Chapter Text
"Keith! Keith!"
"What?!"
"I need a huge favor from you!"
"..."
"Right NOW!"
Keith forces himself off his bed, yanks his earbuds out, and trudges into Shiro's room, still thinking about his tattoo design for a new customer. He arrives to his brother digging for clothes and holding a towel around his waist with wet hair and a toothbrush hanging out of his mouth.
"What do you need Shiro?" Keith asks tiredly.
"Ok. This is very important. I'm running late to my date with Allura and I need you to go to Voltron Flowers and pick up the bouquet I picked out for her. It's already purchased, just waiting for pick up," Shiro says while trying to pull his dress pants up.
"Why are you running late? You guys have been planning this date for weeks!" Keith groans.
"That's true, but Mr. Zarkon decided today, right when I'm about to leave, to give me someone else's unfinished work-"
"Then why can't you tell Allura that and pick up the bouquet yourself!" Keith says, cutting Shiro off.
"Keith. Please. I don't want to be late and I'm asking for your help. Now, can you please be a nice, helpful, little brother and help me out. You are living in my apartment because I'm letting you," Shiro said strictly, not taking 'no' for an answer.
"Fine. I'll do it."
Keith stomps off back to his room and Shiro begins to blow dry his hair. Keith grabs his favorite red jacket, keys to his motorcycle, and walks out the door. As he is leaving, he hears Shiro shout,
"Be back in 15 minutes please!"
Keith grabs his helmet out of the back compartment under the passenger seat and throws it on his head. He swings his leg over the seat, turns on the engine, and speeds off.
~•~•~•~
Keith pushes through the door of Voltron Flowers. The bell rang, it catching the attention of the store clerk.
"Hello! Welcome to Voltron Flowers!" They say as they emerge from behind a shelf of flowers.
Keith sees a tan boy wearing a blue and white long-sleeve shirt with the sleeves pushed up to his elbows and an apron with the Voltron Flowers logo in the left corner. He was pretty thin, but he had golden-brown skin and bright, captivating, blue eyes, leaving Keith completely in a trance.
Wow, Keith thinks, he's beautiful.
"May I help you?" The boy says, breaking Keith out of his trance.
"Uh... um... yeah. I'm here to pick up a bouquet of flowers," Keith said. His words sounded more like a question.
"Ok," The boy said, "Let me help you out at the consultant desk. What name is the bouquet under?"
"Oh-um. Shiro," Keith responded.
"Ok. Wait right here while I go look for it," The boy says while walking into the cooler.
Keith nods his head as he sits in one of the chairs at the desk. He looks around the room while waiting. There are many picture frames of people and many books with themes such as wedding, baby shower, or a simple birthday party. They're all filled with pictures of many, many bouquets and what flowers are in each one. He spots one book though: The Language of Flowers. It wasn't any regular flower book. It looked like a novel. Next to it, there was a flower dictionary. Before Keith could look at the books, the clerk came back into the consultation room, looking a little nervous.
"Um... Are you sure there is a bouquet for pick up under the name Shiro? I can't seem to find one starting with 'S'."
"Uh-yeah. Um. My brother said he purchased one from here..."
"Ok. Well that rules out the bouquet being purchased from somewhere else... Sorry, wait right here while I go ask the other employee."
"Ok," Keith says nervously. He's positive that Shiro said to pick it up from Voltron Flowers. Plus, he doesn't know of any other flower shops in the area. Keith checks the time and realizes he has been gone for 10 minutes.
Oh shit, Keith thinks.
He gets up to tell the clerk that he's running short on time.
Wait. Doesn't this clerk have a name? Keith wonders.
He wanders towards the cashier counter and hears frantic voices coming from the back room.
"Is something wrong?" He asks, almost shouting, so they can hear him.
The boy comes out of the back room looking very stressed and Keith becomes even more worried.
"Um..." The boy starts, looking as if he was about to cry. "I deeply apologize, but my coworker sold your bouquet to another customer."
"What do you mean 'sold to another customer'?" Keith asks, not understanding how someone could be so stupid. It had his brother's name on it!
"I didn't mean to!" A girl exclaims, "I wasn't paying attention and thought that was our general bouquet shelf!"
"How could you think that was the general bouquet shelf Nyma! It clearly says 'Bouquets for Pick Up' on the rack AND all the bouquets have names on them! If you took your face out of your phone once in awhile, you would know that! Ugh!" The clerk says bewildered. Keith feels bad for him.
"I'm sorr-"
"It's fine. Just go. Leave. Go home."
"You're not my boss."
"Nyma I said. Go. Home."
"Fine."
Nyma turns and walks back into the employee room. Gathering his bearings, the boy looks at Keith.
"Ok. I can remake the bouquet for you but I need to know what flowers were in the bouquet and what the occasion is. Is that ok with you?"
"Yeah. It's a date. Let me call my brother really fast."
"Ok."
Keith whips out his phone and dials his brother's number. It rings once.
"Keith! Where are you? I have to leave soon or I'm going to be late!"
"I know! I'm sorry, but we have a problem. Some girl that worked at the flower shop sold your bouquet-"
"What?!"
"We are trying to remake it right now, so what flowers did you have in the bouquet?"
"Fuck. Ok. When I was there, I think I had pink Coreopsis-"
"Pink Coreopsis," Keith quickly repeats to the clerk as he scribbled it down on paper.
"White Lilies."
"White Lilies."
"And Amethyst."
"Amethyst."
"With a little honeysuckle."
"Honeysuckle."
"That's what I remember. Please just have a nice bouquet ready soon. I'll wait till after the date to give the flowers to her. I gotta go. Bye."
As Shiro hangs up, Keith turns back to the boy and says,
"Ok. I'm on a short time frame and need this bouquet ASAP."
"Ok. I'll get started right now."
The boy jumps off into isles and isles of flowers. Keith tries to keep up, but once he arrives, the boy is off to the next isle. Keith wanders around after losing the zipping boy. While walking down an isle and looking at all the flowers, he looks through a window on the other side and sees the boy at a workstation preparing the bouquet. Keith becomes enamored with his lithe fingers. They move diligently while putting flowers with flowers, organizing them in an artistic way. He, then, wraps the flowers with pretty, patterned, tissue paper and next in plastic. After that, he pulls out a packet of flower food and rubber bands it to the bottom of the bouquet. The boy grabs a small card and a calligraphy pen before coming out the door, bringing Keith out of his daze.
Keith walks over to the clerk and the clerk turns to him.
"Who's name do I put on the bouquet? Shiro?"
"Oh, no. Allura," Keith responds.
"Allura?" He questions, slightly surprised.
"Yeah. A. L. L-"
"No. I know how to spell her name. Is this for Allura Altea? Dark skin with white hair?"
"Uhm. Yeah. I think."
"Aw. I didn't know this was for Allura. I'll have to make a better bouquet for her next time," The boy says as he begins to write her name in calligraphy on the small white card.
"Well... She's sorta dating my brother right now, so..."
"I know that. I'm making the bouquet for your brother to give to her. She's is my best friend after all and deserves the best."
"Oh."
Keith couldn't help but feel a little giddy about that.
I'll get to see pretty, flower boy again, Keith thinks happily.
"Here you are." The boy says as he holds the bouquet out to Keith.
Keith takes the bouquet while checking the time.
He was done in 15 minutes. Wow.
"Thank you... uhm."
"Lance. The name's Lance."
"Thank you Lance."