Rating: M

Warnings: Language & Sexual Content. Implied Self-harm.

Gladiolus symbolizes strength of character, faithfulness and honor.

It took skill and extreme patience, the gentlest of touches, a finger grazing over the delicate petals, to care for such fragile beauty. The sharp scent that could curl any person's nose and incite a sneezing fit, it required someone like him, a person who could dive into a barrel full of white daisies, ruby-red roses, or purple iris, and still not release a sinful sneeze. For doing such a thing could disturb their structure and knock one off their feet, incapable of maintaining proper balance in order to nurture these treasures.

It was difficult being entranced by the variety of flowers, engrossed in their vivid colors and smells, and not be scorned by others at your oddness and unmanliness. How could one not witness their value and not be enchanted? It baffled him to no end.

His frequent customers consisted of unmarried ladies, eager to hear his prized lectures on the different meanings of each flower. There was also those blokes who ran in mindlessly, throwing upon their money on the counter, and asking him for his most beautiful flowers: a last minute decision to gift a lover, but no less thoughtful. And finally, his most favorite and most precious customer of them all; a young lady covered in black leather and inked in an assortment of tattoos over her pale, smooth body.

The first time he met her, he was busy creating bouquets of white roses for an upcoming wedding of two old widows who decided to grace marriage once again, when she barreled through the front door, a biker helmet held over her shoulder and a scowl on her pretty face. It took him a good three minutes of staring, particularly at her opal eyes, wondering if the color was close, if not the same, as the roses he was preparing.

Impatient, the girl-no, the woman snapped her gloved fingers in front of him, leaning across the counter to capture his attention.

"Hey! Why aren't you answering me? Do you sleep with your eyes open or something?"

The shopkeeper blinked, shaking his head to clear it. "Do you know your eyes resemble gardenia flowers, miss?"

The bizarre woman leaned back, raising a brow with puzzlement. "Gardenia flowers? What the hell are those?"

To answer her question, he walked behind the counter and toward the greenhouse attached to his little shop. Plucking one of the ivory flowers by the stem, he returned to hand her it.

"This flower symbolizes purity and sweetness. It conveys joy." He explained as she slowly took the flower from him, taking a whiff from its center and curling her nose from the sharp smell.

"Hmm. Do you have anything that symbolizes something other than….sweet and pure?" The woman asks, throwing the flower over her shoulder with undisguised disgust. "Something that represents strength, for example?"

The man tried not to grimace at her apparent dislike of the flower. Oddly, despite its blandness, he found it one of his personal favorites. Seeing it thrown aside so casually...it was unbearable.

"The Gladiolus flower shall do."

After she left, a whole batch of neatly wrapped gladiolus flowers in her arm, the shopkeeper eventually forgot about her visit until she came back, the third friday of the next month.

Parking her flashy red bike in front, she ran inside before the rain began to drip more heavily. He had been busy in the greenhouse when she arrived, boots sunk deep in the brown mud, gloved from fingertips to elbows. It was almost spring season, the perfect time to plant pink tulips and he did not want to miss the opportunity to get a headstart. Somewhere, he didn't know where, whether it was a garden tip book or a friendly advice from one of the farmers he visited in the other villages, but he had learned that planting weeks before spring actually arrived was the best time. That way, you prepare the soil and ready it for its upcoming planting season.

Too busy shoveling fertilizer and scooping seeds into the damp soil, he did not notice his visitor leaning against the doorway of the greenhouse, watching him keenly in silence. Only when he turned around to grab another bag of fertilizer, did he notice her presence.

"You're back." He said as greeting, surprise evident on his soiled face.

The woman stood up straighter, crossing her arms. She was wearing her usual motorcycle, leather jacket, accompanied with tight, lowly riding skinny jeans and striped bandana to hold back her long, purple hair. From the opening of her jacket and the way her arms crossed the her wrists were revealed, he could make out the colorful tattoos painted on her skin.

"You look tired." She observed, closing the distance between them. "Do you do nothing all day but work in the garden?"

Once again, he found himself lost in the color of her strange eyes. His answer came after a short lapse of time, his voice a bit scratchy and forced. "Uh...no." He waved toward the packets of seeds splayed out on the dirt. "I'm planting. I usually wait until later, when the weather is appropriate for the season, but I figured I'd get a headstart." He explained dumbly.

"Huh. Isn't a bit weird that you're kinda obsessed with gardening?" She teased, darting her eyes around the greenhouse.

The place was large, in comparison to his florist shop. There were rows of flowers, each lined up perfectly and separated with same distance. The white and red roses took up their own row, the daisies and tulips another, the lilies and lilacs were lined up against the sides of the greenhouse, allowing their leaves to have room to spread horizontally, and all the other rare and difficult to plant flowers took up the last two rows, each carefully hidden in the shade and under special artificial light.

