Chapter Text
Anakin is opening shipments of flowers the morning it happens. Him and Ahsoka, a first year who had just gotten the job a week or two ago, had flipped a coin to see who’d be organizing orders in the freezing ass walk-in and Anakin, for once, had won.
“This sucks,” Ahsoka complained as she closed the walk-in door behind her and started to rub her hands together to warn them, “Why don’t you do the walk-in?”
“The walk in is two degrees above Antarctica,” Anakin replied dryly, “Weren’t you the one who said I was being a melodramatic warm-blooded pacific westerner?”
“You can’t really blame me,” Ahsoka defended, “You were complaining about it being 50 degrees yesterday. I mean really, you chose the wrong school if you wanted warm weather. Go back to Tucson.”
“MIT is the best school for engineering,” Anakin argued, “Besides I couldn’t turn down the scholarship. It was too good Snips.”
“I think I’ll stick to environmental studies,” Ahsoka said, her nose scrunching up, “You can keep the WD-40 all to yourself.”
Anakin rolled his eyes.
“Not all of us are Harvard material,” Anakin snarked back, “That’s near impossible.”
Ahsoka scoffed at him.
“The acceptance rate for MIT is 6.7%,” she said, “you totally could have gotten in if you’d applied.”
“Get back to separating orders,” Anakin replied, “We’ve got to get those sorted out before the mother’s day orders come in. There won’t be a single flower left in this place when that happens.”
The bell in the front chimed right then.
“I’ll get it!” Ahsoka said, shrugging off the walk-in parka and rushing to the front.
“You still haven’t learned most of the-,” Anakin started to remind her as he followed only to cut off at the sight of the man in front of him.
“Professor Kenobi!” Ahsoka greeted happily, “How are you doing?”
“I’m doing well Ahsoka,” he said, “How is the project on preserving New Orleans wetlands going?”
Ahsoka groaned but it sounded far away as all Anakin could hear was the blood pounding in his ears.
Standing in the most hideous knitted sweater that Anakin had ever seen in his life was the hottest man he’d ever seen in his life. He had neatly styled auburn hair and a well kept beard that surrounded plump pink lips that looked sinful. His strong looking forearms stuck out from the rolled up sleeves of his sweater, the muscles slightly flexing as he crossed his arms slightly.
And his eyes were a clear bottle blue that made Anakin’s throat dry.
“I didn’t realize you worked here,” he heard the Greek God say to Ahsoka.
“Oh yeah! I just got the job!” she replied cheerfully, “I used to work at the coffee shop up the street but they didn’t appreciate my creativity.”
“You almost burned down the kitchen,” Anakin said, rolling his eyes as he finally tore them away from the stunning man in front of him.
“So it didn’t go as I’d hoped,” Ahsoka waved him off, “I was just trying to see if the croissants would cook faster at a higher temperature!”
“That’s not creativity,” Anakin corrected, “That’s a lack of patience.”
“Oh look who’s talking!” Ahsoka shot back, “You designed a whole program so that you didn’t have to manually type in the barcode for the greeting cards.”
“That’s efficient,” Anakin argued back, “I didn’t almost destroy my workplace by doing that.”
A soft chuckle broke his attention away from their fight and he turned slightly red as he turned back to the beautiful man across the counter.
“Sorry,” Anakin said, “How can we help you sir?”
“Oh no,” he said, his eyes twinkling, “Please don’t stop on my account. I’m quite enjoying myself actually.”
“We could be here for a while,” Ahsoka admitted, “We like to bicker. What were you looking for? I’m sure we could help!”
“I’m looking for an arrangement that has purple hyacinth in it,” he said, “I’m hoping you have some.”
Ahsoka looked at Anakin.
Anakin leaned on the counter as he thought about it.
“Ummm try page 8, the Loving Blooms Lenox Arrangement, and one page 12 there’s the Treasured Memories bouquet in purple and white.”
Ahsoka started flipping through the book before landing on her desired page.
