Gardening with Acacia:
Akira’s mansion had a magnificent garden, but it was overrun by weeds. Ash, who had always felt more at ease when she was immersed in nature, decided to do a bit of gardening. So, one unbearably hot day, she lugged her watering can out into the garden and began weeding, occasionally sprinkling water in order to soften the dirt around the roots.
She had uprooted a fair number of weeds and built a small mountain out of them when Acacia stalked into the garden, looking hot and a bit wilted.
“What are you doing? You’re killing them!” she exclaimed, gathering the withered weeds from the pile and desperately shoving them back into the dirt.
“They’re weeds,” Ash responded, puzzled. “They were choking back the flowers.” She wiped the sweat from her brow and continued weeding.
“Mettre fin à cette! They may not be as pretty as the flowers, but that’s no reason to kill them, oui?”
Ash wasn’t quite sure what Acacia was saying, but she knew that unless she calmed the plant-lady down, she would never finish clearing the huge garden. Noticing that Acacia was starting to droop from the heat, Ash picked up her watering can and sprinkled her with water.
“What are you doing!?” Acacia exclaimed, before grudgingly admitting, “Ah, ça fait du bien.” Ash continued sprinkling her with water until she lost her wilted look.
“I’ll replant the weeds on the other side of the garden, if you want,” Ash said. The garden really did look better without all those weeds in it, but she had seen Acacia in a prickly mood before, and those prickles looked painful. It wouldn’t do to get on her bad side. The best Ash could do was hope for a compromise.
“…All right,” Acacia agreed. “But I don’t trust you. I’ll do it myself.” With that, she grabbed Ash’s watering can and an armful of weeds and started planting them in the corner, gently watering and cooing at them.
Ash watched the odd spectacle for a moment, then with a dismissive shrug, turned back to her work.
(Whoever finds the Acacia-is-a-plant pun gets a cookie.)
