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Like so many things in Ryuunosuke’s life, his odd courtship with Barok van Zieks finds its start by chance. It isn’t so different from his passion for law, he supposes. He’d stumbled head-first into that, too, and ended up cherishing it in a way he never would have expected. Rather like a certain prosecutor himself, though Ryuunosuke still finds himself too bashful to put that feeling into words, no matter how much Iris and the others try to cajole him to.
In a roundabout way, Iris is the catalyst for the whole thing, declaring one day that her workspace could do with some new flowers. All of them had been eager to get out of the flat and away from the gloom that still lingered like smoke after the Reaper trials, despite their efforts to clear the air. Ryuunosuke had trailed after Iris and Susato, while Holmes had gone elsewhere. Frankly, Ryuunosuke has no idea what Holmes is up to, and he doesn’t really mind if it stays that way. Great Detective or not, the man gets himself into far more trouble than Ryuunosuke is comfortable with. That sentiment has only doubled now that Mikotoba is gone.
While Iris and Susato bend over the displays in the flower shop, happily debating which would brighten up the suite in the best way, Ryuunosuke examines the shop’s other offerings. A modest sample of books has been tucked near the front, out of the way of the flowers, but not so hidden that potential customers would miss it. Despite his utter lack of interest, Ryuunosuke picks one up and flips through its pages with idle curiosity.
“Oh, Ryuu, I didn’t know you were interested in floriography!” Iris’ cheerful voice pipes up behind him, startling Ryuunosuke out of his thoughts. He glances over his shoulder to find her and Susato both peeking at the book in his hands.
“Not really,” he murmurs back, just a bit sheepish. “All I know about flowers is that they’re nice to look at. This is the first time I’ve heard of...ah, floriography.”
Ryuunosuke’s reply earns a giggle from Iris and a thoughtful hum from Susato. He’s completely unsurprised when Susato offers up more information a moment later, because of course, Susato knows everything. “We have our own version back home. Hanakotoba. Though the meanings of the flowers can differ, it’s gotten very popular recently, both here and in Japan.”
“Yes, it’s all the rage here!” Iris clutches at her bundle of marigold blooms with enthusiasm, smiling up at the two of them. If her hands hadn’t been occupied, Ryuunosuke suspects she would have flourished them in the manner so reminiscent of Holmes. “Lower, middle, upper class… you could say it’s taken root just about everywhere.”
Normally, Ryuunosuke would groan at the word play, but he’s suddenly seized by the memory of Barok van Zieks in the courtroom the week before, his face shadowed by anguish. While the prosecutor had waved away his guilt in the aftermath, Ryuunosuke still hates that he’d had to dredge up the painful memories. The cold truth had been all he could offer to van Zieks then, and part of him wishes that he could do more to ease the hurt that certainly continues to linger. The prosecutor had come out of that trial with fresh wounds, after all, and they still need to heal, even if they’ve been cleaned of poison.
“Say, Iris,” he says as the seed of an idea plants in him. “You think someone like Lord van Zieks would be familiar with floriography?”
That quiets the girls, Susato and Iris eye him with something like understanding. Iris nods solemnly. “I think so, Ryuu… are you going to send him something?”
“Maybe.” Ryuunosuke flips through the book with more purpose this time. A familiar, impulsive recklessness rises up in him. “I doubt he’d appreciate it, but… no one’s heard from him since the trial, right? Knowing him, he’ll try to deal with everything on his own. Someone should remind him he has friends he can rely on.”
In the end, the gladiolus flower he picks out is a pressed specimen, November being the wrong season altogether for the fresh flower he’d prefer. Feeling foolish despite Iris and Susato’s reassurances, Ryuunosuke sends the flower carefully enclosed in an accompanying note asking after him. He and van Zieks might have had a rather turbulent start, but he’s tentatively hopeful they can reach an understanding now, after everything.
