Work Text:
"Are you going to propose?"
"Oh... Yeah. Tonight."
Ame had given an unconscious series of fake answers to the questions she was asked as soon as she walked into a flower shop to pick up the bouquet she had booked the week before. Unlike her answer, the bouquet in which the clerk was currently placing a sunflower was going to someone she hadn't even asked out for a date yet. Tonight was not a proposal date but an opening of an exhibition by an old friend, Ina. Maybe because of her long, immortal life, she refused to reveal herself a lot to the public and asked the staff to prepare her gallery opening at night. And Ame was visiting Ina for her gallery opening ceremony with the bouquet.
Leaving the clerk's cheering behind, Ame took a huge bouquet - like the size of a whole, idk watermelon? Maybe even bigger - and left the flower shop. The bouquet was surrounded by small, mostly blue flowers near the outside, and yellow flowers filled the bouquet towards the center. It was way too big for Ame to use an umbrella simultaneously and, most importantly, too heavy for her to even carry it; she had no choice but to catch a taxi in the pouring rain.
'Traffic is so bad...' She did not even have time to think about her soaked suit and hair but only cared about whether she would be late for the ceremony. She stared at the red lights of the car with her bare eyes. The pocket watch ticking past 6:25 on a quiet road. People running in the rain without umbrellas due to the sudden weather events. A ticket for a gallery exhibition that had already passed its opening time crumbled in her front pocket. And the blush on Ame's face that she dared to blame global warming and climate anomaly.
Climate Anomaly
hye
"Sorry, I'm late!"
Ame jumped out of the taxi as soon as the door opened, not even pausing to catch her breath. If a princess ran down the stairs when the clock hit 12 o'clock, Ame was not creating such an impressive scene, but she was running up the stairs of the gallery hall as if someone was following her. It was hard to see Ina's face in the backlight, 'Was she angry...?' But it was Ina's bright expression that greeted Ame. A picture of Ina smiling in front of her gallery - the result of her painting skills and hard work that no mortal would dare to match. Ame was tempted to take a picture or even draw. But she didn't have the skills to do so, so she let her heart flutter, and admiration do the talking. Every time, Ina humbly responded that it was thanks to the long time she was given due to being immortal, but no one could undermine her efforts. And the person who knew this fact the best was Amelia, even though she was never granted immortality.
"Are you okay? You're soaked. You didn't have to come."
"It's an opening ceremony. I had to come to see you."
In the private workroom at the back of the exhibition hall, Ame wiped her face roughly with a handkerchief and handed the bouquet to Ina. The flowers were still fresh, thanks to Ame, who had given up her shirt and covered the flowers with her suit jacket as best she could. The smell of rain mingled with the faint floral scent of the bouquet.
"...they're yellow?"
"Huh? Sorry, I didn't hear you."
"Are the flowers yellow because they're your hair color?"
The sight of Ina barely holding back her laughter while covering her mouth with her hand, not holding the bouquet, didn't reach Ame's eyes. Ame was left with nothing but confusion at the question she received so unexpectedly. What did she mean, she wondered, and how should she answer her without being able to find the right answer she wanted to say.
"W- Well, it's the color of your eyes."
"Eyes?"
"Ah."
That's right. Ina's eyes are not yellow.
"What! Who did you get mixed up with?!"
Ina could barely contain her laughter and acted as if she just found out her partner's cheating scene. Ame was even more confused, at least 200 % more confused, and stumbled over her words.
"No, the, the things around you, around your head, you know. Yeah, that."
Ame wasn't lying. It was true; that was why she bought yellow flowers specifically. Of course, Ame did think about her yellow hair color when buying flowers, but she did not tell Ina.
"Huh~ Cheating on me, Ame?"
Ina, with a mischievous grin on her face, was not getting tired of teasing Ame. On the other side, Ame was blushing to the point of redness, which could not even be blamed on climate anomaly, only embarrassment.
Trying to turn the tables, she asked, "Is it okay if the main person is not at the venue?" But Ina answered it was okay as she had already met all the important people. The conversation was back to the beginning. Cheating, huh? I haven't even asked her out.
Ame was staring down at the floor, and a small voice called "Ame" caused her to lift her head. The first thing she saw was Ina's face, which had come up to the point where she would have bumped into her if she had raised her head a little faster. Ame stood up from the stool she was sitting on and lost her balance; the wooden stool hit the floor with a loud crash. "Eh, why?" "Ame, you know," "Uh... Wh- Why are you coming too close..." So this is what she meant by the Ancient One. Ame continued stumbling backward, eventually hitting her back against a wall with many art frames of Ina's work. She was so tense that she hit the wall so hard; she was lucky that the frames above her head did not fall off.
"Just wanted to remind you of my eye colors."
Remember it.
"Ame, are you okay?"
The loud beeping of the alarm was followed by Ina entering the room with two teacups in her hands. Lying on the inner side of the large bed, big enough for two people, Ame had to stand up to reach for the small desk where her phone was sitting. She pushed herself out of bed while her head ringing and Ina sits on the edge of the bed.
"Dream?"
"A nightmare."
"Of?"
"That day. The exhibition. A few days before I started dating you."
Ina burst out laughing at Ame's short answers while Ame pondered seriously. She already knew the ending to her nightmare. The exhibition was a success, as everyone expected. The bouquet flowers were dried one by one by Ina's hand and earned a long-lasting life. Ame's confession was also a success. "Everyone but you knew you liked me." Ina teased, Ame ran, red-faced once again.
"So, did you cheat on me?"
"Um, you know. There's this really pretty girl at the flower shop next door."
Ame answered jokingly, but when Ina didn't answer for a moment, anxiety swept over Ame. Turning her head from her phone, she saw Ina's face right in front of hers, clearly able to see Ina's eye color - between blue and purple. Ame opened her mouth to apologize with a dumbfounded expression, but it was Ina's own lips that stopped her. Their incisors hit each other's, and while Ame was panicking, a flesh was being forced through the gap with no time to wince in pain. Ame wondered if she should get in the mood when suddenly a pair of sharp fangs bit down Ame's lower lips and pulled away.
"Ouch!"
It hurt, but Ame couldn't help but chuckle as she watched Ina run out the door.
"...Stupid."
Once again, the heat from Ame's flushed face didn't go away for a while.