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Within a small town, a young woman is seen walking towards a shop. The shop looks like how a house would, but with leaves seemingly to grow off the walls and roof. It had a nice light colour on the walls, most likely made of birch, and cobblestone acting as a border for the walls. The roof is darker in colour, made of spruce.
The young woman enters the shop and looks at the flowers. She takes some red and white carnations. Love and admiration. She grabs some blue irises. Faith and hope. She grabs some gardenia. Sweetness and joy. Finally, she grabs some Gladiolus. Strength, faithfulness, honour, and remembrance. She separates the flowers into two groups and brings them to the counter to have them wrapped up, and to pay for the flowers. She chooses the colour blue for one group of flowers. Trust and loyalty. Bringing security to those around. For the second group, she chooses the colour turquoise. Calmness and clarity. Bringing compassion to those around. Once she pays, she bids goodbye to the shopkeeper and goes on her way to deliver the flowers.
She walks past the community house, towards a hill.
“Hey, Xeno! Wait a sec!” The woman, now known as Xeno, hears someone call out from behind her. She turns around to see who called for her. The woman recognizes the person. One of her friends. The young man can be seen running towards her, his purple trench coat flowing behind as he tries to catch up to Xeno.
“Ah, hey Ace.” She responds to the man, known as Ace. She gives him a gentle, but saddened look. “How are you?” She asks him, turning back around to continue walking, Ace walking with her.
“I’ve been well. Just a bit stressed at the moment.” He responds, looking at the sky. “What about you? And what’s with the flowers? Are they for Squibbl?” He asks back in return.
“I’m doing ok, and no, the flowers aren’t for Squibbl. The flowers are for my dads, actually.” Xeno answers, now having a sombre look on her face. She then looks at the sky, now noticing the clouds starting to cover the once clear blue sky.
“Oh, that’s sweet. What are they like?” Ace asks, putting his gloves on, now feeling the cold.
“Well, they’re just the kindest. Always helping others when they could. And even if they were busy, they still made time to help. The two were basically inseparable, always around the other.” She starts rambling about her two dads. “They were always there for each other through thick and thin. Absolutely adored each other.” She continues. “Their home was like a hobbit hole and was littered with plants. If you were to name a plant, it was in the yard. Due to that, they were called ‘The Plant Husbands’, then, when I entered the family, they went from ‘The Plant Husbands’, to ‘The Plant Family’. And the funny thing is, is that they took one look at me and basically said ‘You’re our child now’.” She finishes as Ace starts laughing at the end of her rambling.
“Really?” He laughs out, now bent over and clutching his stomach from all the laughing.
“Yes, really. They were absolutely the best parents I could ever have had.” She responds, looking ahead of herself.
“What are their names, if you don’t mind me asking.” Ace asks Xeno, now having recovered from his laughing fit.
“Niall and Timmy.”
“Timmy!? HA-” Ace starts to laugh once again.
“I mean, that isn’t his actual name. His name is Jimmy. It’s just, a family friend and I call him Timmy, just to annoy him.”
“Oh, my goodness, that's hilarious!”
“It truly is...” After that conversation, along with the laughter from Ace, they both reach the top of the hill not far from Xeno’s house. It is then Ace saw two pieces of stone poking out from the ground.
“Uh, Xeno? Why are we going to the graves? I thought we were...” Ace trails off, now realising why Xeno seemed a bit upset for the past few days; While he did notice her change of mood since winter started, he did not want to say anything to her, in case mentioning it made her mood worse. “So that’s why...” He trails off once more.
“Yeah...” Xeno answers, looking at the graves with a sad look. She walks over to the graves and crouches down, placing the blue bouquet down on a grave that had the name ‘Jimmy’ and the turquoise bouquet on the grave that had the name ‘Niall’.
Ace kneels to rub Xeno’s back, as a form of comfort. “I’m sorry...” Ace apologises out of nowhere.
“Why’re you apologising? You didn’t do anything...” Xeno whispers out, looking at Ace.
“I know, but still...”
“No, you didn’t do anything wrong, so don’t apologise. Besides, it happened a few years ago. Sure, I’m not completely over their deaths, but I’m healing.” She says, a happy, yet sad smile showing on her face. “Plus,” Xeno looks up at the now cloud-covered sky. “I do hope they’re doing well up there, now.” She expresses, feeling a single snowflake land on her nose. But, what none of them notice is that two apparitions watched the interaction between the two with soft smiles.
“Take care of her for us...” Is what they say, but go unheard.