Work Text:
Claudia hummed as she scribbled in her diary, laying on her stomach in the grass behind her house. It was a beautiful, perfect, sunny and warm and dreamy sort of day. The kind where the wind blowing between the mountain passes smelled like wildflowers and all of the birds were singing happily and her ma was going to make her favorite soup for lunch. She tapped the end of the pen against her chin, trying to use this rare perfect ambience to funnel all of the right words into her brain and out onto the poem written in wobbly cursive on the page in front of her.
Hair like the soft brown hide of a doe,
Flowing like the waterfalls tumbling down
The crevices of Mt Nibel
Eyes like soft caramel and just as sweet.
Impeckable from head to feet.
She paused, and squinted at the words a bit. Did she want to rhyme? And was it a love poem if she mentioned feet in it? She doodled some flowers along the border of the page and decided that plenty of the poems she’d read before hadn’t made half as much sense as hers did, so it was probably fine.
Laugh like the song of bluebird in the sky
A smile as warm as strawberry pie.
Please accept my humble gift,
These lavender blossoms to
Make your spirits lift!
Claudia sat up, and looked down at her handywork. It was exactly how she imagined it would turn out. She grabbed the bundle of flowers she had picked this morning, tied together with string, tore out the page and tucked it in with them. Now all she had to do was run down to the manor after lunch and give it to the doctor!
______
“How many times am I going to have to tell you that you aren’t allowed to be here?”
Claudia yelped in surprise from her position--halfway up the wall guarding the old mansion on the edge of town, a bundle of flowers gripped in one hand--and whipped her head around to see the man in the dark suit who stalked the grounds. His arms were crossed, and he looked tired under his shaggy bangs.
“I was just going to drop something off! Promise!”
He raised an eyebrow at her. “Funny. You don’t look like the postman to me. Down. Now.”
Claudia sighed and hopped back down, looking at the dirt and trying her best to seem dejected and heartbroken. She looked up at the man in the suit from under her lashes. “Sorry?”
“Not gonna work. Run home. This area is off-limits.”
“Ugh! Fine!” Claudia rolled her eyes and sighed dramatically. “Can I at least leave my present by the gate? Please?”
The man looked at the slightly rumpled bouquet, muttered something to himself, and held out his hand.
“Fine. Give it here. But don’t try this again.”
Claudia cheered, and thanked the man in the suit, thrusting the flowers and the letter into his hands before running off back to the road. “Make sure to tell her it’s from Claudia!” she called, waving goodbye and turning immediately towards the foothills to gather more flowers.
_______
“You have a package,” Vincent said, stepping into the lab where Lucrecia was busy trying to decipher her own notes from last night for a report. “From your little admirer.”
“Oh?” She looked up with a smile. Vincent was looking rather annoyed, standing awkwardly with a bundle of lavender in his hands. “Well it smells lovely.”
She accepted the bouquet from him, and unfolded the little scrap of paper that came with it. She read it carefully before setting down on her notes and stood up to find a beaker to put the flowers in.
“She spelled impeccable wrong,” Vincent said, hovering near her desk and eyeing the poem as Lucrecia filled her impromptu vase with water.
“She’s only about ten. And you shouldn’t read a girl’s love poems. They’re sacred.”
“It’s my job to inspect anything that comes through.”
She shook her head. “Well I think it’s sweet. Maybe she’ll grow up to be a scientist some day,” she said, setting her little bouquet down by her chair where she could admire the soft purple blossoms and let their subtle scent wash over her. “And she was right--these will lift my spirits quite a bit today. When she tries to sneak in again, tell her I said ‘thank you.’” Vincent frowned at that, before leaving her to her work.
The basement lab was still a bit dark and drab, but the flowers really did brighten it up nicely.