“Here,” she said, “We’ve got this one and then this one over here.”
“Hmmm,” the man hummed, “Is it possible to replace the carnations with white poppy?”
Anakin scratched his head as he thought about it.
“We should have some in today’s shipment if you can come back in an hour.”
Really there should be a surcharge to do so but when the man gave him a blinding smile he couldn’t find it in him to do so.
“That’s perfect!” he said, “I can be back in between my next classes if that’s alright with you.”
Anakin almost forgets how to breathe a little.
“Yeah that’s fine. We’ll ring you up when you come back but can I get your name for the order?” he asked as he walked towards the POS.
“Obi-Wan,” he replied, “um Kenobi is the last name.”
“Okay,” Anakin stuttered as he reached for the POS to tap the name in, “Got it. Obi-Wan Kenobi. We’ll see you in a bit.”
“Thank you,” Obi-Wan said as he started to leave.
The bell above the door jingles again as he leaves and Anakin whips around to look at Ahsoka.
“Snips!” he said, “Who is that?”
Ahsoka looked a little taken aback.
“You mean Professor Kenobi?” she asked, “He is the botany professor for Harvard. He does a few different classes. I took plant ecology, botanical latin, and my seminar in botany. This is my fourth class with him. I take one every semester because they are so cool. It’s ECO 402 Wetland Ecology. He’s the best botanist in the country. He taught at Oxford before he came here.”
“He’s a Harvard professor?” Anakin groaned, dropping his head on the counter, “Damn it.”
“Why does it matter?” Ahsoka asked, “It’s not like you’d take any of his classes at MIT even if he did work there.”
Anakin felt his cheeks heating up.
“It’s nothing,” he insisted, “I didn’t want to take his classes anyway.”
Ahsoka’s eyes lit up in understanding.
“Anakin, do you like him?” Ahsoka pressed, looking absolutely gleeful.
“What? No don’t be ridiculous,” Anakin spluttered, “Aren’t you supposed to be dividing up the flower orders by zip code?”
“You totally do!” Ahsoka said, ignoring his question and breaking out into a grin, “Ooo, Anakin totally likes them older.”
“Shut up,” Anakin said, the tips of his ears burning, “He can’t be that much older than me.”
“He’s 36 according to Cal,” Ahsoka said, “That’s twelve years older than you. Not that I can blame you or anything. Everyone in the class has a crush on him. I think Bhat or Cal might actually proposition him if he doesn’t nip their flirting in the bud soon.”
Anakin frowned, hitting the POS buttons harder than strictly necessary.
“Well that’s great for them,” he said, “Besides I’m in the last year of my master’s degree. I’m 25, not 24, thank you very much.”
Ahsoka rolled her eyes.
“You sound like those kids at the bar saying they’ll be 21 in a few weeks so they should be able to have a drink,” Ahsoka smiled deviously, “But he isn’t your teacher. Technically you go to different schools, so he wouldn’t have that as an excuse if you asked him out.”
Now it was Anakin’s turn to roll his eyes.
“He could be straight Snips,” Anakin reminded her, “Besides what would someone as successful as him want with a flower shop attendant?”
Ahsoka slapped his shoulder.
“You are the youngest Intel ISEF winner two years in a row, you got a full ride to MIT for both your undergrad and graduate degrees, and you were offered a position at WSP the literal second that you graduate. He would be lucky if you asked him out. Besides, you never know if you don’t try.”
“For god’s sake start on organizing the orders before Watto fires both our asses,” Anakin said, shooing her into the back room.
Anakin groaned as he picked up the order form, glancing at the note:
My Dearest Satine,
Forgive me for my unforgivable transgressions.
You deserve only the best and I fear I’ve fallen short.
I’m Truly Sorry,
Obi-Wan
Anakin scoffed. Of course someone who looked like that would already be taken. He wonders what he was groveling for. It must have been pretty bad to warrant $75 worth of flowers.