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Spring had always been Jean’s favorite season. He enjoyed the mild, warmer weather, the longer, sunnier days, and the fact that both his and his mother’s birthdays were in spring. With his mother’s birthday quickly approaching, Jean had much to look forward to. He wanted to get her something to match the wonderful feelings he associated with the season and thought what better than a bouquet of flowers.
Jean recalled the new flower shop he had seen on one of his walks and thought it to be a good place to start his search. Leaving his apartment, Jean indulged in the warm breeze returning after the long, harsh winter. Everywhere he looked, the bright sun was reflecting off of the glass skyscrapers towering above him. Jean couldn’t have been happier.
After a short walk, Jean arrived at the small green storefront he remembered seeing before. Jean looked up at the sign for the flower shop. Ocean Blossoms , he thought to himself, cute . Walking through the door, Jean's attention was immediately caught, not only by the beautiful array of flowers that surrounded him, but also by the man behind the counter. He had thick, shoulder length blonde hair, with sections on either side of his face braided and tied up to form a ponytail in the back. The rest of his bangs still framed his face and covered his forehead. He had large, clear glasses and was wearing a tan cardigan, but the feature that most intrigued Jean were his eyes. Jean was mesmerized. He had never seen a person with eyes that reminded him this much of his childhood trips to the ocean. Before even realizing how much time had passed, Jean noticed he was staring at the man across the room.
“Is there anything I can help you with? Anything specific you’re looking for maybe?” asked the man behind the counter.
“Oh!” responded Jean, slightly thrown off guard by the sudden talking, “No, I’m not looking for anything specific, I’ll let you know if I have a question.”
“Perfect!” replied the man.
Jean focused his attention towards the flowers. He hadn’t seen this many flowers all together in a long time. Jean had spent his entire life in the city, and was always in awe whenever he found himself surrounded by any type of plant, even if it was indoors. All of the different colors started to fill his senses and he thought about what a great place this would be to do a color study. He focused his attention on the purple flowers; his mother’s favorite color. After looking for a bit, his attention was caught by a bouquet of larger purple flowers that looked like clusters of petals. He decided they were perfect for his mother, picked them up, and brought them to the counter.
“Ooo, hydrangeas. Nice choice,” said the man behind the counter, “Is there an occasion for this, or did you just want to get into the spring mood?”
“They’re for my mother. It’s her birthday today.”
“Well, she’s lucky to have a son with such great taste.”
Jean swore he could almost hear a hint of a flirt in the man’s voice, but assumed he was just imagining it because of nerves from being so close to a man he found so attractive. Jean paid for the flowers, and made sure to look at the man’s name tag before walking out the door. It read “Armin”.
Jean walked out of the flower shop hoping he didn’t embarrass himself too much. He could feel the hotness across his cheeks and hoped that his blush wasn’t visible. His heart was still racing, even after he arrived at the subway platform and waited for the train to arrive. He hoped he would be able to calm down enough before arriving at his mother’s apartment. He didn’t want to be distracted from his mother or pull attention away from celebrating her birthday.
His pulse finally returned to normal when he arrived at his mother’s building. Despite just seeing his mother a few weeks ago, Jean was very excited to see her again. Living on the opposite side of the city could be quite lonely sometimes. Jean looked back down at the flowers before knocking on his mother’s door, and despite now being calm, he thought again of Armin. He desperately hoped his mother wouldn’t notice his strange behavior.
Before he could even knock on the door, it opened.
“Goodness!” exclaimed Jean’s mother, startled by his presence. “How long were you standing there? I was just about to go pick up my mail.”
“Not long at all mom, I just got here. I was about to knock on the door.”
“Jean, did you pick out those flowers yourself? They’re beautiful! They’re even my favorite shade of purple.”
“Of course I picked them out myself! I’m offended you think I don’t know what kind of flowers my own mother would like,” said Jean jokingly.
“Well come in,” said Mrs. Kirstein, “I ordered dinner from our favorite restaurant.”
Mrs. Kirstein filled a vase with water and placed the hydrangeas inside. She placed the vase in the center of the dining room table, and the two of them dug into her birthday dinner. When the two of them finished eating, Jean decided to make some tea and the two of them sat on his mother's balcony with their drinks to watch the sunset. Jean indulged in the warm evening air. Despite all of the buildings that surrounded them, they still had a perfect view to watch the sunset over the city. They watched as the city began to light up, but Jean couldn’t help looking back through the window at the vase of flowers. Each time he did, he thought of Armin. His hair. His eyes. The thought of Armin wouldn’t leave his mind. Jean felt guilty for being preoccupied, but he couldn’t help it. Whenever he tried to think of something other than Armin, he was again reminded of the man who was somehow even more beautiful than all of the flowers in the shop.
