femmejosephine | Plant hunting

Entry tags:

daisy

Plant hunting

Do you want to look at plants with me today?

When the text arrived in the middle of a lunch rush, Nikita couldn't take the time to decipher it, so she just put her mobile back in her pocket. Daisy did like to send random texts, generally suggesting a drink, a fight, a lay, or all three, so that wasn't the issue. She wasn't much for euphemisms, though. She and Nikita understood what this was and what this wasn't, and both of them preferred to say what they meant when it wasn't a risk to do so.

An hour later, when the rush was over and Nikita was free to look at her phone, she pulled up the messaging app and considered the words again. Daisy had a lot more plants in her flat than Nikita ever would. Plants reminded Nikita of Carla and her offering of a rubber tree, which was both a good and a bad memory. She had one or two, but only the kind that thrived on neglect. Nikita understood plants that thrived on neglect.

Actual plants? You don't have enough of those already?

She still didn't know exactly what was going on here, but it might be fun to find out.

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Daisy isn't bothered that it takes Nikita time to answer her. The woman's got two jobs, after all. She's bound to be at one of them unless Daisy texts her at night. But night time is when all the garden centers close down, and that sort of defeats the purpose of shopping for plants, doesn't it? So she waits patiently for the response, then smirks when she gets it. She glances around her flat, which isn't nearly as planty as she'd like.

No such thing, she sends back. Besides, I think Big Mona is lonely for someone her own size.

Big Mona is the majesty palm John bought her, nearly two years on now. The plant's thriving, but Daisy will use any excuse to add to her growing collection.

The message came back quickly, and Nikita smirked at it. One of the reasons she and Daisy got along was that they both had the kind of attitude that really annoyed Operations.

Sometimes she contemplated Daisy in Section. She'd been worried that Cole would get chewed up and spit out if Section ever came here and discovered his powers, but she didn't worry about that for Daisy. Instead she enjoyed the mental image of Daisy and Madeline interacting.

I think they have apps for that now.

She wasn't actually declining the invitation, though. It had been a busy day, but she liked spending time with Daisy, even when they weren't fighting, drinking, or shagging.

Where should I meet you? I think the restaurant can run itself for the rest of the day.

Daisy sends back the name and street of her favorite garden center. She doesn't get all of her plants from there, but she gets a lot of her plant supplies there, and she knows they're having a sale on their summer plants to make room for their autumn stock, so she wants to see what she can buy.

Once she's sure Nikita's gotten the message, she gathers up her things and pulls her hair into a messy bun at the back of her head. Then she locks up and heads out.

The garden center wasn't too far from Bondurant's, so Nikita told her team she was leaving but would be available by text. One of her nosier waitresses tried to find out where Nikita was going, but Nikita was good at bland non-answers that didn't sound like non-answers. She wasn't sure that waitress was going to work out. Curiosity about the boss was fine and normal, but nosiness was not something she'd put up with for too long.

She got to the garden center a bit after Daisy did and approached her friend casually. She was still in the white shirt and black pants that she tended to wear to work, but her apron was in the messenger bag slung over her shoulder.

"So what's Big Mona looking for, then?"

"Probably a frog or something, honestly," Daisy admits, "but she'll have to settle for a coleus, I think." Maybe she can find a gorgeous red or purple one that'll pop against the green of the palm. "Most of my flowering plants are gonna stop flowering soon. I'll need something to brighten the place up for the winter."

If anyone has told her two years ago she'd be a plant mom, she would've ripped their throat out. Now, she can't really imagine doing something else with her time.

"You realize I have no idea what a coleus is."

Obviously it was a plant, but beyond that, Nikita couldn't say. The one in her house was a Porthos or something. Whatever it was, it didn't care if she forgot to water it for three weeks.

She wondered if Daisy had ever very quietly watered any of Nikita's plants when she'd been over for the evening. She didn't plan to ask, but now she wondered.

