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 Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 4:11 pm
"'Course!" Mordekai waved Cruz off as the Frei floated way. He smiled contentedly and returned to his tulips while overhearing the kids do their thing-- once Cruz responded to her call, Jill was happy to turn back to Duncan and cheerfully address her demands. Given her excitement, Rebecca and Jerri both seemed to be drawn into the display, too.
"He does!" Jill decided to answer for her uncle. She rifled through her basket for flowers to give him when Cruz held out his own blue larkspur; quietly, Rebecca held her daughter by the shoulders to pacify her into waiting for her turn, which worked well enough. Jill bounced on her heel with a handful of tulips and daffodils in hand, her smile unconstrained and curious.
Duncan chuckled and gave Cruz an apologetic shake of the head, despite Jill's confidence. "I can't say I know every flower meaning in the world, but let's see what we have here..." He took off his glasses to clean them, then leaned slightly forward to take the larkspur from the croc; the choice in flower lent itself to an approving smile from Duncan. "A larkspur, what a nice choice. It's to give someone who has a very open, very pure heart, or whom you're very, very close to and love."
"I wanna see it!" Jill reached for it desperately, though she was held back by Rebecca.
"Not for you, dear," Duncan handed Cruz back his larkspur, "You're too young to handle them. They'll make you very itchy."
"Then these ones!" Without a second thought, and despite being denied the larkspur, she immediately held out the tulips and daffodils for Duncan.
"We should probably wash those before putting them back in the basket, for the poison," Rebecca noted worriedly, before Duncan could speak-- the older man glanced toward her and nodded.
"I understand. Of course." He took Jill's tulips and daffodils and looked between them, then began separating them out from each other by type, daffodils in one hand and tulips in the other. "Let's see... there's a lot of colors here, so they're all going to mean very different things."
"Really?" Jill's voice quieted, her eyes wide.
During her sister's tirade, Jerri was quick to lose interest and look off elsewhere. Like Anita, he glanced back toward Mordekai and the tulips. He was busy sifting through the flowers, looking for dried leaves and petals to pick, humming all the while. He glanced back toward Anita as an idle motion-- when he noticed her looking back, he smiled, though flustered, then returned to tending the flowers.
Jerri looked back toward Anita at the gesture, curious. "Are you guys friends?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 4:12 pm
Duncan's more response, while far more humble than Jill's, didn't deter the croc in the slightest; his eyes stayed alight and he held out the flower with an equal amount of eagerness – though he was much quieter and calmer than his companion.
What followed caused the frei to subtly rise in place. A very open, very pure heart. That described Tatiana to the letter! Cruz's smile widened enough that his mouth opened and he admired the larkspur with awe once it was returned. Of course it did. He was good at this.
”Poison?” Cruz mumbled as the two adults spoke. Itchy for young ones. Was Tatiana too young? No, that must have been for humans only. After all, he was the youngest here measured by them and they weren't worried about his skin. He didn't feel any sort of itchy. Tatiana would be safe – though Cruz made a note to give her fair warning when the bracelet was passed on.
With her head turned and Jill's loud voice, Anita didn't notice Jerri's approach. She let her head fall with a quiet smile after Mordekai peeked at her, only to lift it back up at Jerri's question. ”Hm?” Anita turned her head in Mordekai's direction and back at Jerri fast enough to jostle her braids. ”Ah-- yeah,” she smiled, though refrained from asking 'why'.
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 4:13 pm
Duncan nodded, though he caught onto a similar line of thought to Cruz's after, which caused him to laugh sheepishly. "Oh, goodness-- I completely forgot how young you were, Cruz. I apologize-- are you itchy at all?" While he figured the croc was completely fine, given how many larkspurs were in his basket that he no doubt handled already, it was good to make sure.
Jill squirmed urgently for Duncan to get on with the interpretation, but Duncan was fully satisfied with pacing himself. He started by holding up the irises first, which were in all assortments of warm hues and blues and purples.
"Now, irises... these were actually named after a Greek goddess, one named Iris. She sent messages to everyone between heaven and earth, so a lot of people use these to say they have a message for someone. Even Iris herself."
Really? Do you really talk to her and stuff?"
He chuckled. "No, but maybe Auntie has. That's why we bring her lots of irises."