“Jean, honey, is something on your mind? You keep looking back into the apartment,” asked Jean’s mother.
“It’s nothing, I’m just looking at the flowers,” responded Jean
“Are you sure? You’ve never seemed to be this into flowers in the past.”
Jean didn’t want to lie to his mother. He felt bad for being distracted on her birthday, but he felt even worse for lying to her. Besides, he knew she would be happy for him.
“Ok, fine, you got me. I can’t get the man behind the counter at the flower shop out of my head. He’s the most beautiful person I have ever seen in my life. His name’s Armin, and…”
“Oh Jean, that’s wonderful! You had me worried there. I thought something bad might have happened to you. Are you going to try to see him again?”
“I haven’t really thought about it, but I think I will. The flowers there were beautiful too, maybe I could use them as a reference.”
“That’s a great idea, honey. You can impress him with your art skills,” enthused Mrs. Kirstein.
Jean stayed well into the night and talked to his mom for hours until she was too tired to continue their conversations.
“Goodnight sweetie, call me if you have any updates.”
“I will mom, don’t worry,” said Jean before leaving his mother’s apartment.
Armin looked up from his book when he heard the bell ringing, indicating that someone had opened the door. A man walked in, and instead of going to look at the flowers like a customer would normally do, he stopped dead in his tracks and stared straight at Armin with a strange look on his face. He was looking at Armin for quite a long time, but Armin didn’t sense any malice or judgment in his stare. Instead, it felt somewhat pleasant. Armin thought the man was quite attractive too, which helped.
After a bit, Armin decided to break the silence and ask the man if he was in need of any assistance. The man quickly snapped out of his trance and embarrassingly told Armin that he did not. He watched as the man walked over to the flower displays and began looking at the flowers. He looked as if this had been his first time in a flower shop, but he somehow managed to find a bouquet of flowers he wanted to buy rather quickly. He walked up to the counter, but he seemed nervous for some reason. Armin knew it wasn’t because the man was intimidated by his appearance. Being shorter than average, intimidating wasn’t a word that had ever been used to describe him. Could he think I’m attractive? Look at him, he’s the one who’s attractive, Armin thought to himself. He was feeling particularly confident that day and decided to compliment the man in a way that would still keep him out of trouble if he had the wrong impression. In response, the man blushed and didn’t say another word. He simply paid for his flowers and left.
“Wow, what a strange man,” Armin said to himself, “I hope I see him again.”
The next morning, Jean woke up conflicted. It was his day off and he wanted to find somewhere in the city to draw, but the thought of returning to the flower shop kept coming to mind. Jean didn’t want Armin to think he was weird for returning the next day just to sketch flowers. What if Armin didn’t want him to be there all day? Jean tried to think of other places in the city to sketch for the day, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t. Armin was all he could think about. Jean decided to bite the bullet, got dressed, grabbed his sketchbook and a pile of colored pencils, and headed out of his apartment towards the flower shop.
Upon reaching the green storefront once more, Jean paused. He contemplated again if he should go inside or if he should just leave when suddenly, he noticed someone inside the shop was looking at him. It was Armin. Shit, thought Jean, now I have to go inside.
“Hey, it’s you!” exclaimed Armin, “What brings you back? Did your mother not like the flowers you picked out for her?”
“No, she loved them actually,” retorted Jean.
“Well, then what can I do for you?” smiled Armin.
“I- uh- I wanted to ask you if I could use some of your flowers as a drawing reference. I’m an artist and I was looking for a natural reference and being in the city and all, this is one of my best options.”
“Of course you can!” responded Armin excitedly, “I’m flattered that someone would want to use my flowers as reference. I’m Armin by the way. Since you’re going to be here for a while, I thought I would introduce myself to you.”
“Thank you, I’m Jean.”
