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Basil was pacing across the living room floor. Kel would be here any minute. His socks matched, right? The flower he chose to wear in his hair wasn’t dying, was it? Was his shirt on backwards?
Relax, Basil, Kel wouldn’t care about any of that, the flower boy told himself. You know him. Right? I mean, he forgave you and Sunny, which you didn’t think anyone would do, so maybe you don’t know him, but-
“Basil, are you overthinking things?”
The voice shook him out of his thoughts.
”Oh, uh, of course not, Aubrey-! What makes you think that? Heh heh…”
”You’ve been pacing for 10 minutes,” Aubrey said.
”Closer to 13. Thirteen minutes and 43 seconds.”
”Wow. Okay, calm down. Calm. Down.” Aubrey shifted in her seat. Who was she to be telling Basil to be calm, after everything she did to him? Even all this time later, she was surprised he even let her move in. She thought she deserved to live in that dump of hers.
But Basil probably thought he didn’t deserve forgiveness, either.
Well, the best they could do now was try to help each other. Basil gave her a place to stay, Aubrey gave him relationship advice.
Anyway.
”Listen to me,” Aubrey said firmly, grabbing Basil’s shoulders. “Kel’s both a massive dork and the most carefree person I know. You think he’s gonna care about whatever little imperfections you’re worried about?”
”Maybe?” Basil gulped.
Aubrey sighed. “How long have you two been dating?”
”A week. I think. Maybe a little bit more. Eight days? Nine? Who’s counting?”
”You certainly counted the minutes you were nervously pacing for.”
”Touché.”
”Look, maybe I’m not an expert, but Sunny and I have been dating for months now,” Aubrey huffed. “I think I know enough about this stuff - and about Kel - to know that if he didn’t care about dating you, he’d have outright said it by now.”
”But what if-“
Knock knockknock knock knock, knock knock.
A knock at the door.
”Helloooooooooooooo? Basil?”
”Open the door, you idiot!” Aubrey hissed.
”O-Oh, right, right!” Basil rushed to the door, hitting Aubrey in the face as he hurriedly swung it open.
”YOU-!”
”S-SORRY, AUBREY-!”
”Haha, you alright there, Aubs?” Kel snickered as he walked in, ruffling Basil’s hair.
”I told you not to call me that,” Aubrey grumbled.
”Right, right. How’s my little sunflower doing?”
”F-Fine, fine, completely fine,” Basil stammered. He always got all flustered when Kel ruffled his hair like that, but man, did he love it.
”Hey, Kel, are you feeling alright?” Aubrey asked.
”Uh, yeah, fine, completely fine,” Kel chuckled, almost mirroring Basil’s stammering. Though he seemed to be a little bit out of it.
“Are you sure, Kel?” Basil questioned. “We don’t have to go anywhere today if you’re not feeling up to it. We can just rest here.”
”C’mon, aren’t cacti supposed to be all resilient and stuff?” Kel laughed, some of his usual energy missing. “I’ll be fine! Let’s get going!”
”Have fun, you two,” Aubrey said with a smile as Kel and Basil went out the door.
”Y-Yeah, yeah, we- yeah,” Basil stammered. “Yeah, we’ll have fun! Mhm!”
”You’ve been smiling a lot more the past three weeks,” Kel noted, grinning.
”I’ve been smiling more?” Basil echoed.
”Ever since we, y’know, officially got together, yeah!”
”It’s… it’s been three weeks!?”
”What, did you think it was longer? Don’t blame you. I’ve been pretty happy myself - even had the motivation to take on a lot of part-time jobs around town!”
”How… how many part time jobs…?”
”Uh… um, uhh…”
”Kel. How many part time jobs did you take?”
”Let’s see, I arranged tools at the hardware store a few times, delivered a pizza or two, which was SUPER hard because the notes with the addresses on them had the worst handwriting I’ve ever seen, swatted flies at Othermart, cleaned up trash at the park, babysat Sally while my parents weren’t home if that counts, uh… I think that’s it! Wait, does practicing for the big basketball game coming up count as a part time job?”
”Have you gotten a chance to just breathe, Kel?”
”Cacti are… resilient,” Kel sighed. No, he hadn’t.
Especially not with the secret project he was working on, the one Basil would soon find out about.
”Well, here’s… the old… hangout spot,” Kel wheezed, parting the overgrown bushes at the park.
”Something’s wrong,” Basil said. “We didn’t walk very far, and you’re tired? You of all people?”
Kel said nothing.
”What’s going on, Kel? You need to rest! Come on, we’re going back to my place,” Basil demanded as he grabbed Kel’s arm.
”N-No, no, let’s just… see the old hangout spot first… please…!” Kel huffed. “I just… need to show you… one little thing…”
Basil considered for a moment. “Fine. Then you’re resting.”
Kel guided Basil through the bushes, a silly grin on his face. He always got a little loopy when he was exhausted, and he was definitely beyond that point.
Basil’s jaw dropped.
”Tadaaaaaaaaaa,” Kel cheered as he goofily presented his hard work.
It was a giant cactus, made out of bottles and cans! Must’ve been collected during Kel’s trash cleanups. And… there were sunflowers arranged in a heart shape!
”Flower language is so, so cool… you showed me it, all of us it, it’s… it’s great…”
”Kel, I… I don’t know what to say,” Basil marveled.
Okay. Maybe there was one thing he could say.
”…I… thank you, Kel. I love you.”
…Two things.
”But you have to rest. NOW!”
”Anything for you, my adorable and super cool little partner… my lil’ Basie…” Kel giggled.
Basil’s pale face turned red, highlighting his freckles. Basie? A nickname? “Awwwgh, Kel-! Ahahaha…”
Yeah… for the first time since the Incident over four years ago, Basil could finally say…
He was truly happy.