Chapter Text
Naefai leaned over the pot, peering closely at the small sprout within it. Was that a new leaf? She smiled to herself, reaching out a clawed finger to gingerly touch the delicate growth. A wisp of green curled from her fingertip and the leaf shook gently before straightening up, seemingly strengthened.
"It's been such a hot day, hasn't it?" she asked, her tone a motherly coo as she reached for a small spritzer. "Poor dear, let's get you all freshened up, ok, little blossom?"
"...Does this mean I can come in, Naefai?"
The Asura startled at the sudden question, her gaze darting upwards to see a dark green Sylvari standing just outside the open greenhouse window, his tall form easily looking inwards. Canach looked somewhat… bemused, even as he arched a thorned brow at her.
There was a brief moment of silence as the two stared at each other: Canach expectant, Naefai blankly, before it hit her, exactly, what she had said.
"I was talking to the plant," she said indignantly, defensively, only for Canach to slowly, pointedly, look himself up and down.
"Oh–! You know what I meant!" Annoyed, she waved the bottle at him, her large, dark blue eyes narrowing. "Why are you here, Satc– Canach?"
That brow twitched, and her mood lightened into amusement. "What were you about to call me?" he asked testily.
A careless wave of a chunky hand. "Listen, don't think I've forgotten how useful your toolkits were. You have pockets. Pockets! Koni has those mysterious pouches that eat up anything she puts inside, while Mystic is just as likely to chew on whatever you give her as she is to stash it in Gadd only knows where. You? You are a walking… well… Satchel."
"And I'm rewarded for being… useful, with being called… Satchel," he said slowly, his usual hardened features carefully blank.
"A silly satchel, sometimes" she corrected airily, but this time her gaze softened, the dark splotches on the edges of her eyes crinkling fondly as she teased, "But I'm sorry, would you like a new nickname? Sulky Squash? Prickles? Broodmaster 5000?" Her ears suddenly perked upwards excitedly as an entirely impish grin split her face. “Chlorofool? ”
"Chloro–! " There was the quietest of sighs from him as he rubbed at his face. "...Satchel if you must, Naefai. Sans the silly."
Soft laughter bubbled through her: none of her gremlins were this accepting of her teasing, with Mystic and Akoni more prone to whining at her. But she quietened as she realized he made no move to walk away. "Are you here for something?"
Somehow, the Secondborn seemed to grow even more awkward as he glanced away, a hand coming up to rub at the back of his neck. A slight twitch of his needles before he sighed once more. "I could always come by another time if you're busy. But…" he lifted his hand to gesture at the bag he was carrying, and through the open flap she caught sight of… gardening tools? They seemed vaguely familiar, but she couldn't place–
"Oh!" The druid stared at him, suddenly delighted. "Oh! Canach, come on in, then! Let me just–!" She scampered over to the greenhouse entrance, unlocking the door and enthusiastically yanking it open.
He cast an apprehensive look at the plants that loomed on either side of the doorway: large vines standing tall and independent, reminiscent of those in the depths of Maguuma, though these were free of the wicked thorns of their cousins and were a healthy, bright green instead of suffering from a sickly brown tint.
"Don't worry about them," Naefai said dismissively, grabbing hold of his hand to tug him inside. "They're just standing by in case–"
"NAAAAEEE–!"
Canach started as a small pink blur whizzed past him to dart into the building, screeching delightedly as it went. Instantly, the vines pounced, whipping out to snatch the errant intruder mid-entry before dropping her gently back outside, pulling back just in time for the door to swing shut.
Tiny fists banged on the glass door, muffled as Mystic yowled her protests. Equal parts amused and stupified, Canach watched on as Naefai calmly began closing the windows.
"She'll get it out of her system," the matriarch confided to him with a patient smile. "She knows she's only allowed in the Mystic-safe greenhouses."
"Is anything actually Mystic-safe?" he asked as they made their way deeper into the greenhouse, with him ducking underneath the leaves and low-hanging branches of various trees that lined the neat black-and-white tiled pathway.
An amused snort escaped from his companion as she waved his concern away. "I said Mystic-safe, not Mystic-proof."
She ignored the muffled pounding and wailing with the ease of a parent well-used to outlasting the tantrum of a child, though Canach did glance upwards to see that Mystic had relocated herself onto the roof, somehow, her tiny legs dangling off the edge as she scrabbled for a foothold.
"So!" Naefai spun around, rubbing her hands together gleefully. "Gardening! Did you bring the seeds too?"
"Everything that was in the box," he answered, placing the bag carefully down on a nearby table.
She bounded over for a quick check, and something about the unfettered sincerity in the smile she shot him eased the apprehension that had been nibbling at him the entire day.
The Wintersday present had been lurking in his workspace for a good while: a stark reminder of an offer that he had begun to dread, for reasons even he wasn't entirely sure of.
