Work Text:
Amado doesn’t consider himself to have a great penchant for melodrama, nor a particularly short temper, but Delta has a way of bringing out the worst in people. So, when he repeats the phrase; “I need the drone, Delta” for the twentieth time, it has a bit of a bite to it.
“It’s faulty .” he continues. “Unless you know how to reboot it…?”
Delta, who obviously doesn’t, scoffs at him with a great deal of attitude.
“I’m going on a mission this evening, old man. I don’t have eight hours to spare while you mess around with my stuff.”
“If you try and use that thing on a mission, it’ll end just as badly as if you go without it.”
“It works fine. What, are you giving us crappy tech?” Delta crosses her arms. “I wouldn’t put it past you. Seems like everything’s been ‘faulty’ these past few weeks. First it was the air conditioning, then the earpieces-”
“The earpieces ‘fell’ into a vat of perchloric acid , of course they didn’t work-”
“All I’m saying,” Delta says loudly, bulldozing over his sentence, “is that it’s pretty demanding to try to randomly take my drone without notice for some random crappy maintenance that it doesn’t even need!!”
Amado pinches the bridge of his nose. “Can you talk a little quieter?” he says. “I have a migraine.”
“ Aw , are you getting sick?” Delta pitches her voice to be even more shrill and annoying. “Should I call a doctor?”
Amado sighs deeply.
“Fine.” he turns around in his chair, back to his computer. “Keep the drone. I’ll fix it after it blows a fuse on you. Honestly…”
“Thank you so much, Amado.” Delta says, clasping her hands dramatically. “I’m so grateful I get to keep my drone for just one more day!”
Amado, despite his desire to ignore her completely, levels her with a withering, exhausted, and defeated look that he summons from deep within his psyche. “Try it again, without the attitude.”
Delta rolls her eyes. “Whatever. I don’t think you even know what you’re doing. And let me know when you finish my pink rocket boots. It’s taking forever. Should’ve just made them the right color to begin with.”
Amado sighs again, which turns briefly into a cough, because he is, in fact, coming down with a bit of a cold. This is hysterical to Delta, who emits the most piercing, evil laugh. Amado pushes his glasses up to rub at his forehead.
“The things I do for you people…” he says under his breath. “And not an ounce of respect.”
“What was that, old man?”
Amado does not respond, which is a functional strategy for getting rid of Delta, usually. It works this time, and she exits his lab.
Honestly. He doesn’t often consider the pros and cons of this job, since it’s not very productive and he’s not leaving any time soon, but on the theoretical list of cons, the other Kara members are firmly fixed in at first place. And second, third, fourth, etc.
Would it be so hard to muster a simple ‘thank you’? He’ll settle for considerate, respectful silence, at this point. He truly works day and night picking up after Delta, Boro, and the others, fixing their problems, constantly providing upgrades to satiate their short attention spans, all while doing the legwork required to keep the base running. Albeit, Jigen does most of the financials and behind the scenes for the organization itself, but Amado has pulled several all-nighters to help him with specific deadlines or threatening meetings.
He’ll never complain about the work. It’s just the constant attitude and lack of respect or consideration that gets to him sometimes. Usually it catches up to him on days like this, when he’s under the weather and hasn’t been able to catch a break despite it.
He frowns at his computer harder, pretending the to-do list in the corner isn’t depressingly long, and pops a couple Ibuprofen. The show must go on.
-
His exasperated words must have really resonated with Delta, because the next day Amado finds on his desk, next to a completely mangled hot pink drone, a huge bouquet of sunflowers with a card attached depicting a bright, smiling sun.
Amado opens the card. “ GET WELL SOON ” jumps out at him in Delta’s giant, ignominious handwriting. She’s also drawn a little smiley face in the corner. Amado can somehow feel the sarcastic hatred in every marker stroke.
The drone, when he picks it up, also has a note attached, on plain paper and with a much cruder sentiment. Amado skims it, catching “ FUCKING MORON LEAVING ME TO DIE OUT HERE WITH SHITTY TECHNOLOGY HOPE YOU ENJOY FIXING THIS YOU PIECE OF SHIT ” and other such eloquent sentences.
