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It wasn’t every day that she got a visit from royalty. When she was a young, bright-eyed girl running around the marketplace, she could only dream that she would one day be able to cater to such wealthy customers. But here Anna was, rubbing elbows with the nobles every day here at Garreg Mach Monastery. And they weren’t just any nobles, either! Young ones with loose purses, those were just her type. Whatever they came to her stall seeking, she could sell them that and ten more things to boot if she spun her words just so, and she didn’t think that there was anyone at this school who was more naïve than this blue-eyed blond who came trotting up to her stall one afternoon.
He was Prince Dimitri, of course. Anyone who spent any time at the Officer’s Academy this year could pick out the House Leaders by the colored capes they wore on their shoulders, and everyone sort of made it a point to know their names. It had never been more important than it was this year, though, with those House Leaders being the future rulers of their respective nations. Edelgard von Hresvelg, Claude von Riegan, and this boy, Dimitri Alexandre Blaiddyd. She saw him coming from a mile away, his eyes roaming the goods laid out on every stall, searching for… something. He didn’t seem to be finding it anywhere else he looked, but what he was looking for hardly mattered to Anna. No matter what he had come down to the market seeking, she was sure she’d be able to sell him something if she could just get him to come over here.
With someone this naïve, she figured the direct approach would be best. “Yoo-hoo! Prince Dimitri!” she called, flagging him down. The Prince turned about at the call of his name, though it took him a moment to scan the crowded market and figure out just who had hailed him. Anna kept waving at him, though, beckoning him closer, and soon as she caught his eye and he realized that she had been the one calling for him, he came trotting over, offering her a polite smile.
“Hello… Anna, isn’t it?” he questioned, and her ponytail bobbed as she nodded, putting on her best customer service smile. “Was there something you needed?” he asked.
“Just couldn’t help noticing how you were wandering around looking lost!” she chimed, before making a grand gesture to the stall in front of her. “But whatever you’re looking for, look no further! I’m sure I can set you up with whatever you need!” she said. “What’s on your shopping list today? I’ve got some fine new riding boots in stock. Or maybe you’re after a new sword? I’ve got a real nice silver one I’ve been holding on to for just the right person, and that might just be you!” she said, and Dimitri laughed.
“No, no, I’m afraid I’m not looking for anything quite so grand as that,” he said, and Anna’s heart fell a little. Damn, she’d been sitting on that silver sword for months, waiting for one of these kids to decide that they needed it. But at his next words, she perked up once again. “I’m actually not even shopping for myself,” he confessed, and Anna beamed.
“Oh, running an errand for someone?” she asked, though when she looked up and saw the Prince’s blushing cheeks, she couldn’t help but coo. She leaned in closer to him, lowering her voice to whisper conspiratorially to him. “Or could it be that you’re out gift shopping for a special someone?” she asked. The way Dimitri’s face flooded with color confirmed her guess without her having to say a single word, and she clapped her hands in delight. “Oh, how exciting! I get to help Prince Dimitri woo his beloved!” she cheered, and Dimitri quickly raised his hands and made a shushing motion, looking frantically around the market to make sure no one had heard.
“Q-Quiet, would you? Please, I mean?” he requested, but Anna was already digging under her stall and throwing things up onto the counter for Dimitri to look at, moving around with all the speed and force of a tiny hurricane as she pulled out brooches, necklaces, hair clips… she left the rings alone for now, Dimitri didn’t seem like he was going for something like that. She even pulled out her collection of scarves that usually didn’t get sold until the weather got colder. Some of them had pretty patterns, and she guessed that they’d look good on any of the girls who wandered the Academy.
“Here you go! Browse to your heart’s content!” Anna said once she had everything out. Dimitri looked a tad overwhelmed but he did take the time to peruse what she’d brought out for him, quietly staring at everything. He reached out to touch one of the scarves, a nice green and yellow one and she got her hopes up, but then Dimitri was shaking his head again, and that lost expression appeared on his face once more.
“No, I… I don’t believe any of these things are exactly what I’m looking for, Anna…”
“Oh, come on!” she insisted, scooping up a pair of earrings that Dimitri had overlooked and holding them up to her own ears to model the product. “I can assure you, any of the girls here would go nuts for something like this! And I promise everything you see is of the highest quality, that’s the Anna guarantee!” she said, but Dimitri still didn’t seem sold on the idea.
