Cora was never a big flower girl. Oh, sure, she liked the way they looked and smelled and she knew what some of the more basic ones were called, but she had never been into the whole "language of flowers" thing. Sure, it seemed cool to her that different flowers could convey different things, but to her, it was a bit needless. In Cora's world, flowers were always gifts of love. The only thing that might vary slightly was what kind of love it was. For example, roses were romantic, yellow flowers were platonic, and white could be considered comforting since white flowers were often associated with funerals, but that was just Cora's point. Even though each of the flowers meant something different, they were all still the same underneath: gifts of love. Because of that, she never saw the point in trying to understand the technicalities of the language of flowers. She only knew that they were pretty, and that when June gave them to her, her heart would flutter and soar. Did she really need to know more to understand what June was trying to convey every time she gave Cora flowers? Cora didn't think so.
"Hey, Cora!" June caught Cora as she was headed over to their city's library.
"June! Good morning!" Cora called back. She was pleasantly surprised to see her friend this early. Usually, June didn't even wake until 8:00, so to see her out and about at 8:00 was quiet the surprise. And it was even more surprising because the last time Cora had seen June, June was out cold, and that had only been about 30 minutes ago at this point.
"Wait up!" June continued as she ran closer and closer. Cora could see a bag in her hand.
"I'm not going anywhere," Cora replied with an amused chuckle as June continued to fly down the sidewalk to meet her. Once they were together, June bent over a little and put her hands on her knees, breathing hard.
"Well. You're up early," Cora remarked, still amused and surprised by June's little visit.
"Yeah. Well. I had to give you this, today," June replied, then she stood up and opened the bag. Inside was a garland of violets.
"Oh! June! It's beautiful," Cora smiled, taking the strand of flowers from her best friend and draping them around her neck.
"You like them?" June sounded hopeful. She was twisting the handle of the bag, almost like she was anxious about something.
"Of course!" Cora replied. Why would June think otherwise? June knew Cora always loved getting flowers from her! Though violets did seem to be a very random choice, but then again, perhaps it was more of June's uniqueness. After all, the flowers she'd gotten Cora before were always like lavenders, mallows, pansies or green carnations, never anything normal like a red rose or a yellow flower.
"Then would you like to go to the dance with me?" June asked next, pulling out a flyer from her bag. The flyer was advertising some public event run by a nearby high school. It was supposed to be like a mini-prom. Guests were still expected to get dressed up, but it was not going to be quite as costly or fancy and it was going to be outdoors and anyone was invited, not just school members. It was a community prom, basically.
"Really, June? A dance?" Cora teased her friend. "You are such a hopeless romantic!"
"Well, you know me," she grinned shyly, gesturing to the violets at Cora's neck. "Now is that a yes?" she asked. Why did she sound so nervous?
"Of course," Cora promised, and June looked like a huge burden had been lifted off of her shoulders. Seriously, what was going on with her?
"Will you wear the violets too?" June asked next.
"Well, it'll be a bit hard to dance and party with these things wrapped around my neck and shoulders, but I will wear them if you want me to," Cora replied with a shrug. She had meant this to be a positive statement since she was agreeing to wear the violets, but June's reaction was the total opposite. She didn't look pleased or grateful for Cora's reply. She looked hurt, embarrassed and... angry? What?
"Because I want you to?" June asked, sounding deeply hurt. What had Cora said? "I wanted you to wear them because you would've wanted to wear them! I had a matching garland for myself..."
"Well, then of course I'll wear them! It's no big deal! They're just flowers. I'll get used to them!" Cora tried to soothe her friend, but it seemed that with every word she said, she only made it worse. June looked angry now, along with still looking very hurt and miserable.
"You know what? Never mind. It was a stupid idea anyway," she grunted. "I don't really dance, and nor do you..." then she excused herself from Cora's presence, ignoring Cora's attempts to call her back and understand what she had said that was so offensive.
