Chapter Text
The children's laughter is muffled but loud as they pass by his store, stealing the flowers from the bouquets displayed outside. He sees some of the parents, most of whom are mothers stop by and peek into his store for a good minute, humming to themselves before walking away. He’s sure he’ll see them later.
“I’m starting to think you purposely put those on display for people to take.” Anna says from behind him, her voice becoming louder as she exits the backroom and appears next to him.
“Perhaps.” He responds while he finishes writing down a custom order. She hums in response as she grabs her bag and makes her way towards the door. His father Noel had already left half an hour earlier, but Lumine himself and sometimes Anna usually stayed a little longer for any last minute customers.
“Don't stay for too long, I heard it’ll pour soon.” She tells him as she opens the door and heads out.
“But my house is just down the street...” He says to no one in particular, watching her walk out the door and away out of sight. He sighs, collapsing on his very uncomfortable chair.
Today was like every other day, frantic phone calls asking for last minute flower arrangements for their dates, some of his usual customers placing the same orders like they do, new people checking out his shop but not actually buying anything. He’s glad he has Anna and Noel to help him out, otherwise it would be too much for him.
He hears the faint thunder, and shortly after the people outside are rushing inside, some pulling out umbrellas as the rain grows harder. He slightly turns his head to look at the time, and realizes he has three minutes until the shop closes. Immediately, he's out of his chair rushing to clean up. He’s forever grateful Anna already cleaned up the majority before she left.
Wiping down the counters and watering the indoor display bouquets, he locks the backroom before grabbing the broom. There's always so much soil on the floors at the end of the day, but that's to be expected.
It’s five minutes past closing time and he's almost done sweeping until he hears the door open. He stands frozen, back turned before he slowly looks up and towards the door.
Shit, I forgot to put the closing sign up.
“I’m really sorry, we’re closed right n-” He says, biting his tongue mid sentence when he gets a proper look at the person.
They’re absolutely drenched, and taking a proper look at their face, he notices the blood shot eyes. He isn't able to tell if those are rain drops or tear marks on his face. He sucks in a breath and decides to leave it be for now.
“Welcome! Is there anything I can help you with?” He asks, flashing a smile in hopes to be friendly. The boy continues to stare at him, until he breaks his gaze to look around the store. Looking closely again Lumine notices the boy is trembling. His hands are more obvious, and Lumine feels really bad now. He should probably step back a little and let the boy find a bouquet himself-
“A simple bouquet would be fine.” The boy says, cutting off his train of thought. He’s looking off to the side, perhaps avoiding eye contact.
“R-right! Of course, is there any occasion or-”
“Just- Just something that looks nice. Please.” The boy says it in a rush, voice shaky. Lumine realizes their hands are clenching.
He decides to not ask anything more, and heads behind the counter where has pre-made ones. He really doesn’t wanna assume, but the guy looks a mess and it’s not just because of the rain. Something bad happened alright, but he doesn't know what.
Which is why he gives a simple bouquet of peonies, usually meaning a simple good luck. He hopes it's nice enough.
“How much?” The boy asks.
“Huh?” Lumine responds, confused.
“How much is it?” Oh.
He ponders over it for a few seconds, and decides it would be okay this one time.
“You don't have to pay for anything. First times are free!” He says handing over the bouquet. The boy takes a look at it, his eyes slightly widening.
First times are not free. Lumine is so lying right now.
“...Thanks.” The boy mumbles.
“No problem. Come again!” Lumine says as the guy walks out into the rain. He watches him go before realizing he didn't have an umbrella. He quickly grabs his own from under the counter and rushes outside down the block where he can see the boy walking ahead.
“Hey! Wait!” He yells over the sound of thundering rain. The boy stops and turns around, his black hood slipping off his head. Lumine rushes over and pops his umbrella open before placing it over the boy's head. He looks up at the umbrella and back to Lumine in confusion.
“J-Just so the flowers don't get wet…” Lumine stutters out.
“Oh. Thank you again.”
“Yeah. Uh. Have a good day!” He responds, realizing he probably made it awkward. They hold each other's gaze for a minute before Lumine nervously smiles and rushes back down the street and back inside the shop. He’s soaking wet now, and water drops onto the once clean floor.
Anna is gonna laugh at him when he gets home.
It’s been a few days since then, and he finds himself worrying about the boy each day. He doesn’t even know him, doesn't even know his name for god's sake yet Lumine can't erase the stricken look he saw on his face. He really hopes they’re okay.
His thoughts are disturbed as there's a flick on the back of his forehead, and he's caught so off guard that he falls out of his chair.
“Sheesh, I barely touched you.” Anna says as she lends him a hand. She hoists him off the floor, and laughs as he struggles to find his balance.
“What was that for…” He mumbles, rubbing the back of his head.
