Chapter Text
“We’re coming up to our busiest season, so be more careful, okay?”
“Yep!”
This agreement was accompanied by an arm flourish that almost took out an entire row of vases, and there was an audible intake of breath from every worker in the shop until it became clear none of them were in danger of toppling over.
“Phos!”
“Sorry; sorry!” Phos steadied the last vase that seemed ready to slide off of the shelf, carefully pushing it back into place and away from the edge. “I’ll be careful!”
There was a good amount of grumbling before everyone went back to what they had been doing before hundreds of dollars was almost smashed into the floor, though Phos couldn’t help but notice none of the others had acknowledged their promise.
It wasn’t like they were lying - they really were trying to be careful - but for some reason things always went wrong and it was the reason nobody in the shop seemed to be able to lock down a permanent job for Phos to do.
Running the front desk had seemed like a good idea until they’d tripped and managed to drop an entire armful of carefully prepared arrangements, and working the floor presented even more opportunities to knock something over. Actually arranging flowers was obviously out of the question, and nobody trusted them enough to keep track of orders or payment slips.
So, at the moment, their job was doing whatever anyone else asked them to do. It made Phos feel like they were just in the way, but they supposed having a job at all was what mattered and the shop manager seemed determined to keep them employed.
“Phos, a moment?”
“Y-yes!” Phos walked - very carefully - over to where they were being called. “What is it?”
“Can you go in the back and see how far along Bortz is in getting their orders done?” Euclase was holding a clipboard and tapping the end of a pen against it. “If they need help, you can fetch flowers for them.”
“Is that a good idea?” Jade peered over their shoulder at the papers, eyes scanning down the page. “Given the volume of product we need to get out…”
“Flowers aren’t breakable, at least!” Euclase replied with a bright smile. “And I’m sure Phos would be on their best behavior with Bortz, isn’t that right?”
“Yes, of course!” Phos nodded, internally dreading the next few hours because Bortz was kind of terrifying.
And by that, they meant normally terrifying, but Bortz trying to work through the last days of the Halloween rush was more intense than ever.
“Great! Let us know how things are going in a couple of hours!” Euclase waved as if Phos was going on a long journey and not just heading into the back of the shop, and Phos muttered under their breath and stomped rather indelicately to the arranging area.
“Bortz?” they asked hesitantly, hiding behind a rack of flowers in case Bortz decided to throw something at then for intruding. “Euclase said I’m supposed to help…”
“I don’t need help,” Bortz replied, sounding just on the edge of madness and like they were speaking through gritted teeth. “I’m fine.”
“Phos! Bortz really appreciates an extra pair of hands, thank you!” Dia chimed in, and Phos felt themselves relax. Dia was always nice and cheerful, and if they were near, Phos was pretty sure Bortz wouldn’t cause them any bodily harm.
“Why’d they send you?” Bortz sneered, pushing some long black hair behind their ear as they deftly placed equally black roses into a rather morbid-looking arrangement. It was almost Halloween, so it was to be expected, but Phos had a feeling Bortz got a lot of pleasure from being able to express themselves like that.
“I’d help myself but with the weekend coming up, orders for wedding arrangements are always high,” Dia’s own creation was full of white roses and glitter, set in a silver vase that sparkled with all the colors of the rainbow. They had a serene smile on their face as they worked, dainty fingers plucking out dead leaves and setting blossoms in perfect order.
“ Fine,” Bortz sounded utterly resigned. “Go in the cooler and bring me the bat orchids,” they said bluntly. “It’s the best I can do for a frightening flower since the manager won’t stock hellebore.”
“Aren’t those poisonous?” Dia asked vaguely, getting a snort from Bortz.
“The way I see it, a Halloween party isn’t a Halloween party if everyone’s safe,” they replied, and Phos decided they really didn’t need to hear any more of this conversation.
“Remind me to never attend if you decide to hold one,” was Dia’s calm response, and that was all Phos heard before entering the cooler.
“Bat orchids, bat orchids,” they mumbled to themselves, scanning the shelves until they found a container full of black, sinister-looking flowers with long, snaking tendrils. “Got it.”
They exited the room, shivering a little as the lingering coldness melted away in the warm air of the shop. Dia and Bortz were still bickering half-heartedly, Dia continuing to add more sparkles to their display while they talked.
Personally, Phos thought it was all a little much, but then...they didn’t really think much about love and marriage anyway. It wasn’t like those feelings were familiar, after all, so why bother spending time trying to figure them out?
“Here,” they set the flowers down and Bortz grunted, eyes flicking over to make sure they were indeed the right ones.