Later that evening, a couple hours before the dance, it all became clear. Cora had been entirely unable to figure out why her casual agreement to wear the flowers had been taken so poorly, so she decided to actually go in and study the language of flowers. Since she was already on her way to the library, that wasn't a very tough thing to do. She simply made sure to stop by the books about flowers. After accidently skimming through several garden manuals and science books about the history and anatomy of various types of plants, Cora finally found a book that explained, in detail, what every single individual flower could mean. It was a very heavy and long book, but that made sense given that it was ambitious enough to try and explain every single flower out there in every context that could come up. For example, a red rose didn't just symbolize romance. It could also symbolize the blood of Jesus Christ. It just depended upon the context. And the same went for a white lily. They could either stand for purity, or the soul of a departed, based upon the context. It was a very good read.
At last, Cora got to the page about violets. They could represent royalty, individuality or faith, among other things, but the definition that really caught Cora's eye was the one filed under romance. Violets, like many other flowers, could stand for romantic love. That part wasn't the interesting part. The interesting part came next, describing exactly what type of romantic love violets stood for: the love between two women. Violets were flowers for lesbian or bisexual women. And where had this trend come from? Well, if the book was true, it came from an ancient Greek poet named Sappho. In one of her songs, she had been trying to woo another woman, and she did this by giving her a garland of violets. Oh.
Suddenly, it all became clear to Cora, and she had never felt more embarrassed or awkward. She quickly looked up green carnation, mallow, pansy and lavender, all of the other flowers June had given to her before. Similar results came up. On the green carnation page, it said that these particular flowers were tied to homosexuality thanks to the rumor stating that the infamous Victorian author, Oscar Wilde, had worn them upon the lapel of his coats. In short, green carnations were the Victorian male's version of Sapphic violets. On the mallow page, it was because, around the same time Oscar Wilde was alive, the color "mauve" had been tied to homosexuality and effeminate men. Guess what color mallows were? As for pansies, it was because the term had also been somewhat of an insult. For a man to be a pansy was for him to be effeminate, weak, wimpy and/or gay. It was around this time that Cora remembered something vaguely stirring up in the back of her mind...
In the middle of the Roaring 20s, about a decade ago now, there were these things called Pansy Clubs. They were in full swing, like speakeasies. What differed between the two, however, was that Pansy Clubs were explicitly open to gay people, whereas a speakeasy was more general. So there was another parallel June was offering up. Cora just hadn't remembered this one because she and June had only been little kids around this time, having not even met yet. If Cora was correct, she and June would've both been about the age of 8 during the peak of Pansy Clubs. As if anyone would let someone that young go to a bar, regardless of what sexual orientation the people inside claimed. It was the mid-30s now, and things were receding, practically going backwards. There weren't many Pansy Clubs left, and homosexuality was a big taboo. Just reading about what all these flowers meant were making Cora uncomfortable, but she couldn't stop reading. Why?
On the page with lavenders, something similar to the pansy situation arose. For a man to have "a streak of lavender" was for that man to be effeminate and/or gay. In fact, several poems written back in the 20s had compared men to lavenders, and in exactly zero cases was the man in the poem very masculine. Another example tying lavender to homosexuality came from a phrase that Cora actually did know, though somehow had not managed to connect with June despite how obvious it all was. That phrase was "Lavender Marriage". It was when a gay actor in Hollywood would marry a partner of the opposite sex to hide the fact that they weren't straight. This little tidbit right here was why Cora was still reading a book mentioning homosexuality, despite the big taboo on the topic again. She was actually planning on perusing a career as a Hollywood actress and it had occurred to her, several times over, that she might have to enter a Lavender Marriage herself...
That was right. Cora was homosexual, lesbian, gay, whatever the term was today. But it was something no one else knew. Not even June. As liberal as June appeared to be, she and Cora had only become friends because it was easier to room together in NYC than it was to try and rent their own separate rooms. They had lived together for about a year and a half now, but Cora still wasn't sure how trustworthy June was. Sure, June had made the occasional gay joke, but anyone could. Cora had no way of accurately gaging was June's reaction might've been if Cora would've ever come out to her. After all, her own parents had been quite amused by the concept of homosexuality. At least until their daughter admitted that she was "afflicted" with it. She hadn't seen them since the day they told her to leave.