A week passes without reply. Van Zieks himself makes no mention of it when they pass each other in the prosecutors’ offices, and Ryuunosuke feels surprisingly disappointed by it. He does, however, catch van Zieks watching him more than once, the man contemplative in his scrutiny. It’s perhaps the only thing that keeps him from being too shocked when van Zieks finally responds a day later.
The moment Ryuunosuke returns to Baker Street, he’s immediately ambushed.
“Where have you been, Ryuu? We’ve been waiting ages for you!” Iris crosses her arms and pouts at him on his right while Susato cuts off any means of escape on his left. The frown on his assistant’s face, along with the way she’s sternly propped her hands on her hips immediately makes him sweat and wonder what he’s done to upset her.
Ryuunosuke holds his hands up in what he hopes isn’t a fruitless attempt to placate them. It’s been some time since Susato’s flung him across the room, and he’s personally hoping he won’t have to repeat the experience any time soon. “I was meeting with Asougi, remember? I told you before I left this morning!”
Desperately, his eyes seek out Holmes, who’s still seated at his desk and has made no move to leave the safety of his corner. “Mr. Holmes, a little help here?”
“I believe, Mr. Naruhodou,” Holmes says, looking entirely too amused by his plight, “that you’ve received a gift and a letter to go with it. I’d recommend opening it with due haste, before Iris or Miss Susato do it for you.”
Which explains nothing, really, but Ryuunosuke doesn’t get a chance to ask Holmes for much else when Iris and Susato round on the detective instead. It does give him a reprieve, though, and he’s not about to complain.
While his ragtag family continues to bicker behind him, Ryuunosuke approaches the table, where his eyes have caught on a splash of colour. Just as Holmes promised, there’s a bouquet, the blue of its flowers standing out vividly against the white of the table cloth. Ryuunosuke gingerly brushes a finger against the soft petals, suddenly regretful that he doesn’t know enough to recognise the flower.
“They’re periwinkle,” Iris says without prompting, when she sits beside him. She smiles knowingly. “For new friendships.”
The knot of anxiety loosens in him, and Ryuunosuke’s too relieved to even tease Susato when she all but shoves the envelope into his hands in her eagerness. He draws the notecard out, already guessing what he’ll find. “It’s from Lord van Zieks,” he says, to no one’s surprise. “That’s… all it says.”
Though Iris and Susato make disappointed noises around him, Ryuunosuke finds that he doesn’t mind. That he’d received a reply at all is enough for him, and besides, he thinks he understands. Even with the taint of the Reaper and the Professor finally gone, there’s no doubt that sorting through the complicated mess has taken a toll on all of them. In a way, the flowers are attractive in their simplicity, letting something else speak for them this time.
“It’s rather poetic, if you think about it.” The chair behind him creaks under new weight and he knows without looking that Holmes has finally joined them. “Periwinkle season is nearly over. If our dear Not-Reaper had waited any longer, he might’ve struggled to find the flowers he wanted to reply with.”
And missed a chance at extending his friendship, Holmes doesn’t have to say.
Ryuunosuke smiles, rubbing a thumb over the penned flourish of van Ziek’s name. “I think he would’ve found a way. It’s Lord van Zieks after all.”
Rather than nearly missing the window of opportunity as Holmes is implying, Ryuunosuke would prefer to see it as an opportunity grabbed at just the right moment. A sign of things falling into place, in other words. It only makes him more determined to cultivate the potential that he can sense between him and van Zieks, into whatever it might grow to be.
Out loud he says, “I really need to get that book on floriography now.”
-*-
A couple days later, Ryuunosuke sends a pressed sprig of white jasmine to confirm their tentative friendship, and he likes to imagine that there’s a new warmth in van Ziek’s eyes when they cross paths in court after that. From there, it only gets easier. Rather than speaking out of necessity, they begin to seek each other out, lingering longer and longer each time.
