Work Text:
Calming music could be heard. The walls painted snow-white, contrasting with the barrage of colorful flowers on the floor and shelves. The floral aroma was pleasant to the people that came by, but even more so for the florists of the shop.
It was another day of work for Elizabeth Rose Bloodflame. She took this position as a part-time job for the meantime while she studied. She came all the way from Great Exardia to the acclaimed Far East to fulfill her dream of being a professional singer. Although that took a bit too much out of her pocket, so she had to settle by taking different part-time jobs.
Private tutor, waitress, fast-food employee, etc… This job was but another way to earn some cash. And her apartment was just a 10 minute bus ride away, so it was the best choice by far. And her college was right beside the flower shop, so she could go immediately after classes. Obviously, this took a lot out of her, she had been exhausted to no end. Working until closing hours every working day after taking several classes really does that to you. But it wasn’t that bad, the place was calm and pretty to look at… was what she thought at first.
After all, having to watch the same scenario for three consecutive weeks really deems it impossible to have fun, all she knew was: enter shift, take care of the flowers, convince any entering client to take any of the little fellas with them and repeat. At least the relationship with her co-workers was good enough to guarantee at least one engaging conversation a day, but after that it was Elizabeth and her own thoughts until she had to repeat that dreaded cycle.
Today was no different. This time she had closing hours and most of her co-workers had already left.
“Gosh, I’m really sorry for you, Elizabeth.” She looked up, well, down, to one of her leaving co-workers. “If you’re really sorry Gigi you can stay with me until I close.” The pig tailed hair girl recoiled at the request and with no hesitation grabbed her bag and directed herself to the door. “Well haha that’s crazy, anyway, my bus is almost here, good luck Liz, get some nice sleep tonight, see ya!” She took off, leaving the poor redhead alone in the shop.
There was only half an hour until she had to close. Since she was alone, to avoid going insane, she began singing whatever tune the speakers on the ceiling played, and started her last round of checking on the flowers. She didn’t mind being kind of loud and looking mental, if that meant that no customer would come in, it was worth it.
To her disgrace, it didn’t work. Pink hair, with what she could see was somewhat of a beret, holding something rectangular, like a sketchbook, close to her chest. Elizabeth stopped checking the flowers, sighed, and turned on her employee switch.
“Hello ma’am. How can I help you?” She gave her those big fake grins you get while working in the fast-food industry, then again, she had worked in one before so it was natural at this point. The girl was surprised at the sudden interrogation from Elizabeth. She started to fidget, looking around and finally replied. “Do you have forget-me-not’s?” Her accent took Liz aback. She knew that in the Far East there were a lot of people coming from other countries, Gigi was an example, her accent wasn’t that unheard. Freesia, the land of Freedom, as the name suggests. But the girl’s accent was way different, it wasn’t Freesia nor Great Exardia. She had definitely heard it before.
“Are you from the Romance Empire by any chance?” Liz wasn’t that confident in her deduction but by the reaction of the pink-haired girl, she was definitely on the money. “How did you know?” The girl had her hand covering her mouth in surprise, Liz only giggled at her response. “I know my accents pretty well.” She winked. “Anyways, forget-me-not’s, you said? They’re right here.” She looked back, signaling her to follow her. The girl clutched her sketchbook and looked down while following the taller lady. Liz hadn’t noticed before, but the girl had what looked like animal ears, probably feline due to the shape. They weren’t that weird, she had certainly seen weirder. She had worked for a phoenix, she had to stop a shark girl from almost eating her flowers, and even got visited by a “jewel of emotions” that was not tall enough to see beyond the first shelf.
“Here they are.” She stopped and crouched to the pot filled with a never-ending blue. The girl gasped and began admiring them. Now Elizabeth had a better vision of the girl. Cute fangs, hypnotizing yellow eyes and even a tail that was moving back and forth, probably in excitement. All Elizabeth could think about was how cute she looked.
