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."

[little_moons]

"Not the very first," I murmur, thinking back to just a few months after we'd met, finding him in the rec room just after the snow, grumpily looking at books about flowers. A Christmas present for Eostre.

"What is it?" I ask, touching a finger to one of the tiny buds.

[m_pinocchio]

"I think it's called Blue Dawn flower," he says. As if on cue, Flo looks up and chirps "Boo!" He grins at her. They've been trying to talk less, too, or so it seems, and it's good to hear it again.

"At least, that's what the book I found said. The flowers match the picture." They're closed now, a little wilted, but he has faith that they'll open again.

Faith is what it was always about.

[little_moons]

Blue Dawn. Right, of course. A faint smile slowly finds its way onto my face, pulling my hand away before I end up bruising the delicate flowers.

"So, up over the door, huh?" I murmur, leaning back on my hands and looking up at the little house and trying to imagine what'll look like with all those blue flowers arching over the frame.

"I like it," I decide with a warm smirk of a smile.

[m_pinocchio]

"I do too," he says, following Neil's gaze, looking up and trying to imagine. It's the first time in weeks he's actively tried to picture any kind of future for himself. It's the first time in weeks that doing such a thing has seemed worthwhile.

He gets up and moves over to the other patch of turned-over soil, dropping back into a crouch and unwrapping the second plant, fitting its roots into the soil. "Might do a little more than this, too. If these don't die."

[little_moons]

Flo stomps over to me and I pull her into my lap, brushing a hand gently over the soil packed around the first vine and tightening my hold on the little girl in my arms when she leans forward, arms outstretched toward the plant.

My lips twitch, curling into a playful sort of smile, and I say, "You're nesting. 's kinda weird."

[m_pinocchio]

He pauses with his hands in the dirt, looking up at Neil again with a faintly surprised smile stretching his mouth. "Yeah, I guess I am." And he never had at his old hut, not quite like this. He shrugs. "Figure I'll be here a while."

For whatever time he has left.

[little_moons]

"Guess so," I say, smile widening and smoothing out into something warmer, "Not a bad place to be."

Flo squirms out of my arms, had enough of me for now, and crawls across the dirt toward Mike.

[m_pinocchio]

"Kinda what I'm thinking," he says, looking up at it again. The house he'd built with his own hands--not alone, naturally, but all the same--and it feels like home. It feels more like home than maybe anywhere else he's ever been.

"A couple weeks ago I would've never thought I could be comfortable living here." He gently pokes Flo's nose, leaving a fingerprint of dirt. They'll all need a wash after this. "Now I really don't think I can be anywhere else."

[little_moons]

"Wouldn't really be right to move the girls," I agree quietly. Wouldn't be right to let it stand empty. As uncomfortable as I am around the place now... well, that doesn't matter. It's not about me.

But for him, it feels right and its the first time in weeks that I've seen any sign that he could really be happy here. Really happy, and just seein' that's a pretty fuckin' great feeling.

[m_pinocchio]

"No, it wouldn't," he says, equally as quiet as he packs dirt around the stem of the plant. He's quiet for a few more seconds, chewing on his bottom lip, before he speaks again. "So the next step is to talk to Hobbes about it, I guess."

It's not even really a question to him, what he wants. But he figures there should be something explicitly decided rather than just assumed.

[little_moons]

"'Bout him movin' in here?"

Not a week ago, Tom was pretty fuckin' terrified by the idea. Sleep deprived and worn so thin he could hardly think straight. Now, things feel more settled, more stable, but it'll be something for the two of them to decide.

[m_pinocchio]

He nods. "I mean... I guess I wasn't even really thinking about it till now. Always lived by myself." And that's how he and Tom have been doing it since the beginning, giving each other space, no matter how many nights they ended up in each other's beds. But now everything's changed. Now, having his own space doesn't seem so important anymore. Or even possible.

Only, his aren't the only feelings that matter.

"How do you feel about that?" he asks, cocking a thoughtful eye in Neil's direction.