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Luka was working on cataloging the flower arrangements he had sold. It was late. He had patrol tonight with Chat Noir so he was trying to get it done fast. He scribbled as fast as he could while still trying to make it legible. That was a chore in itself.
When the little bell to his shop door chimed, he realized he forgot to turn the open sign to closed. “Forgot to close, again?” A familiar voice asked. Luka smiled. He looked up to stare into the brilliant eyes of his tattoo artist friend. Still as beautiful as ever.
“Hey, Adrien.” Luka greeted. “Yeah… I keep forgetting and I’ve been doing this for at least a year now, if not more. You’d think I’d have this down by now.” Luka chuckled. He watched Adrien turn the sign around for him before looking back down at his order listings.
“Old habits die hard, don’t they.” Adrien said, chuckling as he walked up to the counter. “In all honesty, I’m glad you didn’t. I know it's late but I need a bouquet.”
Luka paused, a bit shocked. Adrien had just asked for a bouquet last week to leave at a loved one’s grave. Was he wanting another one? Adrien didn’t seem sad or melancholy. In fact, he seemed happy. “A bouquet?” He shook himself out of his head and smiled. “Sure. What do you want?”
Adrien paused for a moment, as if thinking of his next words carefully. “What’s a good bouquet that screams “I’ve been crushing on you for a while now”?” Luka’s heart sank at the question. Was Adrien in love with someone else? He pulled out the catalogue of different arrangements they had and started mindlessly flipping through them as if to calm himself down.
“What’s it for, if you don’t mind me asking?” Luka asked, as if he needed to confirm that heart-breaking thought. He’d been pining after Adrien for quite some time now. He was trying his hardest to work up the courage to ask him out but now, it seemed, he was too late.
“There’s this guy I really like and he keeps flirting but he just won’t make a move so I decided I would be the first. It’s kind of a surprise.” Adrien said, a tinge of humor in his tone. Luka always liked that about Adrien. It reminded him of Chat Noir. He always had a humorous atmosphere about him. They both made him feel more relaxed that way. However, it seemed now that amazing power was quite ineffective.
“Oh.” He tried not to sound disappointed. He hoped he sounded indifferent. “He must be amazing to attract your attention like that.” He smiled, trying to support Adrien in his endeavor. Adrien deserved to be happy, even if it meant not being with him.
“Amazing? He’s extraordinary!” Adrien cried.
Luka tried to focus mostly on the catalogue at that point. He stopped when he found a good bouquet that he thought fit Adrien well. “You may like our L'amour du Désir bouquet. It’s got red tulips, blue salvias, and pink camellias. But, since you're trying to make the first move and he won’t, you may like to add valerians to it.” He avoided Adrien’s eyes as best he could as he turned the catalogue in Adrien’s direction so Adrien could look at it.
Adrien smiled down at the pick. “Oh… pink camellias mean I’m longing for you, right? And red tulips mean passion and a declaration of love! And blue salvias mean… I’m thinking of you?” He looked to Luka, clearly hoping for confirmation.
Luka couldn’t hold back a smile. He just couldn’t stay sad around Adrien. “Yeah. You’re spot on.”
“Cool! I actually remembered!” Adrien chuckled. “Can I see some valerians? Do you mind?”
Luka held in a sigh and left the counter. He grabbed one of the valerians he had in the back and showed it to Adrien. “What do you think?”
“Awesome! But what do they-”
“Readiness. They mean readiness.” Luka said, almost too quickly. As happy as Adrien made him he couldn’t help but want him gone quickly. He liked to think it was because of the patrol he needed to get to, but truth be told, he just wasn’t sure how long he was going to hold up.
Adrien’s eyes were wide. He seemed shocked Luka was suddenly so forward. He nodded. “Yeah. Those will look great. Do you think you could help me put that together?”
Luka smiled and nodded. He headed into the back, snipped the stems of the flowers, cleaned everything up, and came back with the bouquet. He showed it to Adrien. “Is it to your liking?” Adrien nodded quickly, very eager. “Would you like that in a vase or tied with a ribbon?”
Adrien chuckled awkwardly and Luka raised a brow. “This is an odd request but do you have any ribbons with bells on them?”
“Bells?” Luka asked.
“Yeah. You know… like, the jingle bells or those bells you find on the collars of cats?” Adrien said, sheepishly.
Luka thought for a moment and sighed. “You truly are a tough customer, Sunshine.”
“I’m sorry! It’s, just, like an inside joke between him and me…” Adrien mumbled. “But if it’s too much work it’s not a big deal…”
“Give me a minute.” Luka said, heading into the back of the shop. Christmas was coming up so luckily all their decorations were out. They were exactly what he needed now. He rifled through them, trying to find a good bell. He stopped when he found two small, classic, gold bells. He hoped these were what Adrien was looking for. He grabbed one of their standard ribbons and strung them on before coming back to Adrien and the bouquet. “You’re lucky, Sunshine,” He mumbled, tying the bouquet together before handing it off to Adrien, “That Christmas is coming up.”