But now here Cora sat, alone in the city library while reading about gay flowers. It all hit Cora smack in the face like a ton of bricks then. The things that should've been so painfully obvious before finally became clear to her now. All along, all of these flowers from June had been more than affectionate gifts, they had been confessions of love. Romantic love. And Cora, stupid Cora, hadn't even realized it all because she hadn't thought to ever learn the language of flowers! But now? Now Cora understood what June had been hinting at for so long. And it wasn't just platonic friendship. All along, Cora had gone with the times and returned to her closet, constantly wondering if June would've reacted to her homosexuality the same way her parents had, only to now discover that not only would June have been fine with it, but that she might not have been any straighter than Cora was. If the flowers spoke the truth, June was in love with Cora. And Cora hadn't even realized it.
"I can't believe what an idiot I've been!" Cora cried to herself as she returned the book on the language of flowers back to its shelf. "She's given me flowers for a long time now and even asked me to a dance. How could I have not seen it sooner?!" she muttered. Chastising herself for not trying to understand June's flowery talk earlier, the young woman ran all the way home. The dance was just an hour away, but with any luck, that was all Cora would need to amend her mistake and show June that she finally, finally understood what all of those petaled gifts had meant. Cora couldn't believe she hadn't noticed June's attraction earlier! All the touches, caresses and stares? All of the flowers and nervousness, especially today? Cora was the biggest and blindest moron on the planet! She cursed the heteronormative world around herself and cursed herself for having ever feared what June might've thought about her. Hopefully, June wouldn't stay too angry...
Cora paused outside the door to her and June's apartment. Around her neck was the very same garland of violets as before, but she had weaved green carnations, lavenders, pansies and mallows into them this time around. In her hand was a copy of Sappho's poem that she had copied from another one of the library's older books. Although it was a bit hard to understand, first being translated from Greek and then still written in a very old-fashioned form of the English language, Cora had been able to make out the general gist of it.
Sappho was mourning her unrequited love and begged Aphrodite to put her out of her misery. Aphrodite answered her call and came to visit the forlorn poet, but not to put her out of her misery. On the contrary, Aphrodite had come to assure Sappho that, in time, the woman that seemed so blind to her affections now would one day return them with the same intensity that Sappho was currently feeling for her. Cora might've been blind to June's earlier affections, but she certainly wasn't blind to the irony of the poem and the parallels it seemed to share with her life.
Now, it was time for Sappho's lover to do as Aphrodite had predicted so many eons ago and come to Sappho with newly opened eyes and newly opened arms. Cora held her breath as she knocked on the door. June opened it, green eyes sad and tired, but when she saw what Cora was wearing and holding, her face lit up even brighter than the sun in her namesake month.
An hour later, hidden under the cover of darkness, two young women sat in the community park. Both of them wore decently pretty dresses and had simple jewelry on. They were surrounded by many other people in a similar type of clothing, dancing or resting all throughout the rest of the little park. The two young women only had eyes for one another, however, and did not see anyone else. Their arms and flowers were draped around each other's neck. Aphrodite would've been proud.
AN: Another randomly inspired June/Cora that talks about some old-fashioned queer symbols, especially in flowers. You can find everything I've listed online, so I swear none of this is fake, even though some of it might not be very well known.
In addition, if you notice, June and Cora's names both have Greek origins (sort of). June was based off the Roman goddess of marriage, Juno, who was based off of Hera. Ironic that one as rebellious as June would be named after the goddess who was supposed to be the perfect image of a woman: a wife and mother. And doubly ironic, too, that the month of marriage is also Pride Month and we all know June was at least a little gay for Cora.
But as for Cora? It's based off of Kore, meaning "maiden", and it was Persephone's original name before being dragged off to the Underworld by Hades. Strange, isn't it, how their names are almost backwards? Cora is the "perfect" woman and June is the "hell bound" one, yet Cora is named after the Queen of the Underworld and June is named after the ultimate matriarch.
Sorry, I'm too invested in names, meanings, mythology and symbolism, especially as it pertains to the queer community or this fandom.
Also, the poem is called "Ode to Aphrodite". You can decide how to interpret it.