Jean began sketching the flowers as Armin sat at the counter reading a book. There was a silence between them, but instead of being awkward, it felt comfortable, like the silence between two people that had known each other for years. Jean found himself looking back at Armin several times, and every time he did, he caught Armin gazing back at him rather than looking at his book. Each time, Armin would smile at Jean, and Jean would smile back. God, Jean thought to himself, his smile is so cute. Jean was finding it hard to concentrate as thoughts of Armin’s smile clouded his mind instead of the image of the flowers in front of him. At one point, Jean must have zoned out, as when he looked back down at his work, he noticed a small sketch of Armin in the corner of his paper. Embarrassed, he quickly erased the tiny drawing in fear that Armin would see it.
After a few hours, several customers, and two completed drawings of flowers, Armin got up from the counter and walked over to Jean. He looked at the sketch book in Jean’s hands and saw one of the completed drawings. Armin was impressed to say the least.
“Wow! That’s amazing,” praised Armin.
“Thank you!” Jean said, smiling back at Armin.
“I was going to go take my lunch break and I was wondering if you wanted to join me.”
Jean froze and looked down at his sketchbook. Surely this wasn’t a date right? I just met the guy yesterday, why would he ask me on a date? I’m just thinking too far into this, Jean thought to himself.
“Jean?” asked Armin
“Yes,” said Jean, louder than he should have, “Yes, I’ll go with you.”
“Great! Let me grab my keys so I can lock up behind us,” said Armin.
It was quite warm outside, and Jean noticed that Armin had left his cardigan on after leaving the store. After walking for a few blocks, Jean watched as Armin began taking off his cardigan to reveal not just one, but an entire sleeve of floral tattoos. Jean stopped walking, his mouth agape, and tapped Armin on the shoulder. Armin turned around, and looked at Jean with a confused look on his face.
“You have an entire sleeve? That’s incredible! Do they have any particular meaning behind them?” Jean asked intrigued.
Jean had a few tattoos of his own, but nothing like this. He always found tattoos and the reasons behind them fascinating.
“Yup,” responded Armin, “I got them because my mother had the same tattoos on her arm. She passed away when I was eleven.” Armin’s face contorted into a frown.
“I'm so sorry, I didn’t mean to upset you, “ apologized Jean. He’d always struggled to keep his curiosity to himself.
“No, no, it’s fine,” assured Armin, “You couldn’t have known.”
They continued on towards the restaurant in a somewhat awkward silence. Jean was so close with his mother. He couldn’t imagine losing her, especially at such a young age. Jean felt bad for ruining the comfortable mood between the two of them.
Finally, after a few more excruciating minutes of walking, they arrived at the restaurant.
“I hope you like pastries,” smiled Armin before opening the door for the both of them. They sat down at a table facing the street and ordered their food. Jean couldn't help but notice all of the people holding hands as they walked by the restaurant and found himself looking back at Armin whenever they did. Armin met Jean’s eyes a few times, which made Jean blush. He caught himself fantasizing about doing the same with Armin; holding his hand while walking down the street. He knew he found Armin attractive, but he was just starting to understand that his attraction was more than just purely physical. He hoped that Armin felt the same way.
When their food arrived, the conversation between the two of them began to dwindle, but this time the silence no longer felt heavy. They watched the people outside, smiling at each other whenever someone with a dog walked by. Armin quickly noticed that Jean was a messy eater and saw that a few crumbs had accumulated around his mouth. Without even thinking, he reached towards Jean's face and wiped the excess crumbs away. Immediately, Armin regretted his decision and thought about how uncomfortable it must have made Jean, a man he barely met, for someone who was practically a stranger to wipe crumbs off of his face.
“Oh my god, I’m so sorry. I shouldn’t have done that, it’s a habit of mine,” Armin said blushing.
“It’s fine, don’t worry. You were just trying to help,” responded Jean, blushing even harder.
He’s even cuter when he blushes, Jean thought to himself. They finished eating, paid for their food (Armin paid for the both of them after arguing that it was his idea to come here), and returned to the flower shop. Armin reopened for the day, welcoming even more customers than in the morning, as Jean found himself sketching more doodles of Armin than he did flowers. Looking past a flower display, Jean noticed a large piece of paper behind Armin covered in admission stickers for the local aquarium and suddenly, Jean had a wonderful idea. He could go to the aquarium and use the fish as reference. Maybe he could even ask Armin to come with him. Upon the flower shop’s closing, Jean thanked Armin for allowing him to stay for the entire day and told Armin of his future plan.
“I love the aquarium!” Armin exclaimed with a huge smile on his face. He hadn’t been able to go as often as he’d like to since his grandfather retired from the flower shop.