“I’m sure everything here is lovely, Anna, I’m not doubting that. It’s just… I was hoping for something a little more… subtle?” he proposed, and Anna stared at Dimitri hard. If there was one thing she knew about Dimitri Alexandre Blayddid, it was that he was anything but subtle. The man was like a walking wrecking ball when it came to weapons, he broke things so easily. And, bless the boy, but he was one dense meathead. If Dimitri’s love interest had eyes, it was probably already obvious to them that Dimitri had his eyes on them. Anna had been able to pin him down so easily, watching him blush and stammer at even the slightest insinuation that he was attempting to court someone. If he was anything like that around the object of his heart’s affection, they’d see him coming from a mile away.
Still, for the sake of a sale, she’d at least humor him. “All right…” she said, laying the earrings back down on the table. She tapped her finger against her chin in thought before she had a stroke of absolute brilliance. “What about flowers?” she proposed, and Dimitri’s expression lit up.
“Yes…” he said, nodding eagerly. “Flowers… that’s perfect! Thank you, Anna. I’m sure I can find some beautiful wildflowers out in the forest, or perhaps get some from the greenhouse…” he began to say, but Anna reached out and grabbed the Prince’s arm. She wasn’t just going to give out her advice for free and let this sale slip away!
“Woah, woah, woah there!” she said. “You’re really just gonna walk out into the woods and find some random forest flowers?” she asked. “That won’t do, your Highness! Why, if your sweetheart knows anything at all about flower meanings, you could accidentally walk your way into a huge mistake here!” she said, and her warning brought alarm crashing down over Dimitri’s face.
“Flowers… have meanings?” he asked. Bless him, he was so dense… “I… I was not aware of this, Anna. Please,” he said, turning back towards her. “If you have something here that you think would be appropriate, I will gladly take it off your hands,” he said.
Anna didn’t have any flowers tucked away under her stall.
But Anna was good at thinking fast.
“Well, for something as important as this, I think I’d better get a custom bouquet put together for you, your Highness,” she said. Dimitri’s eyes went wide.
“I wouldn’t want to trouble you with that…”
“No trouble at all! As long as you’re buying, it’s worth it to me. Now, then, let’s talk flowers,” she said, pulling out a pad where she could scribble down some notes. “What sort of feelings were you hoping to convey? Does your sweetheart know that you want to court them?” she asked. “Is that something you’d like to announce?”
Dimitri was blushing again, but she could tell he was taking the matter very seriously. “I… I am unsure,” he said. “I feel that… that saying such a thing with my gift would be much easier than asking them myself. I fear that I… I stumble over my words when it comes to such matters,” he confessed. “I do not wish to mess this up, or miscommunicate anything. If the flowers really could speak for me… that would be much appreciated,” he said. Anna nodded.
“You got it,” she said. “There are several flowers that come to mind, but they all have slightly different meanings. Of course you can choose more than one for the arrangement, too!” she added. “It all depends on what exactly you want to say. Red tulips are a declaration of love, while carnations communicate a yearning for the other person. And then there’s honeysuckle for affection, roses that can symbolize both pleasure and pain, apple blossoms state that you wish them good fortune, peace, and love… I could go on,” Anna said, though she stopped for now when she saw that the Prince’s head seemed to be spinning with all the possibilities.
“That is… quite a lot,” Dimitri said, trying to organize all the new information inside his head. He bit at his lip in thought and Anna waited patiently for him to come to a decision.
“Honeysuckle…” the Prince said at length. “He’d… he’d look good with honeysuckle… yellow…”
“All right!” Anna said, jotting that down. She of course didn’t mention the little detail of Dimitri’s love interest being male. It wasn’t her place to say anything about it, and she really didn’t care. Happy couples bought each other gifts, and if she was the one selling those gifts, it was a win all around, wasn’t it? “Honeysuckle is a great choice, but it’s mostly used as a filler flower in arrangements. What else would you like?” she asked, and indecision made Dimitri’s brow weigh heavily over his eyes.