“You’ve been zoning quite a lot today, and the day before and the day before that.” Noel answers from somewhere behind him. He didn't even hear him approaching and jumps a little when he hears his voice. Lumine can hear Anna laughing at him and grows embarrassed.
“Is everything okay?” His father asks, a touch of concern in his voice. Lumine smiles a bit, he doesn’t know what he’d do without Noel.
But.
If Noel were to find out about him giving away flowers for free and letting someone in past closing time….
Not good.
“Everything is fine. Just one of those days, you know?” He laughs a bit at the end, putting a smile to make it more believable. His father simply raises an eyebrow and Lumine realizes he doesn't believe him. Surprisingly enough, Noel leaves it be and walks away. A breath he didn't realize he’d been holding escapes his lips as he gets up from his chair and heads over to the aisle containing roses. He's been behind on orders lately, so he starts off with the older ones.
He’s so invested in making a bouquet that he completely misses the sound of the door opening along with the bell chiming, and until a shadow casts over the flowers does he realize that someone came in. He looks up and is met face to face with the boy from the other day.
He looks different, but maybe it’s because he’s not drenched with rain. Yeah, he thinks that’s it.
“Welcome back! What brings you here today?” Lumine asks, putting away the bouquet for now. The boy looks off to the side again, but Lumine is pretty sure he just doesn’t know how to socialize well.
“Another bouquet if you don’t mind. I don’t mind the type.” He answers.
“Of course. I am a little behind on orders, so I’d need a name.”
“Kody.”
“Kody! Alright, it’ll just take fifteen minutes. You can wait on those chairs over there, or if you have somewhere else to be, that's fine.” Lumine says, pointing over to the small lounge in the back. Kody simply nods his head before heading towards the lounge.
Lumine manages to finish six orders before stopping to take a short break. He looks over to see Kody reading some sort of book. Although being in a big red beanbag, surrounded by flowers and plants with soft music playing in the background, he looks tense. His shoulders are the slightest bit hunched, his hands are gripping the book a little too hard, and his leg has been bouncing nonstop the time Lumine had been finishing orders. He naturally feels bad, like he does with anyone.
“I know you said you don’t mind, but if you have time I can let you check out the flowers for your bouquet.” He offers, dusting off the dirt on his hands. A few seconds go by without a response, and Lumine decides to give it up until he hears a loud thump. He flinches, covering his ears while desperately looking for the source of the sound. His gaze lands on Kody, who is holding his book tightly closed and his mouth slightly parted. He looks more scared then Lumine feels, and he immediately feels bad.
“I’m sor-” Kody starts, looking everywhere but Lumine's direction.
“It’s okay. I’m sorry. You… You already looked tense and I probably scared you.” He cuts Kody off. They both simply stare at each other, unsure of what to say. It’s a bit awkward until Kody speaks up again.
“That would be nice.” He says getting up from the beanbag.
Lumine breaks out into a smile, looking back to make sure Kody’s following him when he heads to the isle with chrysanthemums. The most common things these flowers represent are happiness and joy. He has mostly all colors in stock, and they’re the easiest to care for in his opinion.
He looks over to Kody, and surprisingly his expression holds some sort of childish-like curiosity, as if he's never really taken the time to actually explore these things.
“I like.. The red ones.” Kody says after a moment. Lumine quickly pulls on his gloves and plucks out the red ones, handing them to Kody, who hesitates as if they’d crumple with his touch.
“Hey, nothings gonna happen. Just hold them by the stem gently.” He pushes the flower in Kodys hand, and after a few seconds he takes it. Kody twirls them around, giving the flower a sniff.
“They smell like.. like….”
“Like the earth?” he suggests.
“Mhm.. like the earth.” Lumine laughs a bit at this.
“Yeah, these ones don’t really have a specific scent. They're more on the earthy side.” He says.
“Do you have any that smell nice?” Kody asks.
“I do, but they’re pretty rare which means they’re expensive.”
“That’s fine.”
“Follow me then, I think they were somewhere around here…”
Lumine ends up spending the rest of the time practically showing Kody around the whole shop, so much that when he looks at the clock he realizes they close in fifteen minutes.
A whole 1 hour passed? I didn’t even notice..
Kody seems to realize this too, silently swearing under his breath after checking his watch.
“I have to go.” He says to Lumine.
“Oh… we didn’t even get to make a bouquet for you.. I-I’m really sorry, that was completely my fault.” Lumine says, rubbing the back of his head. He feels really bad.
“I can just come in tomorrow, it’s fine.” Oh. We’re closed tomorrow.
Dad won’t mind.. Right?
Right.
“I’ll see you then. Thank you for coming in!” Lumine responds, waving to Kody as he rushes out the door.
He then realizes he only has around ten minutes to clean up.
“This place looks like a mess, we close in ten minutes you know?” Anna says from behind. He jumps, he can never hear her coming.
“Y-Yes! I’m working on it…”
He is not looking forward to this.