He sighs and drags a hand down his face, then tosses the note and the drone into disposal. Best to start from scratch. Also, to make sure his life isn’t in any immediate danger, given the mood Delta’s apparently in, he rifles through the bouquet for any hidden surprises. For good measure, he checks back through the security cameras to see her tip toeing in circa midnight, primly depositing her gifts, and tip toeing back out. He can’t see where she is currently on the cameras, though, which does worry him slightly.
“Jigen, do you know where Delta is?” he says over the comms. He sees, in the dining area, Jigen setting down his glass.
“-ent her on another mission to the-” is the response. Jigen still hasn’t figured out how the comms work.
“With what drone-never mind, I see she took one of the spares.” Amado sighs as a little blinking light pops up on his screen, attached to the program that corresponds with the drones’ actions. The ‘spares’ are really supposed to be for his use, but Delta doesn’t really comprehend such boundaries. “Never mind.”
On the cameras it appears like Jigen is saying something to that, but it never makes it over the comms.
Amado steps back from the computer and puts his hands on his hips exasperatedly, looking at the bouquet. It can’t stay here, that’s for sure, but he doesn’t entirely feel like throwing it away. That would give Delta too much satisfaction in thinking she had annoyed him successfully. (Which she has).
The card he pins to one of the boards he uses for blueprints and schematics. It hangs cutely off the bottom corner like a child’s art stuck on the refrigerator. Amado assumes Delta will pick up on that demeaning comparison, anyway.
As for the bouquet, ultimately he just picks it up and carries it to the dining area. It makes a more exciting centerpiece than the three perpetually lit candles Jigen likes so much. Speaking of, he is still seated, alone with a half-full glass of wine, when Amado enters with the flowers.
“Good morning.” Amado says, setting it on the table with a loud thud. Delta, the sweetheart, had provided him with the heaviest vase in the entire shinobi world. Some water splashes over the sides.
“What’s this?”
“A gift. From Delta.” Amado says. “She left a card too.”
Jigen furrows his brow. “Is there an occasion? I don’t think it’s your birthday…”
“...No, it’s-” Amado pauses to think. Jigen’s lack of accustom to ‘human custom’ has a tendency to take him by surprise. He’s very intense, aware, and intelligent, so it’s easy to forget that something very small and stupid can be alien to him. The Otsutsuki are a famously unfriendly race, and although Jigen’s been among humans for quite some time, the way he conducts himself doesn’t naturally generate a lot of social niceties directed at or around him. Amado recalls with pain trying to explain handshakes.
“And flowers seem like a particularly odd choice of gift.” Jigen continues. “They’re not functional or appealing, especially to someone like you. I can see why you were looking for Delta, this is quite confusing…”
Amado squints at him for a second. Nothing but true, genuine befuddlement in his eyes.
“Well, flowers are pretty common for casual gifts,” Amado begins, “for small events like graduation or an accomplishment, you could send flowers. In this case, I got this because I mentioned I wasn’t feeling well and Delta wanted to blow it out of proportion. To make a point. I imagine.”
“Hm.”
“It can be a thoughtful gesture between people, when it’s not Delta doing it.” he continues. “If someone is sick you can send it to…show that you’re thinking of them and want them to recover, or just in general. Even without occasion, you can use it to show appreciation.”
“Hm.” Jigen says again. “I feel a card alone could express that sentiment. Why the flowers?”
“Well, that’s…” Amado pauses. It’s an excellent question, actually. “I suppose because they look nice and sort of, brighten a room. I don’t quite get it myself. It’s generally more meaningful to the touchy, sappy types.”
Jigen clicks his tongue and rests his head on his hand, looking carefully at the flowers. “Human sentiment clings to objects. Another mystery.”
“What, you don’t think it brightens the room?” Amado says, feeling the urge to defend humanity a little.
“Define ‘brighten.’” Jigen says. “It’s certainly very bright. Move it to the center of the table at least, would you?”
