I'd Give Up The World For You

Daisy woke up cold and alone the next morning as she had every day since Leo left but shook her gloom off to the best of her ability. She was about to be among her flowers again. If that couldn't cheer her up a little, nothing could.

She felt at home in the dirt with the sun shining warmly filtered through the greenhouse glass. It was warmer here than it was even back at her house.

She sang to herself as she worked. Watering, deadheading, inspecting for bugs. This was all comfortable, familiar, and relaxing. Being here brought a tiny bit of peace to a soul in chaos. When she was in the zone she could almost forget about everything that was bothering her.

This was the life. Her days as an accountant working miserably day after day in the same soul-sucking office environment seemed so far removed from her now. She was literally being paid to garden. What could be better?

Working for the flower shop was far preferable to working on the farm, though there were certain things she missed about it. Particularly the ready availability of fresh fruits and vegetables.

Those were simpler times…but also more exhausting ones. Back before she hired the twins and Ira she had to do so much work on her own. Leo coming unexpectedly into her life helped a lot but she had still been tired. Simply tired and satisfied.

It wasn't as satisfying after he left despite not having to work as hard. That was probably because she missed him. Half of the appeal of doing her chores was the games they would come up with to make the time pass more quickly. Those were beautiful, peaceful days before all of this confusion had to happen.

Daisy may have never realized how important Leo was to her if he hadn't left. Living with him was a stark contrast to living with Ira.

Why did absence have to make the heart grow fonder, huh? She had spent so much of her life lonely. Now that she had someone who loved her she shouldn't have to deal with this anymore!

She sighed. Of course she was back to thinking about this. Not even flowers could keep her thoughts from wandering after a certain point. She had an awful lot on her mind.

Worrying about Leo's well-being, missing him, and wondering what was up with her conflicted feelings was a lot for one person to handle at once. She didn't want him to get hurt but hated the lack of news. This world seriously needed to invent phones or at the very least telegrams. That would help so much!

Daisy made it through the rest of her workday disgruntled. She headed home to shower and ended up knitting for a while before getting started on dinner. Juliet should be arriving before long.

Relief flooded through her when she heard the knock on the door and she opened it eagerly. "Juliet! So nice to see you."

Juliet smiled at her. "Nice to see you too. Keeping busy?"

Her eyes were on the half-knitted sock on the couch. Oops. Daisy forgot she hadn't put that away.

"As busy as I can," she confessed. "I prefer not to have time to think if I'm being perfectly honest. But everything reminds me of him since we've been together so long."

The other woman's eyes filled with compassion. "How long has it been?"

"Seven and a half years, though we've been apart roughly half that time. I missed him every single day. He's my best friend. I thought this sort of thing wasn't going to happen anymore after he was promoted but they specifically requested him so he couldn't say no."

"Why would they do that?"

Daisy scowled and rolled out the pie crust she had returned to after letting her guest in with excessive force. "Because they think he's some sort of expert at fighting mages just because he did well in the last war."

Juliet's eyes widened. "Mages?!"

"Yeah. Didn't you know the war is with Zel? They brought in extra troops because they're up against wind mages."

"Oh. Right. Of course."

Daisy was too focused on her task to realize how funny Juliet's voice sounded when she said that. She needed to get this dough transferred to the pie pan and it almost always ripped. It was a rather delicate process.

She moved it over very carefully and had to pat down a few small rips with her fingertip before blind baking it. She could add the vegetables and bits of chicken she had once it had firmed up a bit. She turned back to face her guest and by the time she did Juliet had recovered and spoke rather casually.

"So. Wind mages. Has your husband fought them before?"

"No, he fought against water mages in the war with Aveleen several years ago," Daisy said with a shrug. "A lot of people say that he ended the war single-handedly but he's too humble to brag about that."

"Wow. No wonder he's a major."

"That's actually a fairly recent development. He was a regular soldier when that war started but got promoted to captain in the midst of it since both his captain and lieutenant died and he was the strongest person left…but this is depressing. You probably don't want to hear about it."

"I don't mind. Forgive my rudeness, but how old is he?" Juliet asked curiously. "When I heard you were married to a major I pictured someone much older than us."

Daisy let out a small laugh. She couldn't blame her for that. "Nah. He's actually two years younger than me."

"No way! He's still a teenager and he's a major?!"

"Technically, though he does turn twenty in the spring. He is rather accomplished for his age. I try to remind myself of that when I get worried about him. He was a captain at fifteen and all of his men idolize him so that has to count for something, right?"

"Totally!" Juliet agreed. "You must be really proud of him."

A wistful smile appeared on Daisy's face. "I am…but I wish he didn't have to be involved in such dangerous things. I know he's strong but he's such a sweetheart it's hard to imagine him actually fighting anybody.

"He's always so gentle and considerate. Not long after he first came to stay with me he began bringing me flowers every day just because I said they were my favorite thing in the world. Isn't that cute?

"He would also juggle apples or tomatoes to make me laugh as we harvested them. We played all sorts of games back on the farm to help pass the time as we gathered fruits and vegetables and we would laugh and talk for hours as we canned them…"

Daisy's nostalgia overflowed as she continued making dinner and Juliet didn't stop her. She was a rather attentive listener, sure to ask questions in the right places to keep the conversation going.

She seemed to be the type that preferred listening to talking, not unlike Leo. Yet another trait of people who had something to hide.

"It must be nice having someone like that in your life," Juliet sighed as Daisy went to pull the pie out of the oven. "Men like that are rare. I've never met one who cares about anyone or anything but himself."

"Neither had I before I met him," she admitted. "It's kind of crazy that he wanted me of all people but the heart wants what it wants."

"Don't be down on yourself, Veronica! You deserve someone nice."

"Well, I'm glad you think so anyway."

Daisy didn't think she deserved Leo at all. She was too old and too broken from a past he could never understand. She hadn't been able to explain foster care to him. The night she told him about her world she spoke mostly in generics rather than about her life specifically because she was ashamed and preferred not to remember things like that.

Most of all, she wasn't sure she could return his feelings. Her head was a mess. She didn't know if she actually loved him back or if she was simply thrown off by that kiss the night before he left.

"Trust me, if anyone deserves someone nice it's you. You're the easiest person to be around I've met since coming here," Juliet said firmly.

Daisy smiled. It was easy to be around her too, which was strange considering she usually didn't feel comfortable around new people. It was probably because she was so desperate for company right now.

"Thanks. And for the record, you're easy to be around too."

"It's a good thing we found each other then!"

That it was. The time they had to spend together was far too short before Juliet had to return to the castle. Daisy returned to her knitting and was able to think about something other than Leo when by herself for the first time all day. That was definitely helpful.. Being able to eat dinner with her every day for the foreseeable future would make a real difference and she was grateful.