Chocolate #30, Amaretto #7, Vinegar #28 + rainbow sprinkles
Story: The Blaze Mafia Family
Title: Garden of Delight
Prompt: Chocolate #30: joy, Amaretto #7: keeping up appearances, Vinegar #28: fragile + rainbow sprinkles
Rating: PG
Characters: Marco de Luca, Willow de Luca
Summary: It’s the de Lucas again, but a much more appetizing one than Peter! Marco is one of my favorite characters even though I really haven’t gotten around to showing him much. This happens around the same time as The New Neighbors. And this is my last one for all three of these flavors! :D
Marco liked helping his mother with her gardening for multiple reasons. The most important reason was because his father would leave them both alone while they were doing it. It was outside for one thing and his dad was never mean outside. Plus, his dad didn’t really mind it when Willow gardened because he said it was the kind of activity that a politician’s wife should do. That kinda pissed Marco off but when his mom explained that she didn’t garden for his father’s image but because it was something she enjoyed, Marco didn’t get mad about it anymore.
There was something calming about the whole process. He was fascinated with having control over something that wasn’t capable of taking care of itself. When he was smaller he’d had a lot of fun digging in the dirt and hacking away at the roots of the plants so they would shrivel up and die, but as he’d gotten older, that hadn’t been nearly as satisfying.
Then his mother had given him responsibility over one iris plant in the garden at their old house, and he’d learned something even better than killing it. He watered it, gave it good dirt, and made sure to keep away all the bugs and weeds that would surely kill his small charge. It had been a wonder watching the small bulb form on the end of one of the thin stalks then get bigger and fatter until he came home from school one day and there was a bright flower with dark blue petals that curled outwards as if to welcome everyone in the whole world to look upon it. But Marco knew that this flower was for him alone, a thank you for taking such good care of the plant when it had been nothing but a lone little leaf barely poking its head out of the dirt. Nothing made Marco angry when he thought about his flower.
When they’d moved here, his father hadn’t let them take any of the plants from their old garden because he said it would decrease its resale value. Marco was furious with his dad for that. The iris plant was his, no one could take such good care of it or appreciate the blue petalled thank-you’s that the plant gave back in return. He had been so angry that he’d stormed outside to his iris plant and pulled it right out of the ground. He’d torn off all the flowers and broken apart the thick green stalks until there was nothing left of it. Better to kill it now then let it suffer slowly in the hands of someone that wouldn’t love it like he did.
He’d cleaned up the mess and stuffed it in the bottom of the trash can so no one would see what he did. They’d moved out two days later so he thought that no one would ever know about his outburst. His dad never paid attention to anything he did anyway, and his mom hadn’t said anything about it or even gone into the garden. Then, when they’d moved into their new house, and his dad had left to go to work like he always did, Willow had calmly told Marco to gather up the gardening tools and meet her outside. He hadn’t wanted to, he didn’t like the drooping plants that marched alongside the edge of the house like sad sentries, none of them were as good as the plants at their old house and they certainly weren’t like his iris. But he’d done it anyway because his mom didn’t ask him to do things often. He’d brought everything over to his mother already kneeling in the dirt at the edge of the porch.
Willow carefully unwrapped a bundle of wet paper towels. Marco stiffened when he recognized the bundle of roots and a single thick green stalk. Willow held it out to her son. “I separated a piece when your father said you couldn’t bring the whole plant. This iris is your responsibility. You plant it.”
Marco burst into tears. Willow set the plant down and gathered her son close to her. He sobbed out the whole story, coming clean about how he killed the plant and hid it from everyone. About how he didn’t deserve the responsibility because he’d only ruin it again. About how he was sorry for getting too angry again, just like his dad did.
Willow had held her son and let him cry it all out, making the soft soothing noises that mothers excelled at. When Marco finally calmed down so he was just sniffling, Willow set the plant in his hands. “This is yours. You have to protect it from everything, even yourself sometimes.”
“What if I can’t?” Marco asked, giving voice to his greatest fear. Sometimes he’d just get so angry that it felt like he had no control at all, just like his father. And that was what scared Marco the most.
