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This…was going just as chaotic as Hero had expected.
Dirt, soil and seeds strewn about, tools lying haphazardly in places they shouldn’t, the sweltering, blistering heat of the sun…did he mention that it felt like summer, even though it was only March?
...
The day had started great, in his opinion. Woke up nice and early on a weekend, made breakfast for Kel, as well as the Azuki siblings who came over, and then the four of them headed off to Basil’s house, Aubrey tagging along after being seen walking the same street. Kel, as usual, was largely energetic, skipping along the paveway, whilst the rest were relatively casual, only Sunny looking sleepy, letting out grumbling complaints about how he wanted to sleep until noon today.
“So…uhh…” Kel turned behind, facing the others, a dopey grin plastered on his face. “What are we actually doing today?”
“Seriously?” Aubrey raised her eyebrows. “We just talked about this at lunch yesterday , Kel. We're gardening at Basil’s house.”
“And this morning, too, when we were eating breakfast.” Hero chimed in. “You said you were excited.”
“Was I?”
“Yes, Kel.”
Kel flashed his teeth. “Cool!”
Aubrey made a face of confusion at the boy who was now whistling poorly to himself, then scoffed. Hero felt Mari’s hand connect with his as she chuckled softly.
“It’s kind of amazing how fast Kel can forget, you know?”
“Isn’t it?” He agreed, seeing the familiar house appear in sight. “It's like everything that gets said to him just goes in one ear and out the other.”
“Out the other,” She parroted, both of them watching as Kel bounced up to the doorstep.
He grinned, hand curled in a fist. “Basil…Open up!” He shouted. “We’re here to uhh…garden!”
Aubrey hissed at the volume. “Kel…!” She ran up and lightly smacked him in the head. “It’s too early to be screaming this loud!”
“But then he can’t hear us!”
“The whole street can hear your boisterous voice-”
The door creaked open, Basil’s face shyly peeking out, then turning into a smile.
Basil, all sunshine and kind, neatly placed blue denim overalls and a green shirt Hero was all used to seeing. All so wholesome.
“Ah, everyone’s here!” He opened the door fully, ushering everyone in. “Come inside!”
Kel eagerly came in. “So, what are we doin’ today?”
“Gardening,” The blonde boy responded, leading everyone to his living room just where the door to the garden was. “Weed pulling, fertiliser…umm…” He pondered. “There’s also a big patch of soil that we can grow flowers and veggies on if we’ve got time.”
“Any specific types of flowers or vegetables?” Aubrey asked, her face then lighting up. “Oh, you should grow herbs and stuff like that! So your grandmother’s cooking would be a lot tastier!”
Basil hummed. “I’ve got some parsley, coriander and other seed packets that we can do.”
“I think that’s a great idea, growing your homemade foods,” Mari mentioned. “I bet they would be much tastier-” Her eyes locked onto something, someone , and Hero turned his head to see the other, much older member of this household, Basil’s grandma. Basil’s grandma, sitting on the couch, knitting, a warm radiance.
Mari nodded her head to her. “Good morning, Ma’am.”
She chuckled, making eye contact with each young child, before finally locking eyes onto the couple holding hands. “Oh, don’t ma’am me, darling. You lovely lot can just call me Grandma.”
Basil began to shuffle through a cupboard in the living room. “Grandma, do you know where we put the spare gardening gloves?”
“Second drawer from the bottom, Basil.”
And Basil fished out a couple of spare pairs of gloves, before handing them out to the other five. “It might get a bit dirty, so just in case.”
They all went out into Basil’s backyard, where at the end, a giant patch of dirt laid, potted plants sitting around. With careful instructions, Basil gave everyone a job to do, passing around seeds and gardening tools.
“Okay, Sunny, are you fine with weed pulling? It's the least strength-consuming. Here, you just have to pull out stray ones like these, see?”
