A Floral Priest

Under the shade of lush green plants and the ever presence aroma of flowers, Blush was certain he had never felt so miserable in his entire life. A true testament to his willpower that he could be upset in a greenhouse garden that was on the edge of the most beautiful place he has ever been.

He was beginning to regret his decision to return to this faux heavenly place and especially for thinking he had the stomach to touch the seeds that came from the heavenly meadow.

Blush did understand the importance of gardening in the Heavenly Embassy, the need for cherubuns to have their own ambrosia supply, however that did not mean he was all that fond of planting seeds beside the snobbish head of the embassy.

Such was that irritation when he was stopped for the eighth time in a half an hour. Blush looked to his side, feeling a twitch tremble over his jaw. “And what could it possibly be now, Primrose?”

Primrose rolled his eyes, a clear gesture that he thought Blush had no idea what he was doing. “You’re being too rough, dig a hole and gently cover the seeds.”

Blush exhaled slowly, trying to keep his temper in check or else he would be remorseful over an outburst. “Yes, as you’ve told me earlier, I’m being gentle.”

Primrose scoffed, leaning over to smack away Blush’s hand, “I know you succubuns must have a different understanding of being gentle, but that isn’t going to work here.”

Blush covered his hand with his other, trying to hold back to the urge to slap Primrose for hitting him. It was soft, but it was the principle of the matter. He just hoped not every cherubun was like Primrose or he was sure they wouldn’t be happy here in the burrows. “Then do it all yourself if you think you’re so much better than I am.”

Primrose gave Blush a sharp look, “If you’re not going to try, then why did you offer your help?”

Blush huffed, “I’m trying to help and you criticize every movement I make! I’m not a fool, I know how important this is for your people. I’m not going to be careless because I’m not one of you.” As a priest of the Church of Sulfur, he felt obligated to help cherubuns adjust to this new way of life even if it meant planting their ambrosia supply.

Primrose paused, tilting his head up for a moment to begrudgingly admit, “You’re not going terribly, you listen a lot better than the other succubuns that have tried to help.”

Blush froze, disbelieving for a moment that he heard Primrose gave him what he was sure was a compliment. “Really?”

Primrose crossed his arms, frowning as he knocked dirt off of his clothes. “You do have ears don’t you? You are helpful, even if you’re not gentle. You dig the holes much faster than even some of the cherubuns.”

It was painfully obvious Primrose disliked the words he was speaking with his same disinterested flourish he always seemed to have but Blush considered this a victory. He was complimented and made Primrose look like he swallowed a lemon.

Blush smirked, his spade tail wagging back and forth, “Maybe, just maybe, succubuns actually have our uses?”

“I didn’t say that.”

Blush rolled his eyes, but didn’t want to push the issue as he moved on to dig another hole in the planter box they were working with. “So you use these flowers for your ambrosia?”

Primrose raised an eyebrow and gave the priest an unimpressed look, “I believe I already told you all of this before you began working.”

Blush shrugged, flicking some dirt from underneath his fingernail. “Sure but you didn’t actually tell me anything interesting about this, just made some gestures and talked about how important the plants are. I mean I know they’re important, why do your people even need ambrosia? Weren’t you once succubuns?”

Primrose scowled, “Once, but we’re not anymore. We need ambrosia, it’s as simple as that.”

Blush grinned, “You have no idea why you need it do you?”

Primrose rolled his eyes once again, “I don’t need to explain this to a succubun, these things are just important.”

“There you go again, succubuns are not that different to you.” Blush shrugged, the pink of his priestly robes catching on the rays of light through the greenhouse windows. “We were just raised by demons while you were raised by an angel.”

“I think that makes us very different.”

Blush snorted, “Doesn’t matter much now does it? You live down here with us now, not with the angels.” As annoyed as he was, Blush’s voice was soft as if he was worried he might cause actual hurt by saying what he did.

Primrose lowered his head, his hands tightening around the bag of seeds he held, until he took a deep breath. “We should finish planting those, it’s not good to be taking this long. I have a lot more to do today as I’m sure you do too.”

