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Elst thought for a moment, having always been a little shabby with exact measurements. “Oh, uh, it’s not far, at least I don’t think it is… Just a little walk.” From inside the coat, Aoi thought out a sort of message, sending it only to Elst. I think he wants to know something… Elst looked down, at his chest, as if trying to see through his own clothes to look directly at Aoi. He looked back up, however, almost immediately.

There was a moment’s silence as they walked out of the café, Elst slowing his pace slightly so Shade could keep up more easily. “Hm, seems to me you have questions in your eyes, or at least a question; you look inquisitive. What’s on your mind, Shade?"

Was the impling’s curiosity that obvious? To Aoi, certainly. Luckily, Shade needn’t worry about offending this plant, probably wasn’t even possible. “Hot? Oh, heavens no, it appears you’ve forgotten something.” Aoi sending little bits of advice here and there, Elst decided to attempt one of his Essentic’s ideas. Reaching in his pocket for a moment, he retrieved a small pair of stem-clippers, placed his first finger between them, and shut the blades. The scissor-like tool cut straight through, removing his finger from the first joint up. He caught the tiny piece, and it burst into vines, reforming into a long-stemmed rose. His other hand moved around a bit, particularly the index finger, as the halved digit re-grew.

Elst smiled widely, offering the rose for the impling to inspect. “Plant, remember? The hotter it is, the better for me, more sun. Sorry if that startled you at all, but it got the point across.”

Elst watched Shade’s reaction levelly, glad it hadn’t shocked him too badly. Really, though; it was simply the fastest way to get his point across. Shade would remember this more than a boring description, yes? What Elst wasn’t admitting, though, was that he loved using that particular trick to watch people’s reactions. Didn’t matter, really, the point was made. That’s what mattered, right?

“Oh, yes, I believe so, although I think a demonstration of such would take quite some time. It’s the reason I believe I started out as a rose all those years ago, however many years those were.” Looking ahead, the gates to the Elysian Gardens could be seen, the twin greenhouses gleaming brightly in the midday sun. Only their tops, however, could be seen past the tall, ivy-covered walls.

“Oh, looks like we’re almost there; the sun won’t be bothering you too much longer.”

Elst listened to the boy’s next question, noting his fairly evident nervous state of mind. He wondered, in a way, what made the impling so shy, so bashful, and he could sense Aoi’s eagerness to help rid him of that, for whatever reason. By the time he actually replied, he wore a rather sad smile. “Well, Shade, I can’t exactly ever know for sure if that’s true or not. I may have gone from rose to humanoid in an instant, or it may have taken years, but it’s never for me to know. To put it shortly, to spare you the details, that is - long term memory eludes me. I don’t really know how I came to be… All I know is what I can deduct from my apparent connection to roses... To be honest, I don’t know a lot of things about myself.”

Elst’s face seemed to tense up for the moment, almost showing pain, but he quickly withdrew the expression, relaxing to a somewhat carefree, at least in appearance, smile. “But eh, that’s just a little bump in the road, eh?” Phew, almost let some dangerous emotions through, there… At least the coast was clear, or, well, as far as he was letting Shade know.

The outer gate to the Nursery grew nearer, and soon enough they’d reached the thick, ivy-coated walls. He opened the gate for his guest, the gate itself having lacked a ‘Closed’ sign due to Verdant still keeping watch over the place. “Hm, after you, as they say?” He noticed the boy’s seeming discomfort, the heat was getting to him, eh? “Hm, you seem a bit hot… If you want, we can go straight to one of the housings where the younger buds are getting sprayed…The air in there’s pretty much constantly cool and moist.” He stopped, maybe there was a better way? “Or, though it’s a fair decent walk, we could head over to the portion of the Nursery I’ve set my house in, I believe the air conditioning works fine, and I guess you could opt to use the shower if the heat’s gotten you all…what’s the term…sticky? There‘s a good amount of shade on the way there, too.”

As he closed the gate behind the both of them, heading up the cobblestone pathway leading first to the Lobby, then the rest of the Nursery, another thought struck him. “And I suppose I should mention, seeing as Verdant works here, and I’ll be checking in with him to tell him I’m back, you’ll get a chance to talk with him for a bit if that suits your fancy.”

Not knowing how he was created…not knowing where his origin lied…were bearable to the plant man; they were simple…curiosities. Sure, they’d be great things to know, but…he could live without them. What bothered Elst, what…shook him to his core, was…not where he’d forgotten, not what, but who. All those he’d ever cared for, all lost in a haze within his mind. There could very well be people he once knew, out there, wondering why he never came back. There could be others wondering…why he never came back to visit their grave. But he’d never know…

And everyone he cared for now, they’d all be gone too…

As painful as the matter was, however, if Shade asked anything about it, Elst would answer as best he could. He did not bring it up himself for fear of burdening the impling with what Elst considered to be his own petty problems.

…But enough of that, Elst reasoned, as he held the gate open, closing it behind the and all that, a quick “You’re welcome” uttered. Hm, maybe the house would be best…but first to check with Verdant. “Hm…I think we’d best go near the house, actually; I have some of my nicer plants back there, for you to look at if you want. Plus I can fix something up for lunch for you as well…But first, I’ll check in with Verdant so he knows where I am…” He finished just as they’d nearly reached the Lobby; he went ahead and waited, once more holding the door, this time a screen door, open for his guest. “Verdant? I’m back, brought a mutual friend, too.”

