Work Text:
As an unexpected green thumb and the only one amongst his coworkers without a knowledge of floriography, Kei had to deal with a multitude of people every day.
From distraught lovers seeking superficial reconciliation in the form of a satisfactorily-priced bouquet, wannabe womanizers picking out roses to hand out to select passerby, to middle-aged mothers who bicker on about certain flowers not being “red” enough for their living room centerpieces.
You know, the works.
“H-Hello can I buy some f—oh shit!”
And today, he’ll be dealing with a rather tall young man (with what seemed to be an awful bedhead) who’d seemed to miss the small step by the doorway in favor of falling flat on his face.
For a second, Kei moves to walk over and check up on him - Koushi will do nothing less of having him by the head if he comes back to an unconscious man and a puddle of blood by the entrance - but the young man immediately pops back up and his concern is dispelled.
But that still doesn’t stop him from preemptively pulling a nearby box of tissues just that little bit closer, just in case the guy isn’t as fine as he looks.
(That came out the wrong way, and Kei’s glad he’s not like that red-haired shrimp of a barista down the street that voices his thoughts aloud.)
“Are you all right, sir?”
“Yeah!” He replies at an uncomfortably high volume. “Just fine. I’m Kuroo Tetsurou.”
Kei stares at him for a moment. Did he just introduce himself?
He’s got a jittery one today - maybe this is the universe’s cruel way of answering his prayers of boredom. “Okay…Kuroo, is there something I can help you with?”
“Could I have some yellow tulips, please?”
Despite being the first casual sentence Kei’s heard from the young man in the whirlwind of the past minute, there’s still a hint of strain in his voice. The blond is tempted to ask if he needs a drink of water.
Nonetheless, Kei excuses himself to head back for the requested flowers. These aren’t normally asked for, but that doesn’t mean they still don’t keep them fresh somewhere out back.
After a rather silent exchange of cash, Kei begins to reach for the wrapping supplies. “Are these for someone?”
“Yes.”
“Do you want a tag?”
“No thanks.” As he sees Kei begin to wrap the stems in a thin paper he jolts. “D-Don’t wrap them either, I just want the flowers.”
He stops, undoing his wrapping. “All right.” Kei gives him a steady look of caution as he hands him the flowers. “I hope they’re to your liking, sir.”
Even as he recieves the flowers, Tetsurou doesn’t make any move to leave the shop as he just stares down at the small bundle of tulips with an expression that looked nothing less of extremely uncomfortable.
What in the world is with this guy? “Sir, are y—”
Tetsurou takes a big breath before bending forward and stretching his hand out so that the flowers were right in front of Kei’s face.
“T-These are for you.”
Huh?
After a beat of shocked silence, Kei comes to himself long enough to react.
“O-Oh.” Kei takes the flowers he’d just handed over, fully aware of the fact that the room feels a lot warmer than it did a second ago. “Thank you.”
After leaning back up and letting the silence stretch on for a few seconds too long, Tetsurou rubs at the back of his neck speaks up with a bit of an explanation. “They, um, reminded me of you.”
“Because they’re yellow?”
“N-No.” Tetsurou looks to the side before continuing. “Because they’re pretty.”
“You…think I’m pretty.” It’s both a statement and a question.
“Yeah! I mean, uh,” Tetsurou begins, shifting his weight whilst twiddling with the hem of his jacket, “you look really pretty cute when you’re out in front tending to the flowers and stuff.”
Kei raises an eyebrow. “Only when I’m tending to the flowers?”
“What? No that’s not what I meant!” The amount of distress the harmless jest caused him is pretty funny. “You’re cute all the time! Well not all the time but—ah shit.” A frantic hand gesture. “I-I mean you’re pretty cute whenever I see you, and I see you pretty often when I’m at the coffee shop. Not that I’m a total creep or anything it’s just I happen to see you and—” He buries his face in his palms. “—okay,okay.”
As the young man attempts to recollect himself, Kei doesn’t know whether to feel flattered or highly amused by the gush of words he’d just received. He considers pouring the guy a glass of water - he looks like he needs it, whether to clear up his throat or to put out the flames he seems two seconds away from bursting into.
