Purple Sunrise

Thirty-Nine

Lily shrugged, she knew that it was important, but it didn't mean that she wasn't upset. She refused to say goodbye to Rose before she left, hoping it would clue her in on how she was feeling.

"Morning." Vin stated.

"Technically it's afternoon." Rose sassed back.

Vin had on sensible clean clothing, ones that would benefit in hot weather for him to not overheat. Rose was disappointed, if he had gotten sick, they would've definitely known who he was as a person. She shuffled her feet, before walking in the direction of the mulch knowing that Vin would follow behind.

"As expected, not a change." She sighed.

Vin glanced in her direction.

"It's always looked like this?" He queried.

"Yeah, pretty much." Rose shrugged, having not looked up from the food pile.

"That's very telling of your planet then..." Vin began, drifting off in the end.

Rose's eyebrows knitted together. They hadn't been able to tell too much about Purple Sunrise other than the basics, she was curious to know how Vin knew more. She let him think, not disturbing his process; after a while sitting down cross legged on the ground, rubbing the tips of her fingers in patterns along the dusty ground to pass the time.

After a while Rose got fed up with waiting, she peered up form where she was sitting to see that Vin hadn't moved. Almost as if he was a robot that'd crashed.

"You alive." She asked monotonously, while poking at his leg to get a reaction.

He shook his head, freeing his stuck eyes from what Rose gathered.

"Well, if you've finished staring intently at a mulch pile, I'm gonna go finish the rest of my tasks. I mean, with how much you seem to like it. I could leave you here to have some alone time with the pile." She joked, humour entering her voice throughout.

She had stood up and nearly fallen over from being stood on one leg before Vin had laughed. His laugh was different from John's she noted. It was far scratchier, less attractive on him.

"Hmm." The noise escaped her. Rose ignored it, pretending as if she hadn't made the noise and hoping that Vin hadn't heard it.

"Huh?" He sounded out.

It was a couple of hours later they had all eaten, had a break from their chores and were about to begin another round. Rose during lunch had attempted to convince Vin that he should spend the other half with him. Get to know his side of the shared work. But he didn't agree, so Rose was having to be stuck with him for the whole day. She wasn't liking it, feeling judged with every task she partook in. They had spent the majority of Rose's tasks not interacting with each other.

John was talking and spending time with Lily, while Rose had headed for the greenhouse to check on the plants. She touched each of the surfaces as she dawdled around the room, keeping her eyes closely on all the crops. As she did so, she noticed some of them needed moving into bigger bots again, but she was struggling to find pots big enough for them now. They needed to be planted outside, in the ground as soon as possible.

"Don't worry my loves, I will make sure you get a less craped space, for you to grow and thrive in." She whispered to her crops.

She talked to them each day, reminding them that someone was always there to listen and look after them.

"Are you talking to the plants?" Rose could hear the amusement and disbelief in Vin's tone.

"Yes. It helps them grow better." She replied, her eyes kind to the question as she knew it was unusual to do.