(Untitled)

[realnicetrip]

A month had passed since the dell had arrived on the island. After the initial shock, Harry had decided just to ignore it, on the grounds that it couldn't do him any harm now. Now the snow had melted and the trees had begun to grow leaves, it no longer looked like the place he remembered, and it was no work to put it out of his mind and move on by

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[bennet_beauty]

Jane wasn't sure, sometimes, why she lingered at the Club. She thought that something might change and it never did and her reason for walking past this way on this particular day was nothing to do with Carwood and rather had more to do with wanting a change of scenery after avoiding it for so long. She did not expect to find Harry looking so very hard at work. "What are you planting?" she asked when it was a polite enough distance to inquire so that she was not shouting.

[realnicetrip]

"Lilies!" Harry called out, recognising Jane's voice but not turning round. "And..." He moved over to check the other, as yet unopened, packets. "Hibiscus and chrysanthemums." He looked closer at the pictures. "Oh, all red and white, not that that's being obvious or anything."

He put down his trowel and got up to greet Jane properly, wiping his hands on his pants.

"The island gave me the seeds, so I thought I might as well use them."

[bennet_beauty]

Jane made her way to his side, arranging her dress so that it flowed perfectly and gave herself a lovely look, though she was more than willing to sit and kneel in the grass and dirt. "Shall I help?" she offered, eyes bright. "I do tend to my own garden at New Pemberley and have something of a green thumb, I believe."

[realnicetrip]

"Be my guest!" Harry said, watching her neatly kneel down beside him. Compared to her, he probably looked a complete mess, wearing his tattiest clothes, with soil up to his elbows.

"I haven't really got much of a plan," he admitted. "I'm just sort of putting the seeds in any old how and hoping for the best. As long as I water them and chase away the bugs, they'll grow, right?"

[vat_69]

Finding Harry scrabbling around in the dirt really isn't as surprising as you might think. It makes sense in a way, him out there digging up that little piece of home, and Lew's almost jealous that he doesn't have his own plot of built-in catharsis.

"Tell me you actually know what you're doing," he mumbles upon approach, and bends against the breeze to light a cigarette. He pauses long enough to take a drag and sigh it out and then continues, "Because I've got a hell of a project for you and your green thumb, if so."

[realnicetrip]

"I think I've got the basic idea. Poke a hole in the ground, put a seed in, cover it up, easy," Harry said, twisting round and craning his neck to look at Nixon. He shook the dirt off his hands and moved into a more comfortable position.

"I don't know if it's gonna be a regular thing, though. Depends what you had in mind."

[vat_69]

"I think this is going to be a little more complicated than that," Lew allows, because he doesn't know much about horticulture, but he knows that much. "You got flower seeds, I got grape vines. Two of them, red and white, like I'm suddenly the fucking Bacchus of desert islands. I've got no idea what to do with them; the last time I tended a plant, I was in grammar school and it died."

[realnicetrip]

"Oh, so having your own wine cellar isn't enough now?" Harry said, shaking his head. Way for the island to play favourites. "I'll keep an eye on them, if you want, but I'm no more of an expert than you are. Go to the bookcase and see if it's in a good mood, that's what I did."

He'd be surprised if this garden turned out to be even remotely presentable, and he'd imagine if it did it would have more to do with the island than his own skills.

[patriotqueen]

How simple it was to annex a piece of land on this island. One need only to plant something in the ground, be it plants or wooden poles, and the piece was owned. Guy wondered if he shouldn't randomly plant flags on around the prettier sites of this island, claiming them his. He didn't.

But his first thought did stray to the lack of a system of ownership on the island, before wondering why on earth Harry was on his knees planting something at all.

Last time Harry had been here he had looked perfectly dismal. Now he seemed to feel much better. And Guy couldn't help himself but remark, as he approached the kneeled and bended man from behind; "You look... tempting," he grinned. "Such a shame about the clothes. Feeling better about this place, I take it?" he continued in the same breath.

[realnicetrip]

Upon Guy making his opening remark, Harry immediately straightened up. He glanced down briefly at his oversized t-shirt and earth-smeared pants, and turned round to look at Guy.

"Well, I'm hardly gonna put on a suit and tie to plant a garden," he said. "And yeah - this place looks a whole lot nicer now the snow's gone. I'd ask if you wanted to help out with the planting, but I suppose you wouldn't want to spoil your fancy outfit."

[patriotqueen]

Guy had never cared for gardening. Even on this island the only thing he was interested in was to gain tobacco and wine. Gardening for a purpose, not to grow flowers.

He didn't need to answer Harry's question, because the other already (and rightly) assumed Guy wasn't going to help.

"So you've decided to make it your garden? What are you planting?"

[realnicetrip]

"Flowers. Lilies and stuff. I just found the seeds in my room some day, and I figured I might as well actually use them," Harry said. "Make the place look a little brighter, that sort of thing."

He'd never really got the attraction of gardening before, a little too slow-paced for his liking, but he'd quite enjoyed himself planning it out. It was something to do at any rate.

"I'm kind of putting them all in a circle, round the edges of the dell here, so people can walk about in the middle. Might build a bench if I can figure out how."

[waltsnothereman]

"Hope you don't take this the wrong way," Wanda mused, raising an eyebrow in casual amusement as she scoped out the little plot of land, arms folded across her chest, "but you never really struck me as the gardening type." Not that she'd ever been some uncanny judge of character or anything like that, but she'd also never been one to shy away from that fact. Besides, this place already had a garden, and one with a practical purpose at that.

[realnicetrip]

"I'm not," Harry said, putting down his tools and turning round to look up at Wanda. "But the island gave me some land and some things to plant in it, so I figured I'd take the hint. It'll make this place look a little bit brighter." Stop it looking like how he'd known it, was the point; the lack of snow helped, but it was still undoubtedly creepy having it around.

[waltsnothereman]

"Guess everyone needs a hobby," Wanda said easily, automatically accepting of the matter even if she still didn't entirely get it herself. At least the notion of the island providing it all for Harry explained the non-native trees ringing the area. "Place does look a little on the drab side, now that you mention it."

[realnicetrip]

"Looked even worse the first time round, trust me," Harry said, unable to repress a little shiver. "If you ever feel like going on a camping trip in the middle of winter in Belgium, for the love of God, don't. The weather's awful and things keep exploding."

He gave a grim little chuckle and quickened his pace, as if it might hasten the speed the flowers grew.