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Fuyumi liked to think of herself as functional. After her mother was admitted to the hospital, she had taken over many of the household chores. She cooked, cleaned, did laundry. These were all expected of her. She took the role without complaint, and she even enjoyed some parts of the things she did. A friend had once suggested that she take up hobbies, however. Something that was not connected to her father or her role as the eldest daughter. That was how she had originally tried gardening. She had gotten a jade plant and kept it in her room, and soon discovered a joy for growing plants. Now, she grew herbs, vegetables, and flowers in the backyard. She had told her brothers about her hobby, and had cooked them food with some of the vegetables and herbs she grew.
Natsuo did not have a green thumb. He had tried growing plants before, but hadn't found it as enjoyable as his sister seemed to. Either that or she was just boring. He supported her love of gardening, however. As a thank you for her helping him move into his new apartment, he had given her a thyme plant he had found at the home improvement store when he was picking up nails. Her eyes had lit up and she looked like she was about to cry in gratitude. For her birthday he had gotten her a new pair of gardening gloves. She had hugged him. He was not a gardener, but he resolved to support his sister in anything that made her happy.
Shouto's therapist had suggested that he do more things that made him happy. He wasn't sure if he had many of those. He liked hanging out with his friends and siblings and mother. He liked eating soba. He liked training to be a hero. He wasn't sure he could do much more training, and he imagined that if he did too much, it would bring up too many bad memories. He wasn't hungry. Most of his friends were away for the weekend currently. Natsuo had said that he was going to be spending the entire day sleeping and "if anyone wakes me for something short of a life threatening emergency, I will be removing them from my life indefinitely". Shouto was pretty sure he was joking. He didn't really want to bother his sister when he didn't even know what to do.
Shouto looked around the common room. It was nearly empty, with only Uraraka napping on the couch, Momo deeply engrossed in a book with headphones in that he could faintly make out classical music playing from, and Jirou laying across another couch scrolling through her phone. He could hear Bakugo in the kitchen cursing out the toaster.
"Jirou," Shouto said. The purple haired girl looked up, tilting her head slightly to indicate that she was listening. "Do you know what people do that make them happy?"
"Like hobbies?" She set down her phone. "Well, there's lots of things, I guess. Some people play an instrument, or some people paint, or some people go hiking..."
Shouto didn't know how to play any instruments. He also didn't know how to paint. He supposed he could go hiking, but he wasn't sure if there were many places to hike in the city.
"Or gardening. I know some people garden," Jirou continued. Shouto paused. He thought about his sister. She liked gardening. He liked hanging out with her. Momo had once told him that a good way to connect with people was to find a common interest.
"Thank you," Shouto said to her. She nodded slightly, picking her phone back up. Shouto moved outside, dialing his sister's number on his phone. She picked up quickly.
"Shouto! It's a bit of a surprise to hear from you," she said.
"Fuyumi, will you teach me how to garden?" There was a short pause on the other end of the phone.
“Of course, I’d be happy to! But what brought this on?”
“My therapist said I should do more things that make me happy, but I don’t really have hobbies, so I thought I’d try gardening. And you’re the only person I know that gardens.”
“Well, I’d be glad to help you. Would you like to come over?”
An hour and one train ride later, Shouto was standing by Fuyumi in the backyard where her garden was. She was wearing gardening gloves and standing next to a bag of soil and a stack of plastic seed starting containers.
“If you’re just a beginner gardener, it might be better to start with something hardy like an air plant or succulent, but I think you might enjoy growing herbs and they’re relatively easy. I have some spare basil seeds, does that sound good?” Shouto nodded and Fuyumi smiled brightly.
“Great! First we need to plant it. See the holes in the bottom of the cups? That’s for drainage, it’s good. It’s warm enough that you could grow this outside, but wherever you put it, it has to have direct sunlight. Let’s put some soil in this. You can borrow my older pair of gardening gloves if you want, otherwise you can just use your hands.” Shouto declined the offer of using gloves. He sat by the seed starting containers with Fuyumi, who handed him a shovel and opened the bag of soil.
“This is a brand of potting soil that I’ve found works really well. I can text the information to you later if you’d like. Fill the cups up.” Shouto put the shovel in the dirt, filling the cups. Once they were sufficiently full, Fuyumi spoke again.
“Now poke a little well in the middle where we’ll put seeds,” she instructed. Shouto abandoned the shovel, using a finger to poke the dirt out of the way. It was soft beneath his fingers, cool and slightly damp. Fuyumi tore open a packet of seeds and handed him a few. He dropped them into the holes, and covered them with dirt again, packing it down slightly on top of the seeds. Fuyumi handed him a watering can.
“Now water it. Not too much, you don’t want to drown it.” He tipped the watering can over the cups, watching the water spread over them.
“You’ll want to water it at least once a week, maybe more often than that depending on how humid it is. Check the soil to see if you need to water it–if it’s too dry, you should water it. You might want to fertilize it later, I have some fertilizer you can use for that. Once it starts sprouting you’ll want to transplant it into a bigger pot, so let me know when that happens.”