Adrien’s eyes lit up like stars and Luka couldn’t hold back his smile. “You’re amazing, Luka! Thank you!” He cried, beginning to pull out his wallet.
Luka shook his head. “No. It’s on the house. You’ve given Juleka and I enough liberties at your parlor, it’s the least we could do.” He said.
Adrien frowned. “No. I can’t just take part of your inventory. I know flower sales aren’t quite as common during the Christmas season, anyway.”
“Oh come on, Sunshine. Let me treat you just this once.” Luka said, chuckling. He also insisted so he didn’t have to add it to his list and it would take less time. Adrien would be gone sooner that way.
Adrien sighed. “Fine. Just this once, though.” He said. “Thanks, Luka. I mean it.” He winked at Luka, as he often did and then left the shop.
As soon as Adrien was out of sight, he leaned on the counter, finding it hard to stand anymore. He really didn’t want to finish his cataloguing. He didn’t even want to go on patrol. He kind of felt like hiding. Maybe he could delay? Chat Noir was normally late, anyway.
Luka sighed and dropped behind the counter, resting his arms on his knees. Chat Noir normally always cheered him up but seeing the other guy he was crazy about but could never be with didn’t sound particularly great right now. He sighed.
He had time before he needed to be there. He could sit and wallow for a bit. He leaned his head against the counter and closed his eyes, running melodies through his head. Chat could wait a little longer.
________________________________________
As expected when one gets their heart unexpectedly crushed, Viperion was late for patrol. He landed beside Chat Noir on a roof who scrambled to hide something behind him. Viperion really didn’t think much of it. Chat always seemed to be hiding something.
“What took you so long, Vips? Not like you to be late.” Chat seemed to tease, though there was a twinge of concern in his voice. Viperion smiled, half-heartedly.
“Sorry, Chat. I was just hung up on something.” Viperion mumbled. It wasn’t a lie but it definitely wasn’t the full story.
He sighed and sat down, dangling his legs off the edge of the roof. He felt Chat’s whole presence deflate. It made him feel a tad guilty. He really didn’t want to upset Chat but he supposed it really was hard to hide how miserable he felt.
Chat Noir took a seat next to him, setting whatever he had with him to the side. Viperion really didn’t care enough to look up and see what it was. “What’s wrong?” He could already tell Chat was running through all the possible things that could have upset him.
Viperion didn’t look Chat in the eye and found himself staring at his arms. The same arms covered in the tattoos Adrien had inked. Those same tattoos that subtly leaked through his costume as odd snake patterns. They weren’t immediately obvious as to what they actually were if you weren’t looking for it. At the time of discovering this he initially thought it was cool but now he found it some sick joke played on him. Now all he could do was stare at the endless amount of sunflowers he requested Adrien to ink onto his skin.
He took another deep breath and tried to look somewhere else. Chat asked him, again, what was wrong. “Sorry…” Viperion said, straightening his posture and trying to appear more put together. He debated if telling Chat about this was even a good idea but he shook his head at that thought. He trusted Chat and they were close enough that he was sure he could tell Chat almost anything at this point. “You know how you recommended that tattoo parlor to me?”
Chat nodded. “Yeah.” Viperion noticed the belt tail wiggling anxiously out of the corner of his eye. “I can tell you go there a lot.” He chuckled, gesturing to the markings. Viperion laughed a little in response. Chat was the first to notice the patterns in his suit which brought Viperion’s attention to them. Viperion eventually explained what they actually were and he remembered the cat wasn’t very surprised by his explanation.
“Well there’s this really cute tattoo artist there.” Viperion said.
“Oh?” Chat’s interest seemed to peak there, oddly. Viperion didn’t dig into it. He wasn’t in the mood. “Is he the one who did all those?”
Viperion laughed. “Yeah. He’s really great. Sweet, patient, goofy. Kind of like,” He looked at Chat Noir for a moment and quickly looked away, “You.” It had occurred to him how similar Adrien and Chat Noir were before but it never quite hit him that maybe the reason he liked Adrien so much was because of how much he wanted Chat Noir in his life even though he knew the chances of that were slim to none.
“Oh?” Chat seemed to lean forward in anticipation. It almost seemed Chat Noir was excited. Was he?
Viperion raised a brow before looking away, feeling a tad embarrassed. He knew the pink in his cheeks would be quite obvious against his teal mask and he really didn’t need Chat pointing it out.
“Anyway… I really like him. Like a lot and today he came into my-” He cut himself off. Mentioning where he worked probably wasn’t the best move so he rephrased. “He came to me about, um… Relationship advice.” Viperion took a deep breath. “I found out he likes someone else.”
