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"Huh." Said Mina. "That’s new."
"What’s new?" Asked Nico, not even looking up from his phone. He was sitting on a bench in the outdoor mall. Mina sat beside him.
The girl pointed at a nearby store. "They finally put a new store where that old one used to be. Y’know, the one that closed down cuz of unsanitary conditions?"
"About time. It’s been like a year, right?"
"Going on two, yeah." Mina squinted to read the name. She really should start carrying her glasses more. "It looks like it’s a flower shop? Looks pretty. Think I might go in."
"If you want flowers just ask a Demeter kid. I swear you see pretty colors and your mind just goes 'brrr, must spend money'"
"Don’t act like you don’t do the same thing. You see Spiderman and immediately whip out your wallet."
"I have no shame."
"Of course you don’t." Sighed Mina amusedly, shaking her head. "I’m gonna go in and look at the pretty flowers. I assume that you’re gonna stay here?"
Nico nodded.
"Ok, I’ll be back." Said the model, making her way to the store.
Somehow, it was even cuter inside than it was outside. The second she opened the door and heard the song of the wind chimes, she was enchanted. The store was covered in soft pinks and blues and other pastels. Whites complimented the soft colors and flowers of all different kinds hung around the room. Either as decorations or to be sold.
There had to be a million dried bouquets on the wall behind the cash register, all of them seemingly for different occasions. All the scents of the flowers should’ve been overwhelming. She figured it was because of the air purifiers scattered around the store. And the fact that there were multiple said all it needed to say. Even if Mina didn’t think flowers had much of a smell, she could tell that without the purifiers she’d probably be suffering right about now.
Suddenly, someone came out from the back of the store, a worker, if the apron and gardening gloves were anything to go by.
"Oh, hello there!" The worker, greeted. He had blonde hair, pulled back into a small ponytail. Circular glasses rested on his nose. "My names Finn, what can I do for you?"
"Can’t say I’m sure yet." The girl shook her head. "The store seemed cute so I wanted to see what was in it. Though, some of the flowers here have caught my eye so I’ll probably be leaving with something."
"Ok!" Replied Finn, a kind smile on his face. "Just let me know if you need any help. I’d be happy to recommend some flowers."
"I’ll keep that in mind." She agreed, turning around to look at the flowers.
They were all pretty beautiful, and she recognized at least some of them. Daisies, sunflowers, daffodils, dandelions (somehow?), Roses (of course), Lillies, tiger lilies, etc, etc.
As her eyes skimmed over the different colors and such she found that she wasn’t paying much attention, until her eye got caught on a particular flower.
Stepping closer to it, she read the text below "cornflower." The petals spread out to reveal some kind of pointy things? They were blue, very blue, and some of them had almost purple-ish cores.
The bluer ones honestly reminded her of…
"…Tim…"
"Found something you like?" Finn called from behind the counter.
"Oh!" She yelped, breaking out of her thoughts. "Uhm…yeah, I think I’d like these. Just a small bouquet." She suggested before mumbling to herself, "I doubt he’d like a big, showy, display."
Finn nodded, and soon enough, Mina was walking out of the store with a very small bouquet of the bluest cornflowers. She had even decided to write him a love letter, which she attached to the bouquet with blue ribbon.
She smiled, her chest feeling all warm, she couldn’t wait to see how Tim would react! She was pretty sure he’d never been given flowers before, and he’d never really shown an affinity towards them, but not a distaste either. But..it’s the thought that counts right?
But, then again, there was a chance he wouldn’t like the flowers...and if he didn’t like the flowers he definitely wouldn’t like the corny reason she bought it. After all, Tim wasn’t really one for 2000s romcoms and shojo romance anime. He only really tolerated them for her sake. And while he may tolerate watching them…would he tolerate this?
Maybe…it would be better not to find out…
Though, she couldn’t exactly bring herself to throw them away, her hopelessly romantic heart wouldn’t let her. So instead, she left it on her vanity, reasoning that she would figure out what to do with it later.
Unfortunately (or fortunately?) for her, Tim decided that he wanted to see her that same day, and so, just a few hours into the night, Red Robin was slipping into Mina’s room from her window and looking around for his girlfriend. He found her sitting on her vanity, experimenting with her makeup.
"Hey." Greeted Tim, giving Mina a quick kiss on the cheek before falling back onto her bed. (Mina felt her face get hot.) He must’ve been tired, because he didn’t seem to notice the bouquet of cornflowers sitting on the vanity. (Though, to be fair, the vanity was kinda messy.)
She had honestly almost forgotten about the bouquet herself, but the second she remembered, she snatched it away with a clothing appendage and hid it in a drawer.
