Chapter Text
The first time she met someone outside of her family who didn't appear as a simple grass was when she was 6.
Her papa had taken her with him to work, something she never particularly enjoyed. She'd rather stay home with her mama or great uncle and helping him with his work, though she liked that she always got snacks from her papa if she put up with the fawning and cooing.
He was particularly nervous this day, not that Maomao cared. Her papa was awful weird, his emotions often seeming to flip on a dime. Even at her tender age, she tended to ignore him when he got like that. Even so, she was more preoccupied with the uncomfortable clothing her mama had stuck her in. Mama had said she looked so pretty, but the young girl was just frustrated with how the dress limited her movement. How was she supposed to crawl around in the grass and look at the plants like this?
She wasn't so oblivious though. She and her papa were seated in a pavilion in a pretty courtyard she had never been to before. She desperately wanted to go root around in the bushes, but papa made her stay put. He didn't normally, so it must've been important. Soon enough, papa made her stand back up, before bowing to a man walking up.
The man's flower was a waxy purple with a fuzzy stamen, a drastic difference to her papa's yellow tansies.
He was flanked by servants and guards and made Maomao feel very awkward. She copied her papa, bowing to the man as best as she could in her restrictive dress, glancing up with her nose scrunched.
The man laughed and exchanged a few words with papa, before crouching down - to the protest of his servants - to talk to Maomao herself.
"Tell me, little Kan La, how would you feel about making a friend around your age? He'd love to get to know you, and I think you'd make quite the little pair!"
Her papa muttered something angrily, but Maomao just cocked her head. Papa had bowed to him, so he must've been important. She needed to be polite.
"I don't know, mister. I only know my cousin, and he's annoying. Are all boys like that?"
The man laughed again, ruffling her hair, to her consternation, and stood up. "I can't speak for your cousin, little one, but I can say Zuigetsu would most likely meet your standards! Would you like to meet him?"
Maomao really didn't. But mama had told her it was rude to refuse people of a higher status to their face, and if papa was bowing to him, he was.
"Okay, sir." She said, bowing again.
The man smiled kindly. "What a polite little one you have here, Lakan! Yes, I'm sure they'll get along just fine."
Maomao met Zuigetsu a few days later. She'd been told she wasn't allowed to call him that, though, so she chose to call him by the flower she'd identified him as: an orchid.
The man from before was nowhere to be seen, instead, Orchid was accompanied by an old purple flower with a yellow center - a violet, Maomao was fairly certain - and a large lavender flower stalk. They'd introduced themselves as Orchid's caretaker and the father of the other child who had come along - a red gladiolus.
Orchid was dressed ornately and Gladiolus simply, though Orchid didn't seem to care about kneeling in the dirt next to Maomao.
"What are you doing?"
She glances up at the boy. He looked so… sparkly and interested in her. Not that she could say the same.
"Digging for worms."
"Oh. Why?"
"Pops says they lower fevers."
"Oh. How?"
"You dry them and then eat them or grind them up." She recited. She hadn't gotten the chance to tell anyone else besides Pops what she knew. Mama and Lahan always got grossed out when she tried and papa didn't really listen - he always started going on about how cute she looked when she was happy. Maybe Orchid wasn't so bad after all.
"Oh."
"Ew! How could that help anyone?" Gladiolus crouched in front of Maomao, glaring into the dirt. "You're lying."
Maomao huffed, setting down the stick she was using to dig for worms to cross her arms. "I'm not lying just because you're too stupid to know what I'm talking about."
Gladiolus gasped and stood up. "I'm not stupid! You're the one who said we should eat worms!"
"Only if you have a fever, stupid." She said flatly, yet with all the sass in her small body.
Suddenly, Orchid stood up in between them. "Don't fight, please! It's fine, Basen, I wanna hear."
To Maomao's surprise, Gladiolus - Basen - listened, sitting down and shutting his mouth. Orchid turned to her with a smile. "Is there anything else you can do with worms?"
She narrows her eyes at Gladiolus but sits back down. "They're an-ti-in-flam-ma-to-ry." She sounds the word out, proud of herself for remembering one so long.
"Oh… what's that mean?"
"Hm… when you fall down and scratch your knee, and it's all red and hurts? That's in-flam-ma-tion. They can make it stop." She grins. She sounds like Pops right now!
"Oh! Really? Worms can do that?! Woah…"
Scanning the courtyard, she spots a plant that makes her light up. "Aha!"
She stands up and runs over, Orchid following after excitedly - Gladiolus less so.
"This is mint! It's also an-ti-in-flam-ma-to-ry. You can eat it, and it tastes better than worms." She announces, brandishing the leaves and stuffing a few in her mouth.
"Can I?!" Orchid reaches for a few of the leaves, before hesitating and turning to the kind old violet. "... can I?"
Ms. Violet nods, and Orchid eagerly chews up his handful.
"Ah! It's cold!"
At that, Gladiolus takes his own few leaves. Maomao rolls her eyes. "No, it only feels like it."
Her Pops had just given her a lesson on mint, but what had he said makes it feel cold?
"It's man-thol."
"Oh…"
"My flower! That prince didn't put his grubby little hands on you did he? I'll have him neutered right away-!"
"Darling. Calm yourself." Mama breezes over to Maomao, kneeling down and dragging a handkerchief across the little girl's cheeks. "Well? Did you enjoy your time with the Moon Prince?"
Did she mean Orchid?
"Yeah… he wanted to hear about worms. He's very smile-y."
"Oh, how adorable. Dear, it seems he's in love already…"
"NOOO!"