God, this is so weird. Kei thinks to himself, but there isn’t a hint of the distaste he expected in it. Glancing back at the poor customer, he rolls his eyes, covering his contorting mouth with the back of his hand.
“Pfft—” The giggle is short, and Kei immediately smothers it by clasping his palm over more of his mouth, but Tetsurou seems to have an almost feline sense of hearing as his head almost immediately perks up at him.
There’s something about the awed look on his face that makes Kei feel on the spot. He averts his eyes and crosses his arms with what he hopes is a more neutral expression.
“Hey,” begins Tetsurou with renewed vigor, “do you think we could get some coffee sometime? I’ll pay.”
Now that snaps his attention back to him.
“I’m sorry, what?”
And that seems to snap Tetsurou back to his previous flustered state. “You know - you, me, getting coffee? Or tea if you’re into that stuff - not that it’s weird or anything I just want to make sure that–”
“Sure.”
Now it’s Tetsurou’s turn to be confused. “What?”
“Yeah, uh, sure.” He fiddles a bit with the pouch in his apron, wanting to add that he can handle his own part of the bill but not willing to risk his voice getting any weaker.
Tetsurou blinks. Once. Twice. Is he honestly that surprised? “Sure. I-I mean great!I’ll pick you up here tomorrow. When does your shift end?”
“Five thirty, but I may need to spend a while cleaning up.”
“Oh that’s fine, I’ll wait.”
God, what is happening. “All right.”
“Cool!”
Silence.
Tetsurou clears his throat, kicking at the tiled floor a bit. “I guess I’ll see you tomorrow, then, it’s a date!” He heads for the door.
The realization makes Kei blush (even more so if he wasn’t already). It’s a date. He has a date. “I guess it is.” Before Tetsurou can get a foot out of the door, he remembers something. “Thank you for the flowers.”
“Huh?” Kei hears snickering from outside, his suspicions only confirmed by the way Tetsurou glances quickly to the side. “Oh, y-yeah! You’re welcome!”
The second the door closes, Kei lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding.
What the hell just happened?
Not willing to put himself through the secondhand embarrassment of recalling the fine details, Kei focuses on the important details. He has a date tomorrow at five thirty. With a guy who’s apparently had the biggest crush on him for god knows how long.
Just the thought of it is making his head woozy.
Stop it, Kei, calm down - you’re at work.
He’s pretty sure he just heard a rather loud exclamation from outside along the muffled lines of “Congrats, dude. Gettin’ some!”, but he shakes his head in favor of preserving the moment.
After a mintue or two, he takes the liberty of placing the tulips in one of their spare plastic vases with some sugar and vinegar mixed with water - it’s a preservation trick he only shares with customers that haven’t annoyed him.
“Yellow tulips,” he mutters as he places the vase down in front of him, fiddling with the petals a bit.
While he’s familiar with the meanings of several rose variations - routine anticipation - tulips aren’t something he gets asked about too often. Probably a few have asked, but those are normally Koushi’s to deal with. Maybe he’ll ask him about them when he gets back.
“There’s sunshine in your smile.”
Not noticing how he’d wondered off in thought, Koushi’s voice almost takes him by surprise. But it’s only half a second before he replies with a small “Huh?” as he walks over to take the paper bags from his coworker’s arms.
“The flowers you’ve put over there.” He points over to the small vase, nodding a bit at Kei in thanks. “Yellow tulips: there’s sunshine in your smile.”
If the clatter of noise Kei made as he half-dropped the bags onto the countertop was in any way concerning, Koushi didn’t show it. Instead, there’s a warm smile on his face at the way Kei’s pale cheeks are now noticeably pink.
“I guess something interesting happened when I was away.” His smile fades into a small, comical pout. “Aww, today’s a pretty slow day too.”
As he walks past Kei to tend to some of the plants, he pats his shoulder - he’s patronizing him, he just knows it.
“Take however long you want to calm down, but I want to hear all about it later, ‘kay?” is all the grey-haired man says before grabbing a sprayer and heading off.
It takes Kei a good half an hour to pull himself together, but Koushi doesn’t miss the small smile in his eyes as he forces asks him to tell the story.