((closed for Rory and A))

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

The weather was starting to get warmer now. Rory thought this would be a good day to get out of the castle.

He was wandering the grounds fairly aimlessly, not sure he wanted to see anyone, until he found himself approaching A's garden. A was there, taking measurements in the dirt. Rory paused, frowning. Even from a distance, A looked...

...honestly? He looks like I feel.

He came a little closer, concerned. "Um... hi."

Comments

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

It was time to tend the garden. He was scaling back this year, and focusing almost entirely on fruits and vegetables; the house elves could always use fresh produce in the kitchen. A hadn't really been expecting to see anyone, and he was a bit startled at first when he looked up. This was someone he'd met, wasn't it? Perhaps once or twice. "I, I, I'm afraid I don't have any, any snacks with me. To offer, I mean. I, I usually brought some with me. When I came here. But there is fruit in the greenhouse, if you'd like." His voice sounded odd in his ears. It had been a while since he'd had a conversation with anyone who wasn't a cat or a house elf.

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

Rory shook his head. "No, it's all right, I'm not - I wasn't after anything. I just saw you and I wondered how you were. Didn't mean to interrupt..." He ran a hand through the back of his hair, awkward. "We have met, you might not - actually remember, it's been a while. It's Rory. Rory WIlliams?"

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"I should have remembered that. I was, I, I, they trained me to remember. I'm sorry." He tried to smile in greeting, but it felt unnatural. "I am laying out a plot for onions. The house elves use them often, so they will be useful."

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"You don't have to apologise." He didn't expect A to believe that, from what he remembered, but all the more reason it needed saying. "Do you - need a hand, or anything? I'm not busy."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"If you, if, if you could tie that string between the posts I've put there," he pointed to a few buried in the turned-up earth, "it will help me know what to plant where."

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"Will do." He started fastening the string around the posts. "So, what else are you planting here?"

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"Potatoes, cabbages, and spinach," A said, ticking them off on his fingers. "I don't, I, I can't grow all the produce for the kitchen here, but I can contribute a good deal. And there are herbs in the greenhouse, and spices in the mangosteen grove."

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

Rory nodded. "I remember the herbs. Some for food and some for medicine, right?" That had probably been a more memorable conversation for him than for A. He'd still been new to the school. He'd still been new to - well, everything.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

A nodded, and smiled faintly. "Many can be used for both. Sage can be used for a sore throat, mint and ginger are both good for soothing the stomach, and parsley is a diuretic, for a few examples."

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

The little smile was a good sign. Rory returned it, tying off the string. "People've used sage for practically everything. That's where the name's from, salvere, 'to save'. I remember..." He caught himself, trailing off. "...well, I'm sure it's nothing you don't know."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

A looked at him intently. "There is always more to be learned. I haven't studied the etymology of most plant names. I wonder, is salvere the origin of salve as well?"

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

Rory frowned, thoughtful. "Could well be. It sounds right. I haven't studied etymology either, but -" He hesitated. "Short version of a really long story: I kind of used to be a Roman. Sometimes I remember things."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

A blinked; that sounded like a complicated past indeed, although perhaps no more so than some of the other people he'd come to know here. "I read that the Romans used silphium (http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2676/did-the-ancient-romans-use-a-natural-herb-for-birth-control) until it was extinct," he said with a faint smirk.

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"Yeeah, that's true." Rory shrugged. "More or less. Supposedly you couldn't cultivate it, it only grew wild, and only in that one part of Cyrene. And, well, there are some things people are always going to want more of."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"Some plants are very difficult to cultivate," A said with a nod. "Some of the herbs in my greenhouse were tricky. It's a sad thing for a plant to be extinct, especially one that is useful." A thought with a bit of melancholy smugness that he could probably have gotten some to grow with his current skills.

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"...it's sad for anything to be extinct."

That wasn't what he'd meant to say. Nothing was extinct. Nobody was dead, just - not here.

It didn't help much. This was one of the moments he could remember he was older than the Doctor.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

A still wasn't the best at reading people, but he could pick up a bit of the melancholy in Rory's tone. "More things are extinct than are alive now," he said. "That, it, of course it includes bacteria. But plants too, and, and, animals. All that megafauna. Too many kinds of life to all exist at once."

