Chapter Text
“And then you loop these all together…” the blond instructs, careful hands guiding her own as they both tie the delicate flower stems into one another. “And tada!” Basil announces, taking the flower crown and placing it gracefully on top of Aubrey’s head. “Simple, right?”
That’s what Aubrey would have thought when Mari first brought bunches of flowers to today’s picnic, declaring a flower crown-making lesson is now in session. ‘Looks simple,’ she had foolishly believed. That was until she tried it herself and ended up with an amalgamation of flowers tied all together into one. Thankfully, Basil, who picked it up almost immediately, decided to help her out. Watching his hands intertwine the stems into one another with ease had her conclude, ‘Yup, not simple in the slightest.’ Basil has this type of patience that Aubrey herself lacks.
A smile grows on the girl’s face, her eyes lighting up in excitement as she reaches up to touch her crown’s soft petals. It fits her perfectly! “Thank you, Basil!! It’s amazing!” She exclaims, earning a small, bashful “you’re welcome” from the boy. “Mari! Mari! How do I look?!” Aubrey rushes up to her feet, posing elegantly in front of the older sister.
That evokes a small giggle from Mari, dainty hands hovering over her grin as she does so. “Oh, you look beautiful, Aubrey! Here,” Mari retrieves Basil’s camera from the other side of the picnic blanket and holds it up to her eye. “Smile!”
Click!
The photo is ejected out of the camera, a thin sheet of film that she recognizes much too well. Mari takes the polaroid, a light smile on her face as she examines the picture she’s taken. Aubrey tries to subtly lean forward, wanting to sneak a peek.
Her wide, curious eyes catches Mari’s attention. “Wanna see?” Aubrey nods vigorously, almost shaking off her flower crown in the process—she caught it just in time though, not to worry! Mari hands her the photo, which Aubrey receives eagerly, taking in the contents. “Beautiful, right?” Mari adds on as she continues to finish her own crown.
In the photo, her smiling face stares back at her. The pinks and purples of her flower crown pop out, catching her attention. She wanted her flower crown to be her favorite colors so Basil picked out some pink daisies and purple cosmoses for her. He said that pink daisies symbolize gentleness and love while the cosmoses mean joy and beauty. Basil’s so smart when it comes to flowers, it’s like he has a whole library in his head!
“It’s so pretty!” She exclaims, hopping up and down in excitement.
“You’re so pretty!” Mari replies, reaching up to playfully poke at the other girl’s cheek.
“Th-Thank you, Mari! Hehe…” Aubrey giggles, a deep, red blush on her face.
She glances back down at the photo in her hand, noticing her other friends sitting in the background. Turning around, she spots them still fiddling around with their own flower crowns. Looks like the boys are struggling with their crowns—excluding Basil, of course. Hero sits beside Mari on the picnic blanket, watching how she ties her flower crown and trying (failing) to replicate her movements. His tongue is stuck out in concentration and there are some stray petals clinging to his messy hair. Mari keeps teasing him about the nest on top of his head, which lights Hero’s cheeks aflame.
Sunny fiddles around with his flower crown—if you could even call that knot of stems and leaves a flower crown. He’s not having much luck with his either. Basil moves closer to the other boy, presumably wanting to help out like how he did for Aubrey, but then the flower crown promptly collapses in Sunny’s hold. Now nothing more than a pile of petals and leaves on Sunny’s lap. Perhaps it’s better for them to have a fresh start.
And lastly, Kel.
“Man, you finished yours already?! Not fair!” The aforementioned boy huffs, poking at his pile of flowers with a stick.
“Yup! Easy as pie!” Aubrey boasts, smugly flicking her hair behind her shoulder. Though… she did need some help from Basil, but Kel doesn’t need to know that! “How do I look?!”
Kel eyes her up and down, a pouty frown stuck on his face. He doesn’t appear impressed, directing his gaze back at his flower pile soon after. “You’re… okay, I guess…” He mutters beneath his breath. His bangs cover his face so Aubrey can’t see his expression. Hmph, how rude!