“I’ve never been much good at things like this,” he said. “Coordinating colors and being in the loop about such nuances…”
“Hey, don’t worry! Anna is here to help!” the merchant practically sang at him. She brought her pen up to her chin to tap against it this time as she thought, heedless of the spot of ink this left on her face. What idea could she sell this hapless Prince on? He was royalty, expected to marry one day for the good of his nation, to produce heirs and continue his bloodline… and here he was, thinking of courting a man. She doubted there was a lot of wisdom in that idea, but love often outran wisdom. Still, the unique situation was one that she could definitely work with. “What about gardenias?” the merchant finally proposed, and Dimitri hummed.
“I am not even entirely certain I know what a gardenia is… much less what it means,” he responded. Anna gave him a bright smile.
“Oh, it’s going to be perfect, Dimitri,” she assured. “They’re a small white flower with pretty foliage, and their meaning,” she said, eyes sparkling, “Is secret love.”
“Secret?” Dimitri asked, his eyes widening. She knew she had him sold on the idea even before he started nodding. It was the absolute perfect thing. “Yes… yes, I’ll take it. Honeysuckle and gardenias. How much?” he asked, reaching for his coin purse, and he gladly forked over the two hundred gold sum that Anna named. While she had plenty of other things she could have sold him for much more, that was a downright princely price for flowers. “When will you have it ready?” Dimitri asked as she counted out his coin, and she gave him a big smile.
“Come see me again this afternoon!” she trilled, smiling happily at the clink of gold in her purse as the Prince promised her he would.
----
Two days after Dimitri left her stall with a bouquet as big as his torso, smiling and blushing so sweetly as he thanked her for her help, Anna got a visit from yet another royal.
Well, he wasn’t royalty, exactly. The Alliance didn’t have a monarchy, it was more of a loose confederation of states which convened a few times a year to talk politics, trade, and other discourse of the like. But House Riegan had been sitting atop that pecking order ever since the Alliance was founded nearly three hundred years ago. The title of Grand Duke had belonged to that House ever since, and though it was always a bit of an uncertainty with every passing generation if the power would stay in Derdriu, Claude von Riegan was the closest thing to a Prince that the Alliance had.
He strolled into the market with his typical laid-back attitude, hands folded behind his head as he wandered around, browsing the stalls. Though he didn’t look nearly as lost as Prince Dimitri had a few days ago, Anna could still tell he was just window shopping, looking around with no real purpose or destination in mind. Still, if he’d come down to the market with his purse attached to his hip, that meant he was ready to buy something, and Anna was more than ready to harp on that opportunity.
“Claude!” she called, with a much less formal air than how she had addressed Dimitri. Unlike the heir to the Holy Kingdom, the heir to the Alliance was much more casual and approachable. Claude turned his head in the direction of her shout, found her gaze, smiled, and wandered over.
“Hello, Anna. Got anything interesting today?” Claude asked, picking up a book she had laying out on her stall and looking over the cover. Anna beamed.
“Oh, you bet! Hey, I just got in a shipment of some pretty rare teas, does Leicester Cortania tickle your fancy?” she asked, and Claude’s green eyes lit up. Anna’s eyes soon matched his, glittering as he reached for his purse.
“Was that just a lucky guess, or do you have some sort of secret spy network around the Academy informing you of everyone’s favorite drinks? I hear that you’re Hubert’s new coffee supplier, too,” he remarked as Anna pulled out a small bag of the tea leaves. Claude took a look at the price tag and whistled, but he still pulled out four pieces of platinum to place into her waiting palm. “I suppose there’s no harm in splurging every once in a while,” he hummed, mostly to himself. Anna curled her fingers around the coins, bobbing her head in agreement with him.
“Absolutely none! And you can bet that this is going to be high quality stuff, that’s the Anna guarantee!” she proclaimed, and Claude laughed.
“Your confidence in your product speaks worlds,” he said, picking up his bag of tea leaves. Anna figured he’d move on after that, she was plenty happy with moving some of that tea while it was still fresh and definitely worth four hundred gold, but when Claude lingered and continued to look over the items she had on display, her heart began to race.
“Was there perhaps something else you were looking for today?” she asked, and Claude hummed.
