Work Text:
“Hey!”
You march into the room, dropping a bouquet of flowers onto the hospital bed with a flourish and leaning forwards on the end of the bed frame. The man in the bed jolts, eyes widening at his rude awakening. He catches his breath, blinking tiredly as his brain attempts to register your face, and you watch with a grin as his expression contorts into a scowl when he recognises you.
“Jesus,” he says simply, letting his head fall back onto his pillow with a sigh. “You know, I was sleeping .”
You click your tongue in disapproval. “They said you’ve been sleeping, for, like, ten hours. It was time.”
“Whatever.” He lifts his head back up again. One of his eyes is covered over with an eyepatch, courtesy of the hospital he’s currently in, but the uninjured one surveys you hazily, wandering carefully from your face down to the flowers you’ve discarded unceremoniously on the bed by his legs. “What’re those?” He asks, eyebrows drawn in suspicion. You fight the urge to laugh.
“They’re flowers , Vanderwood,” you say deliberately, widening your eyes as if you’re talking to a kid. “You know, grow from seeds, pretty colours?”
He frowns, looks from you to the flowers and back to you again. “...Why?”
You stare at him. “Uh, ‘cause you’re in hospital. You got injured? What do you mean, ‘why’?”
He stares at the bouquet. “...I didn’t ask for flowers,” he grumbles after a moment. “What am I supposed to do with them?”
“That’s not the point . It’s just meant to be a nice gesture.” You choke out a laugh. “Jesus, you three and gifts ! Just let me be nice to you, we’re friends .”
Vanderwood scoffs, avoiding your eyes. “Please, like Saeyoung ’s ever tried to stop you from doting.”
“You’d be surprised. I’m not kidding, all three of you tie for being the worst at taking affection that I’ve ever met. Saeran got weird with me the other day because I told him his new hair suited him after he dyed it back.” Vanderwood hums.
“Rookie mistake. Compliments are for the weak.”
“Tell Saeyoung that.” You stick out your tongue at him, and he rolls his uncovered eye.
“Speaking of, where the fuck is that idiot?” he asks.
You cover your mouth in mock-offense. “Such profanity towards my love!”
“Your love is the reason I’m down to one eye,” he growls. You wave a hand dismissively.
“The doctor says you’ll be fine. You might have a messed up depth-of field for a couple days but you’ll make a full recovery!” Your features rearrange into a frown. “But I did yell at him, yes. I can’t believe he was being so reckless.”
“ Thank you,” Vanderwood flourishes his arms dramatically. “You better keep being pissed at him. Maybe that’ll make him feel bad for my troubles.”
“He does feel bad.” You sit down on the side of the bed, careful not to put your weight on his legs. “He was just trying to prank you, though. He didn’t mean any harm. And he says he’ll pay for your medical bills.”
“Good,” Vanderwood grumbles. “Least he could do.” You grab your phone and check your messages quickly. Saeyoung texted.
“He’s on his way,” you relay. “With Saeran. I came from work so I got here quicker.”
He looks up at that, studying you for a moment. “...You got off work to come see me.” He sounds downright incredulous. You nod.
“Well, we were here yesterday, but you were out cold, so I’ve just been waiting for them to call and say you could have visitors. I mean, I didn’t want you to be alone, I would’ve stayed if I could, but…” You trail off, shrugging.
He stares at you for a moment, before sighing and shaking his head. “...You’re too nice for your own good, you know that?” his voice sounds uncharacteristically vulnerable, and you break into a smile.
“Only for my favourite people.”
“Shut up.”
You can’t help but grin at him as his face goes red.
Before you can respond, though, and hopefully fluster him further, the door opens behind you and you turn to see the twins stalking into the room, Saeyoung not even having the decency to look sheepish, Saeran seeming largely uninterested.
“Hey,” you smile as Saeyoung bounces towards you, hugging you in greeting. He smiles brightly as he turns to Vanderwood, who glares at him. You catch Saeran’s eye, who gives you a he’s-been-like-this-all-day look. You raise an eyebrow. Saeyoung’s gotten over his guilt at having hospitalised his ‘maid’, then.
“Mary!” he exclaims.
“ Seven ,” Vanderwood replies through gritted teeth.
You and Saeran watch on for a good ten minutes as Vanderwood digs into your fiancé, you wincing, Saeran not even bothering to hide an amused smirk. Vanderwood is capable of being scary even from a hospital bed, apparently. Still though, when he’s discharged, you don’t miss him gathering up his flowers carefully, looking away quickly when he catches you watching, face flushed.
When you visit his place the next day to check how he’s doing, they’re displayed proudly in a vase on the kitchen table. It’s a weird contrast; your cheap flower bouquet that you’d bought on a moment’s notice for a quick gift in the middle of his pristine tablecloth in an expensive vase. (Vanderwood is weirdly finicky about interior design.)
“What?” he mumbles when he sees you staring. “They’re nice.” They’re not; they’re poor quality, half dead and wilting by now, but he insists that he likes them.
A week later, he texts you to tell you that they’ve well and truly died.
Lolol yeah they do that , you text back.
I know. He says. I liked them though.
---
The next time you get sick, he comes over to the bunker armed with a bouquet of flowers. Saeyoung stares.
“Her nose is stuffed, she won’t even be able to smell them.” Vanderwood glares at him.
“It’s just a nice gesture ,” he repeats your words from all those months ago. “You should be buying them for her anyway! She’s your girlfriend!”