“Maybe, uh- maybe you could come with me?” Jean proposed nervously.
“I’d love to!” exclaimed Armin, “I’m free next Wednesday.”
“That’s good for me. How about I pick you up here at 10:00?” responded Jean.
“Here, let me give you my phone number so I can text you if anything unexpected comes up between now and Wednesday,” said Armin, motioning towards the outline of a phone in Jean’s pocket.
Jean nervously retrieved his phone and gave it to Armin. He hadn’t been this nervous about getting someone’s phone number since high school. He watched as Armin squinted slightly while entering his number into the phone. Somehow, Jean found everything that Armin did cute, especially his little mannerisms. He couldn’t help but smile.
“Alright, It’s a date!” said Armin excitedly before walking up the stairs to his apartment above the flower shop.
Jean didn’t even have time to process what Armin had said before thanking him and leaving the store. Date? He thought to himself, did he mean an actual date or was he just saying the expression? Jean wished he was paying more attention to how and what Armin was saying instead of just staring at his face. I guess I’ll find out on Wednesday .
Finally, after several excruciatingly slow days of waiting, it was Wednesday. Well, technically it was Wednesday. Jean had been so excited to see Armin again that he could barely sleep until finally at around 3 am, he gave up trying. He decided to put on a pot of coffee and watch some tv to distract himself for the next few hours until it was a reasonable time to get ready. Of course there’s nothing good on, thought Jean, it’s 3 in the fucking morning. Jean gave up on his search and sat in painful anticipation.
On the other side of town, Armin was facing a similar problem. He too was unable to sleep. Unlike Jean, however, Armin had an actual way to distract himself from his excitement. He walked carefully down the stairs to the flower shop and sat on top of the counter admiring the room full of flowers. He wished he could draw like Jean. Maybe one day he could teach Armin. He felt his mind wandering. Thoughts of Jean began filling his head and he found himself imagining a future between the two of them. They could move in together and maybe get a dog or a cat. Jean would come home to the flower shop every evening after work and Armin would welcome him home with a kiss. When Armin realized what he was thinking about, he felt silly. He had just met Jean but he was already thinking about their future? Jean might not have even liked Armin like that and just wanted to be nice. Maybe he just felt bad for using the flowers as a reference and taking up space. Maybe he just felt awkward when Armin told him he loved the aquarium and that was the only reason he was invited. Armin felt these thoughts begin to consume him and decided to take a shower in an attempt to drown them all out.
Jean had also begun getting ready, except he had no idea what he was supposed to wear. He didn’t want to embarrass himself by underdressing on a date, but what if this wasn’t a date? He didn’t want to overdress either. Especially because he didn’t want Armin to be uncomfortable if he didn’t consider it a date. Jean groaned as he grabbed a shirt out of his closet. He hated how much he overthought everything. Armin seemed nice enough. He wouldn’t care what Jean wore. Right? Jean realized he was running out of time, grabbed the rest of an outfit, and quickly hopped into the shower.
Somehow, Jean managed to be late picking Armin up even after waking up so early. He felt bad when he saw Armin standing outside of the shop looking down at his watch. He hoped he didn’t worry him too much.
“Sorry I’m late. I hope I didn’t keep you waiting too long,” said Jean, opening the passenger side window to talk to Armin.
Armin immediately looked up at Jean’s car and grinned. Jean could never get tired of seeing Armin smile. It was quickly becoming one of his favorite things.
“Oh, don’t apologize. You’re only ten minutes late,” said Armin as he was getting into the car. “I’m so excited! I haven’t been to the aquarium in almost a year.”
“Well, I’m glad I get to experience this with you.”
The entire trip there, Jean listened to Armin gush about the aquarium and the ocean. He caught himself sneaking glances at Armin through his rear view mirror. He looked at Armin’s mouth as he talked. Jean could listen to Armin talk about the stock market and he would still cling onto every single word. He was probably smiling like an idiot the whole car ride, just happy to be near Armin again. Suddenly, Armin averted his gaze from the front window to his own side window.
“Look, there it is, Jean!”
Jean took the first right he could and pulled into the parking lot of the aquarium. He wondered how he hadn’t gotten into a car accident after staring at Armin for most of the car ride. They got out of the car and began walking towards the building, with Armin walking slightly ahead. Armin subconsciously held his hand out to Jean behind him, and without much thought, Jean took it with his free hand. Armin looked back at Jean, who just smiled at him. Armin chuckled, surprised that Jean seemed happy with the contact. Armin was a feely person by nature and was pleasantly surprised that someone was reciprocating his touches so quickly.
