Not many people are willing to get up before dawn just to see this amazing sight; some days she has the place all to herself. But this morning there is someone else there.

The clothes he's wearing say 'rich'; the careless way he's lounging on the grass in them says 'very rich'. That delicate silver-blue silk is going to take magic to clean, if it can be cleaned at all. He is sprawled comfortably on the grassy slope that separates the outermost path from the rest of the garden, hands tucked behind his head, watching the dawn with a lazy smile.

Ooh probably the smart thing to do would be to leave him alone.

On the other hand, she doesn't recognize him, so he certainly won't have any idea who she is...

She is careful to be silent as she spends a few minutes gathering fallen flower petals in her outer skirt.

And then she creeps up behind him and throws them into the air right above him.

He makes a startled noise, and then giggles delightedly amid the rain of petals.

She giggles too. "Hi!"

He beams up at her, picking flower petals from his hair. "Good morning."

"Good morning! I've never seen you here before."

"I felt like watching the sunrise today."

"It's glorious. Most people don't know what they're missing, I think. I come here every morning and I often have the place to myself."

"I'm definitely glad I followed this particular whim!"

He is not at all looking at the sunrise when he says that.

"Whimsy is so rewarding," she giggles, brushing a few clinging flower petals from her skirt.

There's that grin of his again. He has a pretty good grin.

He reaches up and picks a stray petal off her hemline.

He does have a pretty good grin. "Any reason this whim struck today in particular, or is it true random whimsy?"

He shrugs. "Today happened to be the day I remembered that it's been a while since I came here."

"Fair enough!"

"And you? What random whim led you to dump a skirtful of petals on some poor stranger's head?"

"You were lying right there! And rich people rarely notice the help, so if I don't know who you are--and I don't--then the odds that you know who I am are slim to none, so I could get away with it."

"I know some people who'd have leapt up and thrown you over the edge," he says, gesturing down at the railing and past it at the long, long drop to the ocean below. "But, luckily for you, I thought it was great fun."

"I'm faster than I look! If you'd started to leap up I would have bolted."

"I guess we'll never know how that would've turned out."

He's still holding the petal he picked off her skirt. He holds it in front of his face and turns it over, looking at it thoughtfully; then he rolls onto his side (ruining his expensive clothing a little further), pokes the petal into the ground, and cups his hands over it. A few seconds pass before a little green shoot pokes out between his fingers; it goes much faster after that, and in hardly another handful of seconds he's picking a full-grown flower and holding it up to her.

She beams delightedly and accepts it.

Awwwww. He beams right back.

She pulls a hair-ribbon out of a pocket and starts braiding the flower into her hair.

He giggles.

"Well, you've made my morning much happier than I was expecting."

"I'm glad!"

He smiles up at her with much the same look he was giving the sunrise.