No, that was a lie. He knew why: it felt like a summons, and images of a pale, softly glowing Sylvari trailing gold as she chided at him with disappointment in her eyes flashed across his mind. Utterly illogical, which made him resent it all the more.
But when the box had mysteriously started moving from the depths of the closets onto the side of his workbench, with Akoni looking on with wide, innocent eyes, he decided it was best to get it over and done with.
Besides, it wasn't as though he wasn't getting anything out of it. Kveriyan had handed him a small sample of those burn salves not too long back, and it had taken just one mishap during a mission for them to show their worth. On top of that, Naefai was a druid– one of the best he knew. Even if she wasn't Sylvari, he had seen how she was able to bring various flora to life in the midst of battle, and it instantly brought to mind the shapers back in the Grove. The idea of shaping the terrain itself to give one the advantage in battle was very appealing to the strategist in him, and he hoped to nudge her for some tips.
After giving the bag a quick perusal, Naefai beamed at him. "Excellent!" she trilled with a quick clap of her hands. "Take a seat, I'll be right back!" The little Asura spun around to duck behind a handy curtain of vines, and he took the chance to look around the place.
There were plenty of greenhouses that littered the grounds of Artox Gyr's Tyrian base, but it was well-known that Naefai had her own personal area sectioned off where she cultivated plants especially for her own purposes. While she certainly had her own professional interests in them– she was Asura after all– the druid found the company of plants to be much more pleasant than some people, and where a certain handful of gremlins were concerned, certainly a lot less stressful.
It was clearly evident the place had been designed primarily by Asuran hands. If not from the height of the surroundings– Canach spied the way everything was handily just a few feet off the ground, within easy reach of his rather short companion– but also from the meticulously geometric designs of the furnishings around them. Despite the rather floral engravings of the shelves and on what little furniture was housed within the building, they were artfully symmetrical, with small leaves curling around diamonds and flowers blossoming amidst mathematically carved lines.
A testament to both her love for nature, and a nod to her heritage.
And, if that weren't enough, the plants that bloomed around him further spoke to it. Vibrant and exotic: some he recognized from the far reaches of Maguuma and Kryta, while some seemed entirely alien. Hybrids, possibly, but he had a suspicion that most were grown from the inside of a flask.
"Right, you!"
He turned back, only to be met with Naefai fussing over the table where he had left the carry bag. Somehow, in the brief minutes he had his back to her, she had come up with a surprisingly– terrifyingly, if he had to be honest with himself– large spread of snacks. Biscuits of all kinds, from cookies and gingersnaps to shortbreads, along with jars of assorted nuts and dried fruit. A few slices of cake too: pound cakes and the like, accompanied with a couple pots of what appeared to be jam.
"I was under the impression I was here for gardening lessons," he said carefully, watching the slight Asura happily set down a steaming teapot, elegant with its golden accents on the teal porcelain.
"Who says we can't do both?" She beamed as she hopped onto a chair.
"Is that why Akoni sent me with this?" he asked wryly, pulling out a modest package from the carry bag and handing it over.
"She did that because I raised her right," Naefai said proudly, blue eyes twinkling with anticipation as she reached for it. "What is it?"
"A brioche of some sort," he shrugged. "We had extras, so she said I should bring one."
He absolutely was not going to tell her about how his entwined had been fluttering about making a mess of his house as she stress-baked up a storm. She had been exuberant when he had finally decided on meeting up with Naefai, all laughter and teasing him to not test the druid's patience lest he suffer her infamous bonk-to-the-head with that staff she always carried around. But then it sank in that he was going to be spending one-on-one time with mom , and all of a sudden she had flown into a panic. The petite Sylvari was then convinced that he had to bring gifts to make a good impression, but when he had tried to point out that he'd already known Naefai for well over a year by now, the sheer anxiety that electrified their bond made him bite his tongue with a resigned sigh instead as he decided to let her do whatever she needed to calm herself down.
However, judging from Naefai's muffled laugh, she could tell, as she held up what appeared to be a jumbled mess of browned paper haphazardly held together with an exorbitant amount of twine. "I don't think I've seen it this bad since the first time she attempted Wintersday with us."
"She was afraid it would fall out of the wrapping, but wouldn't let me anywhere near it," he said dryly as he took the seat across from her. "She's terrified I'd 'mess it up'." A slight pause before he added, "I'm not sure whether I should be worried that she thinks that's possible."
"None of that snark now, Chboya," Naefai admonished as she fished out a small pair of scissors from somewhere to easily cut through the packaging. "Especially when she's trying her hardest to help you out."
"Chboya?" Despite the flatness of his tone, the slight twitch of his cheek betrayed his annoyance and the asura's grin returned.
"You're going to be here a while, so you might as well start getting used to it," she said blithely, blue eyes lighting up as she finally managed to unwrap the monstrosity.
