Mishal looked around the shop. He would be looking at weapons later, but he wanted to do something else before that. Riv had talked about how his greatest contribution during the fight had been taking care of everyone afterwards. Even if that was correct, he had still been vastly unprepared.

He never wanted to feel that useless again. Which was why he decided to be more prepared going forward. If his role in the party was to take care of everyone else, then he was going to make sure he had the tools to do so. Right now, that meant stocking up on as many potions beneficial for different types of healing as he had money for.

The problem was, even with the money they'd earned from the moss collecting job, he wouldn't have enough to buy how many he'd liked to… It was better to be over prepared than under, right? Mish needed to be strategic so he could get the highest ability to be helpful in tending to future injuries within the limit of his budget. Riv would probably tell him to just go with his instincts, because anything related to caring for others came naturally to him.

Mish scoffed. When it came to skills and talents, nothing actually came naturally to Mishal. Melantha was the genius twin and Mishal had to work twice as hard to compare. He'd already moved past being upset about it years ago. It was just a fact of life. In an odd way, it had brought the twins closer—since Mel had always been the one who most recognized all his hard work.

When others would celebrate her for something she'd succeeded in without much effort, she would turn around and gush to him about how proud of him she was—how amazing he was at whatever little thing he'd recently worked hard on. She'd say her accomplishments didn't matter because she hadn't earned them, unlike him. 

Mish smiled, lost in thought, as he looked at some potions on display. One was the same shade of violet as Mel's eyes. He should ask the assistant what that one did…

“Excuse me…”

“Yes, Sir?” The man looked up from something he had been mixing at the counter.

“I was wondering if you could possibly explain some of these to me… I don't have enough money to buy as many as I would like, but I want to at least have some for when one of my party gets injured. Maybe you could recommend which would be best starting out?”

“Of course.” The apothecary assistant walked over to the shelf Mishal had been looking at. “An uninjured party is a potential repeat customer, right?” Despite the lack of a smile, Mish got the sense he was partly trying to joke.

“Certainly. Ineffective health potions is how you lose customers permanently.” Mish gave a faint smile, and it wasn't long before Merfyn was going over the uses and effects of the different potions and herbs.

An hour later, Mish left the store with an entire satchel of healing potions and a purse only slightly lighter than when he'd entered. This was how he was going to be useful. This was how he would live up to Riv and Mel's expectations of him.

***

For the record, it should be noted that it hadn't been intentional. Aariv hadn't even realized a spore had stuck to his cloak until he went to put it back on to meet up with Mishal. It had been that newly discovered ability to identify things that had caused him to notice that the discolored spot on the hem was from a plant.

And then, once he'd removed it from his coat, he was curious if he could plant it. Which had caused him to try finding an appropriate container to try… And before he knew it, he was deep in the metaphorical roots of things.

Which is when he finally considered that he should have talked with Mish before starting the process. Taking care of a plant was a responsibility he shouldn't have decided by himself. It was their shared room, and he didn't know how large it would grow in the conditions. Then there was the fact the plant was carnivorous, which might affect how Mish felt about having it in their room. Not to mention…

Riv wasn't sure if it would be the same in this case, but this was exactly how dryads started in his world. Any flora a dryad took care of had the chance to birth a new young dryad. There was an even higher chance if the adult dryad's partner helped care for the plant.

The topic hadn't come up between them yet, so Mishal had no way of knowing about that little tidbit. But now Riv was realizing they should have a conversation about offspring soon—before there were little ones running around, calling him ‘Papa’ and ‘Daddy’, with Mish being clueless where they appeared from.

Well, that was a thought… Riv would definitely need to discuss children with Mish to find out what he felt about the topic. But Riv got a fluttery feeling imagining a little one referring to his partner as ‘Papa’ and pattering after him curiously. Mish comforting their child after it got a tiny scrape or bump. Oddly, even the idea of having Mel watching their child—so the couple could get some time alone together—gave Riv a warm feeling.

Riv would have never considered himself much of a dreamer before he met Mish. Was this what people were referring to when they talked about being in love? He decided he surprisingly enjoyed it greatly. It could be distracting but in a good way.

He hadn't even really noticed that, at some point, he had set his planting research aside and gone to find his sunshine Beloved. It wasn't hard, considering they had made plans to meet before Riv had gotten sidetracked. He saw Mishal and brightly wrapped the man in a hug without even thinking.

“Do you want kids, Love?”

Mish was obviously taken by surprise to be suddenly greeted like that. “I told you my title was Mother Hen, right? I know it's not good to assume things, but I think that is a good indication of my stance on children.”

“Maybe. But what about specifically having your own… and possibly in the near future?”

“Wait, what?” 

Riv gave a guilty smile. “I.. uh… not anything for certain right now and still quite reversible if you're not interested, but, um… thoughts on offspring?”

Mish pulled back to study Riv closely for a few moments before speaking. “I know you have a biology I'm unfamiliar with, so I feel I need to ask… Riv, my love, are you… Are you trying to tell me I somehow managed to get you pregnant without realizing it was possible?”

“Not exactly… Dryads don't do what you would categorize as pregnant. Plant reproduction can be either quite individualistic or much more communal, depending on the situation… And I realized earlier that I was going to start down a path that opened the possibility to children, without even taking the chance to talk with you about it first.”

“Then I'm glad you decided to talk to me about it… Not because I'm against it, but because it feels like an important step forward. One that we should be on the same page about.” Mish took Riv's hand in his own. “Did you maybe want to go somewhere more quiet or private to talk about this?” Aariv looked around at the crowds walking past them.

“Yeah, sure…” He didn't care where they discussed things, as long as they did. Riv let Mish lead them to a less populated area to sit down. Once seated beside each other, he leaned against Mish. “I hadn't even thought about how I felt about kids before we got engaged. Today I came to the realization that I enjoyed the idea of having children with you…”

“It's a lot of responsibility, considering how new our relationship is, and the fact we're still trying to settle ourselves. I am definitely not opposed to raising little ones with you, but we should make sure we can take care of ourselves first. You pointed out something similar to me just yesterday.” 

He supposed he had… though that had been in terms of Mish not stretching himself too thin. “Then I guess we should be careful about taking care of any plants until we feel ready to have kids…. Which reminds me what caused me to start thinking about all of this. I sort of started to try growing a spore I found into a plant—before I realized that might fall under things we should discuss since we live together.”

“And you do realize, my love, that you are going to have to explain more clearly since I have no clue what you're talking about, right?”

“Dryads are born from a plant that's cared for by at least one other dryad. I was curious if I could grow some of the moss we collected yesterday from a spore that stuck to my cloak. The chance that it would result in a dryad are so slim I didn't even consider it, until I remembered I probably should have asked if you were okay with us having a carnivorous plant in our room.”

“...That does seem like something we should have talked about before you started.”