Amado rolls his eyes internally. He comes off as above it all, but the interior designer inside Jigen is rarely silenced.
“At a certain point, the cultural significance attached to the flowers betrays the sentiments of the gift giver as much as any card would.” he explains, obligingly settling the bouquet where the candles usually are. He almost opens his mouth and continues on about the idea of flower language, but decides that's more on the subject than Jigen really needs. “It can be a more subtle way of reaching the same result.”
“You’re correct as always, Amado. This looks completely subtle.” Jigen says. As always, his sarcasm is near invisible and biting as the wind. Amado sighs.
“Never mind.”
-
Every time Amado thinks a conversation with Jigen has gone over smoothly and can be pushed aside, the unpredictable ideas Jigen gets stuck in his head sneak up on him and bite him in the ass.
The very next morning, he runs back into Delta, gossiping with Boro and taking up the whole hallway on his way to the lab.
“Good morning.” Amado says unenthusiastically, catching their attention. Boro nods at him casually, while Delta takes on the demeanor of a hellishly annoying young girl filled to the brim with hellish earnesty.
“Good morning, Amado!” she chirps. “How are you feeling today? I hope my note was able to brighten your morning yesterday!”
“Oh, yes, it did. Tremendously.” Amado says drily.
Delta loses the act and sneers at him, not appreciating her sarcasm being returned.
“Where’s my drone, old man?” she snaps, voice dropping back to its normal register. “I gave you way more than eight hours, so if you’re not finished-”
“Relax. It’s in the lab, like brand new.” Which it basically is. Not that Delta will even be able to tell the difference. “I added the update it needed as well.”
“Well, good.” Delta huffs. “You’re finally doing your job.”
“I have something I want you to look at too, ‘old man’.” Boro chips in. Boro should never chip in to conversations. It always makes life harder. “A complicated vision last night leads me to believe I should replace my eyes with ninja tools as well. Would that be a timely process? It needs to happen by next week or the earth may be razed.”
“Your eyes ?” Amado pinches the bridge of his nose. “Sure, I don’t know. Let’s give it a look in the lab.”
“ My eyes are ninja tools.” Delta points out as they begin walking.
“You’re a walking ninja tool, no one cares about your eyes.” Boro says. “It’s like you forget you’re an inhuman freak.”
“At least that’s my scientific diagnosis , unlike you .” Delta spits back.
“Isn’t it too early for this?” Amado wonders aloud as he keys in the combo for the doors.
“Huh? Did you say something, old man?! Speak up already!” Delta barks.
The door slides open, revealing nothing out of the ordinary except for a single red rose laying beautifully on Amado’s desk. He squints at it from afar. Delta and Boro are also looking. Everyone automatically reaches the conclusion that it was not there when Amado left the lab yesterday.
“...” (Amado)
“?” (Delta)
“HAHAHAHA!!” (Boro) “Looks like you have a secret admirer!”
Amado sighs deeply. “Was this you again, Delta?”
“What?! No!!! No way.” Delta says firmly. She’s not that good of an actor, so Amado uses the heartfelt conviction shown in her disgusted face to rule her out as a suspect.
“It looks like there’s a note attached. The mystery can be solved.” Boro says.
There is in fact a small slip of red paper tied loosely to the rose. Amado approaches with a feeling of impending doom. It only has one word written on it; “ Jigen ”.
Suspicions confirmed, Amado’s head sinks into his hands as Delta and Boro yank the note away and read it for themselves.
“JIGEN?!?!” Delta yells out loud. Her and Boro bear twin looks of shock, horror, and disgust. Not entirely unwarranted. Amado wonders if there’s any way to explain the situation. He gives it his best shot.
“He clearly misunderstood my-”
“This is amazing .” Delta bowls right over him, now transitioned into evil delight. “I’m going to barf. You and Jigen ?!?”
Boro travels in the opposite direction emotionally, becoming pale and ill looking. He looks at Amado with discomfort. “Is this true?”
