My evergreen, you are always gonna be...

[m_pinocchio]

He's spent the night alone. It's taken some coaxing, Tom hadn't been especially willing, but gentle insistence and he'd given way. Yes, I'm fine. I'm sure I'm fine. You don't need to take the girls, I'm really fine. A night alone in this house, with his daughters, with his ghosts. He doesn't even know how many of them there are now. One more added

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[little_moons]

Slowly, slowly the tension starts to unravel. Slowly, Tom and I are the only ones left worrying ourselves to death, while Mike's finally starting to come out on the other side. But last night, I slept and Tom did too, curled around each other in a warm bed, missing Mike but completely exhausted. This morning, we both woke up early. Tom went off to do whatever it is he does, and I let my feet take me along the well worn path toward the World Tree.

By the time I can see them in the yard, I'm smiling, trampling through the carpet of flower petals as I make my way over. "Hey, ladies," I say, leaning down to swoop Mack squealing into the air, holding her high over my head while she squirms and kicks her feet. I put her back down and Flo reaches toward me with chubby arms, and I lift her up, same treatment, laughing along with her when I sit her down next to her sister.

Dropping into a crouch next to them, I brush a blade of grass out of Flo's hair and cock my head in Mike's direction. "So, what's your Daddy up to, huh?"

[m_pinocchio]

"Playing in the dirt, what's it look like?" He looks up, dusts his hands off and grins. The girls seem to sense the change, and they seem to like it. He's not sure he's seen them smile this much in weeks.

"Seem like you're in a good mood this morning."

[little_moons]

Tipping my head to the side, I take a moment to think about it, wondering if a good mood crept up on me without me even noticing. Guess it's possible.

"I'm okay, yeah," I say with a crooked smile, helpless in the face of his grin. Dropping to my knees, I shuffle over closer to him, reaching out to brush my fingertips over the delicate vine curling up out of the dirt. "You're gardening." It doesn't come out a question, and I'm not as surprised as I feel like I should be.

[m_pinocchio]

"I am." He hadn't really thought of it in those specific terms, but he supposes that that is, indeed, what he is doing. "First time for everything, right?" He absently takes away the stick that Mack is lifting to her mouth, and goes back to settling the dirt over the vine.

"I'm hoping it'll climb over the door."

[gotacigarette]

Familiar little girls and a flowering tree. Eden's hair's pulled back from her face, sweaty from running. She passes her hand across her forehead and watches Mike dig in the soil. It's an odd picture, but it makes a sort of sense.

Mack looks up and Eden gives her a little wave, her smile uncharacteristically soft.

"I didn't know they were yours."

[m_pinocchio]

He looks up and smiles slightly, a little hesitantly. He's aware how out of character this is for him, and he feels like maybe he should be embarrassed to be seen like this--only he doesn't.

"Not just mine," he says. "But yeah, they are. You've met them?"

[gotacigarette]

"We're acquainted."

Eden squats down in the grass and holds her hand out to Mack. She's surprised how pleased she is when the little girl hauls herself to her feet and toddles towards her, dirty hands and all.

"I met them when Neil was baby-sitting." Which means that Mike is the man who's woman is gone, the mother of his children. You're young, Marcus Kane had said. What have you ever lost.

Eden understands loss, but she doesn't say anything. Sometimes, it's hell to be reminded.

[m_pinocchio]

"Oh." He nods; Neil has them often enough these days. He smiles as Mack stumps over to her. Not afraid of anything or anyone. No one's ever taught them to be afraid.

"They're a handful." His smile fades just a bit, though it doesn't falter. "Especially now."

[sir_samuel]

Vimes hadn't been sleeping well lately. It was an old habit that still cropped up from time to time, this early-morning restlessness. His body still expected to be patrolling at night, still craved the semblance of peace that a garishly beautiful sunset gave you.

Most of the time he didn't know what would suddenly make him forget that he hadn't walked the night watch beat in years, what made him lie awake until he gave in. This time he knew.