Elst watched as Verdant opened the door, and could only c**k an eyebrow at what unfolded. There was something odd going on here. Verdant was never that professional, what’s- Aoi. However, through their link, he could sense the Proto’s mind was racing with, what was it…amusement? What in the world. Then the rest flooded in, what Aoi was gleaning right off the bat. So they were…? My, that was interesting. This could turn out to be a very interesting afternoon after all. My, his tomatoes were rarely that red; interesting that Shade could do that to the nymph without even trying...

“Well, Verdant, as you can see, I found Shade in the café, brought him back to enjoy the scenery and a bite to eat. After examining your behavior, however, from what Aoi’s told me, I suppose I’ll close the nursery for the rest of the day, and we can make this an outing that you can join in on. Does that sound good?” As he said this, Aoi had already ran off to change the sign on the gate, lock it, then run back. Ohoho, yes, Aoi found this just fantastic to watch. My my my…the things running through both of their heads were just waiting to be gleaned and…wait. His telepathy felt…stronger than usual. He was easily reading things, things he’d usually have to try to read. Wonder what that meant. Oh well, it didn’t matter; all Aoi cared about was the acceleration of this interesting situation; let’s start off with convincing Shade to take that shower, hm? That should turn out amusing to watch the reactions of the both of them…

Surprisingly enough, though…Despite all the scheming, despite how subversive a mood Aoi appeared to be in…this all had a purpose. He’d noticed long ago just how happy these two were together. He wanted to continue that, see them happier. Well, only now had he realized just what drove the happiness, but, hey, that just gave him more to work with.

Hmm…Shade, you seem so sweaty, you should take Dad up on that shower offer, hm? I mean, Verdant seems perfectly…happy with you as you are, but…why not get washed up and feeling better, hm? Yup, he was speaking loud enough for them to all hear that, wouldn’t want anyone to miss out, now would we? Elst definitely heard it.

“Yes, you are free to use my shower, but…that reminds me, we should likely head up to the house so we can get to the shower, and plus, it’s a much more pleasant temperature in there. Come on then…Verdant, you are of course free to come with us, if it suits your fancy… Oh yes, even Elst could figure out a large portion of this, even though it was all Aoi’s doing that he knew anything at all. This would be…an interesting afternoon, to say the least.

Elst began to walk up the cobblestone path leading all the way to the house, gesturing that the pair should follow. Aoi decided to stay right along with the two; he wouldn't want to miss anything, now would he...Then, he caught a little bit of indication that Verdant had an...urge to do something he was barely resisting. He couldn't tell exactly what it was, but he could tell it would turn out amusing. For the fun of it, he broadcasted a faint, little message, to Verdant, and Verdant alone. If the nymph figured out it was Aoi sending the message; all Verdant would have to do to respond was think out to him.

Go ahead...do it...the Nursery's closed, so Dad's not in 'boss' mode, not at all...won't hurt to go ahead and do it, now would it? ...Dad wouldn't mind, trust me...

Next, his attention turned to his fellow Proto. The wyvern was like the other Essentics, Aoi cared for him as he did a family and such, yes....but this seemed different, Aoi never really called him 'brother', instead opting for nicknames. How odd. Hm, probably just because they saw so much of each other... Anyway, enough on that; Aoi sent Orpheus a little mind-message as well.

Hey, Orphy...Maybe we'd best just let 'im be a little dazed right now, eh? Leave those two to their own workings... My, Aoi was so...different today, very strange. The shyness seemed to be absolutely flying out the window all of a sudden.

“Y-yeah, sounds great, Elst. I’d love to join you guys.” Then Verdant heard Aoi and Elst mention something about Shade showering and was very thankful to be behind the counter at that moment; he couldn’t help but get a little too excited. “Uh, okay, sure. I’ll, uh, just follow along in a second…” He picked Orpheus off the ficus and let him perch on his shoulder before tugging his vest down as far as it could go and following behind the others.

As they made their way to Elst’s home, he soon found himself walking alongside the sweaty impling and flowery Proto. He had a feeling Aoi was enjoying this scene very much, especially when he sent that little message to Verdant. His pale skin looked even paler as his blush turned redder than the plaid skirt he was wearing. He looked around and sighed with relief when he saw that nobody else had heard. He quickly thought to Aoi, “Don’t you think it’s a little rude for me to be kissing an underage boy in your father’s home?” He really wanted to kiss Shade again, kiss him like there was no freakin’ tomorrow, but… “Hey, why are you helping me commit pederasty?”

Orpheus, meanwhile, was wondering what Verdant’s problem was. His big brother never showed nervousness when he was hitting on what he liked to call his “midnight lovers”; what made Shade so different? Was it because he liked him so much? He needed to start reading Cosmopolitan a little more often…

His tail twitched a bit when he heard Aoi’s voice in his head; it was always very pleasant to hear him talk. “You dink so, brah? Yeah, maybe we should. I dink Big Brudder likes the little furry brah.”