Jill hummed and nodded enthusiastically in understanding-- Duncan smiled fondly back, then looked back at the flowers. "They also stand for other things, like hope... wisdom are the purple ones, faith for the blue, passion for yellow... purity for white." He tucked the irises in at the top of his basket to clean.
"And the tulips!"
With a quiet laugh, Duncan nodded. "Alright, alright..."
Jerri looked at Anita skeptically. Even without Anita asking why Jerri was curious enough to continue with his thoughts; he shuffled a bit when noticing Anita's fluster and shrugged, trying to keep himself appearing more nonchalant than he was curious. "I was just wondering... you guys haven't really talked a lot... but you keep looking at each other," he paused, then hesitantly continued, "Did you guys fight...?"
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 4:15 pm
”No,” Cruz chuckled and moved his free arm, turning his hand around and holding it out for Duncan to examine as though there would be a visible rash so soon, ”Not itchy.”
Compared to Jill, the frei was very patient while Duncan picked through the irises. His mouth fell open with wonder as all of the colors were laid out, and talk of deities filled his head. There was so much more to flowers than he could have guessed! Of course he knew he still had a lot to learn about, well, everything, but hearing it explained so neatly by someone like Duncan was absolutely enthralling.
”Tulips!” he chirped after Jill, hovering closer to the girl. Those were especially exciting, given Mordekai's previous explanation.
Anita shifted her weight and wrapped both arms around her waist. Jerri's critical look was responded to with only a confused smile. His next question, after such a hesitant lead up, fell hard on her ears. Thankfully they were hidden underneath her hair and their burn didn't spread to her cheeks.
”Huh? No, no,” she managed a quiet laugh despite the shocked look, ”we were just-- doing our own thing.” Anita shrugged, lifting a hand to brush her cheek. Had he been looking at her? Or maybe she was just looking at him a little too often, if Jerri was noticing. Anita felt her eyes unconsciously start to glance back but she stopped herself and stared down at her basket of flowers instead.
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 4:17 pm
"Good." Duncan nodded in assurance and smiled at the Frei's attempt at confirmation, anyhow. Even if the Frei was alright, this was definitely a blunder Duncan had made that he would absolve by having Cruz wash his hands and apply a bit of ointment on later-- he certainly wasn't used to so much company in the garden again after only Mordekai and he had tended to it in the past two years.
"Now, Tulips," he began; he presented the colorful flowers in his hand and laughed-- Cruz and Jill's enthusiasm for the subject was invigorating, though he knew for certain his knowledge on the language of flowers was growing quite rusty. Still, this was a good way to refresh some knowledge and teach the kids, even if Jerri didn't seem to be listening.
"Wasn't there that tulip craze way back when?" Rebecca seemed particularly interested in the tulips herself.
"There was indeed, in the Netherlands, around the 17th century. One of these tulips would cost 500 million Gold back then!"
"Wow."
Jillette gasped. Gravely, she whispered: "Uncle Clarke, you're really rich."
This caused Rebecca and Duncan to erupt into a short bout of laughter, though Duncan was quick on the uptake and continued talking; he shook his head, then inspected the tulips himself. "No, they aren't worth that much anymore, not even in the Netherlands. But, ah, they're still very popular flowers, especially because they're among the first to bloom in the spring. They usually mean love, or fame, sometimes eternal life-- the white one is good to give when you would like to apologize to someone, I believe, and the purple ones are for royalty." He held the yellow tulip up in particular, then smiled at the Jill and Cruz, "The yellow tulips stand for cheerful thoughts. Very fitting for you two right now."
Jillette giggled and nodded in agreement; fortunately, the yellow tulips were right at the top of her basket, and she was able to easily retrieve one to put in her hair. Duncan placed the tulips he was holding on top of his basket, though the man looked an ounce perturbed when looking at his pile.
"We're missing a color here... ah! Red." At Duncan's quiet note, Rebecca looked through her and Jill's collective flower basket for a red one-- she was particularly keen on the yellow and pink ones, which meant the red ones were buried between a significant pile of them.
Once she found one, she handed it to Duncan, who happily received it. "How's about we go see the fruit and vegetables soon?" she asked, which received a quiet and surprised protest from Jill, who glanced up at her mother as if she'd been betrayed.
Jerri continued to look worriedly at Anita. Fortunately, his fears were absolved almost instantly; he laxed his shoulders and looked to the ground. "Oh... okay," he offered lamely; he wasn't sure what else to say. "Sorry."
