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Spring was a very pretty time of year, Stiles thought. There were lots and lots of flowers around everywhere in every single color that he knew about. They were pretty to look at, and some people picked them to put in little vases in their houses so they could look at them inside, too. Some people, like Scott, sneezed a lot around big gardens of flowers, but it was okay. Stiles would just look at them when he wasn’t with Scott.
Spring meant that school was almost over and then he would get to stay home for months and months, and then when he finally went back to school, he would be in the second grade! And he just turned seven years old! He was getting to be such a big boy now!
And of course the very, very best thing about being home for the summer meant lots and lots of time with Derek and the Hales! Stiles wished that he could see Derek more during school, but he was going to see him so, so much during the summer and he would never, ever get sick of Derek because he was the bestest in the whole universe!
They just had to finish May and a little bit of June, and then Stiles would get to see Derek as much as he wanted!
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Since it was spring, after Mommy came to get Stiles from school, she would go into her garden, and Stiles always followed her. Mommy had flowers of many colors, but her favorite ones were the blue ones. Stiles wondered if it was because Mommy’s dragon scales were blue and they reminded her of them.
Flowers could break really easy. Stiles remembered Mommy telling him he had to be careful with flowers.
“How come people like flowers if they break really easy?” Stiles had asked her once.
“Because they’re beautiful, little Mieczyslaw,” Mommy had told him. “Some people say that certain flowers mean certain things. Like if you wanted to say you were sorry to someone, you would give that person hyacinths like these.” She had pointed out big cones of blue and purple flowers. “Some flowers say thank you. And some flowers say I love you!”
“I love you, Mommy!” Stiles had shouted, and it was so true! It was still true even now!
Today, they did something else after the garden. Mommy showed Stiles how she kept her very favorite flowers for her hoard because flowers died so quickly. She took a big book, some papers, and a flower that she really loved from her garden. “Look, Mieczyslaw! You open the book, put down the paper so you don’t ruin the book, put the flower on the paper, put parchment paper on top, then close the book. It’s called pressing a flower because it will become flat now, see?”
Stiles nodded. He could see it!
“And then you leave it there for weeks,” Mommy said. “Then it will dry nice and flat and you can save it in something nice. Look.” She pulled out an old book from her hoard. There were some pictures in there of Mommy and Daddy, and some of Stiles, too. And in the back were pages with Mommy’s favorite flowers. And they still looked very pretty even though they were dried and didn’t smell as nice. There were some flowers in big frames, too.
Stiles thought that if he ever got flowers from anybody, he would save them just like Mommy did for his own hoard. Especially if they were from Derek!
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Sometimes Mommy brought some of the flowers she called “I love you” flowers into the house and gave them to Daddy. She would put them in little vases and they would make the house smell so sweet. But best of all, they always made Daddy smile and he and Mommy would kiss on the lips, which was kinda gross but kinda nice, too.
Daddy brought Mommy flowers sometimes, too. He didn’t get them from her garden. He got them from somewhere else. But she always smiled and kissed him anyway.
Stiles wondered sometimes what kind of flowers he would give Derek. He didn’t know what he wanted to say to Derek with flowers, just that he wanted to make Derek happy. He loved Derek’s smile so much! It reminded him of a really cute bunny, even though Derek was a wolf.
He decided that he wanted to find a flower for Derek. Derek was one of Stiles’ most important people, so it had to be a very special flower.
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The days were getting really, really long and warm now, and that meant lots of playtime for Stiles outside! Mommy took him to the Hales’ house to play. Miss Talia didn’t have a garden like Mommy did, but there were so many flowers in the forest around their house! It was like a garden but so much better!
But Stiles didn’t want to play with Derek or the rest of the Hales, not yet. He was on an important mission! He needed to find the prettiest, most special flower ever for Derek! He couldn’t remember what all the flowers meant like Mommy could, but he still wanted to make Derek so happy.
Stiles’ imagination was the bestest, and he imagined Derek being a dragon, too. Then maybe Derek would have a hoard and he would want to put Stiles’ flower in there. That would be so awesome. But Derek was the coolest werewolf ever, so it was okay that Derek wasn’t a dragon. Wolf Derek was just the softest and great to cuddle!
Looking for flowers was hard. None of the flowers near Derek’s house were pretty or nice enough to be a special gift. But he didn’t want to go so far in the forest that he’d get lost and be stuck in the woods and cry until Derek or someone else found him.
Then Stiles saw them, right at the edge of the trees where the sun shined right on them. They were big flowers, some of the biggest that Stiles had ever seen, and that was including all the flowers in Mommy’s garden! They had black centers and little yellow petals all around it. If the sun was a flower, Stiles thought it might look like those flowers. He felt right about giving those flowers to Derek. He picked three of the biggest, prettiest ones and ran back to the Hales’ house.
Derek was reading a book outside, but he looked up and grinned when he saw Stiles coming.
Stiles walked right up to Derek and handed him the big flowers. “Here you go!” he said, smiling real big.
Derek’s cheeks turned all red, which was so cute. “Thank you,” he said. He looked at the flowers in awe, like they were something really, really special. Stiles was so proud of himself!
“Oh, what do we have here?” Miss Talia came over.
“Look, Mom! Stiles gave me flowers!” Derek said, holding out the flowers to show his mommy.
“Sunflowers! How lovely!” Miss Talia smiled at Stiles.
Stiles was super proud of himself for making Derek so happy! He did a good thing, he was sure of it!
When Stiles and Derek were playing with all of the other Hale kids, Stiles noticed that Derek kept looking at the big vase that Miss Talia put the sunflowers in. Every time he did it, Stiles just wanted to hug Derek. It seemed like Derek liked his flowers!
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The next time Derek was brought by Miss Talia to play at Stiles’ house, he stood at the door with his hand behind his back and his cheeks were all red again. “I brought you something this time,” he said.
“You did?” Derek brought him a present? Stiles was super excited! “What is it?”
Derek didn’t say anything, but he brought his hands out from behind his back. He was holding some little flowers with yellow centers and little white petals. Stiles thought they were perfect! “Pretty!” he said, taking them gently. He was gonna keep Derek’s flowers safe until Mommy would help him dry them.
“Do you like them?” Derek asked.
Stiles nodded his head super fast. “I love them!” He wanted to hug them tightly, but he knew he had to be careful like Mommy said.
When Mommy came to the door, Stiles turned around and shouted, “Look, Mommy! Look what Derek brought for me!”
“Daisies!” Mommy said. “How very thoughtful, Derek! Let’s go put them in some water so they can have a drink!”
“Yay!” Stiles cheered.
**********
Derek went home with his mommy that night, and Stiles sat there at the table looking at the pretty daisies. Stiles’ tummy felt so warm and happy seeing Derek’s flowers, just like when Derek was playing with his hoard with him. “What do Derek’s flowers mean?” he asked Mommy.
Mommy smiled real big at him. “We’ll talk about it when you’re a little older.”
Mommy looked so happy, so Stiles didn’t mind not knowing right now. “Is it something good, though?”
“Something very good,” Mommy promised. “Come on, Mieczyslaw. Let’s move your flowers to your room and then when it’s time, I’ll help you press them so you can put them in your hoard.”
“Okay!” Stiles didn’t know how Mommy knew they were going in his hoard, but he was definitely gonna keep those flowers forever and ever and ever!