“Good,” was the only reply Phos got, although they weren’t really expecting any sort of gratitude from Bortz.
“Thank you, Phos!” Dia chimed in, ever polite, and set their display aside. “That’s the last one I need before tonight, so why don’t the two of us tackle some of the other Halloween orders?” she suggested.
“They all go through me before you take them up to the front. I’m not trusting you not to add glitter to everything,” Bortz pointed at Dia with one of the bat orchids, eyes narrowed.
“Yes; yes,” Dia nodded. “Come on, Phos, let’s see what we can do!”
Phos happily followed them back into the cooler despite the temperature, glad to be away from the dark aura surrounding Bortz for a bit.
Maybe the afternoon wouldn’t be so bad after all.
-
As it turned out, it wasn’t, though as always Phos was grateful for Dia’s mere existence because they could stand up to Bortz when they decided that nothing Phos was doing was good enough.
No, Phos would never be an expert at arranging flowers, but it was pretty hard to mess up with a template and a picture showing where everything should go. Bortz handled all of the extra accessories and flair anyway, so simply putting flowers in place was something even Phos could do adequately.
They finished the last of the displays around mid-afternoon, leaving Phos with nothing to do for a couple of hours.
“Phos! Are you free?”
“Uh, yep! I was just coming to see you!” Phos lied, hopefully smoothly, but they should have known standing around would only cause Jade and Euclase to seek them out and give them something else to do.
“Great! I think we’re on track, then,” Euclase marked something off on their ever-present clipboard. “Oh! I have a special assignment for you.”
“Hmm?” Phos leaned closer, unsure if they should be excited for this or not. It wasn’t as if there were really any horrible jobs they could be asked to do, but they could never really know for sure…
“As soon as Halloween is over, Christmas orders are going to start coming in and things are going to get a lot busier,” Jade explained, setting a hand on Phos’ shoulder and steering them behind the front counter. “What we need you to do is take photos for the catalogue of all the displays we’ll be offering this year.”
“Uh,” Phos blinked, because that didn’t sound hard, but it wasn’t as if they had noticed any Christmas displays around the shop. “Where are they?”
“That’s the thing,” Euclase leaned back on the counter, finally setting the clipboard aside. “They’re not created yet. That’s Cinnabar’s job.”
“Cinnabar…” Phos murmured, a sudden vision of red hair and cold eyes filling their mind. “You want me to…”
“If you wouldn’t mind staying a little later tonight, just let them know to start working on the samples and when you get here in the mornings, you can take pictures of whatever has been done the night before,” Jade explained. “We want to have the catalogues ready by mid-November at the latest.”
“Right,” Phos nodded. They’d never spoken to Cinnabar, but this didn’t seem like too hard of a task, at least. “I can do that.”
“Excellent,” Euclase nodded. “If you don’t mind working nights, you can also help out our delivery driver once December rolls around,” they added, which only caused Phos to shrug.
“Yeah, sure,” they agreed easily, since extra hours weren’t a bad thing and it wasn’t like they really had anything else to do.
“I guess you’re useful after all, huh,” Jade teased, patting Phos’ head, and Phos couldn’t even get offended because it wasn’t said like an insult this time. “Don’t worry, just make sure you dress warm on those nights and you’ll be fine!”
Phos frowned, although that wasn’t too strange an instruction - loading a truck at night in December was bound to be cold, after all. Still, they much preferred being warm.
“I think that’s about all we have for you today. Take a break for some food if you want and come back once the shop is closed to talk to Cinnabar, okay?” Euclase smiled and Phos eventually, tentatively smiled back.
For once, it felt like they weren’t just a nuisance, and it was kind of...nice.
-
“Hello?”
“Shop’s closed!” came a brisk voice from the back, and Phos ducked around the front counter, dropping their bag off on the way.
“It’s me!”
“Huh?”
There was a rustling sound before Cinnabar popped out from the back room, blinking slowly. “You’re…”
“Phosphophyllite. Uh, Phos, for short,” they amended, holding out a hand. Cinnabar shrugged, shaking it after a long moment. “Jade and Euclase told me to come back and talk to you.”
“About the Christmas catalogue?” Cinnabar was already turning to go back into the employee area, long red hair falling in front of their eyes. “They don’t need to remind me every year.”
“Oh! Well. They told me…” Phos realized Cinnabar wasn’t listening anymore and had disappeared through the door. Huffing in annoyance, they stomped to the back, deciding that just because Cinnabar preferred to be alone, that didn’t mean they could be rude.
“You’re still here,” Cinnabar didn’t ask it as a question as they sat down, crossing their legs and paging through what looked like last year’s catalogue. “I told you, I’m working on it.”