Mordekai had the fortune of intense concentration keeping him form overhearing Jerri and Anita's conversation, though it meant that he was oblivious to Anita's sparing glances as well. Still, he was almost done tending to the tulips, and when the last cluster was accounted for and clear of wilted plant matter, he smiled contentedly down at his basket. Even if a fair portion of it was now covered in dead leaves and petals, he knew that bunches of vibrant tulips laid just beneath them.
Gently, he shifted some of the dead leaves aside to look at the red tulips in particular. He'd picked a fair amount of them-- they were more vibrant a red than any of the other flowers he'd seen today. Given his promise to Cruz, and given how full his hat now was, he retreated with a contented smile to the shed to drop off his gear and put his flowers in a basket proper.
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 4:19 pm
Discussion of gold value sent the frei's head spinning. Money was always sort of difficult for him to guess, especially with the economy fluctuating so wildly and drastically increasing since he was born. At least most food places seemed to keep their prices low, he knew Anita was endlessly grateful for that.
Cruz beamed at the meaning for yellow and let out a soft rumble of a laugh alongside Jill's giggle. His eyes fluttered wide at the missing and very important color. Without hesitation, Cruz turned and stared over his shoulder, past Jerri and Anita to Mordekai as he seemed to be just finishing up clearing out the flower bed. He completely missed Rebecca's suggestion.
Just as quickly, the frei turned back and looked desperately at Duncan ”What does red mean?” he pleaded. Being left hanging was the worst.
Off to the side, Anita rubbed her arms and shrugged a little. Jerri seemed unsure of himself and the situation at large. ”Everything's okay,” she offered tentatively, sure to make her smile sit more at ease. It faltered when she registered his apology. ”Really. Nothing to be sorry for.”
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 4:21 pm
"Oh, of course, Rebecca," Duncan offered in response to the woman, who nodded in quiet approval at the answer. She relaxed her grip on Jill for a bit knowing Duncan's little presentation would end soon, which meant her daughter had more free reign to move closer to Cruz, and to Duncan, too. She wrapped both of her arms around one of Cruz's and waited with bated breath for the answer, though her mother interrupted again--
"I'll be waiting at the patio, then, if that's okay?" she gestured toward the patio and took a tentative step toward it; Jill huffed and attempted to shoo Rebecca away by patting her impatiently on the side. Rebecca hardly noticed.
"Gooo, go!" Jill protested; when Duncan nodded as an answer to Rebecca's question, the older woman nodded and went, though she trained a stern eye onto Jill before walking away.
With a bemused sigh, Duncan looked back at the tulip. "Red tulips... they're very good Valentines flowers-- you give them to someone you want to declare your love to," he smiled wide and nodded at the recollection, "For a perfect, true love." He put the red tulip back in his basket, then glanced down at Jill then assuredly up at Cruz, "Alright, that's all for now. Let's show mom the fruits and vegetables."
Defiantly, Jill shook her head and clung to the hem of Duncan's shirt; she deadened her weight a bit and swung, which caused Duncan to tip forward a bit. "Noooo, you haven't explained them all yet!"
"We will after this, Jill, don't you worry," Duncan chuckled and pat Jill's back.
Jerri didn't seem to feel more at ease with Anita's consolation. She was certainly trying, though, and he smiled vaguely up at her and and shrugged. "Okay... sorry," he murmured; he stood straighter in an attempt to raise his voice, "I didn't mean to make things weird or whatever." The boy looked up as the shed door creaked again and Mordekai came walking out, his patchy hat full of dead plants now replaced with a basket full of fresh flowers.
The blond glanced up and smiled pleasantly as he neared Anita and company; he waved toward them, completely uncomprehending of how uncomfortable Jerri and Anita seemed to be. "'Ey!" Mordekai offered, one hand over his pile of flowers, which were threatening to spill out from the sides, "Y'all have fun?"
Duncan lifted his head toward the three once Mordekai joined the fray. "Are you three ready to go? We're about to show Rebecca to the produce garden."
"Ah--" Mordekai's smile faltered slightly, though he glanced toward Cruz, "Well-- I promised Cruz I would show 'im how to make somethin'..."