“You caught me,” he said, taking his eyes off her display of weapons, tomes, and jewelry. He flashed her that charming smile of his before he continued. “Word’s been going around among the students that you’re suddenly some sort of flower guru,” he said. Anna was surprised. When she had helped Dimitri with his little arrangement, she hadn’t expected her business in floristry to take off. Especially when she’d only managed to get that bouquet of Dimitri’s together by making a secret emergency trip to the greenhouse with a pair of scissors, some pretty paper, and a ribbon in hand. (She had justified her actions with the knowledge that the school wouldn’t miss just a few decorative flowers so long as she pruned the bushes just right, plus she had provided the Academy with so much high-quality stuff over the past months that they certainly wouldn’t begrudge her a few blooms, right?) But now Claude was bringing it up with her and Anna could kick herself. She’d assumed that Dimitri would keep his bouquet something of a secret; he’d picked out gardenias, after all, the hallmark of secret love. Oh, but she should have known better. That uptight, honorable prince couldn’t keep a secret to save his life, and he was anything but subtle! If word got out that she was now selling flowers procured from who knew where, it wouldn’t be long before the nuns in the greenhouse caught on!
Still… Claude was standing there with his wallet.
The temptation was just too much.
So, “That’s right!” Anna said, clasping her hands together. “Wow, I didn’t really expect for it to take off so fast! But if you need a bouquet, I’m your girl!” she said with a wink, and Claude grinned.
“Excellent! I think I have a recipient in mind already,” he said as Anna dug out her notepad. She’d have to burn these notes later, just to make sure she didn’t leave a paper trail for the nuns to find.
“Sounds great! Do you have an idea for an arrangement?” she asked. “Do you know anything about flower meanings?”
“Oh, a bit. I looked it up recently,” Claude said, drumming his fingers against the stall as he thought. Anna waited patiently, eager to hear what he would come up with. Claude had a reputation for thinking things through, unlike a certain blond prince. What a coincidence, she thought, that both the heirs of the Kingdom and the Alliance would find someone to start courting at the same time! There must have been something in the air.
“I was thinking,” Claude continued, snapping the merchant out of her train of thought. “That I needed a pink flower.”
“Pink?” Anna echoed, though she quickly scribbled the request down. “Oh, how exciting! Pink flowers indicate ‘yes!’” she told him. He was quick to nod.
“Yeah… yeah, I know. Maybe… carnations, or something?” he suggested. “I think roses would be just a little bit too on-the-nose, even though I swear this boy would miss a hint even if it slapped him in the face,” Claude muttered, and that made Anna lift her head. Again with the he?
Oh, boy, she thought an instant later. It did not take a genius to see what was going on here, and she smiled that clandestine little smile of hers before she leaned across the stall, whispering to Claude in that same conspiring voice that she had used on Dimitri. “Let me guess…” she said. “You were thinking, something pink… and gardenias, weren’t you?” she asked. Immediately after hearing that question, Anna was treated to the rare sight of Claude’s face flooding with color. The Heir had a reputation for being so composed, so unflappable, that to see him blush so readily let Anna know that she had struck the nail right on the head. It was no wonder, then, why Claude knew about the bouquet that Dimitri had bought from her; it had been for him!
It was obvious to Claude that the cat was out of the bag, that Anna had made the connection and that she knew, because he cleared his throat, shifting his weight uneasily from foot to foot as he took a little glance around the other customers in the market to make sure no one was eavesdropping on them. “Yes,” he confirmed, and Anna triumphantly added that note to her little notepad. Carnations and gardenias… “Anna…” Claude continued. “I trust that you understand why this must be kept quiet?”
“Oh, sure I do, buddy,” Anna said. “Just think of the sort of scandal that would break if people found out about this!” she added, and looking up at Claude’s face, she could tell that he had thought about it. Probably at length, too. The future heirs of two separate nations, courting one another… if they weren’t both men, maybe it would have been smiled upon, seen as good for future relations in all of Fodlan. But Anna knew that wasn’t how the world worked when it came to politics and Crests and bloodlines. Claude and Dimitri were both Crested, both expected to produce heirs of their own one day… she felt a little bit for them, knowing that this probably wasn’t something that would work out for them in the long term. But still, if they were going to spend time flirting with each other at school, buying gifts for one another from her, then no way was she going to discourage it or do anything to keep them apart. So when Claude expressed his concern, she was quick to reassure him. “Don’t look so glum, chum! I know how to keep a secret, you won’t have to worry about anyone finding out about this from me!” she said, ripping the page that had Claude’s order on it and sticking it into her pocket. She’d have to make another secret trip to the greenhouse before lunchtime, because that was when she told Claude that she’d have the arrangement ready for him.
