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—In the middle of the night—
It was almost 5am, Two Time couldn’t bear with the trouble anymore and decided to wake up early, they tried to be quiet to not awaken Azure, as they got out of bed they made their way over to their mirror where they looked at their messy face and hair. After a few minutes of staring and trying to adjust their hair, noise could be heard from behind, they turned around only to notice Azure who was waking up from his slumber.
“O-oh.. Azure.. Good morning..” Two Time said softly with a whispery tone to their voice, trying to not make too much noise.
“Morning Two Time..” He responded with, looking tired yet somehow full of energy, he got out of his bed, Two Time looked away and pouted slightly.
“Sorry if I woke you up.. I just can’t sleep..” Two Time said, hoping that Azure forgives them. A warm smile built up on Azure's face as they replied to Two Time.
“Hm? Oh you didn’t wake me up at all, i just.. Wanted to wake up early today” He said as he made his way over to the mirror located on his side of the dorm, before grabbing a brush from his nearby drawers and arranging his hair, Two Time just nodded simply and they talked small during this small moment. As Azure finished up his hair, he grabbed his garden gloves and realized just how stiff and dirty they were, after thinking that, he allowed himself to go to Two Time’s side of the dorm and examine their gloves, also stiff and dirty.
He took both gloves and put them in a basin full of hot water that was situated in the dorms, Two Time noticed and slowly made their way over, confused as to what they’re doing.
“What are you doing, Azure?” They asked while still brushing their hair, looking over at the basin with the gloves soaking in.
“I’m, allowing myself to clean both of our pairs of gloves, they were pretty dirty and stiff”He explained simply, he grabbed both pairs and started drying them with a piece of cloth that he had.
“Oh.. You didn’t have to, you know..”Two Time said, they didn’t want to bother Azure with things that they could do themselves.
“I didn’t have to, but I wanted to. It makes the mornings feel calmer when I'm able to help you with small necessities” Azure softly explained, with warmth and a genuine tone in their voice. Two Time simply nodded and said “Thank you.” Azure handed them their gloves, they were warm to the touch from the water, and felt brand new, they smiled softly at them. Just from the thought that Azure took the time and care to do this for them.
They both got dressed and ready in their gardening outfit, and got out of their dorm, the hallway was rather dim, and the faint breathing from other cultists could still be heard through the walls. Two Time slowly started walking the way that they usually go through but Azure stopped them. Two Time turned around confused while looking at Azure.
“I.. I want to show you a private spot that I've kept only to myself for a bit..” Azure said, Two Time’s expression slowly turned from confused to curious, Azure asked them if they would follow him, and they nodded. They both proceeded to head to the opposite direction of the path that they usually take. And after a bit of walking and climbing stairs, they made it to a secluded corner that no one in the cult knew of, even the elders. It had the warm, fresh light from the sunset, and a small bench where exactly 2 people could sit on, each corners of the small “room” were filled with potted plants and flowers.
“I come here when I need some time to myself.. To let go of all the bad thoughts” Azure explained while kneeling down to one of the potted flowers, and examining it. “And now.. I want you to also know about this corner, because I trust you and I appreciate you as my close friend, Two Time.” He said while turning to Two Time, with a wide smile on his face.
“So, if you ever want privacy, or you have something important to tell them, we can always come here if you need.” He said, offering his sacred spot for Two Time to use for their own needs.
“Thank you Azure.. I appreciate this so much.” Two Time thanked with a genuine tone in their voice, like they could almost break down but decide not to, to embarrass themselves in front of him. The gesture was so small but meant so much to them, as if he could read their minds and know when he needs help, not knowing that all of this time. He knew.
After this quiet moment of exploring an unknown part of the church that Two Time hadn’t known of, they made their way to the gardening club, where no one was there for now because of how early it was. Azure sat down on a nearby bench situated next to one of the garden doors, he then patted the seat next to him. Two Time realized this and shyly sat next to Azure.
…
After a few minutes of silence, Azure spoke up first, trying to start a small conversation.
“Do you want to know something interesting, Two Time?” Azure asked, with an intrigued facial expression. Two Time nodded, curious as to what they had to say.
“Our gardening chief, I feel like he has some sort of secret revolt against the spawn cult.” They spoke, Two Time had quickly realized that Azure was gossiping to them about this.
“Do you think it’s because of how kind he is to us?” Two Time asked. “Yes! That’s exactly what I thought of.. It feels like he’s against the cult and more on the cultists back in a positive way.” Azure quickly spoke up after hearing Two Time’s reply. “I wonder what he thinks is so bad about this cult.. But deep down I don't mind it, it makes this whole part of the day more relaxing in my eyes.” Azure continued with, and Two Time nodded. Agreeing with especially the end of what they said.
After a few more hours of talking, the gardening group made their way over to the gardens, with the chief talking to them.
“Ah, Azure, Two Time. I see you two are here early!” The chief exclaimed with a proud smile on his face as he opened up the doors, letting everyone enter the garden as they all got back to working on the plants they were assigned to yesterday.
During work, Azure and Two Time both worked on the same batch of flowers that they were assigned to the last time they worked in the gardens, but the lack of sleep and nightmares took a bit hit on Two Time, as their work effort worsened, they were less precise, making things fall on accident and were being more careless without meaning to, the more the day went by the more it felt like they had trouble working, after a bit. Azure noticed what was happening and looked over at Two Time.
“Hey.. Let me help you out a bit” Azure said as he softly took the tool that Two Time was holding from their hands and started working on Two Time’s plants for a bit while they took deep breaths and calmed down.
