Watering flowers

Knocking once again on the door of the apartment, Zepp waited for his cherubun friend to answer. “One moment!” Soon Dove opened the door, and smiled at the pride bun outside. 

“Oh, good morning Zepp! How are you? Here, come in.”

“Good, good, yourself? I was actually wondering if you would come to the Embassy with me today? The flowers need watering and well, I don't really want to do it with Primrose again…” He laughed nervously, explaining to his friend the experiences he had on his previous visit to tend the plants, the cherubun being highly critical of every action he made, complaints on every “rude” phrase that came from Zepp's mouth, and well, he didn't feel overly comfortable being alone in Primrose's presence if he didn't need to. 

“Oh yes, sure! I'll come with you! Give me a few minutes to get ready, would you like some tea? I've made a fresh pot.”

“No thanks, I'm good.”

Once the cherubun was ready, the pair set off towards the elevator up to the Heavenly Embassy. After learning from his last few visits to the greenhouse, this time he'd brought a pair of mirror shades, in an effort to protect his eyes from the harsh faux sunlight that came through the glass walls. It helped with the bright light, at least, but not with the hot, humid air that resulted in droplets clinging to his fluffy ears, making them uncomfortably damp. He couldn't understand how Dove, or any of the other cherubuns for that matter, seemed unphased by it, but he didn't particularly want to ask. Probably was something to do with their exposure to it growing up in the meadow. They went over to the faucet, shining silver watering cans in hand. Dove filled their one first, and walked over to the planters. As Zepp filled his own with the shimmering, crystal like water, he couldn't help but ask Dove why it was so unnaturally clean and clear. They took a few moments to think upon it before coming up with an answer. 

“I am not sure if this is completely correct, but I would assume it's to do with the magical properties of the Embassy's cloud. It purifies the water on it, making it more closely resemble that from the heavenly meadows, so that the plants are unaffected by any impurities present in Burrowgatory’s water.”

“What, too much booze in the water here for the plants?”

They gave a soft chuckle at his joke. “Maybe, we don't want the flowers to be drinking too much. Instead of having healing properties they might become poisonous… Well, if you want a more concrete answer, I'd recommend asking Primrose. He's much more familiar with how the Embassy functions than I am.”

“Yeah, I guess…”

He turned off the faucet and carried the can over to the plants that they had previously planted together. They had grown a lot since that day, what were once tiny seeds buried beneath the dirt, now stems that grew multiple inches out above the soil, large emerald green leaves sprouting from it, soaking in the fake sunlight. Flower buds were beginning to form on the top of each stem, the ones his silver seeds had planted with hints of white, Dove's rose gold ones having more of a pinkish hue to them. They sat on the plants, curled up tightly, not yet ready to blossom. 

“Shouldn't be too long now before these are ready to be harvested, they're growing quite well.” Dove gave a glance his way with a warm smile, and he took it as them being proud of his efforts, making the pride bun grin as he began to gently sprinkle water into the soil, darkening the gold tinted soil so it more closely resembled the colour of bronze.

The pair stood working in silence for a few minutes, before Dove started singing to themself, their soft voice filling the greenhouse. He didn't recognise the melody, and figured it was probably something the cherubuns learned before they came down to Burrowgatory. He didn't say anything until they finished their song, just continued soaking the flower beds. 

“You've got a beautiful voice, y’know that? Hey, would you be interested in doing a duet or whatever it's called sometime? Seems like it'd be a bit of fun, and I've been looking for an excuse to break out one of the acoustic guitars. Plus, I'd love to learn some of the songs and stuff you know, broaden my knowledge, I only really tend to stick with rock.”

They seemed quite flustered by his comment, resting their now empty watering can on one of the workbenches. “Oh, thank you, I'm glad you think so. And yes, I'd love to, it seems like it would be a really nice time. Maybe once we are done with this?”

“Oh, I actually have a date planned out for this evening, and I don't really want to leave Flint hanging again... Some other time, I'll let you know when I'm free?”

“I'm good with that, I look forward to it.” 

They brought their can back over to the faucet, refilled it, and moved over to the next planter that needed watering, back to softly singing to themself. Soon Zepp had to follow suit, his own drained. Once again, watching the crystal clear liquid pour into the can, and hauling it once full over to the plants, sprinkling the next area with the purified water. Small droplets danced along some of the leaves, and as the light passed through it, miniature arcs of colour formed along the surrounding surfaces. “Woah… What's that?”

“What's what?” Dove stepped over to him, to see what had caught his attention.

“These.” He pointed out one of the patterns of colour across the edge of the planter. 

“Oh, a rainbow? They usually occur when it's both sunny and raining at the same time, the light passes through the raindrops creating colours across the sky. I guess the light in Burrowgatory isn't strong enough for bigger ones to form?”

“That, or I just haven't noticed them before.” He ran his fingers through the light, watching it dance across his hand, before returning to his work. 

Finally, after just over an hour, they finished watering all the plants in the greenhouse. They did a final check to make sure nothing had been missed, returned the cans back to their storage, and left the greenhouse, setting back off towards the elevator. He removed the glasses and turned to face them as they descended. 

“Hey, thanks for your help! I'll see you soon for that duet thing?”

Their eyes were bright, pure joy etched across their face. “Yes! I can't wait for it. 

Once the doors opened, they bit their farewells, and went their separate ways.