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"Morning," says Oka when he hears the door open. Reki and Langa aren't very good at arriving on time for opening shifts, so he never schedules them before 9am on the weekends. Oka gets a quiet morning at the shop to himself this way - he has a coffee, takes Sketchy on a walk, and has time to relax for a little while before Reki and Langa finally arrive.
It's not like anyone is lining up to come in and shop that early in the morning anyways, to be fair.
There's some shuffling and whispers, and Oka looks up from the magazine he was flipping through to see a large bouquet of flowers in Langa's arms.
Reki looks nervous. "These are for you!" he says. "They're not from us," he adds hurriedly. "They were on the doorstep."
Langa takes that as his cue to come over and deposit the vase and flowers on the counter directly in front of Oka.
"Are you sure they're for me?" Oka asks, but he's already reading the card tucked in among the blossoms. Sure enough, it's his name, but no indication who they're from. An especially satisfied customer?
He doesn't know anything about flowers. There are several different kinds, all shades of red or pink or purple. They look nice though.
"I guess they can stay here on the counter," says Oka at last, still a little taken aback and not sure what to do with an unexpected bundle of foliage.
Reki's watching him. "What do you think?" He has his phone out, up in his hands like he's in the middle of texting someone.
Oka shrugs. "Looks nice, I guess."
"So you like it?" Reki presses.
Oka's pretty sure he just said that, but - "Yeah, I like it," he says. "Nice colours, it's kinda pretty."
Reki grins like that's hilarious news, and taps something out on his phone before sticking it in his pocket. Langa looks over at him and they share what seems like a meaningful look, and then they head to the locker room to change without another word.
Probably Oka doesn't want to know what's going on. They're good kids, just a little weird sometimes, and some of their friends are downright bizarre - he's still finding sequins on the rooftop from when the one guy arrived at Langa's party by helicopter.
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Oka doesn't think anything of it - just some random mysterious thank-you flowers for something he doesn't remember - until a couple weeks later he gets another flower arrangement.
It's great timing, actually - they arrive just as the first one is starting to look a little scraggly. He'd been wondering how long you were supposed to keep flowers before you threw them out. From a delivery person this time, instead of Reki and Langa, but they're close-mouthed when Oka tries to get some details about the shop, the sender, anything.
He idly wonders if the person sending him flowers knew how long the first ones would last, and timed it intentionally. (Oka can't imagine more than one person is anonymously sending him flowers, that's absurd.)
Oka goes to S that night - it's more relaxed these days, less dangerous, fewer people trying to injure or distract their opponents. He's not into the formal beefs, but he likes skating together with people at the start of the evening, chatting about builds and decks, seeing what's popular.
He wanders through the crowd and greets a few people he knows, and turns around when he hears a familiar voice yell his name. Reki and Langa run over and greet him, Shadow trailing behind them.
"Have you gotten any more flowers?" Reki asks.
Oka's kind of embarrassed - he hasn't really been telling anyone about that. Reki and Langa were off work, so they weren't there when today's bouquet arrived.
"Yeah," he says, "I got more today, just as the first bunch was wilting." He shrugs. "If this keeps up I guess I might get more in a couple of weeks."
Shadow clears his throat. "What kind are they? Roses, or carnations, or something else?" His tone of voice is casual, but he's standing stiffly, a little awkwardly.
Oka laughs and rubs a hand over the back of his neck. "Oh, I'm terrible with plants, I have no idea. Not roses, I don't think."
For some reason Shadow looks alarmed by his answer, and Reki shoots him a look. Langa's also staring at Shadow, brow furrowed.
"Are any of you racing tonight?" Oka asks, just to break the weird silence.
Shadow and Langa are, though not against each other. Reki is going to meet up with someone who wants a custom board.
"My beef is at 1:40," Shadow offers. "You should all watch, it's going to be awesome!" He puffs out his chest and preens a little, and Oka's gaze catches on the breadth of his shoulders and swell of his pecs.
Shadow's stomach is bare, between the waistband of his low-riding tights and the hem of his cropped shirt - his core is obviously solid, but covered with just enough body fat that Oka wouldn't be worried about bruising his face on sharply defined abs. If he ... used Shadow's stomach as a pillow ...
Fuck.
Oka's way too old to be staying up this late. He's getting delirious with lack of sleep and perving on skateboarding idiots in clown makeup.
"Sorry," Oka says, "that's past my bedtime. Good luck though!" He smiles encouragingly, willing 'no I wasn't just ogling anyone' energy into his expression.
They all say their farewells, and Oka heads back toward the entrance. As he walks off he thinks he hears Reki's voice gone oddly kind and soothing, and idly wonders who needs comforting.
