Soul rolled his eyes as the girl came in again. Despite being a teenager, like him, the blonde wore her hair in pigtails, as if she were a little kid. Soul watched out of the corner of his eye, chin balanced on palm, as she wandered around, too relaxed for it to be a birthday or apology or some other kind of necessary present. The green-eyed girl bypassed the roses and daisies, the ones most girls would have stopped and stared at, just like Soul knew she would. The girl had been coming on a biweekly basis, sometimes even more often, for a couple months now. This time, she stopped in front of the sunflowers, causing Soul to chortle with laughter, the sound harsh and loud in the soothing, peaceful hush that had been there before.
"What?" demanded the girl angrily.
'You're getting sunflowers?" snickered Soul, smirking at her.
"So what? Sunflowers are pretty!" the blonde retorted, getting fired up quickly, her face burning brighter than Soul's eyes, utterly bewildering the boy.
"Not with those Butterfly Weeds that you got a week ago. If you've got a normal colored home and don't want your eyes to bleed every morning, you'll get something else," Soul answered dryly, his tone long-suffering, as if he had to put up with this all the time.
"So what would you recommend, since you're clearly the color genius here?" the girl snapped back waspishly, her voice laced with an acidic amount of sarcasm.
With a heavy groan, Soul stood up and walked around the counter, hand running through his hair and the other shoved firmly in his pocket. Sleepy eyes half closed, he turned to the color wheel posted on the wall, not seeing how after glancing at it hurriedly, the girl started looking at him out of the corner of her eyes, hiding under her lashes.
"Get the Siberian Squills," he finally answered tiredly, the very act of thinking seemingly having exhausted the boy.
The blonde let out a hum, just barely catching herself before Soul saw her looking, covering her distractedness with the sound.
"You have no idea what I'm talking about, do you?"
Smiling a little, she shook her head and followed him as the white-haired boy slouched down the aisle, easily navigating around buckets of flowers while rolling his eyes and huffing up a storm.
"Geez, am I supposed to know the name of every single flower?" the jade-eyed girl scowled in annoyance.
"No, but some basic ones would be nice, especially since you come here so often," Soul retorted carelessly, and again, not seeing the effect this had on her. The girl squeaked from humiliation and nearly tripped on nothing, stumbling into him, who had turned around just in time and caught her arms. "You okay?"
Knowing that'd she'd lose her cool even more if she looked up, the girl growled forcefully and pulled back, regretting that his hands had to leave her shoulders so quickly, but you have to do what you have to do. "Yeah, yeah, I'm fine," she muttered, charging ahead past the boy, her combat boots hitting the ground with a thud on every step. "So where were those flowers you said would look good with orange?" her gentler voice asked, part of an attempt to soften her tone as she turned around to face Soul. She didn't need him hating her, after all.
"Over here," Soul answered, a bit of a pause preluding his words, and striding over to the stand and gesturing towards it.
"Thanks Soul," the girl called to his back as Soul began the journey back to the counter. She saw him start with surprise at the words, turning towards her momentarily. The blonde answered the question before it even became a sound, "Your name tag. And I'm Maka."
Alright, he might not have cared what her name was, but it was polite and she wanted for there to be a name to her face.
A nod was the only response, but was it wrong that it made her inordinately happy? Clasping her hands together behind her back, Maka peered through the flowers with surgical precision, knowing that she might as well take advantage of the advice, and maybe show him that she did take it into consideration, despite her sarcasm earlier. That is, if he was even watching, or noticing her at all for that matter.
Picking her flowers, Maka joyfully walked over to the counter, smiling at Soul a little, or a lot, as she handed over the money, the exact amount as always, and left, feeling proud of herself for managing a decent, snarky conversation with the boy, instead of getting all shy and red like the girls at school.
….
As the door swung shut behind Maka, Soul sighed and climbed into the swivel chair. Bickering with the cute, weird girl had been the most fun he had here in ages-
Wait!
Soul froze with shock and fear as an ice-cold feeling flooded his body. Since when was Maka cute?
She wasn't! Maka was a girl who happened to buy an inordinate amount of flowers and was funny and not swooning or anything and clearly really intelligent and to be honest, those eyes of hers were quite pretty and her golden wheat hair looked so silky and she bought a ton of flowers for someone who was probably her boyfriend, or maybe even her girlfriend, who knows?!
In short, Soul's internal monologue had him gnashing his sharp teeth, looking for all the world like a very disgruntled shark.
…..
When Maka came again, it was two weeks later and Soul was again in charge of the register. The store was rather crowded and they didn't have a chance to talk, not that it would've mattered, if the way Soul was hiding behind his bangs, avoiding worried emerald eyes, was any indication.
…
After the last visit, the blonde just barely saw his ruby eyes and a pair of snowy furrowed brows through the glass pane in the door, before Soul disappeared into the back of the store, leaving the tall girl behind the counter alone with Maka. Pretending she wasn't upset, Maka instead strolled over to the snapdragons in the corner, letting her hair fall forward so that the girl didn't notice how upset she was.
"Maka?" a soft, gentle voiced asked, an accompanying hand being placed on the shorter blonde's shoulder.
"Huh?" Maka gasped, turning to look at the pretty, dark haired girl.
"Soul really likes you," the girl, whose nametag deemed her Tsubaki, assured Maka quietly.
"What? How would you know?" she questioned, too confused to be polite.
