Work Text:
Ever since coming to work at the Northland Florist, Childe had come to understand that there were many odd people living in Liyue. There were the ones who would come in with every aspect of an arrangement planned so meticulously it took a full hour to get a grasp on just what exactly they wanted. On the complete flip side, there were those who would enter the shop without a single idea of what they wanted, save for the sole mission of procuring a bouquet. Those types of people could be handled in under half an hour; the biggest hurdle was always that of convincing them to make a decision.
Though, among all of the oddballs Childe had encountered, there was one lone man who took the prize for the strangest of all. There was never any rhyme or reason to the man’s appearances--Childe had seen him on rainy and sunny days alike as well as warm and cool--but the one thing that could be said about his attendances was that they were frequent.
And today was another one of those days.
The bell to the door tinkled pleasantly, bringing Childe’s attention away from his sweeping and towards the door. “Be with you soon!” he called out, leaning the broom against the wall and wiping his hands on his apron. He’d just finished chopping off the thorns of a bath of roses, which could be a surprisingly messy business.
Taking a moment to scrub his fingers through his hair (more to make sure there weren’t any stray leaves stuck in there than to earn beauty points), Childe breezed out of the work room and into the main room of the florist.
Blue eyes fell upon what had become a familiar face as his signature smile warmed his face, “Welcome back, can I help you find anything?”
The man nodded, his long hair swishing across his back. “Thank you. Do you have Cecilias today?” His voice was deep and smooth like honey.
Childe hummed, “You’re in luck. Some just came in today.”
In fact, this same gentleman had been in the shop just the other day for a different bouquet, but he’d expressed how he’d been having a difficult time finding Cecilias. Something about his good friend coming to town soon, if Childe remembered correctly. Cecilias weren’t common here in Liyue, and Childe rarely bothered to stock them since most of the locals had no idea what they were. But for his best customer, he was willing to pay the extra foreign exports fee.
And, was this just Childe’s imagination, or was said customer smiling? He didn’t know this man very well, but they’d had enough interactions by now for him to realize that this customer used his facial muscles conservatively. Still, the way his eyes, so golden and clear, appeared to gleam like cor lapis in the midday sun didn’t fail to make Childe’s own smile grow in intensity and brilliance.
“Then, let’s do a bouquet of those. 20 if you’ll please.”
“Certainly. Do you want to customize the fillers?” Childe had learned to ask ever since he’d deigned to add mint leaves with silk flowers. He’d gotten quite an earful as a result, and had never made the same mistake again. Childe had fumed about the lecture for the rest of the day, but after he’d calmed down, he realized that the customer’s feedback had been correct. Still, to admit that was something his pride simply wouldn’t allow.
“No fillers today. These are for my friend, but he has a rather...interesting approach to flowers. Knowing him, he’ll stick them in or on anything that isn’t a vase, and your beautiful craftsmanship would be ruined.”
Childe blinked, stunned for more reasons than just one. On the one hand, his curiosity begged to learn more about this friend who seemed to have a less than conventional approach to flowers. But on the other hand…
Holy shit, he just complimented me!
In the many months Childe had been acquainted with this customer, he could count the number of compliments he’d received from him on one hand. In fact, he could still do it even if he cut all of the fingers off of his hand. It wasn’t that this person wasn’t appreciative--on the contrary, he always said thank you and left a tip--but he never said anything about how he liked the finished product. Most times, he would just take his purchase and go, leaving Childe feeling like he somehow could’ve done something better.
And it especially didn’t help that Childe had a stupid massive crush on him either. Yes, this customer, whose name Childe didn’t even know, was strange, but that did nothing to stop his heart from pounding every time said customer stepped into the shop. From the way he talked to the way he dressed, Childe had become fascinated with this man and before he noticed, he’d developed a pesky little crush that didn’t seem to have any intentions of stopping any time soon.
There was never much room to make conversation, let alone try to work his charm that seemed to roll off of his body like sweat. And with the way this customer always came into the shop looking his best (think 3 piece suit every day, even on weekends), Childe had to assume that he was some important hot-shot whose only resource that he didn’t have in abundance was time.
But this time would be different. This time, he wouldn’t let anything get in his way. He would suggest going out for drinks over the weekend. Super casual. Although, now that he thought about it, maybe he should ask for his name first...
“--is that alright?”
The flourist snapped back from his daydreaming to catch the end of the customer’s request, but it wasn’t enough to be very helpful. “Sorry, what was that?”
“I need to go lest I make myself late for work. I realize this is rather rushed, but was hoping to pick them up at the end of the day. Is that alright?”
“Oh, yeah! Of course. I’ll have those done in a jiffy. And the other bouquet you ordered last time is ready now as well. Gimme a sec.”