Blush paused, giving the words some thought, “I suppose you’re right, I have to give a sermon later today and I would rather not be too exhausted to understand what I’m even saying.”

Primrose hummed, planting another seed as he listened to Blush. “You really have much to preach about?”

“Of course I do, every year more buns join the burrows and I help them adjust to this new way of life. I remind them that their vices are something to be proud of.” Blush seemed confident in his words, eager, “It’s difficult adjusting to a world you don’t know, some buns need as much help as they can get.”

Primrose was quiet for a moment, waiting for Blush to dig another hole. “This is very important to you?”

Blush nodded, using the small shovel in his hand to dig a small hole, “Why wouldn’t it be? I choose to become a priest because I wanted to help other buns that felt as lost as I did when I was young. Or I suppose younger, hmm it’s still odd to me that cherubuns age in the heavenly meadow.”

Primrose seemed like he wanted to disagree, but instead he tensely nodded, “It will be an adjustment for the cherubuns.”

“I hope a good one, to think of losing the ones I care about to age, it’s horrifying.” Blush shook his head quickly, “I can’t even imagine something like that. How do cherubuns even get over something like that? To be able to move in.”

Primrose was quiet as he buried a seed into the dirt. “It hurts for a while and then it hurts less.”

Blush sighed quietly, “But it never goes away does it?”

“Did you think it would? I don’t believe that losing anyone would be easy for succubuns as much as cherubuns.”

“I suppose not, especially if it ends up being someone you care about.”

There was a lingering silence between them, something uncomfortable just on the edge of their words. Blush didn’t mean to take the conversation to such a depressing turn, but there was something so unique about the way cherubuns experienced life. He could only imagine the pain some cherubuns must have felt when they lose their loved ones, to think them could have been together forever if only they had been in the burrows instead. He still disliked that Melangel for what they did to cherubuns, when they should have stayed as the succubuns they were meant to be.

Still Blush didn’t want to leave this black cloud hanging above their heads as they worked. “You seem very skilled at this, are you always gardening out here?”

Primrose seemed to perk up, even slipping back into that puffed up personality of his. “Of course, I’m in charge of the plants here in the greenhouses. It takes a very careful hand to grow these types of plants.”

There was a slight pause, before Primrose continued, “What about you? I didn’t think you had to garden much as a succubun priest.”

Blush laughed softer, “Well no, I don’t garden much as a priest, it was a hobby of mine when I first joined the burrows. The sparse few years, before I realized I wanted to be a priest.”

“Did you join it? The gardening.”

“Not anymore or any less than everything else I did during that time.” Blush rolled his sleeves up higher, eyeing the dirt too close to his pink clothes, “It actually wasn’t easy to decide what I was going to do with my life in the burrows.”

Primrose leaned closer, as if he was interested in what Blush said next. “And what did you do about that hard to make choice?”

Blush pretended not to notice Primrose’s interest or he figured the other bun would get mad at him again. “Well I was inspired by the head priest of the Church of Sulfer. The confident way he spoke and how every bun in the pews listened to every word he said. Now before you ask, no that’s not exactly why I joined.” He laughed, “I realized pretty early on that the priests and nuns of the church helped buns that were just as confused as I was starting out. It kind of sounded nice to help others.”

Primrose looked shocked. “You joined to help others.”

“I don’t like the way you said that.”

“It’s just… I thought succubuns didn’t care much about anything but their vice. Helping others finest seem in line with…” Primrose trailed off.

Blush snickered, “What you mean the lust vice? Yes shockingly I’m not a porn star or in a brothel.”

Primrose at least had the decency to look uncomfortable about his line of questioning. “Well when you put it like that, it sounds almost foolish that I thought that.”

Blush leaned back, trying a moment to admire their hard work as he looked at each covered seed. “This might be shocking to you, but I’m honestly one of the more tame lust buns you’ll meet. I’m not as lust driven as when I first joined the burrows.”

