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Boombox was buzzing with anxiety. He rubbed his clammy hands on his pants, and then adjusted his tie. He knew that the man who was behind the door didn’t really celebrate holidays or let alone enjoy them, and Valentine’s Day was definitely one of them.
Medkit likely thought it was just a stupid day where people played an gambling game of whether their love interest liked them back or not and then ate a whole box of chocolate to themselves in misery if the latter happened.
Panicking, Boombox placed the handful of flowers in his hand onto the ground and instinctively moved his hands to his face to help him think better of the situation he put himself in. God, why did I do this? Can I go back in time and not ring the bell?—
Suddenly, he felt the need to sneeze.
He sneezed once.
Twice.
Thrice.
By the end, Boombox felt the wind knocked out of him. But he had no time to recover because he heard footsteps on the other side.
He nearly fell while he stood back up and hastily picked the flowers back up from the ground.
Medkit opened the door and couldn’t hide the surprise on his face.
“H-Hey!” Boombox started. “I…uh…”
Before Boombox could say anything else, his vision went fuzzy and black and he fell.
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Boombox rubbed his eyes and woke up. “Wha— Where am I?”
He felt the soft leather of the couch and was almost tempted to fall back asleep until Medkit answered him.
“You’re in my house.” Medkit answered. “You fell at my front door. Are you feeling better?”
Medkit sat on an armed reading chair nearby that was of the same material to the couch.
“Uh, yeah.” Boombox shrugged at the ceiling. “I don’t feel like I fell at all to be honest.”
“Good to hear.” Medkit reached for something to the table next to him.
After multiple beats of silence, Medkit spoke again.
“You dropped these by the way.” He added nonchalantly.
Boombox looked at Medkit’s hand and saw the flowers. Seeing them now made him remember what happened and he flushed in embarrassment. He also realized that the arrangement of the flowers were super weird with the differing colors. What the hell was he thinking?
While staring blankly at the flowers, he started to sneeze again.
“Man, I don’t know why I keep sneezing today!” Boombox threw his hands up, frustrated. “Th-That’s why I fell at your door ‘cause I sneezed like a hundred times in a row and it made me tired like hell.”
When Medkit remained silent, Boombox took it as Medkit being annoyed at the inconvenience he had caused.
“I’m super sorry for all of this, I’ll get going now—” Boombox erupted and got up from the couch but got interrupted.
“No, it’s fine, but I am certain that the reason you keep sneezing is because you have an allergy to these flowers.”
“Oh! Huh, that makes sense.” Boombox nodded. “Pass me the flowers, I gotta test it.”
Medkit handed him the flowers and Medkit briefly felt the cold dampness of his gloves, though he made no comment.
Boombox raised the flowers so that a petal brushed near his nose and took a deep breath through his nose.
”Achoo!”
Well, that confirmed it.
Medkit had him hand over the flowers back and he placed them on the table. Boombox’s cheeks were now the reddest they have ever been. The room moved into a somewhat awkward silence.
“…While you recover, tell me how you got these flowers in the first place.” Medkit said, a beat earlier before the silence would’ve gotten too awkward.
“Good question, heh,” Boombox put on a sunny grin but was a grain of sand away from being outed as an “oh shit i’m going to get caught, time to backpedal” expression.
“I, uh, saw that there was a discount on flowers since they were uncommon ones to use. Vinestaff owns the flower shop, y’know Sling’s and Shuri’s friend?”
That was only partially the truth. He genuinely read the meanings of each flower with the little sign in front of each batch, but he was in a rush and he maybe mixed up some of the words. He hoped that none of the flowers he got had any negative meanings to it, like death of all things.
Boombox prayed that it sounded like he only got them purely because of the discount. Not because of…
Medkit continued on, slowly drumming his fingers on the table. “And, why were you at my front door?”
“Well, um, I wanted to give them to you if you want to send them to s-someone or something.” Boombox blabbered quickly.
Boombox was clearly a terrible liar since Medkit only smirked at his explanation.
”If you say so.” Medkit replied with a hint of disbelief in his voice. He glanced towards the flowers resting on the table and smiled fondly.
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The two of them dropped the subject of the flowers and they idly chatted while drinking some herbal tea Medkit made. When the sun began to set, Boombox headed back home and ended up letting Medkit keep the flowers.
Right after Boombox left, Medkit got to planting the flowers in order to save them. They were starting to dry out and it worried him the entire time.
After he planted them in pots and placed them next to his window, he went to research what kind of flowers they were. He didn’t know whether or not Boombox actually had known the flower’s meanings since it looked like he got a random bunch and called it a day, but they still touched him.
One flower was an orange daisy that was almost the same shade of the sun at the time. Orange daisies symbolized joy, excitement, healing, happiness, playfulness, and warmth. Medkit could see that being intentionally picked.
A yellow gladiolus sat next to it, standing tall. It symbolized positivity, happiness and friendship, very similar to the daisy. The warm colors accompanied each other very well.
The sweetbrier flower branch at the corner of the window sill was small and frail. Its tiny pinkish-white petals appeared a different shade due to the sun. It wasn’t likely to last long since they thrived as a bush. It symbolized being emotionally wounded, and Medkit took a second to take that in.
Perhaps Boombox picked the flower solely for its looks?
Another white flower was next to the sweetbrier. It almost looked like it was going to wilt in an hour or so. The queen of night flower looked majestic, almost like a ballet player’s tutu. From his research, he found out that it only bloomed once a year. It symbolized how good things don't last. Medkit reflected a bit over the past flower’s meanings until he realized he missed one.
The last of the group was easily the most vibrant one and it was the pink carnation. It symbolized never forgetting someone.
The last flower’s message warmed his heart.
With such an odd arrangement of flowers, Medkit was 90% confident that Boombox’s selections were not random and were specifically for him.
And regarding Boombox’s suggestion of giving them away, there was no chance he would do that. He would keep them alive for as long as he could.