The holidays put an unexpected damper on things. With their friendship progressing so well, Ryuunosuke doesn’t know what to think when van Zieks abruptly withdraws into himself. Though hurt at first, concern quickly outweighs everything else when he sees the shadows building in the prosecutor’s eyes.
“I wondered if this would happen,” Holmes says, when Ryuunosuke risks approaching him for advice. Of all of them, Holmes has known van Zieks the longest, and Ryuunosuke’s relieved to be taken seriously, no hint of the detective’s usual flair for the dramatic in sight. “No doubt he’s learnt to deal with solitude over the years, but the trial must have brought the memories back in full force. This Christmas won’t be a pleasant one for him, I’m afraid.”
It makes too much sense. And though a part of him is still unhappy at being so unceremoniously shut out, Ryuunosuke isn’t one to give up so easily. Not when he’s finally gotten a good look at what lay behind van Zieks’ numerous walls.
Ryuunosuke exhales, shaking his head. “Then, we’ll simply have to make it pleasant for him. I’ll invite him over for Christmas dinner, if you and Iris don’t mind it.”
“Good lad.” Holmes’ hand rests warmly on his shoulder for a moment. Then he winks, dispelling the heaviness of their discussion with practised ease. “Tell van Zieks he can make it up to us by bringing dessert, the more expensive the better.”
“Sure, Mr. Holmes,” Ryuunosuke says, with a roll of his eyes.
He leaves the dinner invitation on van Zieks’ desk, along with a flask of Iris’ special tea, and a bundle of azalea. It figures that the first time he sends fresh flowers, it’s to scold the man for not minding his health. It works, though; van Zieks shows up on 221B’s doorstep looking less haggard than he has in a while, with dessert and a spray of canterbury bells. The flowers are placed into Ryuunosuke’s hands with a chagrined smile that Ryuunosuke returns readily.
For the first time in days, it feels like everything is as it should be.
-*-
It’s February before he knows it, and even Ryuunosuke notices the uptick of cards being displayed in the shop windows as they near the middle of the month. Some are elaborate and lace-covered, while others are printed with insulting messages that draw shocked gasps from Ryuunosuke and Susato.
Valentine’s Day, as it turns out, is both a day for lovers to express their sentiments and a day for unwanted suitors to be rejected with a handy card. Ryuunosuke doesn’t even pretend to understand it, and says as much, to Iris and Holmes’ amusement.
“But Ryuu, wouldn’t you be happy to receive a card from someone who admires you?” Iris clasps her hands, looking at him earnestly. “I think it’s rather sweet.”
To Ryuunosuke’s horror, Susato’s nodding thoughtfully, as if swayed by Iris’ defence of the holiday. It’s no surprise, when the two of them have always been more sentimental than he. Never mind that he’d briefly–briefly, mind you–entertained the idea of sending a card to van Zieks. Or of receiving one from him. That’s a thought he’ll keep to himself for now. Shying away from his growing feelings isn’t something Ryuunosuke wants to do, but when the alternative is pushing them onto van Zieks when the prosecutor already has so much to contend with… it’s preferable.
“I think I’ll leave the cards to you, Iris. You’d appreciate them far more,” Ryuunosuke says with a grin, and figures that would be the end of it.
He’s proven wrong a few short hours later, when a knock at the door interrupts their afternoon tea. With Iris fetching more biscuits from the kitchen, and Holmes engrossed in some report from Scotland Yard, Ryuunosuke knows it’s up to him to answer the door.
“I’ll get it.” He pushes his chair back with a sigh, expecting to find one of the increasingly harried postmen he’s seen all over the city since the Valentine’s exchanges began in earnest.
It’s not a postman on the other side of the door.
“Mr. Naruhodou,” Barok van Zieks says as Ryuunosuke freezes in the doorway. “Have I come at a bad time?”
He looks as tentative as Ryuunosuke’s ever seen him. “No! Not at all!” Ryuunosuke chokes out, somehow getting his mouth to work again. “I just wasn’t expecting you here. Is… is something wrong?”
