How Does Your Garden Grow?
Quick little blurb based on a starter prompt to get me back into writing after a long hiatus (forgive me). it’s about Maja and Neph, my alraune and arachne respectively, in an AU where they’re both human
It was genuine stroke of luck when Nephila managed to snag the small 2 bedroom apartment for herself. Downtown, with easy access to public transportation that made her commute to school mere minutes instead of the hours it had been. Truthfully she’d barely be able to afford rent since the utilities were included in it, but she had been careful in saving what she could to offset the moving costs, so she’d only be hurting for the first month or two.
Two weeks after she had the keys handed to her, the seamstress had finally finished unpacking and set up her home. The decor was light, mostly small pictures along the walls and furniture decorated in pinks and purples. The opposite room was her sewing room, which had seen many hours of work and delayed the overall unpacking process, and was draped in various class assignments and personal projects.
A month passed since she moved in and as the weather had begun to warm, Nephila had taken to spending more time on her outside balcony in the evenings and on the the weekends. It was a nice way for her to unwind after school and work, and she had taken to people watching every so often as a way of brainstorming ideas for her designer partner. Things had been fairly tame until today when her eyes happened to wander over to a balcony of an apartment across the street from her building.
The sun was close to setting, and so the light was less than optimal, but Neph swore she saw the lady of the house watering a number of plants lining the balcony in nothing but a bikini.
“I’m surprised she’s out in weather this cool with so little.”
That would have been the last of it if this mystery lady had not made a habit of consistently gardening in nothing but bikinis. Nephila was a bit amused by it at first but after a while she became curious as to just how many bikinis this woman had. It took nearly a month before she wore the initial swimsuit again.
“That’s... a lot of diversity in swimwear, to say the least.”
It was another few weeks after this that Neph came to a rather sudden realization while repairing a seam on the balcony: the gardener lady across the way only came out when she was out. Was it it a coincidence? Was it intentional? The seamstress was lost in thought instead of her work when she noticed the neighbor lady back on her balcony again. Only this time the lady made an effort to show that she knew she was being watched.
Nephila frantically retreated to her room and hid underneath her covers in embarrassment. There were a multitude of thoughts racing through her mind and no clear answers were forming. Eventually she gave up and went to sleep, although her dreams gave a version of herself that was bold enough to respond back to the bikini lady.
On her way home the next day, Nephila noticed an attractive dark skinned woman sitting on the stoop outside the building as if she was expecting someone. Not wanting to be rude, she averted her gaze and made to politely walk up the opposite side of the stairs, but was surprised when the woman lightly grabbed her hand.
“Hey. Sorry to be so sudden, but you’re that girl that sits on her balcony every day around 6pm, right?”
“I um...” Nephila stammered out, a bit of apprehension coated her words. “Uh, yeah. I’ve been, um, doing that lately...”
A bit of her nervousness eased up when she saw the lady smile at her response. The woman soon let her go and laced her fingers together.
“Oh thank heavens! I was worried when you fled after I waved at you last night.”
“I-I didn’t mean to watch so much. I’m sorry if I offended you are made you uncomfortable.”
“Not at all! It was nice to have some company. Albeit at a distance, nonetheless, it was nice, miss..?”
“Nephila...” the girl replied with a slight blush.
“That’s a lovely name. Mine is Majalise, but Maja is fine.”
“Nice to meet you.”
“Likewise.”
“Would, would you like to come in for a drink or something? I feel bad that I made you wait out here with no idea when I’d be back.”
Once again Nephila found herself taken aback when Maja took her hand.
“I’d love that, and to talk a bit more.”
Still wrapped up in the pace of the attractive woman, the two made their way back up to Nephila’s apartment, where they made small talk over tea.