After a week of watering every other day, something changed. When Shouto awoke, he noticed little green sprouts sticking up from the soil. He quickly took a picture and texted it to Fuyumi, with only the caption: “!!!”. She responded a minute later.
Fuyumi: Yay, they sprouted! You probably want to wait a bit longer for them to get more leaves before transplanting them, but they look good! Good job watering!
After allowing himself a moment of pride for the sprouts, Shouto left to go on his morning run.
A short week later, Shouto was once again standing in the backyard with Fuyumi, this time holding the seed starting cups. She had a large pot on the ground next to her, along with the same bag of soil. Behind the pot sat a yellow bottle of plant fertilizer, a watering can, plant label sticks, a black marker, and a butter knife.
Shouto sat across from Fuyumi on the ground, and she instructed him on how far to fill the larger pot with soil. Once it was ready, she showed him how to remove the seedlings from the cups with the butter knife, brushing older dirt away from the roots before putting the plant into the pot. She told him to add more soil around the plant, packing it slightly in place. He removed the next seedling, ever so carefully getting clumps of older dirt off the roots before adding it to the pot. Once he was finished, she wrote “basil” in neat handwriting on the marker stick and stuck it into the soil in the pot, then watched as he watered the plant.
“Good job repotting it,” she praised. “You won’t have to water it quite so often now, most likely. It’ll be ready to harvest in maybe two weeks, so keep me updated on the plant’s condition. Put a little bit of this fertilizer on the soil now, and again in a few weeks.” She handed him the yellow bottle, observing as he fertilized the plant. Later, she sent him home with the bottle of fertilizer and instructions to text her when the plant had grown more.
Shouto hadn’t exactly meant to conceal the fact that he was gardening from anyone, he had just never really brought it up. He had told a few friends about the hobby, and he hadn’t exactly hidden the seed starters when he had left with them in his hands, but many people in the dorms were either asleep at that time or off visiting family.
“Oh, you have a plant!” Momo sounded surprised when she noticed the basil sitting by the glass door to the balcony. She had come over to ask to take a picture of Shouto’s notes from class to give to Mina, who was sick. Whenever a member of the class got sick or was unable to attend class, many members of the class would send them copies of their notes to help them.
“Yes, I asked my sister to teach me how to garden a few weeks ago and she is helping me learn how to grow basil,” Shouto responded. Momo smiled.
“That sounds like a lovely hobby.” Shouto nodded. He had found it relaxing. He liked the routine of watering the plants, and the added life made his room feel more comforting. He was always proud when he saw a new leaf on the plant. He also felt like it was helping him get closer to his sister. Just this morning she had responded to his update picture of the basil by saying that he should start harvesting it soon. He was going to visit her tomorrow for help.
“It is time to harvest your basil. This is pretty easy. You just take these scissors and chop the leaf near the stem without cutting the main stem. Try to take more leaves from the top, because the plant will grow more bushy.” Fuyumi handed Shouto a small pair of scissors and gently pulled the leaves of the plant back to reveal the stem. Shouto snipped a few leaves off of the top of the plant.
“Now what?” Fuyumi shrugged.
“Now you have fresh basil. There’s loads of recipes or things you could probably use it in.” Shouto remembered Fuyumi making food for Natsuo and himself with some of the plants she had grown.
“Will you show me some of the other plants you grow?” he asked. Fuyumi looked slightly surprised, but broke out into a large smile.
“Of course! Right here is the outside garden where most of my plants are. I grow lots of vegetables here, as well as some flowers.” She led him through the garden, pointing out all the different plants.
“You don’t have many herbs out here,” Shouto noticed. Fuyumi nodded.
“I grow most herbs inside in pots. Especially mint. Mint will take over everything if you leave it outside.” She had a slightly haunted look in her face when she said that. Shouto elected to ignore it.
“Are you growing mint now?” She nodded, leading him inside and showing him a large rectangle box by a window where she was growing various herbs and a pot with mint in it. Shouto examined the mint slightly.
“I actually grew too much mint this year, I think. I’ve been thinking about different ways to use it,” Fuyumi said. Shouto hummed.
“Do you mind if I take a bit?” he asked.
“Oh, please do, I have more than I think I need.” She grabbed a pair of scissors and moved to cut some mint from the plant.
When Shouto left, he had a small pair of scissors and a bag of fresh mint in his bag.
When Momo arrived in the kitchen, she was greeted with the sight of Shouto pouring tea into two mugs. He handed her one, which she took with an expression of gratefulness and confusion.
“What is this? Why did you ask me to come down here?” she asked. Shouto put a bit of honey in his mug.
“You once gave me advice that a good way of connecting with people is to find a common interest. I used that advice, and it worked very well, so I wanted to thank you. I made this tea with mint from my sister’s garden.” He took a sip of the tea. It wasn’t as good as most of the fancy teas he had tried with Momo, but there was something satisfying knowing that it was made with fresh mint.
The door opened a few moments after Shouto knocked on it, revealing Sato blinking in confusion.
“Hello, Todoroki. Can I help you?” he asked.
“Do you know any recipes with fresh basil?” Sato blinked.
“Um…yeah, I can find something…why?”