There was silence. Viperion couldn’t hear anything from Chat. He was almost concerned. “Chat?” He asked, looking up to the cat. Chat just blinked. It was the first time Viperion couldn’t tell at all what Chat was feeling.
The silence held for almost too long and Viperion nearly spoke again but Chat spoke first. “I’m so sorry.”
Viperion chuckled awkwardly. “It’s no big deal.” Something about the way Chat spoke almost made it seem like Chat was blaming himself which Chat had a very unfortunate habit of doing. He never liked it. Though he couldn’t quite figure out how Chat could in any way think this was his fault.
“I really thought you’d catch on.” Chat seemed to mumble and Viperion raised a brow. Now he was confused.
“What do you me-”
“I thought I gave pretty big hints.” Chat said. It didn’t clear Viperion’s confusion even a little bit. “I thought the bell thing would surely give it away.”
Bell thing? Viperion shook his head. “Chat, I don’t understand.” Chat fiddled with his ring, something the cat did a lot when he was nervous. His hand brushed against the item he had set aside in his rush to fiddle with his miraculous and it attracted Viperion’s eye.
A bouquet.
A very familiar bouquet was sitting next to Chat Noir. His eyes widened. “I mean, normally I’m the oblivious one. I didn’t think I would upset you. I didn’t mean to break your heart.”
The bells. It made sense now. Viperion was constantly joking about the bell hanging from Chat Noir’s neck. More pieces seemed to be fitting together. The fact Chat immediately knew his markings on his suit weren’t just markings. The fact Chat was unphased by Viperion explaining it to just be tattoos. And when he asked about good places to get tattoos, of course Chat would recommend his own place! That was so like him.
Viperion looked up while Chat continued to ramble and feel guilty. The revelation was almost too good to be true and so terribly obvious now he couldn’t believe he didn’t see it before. He kept flirting with both Chat and Adrien. He was the one who couldn’t make a move. He was the guy Adrien was talking about.
“Adrien?” Viperion asked, softly. He took Chat’s hand, hoping to calm him down. “No, no. It’s not your fault. I’m so sorry. I should have figured it out.” He laughed.
Chat’s anguish seemed to dissipate at those words. He laughed, sheepishly and picked up the bouquet, offering it to Viperion. “You seemed to be having such a hard time that I thought I would make the first move for you.”
Viperion laughed and took the bouquet. “Yeah… maybe I was having a bit of trouble…
“Maybe?” Chat laughed. “Just maybe?”
Viperion rolled his eyes and chuckled. “So… when you did that whole, “blue salvias mean I’m thinking of you”, you did that on purpose, didn’t you?”
Chat laughed. “Well… yeah.” Viperion followed in his, frankly adorable, laughter.
When the laughter stopped, Viperion looked at Chat curiously. Chat was staring at his tattoos. He smiled. “What? Admiring your work, Sunshine?” He teased. Chat blushed a bright pink which was very obvious against his black mask. “You look good in pink.” He smirked.
Chat quickly punched Viperion in the shoulder lightly as they both laughed. “No.” Chat admitted. “I was actually wondering why you always asked me to tattoo sunflowers on you after the first two?” Viperion seemed surprised by the question and paused for a moment. He was pulled out of his head by Chat’s melodious laugh. “You look good in pink, too.” He said, a mischievous smirk on his face.
Viperion let Chat have that one as he tried to figure out the best way to phrase it. He smiled and looked to Chat. “Well… I always call you Sunshine, don’t I?” Chat turned red and seemed ready to speak but Viperion didn’t let him. “I know it’s a bit foolish to get so many tattoos that are about your crush, you know… in case it doesn’t work out.” He shrugged. “But, that’s why I chose sunflowers because I figured they would still be pretty and have a different meaning. You know, in case. But, it didn’t really help much when I thought…” He looked at Chat who seemed sad again. He chuckled. “Well, that’s over now.”
“I’m really sorry I didn’t make it cl-”
“No.” Viperion laughed and shook his head. “Don’t do that. It’s not your fault I couldn’t catch on.” He sighed. “I’m just sorry I took too long, Sunshine.”
Chat smiled. “Like I said, you looked like you needed some help. I’m just glad I’m not going to be the only oblivious one in this relationship.” He turned and looked Viperion in the eyes. “You do want to be my boyfriend right? I don’t think I officially asked.” He chuckled.
Viperion smiled. “Depends…” He leaned closer to Chat. “Can I kiss you?”
Chat smirked and pulled Viperion into a kiss. His tail wrapped around Viperion’s waist. Viperion was taken by surprise at first but happily returned it.
“Then yes,” Viperion said, pulling away. “I think I would love to be your boyfriend.” Chat smiled at him and pulled him in for another kiss.