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Ever since Viola had come into his life, Howl had been spoiling her rotten.

Viola was a potted plant, or more specifically, Violets. None could accuse the Hillworth student of being overly creative with the names he gave his plants. Roses were frequently named Rosalyn, Tullips were frequently named Tallulah, and Carnations were frequently named Candice. The teal haired lad had the plant within his possession for maybe about 2 weeks now, and he was already spending plenty of his free time with the plant.

And when he was not with Viola, he was coming up with ways to spoil her. Today, he had drifted into the nursery, purchased some supplies, and then found his way to the various potted plants. Initially, he had been drawn to the flowering plants, casually admiring the blossoms. The basic beauty of flowers had always been something the boy had been drawn to.

Yet thanks to his recent encounter with a certain Calintha Johnson, the boy soon enough managed to locate some slightly more strange plants. Plants that the girl would probably be able to care for rather than the flowering plants. Unable to resist the idea of maybe purchasing a plant for his female acquaintance, he began to inspect a nearby pitcher plant. It seemed healthy, but the soil was a tad dry.

The most well known type of snap traps were Venus Flytraps. At least, if Howl recalled correctly. While pulling a single finger away from the soil in the pot, he glanced over his shoulder to find a dark-haired girl.

He gave her an easy look over, easily taking in the differences between their clothing, but it seemed like it was not an issue to him. "I am fond of plants in general, Miss."

His voice was masculine, despite his face being feminine, and it had a lovely accent. "However, my interest in this aisle is not for myself. An acquaintance of mine seems to prefer the carnivorous plants." He smiled warmly before extending his hand to the girl.

"My name is Howl Wickham, and it would be rather lovely to learn your name, Miss." He would address the issue of cleanliness after getting a proper introduction.

This Tara Kavanaugh was not going to get off Scott-free. Her hand shook his for a moment, but before she could let loose, he did his usual gentlemanly greeting by giving her a small kiss to the hand. Nothing romantic, just merely polite. The small gesture out of the way, he allow her hand to squirm free as he continued back into the conversation with no trouble at all.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Miss Kavanaugh. I will have to assure you that my "friend" as you stated it is merely an acquaintance. I am not nearly close enough to her to consider her a friend." He chuckled a bit, easily recalling the fact that he maybe had 1-2 actual friends in this city. Plenty of acquaintances though.

He noted her glance to his newly purchased supplies, but he did not mention anything about this observation. Instead, he focused in on her words. "I do not think that carnivorous plants are 'weird' in the slightest. I hate to disappoint you, Miss Kavanaugh, but herbs are not my thing. Again, that is more my acquaintance's area as well." Calintha apparently covered "weird" plants and herbs. What did that leave Howl?

"No, I am much more fond of flowering plants."

There was a pause as he shifted the conversation towards a previously asked question. "I am rather meticulous when it comes to cleanliness, so most times I work with gloves on and work rather carefully. Though, there is always the chance to take a shower to wash away any sort of lingering dirt."

She pulled out her cell phone and glanced over the screen. That was usually a sign of nervousness. Usually it was either to check the time, which meant she was thinking perhaps of other appointments for the day. He kept the observation to himself for now, politely replying to her inquiries for now.

His eyes were upon hers, simply in the spirit of being attentive as he began to speak. "Well, many people tend to assume I was born in England, which is actually far from the truth. I was born quite close to Destiny City in a city called Westdale. My parents, however, decided that I should spend most of my childhood in England, thus why I have this accent." He laughed slightly before tacking on "I suspect you are the first person to really ask me that question, since most people just hear my voice and usually predict my home is England."

Since one of his hands was holding onto his bag of newly purchased supplies, he was left with one free hand, which he decided to use to gesture towards the cell phone she had pulled out earlier. "Might I ask if you have some sort of appointment you need to attend to?"

"Do you have something in your eye, Miss Kavanaugh?"

Obviously he had noticed her wink. Which led him to wondering why she was winking at him? What sort of information did the young lady think she had on him? Clearly she did not have enough information from what he said to know his full back story. She couldn't have known how he went to Hillworth. Or known that he legally couldn't go back to Westdale until Miss Wheaton left, thus his parents were not in the same city.

She couldn't have known all this, could she?

Despite all these worries lingering through his mind, he did not let any change in expression occur. He just kept that lovely smile of his upon his face. "Well, I am rather fond of speaking with my parents. However, Mother came to town recently for a ball, so I was able to spend some quality time with her. I suspect I will not need to call her for at least a week, perhaps longer."

There was a thoughtful pause before he added "I must confess, your choice of words... it is puzzling to me why you are choosing such specific words."

His free hand came up to his mouth, and for a moment he looked as if he was tempted to nibble upon his thumb's nail. However, Howl was very aware that doing such would be an obvious bad habit. So instead, his thumb simply rested on his lip.

"I beg your pardon, Miss Kavanaugh?" He had been puzzled before, and now, he was actually completely lost as to what she was trying to say. She glanced up to the ceiling. Her choice in vocabulary words consisted of "signal," "transmit," and "communicate." Was she implying...?

Using his hand which was up by his mouth, he muffled a gentle laugh. This was probably the strangest thing he had been accused of yet. And Howl Wickham had been accused of being many different things.

"My goodness, Miss Kavanaugh! Is that what you truly think of me?" Obviously, Tara must have been either a comedian or rather strange girl. He was sincerely hoping that this whole ordeal was a joke.

He had just about calmed himself when a new spout of laughter tickled the back of his throat. His hand remained firmly pressing his lips shut until the urge to laugh passed completely. With that bout of amusement past, Howl's hand dared to abandon its post. A couple chuckles managed to linger and escape him, but nothing overly rude.

He glanced over the girl once more, expression calming from amusement to plain thoughtfulness. "I suspect if I was an alien, I would come in peace, however..."

His voice paused for a moment, as if he was debating even asking the following question. Yet, what choice did this young lady really give him? He most certainly was no sort of alien. Swallowing back his fears (figuratively, since literally doing such would be rude), he then completed his statement with a question.

"Dare I ask, Miss Kavanaugh, how I would be able to prove to you that I am of this planet?"