“My sister taught me how to grow basil. I wanted to give her some as thanks. Will you help me make something with it?” Sato hummed.
“Well, there’s lots you can do with basil…I’d suggest something simple, probably something you can easily transport to her unless you’re planning on her coming here.”
“I’d be going to her.” Sato nodded.
“Well, one thing you can do is put it in some olive oil and make a nice sauce that she could use on a lot of different things. It would be really good on bread. Or you could make a sandwich with basil, I think I know a good recipe for that.” Shouto considered the options for a moment. Giving her a sauce would allow her to do a lot of different things with it, but making her food would also be nice, because she always had to make her own food, as well as food for the family.
“Can I try both? I think I have enough basil.”
“Sure thing.”
The next time that Shouto visits Fuyumi, it was the middle of the week, and he did not bring the plant.
“This is outside of your usual visiting time,” Fuyumi noted. Shouto nodded.
“I wanted to thank you for helping me with gardening. I actually really enjoy it. I asked a classmate for help making something with some of the basil to give to you as a thank you.” He handed her a wrapped sandwich–caprese, basil, and tomato– and a jar of olive oil with basil. Fuyumi didn’t cry, but it was a close thing. She did hug Shouto.
Uraraka was sitting on a couch in the common room next to Midoriya, who was furiously scrolling through his phone and muttering incomprehensibly. It’s a normal sight in the dorms.
“What’s going on?” Shouto asked.
“I asked him for help with something and he’s very focused,” Uraraka explains. “Ryukyu saved my life on a mission that went wrong a week ago, and I wanted to get her a flower as a thank you gift, since it was partly my fault. I asked Deku about flower language and he’s been like that for ten minutes now.”
“Flower language…” Shouto mused quietly. He knew about it, of course. He hadn’t really thought about it in a while, though. He remembered earlier that week when he had visited his mother. He thought about the blue flowers on her windowsill. Something from the very man who had landed her in that place.
“I think he might be overthinking this a bit,” Uraraka continued. Shouto frowned.
“What do you know about flower language? Are there any flowers that mean…” He considered the message he wanted to send. “I don’t know… What if I give flowers to my mom?”
“Oh, that sounds sweet! I actually know one–carnations! They symbolize familial love. Red carnations are a really popular Mother’s Day gift.” Midoriya looked up from the phone triumphantly.
“What about violets, Uraraka?” Shouto tuned their ensuing conversation out. Carnations…
Fuyumi once again picked up the phone quickly.
“Hey, Shouto. What’s going on?”
“You grow flowers, right? Could you help me grow red carnations?”
“Yeah, sure! We’ll have to stop by the gardening store, because I don’t think I have any seeds to grow carnations, though.”
That weekend saw Shouto and Fuyumi standing in a gardening store, scanning the seeds. Fuyumi had picked up a few supplies of her own while at the store, and they were now looking for carnation seeds.
“Aha! Over here!” Fuyumi said, pointing at a packet of seeds labeled “carnations”. Shouto examined the packet. The flowers would take much longer to grow than the basil had, and would be harder to grow. He resolved to try anyways.
By now, Shouto had gotten the hang of planting seeds. Fuyumi had informed him that the flower would want much less water than the basil, and that he should let the soil be dry before watering. It would want full sun, like the basil. It would have to be repotted once it sprouted and grew a few leaves. He was supposed to water it once a week, and use fertilizer.
Over the course of a month, the carnations grew more and more, eventually flowering with thin red petals. The stem was tall and green, and the plant gave off a spicy floral scent. When it was fully grown, Shouto cut the stems and put them in a tall, thin vase with water, then went to visit his mother.
Rei had always loved flowers. Back when she was a young girl, she had once gone to a field of flowers, admiring the colors for hours. When Fuyumi was little, she once took her to a flower field like the one she had been to as a child. Her daughter had wandered as far away from her as she could to explore the flowers, admiring them and playing in the dirt until she had to go home. When Fuyumi had told her that she had taken up gardening, Rei once more remembered her daughter wandering through the field of flowers barefoot.
Rei wasn’t sure how to feel about the flowers that Enji had given her. They used to be her favorite flower, but now, she wasn’t so sure. They reminded her too much of everything that had happened in her past. They brought up painful memories. Her therapist had told her that it was okay for her to try to avoid things that made her feel bad, but she wanted to have more life in her room, and the flowers were all that she really had.
A blue petal fell from the flower on her windowsill. She stared hard at it, willing the flower to disappear. She pushed back the memories of looking at flowers as a young girl. She pushed back the memories of taking her daughter to a field. She glared at the flowers on her windowsill, trying to muster up the courage to throw them away. With a shaking hand, she plucked the flowers out of the vase, looking at them closely. She gripped the stems so tight she was sure they would snap. She didn’t want this.
A knock on the door interrupted her anger at the flowers. She dropped them, the flowers landing on the windowsill next to the vase. She turned around when the door opened, revealing Shouto. In his hands he held a vase holding red carnations. He held the vase out to her. She took it delicately, wide eyes admiring the soft petals, breathing in their scent. They smelled like love.