"I don't it is weird, actually." The man claimed quietly, removing his gloves and wiping his hands on the back of his dark jeans. Pushing back his hair, he eyed the bespectacled beauty in front of him. "So, why have you returned to my shop again? More gladiolus flowers again, my strong one?"

With amused interest, he watched the woman turned red, blushing prettily and glanced away with a offended pout. "Don't call me that. My name is Hinata."

"And mine is Sasuke." He chuckled, shaking his head and walking toward the door of the greenhouse. The woman followed him, watching him as he pulled out a key to lock the door.

"I knew that. I mean, unless you're not the owner of this place, it was kind of obvious." Hinata scoffed arrogantly. "The sign, Sasuke's Florist Shop, kinda gave it away."

Sasuke chuckled again, moving behind the counter and shrugged innocently. "So what can I help you with today?"

"I need a flower that isn't too big, as in the petals are small, and not too sharply scented."

Sasuke tapped his chin thoughtfully, gazing at her with scrutiny. "Do you want it to symbolize something?"

Hinata pursed her lips and nodded shortly. "Solitude."

Furrowing his brows, Sasuke leaned forward, hands pressed against the counter and widened his eyes. "Why solitude? To whom are you gifting these flowers to?"

"Myself." Hinata replied quietly, puffing her chest with impatience. "Do you have any flower like that or not?" She snapped, tapping her foot and uncomfortable with his piercing look.

He nodded, still apprehensive but compliant to her demand. "Yeah. I think ruby heather flowers are perfect."

She came again. And again. Each time, she brought with her a new preference and their relationship eased its tension. Sometimes her requests baffled him. Faithfulness. Rebirth. Loyalty. New beginnings. And sometimes her requests scared him, an unbelievable urge to wrap her in his skinny arms and shelter from the world, to pull her in his garden of flowers and camouflage her deep inside a forest of purple irises and white, ivory gladioluses. Pain. Sorrow. Defeat.

Each third Friday became like a scheduled appointment between them, something they both mutely look forward to. She'd walk in, they'd talk a bit, a chat too short for his liking, and then she'd request a flower and depart without a second glance.

Eventually,. he didn't know when it happened, but he began to crave those third Fridays. He's wish he had an ability to forward time, besides a gift to cradle and nurture flowers, although he enjoyed doing that too.

Sometimes, when he was alone with his flowers, body scented with an assortment of smells, he'd think of her. He'd wonder and try to guess what he next preference would be. Would it be something awful and depressing this time? Or something more light and warm? Do her preferences always match her feelings, her state of mind, or were they not?

Soon, the third friday arrived, the twentieth one since the first time he saw her. Instead of waiting for her behind the counter, listening for that rumbling motor that signified her arrival, Sasuke remained in the greenhouse. Since her last visit, he had renovated the inside a bit. There was enough room inside for him to place a bench and a small shed to place his gardening supplies.

Picking up the shovel and metal pail full of soil, he opened the little shed and turned on the little light hanging inside.

"There you are! Whoa! What did you do to this place?"

Grinning in excitement, he hurriedly stuffed all the supplies inside and walked back out to meet her. She was sitting on the new bench, dressed in a flattering dress. He was so taken aback by her girly appearance, Sasuke stood in front of her, ogling her for a good minute. There was no jacket that hid her curves underneath, curves that he could plainly see right now, and damn. There was no tight jeans that hugged her hips or gloves that covered her fingers or boots that rode high to cover her ankles. Instead, she wore a flowing, yellow dress that hugged her in all the right places. Sitting crosslegged on the bench, it gave him perfect view of her nicely shaped calves beneath and the way the fabric rode low from her neck, he wondered how he didn't notice that she hid away those. They were easily more than a handful.

And then the gardener remembered how all the precious, rare flowers were always those that were hard to find. Hide to locate because they were rare in number but when found, it was hard not to be entranced by their uniqueness. And this woman, he knew, without a doubt, that she was a rare gem.

And he could not let her go.

"U-Uh, you look...beautiful." Sasuke gulped, awkwardly moving to sit beside her on the bench and trying hard not to stare.

Hinata blushed sheepishly, tossing her long hair back and smiled. "I have a date later. I may be some bad, biker girl covered head to toe in tattoos, but I am a girl."

"A-A date?"

"Yah." Hinata nodded, hiding her joy. "Are you busy? I need to be somewhere soon and was wondering if you had any flower that symbolizes happiness?"

With a snap, he felt the last thread of hope in him break and leave him faltering in the dark, his heart shattering in pieces. He felt dried up, like an abandoned rose left to wilt away.

"I think daffodils will do." His voice held tremor, his face pale as white, but the oblivious girl hopped up to her feet, her silky hair swaying as she gripped his hand to help him up. He followed her inside the shop, wondering if it was cruel for him to wish her happiness away. To wish those daffodils will also wilt and die, so he might, maybe, have his chance with her.