“Sounds perfect. Two hundred gold, I assume?” he asked, and Anna nodded, holding out her hand to once again accept his payment. Claude headed out of the market whistling to himself and tossing his bag of tea from hand to hand while Anna put up her “Out to lunch, be back in a bit!” sign, grabbed her scissors, and headed towards the greenhouse.
----
A lot had changed in five years, but one thing that hadn’t changed was an army’s need for supplies. In the years since the war had begun, Anna had made her living by selling weapons more often than tea or jewelry, vulneraries and medical supplies went off her shelves as fast as writing supplies and books used to back when her market was students at the Academy. Even the Monastery itself had changed, sections still laying in crumbling ruin here and there despite how its new occupants were doing their best to patch the place up between battles. Anna had the rare chance to sell something besides implements of war when they made request for her to bring in a shipment of timber, nails, and mortar, but she still sort of missed the days where she knew that her goods were being used to make people smile, not for the purposes of battle.
Still, coin was coin, and Anna made a tidy living. The wartime economy was fantastic for weapon and armor merchants, a niche which Anna was quick to leap in to. It was even better when the Alliance army took up the Monastery as its base of operations, which meant Anna didn’t have to spend all her time tailing after a supply caravan while trying to keep her goods in stock and sell things at the same time. One thing that hadn’t changed in five years was the location of her good old stall, and when she was finally able to set up at it again, it felt strangely like coming home.
Another thing that hadn’t changed was the people she was serving. Five years ago she had fled the monastery with the students, teachers, monks, and nuns who had all been forced to run when Edelgard’s army ransacked the place. But now, they had all gathered together once again in these very same walls… well. Not all of them, of course. But enough of them. The once bright-eyed students were more haggard, more war-weary these days. But she was infinitely pleased when one of them stopped by and asked her for something like tea or books or even just nice-smelling soap instead of the weapons she had been pushing for the past months on end. If there was one thing Anna didn’t like, it was staying stagnant. And even if war provided a great opportunity for her, putting smiles on the faces of her customers was even more valuable. It meant that they would keep coming back, that she would become their go-to person whenever they needed something, and so long as she could provide for them, she’d have a place here.
A lot of things changed after Gronder, though. Despite the fact that three armies had clashed on its field, there were only two that walked away. But it definitely wasn’t as tragic as it could have been. While only the Yellow and Red banners were still flying when the battle was over… the Blue army hadn’t been entirely destroyed. Claude, tactical mastermind that he was, had pulled off a miracle. Even though the Kingdom had refused to cooperate with him, he’d managed to lead his Deer into a pincer maneuver that forced Edelgard to retreat, sparing the lives of many Kingdom soldiers who were being put through the meat grinder that was the Black Eagle Strike Force. Some of the old students had even survived, and one of those students was Prince Dimitri.
Anna didn’t see him much, just heard rumors of him. While she initially thought that having another royal around to bankroll the army would be a great boon to her, she quickly found out that Prince Dimitri was little more than a figurehead for his army, someone for the remaining nobles of Faerghus to hold up as an icon to rally behind. In reality, she heard that he was a madman, now. Despite being gravely injured at Gronder, he refused to rest in the infirmary, or even to rest at all as far as she heard. It wasn’t her problem, of course. He didn’t bother her and she didn’t bother with him, and the people in the Prince’s entourage had added to the number of customers. As far as she was concerned, this was an all around win.
She was tending her stall like usual that morning, polishing up a couple daggers so they shone prettily in the sunlight and would catch the eye of anyone walking by. The market had just barely opened and usually it took at least an hour to get really busy, with the majority of the commanders who actually had coin to throw around being in the dining hall eating breakfast at that hour. So imagine her surprise when someone came walking right up to her stall with single-minded determination, stopped right in front of her, and rapped on the wood countertop for her attention.