They arrived together at the admissions desk of the aquarium. Jean insisted on paying for the both of them after Armin had paid for their lunch the other day. This was Jean’s idea after all.
Jean thought Armin was excited before, but it was nothing compared to how he looked now. His blue eyes almost looked like they were shimmering as they made their way deeper into the aquarium. Armin grabbed Jean’s hand again and began leading once more.
“Where are we going?” asked Jean
“I’m taking you to my favorite part first, but I won’t tell you what it is. It’s a surprise.”
Armin led Jean towards an escalator and they traveled down into the bottom floor of the aquarium, beneath where they entered. It was dark, with only a few scattered black lights to illuminate the area. Jean was amazed. Before him and Armin were multiple massive cylindrical tanks of jellyfish. Jean had never seen anything like it before. The jelly fish appeared to glow under the black lights and floated in all different directions. Pink, orange, and blue jellyfish danced in tanks all around them. Armin looked back once more to see Jean's reaction. He looked just as excited as Armin felt. He was so happy to see Jean this excited, he felt like he could kiss him.
But he didn’t.
He was afraid of ruining the moment for Jean by making him uncomfortable. Kissing Jean when he didn’t want to be kissed could instantly ruin their day when it had barely even begun. Instead, he decided to just revel in their excitement together.
“It’s incredible Armin! I’ve never seen anything like this before.”
Somehow, the jellyfish were still not the most beautiful thing Jean had seen that day. That spot went to Armin. Jean wished he could capture Armin’s excitement surrounded by the jellyfish in a drawing, but it was too dark in this room to do so. Jean wasn’t even quite sure he could do the jellyfish justice if he could see what he was doing. He just hoped Armin would remain this excited throughout the whole day. Sure enough, he did.
“I’m so glad you like it Jean!” responded Armin. “I can’t wait to show you all of my other favorite exhibits.”
They made their way back up the escalator and Armin led Jean to his second favorite part of the aquarium. The sea turtles. As expected, Armin was once again beaming with excitement. Jean took the chance, and the better lighting, to draw his first sketch of the day. But before he started, he couldn’t help drawing Armin’s reaction in the corner of the page. This became a habit of Jean’s throughout the day. He just couldn’t help it. Armin was too pretty.
After several hours, separated by a lunch break of overpriced food (courtesy of Jean) , they had finally explored the entire aquarium. Jean thought that Armin looked a little sad to be leaving, but overall they both had a wonderful time. Armin had been able to see everything he wanted to, and Jean was able to fill his sketchbook with tons of new drawings. And they got to spend the day together. They walked back out the door they had entered through that morning, and made their way towards Jean’s car.
“So, uh, can I see what you drew today?” asked Armin.
Jean froze and looked down at Armin. Armin looked back up at him with a questioning look on his face.
“You don’t have to if you don’t want to for some reason.”
Jean thought for a moment. What’s the worst thing that could happen if Armin sees all of the sketches Jean had drawn of him? Would Armin think it was weird? Fuck it. I’ll just show him, thought Jean.
“No, no, I’ll show you. I was just a little lost in thought.”
After arriving back to the car, Jean handed his sketchbook to Armin on the first page of the day with the sea turtle on it, and began to drive back towards the flower shop. Armin’s eyes were immediately drawn to the portrait of himself in the corner of the page. He frantically, while still being careful not to distract Jean, flipped to each page Jean had drawn on while they were at the aquarium. On the top corner of each page, Armin saw his smiling face staring back at him. He couldn’t believe it. Jean had been watching Armin just as much as he had been watching all of the fish. Maybe even more. Armin looked over at Jean, being careful not to look too suspicious. Jean probably already knew what Armin had seen though. Maybe Jean really did like Armin in the way he had hoped.
Armin spent the rest of the ride back to his apartment looking at what Jean had drawn throughout the day, only speaking to compliment Jean on the drawings. He avoided mentioning the sketches of himself out of fear that it would distract Jean from driving. Despite how much tension Armin felt in his stomach, there seemed to be no tension between him and Jean.
Before long, they were back at Armin’s apartment. Jean pulled up in front of the doors and waited for Armin to start leaving before saying his goodbyes.
“Aren’t you going to walk me to the door?” asked Armin.