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 4:24 pm
The frei offered an almost apologetic glance to Rebecca as she moved away from the group. He felt bad that she was distancing herself and that Jill was being quite adamant in pushing her away but he, too, was eager for the same reasons Jill was and Rebecca had interrupted their flower matters. Once Duncan mentioned Valentine's, Cruz barely blinked; his expression turned from an encouraging smile to a jaw-dropped, wide eyed stare.
But Valentine's was so far away.
Cruz's shoulders sagged in time with Jill's protest. The girl voiced it for him and instead Cruz merely mimicked her expression of sorrow at having to cut things short. Duncan's reassurance was appreciated but the frei was far from interested in the fruits and vegetables, himself. Those were for eating, not being meaningful!
Again, Jerri apologized. Anita gave him another uncertain smile and made a vague gesture, something to try and silently communicate that it really wasn't an issue. It didn't do much and was cut short as the shed door opened.
”Hey,” she let out a bit breathlessly, quick to turn back to her flowers after returning Mordekai's wave and smile. Before she had time to answer, Duncan was calling for them. At that, Cruz placed a hand on one of Jill's, still wrapped around his arm, and stared back at Mordekai – first appearing upset, then relieved the man planned to make good on his promise.
”Bracelets,” he clarified to Duncan, with a quick glance to Jill.
Anita snapped to attention in that brief second of Cruz's devastated glance. She raised a hand to wave towards Duncan. ”Why don't you guys go ahead? We can catch up.” Jerri was given a short glance. ”I-- kind of want to do bracelets, too,” she laughed quietly and shrugged.
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 4:31 pm
"Bracelets?" Duncan lifted his brows. The reminder quickly caught Jill's attention, though, and she looked brightly up at Cruz at the idea. When Duncan noticed Jill's sudden lack of fidgeting, he looked down and sighed quietly in playful gesture, then gave Jill an assuring pat the head. "Alright..."
Mordekai smiled lopsidedly, then glanced toward Cruz; he was pretty hellbent on keeping his promise, after all, though he knew getting away from picking produce with his aunt-in-law wouldn't take too much effort. "Thanks."
The blond managed to laugh when Jill nearly squeaked at Duncan's approval in plans. The girl immediately clung to the Frei's arms again and smiled brightly. "Thank you, uncle!"
The fact that Anita would be staying behind with the kids gave Duncan more comfort, fortunately. Duncan nodded toward his niece and waved toward Anita, to catch her attention-- Jerri also looked over at his direction, uncertain of where to go. "We'll be back in a moment, then," Duncan exchanged glances with Jerri, "Where would you like to go, Jerri?"
"I'll, ah--" Jerri shrugged at the ground, "Stay here..."
"Very well. See you all soon." Duncan nodded toward the small bracelet-making cadre; tthe Petits stayed where they were and Mordekai gave Duncan a farewell wave as Duncan returned to Rebecca, who had took to walking back into the house for more food instead of staying on the patio. Once they saw Duncan off, Mordekai glanced down at his basket of flowers to quietly make sure there was, without a doubt, enough to make things for everyone.
A majority of his assortment was made of red and blue flowers, as it were, but he believed the brightest of them all were the red tulips stacked on top. After a moment of silence, though, with Jill looking up at him so quietly it scared him, he looked up at everyone. "Ah--" flustered, he gestured toward the patio, "Les'go! We gotta a lotta bracelets to make."
With that, Jill (and Jerri, at his sister's urging) was off. He looked back down at the flowers before following the two. Hesitantly, but happily, he picked up a red tulip from the top of his pile and looked at it. It was a pure, pure scarlet, whereas the other red ones were tinted with a hue of pink.
He held it out for Anita.
"Ah-- 'ey," he smiled, brows upturned, "Y'said you like red flowers...? Here's the reddest one I could find," he glanced toward his basket and laughed quietly, "Everyone else was kinna orange-y or pink-y where I was lookin'... sorry."
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 4:33 pm
Cruz didn't need any further encouragement; as soon as Anita made the request and Duncan gave the go-ahead, he allowed himself to be wholly snatched up by Jill and lead back to his guardian. He gently touched Jerri's shoulder in greeting, as he'd barely interacted with the boy since his arrival. Anita gave Jerri a questioning look for a moment, as if to make sure he wanted to stay, but she didn't let it linger and resumed smiling at the small group as it piled onto the patio.