“Anna, I need your help,” spoke a familiar, warm tenor, and Anna glanced up with surprise to see none other than Claude von Riegan standing there. He’d grown over the past five years, ditched his braid in favor of a beard that made him look both older and more masculine. He was a very fitting commander for the army, looking like every image of a general she’d ever seen in his padded armor with golden decoration. She knew that he was a busy man, too, keeping this army functioning. Usually when Claude needed something, he sent one of his retainers to fetch it for him while he stayed holed up in the war room. For Claude to come down from the second floor of the monastery, all the way across its campus, and approach her with such a serious look on his face… this had to be a big deal.
So Anna donned her best customer service smile, concealing the curiosity in her eyes as she spoke to the man. “Well, now, Claude! I’m always happy to serve a customer! What can I get for you? I imagine you’re not after a new bow, what with that relic of yours… do you need something for your wyvern?” she asked, but before she could continue guessing or even begin pulling out items that she supposed would interest the Grand Duke, he cut her off.
“I need flowers,” he said. Anna blinked up at him stupidly.
“You need…”
“Gardenias. Gardenias and lilies.”
“Gardenias and lilies,” she echoed after him, her brow furrowing. Last time she’d had a request like that was years ago… though it had been from him. Gardenias were a gift for a secret lover… and lilies, depending on their color, could say a lot of things. She got out her notepad and got ready to scribble down his order. “I can do that for you, Claude. What color did you want the lilies to be?” she asked.
“I need them to be white,” he said. “White… for remembrance.”
Oh, Anna knew exactly who this bouquet was for. “You know…” she said as she wrote down his request. “It’s not my place to say it, exactly, but if the rumors are true, I really doubt a bundle of gravestone flowers is going to snap Dimitri out of his fog. Maybe you could get him something else? Something like a-”
“Don’t even try to sell me on anything else, Anna. I know what I’m doing,” Claude said, crossing his arms. Anna pressed her lips together in a thin line, staring up at Claude. Eventually, the man just sighed. “I know. I know that this is a long shot, but… gods, he doesn’t eat, he doesn’t sleep, all he does is ramble on and on about the dead. I thought… if I could just give him something to remind him that the living are here for him, too…”
“I gotcha,” Anna said, tearing off the page from her notebook and pocketing it, just like she had five years ago. “I get it, Claude. And I’ll do what I can for you. Come back around lunch, I’ll have the flowers ready,” she said. Claude gave her a serious nod in response as he dug out two platinum pieces from his purse and sat them down.
“I hope that this works,” Claude whispered, and Anna had no idea if she was supposed to respond to that or not. For now, she just nodded as she picked up his money. She hoped that the gardenias were still in the same place as she remembered.
----
Two days later, Anna and probably every other merchant in the square got the biggest shock of their lives when Prince Dimitri – ghastly, imposing, and brooding – came lumbering into the market with all the grace of a bear that had just woken from hibernation. He said nothing and no one hailed him; in reality, no one was sure what to do. Those of them that were just here to supply the army hadn’t had any dealings with the Prince since his unexpected return, only heard rumors of his insanity and his violent outbursts. No one was sure what he was doing here, and none of them were that eager to find out.
Unfortunately for Anna, it seemed like she was the reason that Dimitri was here. Dimitri took one look around the market, located Anna with his single, piercing blue eye, and made a beeline directly for her stall as the crowd cleared out of the way. Anna felt her heart beating in her throat as the towering ghoul came marching in her direction. She felt quite small when he was standing over her, staring down into her face with an expression she couldn’t quite read.
“Flowers.”
Anna blinked, realizing that the feral Prince’s very presence had kicked her into fight-or-flight – or rather, it’s less well known cousin, freeze. “U-Uh, what?” she asked.
“Flowers,” Dimitri repeated almost in a growl, and Anna snapped into action.