“Mari, Hero, you guys are probably the most mature, so is it okay if you do joint work? Hero can place the fertiliser onto the soil, and Mari, you can…rake the dirt. The bags are pretty heavy though, so be careful! Oh, also…psst…Kel looks pretty energetic today, and well…he might be a bit chaotic, so I’ve got a plan for that. Just act lovey-dovey around him each time, and you’ll see he instantly calms down. Haha, trust me, it works.”
“Aubrey, Kel, the last two roles are kind of a joint work too, alright? Hehe, Aubrey, you just need to make small holes in the ground after Mari’s raked it, and Kel, you just need to place the seeds inside and cover it up with dirt! No Kel, the seeds aren’t edible. Just scatter them around so they can all grow.”
They went in their places to do their tasks. Hero began to pour the fertiliser on, before noticing that Mari kept on having to tuck her hair behind her ear.
“Here,” Hero removed his gloves, taking the hair bow from Mari’s wrist. “Stay still for a moment.”
“Oh, thank you, handsome .” She smiled, a light blush on her cheeks, from the weather or him, Hero didn’t know. “My hair’s pretty long, so it does get in the way sometimes.”
“No problem, my Mari.” He grinned, seeing in the corner of his eye Kel looking at him with that face. Basil seemed to be right.
And they continued working, everyone idly chattering. He occasionally took glances at his friends around him.
Aubrey looked cheerful, with the occasional frustration on her face from Kel messing around. She sat on a small wooden stool, as earlier she had mentioned that she didn’t want to get too dirty.
Speaking of Kel, he goofed around as usual. Sometimes purposely kicking dirt at Aubrey then pretending it wasn’t him, running around…Hero had to put one of the big straw hats on him because of how much sunlight he was absorbing. He wasn’t too worried about his younger brother getting sunburnt, but…heat stroke was concerning.
Basil and Sunny were to say…polar opposites. While Basil, who was used to things like this, wearing his flower-adorned hat and working efficiently, Sunny was…much more tired. There was a red burning hue beginning to set on his face as he tiredly pulled out weed after weed, Mari having to wake him up multiple times just because he would lie on the dirt, attempting to rest. Hero kind of felt bad for chuckling at the small boy.
And Mari, Mari was as stunning as always. She was hard-working as they developed a steady but efficient work rhythm, and Hero adored every second of her. Even with dirt on her face, even with dirty clothes, she just looked so perfect, so amazingly beautiful-
“Kel!” Aubrey cried out once more, effectively snapping Hero out of his internal love rant. “You messed up again ! There aren’t even any seeds yet, and you already covered it up!”
Kel groaned. “Psh, it's fine! One not filled area won’t hurt, princess .”
Aubrey angrily dug up the dirt. “Put the seeds in!”
Kel made a face, before grinning. "Sure."
…
Oh, no.
Hero knew that face too often. It was the face his brother would make before creating chaos.
“No.” Hero said instinctively. “Kel, no .”
“Hmm…?” Kel mused, faking ignorance. “No, what?”
“Whatever you’re about to do, no.”
His grin contorted into a Cheshire-like smile. “And to that, I say… ”
"Nuh-uh."
Aubrey let out a high-pitched shriek as Kel, fully loose, threw tons of seeds into the air, effectively hitting Aubrey and Basil, small pellets of rosemary, thyme, and other countless herbs flying down into the dirt everywhere.
“ Kel!! ” Aubrey shouted. “You big idiot! Now I’ve got seeds in my hair!
Kel continued to throw more. “Yeah? Well, I’m scattering them just like you told me to!”
Hero, despite wanting to shout as well for him to stop, couldn't help his contagious smile as he began to laugh, Mari fake hiding behind Hero to avoid getting hit.
“Ooh, save me, my hero!” She giggled.
“Nope! No-pe! I’m done for today!” Aubrey huffed, quickly standing up, before shooting Kel one last look. “I’d rather help Grandma instead of working with stupid over here.”
“Aww…c’mon!” Kel complained. “It was just a joke!”