[Comm] DILLIGENCE CHAPTER III

Weeks had passed since Bev and Trump had first begun to make regular trips to the Heavenly Embassy, tending to that special patch of blooms.  Against their will, the duo had begun to adjust to waking up in the early hours of the morning, even if it meant that Trump was moody and silent on the walk over to the Embassy and Bev grumped and whined the entire time.

But not today!  It was still dark when Bev’s phone began to ring, startling the lustful bun into wakefulness with a yelp.  He fumbled about on the nightstand, furiously grabbing the device to accept the call and hold it up to his ear.

“Hey babe, I know we had fun last night but this is way too early for a booty call, yeah?  I need my-”  He was cut off by the indignant splutter on the other end of the line.  “Wait, you’re not the floozy I met at Wonderland.  Who is this?”

“I should very well hope not!”  Primrose’s tone was aghast and disdainful, but he recovered quickly.  “It’s… it’s the Heavenly Embassy calling, we’re short on hands today since a couple of our… usual recruits decided they wanted to taste test your horrible Burrowgatory alcohol for themselves.”  Bev could all but see the face the cherubun was pulling by the pause on the other end of the line.  “I figured it would be a good opportunity for the two of you to come help us draw water for a change and learn about the Embassy a little more… before you continue tending to the ambrosia that we planted, of course.”

Trump was beginning to stir on the other side of the bed as Bev whined indignantly.

“Come draw water?!  Right now?  The crystals aren’t even warm yet, it’s still dark!!”  He pouted, lower lip trembling despite the fact that he knew Primrose couldn’t see him.  “We’ve got plenty of water in Burrowgatory, surely it can wait until later…?”

“Certainly not!”  Primrose shot back, his voice raised through the receiver, making Trump sit up to pay attention to the conversation at hand.  “I know you succubuns will drink any old sewage and call it water, but the ambrosia blooms here at the conservatory need a much purer and more gentle touch!!”  He harrumphed.  “I had thought you took your education into our customs and cultures seriously but…”

The sleepy pride bun reached across to clap a paw across Bev’s mouth, sensing that his roommate was about to say something that would agitate the distressed cherubun further.  He wrestled the phone from the other bun’s hands, ignoring the irritated thrashing of Bev’s tail as he cleared his throat matter-of-factly.

“Primrose?  We’ll be right over, please do not fret.”  Trump’s tone was even and professional in stark contrast to his haggard and rumpled appearance in the moment.  “Yes, right away.  No, it is not too early for another lesson in Cherubun culture, not at all.  We’ll see you soon.  Toodles now~”

Bev snatched his phone back with a growl as he heard the click of the receiver hanging up.  “Do you have any idea what time it is?!”  He complained, gesturing furiously to the alarm clock on their nightstand.  “It’s the asscrack of dawn, Trumpy!  I’m gonna get wrinkles if I have to spend another minute awake at this hour!”

Danger out of the way, Trump squinted blearily at the electronic numbers.  Three thirty in the morning.  Hoo Boy.

“Get yourself a coffee.  That’s what I’m doing.”  He stifled a yawn, stretching his arms above his head, taking a moment to leer at the other succubun.  “I didn’t think you were a quitter though, Bev.  You’re not giving up on that Diligentia after all these weeks of free work, are you?”

His goading worked.  The lustful bun leapt out of bed and stomped off to the kitchen, kicking stray socks and piles of laundry out of the way as he went.

“You’re right Trumpy!”  Bev growled, suddenly energized and filled with determination.  “The last thing those cherubuns are getting out of me is a freebie, so go brush your fur and wash your face because we’re going to the Embassy right now!”

It was less a walk and more of a march up to the Embassy doors where Primrose was waiting for them with his arms tucked behind his back.  The cherubun gave them a graceful smile and ushered them through the building and across the opulent hall, explaining things along the way.

“Firstly, you must understand,” he started, waggling a finger sagely.  “That the Heavenly Embassy is built upon a cloud from the Heavenly Meadow that we once called home.  Our last gift from dear Melangel before they disowned those of us cherubuns who decided to take up residence here.”  He sighed a little wistfully, unaware of Bev yawning boredly behind him and Trump elbowing him sharply in the ribs to get him to stop.  “But it’s a miraculous reminder of our old home!  Truly you have not lived until you’ve experienced walking on the clouds… no sharp stones or rugged surfaces to chip your hooves in sight…”

He directed them to a different corridor than the familiar one that took them to the greenhouses.  Trump looked amusedly at the gilded decorations of clouds and rain and flowers that decorated the walls.  Cherubuns have such an overblown, tacky sense of taste, he thought to himself.  I wonder how much one of these would sell for…

Thoughts swirling about in his head, he smiled pleasantly and turned his attention back to Primrose’s lecture.  He was waved through another door that led outside again, to a seemingly empty patch of clouded courtyard where a group of other cherubuns were waiting around with buckets in hand.  A pair even had a big hose for siphoning water between them!