“So, will you take any? They are pretty cheap, like 240 yen.” She snapped from her daydream. “Ah yeah! I’ll take this one.” She grabbed the 10 cm pot. “Follow me to the register then, please.” She did as she said. The pink-haired girl grabbed her wallet from her pocket and gave three coins, two of 100 yen and another for 50 yen. She grabbed them, and took out a 10 yen coin as change.
“Can I ask, if it isn’t much, about the sketchbook you got there?” Liz felt bold enough to have a conversation with another human, demi-human, I guess, and she was genuinely interested.
“Oh this? I study art somewhere near here, and I wanted to practice today by using flowers as reference!” She perked up, this was a total contrast to the quiet and shy girl that entered beforehand, but she couldn’t stop listening. She started to talk about her art classes and even showed some of her drawings.
“Wow, you’re actually pretty good.” Liz had only seen a handful, each piece getting better every page she turned.
“I actually enrolled myself in the same college as you.” The other girl looked surprised. “Oh! And what are you studying?” asked the pink-haired girl. “Well, I’m in the music club…” the other woman said while scratching the back of her nape.
“Well, let’s hang out sometime! I don’t really know a lot of people here. And since the art building is right beside the music building, we’ll see each other frequently!” The shine in her beautiful piercing golden eyes felt really genuine, the redhead could only give her a gentle smile as a response. “I’d love to meet up sometime… erm” the taller woman stopped and looked at her in a questioning way because she just realized that she didn’t know the pink woman’s name. “Raora, Raora Panthera.” “Elizabeth Rose Bloodflame, nice to meet you, Raora.”. “Nice to meet you too, Elizabeth!”
— — — —
“WOOO!!!” intense clapping could be heard across the room. “Oh my, this is embarrassing.” Elizabeth had finished practicing her singing, and even though Raora was her only audience, she really made it seem like there were hundreds of people cheering for her, which was flustering, to say the least.
“What do you mean? You did amazing!” Raora took off from her seat, and continued to hype Elizabeth. After their first encounter, they normally met in the music room when empty, and even ate together there. Raora would normally doodle and engage in random conversations with Elizabeth. Meanwhile, the redhead practiced her singing or took notes for future performances, to maybe add some adlibs or add her own spin. She even consults Raora for her opinion on certain changes. And at the end of the day, the artist accompanied the singer to her part-time job.
“Well, it’s all thanks to you.” Elizabeth answered. Raora was taken aback. “Huh? But you deserve all the credit, I mean… It’s your voice.”
“It’s because I have you with me, pretty kitty.” she patted the pink-haired girl while giving her a warm gaze. “Without you, these jam sessions would feel really lonely. So I’m glad I found someone who I can share my passion with, the same as you do with me.” The room was filled to the brim with silence, only interrupted by some outside noise like cars, the wind and such. Raora gazed at the taller woman, she could feel her heart race faster and faster the more she stared. Noticing how beautiful the redhead actually was. She certainly did find her attractive, but today was different: the tone of her voice, her silky smooth bright fiery crimson red hair, those piercing yet kind ruby colored eyes. This happened in the span of seconds, yet, they felt eternal.
“Hello? Earth to Raora Panthera, are you there?” Elizabeth was concerned about the amount of time the artist was silent. She worried she accidentally had bluescreened in real life.
“AH! Yes sorry, I was just…” admiring how beautiful you were looking right now. Was what she was thinking. Clearly she wasn’t going to finish the sentence. “I thought I broke you for a second.” The redhead began giggling, which was adding more fuel to the fire of the panther’s embarrassment.
“Next time that happens, I’ll have some cucumbers on deck so I can wake you up earlier.” She said, teasing her by using one of the things she hates most. The other woman gasped in both surprise and anger.
“NO! DON’T DO THAT! I’LL HATE YOU FOR REAL!!” The redhead couldn’t hear her over her own maniacal laughter.
“Aww you’re so cute pouting like that. I should do this more often.” The artist just huffed and gave her the most disappointing look.
“Don’t look at me like that Raora, I’m just bantering with you!” Silence
“I’ll treat you later!” Still silent
“I’ll buy you that giant blue plush thing you showed me!”