“Oh- oh! You want to buy a bouquet!” she realized. It was such a shock; could anyone blame her for being slow on the uptake? But when it clicked for her and Dimitri nodded gravely, she managed her usual smile, regardless. “You got it, big guy! Flowers, coming right up!” she said, dragging out her notepad and her pen. “What were you thinking? You want gardenias?” she guessed, smiling at Dimitri as his stare bored holes into her skull. He gave her no reply, just that insistent, expectant stare, and Anna cleared her throat. “Ooookay, gardenias, that doesn’t seem to be a no, so I’ll just write that down… what else? Do you just want gardenias?”
She got no answer aside from Dimitri’s stony silence, and the concerned glances of the merchants in the stalls next to hers. Even the cheerful man with the beak-faced mask, whose face she had never seen… she could tell even he was staring at her in worry. Anna herself felt like she was walking into a minefield, but she had never let a difficult sale deter her before! She could do this!
“Flowers,” Dimitri demanded again, abruptly, and Anna realized she had apparently stayed quiet too long for this Prince’s liking. But what could she do? She had a feeling that disappointing Dimitri would be very, very bad for her health. And yet, if she couldn’t get any other words from him…
“Oh, I know!” she said, slamming her notebook shut and closing up her stall before coming around to take hold of Dimitri’s arm. “Why don’t you just come with me and pick them for yourself?” she suggested. Dimitri growled and shook her off of him, but when Anna began trotting towards the greenhouse, she heard his heavy, armored bootsteps following behind her. The greenhouse wasn’t very far, just a quick jog past the lake from the market, and Anna definitely hurried. Testing Dimitri’s patience also seemed like it would be very bad for her health.
But she kept on smiling as she threw open the doors. “Here we are!” she declared, watching the butterflies and bees that lived in the greenhouse flutter and buzz by… and the nuns who had been tending the greenery all scatter when they saw just who was coming in with the bright, bubbly merchant. Dimitri stepped inside and growled, squinting in the bright refracted sunlight cast from the greenhouse’s glass walls and reaching up to fiddle with the clasp of his cloak. Anna supposed it was rather warm in here, but Dimitri’s hand eventually just dropped back to his side and he gave Anna a little nod. She took that as her cue to carry on and so she led him inside, past the rows of shrubs and carefully tended exotic trees to get to the back, where all the flowers were.
“Okay, big guy. Here are the gardenias,” she said, leading him to the familiar bush. She could see the spot where she’d trimmed it just a few days ago, but the plant still had some flowers to spare. Looking up at Dimitri, she was relieved to see that he seemed happy. He wasn’t smiling, but the look in his eye seemed softer.
“…flowers,” he murmured before reaching out his gauntleted hand, grabbing a stem, and yanking the plant out by the roots.
“Woah, hey! No, you can’t do that!” Anna said, and Dimitri roared at her. Anyone else probably would have run away and that was probably what Dimitri was expecting Anna to do, but she puffed out her cheeks and pouted and furrowed her brow at him in an expression of annoyance. “Jeez, what a brute!” she scolded him, looking at the sad bush in Dimitri’s fist. Luckily it wasn’t the only one in the greenhouse. “You wanted a bouquet, didn’t you? You came to me, so I’m not letting you walk away with anything less than a product I can be proud of! So give me that-” she demanded, and it was probably shock that made Dimitri release the shrubbery so quickly, “-and let’s do this right, why don’t we?” she said, pulling out her scissors. This bush was definitely done for but that at least gave her a lot to work with. She set to choosing the best flowers she could find, the ones that hadn’t been crushed by Dimitri’s hands, and snipping the stems at the same uniform length. She began placing them into a nearby basket while Dimitri just watched her. Slowly, he shifted to sit back on his haunches so he could observe more closely, and Anna was reminded very much of a cat as she watched him from the corner of her eye. When she was done finishing the massacre of the poor gardenia bush, she picked up the basket and nodded to Dimitri.
