There Are Flowers in the Garbage [Musebox]

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Expecting that school, both correspondence and not, was going to keep Howard and Diana busy was probably a vain hope. Howard's sleep schedule keeps him from usually having evenings free (either he's napping or he's zombified), but occasionally his and Diana's free time overlap. Tonight is one of those nights.

See, it's after Christmas, and the grocer down the street throws away most of the turkeys that weren't sold by that day. Some of them are well rotten by now, but some of them were frozen before they were tossed, and as such they're still more than edible. Howard told Diana about this heinous crime, and they spent the last night unable to really sleep without thinking of all the meat going to waste.

So tonight they're striking a blow for justice. Or for hunger. Whichever. Howard's donned black clothing to blend in with the background, and has brought his backpack and a shopping cart. At the very least they can get some emergency stores for the freezer. He waits outside Ian and Barbara's house for Diana, tapping his foot.

Comments

[keep_surviving]

Diana raised a skeptical eyebrow, calling his bluff. "You wouldn't send us to jail, now would you?"

She looked at Barbara, knowing the ladys soft spots. "Don't let him say that, Howard is already scared you're going to give us the boot."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard just covers his face with his hands, silently willing Diana to stop making things worse. He wants to be elsewhere, the uncertainty is fairly brutal.

[first_in_time]

"Diana, don't." Barbara was well aware of how well Diana could manipulate her from time to time, and often she was fine enough with being manipulated. It wasn't like she was asking for money all the time, or trying to sneak boys in their home without asking first.

"This is not the first time either of you have had a brush in with the authorities. And we're not always going to be there to pull you out of it. You need to make the correct decisions - the ones which won't put you in jail!"

[splendid_roman]

"There'll come a point where we won't be able to intervene and keep you out of jail," Ian added to what Barbara said.

Since he wasn't getting through to Diana and she wasn't helping Howard he changed tack and his tone and expression were more sympathetic as he said, "Why didn't you ask us for help speaking to the grocer about his turkeys?"

[keep_surviving]

Diana just folds her arms and continues leaning back on her chair.

"Isn't it obvious?" She answers in an infuriating way.

Her expression was bored and she was eyeing the toast. Clearly all she wanted to do was eat and go to bed.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"We didn't do anything wrong! It's the rest of the world that never has its priorities right!" Howard explodes. He clenches his fists and gets up hard enough that the chair nearly tips, rolling on its feet. "You don't want us to make the right decisions, you want us to make the easy decisions because it'll mean we're like everyone else and you can pretend we're normal kids!"

Clearly, he and Diana are the best foster kids ever and have no horrible psychological problems. And are never self-conscious about those problems.

[first_in_time]

Barbara sighed and gently placed her hands flat upon the counter just as the toast popped. She didn't move to get it, instead stared at the counter top.

[splendid_roman]

Ian ran a hand over his face. He was tempted just to give in and go back to bed but he couldn't. "I'm trying to keep you both from getting into more trouble," he said. "I agree that the grocer shouldn't be throwing good food away when there are people who need it. But breaking in and stealing them is not going to help him understand that, is it?"

[keep_surviving]

"It was a minor thing. Stop acting like we stabbed a guy. It's not like you guys have electronic systems to keep it safe, one little file for breaking and entering by a couple of orphans is going to be lost in paperwork."

Diana scowled, Howards paranoid anger rubbing off on her, the remnants of the mob mentally of FAYZ. "This is about reputation, isn't it? Sorry if we've ruined your perfectly family image of the perfect little couple on the perfect little street."

Her hand curled, dragging her long nails across the kitchen table, grooving the grain of the wood, turning to insults to calm herself down. "It might teach him the consequences of wasting food. And poor security."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Well aware that they're both digging themselves into a hole, and completely unsure what he can do to try and stop it, Howard backs down and sits back in his chair. He'll let Diana do the talking - the fact is that he agrees with every word coming out of her mouth right now, and feeling like it's them against the rest of the world just fuels how frustrated he is with everyone and everything.

He knows he should just apologize and promise not to do it again, and it's true he does feel guilty for waking them and making them pay a bond, but any promises not to steal again would be a lie. As would any remorse for the act itself.

[first_in_time]

"The issue is stealing," Barbara said firmly, "it isn't about Ian's and my reputations. You've broken a law no matter what your intent was. We want you to realise that."She buttered the toast and poured the tea while she talked, bringing out the milk and the sugar. "And this isn't like your time, where one little theft is forgotten with time. The grocer is going to tell all the businesses in the area, and you'll be lucky to be let into some places, let alone ask for work."