He dashed into the back room like there were wings on his shoes and retrieved the order from the cooler that held all of the finished orders. Determined to be as quick as possible, Childe returned to the cash register, where he tied a yellow ribbon to the wrapped flowers and handed them over. This customer always asked for yellow ribbon, and so Childe made it a point to do it before the customer even had to ask him.
Before he knew it, he was handing the flowers over and waving goodbye, listening to the bell jingle as the doors closed.
Humming to himself, Childe turned on his heel and returned to the work room to start prepping the Cecilias.
It wasn’t until he’d laid down the plastic on the workbench that he realized his mistake.
“No!!! I forgot to ask him out!” he lamented aloud, resting his head on the table with a thunk. How careless could he be? This was supposed have been the day when things changed, but he’d gotten too wrapped up in efficiency and stupid yellow ribbons to actually get anything done. With a sigh, Childe picked himself back up and reached for his scissors. Crying over it wouldn’t fix anything now. Besides, he would see the handsome customer again at the end of the day. He’d try again. And this time, he wouldn’t falter.
“Pardon my intrusion, but are you the owner of this shop?”
Childe looked at the girl quizzically. What an odd question for a person he’d never met before to ask. “Technically no, but for our purposes, yes. Can I help you?”
To be technical, his aunt Signora owned the flower shop, but she’d effectively made Childe the acting manager. Signora paid the rent for the shop, but other than that, all regular duties of the shop fell on Childe’s shoulders.
She was rather soft-spoken, but that didn’t stop her from squaring her shoulders and looking directly at Childe. The woman brushed a lock of light blue hair behind her ear and addressed him formally, “Yes. My name is Ganyu and I apologize for the strange question, but did you make this?” The woman held up her phone to Childe’s face. There was a picture of a bouquet of flowers in a vase, but it wasn’t just any bouquet. It was the bouquet of silk flowers he’d sold to the strange gentleman that morning. Did Ganyu know him or something?
Childe grinned, proud of his work, “I did! I gotta say, I’m pretty surprised to see it again. Would you like me to make you the same bouquet?”
“No!” she exclaimed with a voice so loud it nearly shook the walls of the store. Childe stared at the woman with wide eyes, shocked both at the sudden outburst and at the fact that such a small body could produce such a large voice. He watched as a deep blush spread across her cheeks as she realized just how loud she’d been.
“I mean, that’s very kind, but that won’t be necessary.” It was almost comical how small she made her voice in comparison to earlier; perhaps trying to compensate. “I’m not quite sure how to say this, but, you are aware of the person who commissioned these flowers from you, yes?”
Images of silky chocolate-colored hair and honeyed eyes flashed through Childe’s mind, threatening to make his cheeks blush to match the woman’s. “That’s right.”
“Well, he’s my boss, and…” Ganyu sighed, “There’s no easy way to say this is there? He’s been coming to the office almost every day with bouquets he’s gotten from your store.”
Wait...what?
She continued, “I’ve spent all of my lunch breaks this week visiting flower shops to figure out where he’s been getting them from, and I finally found you. I’m more relieved than I can say.”
As if on cue, the Ganyu’s’s stomach rumbled angrily.
Childe’s nervous laughter did nothing to cover up the sound, which further deepened her blushing. “It’s about time for my lunch break as well. I packed plenty of food. I can’t say much for the quality, but it’s home made. Would you like to join me?”
Ganyu nodded and shuffled into the break room along with Childe. True to his word, he’d packed a crazy amount of food. Part of it was that he always made food for his little siblings’ lunches, and the other was that there was a part of him that hoped Ganyu’s boss would show up during lunch in need of food. He was well-aware that it made no sense, but it was a fantasy he’d been entertaining lately.
But if anyone ever asked him about it, he’d just say that he ate a lot of food.
He spread out a variety of sandwiches, a container of freshly cut fruit, and a number of other sides on the table in the breakroom along with two cups of green tea. Judging by the face Ganyu made when she took a sip from her mug, Childe still hadn’t improved his tea-making skills. He’d have to keep working on that.
Ganyu pushed the mug away and instead reached for the container of fruit.
“So, what exactly do you need from me?” Childe prompted, taking a bite from his sandwich.
“It’s the flowers. He--Mr. Zhongli has gotten out of control!” Ganyu began furiously picking grapes off of their vine and placing them down on a napkin. But Childe was too busy repeating the name in his head Zhongli, Zhongli, Zhongli. “It’s gotten out of control! Our office is overridden with vases and pots of flowers! Every office, every table, every surface is covered in them!”
Childe looked at the woman with confusion. Was he really hearing this right?
