Greenhouse || Xavier Thorpe x Male Reader

work table || chapter 10

 The silence lasts until Xavier checks his watch. It's 11:30, and we need to head back.

"Thank you for going on such a long walk with me, and I'm sorry that we didn't really converse," he tells me as we walk back.

"It's no problem. Silence is enjoyable now and then," I respond. He nods, but we keep talking until the town comes into view.

"Ready to go back to the crowd?"

"Not really. It's so hard to return to people after a beautiful, silent walk. And your hands are warm."

He laughs and we kiss briefly before pulling the 'roommates' act on again and heading into Jericho. I stuff my hands in my coat pockets, regretting not getting one of those pocket warmers that they sell at grocery stores. Xavier gives me a look of apology, but I wave it off. If he's not ready to tell people aside from our friends, it's nothing to apologize for.

The air seems electric in Jericho, all of the excitement is like static. The outcasts and normies alike are awaiting the other party's reaction to the market, and when Xavier and I reach our stands Weems turns to the normies with a smile.

"For years, Nevermore has celebrated Outreach Day by helping out with tasks in Jericho. Now, we've gathered our artists and artisans to create something truly unique. A market, featuring some of our best exports. Let the Outreach Market begin!" she declares, swinging her arms open toward them. Murmurs fill the crowd and the normies cautiously enter the aisles of booths.

They recognize the honey first, probably because they regularly purchase it, not reading the label precisely. When they see that a product they so frequently use is made by outcasts, it sparks a change. The normies begin to flock to other booths like the bees around a fresh field of wildflowers. Our dynamic has shifted, as Wednesday would say. And this time it's for the better.

~=~

By the time 2:00 rolls around, the flowers are all but sold out. All that remains is a single tulip, probably fallen out of someone's arrangement. Weems makes a closing speech and then signals us to leave. I pick up the last tulip and stick it in my pocket, wishing I had a better way to carry it.

"That was mildly successful," Wednesday states as we walk back to Nevermore.

"Mildly? I've cleared out my studio, Wednesday," Xavier tells her. "What did the beekeeping club earn?"

"About $200. Not bad, if I do say so myself," I inform him. He nods. "Were you successful as well?"

"Oh, absolutely. I have space now for more paintings, and I have easily enough to get some more storage."

We spend the rest of the walk discussing our plans with the money we'd made. Wednesday, Eugene, and I will look over a catalog soon to find the best hive boxes and other things we may need. Xavier is going to do the same for more storage racks and some new supplies, and I plan to go to Jericho to buy my gardening scissors and a few more pots and soil.

"Am I the only one of us going to Jericho to get my things?" I ask. Everyone else nods, somewhat shamefully.

"I'm sorry, it's just that they don't really sell painting racks in Jericho," Xavier explains.

"Nothing to be sorry for. It's hard enough to find clothes there, let alone a really specific item. I'm just glad we're so rural that they have a garden store," I respond. "Speaking of garden, we have another man overboard."

I hold up the tulip that fell out of an arrangement. Xavier chuckles.

"I would take it, but I don't have a convenient ponytail today," he remarks.