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"You always have those earbuds in. What music do you listen to?" Walt asks. He doesn't engage much with Jesse while waiting on their cooks, as he figures they don't have much in common. Still, he can't help but wonder about this plant he spends so much time with yet knows little about.
Jesse scoffs. "Right now I've been listening to K-pop. Like, Psy. Gangnam Style. You heard of Gangnam Style, Mr. White?"
He recalls hearing something about that on the news, but he hadn't been paying attention. There were more pressing matters than the latest Internet trends.
"I can't say I have," Walt says.
"Figures." Jesse's blue flowers rustle in the breeze.
They rest in silence before Walt feels a tightness above his head. One of his pods explodes, sending three seeds flying in different directions.
"Yo, you good?"
"They do that sometimes," Walt says as he touches his ripening inflorescence as if trying to quell a foreign creature. It has been a while since he flowered.
Jesse gestures ahead. "Look. The ants are collecting your seeds."
"Each seed has a nutritious node on one end that ants find palatable. The ants take the seed underground, where they eat the node, then leave the seed to germinate." Remembering Jesse's impulsivity, he adds, "Do not under any circumstance try to consume the seeds. They contain ricin. It's one of the most toxic substances found in nature."
He snorts. "I would never eat your seeds. Gross."
Walt frowns and says nothing.
"I like ants though, so if they like you then maybe you're not all bad." Jesse smiles. "I like ants almost as much as Psy Gangnam Style."
He senses there was humor to what the other was saying, but he couldn't quite parse it. Perhaps he's too old. Despite their age difference, he wants to reach out to Jesse in some way, and so, he allows an idea to form.
Some plants have intense connections with their pollinators. Rarely, a plant and their pollinators may share what has been described as "interspecies telepathy."
Walt has the gift of communing with ants.
In his backyard he finds a hill. He first speaks to the workers and eventually manages a liasion with the queen herself. The queen agrees to help execute Walt's plans in exchange for his loyalty and an endless supply of fruit, pastries, anything saccharine. These would be easy demands to meet if it were not for Skyler.
She has never been a fan of ants, and that was putting it mildly. All his life Walt has craved having a house full of ants, with dense trails of workers leading into each and every room, entire wars taking place on the pavement outside, colonies rising and falling. Skyler has not allowed this, nor has she tolerated even one, singular ant in the house. She'd get hysterical.
"It's never just one," she'd say.
Well, She'll adapt, Walt thinks as he places an apple on the ground, sealing his deal with the queen. His queen.
The next day, he texts Jesse, asking if they could talk before work, preferably at Jesse's place. The vine agrees.
"So? What's up?" Jesse asks.
Walt places a duffle bag on Jesse's table. Usually these duffle bags contain meth or money, but this time...
"Ants?" Jesse's mouth gapes at just how many ants there are.
He makes a gesture, signalling, patience, then pulls out his phone. After navigating to an audio file he managed to download after painstaking trial and error, he presses the play button. After a few seconds of awkward delay, crackling music begins playing through a cheap speaker.
It's Gangnam Style.
The look of shock on Jesse's face is soon replaced by pure delight. He starts bobbing his head in unison with the ants, who are all dancing to the Internet's most viewed song.
"Ayyy, sexy lady!" Jesse sings at the ants, who would sing along if they could.
"Yeah Mr. White! Yeah Psy ants!"
In that moment, everything had been worth it.
When the song ends, Jesse cackles, like he still can't believe what has transpired. "Holy shit. Mr. White, where did that come from?"
"You said you like ants and Gangnam Style. I simply combined two elements to create something new."
"So this was, like, a chemistry lesson?" Jesse nods, gears turning in his head. "You should teach like this more often. Also, I had no idea you had the power to control ants. That's sick."
"It's not the power to control them, per se. I simply made a deal with them." For a moment Jesse looks concerned before Walt adds, "They just want food. Food I'm capable of providing."
"Checks out."
"It's time to cook. I want you focused today. No attitude. If you behave, perhaps this could be a regular occurance."
Jesse laughs. "Hell yeah."