Work Text
Natsuya was on his way to get some flowers for his mom, since it was mothers’ day. No problem- if Natsuya knew anything about flowers.“So are you gonna help or just be annoying about it?” Natsuya said into his phone.
“You said you were going to get the flowers,” Ikuya responded.
“I will. It might take a while.”
“Don’t get distracted.”
“I won’t, thanks. Bye.”When Natsuya walked into the small store, he was instantly distracted. There was a young man about his age standing behind the counter, and he was very pretty. Natsuya walked over, and he wasn’t quite sure how he’d be able to speak, as it was currently taking all he had to stand there.
“How can I help you?”
“Uh, hi. I want to get some flowers for my mom, but I don’t really know a lot about flowers…”
“I can definitely help with that. Do you have anything in mind?”
“Well, she likes the colors blue and purple a lot,” Natsuya more thought aloud than said, really.
The young man smiled and got something from the counter he was standing behind. “I have a catalog here you can look through. There’s supposed to be a delivery coming in any minute so I’m going to be in the back for a little while, but let me know your decision when I get back.”
“That’s great, thank you,” Natsuya said excitedly.
Before the extremely pretty flower shop employee walked away, he had one final comment. “By the way, my name is Nao.” Natsuya stared blankly at a wall of gardening tools for a hot minute. He had a name to go with the lovely face of the man he’d just- ‘what am I doing again?’ Natsuya thought, and brought himself back to reality. He leaned against the counter and started flipping through the book. It was quite easy to understand, it had pictures and pictures of different kinds of flowers with all sorts of information about how much sun they need, if they thrive better sheltered or exposed to the elements, if they need extra supplies like plant food, - ‘what?’ Natsuya thought again - and what other flowers they grow well with. It didn’t take long for Natsuya to select a few options that he thought would work, and he looked around the small store while he waited for Nao to return.
Calling the flower shop small was almost an understatement. It was a little hole-in-the-wall place officially titled a “flower and garden supply store” that Ikuya had passed by when he was running one day, and Natsuya had to spend a long time going through search results to find it on the internet so he could get directions there. The storefront was old brick, painted pastel purple in hopes of making it more noticeable. The door had a chime, an actual little bell, which Natsuya could now make out to be shaped like a bird for whatever reason. Inside the store, three of the walls were covered in shelves and hooks, filled with vases and pots, gardening tools, and lawn decorations respectively. On the counter was an older looking cash register that had an attached receipt-printer, a stack of papers that looked to be order forms, and a few little statues of ocean animals. Upon closer inspection around the store, Natsuya noticed that there were a few other little statues in odd but clearly intentional places, and the door chime was some kind of bird that hung around water but he couldn’t remember what it was called.
A minute or two later Nao returned. He still had that small smile that looked so nice on his face, and Natsuya was still a painfully easily distracted man. Natsuya was able to get his metaphorical self together enough to explain to Nao what he had in mind, which turned out to be something that worked very easily.
“You’re in luck, a bunch of those flowers were in our delivery. I’ll go get them and be back in just a moment. I’d suggest looking at the vases if you don’t have a tall one at home, these flowers are always longer than people expect.”
“Thanks so much,” Natsuya uttered as Nao briefly disappeared again.
Natsuya went to do as instructed, and found a cool looking vase with an interesting criss-cross pattern on the surface of the glass. He decided to leave it on the shelf in case his selection wouldn’t work, and because it was a great excuse for further conversation with Nao. Well, an excuse.
“Alright, I have the flowers together. Will this be it?”
“Uh, I think I found a good vase.”
“Great.” Nao could very quickly see that Natsuya had not grabbed said vase, and was standing more or less where he was before. “Let’s see if the flowers fit.”
“Yeah, good idea,” Natsuya got the vase and walked back. He held it out to Nao, and their hands touched briefly. Nao was smiling softly as he inspected the vase, and Natsuya was a weak man. He had decided, he would somehow manage to get up the courage to ask this adorable human for his number, and if it didn’t work out, they could avoid each other easily.
“This will work great. Will this be all?” Nao asked.
Natsuya had to pull his brain back down to earth, but he nodded and stammered a “yes.”
After the purchase was complete, a golden opportunity presented itself to Natsuya. He had to sign the receipt, so at the very bottom he quickly wrote his number and prayed it would be legible. Natsuya went to his mom’s house with the flowers, Ikuya was already there with the gift they’d picked out. She was very happily surprised by her sons, and their little celebration was as enjoyable as ever. When Natsuya got home, there was a text from an unknown number.
Unknown: That was clever, I’ve never seen someone do that before. - Nao (the guy from the flower shop)
Natsuya: I’m glad it worked. It was a bit of a long shot.
Nao: Yes, it really was.
Natsuya: I have to ask something awkward to make this less awkward going forward.
Nao: Sounds like a good idea, go ahead.
Natsuya: When you saw my number, why do you think I gave it to you?
Nao: You seem like a sweet person, so I assumed it wasn’t just to get in my pants. My first thought was a date, I guess.
Natsuya: Do you want to go on a date with me then?
Nao: I don’t know you all that well yet, so how about we talk awhile before we plan that.
Natsuya: You have a lot of good ideas. What do you want to talk about?
Nao: Honestly, I want to know how you found the store. Most people don’t know it exists.
Natsuya: Oh, this is kind of funny. My brother passed by it when he was out on a run a few days ago, but this morning, instead of going to the store himself, he texted me the name and said “get flowers, see you at 2.”
Nao: And you found it just from that?
Natsuya: It took a lot of googling. You might want to look into getting a website or something.
Nao: I’ve been meaning to. That’s helpful though. Since you already know where I work, what do you do?
Natsuya: I’m a competitive swimmer
Nao: Oh I used to love swimming.
Natsuya: That’s cool!
Natsuya and Nao talk about swimming and other interests for a very long time, until they realize they should probably just see each other in person as soon as possible.