“You’re just jealous because you can’t make your own flower crown!” Aubrey retorts, taking a step closer to the boy.
It’s like he didn’t even try to make a crown! The flowers lie on the ground in a disarray, detached stems and petals strewn amidst them. Ugh, it looks like a flower massacre here. Basil would be horrified if he witnessed this. Well, that’s Kel for you—the ever destructive force he is. And messy. Very messy.
“I’m not jealous!” Kel retorts back, sticking his tongue out childishly. Ugh, the audacity of this boy! “Why would I be jealous over you?!”
Aubrey stomps her foot, “That’s exactly what someone who’s jealous would say! You are jealous!!”
“Am not!” Kel retaliates.
“Are too!” Aubrey argues.
“Am not!!”
“Are too!!”
“Am not!!”
At this rate, it’s going to go on forever like this. There is no Hero to break up their squabble—he’s too concentrated on making his flower crown. There is no Mari to come be their mediator—she’s distracted being all lovey-dovey and teasing Hero. There’s no Basil or Sunny to reason with them—they’re off in their own little world by now. Their arguments have lasted for extremely long amounts of time in the past. From two hours to two days, it depends on how fired up either of them is. This one is no exception.
Aubrey remembers one of their fights continuing over the span of a week. And maybe that was partly because of her stubbornness, but Kel got dirt all over Mr. Plantegg! How could she not be upset?! He didn’t even apologize until Hero told him to. But then she had to apologize too?! How is that fair? She’s the victim!! Sure, she might have punched him in frustration, but it wasn’t even that hard! (Plus, he totally deserved it…)
But that’s besides the point. She really rather not have a repeat of that situation. So instead of replying, she simply huffs, taking a seat on the blanket next to Kel. Before the perplexed boy can utter a word, she wordlessly untangles the flowers, laying the salvageable ones in an orderly pile while the others get tossed to the side. Kel watches the whole process unfold in front of him, surprisingly silent for once in his life.
“Give me your hands,” she orders.
Oddly enough, no quips come out of Kel’s mouth. Instead, he obediently follows, stiffly sticking out his hands. There’s some dirt caked beneath his fingernails, but Aubrey is willing to turn a blind eye for now. (She is so making him wash his hands once they get home though!)
She recalls the steps Basil went over to the best of her abilities. Yanking Kel’s hands into her’s, she guides him the same way Basil had for her. Like a puppet on strings, he copies her actions—not without a confused expression forming on his face, however. Still, he doesn’t say anything.
Taking one flower, Aubrey and Kel lay it down horizontally before taking another one and looping the stems together. They repeat this action over and over—more like Aubrey repeats this action and Kel simply follows her movements—until they’re left with a thick rope of flowers tied together.
That’s when Kel breaks his silence, a wide grin spreading on his face as he takes in the sight of the combined flowers. “Woah, look at this thing!” He exclaims. “If we make it longer, we could make a whole flower lasso!”
She’s about to counter his claim when she suddenly pauses. Wait… that might actually work. If that’s the case, she wonders how long they could make this flower rope be. A flower lasso does sound really pretty. Like something a cowboy would throw around, but instead of a wild west type of cowboy, it would be a… forest cowboy. A nature cowboy? A flower cowboy? A… flowerboy?
No no! She’s getting sidetracked! They’re not making flower lassos, they’re making flower crowns! (Though, she’ll pocket that flower lasso idea for another day…)
She shakes her head at the boy, “We’re making flower crowns, Kel! Not lassos!”
He sighs, blowing a stray hair out of his face, “Yeah, yeah. I know! But still, a flower lasso sounds cool, doesn’t it?!”
Her eyes drift away as she mumbles beneath her breath, “It does sound kinda cool…”
“Exactly!” Kel suddenly snaps his fingers, his eyes lighting up as an idea springs into his mind. Aubrey wouldn’t be surprised if a lightbulb appeared above his head right there and then.