“Is what true? Give me that, Delta.” Amado takes the rose from Delta’s clutches and crosses his arms. “Honestly, we don’t need people jumping to conclusions and generating gossip around here. You know Jigen. He was probably playing off of Delta’s stunt yesterday to amuse himself. He’s not… proposing his love to me, for God’s sake.”
“Sure, sure.” Delta says. “And the note is heart shaped because…?”
Amado looks at the paper again. It is, damn him.
“Jigen,” he says through gritted teeth, “has a very bad sense of humor.”
He storms out of the lab, still clutching the rose, resigning himself to the fact that, as always, Delta and Boro are going to form their own conclusions.
“Jigen, where are you right now? We need to talk.” he says over the comms, making sure to use a private channel.
“Did you get my gift, then?” Jigen responds, making sure not to use a private channel. Amado hears Delta’s shrill, hysterical laughter echoing off the walls behind him. “I’m in the dining area.”
Amado should’ve guessed. The other man is fairly consistent in his morning routines. Clearly, he’s been a little thrown off.
It’s not that he’s any more easily embarrassed than he is easily angered. He likes to keep the annoyances in his life to a minimum, and anything Delta has that she perceives as ammunition against him will be leveraged in full. Even the thickest of skins can’t withstand her constant, grating attitude day in and day out.
Then there’s Boro, who respects him little enough as is, and his completely overbearing fondness of intervening in other people’s lives. It’s the missionary in him. Victor and Deepa are each horribly annoying in their own way too, and factoring in that Delta and Boro couldn’t keep their mouths shut to save their lives, this is going to become an organization-wide thing faster than he can blink.
There’s no salvaging the situation, at this point, but at least he can express his ire to Jigen. Who may or may not care.
Probably not.
In the dining area, he finds Jigen standing at the table, by the sunflowers, with a slim vase of water. He has the same solemn, dispassionate expression as ever.
“That can go in here.” he says, gesturing from the rose to the vase. When Amado doesn’t instantly respond, he just reaches out and does it himself.
Amado pinches the bridge of his nose, immediately out of steam. There’s no explaining this to him, is there?
“Just so you know,” he says, “giving someone a single flower as opposed to a bouquet usually has different connotations.”
“Hm.”
“More romantic connotations.” Amado stresses in a pained voice. “If you don’t believe me, ask Boro and Delta. They were amazed at your boldness.”
“Is that so?” Jigen is completely unbothered. Amado releases his face to stare at him in disbelief. “I’ll have to be more careful next time.”
“ Next time?” he raises his eyebrows. Jigen nods serenely, at which point Amado lifts his eyes to the heavens. “Of course, by all means. ‘Next time.’”
Jigen pushes the vase with the rose to the middle of the table, right in front of the sunflowers, and spends a good moment fussing with it to ensure it’s centered. Clearly this is all playing out perfectly according to some strange internal Jigen logic Amado can’t hope to decipher.
“Is that all you wanted to talk to me about?” Jigen says, not looking up from his lovely flower arrangement.
“I suppose.” Amado says helplessly. “The shape of the note was not exactly innocuous either.”
“That’s just what was attached when I purchased it.” Jigen says. “I won’t take any credit for it.”
“...Right.”
Silence.
“I guess I’ll get back to work then.”
“Of course.” Jigen finally finishes and steps back. “What do you think? Is the room brighter?”
Amado narrows his eyes at him. Jigen accepts this answer and walks away.
“Next, time, huh?” Amado mutters to himself, still in stark disbelief, and rubs his eyes until he sees stars.
-
‘Next time’, as it turns out, is the very next day. And instead of one rose, it is about a hundred, spilling extravagantly out of one of the most garish flower displays Amado has ever seen in his life. It is red upon red upon blood red. He can actually smell the fragrance from the hallway.
“For God’s sake…” Amado says to himself fervently. “Jigen…”
His immediate next reaction after cringing out of his skin is to hide all of this as quickly as possible before Victor shows up for his rare monthly maintenance.
He fights valiantly with it and sends a lot of rose petals fluttering around the room, but he is ultimately unsuccessful, as Victor walks in on him elbows deep in the touchingly romantic monstrosity, cursing quietly to himself.
