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It had taken several days before Noah learned that Rin was -- gone. He hadn't seen it. He hadn't seen the body either, and it just seemed surreal that she could be there one day and gone the next. Unbelievable. But she wasn't around, and her name had been removed from all the duty lists, and when he'd asked he'd been told that she'd died on mission.

He hadn't even known her that well. But she'd entrusted him with the care of her plants and given him a key to the greenhouse.

After his duties were finished for the day, he walked up to the greenhouse, unlocked the door, and stepped inside, heading for the workbench to get a watering can. The plants shouldn't need fertilizer again yet, and he'd check on them as he watered.

Noah stopped short when he realized he wasn't alone, his eyes going wide and his elbows pulling tight against his body, flinching like he'd been caught trespassing. Then he looked down at his key and reminded himself it was okay for him to be here, right, obviously Melvin did too, of course he did, he was Rin's boyfriend. Had been Rin's boyfriend.

"I, I know," he answered, muted. "I heard. I'm sorry. I just, I wanted to come check on the plants and take care of them, she'd, she gave me a key so she wanted me to help, she'd have wanted that, right?"

Noah fidgeted, turning the keyring over in his hand. "I, uh, I asked someone because I hadn't seen her, and they said." An awkward pause, because he didn't want to say it either. "I just thought I should come and water the plants, if nobody was. And check on the humidity meter and everything and turn the compost pile." He stopped himself. Melvin looked sad and tired, and he had an open bottle of alcohol, and he probably didn't want to hear all this nerd stuff.

"I can, I can show you how to take care of things, when you have time," he offered nervously. Melvin clearly wasn't too happy to see him here. "I didn't think it was mine," he clarified hastily. "I'm just, like, her helper," and maybe he should be using past tense but he still wanted to help, "I didn't even think about whose it would be, I guess it would be yours now because, um," and he ground to a halt again, not sure how to say because you were her boyfriend without rubbing salt in the wound, because Melvin obviously already felt shitty and Noah was probably reminding him just by being here that his girlfriend was dead.

"I can go," he said in a small voice. "I didn't know you were going to be here, I'm sorry I interrupted."

"Okay," Noah agreed willingly. He hadn't known Rin well, but he thought she would've liked her garden to be her memorial. He'd always thought living things were better memorials than stones, anyway.

He nodded and ducked his head, and picked up one of the watering cans. "Some of these need to be watered daily. Others you can let the soil get drier before you have to water. I wasn't going to do fertilizer today, we did that not so long ago, but when you water you can go through and check the plants to make sure they're healthy. Here, these ones, see how the dirt's getting dry on top? You get the spout under the leaves, you don't want to pour water over leaves because leftover droplets can focus sunlight and burn the plant, and pour gently, not too fast because you don't want to wash the dirt off the roots." He demonstrated as he talked, shooting nervous sidewise glances at Melvin.

After a moment, he asked, "Is it okay if I keep coming up here? I, I don't want to disturb you." He'd spotted the cot, and he wasn't totally sure how he felt bout that, but if Melvin was going to live here for a while Noah should really be considerate about the space.

Noah jumped at the hand on his shoulder, shooting Melvin a wide-eyed look and faltering for a moment, but when Melvin let go he kept going down the row, watering each plant carefully. "O-okay," he said meekly. "Mostly, mostly it's maintenance, you water when the soil gets dry, some plants like it drier than others but that's easy to remember, or I can write it down so you don't have to memorize, and the hydroponics and the grow lamps need their power checked daily to be sure they stay running, and the humidity and temperature should be checked too to be sure conditions in here are in the right ranges, all that's just like once a day, it's not too hard. Um. The compost pile needs turning weekly but that's my project so you don't have to worry about it, I'll do that, and I can check the pipes too, since that's a weekly thing and if I do it when I do the compost that'll help me remember."

He wound down, glanced again at the cot. "I won't tell anyone," he said, subdued. "It's ... none of their business or anything." His elbows tucked in close to his body. It was really none of his business anyway, and he was sure nobody minded if Melvin was drinking, Noah was sure he'd be responsible with it, and it wasn't like Melvin would be driving or anything. It was fine and nobody needed to know about the cot or anything else.

"I will. Um. Should I get you a -- some books to read about the basic stuff?" Not reading list, because some people got offended about being given what sounded like homework, especially if they were older or higher-ranked than you. In retrospect, that was probably the reason for three days of scrubbing test tubes, even if he'd meant well.

He nodded quickly. "It's a good idea to have it written down. Yeah. I'll get it all written up so if I can't help you can do it all. I want to keep it going too. It's a really good garden."

He followed Melvin's gaze up to the watering system. "Um. People talk about Moons building things? Do you know any Moons, like personally, we'd probably have to pay a lot more if they're not friends? I can draw out a layout of what she was doing with it so it'll be easier to get done."

"I can give you a list of some good basic books," Noah offered cautiously. Melvin seemed both reasonable and interested, so maybe he wouldn't take offense. He was admitting he didn't know much and seemed willing to research. Noah respected that.

"I'll help. I want this to succeed too," he nodded. At the offer of payment, he blinked and shook his head. "No, I don't, no, it's fine, I don't need to be paid, I like doing this, I already said I would." It hadn't even occurred to him that he might be paid for the work he was offering to do here; it was a favor for a friend and an independent project. He was still getting used to the thought that he could get paid for the lab work he did in his duty hours. It was like an internship with work experience, except that it came with an actual paycheck.