He stopped when he saw Pinnochio, hesitating. They hadn't spoken yet, and there was a part of him that wanted to keep it that way 'cause it seemed easier. But seeing the girls there made him change his mind. "Kinda early, don't you think?"

[m_pinocchio]

"I guess it is, yeah," He looks up with his fingers still curled into the dirt, and his smile is a little uncertain, but only a little. If things are getting better than they really are getting better, and he's not going to worry any more than he has to.

He shrugs. "I had stuff to do."

[sir_samuel]

"Like planting a garden," Vimes said with an arch of his brow. City born and bred as he was, he tended to leave the green growing stuff to other people. "What've you got, then?"

[m_pinocchio]

"Not a garden," he says, finishing packing the dirt around the first vine and dusting his hands absently. "Not yet. Maybe at some point." He nods to the vine, pausing to gently bat Mack away when she tries to pull it out of the ground again. "Blue Dawn flower. I think. It climbs."

[chris_cutter]

"So, you're taking up gardening, huh?" Chris said as he wandered closer, stopping to crouch down by the twins, his hand passing over Mack's hair lightly as she played with the petal.

It actually made a weird kind of sense, though Chris didn't realize that until after the words were out. Eostre always said she could make things grow and now... well, now Mike was doing it. Sort of. Somehow, Chris doubted he'd have the same kind of success as Eostre always had given that Mike wasn't exactly a god, but the idea was the same.

If nothing else, it was just good to see him outside doing anything at all.

[m_pinocchio]

"Maybe," he says, pausing and looking up with a smile. Today, he's happier to see Chris than he has been in a while. There's a lot that goes into that, but mostly he's content to be grateful for it and nothing more. "My hobbies these days are mostly running and killing things. Maybe I feel like branching out a little."

[chris_cutter]

"Good start," Chris replied, returning the smile warmly before turning his attention to Mack again, reaching over to touch the petal she still seemed fascinated by. "Mind some company or would your rather be alone with your art?"

[m_pinocchio]

"My 'art?'" He rolls his eyes and points to a grassy patch of ground, where he had put the twins initially before they became too interested in what he's doing. "Sit your ass down. You can keep them outta my hair while I finish this."

[out_of_realm]

Tom Hobbes was worried. It wasn't a new state of things. He was worried about Neil and the brave little smile he got when they talked about where things were going with him and Mike. He was worried about the girls, crying for mommy when they wouldn't sleep in the horrible, thin hours of the night. He was worried for himself and for Eostre, wherever she'd gone. But most of all, he was worried for Mike Pinocchio, who'd gone through worse but shouldn't have ever had to, again and again.

As it was, when he made it to the World Tree that morning he was still damp from the shower, carrying baby food in bowls and a sandwich for Mike in a napkin. It hadn't been easy to leave him, not even for the span of one night, but Mike had been clear, drawn a line in the sand. Eventually, you learn when to stop pushing.

Tom hesitated, watching Mike work on his knees and then, even then without anything being said, something horrible and petrified began to work itself loose in his chest. Oh, he thought, Oh, does this mean we're moving on?.

[m_pinocchio]

He raises his head at Flo's little yell and pauses in his work, fingers deep in the warm soil and the sun on his face. Tom is standing in a shaft of sunlight, the light setting off the blond in his hair, and for a moment he can't quite take a breath.

He'd asked Tom to leave him alone for a night. But he doesn't think he wants any other nights alone from now on.

He smiles, wide and warm, and pulls his hands out of the earth, dusting them off against each other. "So what're you staring at, dick?"

[out_of_realm]

"You," Tom said, shifting what he was carying into one hand so that he could reach down and stroke his fingers through Flo's hair, almost allowing himself to give into the cavern of relief opening up underneath him.

"You doing..." He stopped, still almost smiling, and went over to look over Mike's shoulder. "What are you doing, exactly?"

[m_pinocchio]

"I'm planting this thing," he says, looking back down at the little vine leaning up against the wall of the house. Leaning, and hopefully soon it'll climb, maybe with a little help. "And... and I guess it'll grow." It might not, he knows that... but somehow, here, so close to the place where Eostre had lived, he's sure it'll grow. Thrive.