“It’s impossible to move without almost knocking one over. And even if you do, he’ll just turn around and buy a replacement!”
“That...explains a few things. He--you said his name is Zhongli, right? It’s true that I see Zhongli often, more often than any of my other customers, that’s for sure. But I guess I just assumed he had lots of occasions for them. Weddings, birthdays, you know?”
But this situation, however crazy, made much more sense. Even the biggest social butterfly wouldn’t need so many flowers so often.
Ganyu only groaned and grabbed a handful of chips in response.
“Hang on. If he doesn’t actually need them, then why does he keep getting them?” Was he some kind of flower obsessive? Maybe this Zhongli person was even stranger than Childe had originally thought.
To Childe’s surprise, Ganyu began to squirm in her seat, her eyes sliding off to the side. “That’s…”
“Don’t worry about it. I’m sure there’s a reason, but I don’t expect you to know it. Co-worker or not.”
“I’m sorry, but that’s not something I have the right to tell you.”
Huh? What could possibly be so serious that she can’t say?
At the faintest trace of secrecy, Childe’s imagination went wild. Why would Zhongli need to buy an abnormal amount of flowers? Could he be baking with them? Making some kind of craft with them? No, if either of those were true, he wouldn’t be accumulating them in his office.
No that he thought about it… “Where do you and Zhongli work anyway?” asked Childe, disregarding the fact that this particular tangent had nothing to do with what they were talking about before.
“Wangsheng Legal Firm.”
Childe nearly choked on his drink. He’d assumed Zhongli was important from his clothing, but he’d never imagined he would be Wangsheng Legal Firm important. “Holy shit,” he breathed before quickly apologizing for his language.
“So you can imagine why turning our office into an urban greenhouse is less than ideal.”
That was putting it lightly. The Wangsheng Legal Firm was the biggest and most influential legal firm in all of Liyue. Known for their knowledge of the law and their skill with handling contracts, they were the best of the best. At least, that’s what Childe had heard. He didn’t know much else other than that, but then again, why would he need to?
That did nothing to answer his earlier question; if anything, it made him want to know Zhongli’s motives even more.
Perhaps...could it be possible...could Signora have blackmailed Zhongli?!
Ganyu brought Childe back to Earth before he had the chance to fully explore that ridiculous line of thinking. “Anyway, the reason I came here is to ask you to help me stop his incessant flower hoarding.”
Childe frowned, “How exactly am I supposed to do that? I’m running a business here. I can’t just refuse to sell to someone.”
“You don’t need to refuse. Just tell him that you’ve run out of stock and you don’t have anything to give him. Or tell him you’re all booked up with orders.”
What she was asking him to do was easy enough, but it made his stomach feel funny. Childe always looked forward to seeing Zhongli, and he wasn’t keen on pushing the man away just because his co-worker was unhappy. Especially since he’d have to lie to do it.
“I dunno…”
“Goodness! Is that the time?!” Ganyu exclaimed, her eyes wide and honed in on her wristwatch, “Apologies, but my lunch break ended five minutes ago, so I must be going. Thank you for the food! I’ll be sure to reimburse you at a later time!”
In a burst of energy, Ganyu was gone from the shop, having left before Childe had a chance to decline her request.
He slumped in his chair and sighed, “What a mess.”
Any other day, Childe would hate it if anyone broke their promise with him, but today he openly welcomed it. Zhongli had said he’d come back at the end of the day, but Childe would’ve given anything to avoid the encounter. What else could he do? He was still conflicted about how to handle Zhongli…
The doorbell jingled and in walked Zhongli, looking even more handsome than he had earlier in the day, if that was even possible.
“Greetings, I hope I’m not too early,” said the taller man as he walked up to the counter. And gods, did he smell amazing... Focus, Childe!
“H-hey. No, you’re right on time. I just finished your order,” he pointed behind him towards the back room to emphasize his point.
“Excellent.”
Childe fumbled for something to say, but ultimately gave up and went to retrieve the Cecilias. On his way back to the register, he resolved to help Ganyu out. The woman had seemed so stressed earlier that he felt it was only the right thing to do. But how to do it was an entirely different story.
“Here they are.” Childe worked on wrapping the flowers with the signature ribbon as he tried to put his thoughts together. “I don’t mean to pry, but I’ve noticed you buy quite a lot of flowers…” Cut him off, Childe. You can do this! “And I was thinking that they must be putting a rather large bruise on your wallet.--”
“Ah, yes. Normally that would be the case, but that is not a concern of mine.”
“It’s not?”
“No. My treasurer recently bestowed the team with a company card for purposes such as these.”