Tim cracked an eye open, quirking a brow.
"What was that?" He asked.
"What was what?" She asked.
Tim sat up, his brow climbing even higher. "What’re you hiding?"
Mina scoffed, turning towards him in her chair. "Wow. So you’re just gonna assume that I’m hiding something?"
"Well if I was assuming before I’m definitely not now." He concluded, leaning into her. "You’re dodging the question."
"No I’m not." She shook her head, her heart beating a bit too quickly for such a mundane situation.
Tim looked her in the eyes, carefully. Mina couldn’t bring herself to keep eye contact, her own eyes darting around the room.
Somehow, Tim seemed to understand, glancing at the drawer she’d hid the flowers in. Mina wasn’t exactly surprised that he figured it out, but that didn’t mean she couldn’t be annoyed that he did.
"Whatever," brushed off Mina, trying to play a mask of nonchalance. "It’s not important, okay?" Her act worked with mostly everyone. Sometimes it even worked with Tim, but this was not one of those times.
"If something’s bothering you, just tell me. I won’t force you to show me whatever’s in that drawer, or to even tell me what it is but, If you do show me, you can trust me to not overreact."
Mina only shook her head. "You can’t fool me, Timmy. I know the second I leave this room you’ll be checking the drawer."
Tim’s eyes widened, he should’ve known she’d know. She knew him just as well as he knew her.
He sighed. "Well yeah but…" He shook his head, he needed to focus! Convince her to show him! "Point is, you can trust me. No matter what it is in there, I won’t be mad."
Mina smirked and quirked a brow. "What if it was a severed hand? Or a head? Maybe some drugs or alcohol or—"
"—If thing in there isn’t illegal, I won’t be mad." Interrupted Tim exasperatedly. He walked right into that.
"So if I murdered someone you wouldn’t help me hide the body?" She shook her head. "I guess what they say is true, a hero will sacrifice you to save the world but a villain will sacrifice the world to save you. Guess I’ll have to keep that in mind the next time I go on a murdering spree."
"Mina." Tim called firmly.
"Okay, okay…" Mina conceded. He must’ve really not liked that joke of he was using his "Red Robin Voice™ Or maybe he didn’t like that she was dodging the subject yet again. Or maybe both…probably both.
Mina sighed as she turned her head towards the drawer. She used a clothing appendage to open it up and pull through flowers out.
"I guess there was no point in trying to hide them in the first place. I should’ve just thrown them away, really. Or just let them sit on the vanity."
Even though her face seemed uninterested, Tim could tell that she was nervous, but not the reason why. Her eyes were looking anywhere but at him, and her face was dusted with a soft blush.
He glanced at the flowers, grabbing them from the appendage. Why would she be hiding these? They didn’t have any special events coming up. No anniversaries or anything…that he knew of. Oh God did he forget something?!
"Uh…what are these for?" Said Tim shakily. Mina’s heart dropped, she knew he wouldn’t like them.
"Nothing,,,it’s it’s stupid you don’t have to worry about it." The appendage went to grab it again, but Tim batted it away.
"Hey—no—it’s not stupid I’m just—surprised—it seems kinda out of the blue." Tim suddenly noticed the letter tucked into the bouquet. He went to reach for it, only for the bouquet to be snatched away.
He looked up to see a completely red Mina, covering her face with her hands.
"Hey! What was that—" He cut himself off, seeing her state. "—are you ok?"
"Yeah I…"
Tim hopped off the bed and walked closer to her pulling her hands away from her face with some resistance.
"What’s up? Did I do something wrong? I’m really sorry if I forgot an anniversary or something, I promise I’ll make it up to you."
"No it just…" Whispered Mina, trying to will her tears away. Why was she even crying?
She sniffled, before beginning, "There’s no anniversary or anything I just…I wanted to get you something, just cuz, you know? And then I saw those flowers and they…they reminded me of you…of your…
She looked up at him and the two of them held eye contact. "…of your eyes…." Tim felt his face get hot.
"Kinda corny huh?" She laughed bleakly. "Even for me…"
"No...it’s not corny it’s…romantic. It’s…you." Mina’s cheeks grew even warmer.
"I know that sometimes it can seem like I’m not one for romance. That I find it embarrassing or too much. And, honestly, when I see someone else doing stuff like that it does seem kinda silly. But, when it’s with you, it feels…right."
"So…you don’t mind? I can do stuff like this for you? It’s not wrong to do things like this for you?"
"Of course. And even if it is 'wrong' it doesn’t matter, as long as we’re both okay with it, right?" He reasoned, placing a gentle kiss on her forehead.
"Right." Mina agreed, smiling softly.