The frei set his basket down and settled beside it so low that his ribbon coiled beneath him like a flattened snake. Immediately, he set to work on sorting out which ones he wanted to use for who based on color; the deeper blues and any straggler purples were for Tatiana, pinks and any stray orange flowers for Cesc, the few greens Mordekai found him would be perfect for Ethiriel, pale blues and whites were for Minerva and Tango, and red was for Anita.
Compared to his own, Anita's basket was incredibly sparse. She hadn't accomplished much flower picking at all and, once they were all gathered, Anita scooped up the few she had and added them to Cruz's assortment to be categorized.
”Do you have any?” he asked Jerri as he began sorting through the flowers Anita gave him.
She turned away from the kids with her empty basket, only able to take a step toward the shed when a single flower blocked her path. ”Oh--” Anita laughed, surprised, ”I do, thank you...” she held the basket against her side to take the tulip, fingers carefully avoiding Mordekai's. The stem was lightly twirled between her fingertips while she smiled down at it. ”This one's really nice,” she commented idly with a small grin. To spite his apology, she glanced up at him with that half-smirk and pulled the tulip to her chest. ”I'm keepin' it.”
It was only a few short seconds but the fact Anita and Mordekai hadn't taken a seat yet was quickly noticed by the croc. He glanced to the side to check on his guardian, then looked back at his arrangements when he saw how close by she still was. Wait... That flash of red had barely been detected. He looked again, seeing it much clearer against Anita's pale skin. For a moment he stared so hard between Mordekai and Anita that he didn't blink.
A red tulip.
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 4:34 pm
Jerri and Jillette settled themselves next to each other near Cruz. Jill plopped her own basket of flowers onto the table, then glanced once or twice at Cruz's steadily more organized piles to inspire her own. Even though a good portion of the collection was her mother's, Jill didn't discriminate between using any of them, and was quick to pile them up by colors she thought looked best together.
Jill's brother was more keen on watching Jill do her work than to participate in the activity-- when Cruz spoke to him, he looked up at him unsurely. He shrugged and gestured toward the basket. "I'll just use whatever Jill has... thanks."
His sister stared at him with all the offense she could muster in the world. "Hey, who says! These are my flowers."
"You're not going to use all of them," Jerri snapped, "And some of these are mom's--"
"Then just use mom's flowers," Jill whined. Jerri went quiet for a moment, but resigned to his fate and quietly picked at the flowers.
Mordekai couldn't help but smile wide when Anita received the flower-- he looked down at his flower basket and nodded, his cheeks flush. Maybe-- maybe giving Anita a single flower for its redness was a silly notion, but she seemed to enjoy it. "Sure," he mustered, his voice quieter. He managed to laugh at Anita's side-comment nonetheless-- he didn't notice the Frei's staring in the slightest.
And, despite his reluctance to move away from Anita, the siblings roused him to looking toward their direction-- Jill was quietly slapping away Jerri's hand any time he dared stray near his basket. "'Ey, 'ey," he called out; he took a tentative step toward them, "No slappin' your brother, miz'Petit!"
"He's taking my flowers! He said he would use mom's--"
"You're lying! I picked these with mom..."
"Ah..." Mordekai glanced apologetically toward Anita and gestured toward the two siblings, "Les'go try sortin' this out."
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Posted: Sun Nov 23, 2014 4:38 pm
After he spotted that red, Cruz's attention couldn't be shaken. Even as the siblings bickered and Jill began swatting at Jerri for daring to trespass upon flowers that weren't wholly hers, either, the frei could only stare at the only two adults left in the garden.
Mordekai's soft response just made Anita smile all the more and keep her eyes cast on the tulip until Jill's fussing was noticed. ”Guys,” she offered a bit firmly once the accusations started flying. ”Yeah,” Anita placed the single red flower into her otherwise empty basket and walked with Mordekai to the table.
He still couldn't stop staring at them. His collection of flowers were all but forgotten and Cruz was practically in a trance as he scrutinized Anita and Mordekai both. The blond's cheeks were a faintly similar shade as the tulip.
”You give them to someone you want to declare your love to--”
Anita definitely didn't have that flower before Mordekai returned and the blossom was unmistakable. Faintly, a crooked grin began tipping his lips as his guardian took a seat between Jill and himself. It took some effort and the movements were slow but, as he glanced between them, Cruz returned to sorting his own flowers.
Something good was happening today and it wasn't just the gifts he would be making for his friends.END
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