That chance came sooner than he thought. In fact, the next third Friday she came, he knew that something was different that day.

Like usual, she arrived with the rumble of her motor, his back turned toward the entrance as he worked on bouquet of flowers.

The door cracked open, the sound of clinking metal following her arrival. Not turning around, still pathetically jealous about what he discovered from their last meeting, he stubbornly avoided her gaze as he greeted her. "Hey."

He didn't see the frown of dissatisfaction on her face at his cold greeting. But he also did not spot her guilty look, observing the stiffness of his shoulders with remorse.

"Is something wrong?"

He shook his head and then sighed, before turning around and crossing his arms with a detached look. "So what's today's preference? Joy? Admiration? Optimism? Love?" He bit out that last word with such sourness, Hinata grimaced at him while he inwardly scolded himself for being direct.

"No." Hinata denied, rubbing her arms and looked away. "I don't….feel any of that today."

"How unfortunate." Sasuke remarked dryly.

Today? Tomorrow? By the next third Friday? She might as well be, by then. Sasuke knew that if she ever will, there will come a time where she would and he would feel the loss by her next request after it. He didn't know if he could handle seeing that come to play. With sheer luck, the woman did not find love with this man she met up with. But who knew when the right man will come along and snatch this precious flower away from him?

"Then, if you don't know feel any of those, can I suggest a flower to you this time?" Sasuke offered casually.

Hinata blinked in surprise, but was intrigued. "I was thinking about getting a flower to symbolized disappointment but...yeah. Sure. Go ahead."

Curtly, Sasuke nodded and went to retrieve her a dark red carnation, plucking it gently from the stem and handed the delicate flower to her. It was a flower that grew in clusters, it's flower holding five petals and balanced on a thin, light green stem.

"Here. I think this one will be appropriate this time." Sasuke held his hand out and she took it from him, eyeing the flower in confusion. And she had every right to be confused. Never, not once, had she chosen a flower that transitioned between the two colors: red and pink. But he had given her one.

"What does this flower symbolize?" Hinata asked him, twirling the flower from its stem between her thumb and index finger.

"I'll tell you next time you come back." He only said, shrugging and resuming his work without a backward glance. "Unless you figure it out first."

The doorbell rang, the clinking metal sound echoing against the ivory walls of the small florist shop. Even without turning around, the gardner knew who his first customer of the day was. It was that time of month again, the third friday that signified this meeting. The man knew he would be lying if he claimed that he did not look forward to this day. Since the last time he gifted her with the dark red carnation, his nights were filled with anxiety, wondering if she figured it out. Wondering if she'll be pleased or disgusted, or simply not interested.

She was wearing her biker clothes again and he breathed a sigh of relief. Sasuke never thought he would be that pleased to see her in her usual attire until now.

This time, he waited patiently behind the counter, watching her park that bike of hers and watched her hop off and stalk in. He raised his eyebrows when he spotted her furious glare.

"I take it that you did not like my gift?" Sasuke said with disappointment. Maybe he should have started with a light red carnation first and then barreled on...

Hinata flushed furiously, stomping her feet and snatching the front of his shirt across the counter. Teeth bared, she growled at him. "What are you playing at?" She demanded, white eyes flashing.

Sasuke swallowed the lump in his throat and played it off casually, "Whatever do you mean?"

"Don't patronize me, Sasuke!" The girl hissed impatiently, curling her fingers and digging deeper into his shirt's fabric. "You know what I'm talking about! The flower you gave me! I looked it up! Why the hell would you give me that?"

"Because I have fallen in love with you?" Sasuke retorted nonchalantly, shrugging with indifference and eyeing her rosy cheeks flush deeper at his calm revelation.

She released him immediately, taking a safe step back, obviously grateful to have a counter separating them. Sasuke, on the other hand, was displeased by this predicament.

"Y-You can't have fallen in love with me…" Hinata stammered. "How…? We don't even know each other!"

Walking around the counter, he stood beside her and wipe invisible lint from his shoulder and then regarded her coolly. "I think I know enough about you from your full year of visits by now. We do chat and your flower choices always gave me an insight about your feelings. It was easy to note how they related to what was happening in your life."

Hinata gaped incredulously at him, but did not say anything. She looked at him with disbelief, Sasuke knew that he had to do something in order to convince her.

"For example, when you first came to me, you were just beginning to embrace your stronger self. I'm thinking that you may have began to join the dark side, with you being a crazy biker girl and acting all badass."

"And then, over time, your feelings went downward as your life did. Maybe your life went haywire after becoming who you are, or something happened in your life and you felt at loss. Alone. So you began to want flowers that symbolized depressing emotions."