“Jesus Christ .” Victor says. “The others told me about this, but I never imagined it was this bad.”
“I don’t appreciate the judgemental tone.” Amado grumbles. “I'm a victim here. What are they telling people?”
Victor wrinkles his nose. “I’d prefer not to say. I’m too old for gossip, these days.”
Then why , Amado thinks, did you even mention it.
-
He waits until later in the day, when Jigen summons him to go over progress reports, to bring it up. More accurately, Jigen brings it up.
“Did you put your gift in the dining area?” he says, while casually checking boxes. Amado could almost strangle him.
“I did. And just so you know,” he says, in what he believes is a patient tone, “It was also romantic. Even worse than last time, maybe.”
Jigen looks up from his papers with a slight, imperceptible flicker of annoyance.
“Elaborate.”
“A bouquet of roses is reputably sappy. Criminally , in fact. The more there are, the worse it is.”
Jigen sets his pen down. “So I can’t do one, and I can’t do one hundred? You’ve frustrated me, Amado.”
“You’re the one who’s so hell bent on getting me flowers!” Amado splutters. “What did I do?”
The other man regards him coldly. Right. He’s never going to get anywhere questioning Jigen’s motives. Amado sighs and tries again.
“Look, for flowers there’s a sort of code that is broadly understood where different types of flowers hold different meanings from each other. Sunflowers are good for ‘get well soon’ sentiments, like Delta chose, and roses are pretty classically romantic, especially red roses, regardless of the amount.”
“How utterly pointless.” Jigen says. “I like roses the most. They have the most enjoyable scent.”
Amado shrugs at him.
“However,” he continues, “if it’s that significant to all of you, I’ll stay away from them.” That apparently decided, he picks up his pen and goes back to checking boxes.
Amado contemplates a response. But then, what is he supposed to say at this point. It’s fucking Jigen .
He just goes back to work.
-
True to his word, the next day Jigen leaves him a bouquet of daffodils. The day after that it’s camellias. The complexity and variety grows from there, with every new addition making its way to the dining area until it’s become a glorified greenhouse of mysteriously long lasting plants. Jigen’s probably found some shinobi-florist with a nigh immortal product.
He doesn’t bother with notes or labels anymore, either. Everyone on the base knows who is leaving flowers in the lab, and for whom.
Shockingly enough, after the first week the novelty wears off for Delta and she moves on to other things to harass Amado over. Boro will not look at him the same way ever again, that’s for certain, but as long as he keeps his mouth shut in discontent, which he seems to be doing, Amado can live with it.
Victor is much the same. It’s just another jumping off point for his subtle, polished and mature snipes and potshots at him. At least somewhat true to his self perception, though, Victor keeps mostly professional.
With the drama laid mostly to the wayside, by the time he hits day twenty of non-stop flower bouquets, an arrangement of azaleas, daisies, and some other strange, barely recognizable species, Amado finds himself completely used to it.
It’s even almost …god forbid…entertaining.
They’re not explicitly romantic to the naked eye anymore. Amado’s sure if he were to truly research the ‘flower language’ of every display he would come back with some sinister results, but he’s no florist, and neither is Jigen, or anyone else for that matter, so such meanings would be completely accidental and inconsequential.
He’s just left with a strange sign every morning for twenty days straight that Jigen has gone out of his way (in some way) to do something nice for Amado. At least, he assumes Jigen thinks he's being nice, or it’s a confusing and sick power play. He does seem a little bit more pleased with himself every time he sees Amado moving the flowers into the dining room.
Which does beg the question as to why he keeps leaving them in the lab if he knows where they’re going to end up, but hey. It’s his vision.
It also gives him something different to look at in the monotony of the base. He’s on the verge of understanding the ‘brighten up the room’ premise he had tried to explain to Jigen. On one occasion, he even feels the strong temptation to smile to himself on finding a bouquet, the context being he had pulled an all nighter and slept in the lab at the very desk the flowers appeared on. Jigen had somehow still managed to mysteriously teleport them right next to his face.