He jumps up to his feet, darting over to Mari’s picnic basket where he grabs the rest of the cut flowers that are tucked away inside. Their other friends don’t notice his thievery, busy chatting amongst themselves and focused on their crowns.
Aubrey gawks at him once he returns, dumping the flowers on the grass in front of her. “Wh-What are you doing?!”
“Flower lasso! C’mon, how long do you think we can make it?!”
“You don’t even know how to properly tie the flowers together,” she reasons. After all, she’s only been guiding his hands to follow hers, he doesn’t explicitly know how to do it. She… doesn’t exactly know either, but she’s watched Basil and Mari do it enough times that she’s practically got it down to a T!
Kel grabs a handful of the flowers, shoving them in her face, “Then teach me!”
Wait what.
“T-Teach you?!” She echoes incredulously.
“Yup! If you can do it, how hard can it be?” He ponders aloud, taking a seat in front of her with an expectant look in his face. If he had a tail, she’d bet it would be wagging uncontrollably right now.
That’s the thing, she barely knows what she's doing. Well… she does, but not enough to actually teach! However… the idea of a flower lasso sounds pretty tempting. Ugh, Kel and his odd yet very enticing schemes…
“Fine…” She complies, much to Kel’s delight. “But you better listen carefully!”
“Aye aye, captain!” He salutes with a grin. Huh. She never thought she would ever witness Kel being so eager to learn something.
Aubrey teaches Kel the ropes—in this case quite literally—to the best of her abilities. Surprisingly, Kel learns fast. Guess he’s determined to have that flower lasso in his possession, huh? What does he even plan on doing with that lasso anyways? Gasp! Does he plan on becoming the first ever forest cowboy?! Flower cowboy…? Flowerboy…? Ugh, the name is still a work-in-progress, but you get what she means! Honestly, a title like that would fit Basil better, she thinks.
They’ve almost used up the entirety of their flower stash by the time they finish the flower rope. She hadn’t expected it to become so long—she’s willing to bet it’s longer than her whole body! All that’s left is to tie in the large loop at the end to create their lasso.
“Woah!! This is so cool!” Kel jumps up to his feet, grabbing one end of their completed flower rope and whipping it around wildly.
“Wait, hey!!” Aubrey bolts over to latch onto Kel’s arm, “Be careful with that you dummy! You might break it!”
“Pshh, it’ll be fine, Aubs! Basil told me flowers are super strong!!” The brunette explains as he grabs the other end of the flower rope with his free hand.
Aubrey remembers Basil mentioning that before as well, but she’s pretty sure he didn’t mean it in this way!
“Ugh, just be careful! We still need to tie the loop of the lasso in!”
Kel simply nods absentmindedly, clearly not paying full attention to her words. “Hey, you think I can jump rope with this?” He asks, changing the topic completely.
Jump rope? Doesn’t sound like a very cowboy-ly thing to do. Eh, maybe it’s something a cowboy would do in Kel’s book. Considering how long they’ve made the flower rope, he definitely could, but they’re flowers! They’re not made to be jumped with! Poor, poor flowers… She could hardly imagine the torment Kel would put them through if it weren’t for her keeping him in check.
The brunet seems to sense Aubrey’s disapproval by the way he sighs at her, brandishing out his pleading puppy dog eyes. Hah, cheap tricks! As if that will actually work on Aubrey! She’s got nerves of steel—nothing like that could ever cause her to waver.
“C’mooooon! Don’t be a killjoy! Jump rope first and then lasso! Promise!” Kel pleads. Ugh, him and his dumb puppy dog eyes… “We’ll jump together!”
“W-Wait, together? How would that work?” She asks with a raised brow.
Normally you need at least three people for jump rope—one at each end and one in the middle jumping. Usually during recess they would play jump rope with Sunny and Basil swinging the rope and Kel and Aubrey jumping in the middle. She’s never thought of jump rope with only two people…
“I’ll show you!”