“There,” she said. “We’ve got our start. Now, let’s pick out something else, shall we? And leave grabbing the flowers to me, thankyouverymuch,” she added. Dimitri grunted and got to his feet, once again following Anna around the greenhouse. She stopped every once in a while to point out a particular bush, listing the meanings of the flowers that she thought might resonate with the Prince. Occasionally, he gave a nod and she would trim some more flowers from the greenhouse’s collection. Morning glories. Forget-me-nots. Two different shades of camellia (pink and red). But the Prince seemed especially drawn to yellow flowers, and Anna knew why. Into the basket went daffodils and yellow pansies, honeysuckle and goldenrod… Dimitri pointed at a few other yellow flowers, like roses and hyacinths, but Anna gently steered him away from those when she told him that their meaning was jealousy and bitterness. Instead they stuck with ‘bonds of love,’ ‘warm regard,’ ‘longing for you,’ ‘good fortune,’ ‘encouragement,’ ‘affection’… the basket was positively overflowing by the time they had got down the second row of the greenhouse and Dimitri turned to go down the third but Anna caught him by the cape.
“I think we’ve got just about all I can carry, your highness,” she said, and Dimitri turned around to look at the basket Anna held. He gave a pensive hum and his eye wandered over to the stack of baskets sitting nearby, very obviously considering, but Anna headed him off. “Hey, come on now. We can’t pick everything for the first one! Then how will I ever get a nice variety for your next order?” she asked, and Dimitri turned to look at her once again at those words, his single eye almost seeming to sparkle. She saw the unvoiced question there and beamed for him. “Well, of course I’ll make more for you! Anytime, your highness! Anything for a customer!” she said. She swore she saw the shadow of a smile pass the man’s stoic face, but it was there and gone in an instant. He looked back down at the basket, then to Anna once more. Growled. She giggled lightly.
“I’ll have it ready for you in no more than two hours, all right? Come back to my stall then,” she said. A bouquet this big was definitely going to take her some time, but the price tag she could put on it would make it so worth it.
Of course, when Dimitri returned two hours later to collect the bouquet that he had to wrap both of his arms around, he just grunted at Anna, turned around, and walked off. No matter how loudly she shouted after the Prince, he didn’t come back; he just kept right on walking off with her bouquet, free of charge. The other merchants looked at her like she’d grown a second head when she was crazy enough to start throwing tomatoes from the neighboring merchant’s stall at the Prince’s back, but Dimitri just let them hit him without flinching.
Anna was out one bouquet and five gold for the damages to the other merchant’s product, and she was left silently seething for quite some time after that. She closed up her stall a little earlier than usual, still cross about the loss even if technically the flowers hadn’t even been hers to begin with. None of the nuns had stopped her or Dimitri from taking their fair share out of the greenhouse, and she at least deserved to be paid for all her hard work with the arrangement, didn’t she? And yet seemed she would go unthanked, unpaid…
“Hey, Anna!”
The chipper voice calling her name got her to lift her head, and she was met with the sight of radiant, golden Claude with daffodils and forget-me-nots braided into his hair. He was smiling widely at her. Dimitri was in his shadow, carrying the remains of the bouquet. It was very obvious that the Prince had gone all through them, seeking the best ones to put in the Duke’s hair. Anna recognized those damaged petals as Dimitri’s handiwork.
And yet, she could only smile when Claude held up a little bag in his hand. He gave it a shake and she heard the jingle of coins, and she readily lifted her hand to catch the little purse when Claude tossed it her way. The bag was quite heavy, and Claude always paid in Alliance platinum. By her guess, there was the equivalent of at least a thousand gold in this little bag.
“Thanks,” Claude said, winking at her before turning around and linking his hand with Dimitri’s. Anna was already ripping into the bag to see if her estimation was right as the pair walked away.
----
Anna did end up having to make good on her promise to make more bouquets for Prince Dimitri. At least once a month they would go on a raid of the greenhouse and Dimitri would head off two hours later with a bouquet he could wrap his arms around, trotting happily off to go find Claude. And it’d take the rest of the day, or maybe even until the next morning, but eventually Claude would show up, flowers in his hair and a purse in his hand. When she eventually got up the gumption to tell Claude that he really didn’t need to pay her a full thousand gold for every arrangement, he just shook his head with a wink.
“It’s not for the arrangement,” he told her gently as he looked up at Dimitri, clinging to his cape from where he shadowed Claude, as always. “Honestly, Anna. I can’t put a price on this.”
“Well…” Anna hummed, bringing her finger to her chin in thought. “If that’s the case… maybe two thousand gold, next time?”
She didn’t really understand why Claude laughed at that.