A complete contrast to the clumsiness with which it had been wrapped with, the brioche was elegantly braided into a wreath with swirls of dark chocolate layered throughout, its crust gleaming a deep gold with specks of sugar pearls. Her expression turned soft.
"She really did go all out, didn't she?"
No answer from the Secondborn, save for a fond sigh, the edges of his eyes crinkling slightly.
"Tea?"
"I don't suppose you have coffee?" he asked wistfully as he pushed a teacup closer to her, then smiled at Naefai's huff as she turned to the various jars in a nearby cupboard.
"You'll have to make do with Kvey's stash," she decided as she reached for a plain metallic can, made all the more unusual in its company of finely crafted jars.
Canach couldn't hide the grimace. "Her special blend? I think I'll take the tea instead."
She let out a low, unexpected snort. "You don't like your mouth being set on fire?"
"I've seen her chew it," he said plainly.
"That would be the chocolate she crumbles into it," Naefai said absently, her gaze scanning across the shelves before picking out a jar among the many: black, with delicate silver flourishes painted across its shiny surface. "Akoni mentioned you like whiskey, so I think you'll like this."
She popped the lid open and a strong aroma instantly wafted his way. Rich and bold, nowhere near the stark bitterness of coffee, but there was a pleasant caramel smokiness that intrigued him. She scooped a few teaspoons into the awaiting teapot before hurrying off to return with a matching sugar and creamer set.
There was a pause as he looked at the vast array of foods laid out before him; the gently steeping tea, then at the way Naefai pointedly set the tools he had brought with him to the side, nudging it under the table with a foot.
Slowly, "If this was just a ploy to have someone over for tea, I'm sure Akoni would be more than happy to oblige."
She tutted at him, the sound oddly motherly. "I don't need company if I want to have tea." Turning back to the brioche that he had brought, she began to cut it into a few thick slices. "One slice or two?"
He tried once again, already climbing to his feet, "Naefai, I–"
She slapped a palm on the table lightly. "Child, I can't possibly finish all this on my own, and Koni would be upset if it goes to waste. So how about you take one slice, and if you still want to leave, then that's fine." Despite the slight exasperation in her tone, there was a kindly twinkle in her eye; an understanding amidst the frustration as she shook her head at him.
"Chil –!" It took a moment for his brain to process her words, and when it did, the inelegant snort escaped him before he could stop it. He choked, prompting the druid to hurry over to his side.
A glass of water materialised seemingly out of nowhere as she thumped his back. The unexpected touch– no one, save for his entwined, had touched him with any amount of familiarity– only made him sputter further, and it took a few good minutes before his coughing ceased, with Naefai fussing over him like a mother hen.
Wide lips pursed with worry, she hovered close until he waved her away, taking a long sip of the offered water, and even then she shook her head as she returned to her seat. Despite her concern, she sniffed haughtily.
"You don't have to be so dramatic, you know."
A small smile curved his lips. Motherly affection might have been strange to him, but sass was his bread and butter, and that awkwardness began to ease away.
"You're the one who concocted this convoluted plan to trick me into having tea with you, Naefai," he pointed out as he waved a hand at the spread before him, grateful to be on familiar ground. "You could have just asked."
This time, the glimmer of mischief in her blue eyes was entirely too familiar– he'd seen it in Akoni's own, and even Mystic's– as she primly replied, "I could, but where's the fun in that?" After a small bit of consideration, she added a few smaller cuts of cake, with a generous dollop of jam on the side, before pushing it over to him.
Though he opened his mouth to protest, the way she held his gaze as her ears drooped slightly gave him pause, and he finally let out a defeated sigh as he tugged the plate close.
Satisfied, she grinned, perking right back up as she helped herself to her own pickings.
Conversation was surprisingly easy, despite the lumbering start, with the druid diving into an enthusiastic discussion about the seeds she had gifted him, taking the chance to offer use of her greenhouse for their cultivation. It would be easier, she claimed, because once grown, she could then show him how to make the burn salves.
But, seeing the twinkle in her eyes and the sly grin on her lips, it was yet another ploy to have him come by for more visits.
Despite his better judgement, he agreed.
As he slathered jam onto the bread slice, he reluctantly admitted that this… thing, whatever it was, wasn't all that bad. Even with her teasing and snark, there was… affection in her words, with a warmth that ignored the cynicism usually laced in his.
And to her credit, she also ignored the awkward hesitance that cropped up every now and then when questions veered into uncomfortable territory, her eyes soft with understanding as she gently steered the conversation back to more familiar grounds.
It was strange, to be in the presence of someone who simply wanted to chat, and whose lectures were out of concern, however misplaced he felt they were.
He could… probably get used to this. It was certainly better than being chided at for not measuring up; for not being better. And he could get used to it, for Akoni's sake, if anything, since he knew how much she treasured her little family.
He'd never admit it was also because it felt... nice.
Well… not for now, at least.