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Now that someone's asked him about it, Oka's kind of curious about what kinds of flowers these are. He gets out his phone and searches a few flower names he can think of, swipes through all the example photos, but none of them are hibiscus or orchids or chrysanthemums or cherry blossoms. And they definitely aren't roses.
The bell above the door jingles, and Reki comes in to see Oka frowning at the bouquet.
"What are you doing?" Reki asks as he's clattering around stowing his backpack and board.
Oka shrugs. "I was wondering what kind of flowers they were, I guess."
Reki hums. "Did you know flowers have meanings?" he asks abruptly. "They can be like, a whole language, I heard."
Oka looks at him, and looks back at the bouquet. "So someone's sending me a message?" he asks slowly. A thought strikes him, and he frowns. "Is it a threat?"
Reki coughs (it's definitely a laugh). "All the meanings I've heard are about love," he says, wrinkling his nose at the concept of romance.
Just what he needed, coded messages. "Whoever it is had better send a flower dictionary next time, because I have no idea what any of these are." He pokes something pink that has - lots of petals? It's a flower. It looks like a flower. He has no idea how to even start telling them apart.
Reki nods thoughtfully. He sticks his hand in the pocket where he keeps his phone, and then glances over at Oka and quickly takes it out again.
Oka has no idea what's going on in his life any more.
The next bouquet comes with a brochure on flower language, and Oka squints at blossoms and pictures until he can figure out that whatever else the flowers are saying, whoever's sending them thinks he's hot. Oka wonders if they've had their eyes checked recently.
Who on earth is doing this.
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Oka has a delivery on the other side of town, and on the way back while he's waiting at a red light, he happens to see a flower shop. On a whim he finds a parking spot nearby and heads in - he has another hour before he has to be back at Dope Sketch. He always gives himself a little extra time, in case customers want adjustments to their boards after testing them out.
The guy behind the counter looks up when the bell above the door rings, and Oka recognizes Shadow - or well, Higa when he's not at S, probably. Other than properly meeting the one time at Langa's party and occasionally saying hi at S, they don't know each other well, so Oka counts it as a win that he remembers Higa's name.
Higa clearly recognizes Oka, too. "Welcome," he offers with a somewhat nervous smile.
Oka wants to assure Higa he won't blow his cover without saying 'Don't worry, I won't tell anyone about your secret skating identity', but instead just says "Ah. Hi."
Higa waits for a moment, and then prompts, "Can I help you?"
"Actually," Oka says slowly, realizing this might be the perfect person to help him figure it out, "I'm trying to solve a mystery."
Higa looks completely confused, and Oka explains - like Reki mentioned, someone's been sending him flowers, and apparently there might be hidden messages involved?
"But I'm not that bright when it comes to anything besides skateboards, I can't figure out what they're trying to say."
Higa's face does something very complicated, and for a split second Oka's worried that this is too far outside his job description - he's not supposed to give out free plant-related information to non-paying customers, or something. But Higa quickly recovers, and takes him on a tour around the shop.
This must be something they teach in florist school, because Higa confidently lists off meanings as he identifies what are apparently completely different flowers despite them all looking more or less the same to Oka. A bunch of them mean friendship, or devotion, or different kinds of love, or sympathy. It makes sense, Oka supposes, for the meanings to be related for the usual reasons you'd give someone flowers.
Oka's not sure he recognizes anything from the bouquets he's gotten, but Higa spends enough time on tulips and what the different colours mean that Oka's semi-confident picking them out after having stared at a few dozen. Roses are pretty obvious, and sunflowers. Oka likes the snapdragons and the weird shape of their blossoms - but apparently they mean 'deception', so if he gets any of those next he supposes it'll mean the whole thing was some big joke.
"Do you -" Higa is looking closely at a huge pink rose, big hands surprisingly delicate as he gently removes wilting petals. "Do you like getting flowers? Reki said you'd gotten a few bouquets."
Oka is surprised into being honest. "Yeah, it's nice - no one's gotten me flowers before." He scratches the back of his head. "I wish I knew who was doing it, I think the last bouquet was like, a love confession or something?"
Higa's cheeks and ears flush bright pink. Oka feels bad - nobody wants to hear a middle-aged guy daydreaming about a secret admirer, that's just depressing.
He wonders if Higa is seeing anyone - he seems like a sweet guy when he's not putting on his jackass persona at S. He's very kind to answer Oka's dumb questions when he definitely has other things he should be doing. And he's pretty cute when he's flustered like this. Oka wonders if the blush goes all the way down his chest -
- He's got to stop doing that. Getting flowers must be making him think about romance, which makes him think about sex, which apparently turns him into a creep.
The bell over the door rings as a real customer comes in, and Higa apologizes to Oka for having to abandon him. Higa tells him to look around as long as he likes and see if he recognizes anything else. Without Higa at his side, Oka of course can't tell anything apart, but he does one last circuit of the shop enjoying the quiet atmosphere and the different plant-y smells.
