Chapter Text
Your name is Dave Strider and you are crying. You are a grown-ass man in his late twenties, and you can count the amount of times you've cried on your fingers. Yet, here you are. Well gosh golly gee mister it looks like you can put up another finger because- yeah y'know what, this one got away from you, you don't even know where you were going with that. Whatever. Point is, you're crying, and there is most definitely a long-winded explanation for that involving a lot of pointless metaphors and the use of unhealthy defensive mechanisms you’ve been adapting from your Bro since you were thirteen, but you're not up for any of that right now.
Let's talk about the now, and then maybe we can start from the beginning? Yeah, you like that idea.
Currently, aside from your aforementioned crying, you are sitting on your ancient, floral-patterned couch. You are kind of hunched over, with your elbows on your knees and your eyes trained on your sock-covered feet like they just descended from planet Whyinthefuck and announced they were your long-lost cousin, or whatever. Usually you wear shades, but right now you don't need them. It's dim in your living room, because the power went out a bit ago. The thunder and lightning are kind of nice anyway, you think.
You feel kind of bad for your garden outside. Like, yeah, I'm sure they appreciate the rain and shit after your kind of not paying much attention to their botanical needs, but it's coming down pretty hard, you can only imagine the kind of beating your rose bushes are taking. You cringe a bit at the thought, but at least you've stopped moping long enough to think about something other than yourself for two seconds. And then you almost cry again, because dammit let's not think about that. Your eyes sting, you should stop soon.
You think you’re ready to share your story now.
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Your name is John Egbert, and you have no clue how describe your current emotions without using temperatures, textures, colors, and other words that aren’t actually emotions but are, you think, most definitely feelings you feel when walking by the flower shop on 6th street. The worst part is, you don’t even like flowers that much! You mean, you like them, who doesn’t like flowers, but you’re no botanist, you don’t even remember the last time you had a houseplant. (Unless you count your cactus Casey, which you most certainly do not, as much as you love her.)
Anyway, you’re getting ahead of yourself. Point is, there’s this flower shop -Becquerel’s Bouquets- and it’s on the corner of 6th and Merriview. It’s not too fancy a place, but it is nice for being as small as it is. A good word for it would be ‘snazzy’, or maybe ‘spiffy’. Something like that. It’s name is painted in gold cursive on the front window, and the sign that sticks out over the sidewalk, whatever those are called, is bright green with ‘BB’ written in that same shade of gold, and a little pink flower in the bottom right corner. The whole place seems to be based around pastel shades of pink and blue and green. You’d even go as far as to say the place is downright cute!
Okay, enough about the shop itself, why do you get feelings when you pass it? Why is it of any significance compared to all the other shops around?
Well, for one thing, this store is fairly new! And it is on your way home from work. You like to walk to and from work, because you barely get outside as it is, and you don’t want to see yourself in a few years developing some form of health issue from all the cakes your dad funnels down your throat all year. So of course you’re going to notice a new shop on your routine walk, especially a snazzy one like this.
Except by ‘fairly new’ you mean it’s been here for a year and a half. And by ‘routine walk’ you mean the shop’s kind of out of your way.
Okay, so maybe you kind of go out of your way to make it seem like you have perfectly good reasonable adult reasons for this schoolgirl tomfoolery. If you’re being honest with yourself, you just really like the employees there, and you’ve been trying to weasel your way into their friend group for a while now.
What? They’re all really nice and interesting people! Whenever you do go inside, it’s like those old-fashioned candy shops you see in movies where the kids sit at the bar and some happy person talks to them about their issues, gives them a few extra jawbreakers for their troubles. Like a real bartender, but happier! It’s nice.
Jade, the owner, is a very silly lady! She’s big-hearted and has high spirits, but boy can she curse like a sailor! You like her a lot. Apparently she named the shop after her dog or something. You think he is dead because she looked a little sad talking about it. You didn’t ask her about it anymore after that.
Karkat is the regular cashier. He’s grumpy, and you have no clue what he’s doing working in a flower shop! But despite being such a crabapple, he’s a good guy. He’s a lot friendlier after the customers have gone. You can tell he really cares about his friends, like you do. You guys also have similar tastes in movies, and it’s something the both of you bond over.
Tavros and Nepeta are really nice too! You haven’t had the chance to talk with them much, mainly because they’re usually out delivering. Tavros kind of gets on your nerves sometimes because he worries about things he shouldn’t, but he means well and all. Nepeta reminds you of Jade kind of, because she is also silly. Nepeta likes puns more than Jade does though. They are sort of like comparing cats and dogs!
And then, well. And then there’s Dave.