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Neil had completely forgotten the flower festival was a thing. Every year, it passed as another day with little to no fanfare. There were barely any people to celebrate it in town, and the few that did certainly never bothered to give him any flowers.
So he was very surprised when the farmer ran up to him at his stand and gave him not just one flower but an entire bouquet.
He stared at it. Receiving it gave him fuzzy feelings in his stomach, but what was he supposed to do with it now? Throwing it away seemed like a waste, but he didn't really have a place for it. So he put the bouquet off to the side of his stand and went about his business. At first, it was easy to pretend it wasn't there, so long as he didn't look at them. However, the blue wrapper popped up in his peripheral vision whenever he turned his head to the left, reminding him of their presence, and does he have a place to put these? They're technically dead, right? Do they need sunlight?
He signed and placed the bouquet in the back of his cart. Then, he focused on his business, tending to animals and talking to customers about livestock things. When it was time to close for the day, he packed his cart and, once again, came face to face with the bouquet.
The bouquet was actually a mixture of both marguerites and moondrops. They were so neat and orderly that he could imagine Hana's tiny, ancient hands carefully arranging them. The crisp blue paper and ribbon contrasted so strongly with the contents of his cart that it looked ridiculous; it clearly didn't belong there. If others saw it, they would definitely start trying to gossip, wondering why it was there, it wasn't like the others, he was strange, he looked wrong and suspicious—
Nope, he was not about to waste time thinking about stupid things. It was getting late; he needed to clean up and his stomach was rumbling. Both the bouquet and his thoughts were shoved to the back.
Once Neil had finished, the bouquet was waiting for him. As he grabbed it, he noticed that the petals were drooping and the leaves were already starting to feel a bit crispy. Poor stupid flowers, they sat out for so long they were starting to wilt. He carried it carefully, half hiding it in case anyone was still wandering around outside. As soon as he got inside, he placed them in a glass of water. They didn't look so bad, sitting on his table like that. They even started to look a little more lively.
Now, Neil was not a flower guy at all, but he really hoped the flowers would live a little longer.