A plate with a few pieces of halved toast was placed in the middle of the table, and she took over Howard and Diana's teas, too.

"We're disappointed that neither of you seem to realise that."

[splendid_roman]

Ian supposed that it was good that Diana and Howard hadn't just promised never to do it again without meaning it. But he couldn't tell if what they were saying was what they really thought or it was bluster out of fear.

But he'd run out of ways of getting through to them, so he just waited to see what they had to say.

[keep_surviving]

"What is it you want?" She asked. Sharp and clean cut. "Tell us what you want us to say. What you want to hear."

It was clear Barbaras concerns did not match Dianas. "It might make this whole thing move faster."

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"God, no wonder your parents shipped you off to boarding school," Howard mutters, craning his neck so his forehead rests on the table. As much as he agrees with Diana's sentiment, he would have hoped that she would apply some of her famous charm instead of, well. Being paranoid and angry and hard to deal with like him.

[first_in_time]

"Howard that's enough," Barbara cut in before Diana could say anything more. "What we want is to see some remorse from you, some acknowledgement that, despite your hearts being in the right place, the act itself was wrong in the practical sense because it broke the law." She sighed and rubbed the back of her neck, wanting to take a sip from her tea but too furious to be able to.

[splendid_roman]

"Unless you don't care," Ian added. "In which case we can all just go to bed now and you can practise sounding remorseful for the police tomorrow. And when you next break the law we can do this all again to see if you've learnt your lesson."

Ian was just as furious and gripped the edge of the kitchen counter hard. It was that or hit it, but the latter wouldn't set a good example.

[keep_surviving]

Having gotten a more straight answer, Diana dropped hostility and returned to the more sociable and calm front.

"I know." She graced the two adults with an exhausted, sympathetic smile. "It's not that we don't know it was wrong, it's that we didn't think about it at the time since we don't see it like that."

Since Howard seemed to have lost his usual weaselly tongue, Diana took over completely. "I guess, the minor laws like that don't really come into play when you've gone without them so long." There was no police in FAYZ to be worried about. No, in FAYZ you had to be cautious and sneaky about snatching because they other children might steal your things, or beat you to near death, or both. Or you could be one of those kids doing the stealing and beating.

"Breaking the law and it's consequences isn't something we've had to worry about for awhile." Just the rules whoever was in charge for the moment put into place.

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

"And people just kind of put up with us on Stacy," Howard adds, still face down on the table. He brings his arms up and buries his face in them. "They knew we were stealing and figured it wasn't worth interfering with."

Which is why it's baffling and infuriating that it's such a big deal here, but so bureaucratic. Stealing food could, of course, get you killed back home. And it didn't really matter on the ship. It's this middle ground that's so frustrating to navigate, and part of why Howard just didn't care about getting caught - the stakes weren't as high as death, and what was the worst that could happen?

"Please don't kick us out." That fear hasn't quite been dispelled yet.

[first_in_time]

"We're not going to kick you out," she said quietly after a short pause, "and we understand that things are different to before, we just don't want you to wind up being jobless and, should the time come to it, homeless. We care for you."

[splendid_roman]

Ian paced the kitchen, at least as far as the tea and then paced back again once he'd picked up a cup. "We understand," he said, after a sip, "but the police won't be able to. They see things more in black and white and if you keep doing things like this eventually they'll send you to jail and we won't be able to do anything about it."

He paused to sip his tea and let that sink in. "Neither of you are stupid, you just need to stop and think before you do anything."

[keep_surviving]

Diana had taken the opportunity of Ian's pacing to finally grab herself a piece of toast, chewing on it whilst simultaneously taking another. Cold toast was rubbery and strange to eat.

She would still eat at least 10 slices.

"Alright, we get it. Anything else?"

[iselldrugstothecommunity]

Howard has to admire how Diana can eat cold toast without losing a single crumb.

"We won't do it again." By which he means 'get caught', of course, but hopefully they'll buy it.

[first_in_time]

Barbara gave Diana a look of complete disbelief. How could she sit there and simply ask that? The two of them were in such trouble, not only with their wards, but also with the authorities, and Diana just seemed to brush it away?! She looked to Ian for help.

[splendid_roman]

It did feel like they were repenting a bit too quickly, but Ian didn't want to sound too disbelieving and have them change their minds. "So what are you going to do about the grocer?"

[keep_surviving]

Diana shrugged. "Apologize, if that's what you want."

It wasn't a big deal for her. She was a good enough actor to make it sound as if she were really sorry.