Work Text:
Yoshihide had been waiting for the excitement about Araya’s new randoseru to calm down. However, it never happened. The little girl took that bag everywhere. It was a crude replacement for a doll, she thought, but since it made Araya happy she never said anything. Honestly she wouldn’t be surprised if she found her daughter tucking it into bed at night, it’d just be a natural second step. Yoshihide couldn’t remember a time when she might’ve placed such emphasis on an item. Matthias had always showered her with gifts and never left her a second to think about, much less cherish the previous ones. Taking things for granted had become an impolite habit of Yoshihide, so she found herself taking rudimentary lessons from her daughter again.
However, this hadn’t stopped Yoshihide from picking out a second gift. Girls love cute things, yes, but that didn’t exempt them from the gross either. Where children drew the idea that gross meant cool, Yoshihide wasn’t sure. Although, she had thought the same as a child, so she figured Araya would be pleased. A Venus flytrap was what she had decided on. Araya had been pretending to mother that randoseru and Yoshihide felt this would probably yield her a better response.
She had gone out with Matthias again, mostly to humor him as he’d been getting on her case rather regularly these days. He’d offered to pay for the plant, but she declined. While Yoshihide didn’t exactly work for a living, she still had some pocket change. Allowance given from Rien. The leftovers of an assassination well done. She was a grown woman and only able to live on coins from her father. She felt she was beginning to understand the Dihui Star more and more.
Regardless, that money had been going less to herself and increasingly toward making her daughter happy. At this point she’d probably cut off her own arm and wrap it up if Araya asked for it.
The vendor handed Yoshihide a bag of spiders.
***
“Ew!” Araya shrieked, “That’s so gross mommy!” Despite her outburst, she was certainly laughing.
The spider had run itself in circles, eventually getting caught after gracing the trigger hairs of the plant, allowing for the green maw to shut tightly around the arachnid.
Yoshihide found herself enjoying the new plant as well. There was something rather ironic to the fact that she was feeding it spiders in their own Den. Her theory was proven true by the face Rien was making. The man was unreadable to most, but Yoshihide was well-learned in his expressions. The pull of a muscle here and the slight twitch there told her he was upset by the whole spectacle. That made the whole thing much more enjoyable.
Yoshihide didn’t enjoy bringing Araya around her Nursefathers, however Rien’s sanctuary was the only place where the plant could thrive. Well, she was sure Callisto’s gallery might also accommodate a small green house, but she refused to show Araya his art. Not yet. She’ll find out about it eventually, but for now she was too young.
“Another one, another one!” Araya tugged at her mother’s arm, “C’mon, he’s already getting hungry again! He’s gotta eat A.S.A.P!”
“H.A.F.”
“Huh? He’s nowhere near full, he only had one!” Araya poked the plant, unaware that the full digestion would take a few days.
Yoshihide reveled in their acronyms, as they lent another crease to Rien’s face. Their secret code, that somehow the Nursefathers just couldn’t figure out. Perhaps it was because Araya never bothered to explain it to them, or because of Yoshihide’s butchered, incomprehensible versions. Regardless, only her and Araya could talk like this.
***
A week later, the Venus flytrap died. Araya was heartbroken, and Rien looked as wry as always.
“Don’t you think you should’ve been watering it as well?” He pointed out.
Yoshihide didn’t have a comeback to that, though still shot him an accusatory glare. He feigned innocence as always, or maybe this time he really was. Was he..? It truly could’ve been her fault, but on the other hand Yoshihide seemed to recall active watering wasn’t a major part of the caretaking.. and it certainly wouldn’t have killed the thing that fast.. as her thoughts continued to fumble for an answer, Araya stopped crying. She wiped her remaining tears on her sleeve and tugged Yoshihide’s cuff.
“Can we have a funeral?”
***
It wasn’t anything grand, just a small mound of dirt covering the poor thing. Araya had placed a little flag on top of the hill, for what reason remained unclear. Well, neither of them knew what a customary funeral looked like, but you had to mark it with something special, right?
Callisto and Matthias had attended in passing, only staying long enough to leave a single remark:
“What a pity, I’d like to have seen what kind of garden you’d cultivate.”
“Hey! Maybe that bastard seed you just planted will grow into a man-eating monster, yeah?!”
Yoshihide understood basic plant biology, well, as much as she needed to, but she didn’t think this one would sprout a new one.
Araya stood up from her former crouch, “I’m done saying goodbye now.”
Naturally, the girl went right back to dressing up and down her randoseru, much to her mother’s exasperation. Perhaps, for the time being, that gift really was enough for her.