Tips on Tomatoes ((Romania))

[Lovino Vargas]

With a quiet sigh Lovino sat back on his heels, wiping his dirt-covered hand across his forehead. A pile of upheaved weeds lay forlornly next to his feet, every green sprout and stem attached to its dirty white roots. Giving his fledgling tomato plants one last careful looking over, the dirty, sweat-soaked Italian gathered the offending plants into bare arms and carried them off in the direction of an old mulch-bin. Once they were disposed of, rather than slamming the lid shut dirt-crusted fingers wrapped around a spade and began to stir up the composing vegetation, wincing at the smell before hurriedly slamming the lid shut again. "Can't wait for when I can dump this damn thing out..." He grumbled to himself, resting both hands and his chin on the end of the spade's handle and momentarily supporting himself on it. He was only wearing tattered and worn jean shorts and a wide-brimmed straw hat. The temperature was too hot to work in anything else and he didn't want to ruin any of his normal clothes by rolling around in the dirt with them. Again wiping sweat from emerald eyes he slowly gazed at his expansive garden.

Fruit trees, olive trees, assorted vegetable beds, even a few flowers were scattered across the property and all set up in an aesthetically pleasing pattern. Lovino had gone through several legal and illegal channels to get his property as large as it was, and it was all for the gardens sprawled in front of his modest-by-comparison two-story home. He had been sure to purchase one of the houses close to the artificial forests the Government had planted in the area upon the creation of the city, glad for the privacy and the ability to plant and build things a bit further than his property-line dictated without fear of being hounded by the officials in charge of such petty 'crimes'.

Deciding that his little 'break' was over, the dark-skinned Italian heaved a heavy sigh before leaving the spade next to his compost bin and heading from his tomatoes to his sugar-beets. This was the one day of the week that Lovino kept empty of any meetings, missions, deliveries, anything. It was his time to spend solely on his plants, and he was singularly focused on them, uncaring of his open gate or unfenced property. No one ever wandered this far into the Housing District unless they lived in one of the nearby houses and all of his 'neighbors' knew to leave him alone.

[Andrei Lupescu]

A small yawn sounded from a clump of bushes at the base of rather tall plum tree. It was the only one in all of the forested area that Andrei had found.. And once he found it, he knew at once it was going to be his and his alone. After all, it had to be a sign, right? He loved plums and here it was, the only one in the city probably, with a few exceptions in personal gardens perhaps. So he’d built his little ‘bed’ at the base of its thin trunk. Nothing but a soft bedding of grass, leaves and flowers, mostly hidden by a few bushes; only one had been there before.. All the others the Romanian had pilfered from unsuspecting strangers’ yards and replanted around his tree.

While he did own a small, rather shabby..rundown.. ...borderline falling apart.. one bedroom house on the edge of the housing district (He’d practically got paid to take it off the owner’s hands) Andrei always preferred sleeping outdoors, even though he only slept for a short period of time during the daytime. But the growling of his stomach awoke him a little earlier than he would’ve liked. The Romanian made a face as he combed a few leaves out of his hair and rose to his feet, “What I wouldn’t give for an actual omelette for once..” He grumbled quietly, reaching up to pry one of the ripened plums from the branch. While they were his favorite fruit- if not the only one he liked at all - they got...boring. Especially when the plums were usually, practically the only non-meat thing he ever had.

....Dirt. Crimson eyes blinked a few times as he identified the sudden change of the scent in the air, Lots of fresh dirt.. He’d only recently discovered this new favorite spot of his, but he was fairly used to the scents of the surrounding area.. So his natural curiosity began to take over, prodding him to head off in the direction of the scent. He carefully weaved his way through the trees, glancing at the backyards and houses that were becoming visible in the distance. Andrei wrinkled his nose as he took a bite out of the plum; he was getting a little too close to suburbs for his liking. But he was curious and stubborn by nature. “Oh?” He blinked, sense perking up a little once he finally got close enough to what appeared to be source.. It was a surprisingly lush garden behind a small house.. A grin caught his lips as crimson eyes darted around from plant to plant.

If this wasn’t someone’s already, he was definitely going to mark it as his-- And speak of the devil. He mentally cursed when he spotted the brunette moving around, quickly crouching down behind some tall flowers. Grins, watching as he finished off his plum. Perhaps he’d found a decent breakfast after all.. Or perhaps just something interesting.

[Lovino Vargas]

Finishing up with pulling out the weeds from the sugar beets, Lovino hefted the surprisingly large number of plants into his arms and dropped them off into the compost bin as well, deciding not to bother stirring them in until he'd finished with the rest of the garden. Glancing around, he mentally ticked off his vegetable garden in terms of weed-pulling. He'd come back and water the tomatoes once he was done, since they were looking a bit dry. But he needed to start picking his citruses before they started falling out of the tree.

For once the Italian was looking naturally and particularly cheerful as he continued traversing the garden behind his home. After shifting his hat a bit more firmly onto his head and grabbing his spade again, Lovino meandered over to one of the taller fruit trees, coincidentally passing his new garden guest without even noticing him. Upon reaching the orange tree, with its branches drooping down under the weight of the ripe fruits, he set the spade down against the tree trunk and picking up the large basket. Hefting the hand-woven wicker backet onto his shoulders, the dirt-covered Italian reached up and began expertly twisting the overhanging oranges from their branches. After checking them over for any signs of bruises or some blight, the dirt-smeared Italian tossed them into the basket, humming as he worked. So many of his fruits were beginning to ripen, he'd be out there for weeks picking all of them."First I gotta get the blood oranges, then the peaches..." He mumbled, completely oblivious to the blonde creeping around in his oleander bush. "The kiwi'll be coming in in a few weeks too, the hell am I gonna do with all this?" Despite the rhetorical question Lovino was still smiling as he worked, making sure to only get the ripest blood oranges and leaving the smaller ones to give them more time to grow and sweeten. He would be eating well for months with all the ripe fruits and vegetables he had to pick. The Italian was practically singing, and his excitement dulled down his normal paranoia, which is probably why he didn't seem to pay the 'trespasser' any mind.