“Ah yes, this is the reason why I had you come so early!”  Primrose exclaimed.  “You see, this cloud, this gift from Melangel…  It purifies the water gathered from the air here in Burrowgatory and condenses it into the sweetest, purest, and most pristine dew.”  Even as they stepped out on the cloud, this particular area seemed to scrunch with moisture under their hooves.  “It can only be gathered in the morning, right at the hour of dawn… watch…!”

The two succubuns stood blinking as the crystals that lit their underground home began to glow with the faintest light… and it wasn’t long before the ground beneath their feet began to glitter like diamonds.  Trump squinted as Bev shielded his eyes, leaning down to get a closer look at the cloud they stood on.  Beading the cottony surface of the ground were soft drops of dew, that began to coalesce together into shallow puddles as the vapor from the clouds met the warming Burrowgatory air.

The cherubuns all around them were leaping into action, dipping their buckets into the shallow puddles and using the siphon hose to suck up every last remaining drop of moisture.  Primrose thrust a bucket into each of the surprised succubuns’ paws.

“What are you waiting for?”  He chided.  “We can’t waste a drop, get scooping before it all evaporates!”

Bev wrinkled his nose.  “E… vaporaes?”  he blinked, chewing the word over as if he’d never heard it spoken before.

“Yes!”  The prissy cherubun made a shooing gesture towards the both of them, pointing towards the nearest puddle.  “It’s disgustingly hot down in Burrowgatory and as you might guess, right now is the only time it’s even so much as cool enough for this precious dew to form!  Any hotter and it’ll disappear!  Wick away!  Poof!”  It was quite clear he was getting distressed at having to explain the idea of basic science to a couple of fully grown buns.

Bev looked at Trump, who stared back at him with a shrug, and both buns got down to collecting water with the dainty buckets they had been provided.  The pools were plentiful at first, but as the minutes ticked on, they began to grow more spaced and shallow.  In half an hour’s time they were completely gone and the cloud beneath their feet was light and airy once more.

“My back hurts…” Trump grumbled as Bev stretched to get rid of the aches in his own spine.  Primrose was taking tally of the number of barrels of dew they had collected in a notebook, and gestured to his squad of cherubuns to move out and distribute them to the various Embassy greenhouses.

“Will you two carry this one?”  He asked in a tone that was much more a command than a request.  “You must come see the buds you’ve been raising.  They’re about ready to bloom and they’ll need their morning watering immediately.”

“I’d rather take a rest if you don’t mind.”  Bev replied, plopping down onto a bench for a split second before Trump kicked him in the tail.

“I am not carrying this alone.”  He growled.

If Primrose had not been watching, Bev would have whined and pleaded and put on his best pair of Bunny Eyes to coerce his prideful partner, but as things were, he merely rubbed his sore backside and hopped to the job at hand.  When the two of them lifted the barrel and started towards their assigned greenhouse, Bev saw a silhouette with a glowing halo skitter away behind a pillar in the courtyard.  He squinted after it, trying to figure out just what kind of creature it was that he’d seen, Trump frowning at the sight of him.

“Will you stop pulling faces and lift your end properly?”  he huffed with the exertion of balancing the barrel in his paws.  “If we spill any of this stuff, all that backbreaking work will have been for nothing and Primrose will have a fit!”

“I wasn’t making them at you, I saw something running around!  It looked like a virtue!”  Bev shot back, his eyes widening when he realized what he’d just said.  “Hey, do you think it’s…?”

Primrose cleared his throat aggressively from behind the both of them.  “Enough chit-chat if you please!”  He scolded.  “Just put the barrel down by the door, just like that.  Very good.”  

The three went into the greenhouse to tend to the morning’s tasks, Bev and Trump taking their watering cans and pulling on the gardening gloves they’d somehow become used to wearing over the course of these chores.  They went to the garden bed that Primrose directed them to, sprinkling water over the budding flowers.

Neither succubun was prepared for when the first bud sprang open into bloom once the water hit its petals.  They were a shimmering, vibrant red and glowed softly in the morning light, filling the air with the fragrance of vanilla bean… it was sweet and almost creamy, in a way that tickled their noses enticingly.

Primrose walked over upon hearing the two gasp, putting their watering cans aside in order to get to ground level to fully examine the flower, like two youngsters that had found an interesting bug.

“Oh, an early bloom!”  He exclaimed.  “Delightful!  That one will make a powerful ambrosia once it’s had a few more days of water.  Keep up the good work!”  He paused, noting how the duo had not moved.  “But… please do keep working, yes?  … Hello?”

Bev’s tail was wagging like an excitable dog as the duo stared at the dewy flower with wide eyes.  “Does this make us parents now?”  he asked softly.

Trump had to think about that for a moment.  “I’m not sure.  This is the first time I’ve raised anything.  Perhaps we are parents… on some level…”  He rubbed his chin, looking the plant over, bright and vibrant among its fellows that still remained budded and unbloomed.  A thought suddenly occurred to him, one that he quickly had to voice aloud.  

“I’m not going to marry you though.”  

Somewhere behind them Primrose choked on a sip of tea.