Before she can protest, Kel yanks her toward him, placing one end of the rope in her hand and standing beside her inside the rope. He grabs her free hand with his own free one. His hand is warm, she notices, really warm. Kel has always had warm hands…
And dirty hands. Gosh, she really needs to make him wash his hands soon.
“What now?” She questions.
“And then we swing it around like you do when jump-roping alone. We just need to swing and jump at the same time!” He explains, “Easy, right?”
Nope.
Kel starts counting down, “Okay, three…”
“W-Wait, we’re going right now—?”
“Two…”
“What if I trip?!”
“One…”
“Kel—!”
“Go!”
Before she knows it, the rope swings beneath them and they both hop at the same time, hands intertwined between them. it feels like she’s barely given a chance to breathe before the rope comes swinging down again, ceaselessly keeping her on her toes. Soon enough, however, they’re able to settle into a steady rhythm. Swing, jump, swing jump, swing, jump.
Kel laughs beside her, unbridled and carefree. His bobbed hair seems to fly with him every time he jumps—rising up into the air like a lion's mane before returning back to normal once his feet touch the grass once more.
“See?! You got it!” Kel comments as he briefly glances at her, revealing his wide grin of pearly whites.
It’s only then that Aubrey notices she’s also smiling. Grinning ear to ear that her cheeks are starting to ache. She hates to say it, but maybe Kel was right. This is easier than she thought.
“Let’s go faster!” Kel exclaims, quickening his pace and forcing Aubrey to follow suit.
“Wait, f-faster?!”
Never mind! Scratch that! This is not easier than she thought! Her feet stumble as she attempts to keep up, barely able to avoid tripping on the rope each time it comes around. Kel appears to struggle as well by how delayed his jumps are, but masks it with his constant chuckles and smiles.
“We’re gonna fall, Kel!” She warns as she feels her arm beginning to ache.
He squeezes her hand tighter, “Good!”
Wait what?!
Somehow, Kel starts going even faster. The rope thwips violently against the ground every time they swing it down. This is it. This is the end for Aubrey. There’s no way she can keep up.
She’s expecting herself to trip on the flower rope, falling face-first onto the grass with a harsh thud, but that never happens. Instead, their handmade jump rope suddenly snaps, the suddenness of it causing them both to tumble down, sprawled out on the grass.
Aubrey lets out a groan of pain as she sits up. Looks like she was right. The rope really did break. She holds up the broken rope still in her hand. Kel is holding the other half. She’s surprised her flower crown hadn’t fallen off her head. She bets it still looks pristinely perfect as well!
Kel sits up beside her, his face lit up with joy. “We have to go again! That was so fun!!”
“We can’t go again, Kel,” she points out, holding up the broken rope in emphasis.
“Oh… we’ll just fix it! Can’t be that hard!”
She sighs, dejected, examining what’s left of their flower rope. “I dunno…” She mutters, reaching for the end of the rope where it had snapped, “we don’t have any more flowers to—Ouch!” Aubrey quickly yanks her hand away as soon as she feels something prick the tip of her thumb.
“Huh? Kel kneels down in front of her. “What happened?”
“Ugh, one of the flowers had a thorn. How come we didn’t notice that…” She mutters, staring down at the small prick on her thumb now.
A small bead of blood comes out of her wound and trails down her hand. She sighs exasperatedly. Great, now she’s bleeding, too… Who knew flowers could be so cruel? Perhaps this is payback for accidentally snapping their friends in half…
“Oh! Oh!” Kel digs around in his pocket—she notices how he sticks his tongue out, similar to how Hero does—before fishing out a thin rectangular packet. “Here!”
She squints at the object in his hand, “A band-aid?”
“Yeah! For your thumb! Duh!” He unwraps the band-aid from its packaging, revealing its bright orange color.
“How do you just have a random band-aid in your pocket?”