“And why is that?”

Blush looked towards Primrose. “Well it could be for a lot of different reasons, maybe I’m bored or being a priest takes up most of my time but I guess it’s mostly because I fell in love.” He smiled softly, “I mean don’t get me wrong, me and mine are still very much into our vices but there’s no pressure with it. No assumptions. We can do whatever it is we like.”

Primrose smoothed his hands out over the dirt, taking in Blush’s words with a small nod of his head. “I see.”

There was another short lull in their conversation, but instead of discomfort, Blush had the shaking suspicion that Primrose was thinking about what he said. He didn’t blame the cherubun, from what he heard of the heavenly meadow, those buns were denied quite a lot compared to succubuns. Blush couldn’t began to imagine anything that angel taught them. But he supposed those were the same thoughts he had when he first met Primrose.

How funny that it didn’t change.

Blush broke the silence, “So you like doing this then? The planting and taking care of the greenhouses?”

Primrose seemed almost eager for a subject change. “Of course, look at all of these plants. I was the one to curate the best places for them to grow and I make sure each plant is taken care of.”

Blush laughed quietly, “You know Primrose, you’re actually quite impressive. Not a lot of buns seem to have the determination you do and if you say it’s because you’re a cherubun I will hit you.”

Primrose sat up straight, aghast by the idea he might get injured. “You will not! I was not going to say that.”

“Of course you weren’t.”

Primrose rolled his eyes, a gesture he seemed fond of doing, “Still I do try to do my best here in the embassy, if I don’t who will.”

Blush scoffed, playfully so he wouldn’t cause offense, “I’m sure the other cherubuns have their place in running the embassy right? One bun can’t do it all or he might slip under that pressure right?”

Primrose nodded stiffly, “I do have my helpers, there are lots of plants to take care of.”

“Well sure but I didn’t just mean the plants, you need to help cherubuns adjust to this world as much as I do when the new generations come back to the burrows. It takes a special kind of bun to be able to do that, even if you’re a bit judgmental.”

“I am not-”

“Isn’t lying like bad or something to you? Better not.”

Primrose hissed through his teeth, refusing to answer as he stood up to look down at the freshly planted seeds. “Enough of all these ridiculous conversations, we’re done planting for today.”

Blush also stood up, brushing off his priestly robes as he did and pointedly ignoring the way Primrose’s eyes lingered on his bare hip. He figured it was difficult for cherubuns to adjust to the way some succubuns dressed. He also found it really funny. “Fine, fine I’ll stop. Just let me say that I think we did pretty well with the plants.”

Primrose tilted his head to the side as he inspected the planter box. “I suppose you actually did well.”

“You’re so full of compliments today.”

“You can leave now.” Primrose turned up his nose, refusing to give into Blush’s prodding.

Blush sighed, here they go again but at least he could to see a small glimpse of Primrose being more than his pretentious self. “Alright, alright I’ll go. Do let me know how the plants grow.”

Primrose crossed his arms. “You will be coming back to help with these plants.”

“Wait, you expect me to come by regularly to check. I mean you might have noticed but I don’t live here.”

“That doesn’t matter, you offered to help so you will help.”

Blush barely bit back a long suffering groan, just when he thought he might be able to be friends with Primrose that cherubun annoyed him. “Fine I’ll come back. Just know it’s hard to get here for me.”

Primrose straightened his clothes, “That’s fine, I won’t hold being late against you.”

“What, I do not have a set time for this.”

“You should be here in the early morning.”

Blush took a deep breath, don’t engage. “Alright. Now I really have to get going back to the church.”

Primrose hummed, disinterested as he looked at the plants around him. “Very well.”

Blush gave his own eye roll as he left the gardens, already dreading the walk back to the church.

Still, he did learn a thing or two here in the greenhouse with Primrose. He might even be happy to see the seeds, he planted, grow when he had to come back.

Might even get another compliment out of that stuffed cherubun, a bun can only hope.