Van Zieks hesitates again, but he puts Ryuunosuke’s alarm to rest before it can skyrocket. Instead, it’s his heart rate that picks up abruptly, when van Zieks offers him the bouquet he hadn’t noticed until now.
“No, nothing of the sort. I simply meant to give you this.” His lips curl into a small, uncertain smile. “I felt it would be…discourteous if I didn’t deliver this one in person.”
Discourteous, because this particular bouquet is filled with red roses, Ryuunosuke realises as he accepts the flowers in a daze. Not too long ago, the bouquet wouldn’t have held any meaning to him. After months of exchanging flowers regularly and learning exactly the kind of person van Zieks is, though, that’s no longer true.
“But isn’t it my turn to send you something?” Still reeling from the unexpected gift, Ryuunosuke lets the question slip out, and immediately wants to sink into the floor. Embarrassment courses through him, turning his face red. The last bunch of flowers from van Zieks had been irises, acknowledging his intellect after a recent tricky case. Remembering them only worsens the flush of his cheeks. A compliment shouldn’t affect him to this extent. He knows this, just as he knows his reaction has everything to do with the one who’d paid him the compliment in the first place.
Ryuunosuke hears a low chuckle and has to bite back an exclamation. It’s the first time he’s heard van Zieks laugh like that.
“While I enjoyed them, it may be time for us to be upfront with each other without the aid of the flowers.” Van Zieks tips his head to the side, watching Ryuunosuke with sharp blue eyes. “Don’t you think so, Mr. Naruhodou?”
Part of Ryuunosuke agrees. Direct communication tends to work out better for him, straightforward as he is, but he’s surprisingly reluctant to let go of something he’s grown fond of. It’s not the flowers themselves, but the connection that he and van Zieks have built off of those exchanges that hold special meaning to him.
“I can be upfront if that’s what you want,” Ryuunosuke says, a smile starting to curl at his lips. Van Zieks is standing on the doorstep for him. Van Zieks went out of his way to personally deliver the flowers to him. The very thought makes him bold, confidence swelling in him the way it does every time he finds decisive evidence in court.
“For example, I think you should expect me to show up to your office tomorrow, with some red roses.”
Van Zieks’ eyes widen before he recovers admirably, just as Ryuunosuke knew he would. The smile van Zieks gives him now has no trace of its earlier uncertainty. “In that case, I believe you should expect an invitation to dinner in exchange.”
Ryuunosuke’s cheeks are going to hurt later from how hard he’s smiling now. “Then, you should expect that I’ll accept.”
The promise hangs between them for a moment, neither of them looking away. Finally, van Zieks sweeps an elegant bow in his direction and steps back toward his carriage. While the extra space gives Ryuunosuke room to finally breathe again, he knows he isn’t imagining the lingering tension in the air.
“Regrettably, I cannot stay long. It appears I have dinner arrangements to take care of,” van Zieks says lowly, glancing toward the door with a flicker of sincere regret. “Please give them my apologies, and a promise that I will visit properly another time.”
“Must be important dinner arrangements,” Ryuunosuke says, unable to resist. The raised brow he gets from van Zieks in reply only makes him laugh shakily.
With a softer, more reassuring smile, he adds, “Don’t worry. I’ll tell them.”
Ryuunosuke has no doubt that van Zieks meant every word. He’s always kept his promises to Iris in particular, ever since the first one she’d extracted from him in the Old Bailey’s waiting room.
“Then…until tomorrow, Mr. Naruhodou.” The warm regard he hears in van Zieks’ voice makes Ryuunosuke swallow.
“Until tomorrow,” he echoes. He stays there on the doorstep, watching, until the carriage pulls out of sight.
Feeling light in a way he’d never expected, Ryuunosuke turns back to the door. He knows he’s going to get a hell of an inquisition from the others when he walks back into the flat, but strangely enough, he finds he doesn’t mind it at all.