Work Text:
Amy pulled out the lavender she'd been fiddling with, filling the spaces where the long stalks used to go with little white daisies. She just couldn't get the bouquet to work. Yellow and purple usually went great together, but it looked weird trying to fit lavender in with the bunch when there was already goldenrod filling a similar silhouette. Besides, lavender was sometimes associated with love, and she didn't want to confuse the new tenants just down the way.
It hadn't been a huge surprise when she caught news of a new tattoo parlor opening up in town. There was only one shop as competition, and they'd steadily been losing favor over the last couple of years. Amy knew some people who'd had to go out of town to get the tattoos they got from there touched up or, in some cases, completely covered. Apparently, the tattoo artists had horrible line work and generally butchered designs. Amy didn't have any tattoos herself, but she figured a new rival would be good for business.
It just so happened that the new tattoo parlor opened up in the very same strip mall her flower shop was located in. She had a place on the bottom floor while they were on the top floor, and it was their opening day. The sheer volume of people that Amy had seen from the new traffic they garnered was enough to make her like the new tenants, but she'd already planned on giving them a welcoming gift. She just had to get it exactly the way she wanted it first.
Goldenrod, yellow roses and daisies all symbolized friendship. The language of flowers wasn't really used anymore, it was more a fun novelty, but Amy liked to keep it in mind. It made the bouquets she put together feel more interesting. Instead of just mixing and matching colors and shapes, she had to keep the whole piece thematically consistent as well, which added a fun layer of complexity to it all. Well, Knuckles would probably call it boring, but what did he know? He wouldn't be able to tell the difference between lavender and delphinium if it bit him on the hand.
Amy backed up, tilting her head this way and that as she evaluated her work. It was... a lot of yellow. But, in a way, the mono-color nature of it worked. She nodded to herself and set about packaging the stems up in plastic. Hopefully, the new tenants wouldn't be too disappointed by it. When Amy pictured a tattoo parlor, the color yellow didn't exactly come to mind. They made her think of inked skulls and heavy, washed out lighting.
With the bouquet in tow, Amy maneuvered it between her hands, careful not to press the delicate flowers against any walls as she flipped her sign so that it read closed to the outside. She locked up for good measure; she couldn't imagine anyone wanting to steal a bunch of plants, but she wasn't about to tempt fate or, even worse, the kind of money she'd have to fork out if any miscreants decided to vandalize her shop.
Her place wasn't too far from the stairs, sitting under the shadow they cast in the evening light, though she had to walk around to get to the bottom of them. It was dinner time for most, with the traffic rush home from work having subsided already. No one was really out shopping anymore; in another half hour, Amy would be closing up shop for the day. That's why it was the opportune time to deliver her welcoming gift, assuming that the tattoo parlor hadn't already closed.
Amy breathed a sigh of relief when she reached the upper floor and saw the lights still on inside. Good, she managed to catch them before they left! When she reached the door, she noticed that the sign said closed, however. Wow, by the skin of her teeth, huh? She debated knocking, but opted to push open the door instead, letting herself in. A musky scent hit her nose first, kind of like what she'd imagine an ink cologne would smell like. It was refreshing, but a bit on the chemical side.
"I'm sorry hon, but we're closed," someone said. Amy jumped, nearly dropping her bouquet, when a white bat strode around the corner. Both of her arms were covered in sleeves depicting just about every gemstone and jewel Amy could imagine, and she wore a loose shirt with the top three buttons undone. Amy's face went red-hot. She was... She was... Amy tore her gaze away. What was wrong with her, drooling all over the poor lady?!
"I-I know," Amy replied, steadfastly looking away. "I came to give this to the new tenants... As a welcoming gift...?" Her voice wavered at the end, coming out like a question rather than a statement. There was a long drag of silence before she swore she heard a quiet huff of laughter. "I'm Amy, I run the flower shop downstairs. Just figured I'd stop by and say hello, you know?" Oh, why was she rambling?
"That's very sweet of you, Amy," the bat said, chuckling. "Here, give me just a minute and I'll get Shadow out here too." Shadow? Was that one of the tenants? That meant that the bat lady she currently couldn't bring herself to look at was the second one, right? Well, she definitely gave off tattoo artist vibes. The intricate sleeves were probably her own work. Must've been great for pulling in the customers, if all she had to do was flaunt her arms in lieu of a portfolio. "Oh, Shadow! We've got a visitor!" she called.
"Who is it, Rouge?" another voice called out from in the back, this one masculine. He didn't get an answer; Amy chanced a very fast look at the woman's - Rouge's - face, only to blush harder and avert her eyes again. That smirk had to be illegal. It nearly sent her into cardiac arrest! It should be classified as a weapon of mass destruction, if all it took was one look to do someone in. That brief look at it made Amy's insides feel all gooey in a distinctly unprofessional way. "Rouge, you can't just-"
Footsteps echoed through the shop, becoming louder by the second. Amy skirted around Rouge standing there to look at who had made their way to the front. The face of a black hedgehog with red stripes down his quills looked back at her. He had industrial piercings in both ears, one on the left and two on the right, and his eyes were a bright crimson that matched the stripes on his quills perfectly. Amy's face didn't get any cooler.
"Amy here came to give us a present," Rouge explained. Amy could feel the smile in her tone of voice, entirely aware of how Amy was reacting to the two of them. "It's a little welcome gift." Shadow blinked, nodding, before he stepped fully out of the back. There were also red stripes on his arms, and Amy would bet he had matching ones on his legs. If his arms weren't covered in fur, she liked to think that they'd have sleeves like Rouge's on them. Maybe just wishful thinking on her part, though.
"Oh," he said. "Thank you. That's very kind of you." Sweet chaos, his voice. How in the world could it be both soft and gravely at the same time?? It took Amy a frnakly embarrassing amount of time to realize that he was holding his hands out to take the bouquet from her. When she did, she all but thrust it straight into his hands, completely forgetting the usual care with which she handled her delicate flowers.
"I just wanted to say hi, and welcome to the neighborhood and all that," Amy stuttered out. "I put this together in my shop downstairs. They're, uh, daisies, goldenrod and roses." Shut up, shut up, shut up! Ugh, it was too mortifying! Amy hadn't taken herself as the type to nervously ramble. When she'd had that crush on Sonic, she never did, but somehow she did for Shadow and Rouge, the new tenants who were shooting her funny looks. "I hope we can get along!"
"Oh, I'm sure we can do much more than that, hon," Rouge smoothly replied. Amy didn't know it was possible for a person's face to turn so hot it felt like liquid magma, but somehow Rouge had helped her achieve it. Shadow stared at the bright yellow bouquet like he wasn't quite sure what to make of it, blinking at it uncomprehendingly. He hated them, didn't he? Oh, she knew yellow was a bad choice! Should've listened to her gut.
"Leave her alone, Rouge," Shadow eventually recovered with. He shifted how he held the bouquet in his hands, propping the flowers up into the air. "Thank you, this is a very thoughtful gift. We'll have to find a vase for it." Huh? He didn't hate it? Amy was so surprised that she stared at him in blatant shock. Unfortunately, with her no longer ignoring the overwhelming presence of Rouge, she made eye contact long enough for Rouge to wink at her playfully.
"Okay," she said loudly as she spun around. "I'll be going now! Bye!" Amy didn't let either of them get a word in before she was out the doors. She didn't take a second to stop and silently scream at herself, making a beeline for the stairs instead. Amy took them two at a time until she was back on the bottom floor. She had to finish cleaning up so she could head home. ...Actually, no, she could come early tomorrow and do it then. There were some life choices she needed to question that were more pressing.