Work Text:
Andrew had never been overly fond of the outdoors. When dragged on hikes and pool visits by whatever foster family or foster support group he was with, he knew better than to complain or act unappreciative— more unappreciative than he always looked, that is— but when given the option he avoided it.
Exy had been a small exception, but that was mostly to make Kevin shut up. If the activity wasn’t exy, Andrew wanted absolutely nothing to do with it. As much as he hated how much that made him sound like Neil or Kevin, it was the truth.
He was not a biker. He was not a hammock lounger. He was not a backyard griller. And he was most definitely not a gardener.
So when Neil proposed the idea of starting a garden in their empty backyard as they ate dinner one night, Andrew raised an eyebrow at him as if to say do you even know me, Josten? It was a ridiculous question, considering Neil was one of the very few people who truly did know him, but Andrew was beginning to question whether that was true or not.
They stared at each other over their plates of pasta for a long moment. Andrew waited patiently, then finally Neil sighed and shoved a spoonful of alfredo into his mouth.
He tilted his head and pouted at Andrew. “C’mon, at least think about it. I mean, we’re not doing anything with that space anyway. The cats stay inside and it’s just a dull pile of dirt right now. It would look so nice if we got a few plants out there.”
“And it’ll still be a pile of dirt no matter how many bushes you put there,” Andrew pointed out.
“You’re impossible,” Neil said, rolling his eyes. He leaned forward on the table, the sleeve of his sweatshirt just barely missing the sauce on the edge of his plate. “Just like, one petunia bundle or something. For a week. If you decide you hate it after that, we can dig them out and make it dull again.”
Andrew wanted to refuse. Unfortunately though, it was Neil asking, and he’d never been able to say no to him. It was a curse, really. Though he’d already decided to agree, he asked, “Why’s it matter so much to you?”
“I dunno,” Neil shrugged. “I want something to make this place feel more… permanent. When you plant something in the ground, you can’t move it as easily as you could’ve before because you’ve let it put down roots. And that’s what I want to do here. My mom and I never had any plants, so I figured it might be a good place to start.” He looked down at his plate, ears tinged pink when he finished.
It was all so strange still— the cats brushing against his ankles beneath this table, this house, quiet and small and theirs. Even just sitting here with Neil was surreal, it was hard to believe he chose to be with Andrew and still was. It had been years since they’d first met, since they became a something, and even after all this time, Neil still chose him— to know him and to be known by him. Something about that was terrifying, but neither of them ran.
“Alright,” Andrew said after a small pause. He ignored Neil’s look of surprise. “We’ll go to Walmart tomorrow.”
With that, Andrew turned his focus to his plate of alfredo.
They lapsed into silence, the conversation having been ended, though it was impossible not to sense the quiet excitement radiating off of Neil.
Andrew concluded that he’d made the right choice. Flowers weren’t too terrible a sacrifice, even if he despised the thought of gardening. If something so simple as putting a new pot of dirt in their backyard was going to please Neil so much— something much harder to do than most people realized— then so be it.
And besides, it wasn’t like he’d be the one taking care of it.
⊱❃⊰
At three o’clock the following day, Andrew’s car swerved into the parking lot of the Walmart down the street. He ignored the angry woman who was cursing as she slammed on her car horn and glared at Andrew, most likely because he’d ignored her blinker and taken the last open parking spot.
From the passenger seat, Neil snorted and shoved Andrew’s hand when he lifted it to flip the woman off. He gave Neil a look and shut off the engine.
“Let’s get it over with, then,” Andrew said. The sooner they could leave this hellscape, the better. There were only so many fussy suburban soccer moms he could deal with, and that capacity had been reached approximately twenty years ago.
“It was your idea to come here,” Neil reminded him, “you could at least pretend to seem interested.”
Andrew rolled his eyes. “I don’t give a shit about gardens, this was your idea,” he said. Nevertheless, he followed Neil to the doors that led into the gardening section.
The few times he’d allowed himself to be dragged into a Walmart— usually by a foster parent who wanted to share the universal parent-child grocery shopping bonding experience, and once by Nicky to pick up some reading glasses— Andrew had never actually stepped into the garden center.
Whatever his expectations might’ve been before, it was not this.
Andrew’s nose was immediately assaulted by the smell of pollen and dirt. Various plants lined the aisles and hung in baskets over their heads, along with a few displays of gardening tools, a stack of fertilizer, and one of those large lawn mowers that Andrew had been half convinced only existed in music videos about cowboys.
An elderly man in a blue employee’s vest smiled at them and began a greeting, but Neil strode past him and grabbed one of the flatbed carts, starting down one of the flower aisles. Andrew trailed after him, taking in the greenhouse with vague interest.
Eventually, a display of small bright orange flowers caught Neil’s attention and he sped up, putting a foot out to halt the still rolling cart before bending down to look at the flowers.
Andrew watched Neil pick up one of the cartons and grin that bright, enthusiastic grin that Andrew despised.
“No,” he said before Neil could even speak.
“Too late,” he replied, dropping the flowers gently on the top tray of the cart and then, after a moment of consideration, added two more. Shrugging at Andrew’s unimpressed sigh, Neil pushed the cart forward again and began mumbling about potential plants to get.
Andrew let him prattle on, occasionally contributing a grunt of affirmation or protest, but otherwise remained silent and listened.
It was surprisingly not a terrible experience, even if he’d deny it when asked by Renee later on. Enjoying himself in a fucking Walmart— and in humid, eighty degree weather, no less— had never been a possibility in Andrew’s mind, and yet here he was, almost tempted to smile as Neil argued why they absolutely fucking needed one specific cactus.
“It’s perfect,” Neil stated, crossing his arms.
“It’s like a foot taller than you.”