"Just trust me, I've known him for a while," Tsubaki smiled warmly. "He's not really sure what to do with his feelings, ok? Besides, the poor guy thinks that you already have a boyfriend."
The unspoken question was vehemently denied, "No! I don't!" A little pause grew as Tsubaki beamed at the blonde. "So what do I do now?"
"I'll leave it up to you, but I promise he won't run away next time," grinned Tsubaki cheerfully, clearly happy to see hope for her depressed coworker.
…..
The way he looked nearly ready to bolt as she walked in through the door was disheartening, but attempting to keep Tsubaki's words in mind, Maka forged on bravely and acted like she didn't notice. True to the girl's promise, Soul didn't go anywhere this time.
Strolling through the empty store, Maka looked at all the flowers, pretending like nothing was wrong in the slightest, when in fact she felt so jittery the blonde could have powered a street with all the energy inside her. When she had circled the whole store twice, winding through all the tables and displays carefully, the girl picked a couple red carnations and white daisies. The short walk to the counter seemed eternal, with Maka pausing on the way, gazing at other flowers and wondering if they weren't better options, if the ones she picked would offend him somehow, or if her idea was too stupid or…
She was there. Standing in front of Soul, who looked utterly miserable, the blonde shyly put the flowers on the counter, being too careful in fear of somehow destroying the moment, somehow doing the wrong thing and ruining any chance of what she hoped for, like how one wrong twitch could send a deer shooting off into the forest, never to be found again.
"Nine, eighty-nine," the white haired boy intoned hollowly, eyes depressed and hopeless, now that the emerald ones could see them better. She watched as a small smirk fled across his face at the color choice, before disappearing. Taking the moment, Maka cleared her throat a bit, bringing the ruby eyes to the girl's face, though they wouldn't really meet hers. His eyes would've been piercing, if only there was some life in them. As she froze, forgetting her carefully thought through lines, Soul grumbled, "What? You sick or something?" Maka realized this was the 'make it or break it' moment.
"They're pretty, like you," she blurted out, turning redder than a beet instantly, because that was definitely not how she had hoped it would come out, not in that order, not with that prelude, and absolutely not with that tone. Not rushed or scared. She had wanted to be confident and sure, to hopefully calm whatever Tsubaki knew was worrying Soul.
In the meantime, the tan boy had turned the same shade as the roses in the buckets out front. Burning quickly, he stammered, "Huh? Wha?"
Scrambling to fix this, to make him understand, Maka's hands flew around, a side effect of her humiliation, before covering her face as she exclaimed hurriedly, her voice trembling, "I really like you and that's why I've been coming and those flowers are supposed to mean romance and I didn't know if you'd notice that because you don't seem like a nerd but maybe you might 'cause you work here and…" she trailed off, moving her hands from her eyes to look at Soul, whose face had now lost all color and his eyes had grown the size of dinner plates.
"But you're already dating someone!"
"I am? Since when?" answered Maka, understanding and relief that thank goodness he doesn't hate me beating her embarrassment.
"Then who have you been buying all these stinking flowers for?"
"Didn't you hear me?" she shouted, getting angry, "I said I've been coming here because of you! I couldn't just leave without buying anything! Listen when someone's confessing their love to you!"
Realizing how much she had just yelled, Maka began stammering out apologies as she turned to leave, deciding that he clearly didn't like her and that Tsubaki had either been wrong or making fun of her or…
"Stop," a voice pleaded, along with the weak grip on her wrist. Loose enough to let her leave, strong enough to hold her back, if only for a second.
Maka glanced out of the corner of her eye, examining Soul for a second. The boy looked like he had a concussion, to be honest, or that he was trying to say something really unpleasant, as he stumbled around the words, tripping into others and meandering sideways as Soul tried to explain to the girl that he really liked her but had thought she was buying all the flowers for her partner and gahhh, why was this so difficult?
Taking pity on him, Maka turned around and hugged his shoulders, awkwardly leaning across the counter. Soul met her in the middle, his hand on her back burning a mark into the girl's left shoulder blade, despite the fact that the touch was gentle as a butterfly's breath.
"I get it," she sighed warmly, knowing he would hear her in the silent shop, which had been so mercifully empty.
As the hug ended, Maka hid her disappointment that his hands had left, but she got a grin instead - a small, but real one, a smile that actually meant something, as opposed to the cheeky smirk Maka had been introduced to. Soul sat back down in his seat, which scooted back a bit unintentionally from the force, and held his hand out to her. Confused for a second, Maka realized, "Oh, yeah!" and handed him the money.
Taking it, Soul leaned over to get it in the cash register, while waving with his other hand at something under the counter that Maka couldn't see. Tilting her head to the side, the girl peered around the end of the counter before seeing a chair, a beam appearing on her face instantly. She walked over, a spring in her step, pulled it out, and started to berate Soul for not guessing her intention sooner. "What did you think I needed all those flowers for? A greenhouse?"
"How was I supposed to know it was because of me?" he snarked back.
"It's not that hard to guess!"
"I thought you had a boyfriend or girlfriend or something!"
"How's that my fault?"
"I never said it was, just that it wasn't mine!"
Though the words may not have been the gentlest, the two were holding hands under the counter, and despite the angry blush on Maka's cheeks and the disgruntled scowl on his lips, both of their eyes had such fondness that it was impossible to miss.