Jean could sense a hint of a flirt in Armin’s voice again, but was he just imagining it for a second time? He knew Armin saw the sketches of himself, but he made no mention of it. He decided to take a risk and reciprocated the tone that Armin had given him.
“Anything for you,” Jean said, smiling at Armin.
Armin was caught off guard by this. He didn’t think that Jean would actually flirt back with him. He felt his face go red, but he also felt excitement growing within him. Jean definitely liked him the same way he liked Jean.
Jean got out of the car and walked over to Armin’s door. He opened it and held his hand out to help Armin out. Armin looked at Jean’s hand and then up at Jean’s face. He saw the way Jean was looking at him, like he wanted to kiss him. Armin grabbed Jean’s hand while leaving his sketchbook in the car, and got out. Armin must have been more nervous than he thought he was, and tripped over the curb instead of stepping onto the sidewalk. He gasped as he fell into Jean’s arm, but he wasn’t the slightest bit embarrassed. Jean wasn’t judging him. He just began laughing at his own clumsiness and Jean laughed with him. Armin looked into Jean’s eyes while his arms were still wrapped around him. Without thinking, Armin closed the gap between him and kissed Jean. He kissed Armin back without hesitation.
Armin pulled away first, his face bright red from blushing so much. Jean was sure his face was just as red as Armin’s.
“Bye Jean. I better see you here again within the next few days,”
“Of course. Bye Armin.”
Armin swiftly walked into the flower shop as Jean returned to his car. He tried to start it and leave, but his heart was beating too fast. He couldn’t believe that Armin felt the same way about him, let alone initiated a kiss between the two of them. Jean had never felt this way about anyone in his entire life. He knew he was in love with Armin. He could only hope Armin was in love with him as well.
The next morning, Jean decided to visit Armin again. He knew he would just drive himself crazy all day if he didn’t see him. He excitedly got out of bed, got ready, and prepared to arrive at the flower shop as soon as it opened.
He walked quickly on the sidewalks of the city, weaving through the crowd of people. He was desperate to see Armin again. He was craving Armin’s company, even if they were just sitting quietly on opposite sides of the same room.
Of course Jean was early when it didn’t matter. He arrived thirty minutes before the flower shop even opened. Frowning at the closed sign, Jean remembered that he had Armin’s phone number.
“Hello?” said Armin over the phone.
“Hey Armin!”
“Jean! I didn’t expect to hear back from you so soon. Oh no, did I accidentally steal something from you?”
“No. I can call you for no reason, can’t I? This isn’t for no reason though, look outside.”
Confused, Armin walked over to one of his windows facing the street and opened the blinds. Jean waved at him when he noticed Armin’s silhouette in the window. Armin immediately hung up the phone and closed his blinds again. For a few minutes, Jean panicked. Shit, was this too much? He thought to himself. Did I already fuck this up. What is wrong with me? I could have at least-
“Jean!”
Jean’s thoughts were interrupted by the noise of a door slamming open, someone calling his name, and jumping into his arms. He nearly fell to the ground but was able to lean into the side of the building to stop himself. Jean looked down at Armin. His hair was messy and he was still wearing slippers. And he had tears in his eyes. Happy tears.
“Armin! Don’t scare me like that! You made me think that I had gone too far just showing up to your house like this.”
“I would never be upset to see you, silly. Now come inside before more people start staring.”
Jean looked around him and caught a few lingering eyes looking at them. Slightly embarrassed, he followed Armin into the closed store.
“I’ll be right back, I need to do my hair and put some real shoes on. Could I get you something to drink? I always drink tea in the morning.”
“Tea sounds amazing, Armin.”
Armin blushed at the sound of his own name coming out of Jean’s mouth. He hoped it would always make him feel this way. He quickly rushed back up into his apartment to finish getting ready, and arrived back down just in time to open the store at the regular time, handing a mug to Jean.
Lucky for Jean, the flower shop was relatively empty in the morning, so he got to spend most of it just talking to Armin. They talked about anything and everything. It didn’t really matter to either of them. They just couldn’t get enough of each other. The time flew by while they talked the morning away. But one important topic had yet to be discussed. What were they to each other?