Raora was not budging. So she resorted to her last weapon. The taller woman snuck up behind the panther’s back and lifted her into the ceiling and sang that one song from The Lion King jokingly. She could see how the pink-haired woman began panicking and commenced laughing to her heart's content. As she put her down, Raora started to playfully hit her arm while Elizabeth was still laughing.
After her laugh ceased and she wiped the tears from her eyes, she could see the pink woman still pouting and her tail wagging in rage. The redhead grabbed the panther’s face, cupping both her cheeks with her hands.
“Ahh… I love you, my pretty kitty.” There it was again. She didn’t know why she started to call her that but she really liked that nickname.
“I-I’m not a kitty, I’m a panther!” She grabbed the singer’s hands and took them off her face. Her tail saying the contrary by wagging excitedly. Elizabeth noticed and giggled to herself.
“To me you will always be MY pretty kitty.” Raora’s face was beyond red now, her cheeks felt like the burning sun, and all of that while she was grabbing her hands and Elizabeth was lovingly looking at her. She couldn’t take it anymore and embraced the crimson red haired girl.
She began snuggling her head onto the taller woman’s shoulder. Elizabeth was taken by surprise, she wasn’t so familiar with this amount of physical touch, but she was open to it if it was Raora. Slowly caressing her back and patting her head, sometimes brushing her fingers on her ears, which earned a visible.
“So am I forgiven?” asked Elizabeth. The panther looked up at those crimson eyes.
“Will you still buy me the big Chattino?” She asked back. Her face casting a little pout.
“I didn’t know you were so materialistic.” They both giggled at the redhead’s jest. “But, if that guarantees that you forgive me, I’ll do anything.” She said with a delightful smile on her face.
With this little moment that felt like ages, she realized how sweet, gentle and delicate she actually smelt, almost floral. Sadly, Elizabeth made the grave mistake of looking at the clock, realizing she was running late.
“Aw frigg. I have to leave, RaRa.” Elizabeth was certainly condemning her responsibilities in her life for interrupting such moment. “Oh. I see. Well, it is pretty late, considering the amount of time we spent here today. Let me pack my things, I’ll go with you.” She broke off the embrace. The singer saw Raora’s smile slowly fade away, and hear her saddened voice. It stung her heart, she wished she could spend more time with her. She was really considering missing today’s shift.
“Okay Liz, I’m ready.” The panther said with a forced smile while her bag was hanging from her shoulder.
No one said anything during the walk towards the flower shop. Not even a stare. They were self-conscious about each other's true desire: staying together.
Liz knew that Raora’s house was pretty nearby, like two streets down. She hadn’t gone inside yet, but she had certainly accompanied her more than once when she didn’t have to work.
“Screw this.” Liz said out loud, gaining a surprised look from Raora. With no delay, she grabbed the panther’s wrist and began running.
“Huh?! Liz the flower shop is right there!” Raora yelled. Elizabeth ignored her screams and kept running, not looking back.
“ELIZABETH, STOP!” They reached a stoplight in red.
“Why are we running?” The panther said while panting. Her wrist was hurting after getting dragged.
“RaRa, it’s fine, I can call in sick today.” She was panting as well. She stroked the artist’s wrist to make sure it was okay.
“But why?” They locked eyes. Elizabeth, who was holding back, finally cracked.
“I want to be with you, Raora.” The redhead could definitely feel her face burn brighter than the flame on her chest. The pink panther wasn’t much different. They stayed quiet until the stoplight became green. Elizabeth was still holding the pink-haired woman’s wrist but slowly started holding her hand. Raora took it without complaining.
“So, where are we going exactly?” Raora asked, breaking the silence.
“I thought about going to your house, since it’s nearby.” replied Liz.
“Huh? But I haven’t cleaned up yet..:” Raora tensed up at the suggestion.
“Don’t worry, I like my cats a little bit dirty.” said Elizabeth teasingly.
“Hey!” “I’m kidding, I’m kidding!”
They cackled together. As the sun was going down, their bantering became livelier and livelier.