“Hero is such a worrywart. He says I get too reckless and he makes me carry around ‘just-in-case’ band-aids!” He suddenly grabs her hand, gingerly wrapping the band-aid over her cut. Aubrey is in too much shock to say anything. She doesn’t think she’s ever seen Kel do something with such… attentiveness. It’s weird… different. “I don’t usually need to use them,” he continues, not having noticed Aubrey’s stunned state, “but it looks like this one came in handy!”
Once he releases her hand, Aubrey stares at the band-aid around her thumb with wide, gawking eyes. Little dinosaurs are dotted across the band-aid. It’s kinda cute, to be honest. She can’t help the subtle smile that creeps onto her face.
“…anks…” She mumbles.
The boy tilts his head at her, “What? I didn’t hear you!”
“I said thank you!” She repeats much louder this time before her voice lowers back down, “F-For the band-aid…”
She gets no response at first. Kel only blankly stares at her. His eyes seem to be glowing an ocher hue from the reflection of the sun above them. She can’t help but fidget uncomfortably from under his stare. Ugh, why is he looking at her like that? Did she say something wrong…?
Suddenly, Kel bursts into laughter. He falls backwards onto the grass, clutching at his stomach and kicking up his feet. Aubrey can only stare in bewilderment. The back of his shirt is soon stained green from the grass, but, of course, Kel could care less.
“Wh-What?!” Aubrey finally chokes out, eyes still latched onto Kel’s rolling figure. She’s sure their other friends have noticed what’s going on with them right now, but Aubrey’s gaze is too focused on Kel to even think of checking behind her. “Why are you laughing?”
“Nothing! Nothing… It’s just, I think that’s the first time you’ve… ever thanked me!” He manages to say between his boisterous chuckles.
“Wha—? Really?”
“Yup!!” He exclaims, laughter still pouring out of him.
In her defense, the boy hasn’t exactly given her any reasons to thank him for anything. Nonetheless, she feels her cheeks heating up ever so slightly. “W-Well, you don’t have to laugh so loud about it! Do you not have anything to say other than laughing?!”
His laughing soon comes to a halt once those words leave her mouth. “Alright then.” He sits up immediately, leaning over to Aubrey and clasping her hands in between his. She can spot tears that pool at the corners of his eyes—he really must’ve been laughing so hard that it made him tear up, huh? A warm smile graces his features. “You’re welcome, Aubrey,” he replies, in a tone reflecting so much pure… sincerity that Aubrey believes she’s never heard Kel speak in such a way before.
He doesn’t say anything else, but he doesn’t move away either. Is he expecting a reply? Aubrey doesn’t know what to say though. Kel has quite literally killed any words that would have dared leave her mouth. She’s speechless. She can think of any witty quips to shoot back at him—but honestly, she doesn’t think right now would be a good time for one.
So she just looks at him. Like a staring contest. Except that there’s no staring—just… looking. That’s not a bad thing, right? Kel doesn’t seem to mind—that smile remains on his face, unwavering. Just… looking. Looking at the way his unkempt hair slightly dances in the mild, midday breeze; looking at the subtle dimple that appears on his left cheek whenever he smiles; looking the vibrancy of his ocher-hued eyes that look back at her; looking at a noisy, messy, brown-haired boy who she knows better than herself (as much as she doesn’t want to believe it).
And Aubrey wonders what goes through Kel’s mind when he looks at her.
Then, and only then, does Aubrey find her words, finally settling on what she wants to say.
“I know,” she says simply, voice soft.
Whether or not Kel hears her is something she will never know, for a looming shadow hovers above them soon after. The two kids look up to see Hero standing above them, his hands posed at his hips like a disappointed mother glaring down at her troublesome children.
“So that’s where all the flowers went,” he observes, glancing over at their broken flower jump rope lying sadly on the grass.
Kel and Aubrey simultaneously point at one another accusingly:
“It was his idea!”
“She encouraged it!”
