I’m growing some flowers. The flowerpot’s in my room and Sehun said I have to look after it. Sometimes I’m not very good at looking after myself. I hope these flowers will be okay.

Joonmyun is digging through the fridge for a snack when he happens to peer out the kitchen window and see Sehun pottering around in the garden. He looks like he’s at hard work, yanking out stringy green things and throwing them into a slowly-growing pile on the grass.

Joonmyun locates a box of cherries on the vegetable shelf and washes some to eat, and then after a moment of thought he washes some more and goes outside.

The sun is sparing nobody from its heat and the catboy feels like he’s already sweating one foot out into the backyard. Heaven only knows how Sehun’s faring with the sun beating down on his back.

“Sehun, I brought some fruit for you!” Joonmyun announces, bounding up to his owner and proffering his bowl of cherries proudly, “I thought you might be hungry!”

Sehun glances up in pleasant surprise, his lips turning up in a fond smile. “Aren’t you a good boy today… but I don’t think I can eat those right now.” He holds up his hands to show Joonmyun that he’s wearing gardening gloves. The fingers are brown and grubby, matted with dirt and soil.

“Oh. Can I feed you then?” Joonmyun giggles, his mouth full of cherries.

Sehun pulls out another weed. “Go for it,” he laughs, opening his mouth wide. The catboy carefully drops a cherry inside, and eats another one himself. “Mm, these are good for a hot day. Thanks, kitten.”

Joonmyun spends some time sitting next to his owner in the backyard, feeding him with the occasional cherry and wondering exactly what he’s doing in the garden.

“Just clearing out some space,” Sehun explains when the catboy inquires out of curiosity. “I’m going to go down to the gardening store and get some plants to put here. It’s kind of empty, don’t you think?”

Joonmyun looks at the now weed-free patch of garden and tries to imagine what could possibly go in there. “Maybe you should start growing vegetables,” he says, one kitty ear twitching thoughtfully. “Then we don’t have to go all the way to the supermarket when you don’t have any tomatoes!”

Well, that is a valid point. Sehun hasn’t yet forgotten that incident, although he has to admit it was pretty funny when Jongin came home looking like the Hunchback of Notre Dame.

“But that means we’ll have to turn over the soil and water the vegetables every day and dig them up when they’re ready,” Joonmyun points out. His idea doesn’t sound quite so brilliant now. Would they find the time to do all that? “Sehun, maybe you should plant something else.”

Sehun nods too, seemingly thinking along the same lines. If this meant he didn’t have to tend to vegetables all the time – as well the possibility of seeing Jongin stuck under the umbrella at Joonmyun’s height again in the future – then perhaps some bushes and some flowers would do. Plus an orange tree or something, and they could sell the fruit on a roadside stall when the tree got bigger. He vaguely hopes karma doesn’t come back to bite him in the one day for laughing at Jongin – for all he knows, he might be the next one under Joonmyun’s umbrella, and Sehun knows for sure that he’s taller than his boyfriend.

“How about you come with me to the gardening store then?” Sehun suggests. He refrains from patting the catboy’s head, only just remembering he’s still wearing his muddy gardening gloves and catching himself in the nick of time. “You and I can pick out some stuff.”

“Okay!” Joonmyun coughs slightly and spits out his cherry pip into the garden. Sehun lets him get the hose and water the empty patch so that it’s not so dry while he starts weeding the next patch along.

They come back from the gardening store with several plants in tow. Instead of the tree they’d chosen to get some strawberry plants, netting to protect them from the birds when the fruiting season starts, a couple of shrubs and flower seeds to go with them. There’s a bag of smelly-smelling fertilizer too.

Joonmyun watches with rapt fascination as he observes Sehun dig small holes in the soil, transfer the strawberry seedlings into them and pat down the soil evenly. He plants them all in a line.

“Can I plant something?” Joonmyun asks when Sehun’s done putting the little shrub in the earth. “Please?”

Sehun shakes his head. “Sorry, no can do, Joonie. We’ve already put everything in.” He spies the packets of flower seeds. “Well, actually, if you want to do the flowers…”

So that’s how Joonmyun ends up crouched in the dirt, poking holes in the soil with his finger and sprinkling flower seeds into them.

“Sehun, my finger’s dirty,” he says afterwards, showing his owner.

“It happens when you put your fingers in dirty places,” Sehun chuckles, but the catboy is barely dissuaded.

“When will there be flowers?” he prods.

“Hmm. I’ll tell you what, how about we make a little pot of flowers for your room, and then you can tell me the answer when you know?”

It’s the bestest idea ever and Joonmyun promises to vigilantly water and feed his flowers every day.

Sehun fetches him an old empty flowerpot from the shed and lets Joonmyun fill it up with soil, poke more holes into it and drop leftover flower seeds in. Joonmyun waters it and stores it on his bedroom windowsill, where there will be plenty of sunlight for it to absorb.

When Jongin comes home that night he’s greeted by one catboy and one… flowerpot.

“But where are the flowers?” he asks, after Joonmyun’s explained with a pout that it’s a flowerpot.

“They haven’t grown yet, Jongin!” the catboy protests.

A week later Jongin comes home and he’s greeted by one catboy, one flowerpot and lots of tiny purple flowers.