Prompt Twenty-Two: (22 Dec) Narcissus
Ever since they met the Olkari, she had tried communing with nature more, mostly through gardening.
It turned out that, though she piloted the green lion, she had zero green thumbs, but she could learn!
Lance observed Pidge as she dumped another pot of withered biomatter and dirt into space.
"Another rotten batch?" He stepped forward to help her clean up the remains, missing her startled flinch and flustering face.
"Yep..." She threw her gloves off and pulled on her short locks, "I don't get it! Fluorescent lighting matching solar rays, nutrient-rich dirt and fertilizer, I water them regularly, and still everything I plant dies!" She turned away from him as the flush on her cheeks grew slightly brighter.
"Have you tried talking to them? I hear it helps."
"Plants don't have ears, Lance."
"Well, uh, what're you gonna try next? Maybe give it a shot, anyway?"
Pidge sighed, "I think I'm just gonna give up. Clearly I can't garden."
"You can't give up! You're the green paladin! All of you is green, including your thumbs! You just need experience." Never let it be said that Lance was not a supportive friend. That was one of the reasons she had a small crush on The Sharpshooter.
Every chance he got, he'd support Pidge, even if she didn't need it. At times like this, Pidge thought it was a bit annoying.
"Well, it doesn't matter anyway! I'm out of seeds, so..."
Lance smirked at the shorter paladin, holding up a bag, "You're not out of these daffodil seeds," he waved the bag in front of her face.
"Daffodils? Like from earth?"
"Yep, I got them in a market on that last planet. The lady that sold them toe said they meant "New beginnings" or something, but since she was an alien, I'm not sure how reliable that is. Anyway, here," He offered the bag to his glum chum, who took it with a gloomy look on her face.
"And remember," Lance told her as she slumped back toward her chambers, "Talk to it! Plants need communication, just like people!" Pidge turned to smile at him, and she nodded in thanks.
"Or at least," the blue paladin added, murmuring, "That's what that space florist told me..."
"... And when he helped me scrounge up money at that space mall..." Pidge went on, speaking animatedly to PM3 -- she gave them IDs to log their growth progress, obviously -- "I had so much fun, especially when we finally got Killbot Phantasm 1. Of course, then we had to actually get a TV as well, and find a way to hook up the console to the ship's power systems..." She sat up and cradled the daffodil in her lap, smiling, "But when we finally got it working we played for hours, and just had so much fun! Plus, he's been really considerate lately, seeming to take more interest in computers and stuff..." Pidge leaned back against the wall, "Although, that might be him finally wanting to learn about it because he's around it so much and is tired of not knowing what we're talking about. But it could be because he likes me back, and I calculate a probability of--"
"Pidge?" Shiro was knocking on her door, "It's time for dinner... And, uh, are you talking to someone?"
"Really? I could've sworn--"
The green paladin slammed her door open with rosy cheeks, "I WAS TALKING PLANCE! I MEAN--TO MY PLANTS!"
Her leader blinked at her, confused, before lighting up with recognition, "Oh, so you haven't given up gardening? I'm proud of you. You're usually so impatient with nature. But, uh, talking to plants...?"
"Lance said it might help." Pidge grinned wryly, "And so I've, uh, started an experiment with my daffodils." She gestured to the first of the three pot.
"PM1 gets no sounds, just the standard treatment," PM1 was in a pot labelled such and sat under a fluorescent lamp. The plant seemed weak and small, and the leaves looked pale. "She's my control." Shiro nodded hesitantly.
"PM2," She moved on to the middle flower, petals gloomily slumping and stalk leaning to the side. "I exchange pleasantries with, saying 'Hi' and 'Good night,' and occasionally I'll tell her about my day or something... She's a sort of benchmark to see how much effort is needed."
The third and final sapling stood proud in it's abode, and strong stem protruded from the ceramic where it lay on Pidge's bed, bright leaves and petals seemed to glisten in the fluorescent lighting and mock the other two.
"PM3, I talk to her almost as much as I talk to you guys. She is the main test group, and after all this time, she's really flora-shing!" The shorter paladin giggled at her own joke while praising her 'favorite.'
"That's great, Pidge. But I gotta ask... What does PM mean?"
The girl froze at the question, standing ramrod straight and staring at the far wall.
"Uh, Pidge... Narcissus. It's PN, not PM... Heh, you must've misheard me."
The two paladins stared at each other for several seconds.
"ANYWAY, didn't you say it was dinnertime?"
"Oh, yeah. So clean up and hurry on down."
"Yes, sir!" The flustered girl pushed Shiro out of the room, then whirled on her precious plants when he was out of earshot.
In a fierce whisper, she spoke to PM3, "Pidge McClain III. Not. One. Word."