It was times like these that Childe thanked the gods he’d spent so many hours as a child sitting in front of the mirror and practicing on controlling his facial muscles. As such, the shock and dread he felt inside did not translate to his face in the slightest. “Is that so? How nice. What do you do that requires flowers, if you don’t mind my asking?”
“I’m a legal consultant. Official offices such as mine are often dreary, so I thought it best to devote some of the company funds into brightening up the space in hopes it will make our clients feel more at ease.”
That answer normally would’ve been just fine for Childe, but he had a sort of forbidden context that made him feel anything but. He could almost hear Ganyu weeping at the way the company card was being mutilated.
“How nice. I hope your clients enjoy them.”
“I’m sure they do, as do I. Good flowers are nothing without the skill to bring out their maximum beauty.”
Childe’s brain was seconds away from short-circuiting. Half of him was focused on the task Ganyu gave him, while the other was melting into a puddle of goo at the sound of another compliment.
But ultimately, he knew what he had to do. Good business or not, Childe didn’t want Zhongli to get in trouble for overrunning his office with flowers. That wouldn’t make either of them happy in the long run. He needed to do something.
“I actually have something I’ve been meaning to tell you…” he began, blue eyes sliding over to look at the box of flower food he kept on the floor by the register. “You see…”
He refused to look at Zhongli, but he could tell that the taller man was looking at him intently, listening to every “um” and “hmm” that fell from Childe’s lips with great attention. His thoughts were spinning around in his head, caught in a tug-of-war between what he wanted and what he needed to do. He could feel the words form in his lungs before getting stuck on the very tip of his tongue, refusing to move.
With a great amount of effort, Childe squeezed his eyes shut and blurted out, “I’m in love with you!”
...Huh?
Blue eyes shot open as Childe whipped his head up to look at a stunned Zhongli. The florist’s mouth moved, but only incomprehensible sounds came out as his face turned a deep shade of red.
“Ah…! I...it’s…” he scrambled for something, anything to say, but nothing seemed to sound quite right.
I wish the ground would open up and swallow me whole. Surely then, he wouldn’t have to face the catastrophic embarrassment he’d inflicted upon himself. Of course, he’d managed to say the very thing that had been on his mind for months at the absolute worst time possible.
Gathering the Cecelias in his arms, Childe pushed the bouquet into Zhongli’s chest before turning to run into the back room.
But, much to his surprise, Zhongli reached over the counter and grabbed Childe’s hand before he had the chance to make his escape. “Please wait,” said the lawyer, his voice soft.
Childe stopped in his place, but didn’t turn around. And in that moment, time seemed to slow down as the florist’s mind cleared of everything save for the sensation of gloved hand on wrist. The only thing he could hear was the pounding of his heart in his ears as the blood rushed into his head.
“Please wait,” spoke Zhongli, a phrase more akin to a plea than a demand. Who was Childe to refuse? “This feels rather silly to admit now, but I carry the same feelings for you as well.”
His mind, so peaceful only moments before, had now been thrown into overdrive once again. His racing heart slammed to a screeching halt, skipping a beat or two along the way as he turned back around to stare at the man of his affections.
“You’re serious?”
Zhongli chuckled-- chuckled-- and said, “I am not in the business of lying to those whom I care for.”
Childe moved to slide his hand into Zhongli’s gloved one, his head feeling light with pure and true happiness.
“That being said, there is something else I should come clean to you about. The flowers…”
“Huh?”
“While originally I got them for aesthetic improvement purposes, that has not been my intention for quite some time.”
Childe tilted his head, completely lost, “Huh?” he said again.
“What I mean to say is, though your flowers are indeed very lovely, I have been using them as an excuse to...this is rather foolish, but they’ve been a reason to come see you.”
Childe looked at Zhongli like he’d just told him his dream was to become the biggest pop star on Mars. But he soon got over his initial shock and soon, the flower shop was filled with the joyful laughter of the ginger florist. “You, haha! You’re insane!” he exclaimed, wiping a tear from his eye, “Do you have any idea how much stress you’ve put Ganyu through?”
Now it was Zhongli’s turn to look confused, “You’re acquainted with Ms. Ganyu?”
Childe told Zhongli about his lunch with Ganyu, making sure to emphasise just how stressed Ganyu had been at the mention of adding more flowers to the office’s collection. “You didn’t have to do all of that,” Childe ended, rubbing his thumb over Zhongli’s knuckle, “I noticed you the first time you came into the shop. And I’ve been wanting to ask you out for weeks.”
“It seems we were two ships sailing in the night.”
“Good thing one of us wisened up.”
“Indeed.”
Zhongli brought Childe’s hand up to his lips and placed a soft kiss on his knuckles along with a soft and silent promise to see him again soon. And just like that, everything was good and right and in its place.
And they were happy.