After a quick lunch break together, they arrived back at the flower shop for a much busier afternoon. Armin found that the flower shop was almost always busy on spring afternoons. In fact, it was so busy that he and Jean were barely able to talk. Jean had forgotten to grab his sketchbook that morning in his hurry to see Armin again, so he was left to own devices. Armin felt bad whenever he would look over at Jean, seemingly unoccupied. What Armin didn’t know, however, was that Jean was the opposite of bored. He was easily entertained just by watching Armin smile at customers and listening to his voice.
The flower shop’s closing time was coming nearer and nearer, but Armin didn’t want Jean to leave. He wished that he could spend all of his time with Jean. He had no idea how he had lived before meeting Jean. What did he spend his time thinking about? In the short amount of time since he had met Jean, his life had changed for the better.
“Hey Jean?’
“Hmm?”
“Stay for dinner. Please.”
Jean got up from where he was sitting and walked over to be with Armin behind the counter. He slowly wrapped one hand behind the small of Armin’s back and with the other, he cupped Armin’s face.
“I would love nothing more,” whispered Jean before kissing Armin.
The kiss lingered for longer than their first, only interrupted by the noise of someone opening the door. Instinctively, they quickly pulled away from each other, embarrassed that someone had seen their intimate moment. Armin decided to close the shop a little early after that customer left. He knew he would be too distracted by Jean to sell any more flowers for the day.
They giggled like school children when the customer left, as Armin hurried over to lock the door for the night. Armin grabbed Jean’s hand and led him up to his apartment.
Jean had yet to actually see Armin’s apartment before this. It was nicely decorated, well nicer than Jean’s apartment, with several plants filling the apartment with life. Jean looked over at the wall and noticed a picture of a young Armin with a woman who must have been his mother. He frowned at the memory of what Armin had told him just a few days prior.
Armin led Jean over to his couch. Jean sat down first, and Armin laid with his head on his lap and his legs stretched out on the rest of the couch. They talked in this position for a while, enjoying the way that each of them made the other feel. Jean looked down at Armin and felt incredibly lucky to be so close to him. He ran a hand through Armin’s hair. Armin smiled back up at him.
“Armin, you’re really beautiful.”
“You really think so?” asked Armin as he leaned up to be at eye level with Jean.
Jean frowned. Why would Armin question if he really thought that?
“Yes, stupid,” Jean said affectionately, “I think you’re the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen. I’ve been waiting to tell you that since the very first time I saw you.”
Armin blushed a deep red and moved to be on top of Jean’s lap while still facing him. He sat with one knee on either side of Jean and put each of his hands on Jean’s shoulders. Armin admired Jean from above for the first time.
“I could say the same about you.”
Armin moved his gaze from Jean’s eyes towards Jean’s lips. He noticed Jean do the same. Suddenly, their lips collided. This kiss was hungrier than the two they had shared before. Jean could feel the desire growing within him, but was hesitant to give in. He wasn’t sure how far he would go if he gave in to them. Armin bit Jean’s lip, and he felt all of his rational thoughts leave his brain. He felt Armin’s tongue brush across his teeth and opened his mouth to grant Armin access. Jean’s brain was turning to mush. All he could focus on was Armin’s mouth.
Jean didn’t notice he had moaned Armin’s name until Armin pulled back from him and looked at him with a strange look on his face.
“That was really cute,” said Armin with the funny look on his face.
“Shit- I didn’t mean to do that, it just came out.”
Jean was properly flustered. He didn’t realize Armin had that much power over him already. Before he could even regain his composure, he felt Armin’s lips on his collar bone. Jean instinctively leaned back to give Armin better access as he felt Armin begin to unbutton his shirt. Armin clearly knew what he was doing. A kiss had never made Jean feel like this before. He knew that Armin was going to leave marks on him, but in the moment, he didn’t care. That was a problem for future Jean to deal with. Jean moved his hands to grab Armin’s hips. God, he loved Armin’s hips. Jean resisted the urge to guide Armin’s hips to grind against him. He knew that he wouldn’t be able to recover from that.
Suddenly, the doorbell rang. In all of the excitement, they had both forgotten that they had ordered dinner. Armin pulled back and looked down at Jean, satisfied at how flustered he had become. Jean watched in awe as Armin got up and walked towards the door relatively unfazed and retrieved the food from the delivery man.
They both moved to Armin’s kitchen table and ate their dinner. Jean still couldn’t take his eyes off of Armin.
“Hey Armin?” Jean paused for a moment, “Can I draw you? For real this time.”