"But then you started to ask me for flowers that symbolized hope and rebirth, and I knew that you finally jumped the hurdles in your life and was ready to move on from your darkness."

"Soon, your flower choices became more lighter, like joy and happiness, and I knew someone came into your life. Like….a romantic prospect. But no sooner did those emotions arrive, they disappeared."

"I'm assuming this person left you for another." Sasuke said slowly, watching the turmoil of emotions swirling in her shimmering eyes. "You ask me how I could gift you such a flower, a flower from me to you, to display my own emotions and you do not think for once how absurd you question is? How, after a whole year of monthly meetings, watching you walk into my door with such admiring confidence and ask for one flower, could I not?"

"When….since when have you felt that way?" Hinata stared at him.

"Since the day you asked me for those daffodils for that ungrateful man who left you." Sasuke glowered, darting his eyes away. "I knew...I felt something for you before, but I did not realize my deeper feelings until I felt that pang of jealousy run through me."

"Why me?" She uttered. "I mean, I'm just a biker girl who likes to break the speeding law and you're….well, a botanist who's obsessed with flowers and mud."

Sasuke frowned. "Gee. Thanks for that."

Hinata rolled her eyes and laughed, a warm laugh that hit him right in the chest and a faint smile passing through his lips. "You know what I mean."

Boldly, he tried to answer her question with action than words. Gently, he ran his fingers through her hair, threading his fingers through its silkiness and almost melted from the touch. He heard her quietly gasp, but did not step away. And so he stepped closer and untied her bandana, standing close enough to smell the scent of fresh lavender on her skin.

"It was your hair, second, that made me realize that there was something unique about your appearance. I don't want to claim it was attraction at first sight, but I would be lying it I did not. As a botanist, I take pleasure in the flower's appearance. And when I saw how long and beautiful you hair was, how its glittery color matched the purple iris flower, I knew there was something intriguing about you. Something special, since your hair and its unique color is so rare among us humans."

Threading his fingers down her strands of hair once more, her gently cupped her wrists and slid his hands up her clothed arms. "And these tattoos you cover your skin in, even without taking off your leather jacket, I knew they hid your scars you desperately want to hide from the world." He felt her trembling under his touch, her head hanging low to avoid his gaze as he opened her like a book and prodded through all her deepest secrets. His heart swelled at her reaction, carefully pulling up one hand to kiss the back of it, his lips brazing her skin and scoring another gasp from her.

"Third but dearly important," Sasuke lifted her chin and smiled timidly at her, as their eyes met and he planted his lips against her plush ones. Lightly, he placed a kiss against her closed one and then another and another, connecting their lips with light touches, their noses grazing with every connection. He pulled away and ran a thumb over her cheek, staring at her mutely for a couple of seconds, lost in those pearl eyes. "Your lips, that glistened when you ran your tongue over them or was pale pink as a budding tulip when you ran in here when it rained outside, it was hard not to picture myself kissing and tasting them constantly."

His admission caused Hinata to blush and stutter, "You keep comparing parts of me to a variety of flowers. Isn't that a bit weird?"

Sasuke shook his head vigorously, craning his head to the side with bafflement. "Nonsense. There is no greater compliment that to be compared to such beautiful things. For flowers are used by humans as gifts of love or friendship or appreciation, but it is their remarkable colors and scents that attract us to them in the first place."

"Are you saying that you are attracted to me?" Hinata concluded shyly, clutching the front of his shirt as he wrapped his own arms around her small waist.

"Is that okay?" Sasuke asked as he bent to kiss her lightly on the cheek, marveling at her apparent shyness. Who knew such a rowdy girl could have a shy side? Pride filled him. "I don't think I can handle another third Friday to know your answer, Hinata."

She bit her lip before blurting, "Yeah. It is."

Sasuke grinned, still trapping her in his embrace. She leaned into him and he settled his chin on top of her head, wondering if he was stuck in a dream or fantasy he conjured up. He hoped it was neither.

"What was the first thing that...made you like me?"

"Hmm?"

"You said, my hair was second and my...lips were third. So what was the first?"

Sasuke pulled back and laid his forehead on hers, softly whispering his reply.

"Your eyes."

"My eyes?"

"Yes. Do you know that sometimes it was hard for me to look away when I spoke to you? How I felt like I was enchanted by your haze, too afraid that if I looked away, I'd miss a chance to see a glimmer of shine in them and hate myself?"

Hinata said nothing but bury her face in his chest again, hiding her creeping blush. Sasuke smiled at her, rubbing her back and planting his lips on her neck with close-mouthed kisses.

"So what flower do you want to request today?" He broke the silence after a while, mumbling into her neck as she sighed with contentment.

"Mmm…" She crooned in his chest, before softly murmuring, "A purple lilac."

Sasuke smirked, thinking that someone had done some research lately. "Ah. Good choice."

Purple lilac symbolizes first love.