Arknights: The Misadventures of Leonhardt and Ayerscarpe

Gardening | One-shot #1

Ayerscarpe wasn't sure how it came to this at all. Sure, he had objected from the beginning and still was now, albeit a little less frequently compared to before. But Leonhardt had always waved him off with a smile. He always appreciated his help, but still, it felt wrong for him to ask of this from his childhood friend.

"You sure about it, Leon? I mean, you'd probably want to do something else instead of this. I really don't mind too so I can take over-"

"No way! You'd mess up again like last time. Even Perfumer was confused on how you messed up growing edamame that badly!"

Every time whenever he wanted to ask Leonhardt to allow him to grow his own edamame, he would get turned down with the reminder that his first attempt was inedible and nearly gave himself food poisoning, somehow. The day he tried it was one of the worst he ever had. He got too excited at looking at the pods and decided to try them, forgetting that they needed at least 90 days to grow, and that they were raw. He also managed to not care for the plants daily, thanks to his busy schedule.

Getting into Rhodes Island certainty made Ayerscarpe's life busier. But he refused to whine about it. Until he decided to grow his own edamame so that he won't have to wait until Rhodes Island docks near a city to search for it himself, which would sometime take hours to do so.

After hearing that Perfumer was making a greenhouse that was to be open to all personnel on the moving structure, he asked if he could try growing his favourite snack and she agreed. The Vulpo tried her best to care for his plants when he wasn't able to, yet she wasn't able to help much because she had to care for the other plants and help out with Nightmare's special condition.

The day he tried his self-grown edamame, he had to stay in the Rhodes Island infirmary for a week while Leonhardt would visit him regularly and laugh at him while reassuring that the little fiasco was never his fault. Time simply didn't allow for him to do his work properly. He also had a tendency to get too excited whenever he was caring for his edamame.

After seeing how dejected Ayerscarpe was, Leonhardt decided to try growing edamame instead. He was a lot more free than Ayerscarpe, since he didn't apply for extra training sessions like he did. Plus he said he was 'bored, there isn't anything else to do around here, really~'. Looking at the eagerness in his eyes, Ayerscarpe agreed and Leonhardt began to grow edamame pods for his friend.

Ayerscarpe knew that Leonhardt disliked some aspects of the whole process though. Sometimes it would require him to get his clothes dirty, such as when a mud puddle from a previous operator's gardening session wasn't cleaned up. Or when water would spray onto his clothes whenever he tried to water the edamame plants. Ayerscarpe could always see Leonhardt scrunch his nose up in disgust, but whenever he would turn to look at his way, Leonhardt would just give him a bright smile.

He really was a dear friend of his.

"Oi, Ayer. What are you doing, standing around there for. Stop staring at the edamame like that! You aren't gonna eat it till another three weeks from now, so no ideas~"

"Dammit Leon, I'm not going to eat it!"

"Sure, sure. Whatever you say~"

Yeah, he was annoying sometimes. Maybe a lot of the time, actually. But seeing him go out of his way to make him happy, it made life a lot more worth living for to Ayerscarpe.

(So I got this little idea from a good friend offline :D I think it's really cute and there's a possibility that it could happen as well. Leonhardt and Ayerscarpe always try to find ways to repay the other after all, this can simply be one of them.

Thanks for reading this and have a great day/night!)