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Chapter Text

Greenhouse 13, the Convalescent Garden, Rhodes Island Landship.

Originally constructed as temporary overflow for an incredibly fruitful harvest season, it.had now been around for almost a year.  At different points, it had been used as storage for extraneous flowerpots, quarantine for blighted tree saplings, a wine cellar for Kafka's more experimental brews, a temporary triage center after a tree collapsed on a different greenhouse.

Currently, when Myrrh pushed open the door, it contained furniture - metal chairs and tables  in various shades of white, temporarily housed here while Pinecone and a team from Maintenance worked on constructing a new tea trellis. She slipped inside, closing the door behind her.

"S-Sussurro??" She called into the crowded room. 

No answer. 

Myrrh sighed to herself and pulled out the note that was left in her locker in the Medical break room. 

Myrrh -

Meet me in Greenhouse 13 at 1600 tonight.

 - Sussurro

Myrrh checked her watch. Still a few minutes to 4, but the latest she'd ever seen Sussurro show up to an appointment was 5 minutes early. Was she really not here already?

"Miss Sussurro? A-a-are you in here?" She called, a little louder this time.

As if on cue, the door behind her opened again.  Myrrh jumped and turned to see Sussurro slip through and turn to close it behind her.

"Miss Sussurro!"

Now it was Sussurro's turn to start in surprise.  "Oh! Myrrh! I…didn't think you'd be here already."

"Yeah! I know you like to be early, so I-I thought I should make.sure I was also…early."

"Good call." Sussurro latched the door shut and walked over to where Myrrh was standing, a small clearing in the thicket of furniture. Neither of them seemed quite sure how to proceed.

"So, uh. W-why did you want to meet me here?" Myrrh finally asked. 

"Oh! Right, I, uh. I wanted to ask you something in private, and I thought…this is off to the side of the Garden, nobody really comes by here, it would work great!"

"Yeah, th-that makes sense."

Another moment of silence. Sussurro was now fiddling with the ID tag hanging from her jacket, turning it around and around and around with focused intensity.

"So…what d-did you want to ask me?" Myrrh prompted. It was weird, being on this side of an awkward conversation.

"Oh! Right, yeah. I, uh…" Sussurro tore her hands away from her badge, tried to find something else to do with them, and ended up clasping them in front of her. "I…so, Gavial is having a get-together tonight. It's…some kind of autumn harvest celebration? I forget what she said. Tomimi is cooking a whole burdenbeast, there's gonna be lots of dancing, and I…wondered if you wanted to….come. Together. With me."

"Oh! Sure, that sounds like fun!"

Sussurro looked astonished, and confused.for some reason, and it took Myrrh a second before she realized what Sussurro had meant by 'together'.

"Oh….oh!!!  You mean, l-l-like…" She flushed as pink as her hair. "You mean….like, a d-d-date."

"Y-yeah, I did. If you don't want to, that's ok, I understand -"

"I didn't s-say that," Myrrh mumbled.

"Sorry, what?" Sussurro took a step closer, tilting her head to one side.

"I didn't s-s-s-say I didn't want to!!" Sussurro took a surprised step back, and Myrrh realized she must have yelled louder then she meant to.  "Sorry! Sorry, I…I just…a-a-are you sure? I mean, you're…incredible! You know so m-much about medicine, and you're so competent, and cool, and I'm j-j-just…" She shrugged dejectedly.  "I'm just me."

"Don't you dare put yourself down, Adalaide."

Myrrh gave a squeak of surprise at the use of her real name, but Sussurro didn't seem to notice. She took a step closer to Myrrh, taking hold of her hand, clasping it in front of ber.

"We've been studying together for 6 months now, and you're already learning things I didn't know until halfway through med school! You're one of the hardest working people I know, and you don't give yourself enough credit."

Myrrh flushed an even darker shade of red.  "Y-y-you…you really think s-so?"

"I wouldn't ask you out if I didn't." Sussurro smiled gently at Myrrh, and she felt like her heart was going to explode. 

"I…I…"

"The party's going to be in the third floor common room.  I'll meet you there around 6?"

"T-t-that sounds…that sounds g-good to - good to me." Myrrh managed to stammer out.

Sussurro's smile split open into a wide grin, and Myrrh couldn't take her eyes away.  "Ok. See you then."

She turned to walk away, paused, then turned back, leaned in, and gave Myrrh a gentle kiss on the cheek.  

***

And then the door closed behind Sussurro, and Myrrh felt her legs give way, and she collapsed into a heap onto the nearest chair, hand holding her cheek, flush with confusion and excitement and, above all, sheer unadulterated joy.

***

And as the door closed behind her, Sussurro gave a shaky exhale.

I did it.

I did it and she said yes.

She said yes!!!!!!!

As she headed back towards the entrance to the Garden, she felt as if she was walking on top of a cloud.

Chapter Text

Outside Greenhouse 13, two blonde heads and one pink one ducked back behind the row of Higashi Maple bushes. 

"Did you see it? I couldn't get a good look"

"Yeah, I'm telling you, they for sure kissed!"

"You didn't see either, did you? You're just making stuff up."

"Am not!"

"...Morte says he didn't feel anything weird."

"Yeah, but does Morte even know what a kiss feels like?"

"......"

"I don't think.they ended up kissing."

"They did, swear they did!"

" Ahem ."

The last voice was a new one from behind the bickering trio, who all jumped, turning to stare up at the commanding figure of Perfumer, arms crossed. 

"I do believe that I asked you three to meet me in the east plots to help with weeding the orchids, did I not?"

"Yes, Miss Lena." Suzuran mumbled. 

Shamare just scowled.

"We were just heading over there!" Vermeil objected. 

"Were you now? Heading over to the other side of the Garden? From somewhere that's farther away then where we were all having tea?"

None of the trio had a response to that.

Perfumer sighed.  "Come on, then. I'm not mad, but I don't think we're going to get the weeding finished before dinner like I had hoped."

"If we hurry I bet we can!" Suzuran piped up.

"We'll see. Come along now." And Perfumer led the trio back into the depths of the Garden.