“ I bought her chocolate,” Saeyoung protests.
“And every non-prescription medicine the pharmacy had,” you chime in helpfully from your position tucked halfway under the covers. Saeyoung snaps his fingers, pointing at the you-sized lump in the bed enthusiastically.
“Exactly!” he cries. “She needs no flowers! She is abundant with offerings!”
“Don’t make it sound like a cult,” Vanderwood frowns.
“I like the flowers,” you interrupt. Two sets of eyes (both of Vanderwood’s now uncovered) follow you as you sit up in your bed, grabbing the bouquet from Vanderwood’s arms and lifting it to your face. “And I can smell them.” You sniff. “At least a little.”
Vanderwood’s face breaks into a grin as he watches you inspect your gift appreciatively (if drowsily). “Ha!” he pokes Saeyoung in the chest triumphantly, then turns to beam at you. “I’ll go get you a glass to put them in, then.” You watch him turn around once more and stride out of the room, assumedly towards the kitchen.
Saeyoung stares after him for a moment, before turning on his heel to gape at you.
“Look what you’ve done to that man!” He goggles, pointing a thumb vaguely towards the door. “When we were working for the agency, when I would get sick, she’d whack me about the head to get me out of bed, and threaten to taser me if I didn’t work.” He frowns. “She did that even when I wasn’t sick, actually…”
You smile sympathetically, reaching over to grab his hand and squeeze it. God, you hate thinking about the shit he’s gone through, but the least you can do is not let him get too in his head about it. His and Vanderwood’s relationship has been a turbulent one, at the least, and there’s not much on this planet that makes you happier more than seeing them interact in the way that suits them so much better than handler and agent; as friends.
It’s different than watching Saeyoung improve his relationship with Saeran - in spite of how much as you adore them both, and how much it makes your heart swell to watch them be okay again, it was something you left to Saeyoung, to them, especially at the beginning. You knew that it was something the two of them had to deal with on their own, and so you didn’t really even start getting to know Saeran until he was a couple months out of the hospital and okay (mostly) with you spending time at the bunker.
Vanderwood, however? After everything with Mint Eye and the agency, Saeyoung had had little to no interest with repairing that relationship. When they had both realised that neither of them were going anywhere in the other’s lives, it had almost been funny to watch them gauge how they were supposed to interact with each other now. They’d been so awkward for so long, and there had been this weird period of time where the only thing the two of them had to distract them from each other when they were in the same room… was you. A close bond had been formed out of that awkward tension, and Vanderwood had quickly become genuinely fond of you, to Saeyoung’s vague dismay.
Still, the two of them worked well together, and soon enough that chemistry had been able to translate into a friendship, one with still significant amounts of taser-threats but also significantly less actual tasering. Vanderwood got on weirdly well with Saeran, too, and his place in Saeyoung’s, and now your life was, eventually, well and and truly cemented - though he was still just as bad as the twins about being treated, well - well . Specifically, by you.
You stare at the flowers in your hands, bury your smile in them. He might not say it, but you know that this is one of Vanderwood’s awkward little ways of telling you that he cares about you. You hope that that means he understands that your flowers were the same thing.
Saeyoung seems to come back down to Earth at your touch, smiling softly down at your bleary self, face hidden in your bouquet. He reaches a hand out to your hair, digs his fingers lightly into your scalp.
“He’s so sweet, really,” you sigh. Saeyoung looks unconvinced.
“ Yeeeeah , I don’t know about that . I mean, she likes you.”
“He’s like a cat,” you say. He waits for you to elaborate, and when you don’t, he stares at you like you’re slightly disturbed.
“ Vanderwood ? Like a cat? How can you compare such a creature with a sweet little kitty?”
You yawn. “Well, he’s like you . And Saeran. It takes time and trust for him to accept affection. Accept that I care about him. And then when he gets it, he shows it back. In his own way.” You gesture your flowers.
Saeyoung waits for a moment, face thoughtful. “...I guess it was kind of sweet that he bought you flowers…” You nod. “It’s still a little weird, though…” You frown.
“Saeyoung.”
“Just saying. Is it not over-stepping? I mean, who buys flowers for a woman platonically? You don’t feel uncomfortable, do you?”
You laugh a little. “No, it’s cute . If it’s odd, it’s ‘cause it’s not like he has anything to measure it against.”
Saeyoung sighs, strokes your head once more. “If you say so.”
It’s at that moment that the door opens and Vanderwood marches back into the room, glass in hand as promised. “Here,” he thrusts the glass towards you, and you gently set it on your nightstand.
“Thank you,” you smile at him. He nods purposefully, crossing his arms and looking quite pleased with himself, eyes trained on your expression.
Saeyoung takes it upon himself to interrupt the moment. He looks between you both for a second before mumbling petulantly, “She likes daisies better…”
You fall back asleep in your sickness-haze to the sound of their bickering - a sound that has become comforting, you realise with a smile as you drift off. The last thing you hear before you drop off from half-conscious to completely asleep is the sound of the door opening, and Saeran’s voice coming from the hallway.
“Both of you shut up, you’ll wake her up,” he scolds them, and all three of them usher out of the room to let you sleep.
You smile into your pillow, the vague scent of peonies (that you may or may not be imagining) drifting over you. You love your little family, you think. And they will all feel the wrath of your love and care for the rest of their lives, no matter how awkward they are at at accepting it.