“It’s like a foot taller than you.”
“Even if it wasn’t,” Andrew continued, ignoring Neil’s snarky— albeit not incorrect— reply, “there’s no way I’m putting that thing in my car. If you want it, you’ll have to carry it home yourself.”
Neil rolled his eyes, clearly unconvinced. Unfortunately, he knew Andrew too well to think of the words as anything but an empty threat. It was unnerving but somehow calming to be known like this.
“Alright,” Neil said challengingly but moved to look at a different, much smaller, cactus.
This one was short and round, the spikes more like wisps of cotton than anything else, though the underlying sharpness of the spikes was clear. Neil glanced at Andrew in silent question and, when Andrew said nothing placed it the cart with the small collection of other plants they’d acquired over the past half hour.
By the time they were ready to leave, Neil had also acquired a bag of fertilizer— Andrew didn’t really understand its purpose, pretty much all dirt was the same, but Neil had claimed Google told him that plants grew better in this kind of dirt— and a pack of gardening tools, gloves, and a watering can. Flowers were unnecessarily expensive, but Neil didn’t lose any of his excitement as they checked out and walked back out to the parking lot.
Andrew tried not to think too much about how his car would smell like dirt and pollen for at least the next week with the flowers in the back, but he kept all the windows down the entire way back to their house anyway. If it began to drizzle during the latter half of the drive and he still refused to close them, well, they’d both been through worse than a bit of rain.
⊱❃⊰
It had been stupid to think Neil wouldn’t ask for Andrew’s help when it came to actually planting all of the flowers. Neil didn’t even have to say anything; he only gave Andrew a look and then the next minute, they were standing outside next to a plot of dirt and squinting at a WikiHow article about gardening.
How Neil managed to drag him into these things, Andrew still had no goddamn idea. He’d been going on with his bullshit for years, and even knowing how it usually ended, Andrew still always found himself saying yes.
“I still don’t really understand,” Neil said after Andrew read the article for the fifth time, sighing as he looked back to the plants. There was a large, floppy gardening hat on top of his head, and Andrew did his best not to think about how much he wanted to pull on the stupid hat’s stupid rim and pull Neil in for a kiss.
“You should probably dig a hole first,” he said instead.
“Ha, funny,” Neil said dryly.
“You have any better ideas?”
“…No.”
Neil grabbed one of the shovels, stared down at the ground, then scooped up a large pile of dirt, tossing it about a foot away. He turned to Andrew then. “Now what?”
“I don’t know, it’s your fucking garden,” Andrew said, raising his eyebrows. “Maybe make it deep enough to actually fit a plant?”
“How deep would that be?” Neil asked.
Andrew huffed. “Oh my god,” he muttered, rolling up the sleeves of his jacket before gently taking the shovel from Neil’s hands. “Move.”
Neil stepped back silently and Andrew turned back to the pathetic dent in the dirt. He pushed the shovel into the ground and tossed the dirt in the same direction Neil had. Then, he did it again. And again. And again until finally there was a decent sized hole in the ground.
“Oh,” Neil said.
“Oh,” Andrew mimicked. “Dig another one right there.”
He pointed at a spot a few inches away from the hole he dug and handed Neil the shovel. Without waiting, Andrew walked over and picked up one of the flowers, carefully dumping it out into his hands. After shaking the roots out a bit, Andrew placed the flowers into the hole he made and covered the roots up again with a practiced ease.
He felt Neil’s stare on him instantly. Instead of waiting for the question that was undoubtedly on the tip of Neil’s tongue, Andrew said, “Foster programs really like to teach gardening skills.”
Neil scoffed. “Of course they do. Show me how to do that pot flip thingy?”
Andrew had to bite back a smile and turned away from Neil to grab the next bundle of flowers. He gave one to Neil then grabbed another one, holding it out. “Squeeze the bottom and turn it over,” he said, going through the motions slower than before. He let the flowers drop into his hands and flipped it over, waiting for Neil to do the same with his.
When Neil paused before flipping the carton, Andrew said, “It’s a flower, flipping it over to get it out for a second won’t kill the thing.”
Neil still looked wary. Andrew set his flower back into its carton and stepped closer to Neil. There was a silent question in his eyes as his dirt flecked hands hovered over Neil’s for a moment. When he nodded, Andrew put his hands over Neil’s and turned the flowers upside down. One of his hands moved to grab the plant before it could fall to the ground, and Andrew held it out to Neil.
“Aw, you didn’t have to get me flowers, you’re so sweet,” Neil cooed teasingly. He took them from Andrew, beaming. “Okay, what’s next?”
Andrew bent over and picked up his flowers again. He pointed at the stiff, molded soil around the roots then started gently breaking it up. “Now you loosen the soil and put it in the ground,” he said and crouched to bury the roots.
“Wow, fascinating,” Neil said sarcastically. He planted his flower and stood up, tilting his head a bit.
“This all was your idea,” Andrew reminded him again. “Come on, we have to plant the rest of these now.”
“We?” Neil asked, one eyebrow raising. “Are you owning up to the fact that this is actually your garden as well?”
Andrew didn’t reply. He stepped forward again, “Yes or no?”
Neil tilted his head down a bit and captured Andrew’s lips with his own, pulling him into a long, deep kiss. Then, he stepped back and moved over to start on the next pot of flowers. Andrew rolled his eyes but followed, finally letting the smallest smile form on his lips.
He’d never imagined he might end up here, bickering and exchanging small, completely unnecessary kisses with his boyfriend as they planted a garden in their backyard like they were some sweet, domestic couple in a bad 80s movie. But now that it was his reality, Andrew found he didn’t mind it too much.
The garden remained in their yard for far longer than their initially bargained week.