Oka gets to the door and turns back to wave goodbye, but Higa spots him and crosses the store.
"Thank you for coming," Higa says politely. He hesitates, hands clutched on his apron, and then says, "If you like - if you want to see a lot of different flowers, see if you recognize any, there's a botanical garden up in Chibana, in Okinawa City. I'm off work Sunday afternoon and Monday, if you're free?"
Oka is a little baffled by the invite, but it's been a while since he's travelled outside of Naha. Plus Higa is pleasant company, and Oka could probably stand to learn more about flowers if he's going to crack this bouquet mystery.
"Sure, sounds nice," says Oka. "I can take Monday afternoon off, wanna come by the shop at 1:00?"
Higa looks delighted, they settle on meeting 1:00, and Oka sternly lectures himself on the entire drive back to the shop that this is not a date.
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On Monday, Reki and Langa seem on edge all morning, constantly starting at the front door like they're expecting someone. Oka sends them into the back to organize the stock, just so he can have a break from the weird atmosphere, and then heads into the workshop once they're back in front.
Promptly at noon, Reki barges into the workshop to remind Oka to take a break for lunch, which Reki has never done before. Oka usually works straight through and grabs 15 minutes for a quick bite at a random time - he likes building boards, and it's not like he has anything else he'd rather do on a break.
So Oka joins Langa up on the roof while Reki stays behind the counter, and they sit in companionable silence while Langa eats an incredible amount of food very rapidly.
"You're going somewhere this afternoon, right?" Langa asks abruptly.
Oka's mouth is full, but he nods.
Langa pauses for long enough that Oka almost asks a follow-up question, but just as he's opening his mouth, Langa says "Probably you should change before you go out, you're kind of -" he waves a hand vaguely in Oka's direction "- dusty."
Oka's not sure he should take fashion advice from the kid who constantly shows up to work with new rips in his jeans from failing to land skateboard tricks on his way to the shop, but he'll at least change out of his coveralls. Fortunately he keeps some backup clothes in the locker room.
He leaves Langa cleaning up from his enormous lunch and heads back inside. The bathroom sink is fine for rinsing off the worst of the sawdust.
In a button-down shirt and jeans and feeling more presentable, Oka hears voices as he approaches the front of the store. It's close to 1:00, Higa must be here. Oka feels a grin steal over his face - even if it's not a date, he's looking forward to spending time together -
- Oka rounds the corner. Higa is chatting with Reki and Langa, and scratching behind Sketchy's ears while she's perched on the counter. Higa is far more dressed up than he is - hair combed neatly, wearing a belt and shiny black formal shoes. Is Oka underdressed? They're going to a garden - but is a botanical garden fancier than a regular garden? Does it have a dress code?
But the part that really catches Oka's eye is that Higa's holding a bouquet of red tulips.
After the visit to the flower shop the other day, Oka had looked at the little flower language brochure again and gone through the most recent bouquet one blossom at a time. He's still hazy on figuring out most of them, but the tulips are different enough from all the others that Oka was confident about identifying them. And he remembers that red ones mean 'romantic love'.
Reki spots Oka and freezes, and then he's fleeing to the stockroom, dragging Langa along with him. Higa turns and sees him too, and he visibly braces himself - squaring his shoulders and making his posture more like Shadow's. Oka wonders if that's what he does to make himself feel more confident.
"I'm the one who's been sending you flowers," Higa declares. "I hope that's okay." He's pale, jaw clenched.
Abruptly, Oka realizes that Reki's been in on this from the start. Langa, too. Higa must have gotten the two of them to deliver that first bouquet, and then report back on Oka's reaction. That's why they've been so weird today - they knew Higa was coming over to pick him up for what's suddenly looking much more like a date.
"Yeah," Oka says, a little dazed. His gaze catches on how Higa's biceps fill the sleeves of his polo shirt. It's hard to process that the man he's been ogling lately has showed up at his shop. With flowers. To take him on a date.
Higa looks a little deflated at his brief reply, but barrels on. "And - I mean, I was intending for this to be a date, but I know I didn't ask you properly, so it's fine if you say no -"
"Yeah," says Oka again, "Let's - yes, let's go on a date." His face is so hot the skin of his forehead feels tight with warmth, but Higa's face is bright pink too so it's not so bad.
Oka clears his throat. "Those are red tulips, right?" He holds out a hand. "I, uh. I accept."
Higa's whole face lights up and he hands over the bouquet. Their fingers brush, and Oka feels his heart flutter. Which is ridiculous, he should be too old for romantic stuff to make him feel this way.
But - well. Getting flowers is nice. Higa's kind, and hot, and seems to like him. Oka can't remember the last time he was this excited about going out with someone.