Hero simply sighs. Mari’s distant giggles follow soon after. Sunny and Basil watch on from the sidelines, mildly intrigued by the latest Kel-and-Aubrey argument.
In the end, they never were able to make their flower lasso. Neither was Kel ever able to make his own flower crown. Maybe making that flower rope was a mistake, but the smile on Kel’s face as they hopped in sync together tells her differently. Besides, she got a cute dinosaur band-aid out of it. What a plus!
. . .
The stars glare down at her from their haughty thrones in the sky. The sun has already long retreated back underneath the horizon, leaving her with a lingering cold breeze that her jacket does nothing to protect her against. It’s quiet, but not uncomfortably so. Somewhere amidst the surrounding forest, she hears the chirping of a lone cricket. Leaves rustle against each other, some of them crinkling and falling gently to the grass.
A flash of white among the virid grass catches her eyes. A daisy, she notices, swaying slowly within the blades of grass surrounding it. She plucks it off the ground, spinning the fragile stem between the pads of her index finger and thumb. It’s not pink. Of course it’s not pink.
That day… that was three years ago already. The fragrance of the blossoms that surrounded her, intermingled with the scent of those freshly baked cookies, it’s as if she can still smell them. The smooth texture of the petals between her fingers and the vibrancy of that tacky orange band-aid around her thumb still seem so vivid in her mind. Children’s laughter and birds’ chirps sing like choirs in her ears. Calm, happy, familiar.
Aubrey hates it.
She hates this feeling of resentment that bubbles in her chest at the thought of those faces she used to call friends. She hates this urge to destroy everything in her path, every single reminder of them, as a means to vent out her frustrations and anger. She hates this longing— this yearning to go back in time. To… savor in those happy times for just a little longer…
She hates how that memory keeps coming back, like a cockroach that just refuses to die—an inextinguishable flame that burns in the back of her brain. It plagues her mind, taunting her of what could have been—of what she used to have. And now, all the joy that once was there has now become nothing more than a bittersweet taste on her tongue.
She twirls the frail daisy once more, the tiny petals fluttering with the motion. It reminds her of the flower crown she made back then, no doubt. The stems were woven together by careful hands—hands that were certainly not hers, but instead guided her own hands with such patience and gentleness.
That flower crown died a week after the day it was made. It didn’t last long. Keeping it in her house probably only killed it off faster—that place is not fit to shelter such fragile flowers.
She remembers her devastation when she found the crown decayed and wilting. How she apologized profusely to the blond boy who she used to know so well. How the usually quiet black-haired boy took a shot at reviving it, soaking it in water as if that’ll make it sprout back to life. How the older siblings comforted her, assuring her that they’ll make new ones together someday. How that noisy, messy, brown-haired boy set up a whole funeral for the crown, going so far as to dig a hole in the dirt and bury it. He carried on with a whole eulogy and somber farewells. It was a silly idea, even Aubrey at the time thought the whole ceremony was a bit ridiculous and over-the-top, but… it was reassuring. This bothersome boy that would constantly get on her nerves proceeding to do something so above and beyond for something she had treasured so dearly.
Aubrey hates it.
She hates that no matter how hard she manages to convince herself, no matter if the reasons to despise her old friends continues to grow and grow, deep down that hatred could never rid the sliver of care she still has for them. Not when these fond memories of them continue to exist, dancing around in her head like a play on a stage. She hates that she can’t wipe away the memories of them, for despite the lingering pain it leaves her, she still treasures these memories so dearly.
And maybe this was a mistake—continuing to play with these thoughts, allowing these memories to circulate in her brain when she knows it brings her nothing but pain. Thinking about… them and… him. All of it, maybe all of this is a mistake.
Still, she carries on admiring the daisy’s careful structure—the petals inlaid on top of one another in a precise pattern. She fills her head with the memories of what once was, the images of those smiling faces flitting through her mind’s eyes like an old-timey projector.
After all, what’s the harm in some yearning?