Chapter Text
It was with a spiked cactus that this whole thing started.
"Agron's Flowery Palace" was the name of the shop that had just opened right across the street and it was a black-haired, darkened-eyes very attractive man that greeted the salesman's eyes as he stepped out of the back store and onto the front counter. With a warm smile, the short-haired, green-eyed giant of a man used the welcoming sentence he pronounced every time he heard the bell of the front door chime or the screeching tune of the main phone of the shop:
"Hello, welcome to Agron's Flowery Palace! I'm Agron, how can I help you?"
The long-haired man looked at this Agron-guy with a bit of nervousness on his face that was also in his voice when he said: "Um, hi, uh, I don't know if you could help me. I'm trying to find a gift for someone. She's just moved in right down the block from where I live and she's having a housewarming party in a couple of days and I have no idea what to give her. So I thought, why not a plant, they're pretty and they last a long time, right? But the thing is, I don't know shit about flowers and all that stuff and I want to give her something that has some meaning to it, you know? Something that'd make sense to be given for someone like her or something like that and not something that look like it was bought on a whim at the last minute. She's one of my best friend and I really care a lot about her. Could you help me out?"
Having listened to his client's story intently, Agron gave the man in front of him a wide smile and clapped his hands together. "Why of course I can help you, my good man! Let me see what I can do." He opened the little door that separated the space between the cash register area and the rest of the store and accompanied by the smaller man, he began to look around for something that would fit this nice-looking client's request. As he looked over the large collection of different flowers and plants that harbored the different surfaces of his shop, he peppered the other man with questions to better seize what exactly would be fitting for this gift:
"How old is this person?"
"Does she have a significant other?"
"Where did she live before? Why did she move?"
"Does she have any other plants at home? Does she take care of them?"
After getting his answers (22 years-old, she's totally single, lived with her boyfriend but found out he was cheating on her and she does have a couple of plants, but she doesn't have that whole lot of time to take care of them), Agron looked around some more and finally found something that he just knew would be perfect.
"Aha!" he exclaimed as he stepped in front of a display that showed different cacti and settled his choice on a little round spiky thing, cute and not as threatening-looking as the long-spiked ones that were dispersed left and right from it.
"There we go, this little baby is called an Epithelantha micromeris, this is a cactus and cacti actually mean endurance and you usually give them for someone who's gone through a hard time, so I'm sure she'll love it. And, since it's a cactus, it'll last a long time and I'm sure that your friend...uh?"
"Chadara."
"Chadara, right. And I'm sure your friend Chadara in going to like that it doesn't occupy that much space and doesn't need a lot of caring. Just pour some water from time to time and it'll be fine. What do you think?" asked Agron, holding out the spiky plant in front of the stranger.
To which the long-haired client smiled, frantically nodded his head and replied: "Sold."
And so it was with a nice-looking wrapping-paper that Agron made his first sell of the day to this nice-looking young man. And as the stranger exited the shop with a beaming face and a courteous thank you, Agron couldn't help but let his mind think:
"I didn't even ask him his name."