Ignoring the dwindling interference and commentary of the other Kara members, ignoring the apparent weirdness and impracticality of it, it’s just another strange, unspoken interaction between the two of them that deepens the enigmatic pull of Jigen.
-
Naturally, it’s right when Amado starts to come to terms with Jigen’s behavior that it abruptly stops.
Besides stirring up the Kara rumor mill again, it leaves Amado profoundly confused, and even more confused at his own reaction. There is such a real, clear disappointment the moment he sees his desk bare that sends him for a loop.
“Are you guys breaking up?” Delta asks with faux sympathy. “Has Jigen found someone else to woo? I’m heartbroken for you, old man.”
“Noted.” Amado says. In the absence of his ritualistic transportation of a bouquet out of the lab, he spends an extra five minutes working before heading off to the morning meeting.
Progression on the Karma is average, we need to prune the outers again, Victor stop reorganizing and renaming the accounts, Amado had to have a three hour phone call with the bank yesterday, etc etc. Jigen doesn’t act as if anything is out of the ordinary, because of course, why would he, so Amado does the same. It doesn’t weigh too heavily on him, but it does nag him.
Much later in the day, when he’s giving Jigen the rundown of their new air conditioning system, he caves in.
“By the way,” he says, incredibly casually. “I hadn’t expected you to run out of steam on the flowers so quickly.”
Jigen looks at him.
“It was hardly intentional. I had another month mapped out, but the florist I was collaborating with asked too many questions and became a liability, so I killed him.”
“Makes sense.” Amado nods, looking back to the air conditioning controls casually.
“Why?” he can hear a small, evil sense of amusement in Jigen’s voice. “Were you enjoying it?”
Amado doesn’t dignify that with a response.
-
So what if he was? It was a pain in the ass, but it was Jigen. It sent some sort of message, some sort of sign. Amado feels stupid even considering it, but that night he gets on the computer, contacts a few of his sources, reads a couple articles, and generates a plan.
Two days from there, with Jigen still florist-less, Amado knocks on his door. It’s early enough in the morning that he doesn’t have to keep an eye out for other Kara members, and as far as he’s aware, Jigen doesn’t sleep. Which is partially the reason he has to do this this way in the first place.
The door slides open.
“Good morning, Amado.” Jigen says, unfazed.
“Likewise.” Amado says.
Best to get it out of the way quickly and seriously.
He hands Jigen a single begonia. He took a risk with the color scarlet, but it’s clear Jigen favors that. He checked and double checked the meaning as well, and this one has a rose-like fragrance that surely won’t be offensive. All in all, this is very thoughtful of him.
Jigen just quirks a brow at him quizzically and/or judgmentally.
“Don’t let it go to your head.” Amado says. “Just take the damn flower. I can’t believe I’m doing this.” The last part is mostly an aside to himself.
Jigen does at least take the damn flower.
“I thought a single flower was romantic.” he says, holding it delicately. “Be careful what you’re offering me, Amado.”
“Nice try. A single rose is romantic. This,” Amado taps the flower, “is commonly used to express gratitude or return a favor. At the most, it represents good communication between two parties.”
“Hm. That’s a shame. Otherwise it would’ve been the perfect opportunity to give you this.” He holds out his hand and the Sukunahikona manifests a perfect red rose. Amado’s eyes widen.
“Wh-of course you were waiting to pull something like this…” he mutters, rubbing his face.
“I learned all about the flower language from my dearly departed florist, by the way.” Jigen says. “But I like it when you try to explain things.”
Amado stares at him, dumbfounded.
“Take the flower.” the other man prompts. Amado pinches his forehead.
“For God’s sake, Jigen-” Jigen moves Amado’s hand for him and places the rose in it, then closes his fingers around it. He holds that pose for a second too long, and pushes Amado’s hand onto his chest.
“Put that in the dining area, would you?” he says. “I’ll see you later.” He pats Amado’s closed fist once, pulls away, and closes the door.
Amado blinks after him.
Then he puts the flower in the dining area.