Succulent in a Skull

"Would you like some help, sir?"

Gabriel grunts and shakes his head, waving the helpful shopkeep away. A bouquet of flowers would be weird, right? It could be perceived as romantic or, at the very least, overly-invested. Maybe a single flower? Scratch that, too perfunctory. Don't know what kind of flowers she likes anyhow. He has a feeling she's the kind of person who would love a cactus, but he's absolutely positive that she's also the kind of person that should, under no circumstance, ever possess a cactus. Although, maybe he's on to something with hardy plants. He was thinking flowers to bring some kind of life and color to her bland living space, but perhaps they'd die too quickly to fulfill their purpose for long.

"You got any of those desert plants? Not cactus." He knows damn well they're called succulents.

"Do you mean succulents, sir?" Obviously. "We have a few, you could find a larger variety at our main branch—"

"Whatever you've got will be fine." Pause. "As long as the leaves aren't pointy."

"How is this one, sir?" Gabriel narrows his eyes at the plant in the shopkeep's hands. Few inches high, bulbous green leaves, nondescript pot.

"Plant's fine. You got any pots that are more... festive?"

There are a few. There are owl pots, corgi pots, and wildly colored pots, but Gabriel's gaze slides over them all, attention instantly ensnared by one in the middle. It's a ceramic skull painted in obnoxious colors, with a small sign embedded on the side reading "Growing Out of My Mind". On the list of things you should not gift a mental health inpatient, this would definitely be at the top—after the obviously unsafe things, of course. Like cactuses. Cacti. Whatever.

Point being, Liao is going to love it.

===

"I love it!"

Gabriel doesn't try to hide his smug grin as he presents the plant to her. "Of course you do, I got it for you."

Liao carefully lifts the pot from Gabriel's hands, gently rotating it around to admire the skull from every angle—and freezes as she catches sight of the sign. There is a brief, glimmering moment of suspense, where Gabriel thought that maybe he really should have listened to his inner Jack and bought the dreadfully plain pot, but then Liao's smile breaks through like the sun through clouds and her guffawing laughs fill the room.

"Holy shit, where did you find this? Did you make it?"

"Please, you've seen my terrain models. I have zero artistic talent when there isn't a needle involved."

"True!" Clearly pleased with the gift, Liao places it in a prominent spot on her otherwise bare windowsill as Gabriel makes himself comfortable in a chair. She turns to face him, still eye level with him even though he's sitting, thanks to her borderline diminutive stature. "So, how's life for Commander Reyes?"

Gabriel rolls his eyes. "You may not have heard," Sarcasm. She's heard. Everyone's heard. It's been the number one headline for a week. "But I am no longer a commander of anything. Jack got the gig."

"Bullshit! Jack might be the ring leader for the pony show, but I know the UN wouldn't let you go for nothing."

"Nope, it's all true." It isn't. She's right. Jack might have control of Overwatch, but Gabriel isn't out completely. The UN has stood up a secondary organization, designed to cover the clandestine operations Overwatch can no longer accomplish with every watchdog on the globe keeping close tabs on them. Liao is definitely not supposed to know that, though. "I'm taking my old bones to some middle-of-nowhere post in the western US." Partially true. Blackwatch's HQ is under construction somewhere in the US, he just isn't sure where yet. "I've got ten years to retirement and I have every intention of taking it easy."