Title: take a trip into my garden
Fandom: Hannibal (TV)
Rating: PG
Pairing: Alana Bloom/Margot Verger
Wordcount: 0.8k
Content notes: References to murder, but nothing big.
Author notes: Also for creativechallenges Shippy Building with the prompt "Garden", and for femslash100100 with the prompt "green".
Summary: Alana Bloom does not have a green thumb..

Alana supposes they have to do something to pass the time, while settling down on Ukraine of all places.

Escaping from their escapee is difficult, the paranoia eating her alive. She's confident on her ability to survive, on her ability to let her wife and their son live, but it doesn't stop her from being nervous every time there's anyone she doesn't know along the streets of their new country. She knows that the chances of him guessing Ukraine of all places will take a while — it'll take a while for him to end up at their door, too. They're using fake identities, just to be safe. Just in case.

The house they bought with Margot's inheritance is big, and has an immense garden that's slowly rotting away under no care at all. And she wants to take care of it, so she starts to spend her free time there, trying to learn about gardening, about how exactly to combat her complete lack of a green thumb.

Her last name might be Bloom, but plants only rot away around her.

"Are you in here?" Margot asks, sticking her head through the door, eyes curious as she looks over at her. "Gardening?"

"Trying to," Alana says, getting off her knees — her pants full of dirt — just to kiss her on the mouth. "I don't have a green thumb, as much as I try to cause one."

"Nothing wants to grow around you, huh?"

"I'm trying," she whines out. "It just doesn't quite work out."

"I could try and help you out," Margot tells her, settling on her knees with her. "I had a good time with the plants I kept when I was little. I sang to them, talked about… well, everything." There's a shadow of silence at the vague mention, but Mason's ghost doesn't haunt Margot as badly as it used to — it follows her, sure, as it always would, but the fact he was dead and gone helped. "Didn't have many chances to talk to other people back then, so, you know, the plants helped. They bloomed around me, blossomed into beautiful things."

"I can imagine," Alana teases, pressing a kiss to her cheek. "We should talk to them, then."

"We should," Margot agrees, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "I love you, Alana."

"Love you too," she says. "Did you check on Morgan?"

"He's alright," Margot says. "Was doing his homework. Math, specifically."

"I always hated math," Alana says as she works on making a plant look better, the greenery around her looking more yellowish than anything else. "It's a miracle I managed to pull through medical school."

She laughs. "I like math," she says. "Numbers are fine, predictable."

"Unlike people," she says.

"Unlike people," Margot agrees. "Let me take care of these few plants, okay? Maybe my green thumb will fix all of their problems."

Alana huffs and kisses her before getting up, cleaning off the dirt on the knees of her pants. "Sure," she says. "If they do bloom because of your green thumb I'll be super mad, by the way."

She sticks her tongue out at her playfully, before laughing. "I can only imagine. With that last name you should be getting on this plant action, but look at you."

Alana rolls her eyes. "I'm gonna go make sure Morgan's not absolutely loathing his math homework, alright?"

"Of course," Margot says. "I'll stay here with the plants."

Unsurprisingly, the plants are beautiful after a few weeks of being under Margot's care. Alana huffs as she looks over at them, at the flowers and greenery, the beautiful landscape, the way the garden completes their house perfectly.

"You like it?" Margot teases, her chin on Alana's shoulder.

"You're far too smug about your green thumb," Alana mumbles, but she doesn't mean it as she turns in to kiss her deep. "Maybe we could start a flower shop."

"Hmm." She pauses, kisses her jaw. "Maybe. My inheritance will run dry eventually, and I do like the idea of a flower shop, or something of the sort."

"Wedding season will drive us crazy," she says.

"We'll deal with that when it comes to that."

"Okay." She wraps her arms around her, hears the noises of the garden, the bugs and the plants stretching out toward them, and she can't help but smile. "Okay. We can go and open a flower shop, then."

Margot runs a hand through her hair, soothes all her worries away, of being found out because of it, of being seen by someone she doesn't want to be seen by. "I'll start the arrangements," she says. "We'll be just fine, Alana."

"Yeah," she agrees. "We'll be just fine." She pulls away and goes to check on Morgan, her heart light with hope.