“Great! I’ll tell them!” Phos announced, much too loudly, their voice echoing rather unpleasantly off of the walls of the room. “Oh, one more thing…”
“ What?” Cinnabar sighed, looking up.
“I’m supposed to take pictures for the catalogue this year, so...um, if you could just leave whatever you’re done working on out, I can do that in the mornings,” they said it in a rush, hoping Cinnabar would listen to the end and not interrupt this time.
“Okay, I’ll do that,” Cinnabar waved a hand dismissively.
They went back to working and Phos figured that was probably their cue to leave, and since it didn’t seem like Cinnabar was interested in small talk, they turned to go.
“Wait.”
“Huh?” Phos looked back, flinching when Cinnabar’s cold, red eyes met theirs.
“Come here for a second.”
“O-okay,” Phos scuttled a little closer, not really sure if this was a good idea, but they didn’t think Cinnabar was going to hurt them.
“Here,” Cinnabar handed over the catalogue they’d been looking at. “This is from last year. Tell me what you think.”
Phos took the book, staring at it before realizing they were probably actually supposed to flip through it. They weren’t really sure what input they could offer, since from what they could see it was all pretty standard Christmas fare: a lot of reds, whites, and greens, with arrangements varying from all flowers to flowers mixed with pinecones and evergreen branches.
They heard a giant sigh from Cinnabar and looked over, clutching the book to their chest.
“It’s all so predictable , isn’t it?” Cinnabar was absently arranging a vase full of roses, touching the tip of one finger lightly to a thorny stem. “Maybe I’ve been doing this too long and I’m just...jaded. Going through the motions.”
“Oh! No, no, they’re all very pretty!” Phos protested, but from the sideways glance Cinnabar gave at that, they could tell Cinnabar didn’t believe it.
“I mean, some of them have to be the same. People expect certain things with Christmas arrangements, you know? But I also want to…” they shook their head, setting the rose down. “I want to create something special. Something unique. I’m just not sure I know how anymore.”
Phos nodded, wanting Cinnabar to know they were listening. Their co-worker was definitely as frosty and impersonal as they’d been expecting, but they weren’t mean, and so far they seemed to be treating Phos as an equal.
Cinnabar went back to building some sort of display, not looking like they were going to say anything else, so Phos continued to flip through the catalogue.
It was all so much of the same, they thought, realizing that Cinnabar was right. A few more flowers here, a tiny decoration of a reindeer statue or a string of jingle bells there, but on the last page…
Phos felt their breath catch a little and heard Cinnabar shift, obviously looking to see what had caught their attention.
“Of course. ‘Winter Lover’,” they sounded a tiny bit bitter. “That one’s not mine, but I guess at some point last year someone decided that between Christmas and Valentines they needed something to sell, so they got our driver to come up with more of a...well, winter arrangement.”
“It’s beautiful,” Phos replied softly, touching the page with gentle fingers. There was something so...stark and icy about it, built up around pale twin birch branches in the middle, and everything was white with the barest hint of brown. There was nothing showy, no extra glitter or sparkles, but it made Phos feel something and that...that was what art was supposed to do, right?
Because Phos was quickly learning that flower arranging was a type of art. There was so much involved: from picking colors that worked together, to using space properly, to building layers of height and depth, and they were gaining a lot of respect for anyone that could do it as easily as people like Bortz and Dia and Cinnabar were able to.
“Maybe I need a fresh eye,” Cinnabar’s voice broke into their thoughts and Phos looked at them. “Well, whatever. I’ll just keep doing what I always do,” they went back to the roses and Phos swallowed, a sudden idea creeping into their head.
It was foolish, since no way would Cinnabar ever value their opinion, but…
“I could...I mean, I don’t know that much, but…”
“Just take the pictures,” Cinnabar replied, causing Phos to snap their mouth shut. “I’ll have some things our by morning.”
“Okay,” Phos sighed, knowing all along that it would turn out this way. Maybe Cinnabar had opened up a tiny bit, but it wasn’t like they were suddenly going to change. “Maybe I’ll see you around?”
Cinnabar raised a hand in what Phos was going to hope wasn’t a rejection of the idea, but it was obvious either way that the conversation was over.
They left the shop quickly, taking their bag from the front and looking back through the window once they were outside.
Cinnabar was out of view, tucked away in a lonely back room, but a tiny shaft of light poured through the door, leaving the floor of the shop bathed in a golden glow.
Something about the image was striking and Phos tucked it away, knowing that Cinnabar wouldn’t want to hear their ideas anyway.
For now, all they could do was go home.