Willow wiped Marco’s tears away. “Then we’ll just try again.”
Title: Garden of Delight
Prompt: Chocolate #30: joy, Amaretto #7: keeping up appearances, Vinegar #28: fragile + rainbow sprinkles
Rating: PG
Characters: Marco de Luca, Willow de Luca
Summary: It’s the de Lucas again, but a much more appetizing one than Peter! Marco is one of my favorite characters even though I really haven’t gotten around to showing him much. This happens around the same time as The New Neighbors. And this is my last one for all three of these flavors! :D
Marco liked helping his mother with her gardening for multiple reasons. The most important reason was because his father would leave them both alone while they were doing it. It was outside for one thing and his dad was never mean outside. Plus, his dad didn’t really mind it when Willow gardened because he said it was the kind of activity that a politician’s wife should do. That kinda pissed Marco off but when his mom explained that she didn’t garden for his father’s image but because it was something she enjoyed, Marco didn’t get mad about it anymore.
There was something calming about the whole process. He was fascinated with having control over something that wasn’t capable of taking care of itself. When he was smaller he’d had a lot of fun digging in the dirt and hacking away at the roots of the plants so they would shrivel up and die, but as he’d gotten older, that hadn’t been nearly as satisfying.
Then his mother had given him responsibility over one iris plant in the garden at their old house, and he’d learned something even better than killing it. He watered it, gave it good dirt, and made sure to keep away all the bugs and weeds that would surely kill his small charge. It had been a wonder watching the small bulb form on the end of one of the thin stalks then get bigger and fatter until he came home from school one day and there was a bright flower with dark blue petals that curled outwards as if to welcome everyone in the whole world to look upon it. But Marco knew that this flower was for him alone, a thank you for taking such good care of the plant when it had been nothing but a lone little leaf barely poking its head out of the dirt. Nothing made Marco angry when he thought about his flower.
When they’d moved here, his father hadn’t let them take any of the plants from their old garden because he said it would decrease its resale value. Marco was furious with his dad for that. The iris plant was his, no one could take such good care of it or appreciate the blue petalled thank-you’s that the plant gave back in return. He had been so angry that he’d stormed outside to his iris plant and pulled it right out of the ground. He’d torn off all the flowers and broken apart the thick green stalks until there was nothing left of it. Better to kill it now then let it suffer slowly in the hands of someone that wouldn’t love it like he did.
He’d cleaned up the mess and stuffed it in the bottom of the trash can so no one would see what he did. They’d moved out two days later so he thought that no one would ever know about his outburst. His dad never paid attention to anything he did anyway, and his mom hadn’t said anything about it or even gone into the garden. Then, when they’d moved into their new house, and his dad had left to go to work like he always did, Willow had calmly told Marco to gather up the gardening tools and meet her outside. He hadn’t wanted to, he didn’t like the drooping plants that marched alongside the edge of the house like sad sentries, none of them were as good as the plants at their old house and they certainly weren’t like his iris. But he’d done it anyway because his mom didn’t ask him to do things often. He’d brought everything over to his mother already kneeling in the dirt at the edge of the porch.
Willow carefully unwrapped a bundle of wet paper towels. Marco stiffened when he recognized the bundle of roots and a single thick green stalk. Willow held it out to her son. “I separated a piece when your father said you couldn’t bring the whole plant. This iris is your responsibility. You plant it.”
Marco burst into tears. Willow set the plant down and gathered her son close to her. He sobbed out the whole story, coming clean about how he killed the plant and hid it from everyone. About how he didn’t deserve the responsibility because he’d only ruin it again. About how he was sorry for getting too angry again, just like his dad did.
Willow had held her son and let him cry it all out, making the soft soothing noises that mothers excelled at. When Marco finally calmed down so he was just sniffling, Willow set the plant in his hands. “This is yours. You have to protect it from everything, even yourself sometimes.”
“What if I can’t?” Marco asked, giving voice to his greatest fear. Sometimes he’d just get so angry that it felt like he had no control at all, just like his father. And that was what scared Marco the most.
Willow wiped Marco’s tears away. “Then we’ll just try again.”