Armin looked up from his food and met Jean’s gaze. He saw how Jean was looking at him. He loved the way Jean’s eyes made him feel. He felt seen in the best sense of the word. Armin smiled.
“Yes, Jean, I would love that!”
They each quickly finished their food and Jean put their leftovers back into the fridge while Armin ran back down to the flower shop to grab a piece of paper and a pencil.
Armin returned and handed the materials to Jean who had already turned on extra lights for better lighting. Armin sat back on the couch and Jean grabbed a chair from the table to sit in across from him.
“How should I pose? I’ve never posed to be drawn before.”
“Just act natural,” reassured Jean “Maybe you could read a book to distract you.”
Armin reached down to grab one of the many books on his coffee table and got back into position. He tried to look as natural as possible while reading, but was too conscious about the fact that Jean was drawing him.
“Hey, relax,” cooed Jean. “There’s nothing to worry about.”
“Sorry,” whispered Armin.
“No, don’t apologize.”
After a few minutes, Armin was able to get into the book enough to fully relax, and Jean began drawing. He worked slowly, being sure to accurately depict every part of Armin’s face. His crinkled nose, the strands of hair that fell in front of his face, the subtle freckles that were starting to show up from the spring sun. Jean wished to capture all of the parts that he loved most about Armin. He loved Armin’s eyes, which had grabbed his attention first when he entered the flower shop on his mother’s birthday. He loved Armin’s dark eyebrows and how they stood out against his blonde hair. Jean hesitated for a second when he was ready to draw Armin’s lips. He remembered what they had done to him not even two hours earlier. Jean blushed at the memory before proceeding.
As the sun began to set, Armin became increasingly aware of the passing time. He knew that Jean would have to leave soon, and hoped with every passing minute that Jean wasn’t almost done. It didn’t matter that they weren’t even talking to each other. Armin just loved being near Jean. He didn't want Jean to have to leave.
“I’m finished.”
Armin panicked slightly. He wasn’t ready for Jean to leave yet.
“Do you want to see?”
“Yeah,” Armin smiled, pushing back his panic.
Armin looked down at the paper in front of him, and immediately he felt his eyes well up with tears. He couldn’t believe how detailed the drawing was. Jean was so talented and amazing and wonderful. Armin felt extremely lucky that a man like this could like him. He gently put the paper down and jumped into Jean’s arms, burying his face into his shoulder. Jean wrapped his arms around Armin and ran his hands through his long blond hair.
“I want you to know that I’m framing this as soon as I have the chance to.”
Jean chuckled at the remark, as Armin pulled his face away to look into Jean’s eyes.
“Please don’t leave me. Spend the night.”
Jean looked back into Armin's eyes and reached to wipe away the tears that hadn’t come off on his shirt.
“Sure-”
Jean was interrupted by Armin’s lips. He could easily get used to this.
The two of them decided to spend the night watching movies together, cuddled up on the couch under a pile of blankets. At some point in the night, Jean noticed that Armin had fallen asleep on his shoulder. He smiled down at him and thought that he was even cute when he was asleep. Jean let Armin rest until the end of the movie before gently shaking him awake.
“Hey Armin, it’s late. Do you wanna move to your bed?”
“Oh,” said Armin, checking his phone to see the time. “Yeah, we should do that. Do you want to borrow some clothes?”
Jean just laughed. He knew Armin’s clothes would be much too small for him.
“I think I’ll stick to my boxers.”
“Oh, right,” responded Armin, slightly embarrassed.
Jean waited outside of Armin’s bedroom while he changed into his pajamas. He couldn’t believe he was spending the night with Armin. He decided to splash some water onto his face in an attempt to calm himself down a little. Armin was tired, he probably wouldn’t want to do anything. Jean looked up at himself in the bathroom mirror, and noticed the line of hickeys dotted along his collar bone. The memory came flooding back to him, and he was forced to splash water on his face once more before leaving the bathroom. He noticed the bedroom door had been opened and walked back in to see Armin in bed, but not asleep.
He got into the bed as well, being careful not to disturb Armin’s position too much. Armin turned around to face Jean and gave him a quick peck on the lips before turning back around to fall asleep. Jean moved closer to Armin and wrapped his arms around him, slotting the rest of his body against Armin’s back. Jean couldn’t wait to experience this every night.
“Mmm, Jean,” hummed Armin, “be my boyfriend.”
Jean was so happy to hear those words. He couldn’t wait to call Armin his boyfriend.
“I would love nothing more.”