DILIGENCE PROMPT I - Unlikely Gardener

Ner huffs and crosses his arms as he leans against one of the pristine white walls of one of the Heavenly Embassy’s greenhouses, looking completely out of place and pissed as hell. He knew he was no angel, and he also knew he had nothing to prove to these naive, innocent little cherubuns besides how cruel demons could be to the unfortunate baby buns who ended up in their grasp. And yet here he was, sulking against the wall and waiting impatiently for the stuck up prick in charge to come teach him about gardening. He was a little bit embarrassed to be seen like this, eager to slip into the building as soon as possible. 

Luckily- or perhaps unluckily- a familiar head of platinum blonde hair and unappreciative scowl was already heading towards him. Ner watches the ruffled cherubun eye him in equal distasteful out of the corner of his eye. “I'm assuming you must be Ner?” the white and gold bun sniffs, averting his eyes as he takes in just how much skin the envy bun has on display. “You didn't have anything more…covering?” He asks delicately as his nose wrinkles slightly. Ner rolls his eyes and sighs heavily, tugging his cape around him to cover up at least some of his exposed middle- but it of course immediately came loose and flowed behind him again.

“Oops, too bad. Guess this'll have to do.” He tuts, his tone of voice hinting at being slightly condescending. Primrose groans, runs a hand down his face, then concedes. “Fine, fine- whatever. These flowers will never grow in time for the next harvest if we linger on…burrogatory semantics.” He phrases the words as if he were speaking about something gross and unseemly. Ner simply sighs and lets the conversation drop, marching into the greenhouse like an inmate about to start community service, Primrose lagging behind him as he stops to ensure they had the right tools. In the meantime, Ner looks over the greenhouse. It's mostly just upturned dirt at the moment, with a small untouched patch that'd be his to plant in. There was a slight earthy, almost dewy scent to the greenhouse, which he had to admit was comforting. 

He's rudely drawn from his observations, however, as Primrose shoves a gardening spade into his hands. “Here. Go ahead and till the soil. You want to make sure any rocks are out of it so the soil is soft enough for the flowers to spread their roots.” Primrose instructs- or perhaps orders. Ner eyes the cherubun warily a moment, but when Primrose meets his eyes, he grumbles a little and gets down on his knees to work. He really had no clue what he was doing, digging into the dirt like a child in a sandbox until Primrose got so fed up watching that he was elbowing Ner out of the way and taking the spade himself. “Heavens above, are all succubun as useless as you? Here, watch.” He's equally as grumpy as Ner but much more gentle in the way he handles the spoil, breaking it up until it's soft and pliable. “There. Now do it right.”

Ner is a bit more thoughtful as he takes the spade again, a bit more gentle in how he broke up the soil and separated any rocks. It was a bit crude compared to the ease that Primrose had done, but at least he hadn't tossed soil around again. After a moment to check the taller envy bun’s work, the golden bun was apparently satisfied as he moved onto the next step, holding out maybe ten or so little seeds in his palm. “Here. Make sure you give each seed ample space to grow. You want to make sure each flower can have room for it’s roots.” He explains plainly, perhaps slightly less terse after observing Ner actually taking the garden seriously. The antler-horned bun holds up a hand quietly, further crouching down as he burrows slightly into the soil with the spade, just enough to drop in the first seed. The duo worked quietly after that, silence not tense but not quite companionable either as each little seed was planted and buried. It was more pleasant than Ner had expected. 

Primrose only broke the silence after the last seed was planted. “...Ahem. Only one step left. Now we just have to sprinkle some holy water onto the seeds so they have a head start in growing. I'll let you try it, but do not drown them.” He gives Ner a stern look to accept his point, before handing over the watering can. Having learned from his earlier blunder with tilling the soil, Ner is decidedly much more careful with the watering, keeping one hand on the can to keep it from spilling too much as he sprinkled each little seed with water. It went by much faster than the tilling or planting, with Primrose holding his hand up after only a few moments of watering. “There, that's enough. These little seeds should start to sprout into flowers in a few weeks. Make sure you check in often and care for them. You wouldn't want them dying after all this work today.”

Ner is quiet a moment as he observes the little seeds. He'd never been a gardener or one to have a green thumb, yet…he'd actually enjoyed taking care of the flowers today. And he hadn't minded the stuffy cherubun Primrose as much as he'd expected either. He didn't know if he should be concerned about those things or not- was he already going soft? “...I'll be back next week to help with your tasks.” He rumbles, slowly standing to his feet and brushing himself off. “...you aren't so bad, Primrose. For a cherubun, at least.” And then, with that half-hearted, backhanded compliment, Ner lumbers out, moving away from the Heavenly Embassy as fast as he could before someone he knew discovered he was hanging out around there.

Primrose, meanwhile, lingered in surprise for a moment, not expecting that after how surly and grumpy the redheaded man had been the entire time they'd been working. He couldn't linger too long with his embassy duties waiting though, so he sighs, muttering under his breath as he exits the greenhouse to get back to work. “You aren't so bad either…for an uncouth succubun.”