Daisy laughs. "They're usually over with the perennials, come on." She leads Nikita over to the block of tables and shelving with the perennials for sale, and soon enough, she's showing her the vibrantly colored leafy plants she's considering planting in Big Mona's pot.

"What d'you think?" she asks, stroking her fingers over the soft leaves of a green and pink plant.

She actually recognized a coleus once she saw it, even if she wouldn't have been able to name it before this moment. There were so many varieties that it was clear someone had been breeding these things for probably centuries.

"It looks a bit like a watermelon," she decided. "Which isn't a bad thing. I like it better than that one over there."

She pointed to one that was just dark red. It was a little boring-looking in comparison to all the others and also kind of looked like someone had bled on the plant.

Daisy looks over when she points it out, and she makes a low noise. "I like that one, too," she admits. "Bit autumn-y, isn't it? But this one's just sort of bright, it makes me happy." She isn't exactly an effusive person, so when she says it, it's very nearly deadpan, but there's a twinkle in her eyes that lets Nikita know she isn't lying. "That red one, I'd pair with a yellow one, probably, and some orange. Make a little autumn basket out of it."

The coleus flats all have little plastic loops that serve as informational cards and handles in one, so she curls her fingers under the green and pink one and lifts it up, then begins looking for a complementary plant.

Daisy wasn't a chipper, cheerful person, but Nikita knew her well enough to know that Daisy meant that. Plants made her happy, and that was good enough for Nikita, since Daisy was a friend.

"Did you want one in a contrasting color or something similar?"

She wasn't good with decorating, exactly, but she had a decent eye for what colors went well together or contrasted. She liked making wire art that did both, which Daisy knew since she'd seen the various items around Nikita's flat.

"I think contrasting," she says, nodding. "Little pop." She flicks her fingers from a ball shape outward, miming a smll explosion. "I've got a lot of green, is the thing. I can spread it round the flat, but it's still mostly greens."

She likes it, genuinely: it makes her feel like she's outside, sometimes, and the plants are good for the air in the flat, anyway. But it is a bit monochromatic at this point, and the coleus and a few other colorful foliage might help.

"Hmmm," Nikita replied thoughtfully.

"There's that one, with the two different colors of pink. That one's so light green it's almost yellow -- might contrast with the darker greens nicely."

She pointed to the different varieties as she mentioned them. There were a few purple and green varieties to go with the pink ones, but those seemed a little too close to what Daisy already had.

Daisy nods, collecting the pale green plant as well. She eyes the pink one, too, and debates adding it to her bedroom. It would be a nice splash of color in there. She hooks a finger around its handle as well; her fingers are quickly filling up. She looks quietly amused by the fact, but also pleased with herself.

"See, this is why I brought you along," she says, lifting her hands to show off her prizes. "In case I ran out of hands."

“Oh, that’s all you want from me?” Nikita teased a little flirtatiously, because why not? “My hands?”

Her hands were strong, and Daisy knew very well that Nikita knew how to use them. She didn’t know all the ways, exactly, but Nikita knew Daisy had probably made some reasonable guesses about some of Nikita’s skills that were not related to art, running a restaurant, or being an EMT.

Once, that would have bothered her a lot and made her concerned that her cover was going to be blown. She still didn’t confirm anything and would lie if she had to, but she worried a little less now. It had been long enough here that she felt like some of her friends might understand if she explained why she’d been part of Section.

Or maybe they wouldn’t. She wasn’t going to be making any confessions, just in case.

Daisy flashes a smirk. "Well, that's one thing," she teases back. "Maybe if you weren't so bloody good with them, I wouldn't ask you to use them so much." She grins, then, glad she and Nikita can tease like this. She's not one for romance, but Nikita seems to understand that — even welcome it, she reckons. They've got a good arrangement.

Nikita rolled her eyes but also held out her hands to take however many plants Daisy wanted to offload. There were trolleys available, but so far they could both carry what Daisy had found.

"Yeah, yeah, flattery'll get you everywhere," she replied.

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