— — — —
“Hey, Gigi, darling, I’m so sorry, but can you take my shift tonight? I’m very sick right now.” They arrived at Raora's home. It was really well decorated, although the amount of trash bags on the ground turned her off a bit, but she knew she was worse so it was fine. Right now she was thinking of a way to get out of the pickle she had gotten herself into and decided to call Gigi for some help.
“Girl… I was already worried that you weren’t coming. If you wanted to skip a day you should’ve told me sooner!” Her fake sickness didn’t work, but at least she could trust Gigi.
“I’m sorry but I am quite busy at the moment, and I can’t afford to go today.” She said while looking at Raora, who was preparing a bath for her.
“Hmmmm…”
“Please, Gigi.” She begged.
“OKAY fine… I’ll do it.” She said, in a tired voice. “But it’s because I feel bad when I leave you alone in the store, okay? And also, you will owe me one for this!”
“Thank you so much, Gigi! I will do whatever you want!” She said without thinking, not realizing the grave mistake of offering such a thing to someone like Gigi.
“Oh really?” She couldn’t see her face, but still got shivers from her voice.
“But nothing too expensive or… weird.” She quickly corrected herself.
“Aw man…” Gigi’s said, pretty disappointed. “Anyway, good luck with what you are doing right now, you’ll have to tell me everything!”
“Yes, yes, thank you so much again Gigi, love you~” She hung up, and melted onto Raora’s couch. She didn’t think skipping one work day would be this stressful. But at least it was over. They already agreed that Liz would be staying the night, so now she could enjoy every second with her panther.
As she was waiting for her bath to be ready, she started to look around Raora’s living room. After she had helped her clean up those trash bags and the overwhelming amount of pink fur, she could see many stuffed animals and figures about this “Chattino” character she is obsessed with. Not like how she can say anything about it, they were pretty cute.
She walked around the house, reaching Raora’s room. It was also filled with chattinos. “She already has a big chattino, why does she want another one?” She asked herself. She entered further. The room smelt like a combination of lavender and cherry blossoms, and the immense amount of pink painted into the room helped with that. Her bed was neatly organized. There were SEVERAL canvases. One was actually painted though with various colors not necessarily portraying an image, there was another one inside a box near her TV on top of the drawers with a landscape painted on it. She inspected her work desk: a drawing tablet and what looks like a 4090 PC. She didn’t know a lot about computers but she definitely knew these were more on the expensive side. She had snacks scattered around her desk and around the round chabudai behind her, and beside it, a gigantic pen for some reason. She tried lifting it to see if it could actually write or if it was only decor, but it was so heavy she just left it on top of the yellow bean bag.
As she was about to leave, she saw in the corner of her eye something familiar. It was the forget-me-not she bought the day they met. It had been taken care of perfectly.
“Ah! Here you are, your bath is ready.” said the panther behind her back. “What are you doing in my room? You better not steal my chattinis!” She said menacingly, but the singer could only laugh.
“Don’t worry darling, I won’t steal anything, I was just admiring how well the forget-me-not is doing” She pointed to the pot beside her bed.
“Do you know the significance of forget-me-nots?” She asked without looking at her. But she could feel how Raora was scratching her brain.
“Not really…” She finally caved in. Elizabeth giggled and walked towards the panther, and gazed into those beautiful golden eyes lovingly.
“Forget-me-nots signify true love and respect. When someone gives you these flowers, it means that they will remember you for all of their life and keep you in their thoughts.” She explained.
Raora was a bit slow, but she eventually got it, or so Elizabeth thought with the sudden flustering expression in the panther’s face.
The redhead began leaning in, cupping the artist’s face with one hand. The pink panther was stunned, but she reciprocated.
They locked lips, the taller woman having her other hand grasp the panther’s waist. The artist could only grab Elizabeth’s back, while her tail wrapped around the other’s leg. They were in such a euphoric daze. Liz could only think about that addicting sweet taste from Raora’s lips that she forgot to breathe. They finally separated, both panting like crazy.
“Your bath is getting cold...”