A few minutes later, Two Time had calmed down a bit, so Azure handed them the tool back and asked. “Are you gonna be okay..? I can slow down and help you out if you want..” Two time looked down at their tool and the flowers, and nodded to Azure’s question. Azure smiled as he went back to working on his plants, observing Two Time every now and then and asking if they were okay. With him helping out when they need it or they need to take a quick breather.
Towards the start of the evening, Azure had an idea for a surprise that he would give him to Two Time. “Two Time.. I have a question, what’s your favorite flower?” He asked them, Two Time looked up at Azure and thought for a bit “I really like those blue flowers.. I think they’re called.. “Mystosis sylvatica” or “forget me not” flowers I'm pretty sure..” They answered with, an answer that Azure hadn’t expected. But he luckily had experience with these as he knew that they were low maintenance flowers that were easy to plant. He simply nodded at Two Time and thanked them for the answer. The group was then dismissed, and everyone made their way back to the dorms as it was rather late.
As both Azure and Two Time made their way back to their dorms, Two Time crumbled on their bed, really tired from today and yesterday. “I’m gonna try and sleep early in Azure, I need to be caught up on the sleep that i missed out on yesterday…” They said as they got under their blanket. Azure wished them a good night and thought that this was the perfect opportunity to start working on planting Two Time’s favorite flower for the surprise that he had planned, he got seated on his work table and slightly turned on the small light he had, he then got working planting the seeds for the flower.
— A few days later —
Azure had woken up early to set up everything for Two Time’s surprise, he had built an entire shrine for them as part of the side of their dorm to pray and as a kind gesture. On the shrine stood their favorite flower, the Mystosis sylvatica, surrounded by a bunch of candles. It was a small gift and he didn’t even know if Two Time would love it. Azure quietly made his way over to Two Time’s side of the dorm and set up everything next to their bed, the shrine was just small enough to the point where they wouldn’t see it when they woke up. After everything was correctly set, Azure got next to Two Time’s bed and patiently waited for them to wake up while he was sitting on the floor. A few hours later Two Time woke up.
“Morning Two Time!” Azure said while still sitting on the bed as he looked up at Two Time.
“Mmmm.. A-Azure..? What are you doing on the floor?” Two Time questions, a slightly tired and confused expression on their face.
“Oh, nothing, I just had something to show you. But first you gotta wear this.”Azure handed out a blindfold to Two Time, they were confused but took it and started wearing it. Afterwards Azure carefully took Two Time out of their bed and slowly walked over to the surprise, while making sure that they wouldn’t bump into anything.
“What are you trying to show me.. And why do i need to be blindfolde-” Two Time said before being cut off by Azure. “Don’t worryyy, it’s a good surprise..” Azure said, and secretly hoped in his mind.
As they got to the surprise, Azure asked them to kneel in front of the surprise. Two Time slowly knelt down and waited for a few seconds.
“I’ve been working on this for a few days now.. And I made it for you because I appreciate you..” Azure shyly said, a bit worried but also slightly hopeful. He took off Two Time’s blindfold and backed away slightly to let them admire the surprise.
As Two Time looked at the shrine, a slight expression of shock showed up on their face, and after a bit they started becoming flustered. No one had ever taken the time to make them such a beautiful gift, a faint blush showed up on their face but luckily Azure couldn’t see it.
“Wow… It’s.. It's beautiful Azure.. And that’s my favorite flower..” Two Time said, feeling genuinely impressed by the effort and time that he had taken to do this for them. “Thank you so much..” They ran up to hug Azure. “I’ll never forget this.. Thank you..” Azure hugged them deeply, proud of himself and proud that Two Time loved it. “You can use it to pray.. Or if you want to be reminded of something good” he looked at the flower while saying that. Two Time was still blushing while hugging Azure, not only had they never felt this way before.. But they’ve also never felt this way towards anyone. By the time that they had stopped hugging. Two Time’s blush had gotten away. Luckily. But what they didn’t know is that Azure had something else planned for them.
“I can’t wait to pray in front of it when we get back to the dorm after we finish tending to the gardens today..” Two Time said.
“Oh, the.. Gardens..?” Azure said, sarcastically confused.
“Um.. Yes.. The gardens Azure.” Two Time replied with, a bit confused at Azure’s interesting answer that they had never heard of, as usually, Azure’s really excited for this time of the day.
Azure giggled to himself. “That’ss.. Another surprise that i have planned for you today Two Time.” He said with a mischievous smile on his face.
“... Azure, did you kill the chief?”Two Time said, Azure bursted out laughing.
“No silly! I.. May have gotten you and me a day off, so we don’t have to go today and we can spend time.. Alone.. Together..” Azure said, Two Time was shocked and was wondering how Azure had managed to pull this off.
“Ah- Wh.. How..?” They question, curious and wondering how he had such privileges. “Remember that i am the group president, Two Time. I therefore have more power than anyone in the gardening group, except for the chief of course.” He simply replied with, a small “ohh” noise came out of Two Time as things made a lot more sense now.
“So.. We can just.. Do anything today?” They asked. “Wanna go to our secret spot?”Azure questioned, Two Time nodded and they were off to their secret spot.
Upon arriving, they both sat down on the bench and talked to each other, after a few minutes of talking, Two Time had to ask. “Azure.. Be honest, why are you doing all of this?” They interrogated, as they had slowly realized that for the past few days, Azure had been nothing but kind the entire time as of lately. “It’s just a kind gesture that I do.. Also you’ve been feeling down and stressed out, so I wanted to make you feel slightly relieved.” He replied with while staring at the plants and the small green vines on the wall. Two Time could feel butterflies in their stomach start to come as they hadn’t expected this answer at all. They couldn’t believe just how much he cared for them.
“I.. Thank you.. You did make me feel a lot better” Two Time spoke out as they looked at Azure and smiled, Azure looked back at them and smiled back. Who knew how much further they could go.
—End—