around. She could only imagine how Silver himself felt, jumping back and forth between different periods, a bewildered outsider that had to quickly adapt to whatever the situation called for. He always managed to land on the right foot and help save the day.

In her kingdom, such capability would mark him a natural leader. Among knights or perhaps royalty. There's a thought. Silver as a knight wasn't difficult to imagine. He was a natural-born fighter anyway and threw himself into the thick of the fray. A suit of armor fit in well with that. However, this scrappy survivor from the far-flung future donned in royal robes and garments?

Then again, Blaze didn't adhere to the royal fashion code herself. She preferred more practical clothes for fighting. Still, she imagined Silver in some princely outfit, adorned with the usual gold trappings that glinted like his sunlit eyes, and that eager smile.

To her surprise, her imagination worked wonders and he appeared quite fetching. Not that he wasn't handsome already, but she could see him standing tall with polish, like a revered king of old in one of her history books. Definitely turning heads at some grand event or showing up as a suitor come to call on her. Wait, where did that come from?

"Has the garden been coming along well?" she asked, waving away the image before she lingered on it too long.

"Yeah. The Restoration had a lot of seeds gathered and shared them with me. I've been adding different kinds of flowers all over." He pointed down some of the empty, pock-marked streets. "I also took your advice about the ashes and found other pockets around this area and outside the city. Planted more flowers and vegetables. With some luck, they should join together and form one large garden."

"That's a nice plan. Anything to improve all of this." The Restoration still debated on what to do with the area. The original inhabitants already relocated to other parts of the city, but some wanted to move back to their homes, citing their roots there. Others had suggested tearing down the old buildings and expanding the shopping centers, thereby expanding the commerce and economy. Some, like Silver, had suggested a park or use the land for farming to help ease the burden of refugees that continued to pour in from Eggman's attacks.

His small garden at least provided a bit of color and life to the area. As they approached it, she saw it had grown larger, spreading out densely around the shed.

Silver hopped into the torn-up section of asphalt that the shed and garden resided in, then offered Blaze his hand, helping her down. A loose bit of asphalt shifted under her boot and she stumbled forward into Silver, her cheek resting against his chest fur. The bundle of fluff was exceedingly soft, a silky blanket that she could fall asleep on.

She quickly straightened, her cheeks hot and coughed into her hand. "So, what brought you by the auction today?"

She wasn't the only embarrassed by the contact. Silver's face fit in well with the numerous ripe tomatoes growing nearby. Spinning on his heel, he headed for the tall sunflowers. "Oh, I heard you were going to be there. I thought I would get my good-byes in."

Thinking back to Amy, Sonic, and blossoming affections, she wondered if something started to spring up between her and Silver. They spent a lot of time together on adventures and in their downtime. But did he see her in that light? He'd never given any indication that she remembered, nor had she dropped any hint to him. Although the thoughts of Prince Silver reared up in her mind's eyes again, demanding her attention.

She realized Silver was speaking and cleared her head, following him into the patch of plants. "You can see some of the new ones here," he pointed out a group of crimson hibiscus in one section and some snowy white jasmine in another. "I thought it might be good to mix them up."

"They're very lovely," she said, fingering the delicate petals. "Have you told anyone else about the garden though?"

He shook his head slowly. "No. Maybe I will about the others, but not this one."

"How come? Someone will need to tend to it."

"I don't know." He glanced over his shoulder and a drooping clump of irises dangled above his quills. He turned his face elsewhere, his eyes darting for something else to focus on as he continued. "I kind of didn't want to because it feels like it's ours. We started it and we should care for it."

She cupped one of the hibiscus flowers and breathed deep. It possessed a sweet fragrance, young and fresh, teeming with so much life and possibility like the rest of the garden. "I don't see how. We were only here temporarily. Something like this needs constant maintenance and attention."

He bit his lip and appeared to struggle with his words. "I could always come back here. Once a week or two, make sure everything's fine. You too if you want."

She bent over and picked up a fallen sunflower that hadn't made it. The shriveled stalk crumbled in her hands as she showed it to him. "They require daily attention. It's a commitment. It'd be better to assign that to someone who will be here everyday."

Silver accepted the sunflower and examined it. Then he plucked out a handful of seeds from the flower, dug a little hole in the ground, and planted one. "What if we were here everyday?" he asked, covering up the hole and making another down the row. "An hour or two?" He finally managed to raise his eyes to her, the question lingering between them.

"You're going to jump back and forth from the future each day and live in two different timelines?" Maybe he didn't always think that far ahead.

"If I have to." He held her gaze evenly. He was absolutely serious about this.

"How's that supposed to work?" she asked, stepping over his messy little mounds of dirt. He patted them together as she stepped through the rows, admiring the eye-pleasing flowers. "We're separated by time and space after all. From the garden." She took a deep breath, calming herself. Different eras, different dimensions. That put a damper on any possibilities, didn't it?

"I'm not saying it'd be easy and there'll be challenges. We could make it work though." He was right behind her, dusting off his gloves, whispering in her ears. In the sky, the sun shone bright on the garden. The rising sunflowers shielded them, the rays filtering through the large petals and casting both of them in a golden hue. There was a unique shade to Silver's eyes that she had never seen before and she was drawn to it, stepping closer to him. Freshly turned soil drifted in the air, holding a hopeful promise.

"How's that?"

He shrugged, completely clueless. Absolutely naïve. And wonderfully adorable. "Same as anything else. Hard work and effort."

Both of them really coming back here on a regular basis, on top of managing her kingdom and him watching the timeline of this dimension? She sadly shook her head and looked at the ground. It didn't seem meant to be.

"Hey." Silver lowered himself, trying to catch her eye. "I really want this and I'm willing to try if you are."

There was no lie in his statement. As for Blaze, if she was honest with herself? She choked out a laugh and shook her head again, this time with a widening grin. "Of course I want this."

Silver beamed and between that and his proudly standing quills, he looked like the happiest flower in the garden. They could work out the specifics later. For now, she wanted to simply enjoy the moment. "Come here," she pulled him close and planted a kiss on his lips.

Their arms snaked around one another, holding the kiss. Icy-hot fire surged in her stomach and exploded out to her fingertips, warming and chilling Blaze all at once, melting her body against his. Silver's hand supported her back, cradling her to that enticing fluffy chest as they stopped to catch their breath.

"You know," he said, taking a deep gulp every few words, "we could always plant a garden outside your castle."

"We already have several," she said. His expression dimmed for a moment until she added, "But I wouldn't mind an indoor one too. Maybe we could also tend to this one in the future."

His scooped her up, spinning her around. Blaze yelped and laughed, hanging onto his shoulders as he said, "I'd love that!" When he stopped, he touched his nose to hers, unable to stop grinning like a goofball.

She cupped his cheek and kissed him again. "So would I."