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

Rory nodded. "I know. And that's just here on Earth..." He shook himself - snap out of it, Williams. "Sorry. Brooding."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"Brooding about other worlds?" A smiled faintly. "I, I have heard people talk about other worlds. I barely know this one."

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"Not exactly." He sighed. "My wife, and - our friend... we were all travelling together, before we ended up here. And now they're both popcorned."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

A looked down at the turned-up bed of earth in front of him. "I, I, I understand," he said softly. "My girlfriend, my teachers.... I, can't, I, I can't look at the plaque any more. I've, I, I spend a lot of times with house elves."

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"Oh..." Rory swallowed, suddenly recalling something. "God, I'm sorry, I didn't - I knew a lot of people had gone, I recognised some of the names, but I didn't realise -"

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"I don't, I, I don't know if you met them." He stabbed at the dirt with his trowel. "I, the house elves promised me. That all the cats would be fed and watered. That they would help if I needed it, with the garden." A looked at the prepared beds. "I'm not planting many flowers this year."

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"I - don't think I did, no." But he remembered the name of A's girlfriend now. He'd thought when he'd seen 'River Tam' on the plaque that there was something he ought to recall, other than being reminded of the River he knew.

He looked down at the soil. "Do you... I know we don't really know each other. But if you want to talk, or you want help..."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

A looked down, pressing his lips together, and ran his bare fingers through the empty plot. "I am not used to spending so much time alone," he said softly. At one time, he would have welcomed it.

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

Rory nodded. "It's hard. I'm not gonna say 'I know how you feel' because - it's not the same, is it? It never is. But I've spent a lot of time alone."

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"It. It's important. That I keep gardening." A shivered. "Because it's useful."

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"It helps, to have something to do. To focus on." He wasn't sure that was exactly what A had meant, though.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"I. I learned so many things. So that I can protect myself and be useful." He laughed weakly. "Growing things for the kitchen is useful.

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"I bet they'd be proud of you," Rory offered, desperately hoping that was the right thing to say. A didn't seem especially stable. (And he knew the feeling, yes.)

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"That, it, it's not why I do it." A wasn't sure how to find the words for how he felt. Some emotions were like a close-up of the sun; everywhere, but too big and bright to look at. "I do it because it's useful. Because I decide what goes where and I know what to do to make it happen. Because plants are simple and do not have complicated plans."

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"Because it's -" Rory hesitated, searching for words himself. "Something you can do. Something that's yours." It hadn't been the same for him, not really. But he thought he could see what A meant.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"Because it is something I can do that only leads to good things," A said a bit distantly. "Almost all of the fruits and vegetables and herbs will end up in the kitchen. And if I someone is hurt or ill and I am the only one nearby, I, I can treat them. Probably. Until someone more skilled can be found to take over. I, I, it's, I have learned things that it is good to know."

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"It's always good, to be able to help. Even when it doesn't feel like much." He'd learned that plenty of times.

(It was definitely a better solution to anything than chopping people's hands off.)

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"Yes, I, I'm..." A's breath caught in his throat and he forced himself to breathe slowly. "It is a good thing to have learned the things I have learned. It feels good to give things I have grown to the house elves to use in the kitchen when I am not using them myself."

Maybe someday he would feel like cooking again.

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"That - it is, that's good. And you'll always have that. Everything you've learned." From what he remembered, A had had to learn a lot of things fast. He didn't know details, but he didn't get a good impression of the kind of people who'd name someone a single letter.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"I don't want you to think, I, the, the plants in the garden, the fruit growing here." He smiled a bit anxiously. "It is still for everyone to enjoy. I, just because it is used in the kitchen doesn't mean you won't still be able to take some to enjoy when you are out for a walk."

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

Rory smiled, reassuringly. (He hoped.) "Okay. I'll remember that. I can come by more often, if you'd like that. If you need help." In whatever sense might be implied, there.

[i-am-an-hero.livejournal.com]

"I'm not used to spending so much of my time alone," A said quietly. "To, to bringing a picnic basket to the garden, and no one coming to visit and share it with."

[thefuturemrpond.livejournal.com]

"...well. Then I'll come to visit. And if you need a hand again - I'm no expert, but I do know a bit about gardening."