See How My Garden Grows [Very Open]

[echoofaperson.livejournal.com]

He hadn't done much laying around as a teenager. He'd always been too busy, one social event to another.

After the Yeerks...well, Temrash had less love for being lazy than Iniss did, but neither of them were really set on protracted periods of inactivity. And there was always something Sharing related, or feeding related, or just...something. Rank play had been a major time suck in his youth, and needing to be somewhere every three days made planning anything else a bit of a suck.

He'd flopped down on the hill next to the garden he had spent so much time losing time in, one hand gripping Bobby's leash to keep the dog from running off, but eyes closed and body relaxed.

Too much stuff was happening, lately. He wasn't used to keeping up with it anymore. Jake was back and Sam was dating Xander and Dean and Kaylee had broken up. He wasn't even sure how to handle half of that, much less all of it at once.

No wonder the garden looked so well tended, the neat rows gave him something to do, something to think about, something that made perfect sense because plants needed like...two things, water and weeding, and they weren't much on demanding an emotional investment beyond that.

Bobby shifted, licking his hand and resting his head on his shoulder, watching the chickens and their chicks poke around nearby.

Why couldn't life just be this simple?

Comments

[echoofaperson.livejournal.com]

"Making Rachel blush was always funny. She never seemed to be the type, even as a little kid. Rachel's tough. That just made it more fun to help Aunt Naomi make her flustered." He grinned. "I guess I lucked out, mom and dad were pretty good at giving us space. They didn't tease too much, and when they did it wasn't bad. Mostly because dad sorta sucked at it, and mom saved her cutting wit for when we deserved it."

He missed his parents, his mom. It had been years since he'd been able to rely on them, but he still missed them.

"Yeah, it's dangerous. But enough things happen on the ship that it's not a whole lot more dangerous than just being here."

He'd ended up in the middle of a war at fourteen and he hadn't managed to find his way out yet.

He stroked Bobby's head, not looking at her. He didn't feel ready to teach. He didn't even feel ready to talk to her for long periods of time, and he was pretty sure teaching invovled lots of talking. "Eva's better at teaching. I'm just good..." what was he good at? "Being here."

[caringcassie.livejournal.com]

"Yeah, it could be funny, although I'm not sure that I'd say that within earshot of Rachel," Cassie agreed with a laugh, but she sobered as the topic came back to his parents. She could tell from the tone of his voice that he missed them, although, even if she hadn't been able to hear it, she'd still probably have assumed it. It was hard being apart from those you loved. She felt a pang thinking of her own parents, but pushed it away. She smiled understandingly. "That must have been nice. I was an only child, so my parents liked to tease. They knew what was too far though and always managed to stop short of that point. I'm pretty sure their aim was just mild embarrassment." Her parents particularly loved to tease her about her feelings for Jake, but she had never really minded. She'd been close to both of them.

"Really? That doesn't sound promising for things on the ship," she commented a bit uneasily. She knew that they still had to be cautious on Stacy, but she'd sort of hoped that it would turn out that they were all just being overcautious. Cassie wasn't sure that she'd believed that, but she'd hoped. But this sounded like more confirmation that they weren't necessarily safe here. She continued quietly a moment later, still worried, "Well, please just be careful when you start flying for real."

"I see. Well, no problem there," Cassie pressed on with a forced cheerfulness to cover over the worry. "It won't hurt me to wait." She focused her eyes on Tom, hoping to catch his eye, but he wasn't even looking at her. A frown flickered for a second, but was quickly replaced before he could focus on her again. "You seem to have the right temperament for this kind of thing. Calm and patient." Her eyes drifted to Bobby for a second. "And if Bobby is any example, you must fare well with animals too. They do tend to respond well to a kind heart and gentle hands."