hey lovelies! chapter 1 is up! enjoy, and please r&r

3


Sun pours through a window on a row of gardenias and roses, illuminating the room. The door rattles for a few minutes and Will enters, his golden hair flopping into his eyes. His face lights up as he glances around the room of the shop, taking in his "children," and he moves toward the counter, dropping his bag on a stool nearby. The room is mostly windows, lining the walls for ample sunlight to flow through. Flowers are in rows on little wooden tables from one end of the shop to the other, and the whole shop has a rustic homey feel, warm greys, greens and browns filling the space, not to mention a plethora of flowers.

Will had been working at the shop since he started college, the owners were good people, and the shop provided good pay. Also, Will loved tending to the carnations and roses and peonies, and pretty much all the flowers under his care. It was the best de-stresser after a particularly tiring day of med school.

Today is a peppy day—he was up and at em even before his alarm rang, and drank two, not one cups of his favorite tea. Never coffee, not after the incident last year where he drank 7 cups of coffee the day before his finals and pretty much died. It's with this gusto that Will started his day at the flower shop. His first task was to look over the arrangements that customers had pre-requested, which meant rebooting the centuries old PC that gathered dust on the main desk. The requests were all something different, something new, something that Will loved to work on, as each of them represented a slice of someone's life: heartbreak, love, friendship.

Along with taking his pre-med classes at uni, and being fascinated with life in general, Will was naturally drawn to flowers. They held a special place in his heart, maybe due to the fact that his mother was a botanist, but one could never know why until they saw Will work with flowers.

The shop, simply named Flower Shoppe, had graced the streets of his little college town since anyone could remember. As odd as it may seem, there were regulars that came to the shop, like Ms. Garcia, a middle aged woman who came in to smell the roses every day, 10:00 sharp. And then, there were the occasional random customers who just happened to wander in.

Nico was the latter of these things.

He was in a bad mood to start the day, and the fight he had with Bianca dampened his spirits further. He was struggling with his way to uni, and to make things worse, he had promised Hazel he'd take an extra shift at the coffee shop today.

It was then, when his angel, bathed in a halo of light appeared. Well, actually the angel was more of a thing than a person, and the thing was, in fact, the Flower Shoppe. What a nice, brotherly gesture it would be to buy Bianca a medley of flowers, making her instantly forgive him, and this was the exact thought process that led him inside the Flower Shoppe.

Ms. Garcia was in again, at exactly 10:00 as usual, and Will was just finishing up her purchase when the bells on the door rang, and someone new walked in. He had a hoodie pulled over his head, covering his eyes, hands stashed in his pockets, and a generally broody aura.

"Bye Ms. Garcia! I'll see you tomorrow!" Will waved the middle aged lady out of the shop, turning his head to face the new customer,

"Hi, how can I help you today?"

Nico whipped his head around, greeted by a pair of friendly eyes, and regretted walking into the shop immediately. Aren't flower shops supposed to be run by old women? What is this insanely hot man doing at the register? Nico averted his eyes quickly, clearing his throat, "Uh. I.. um need a forgiveness bouquet," he managed to get out.

Will still hadn't gotten a clear view of his new customer, however, his embarrassment was clear in his voice and the fact that he still had his face covered. Maybe he did something especially bad, like—

"Of course! Would you mind coming up to the counter to review a few types of flowers?"

When Nico walked up to the counter, Will did not expect to have the most beautiful brown eyes staring up at him, and those graceful, high cheekbones, and the cherry on top: freckles. He was officially a dead man. He pulled out a few types of flowers—hyacinths, white tulips, and white roses, and professionally took out the pen from behind his ear, hoping that his client wouldn't notice his shaking hands.

"So, how many different types of flowers would you like in your arrangement?" Will wondered if the stranger even knew how flower arrangements worked.

"Uh, I think two should be enough, and she doesn't like the color purple, either."

"Are there any other special requests for the bouquet?"

Nico looked at the ground, guilt hooding his eyes.

"I—Maybe—A forgiveness bouquet? If those even exist?"

Ah. So he had a girlfriend. Will was momentarily disappointed, but it was a cardinal rule he kept in the back of his mind to never meddle with customer's personal lives—unless they decided to divulge that information themselves.

"Yes, those do exist!" Will put on the preppiest voice to hide his slight disappointment, and scribbled something down in his notepad.

"Name for the order?"

Nico looked up, from the proximity of his hoodie, and met the flower guy's eyes, something about them… they were pretty, but there was something behind them that made them even more enticing.

"Um, hello? Can I have a name for the order?" Will waved a hand in front of Nico's face, snapping him out of his fantasy—if you could even call it that. Nico shook his head, clearing his thoughts. The guy probably wasn't even gay, his persona seemed too straight for there to even be a chance.

"Oh, sorry. I'm Nico, and do you also need my number?" Nico mentally slapped himself the second that line came out of his mouth.

"Uh, I mean for contacting me, like for when the arrangements done," Nico added on, trying to scrounge up the last strand of dignity he had.

Will chuckled, a deep hearty, lovely, laugh, which made Nico blush.

"Yes, I'd love your number—for flower contact purposes only, though," Will was still grinning, and Nico rolled his eyes, feeling the corners of his mouth turn up.

A lady behind Nico in line cleared her throat, eyebrows raised, and pursed her lips into a thin line.

"I'll just finish processing your order, and you'll be all set," Will said, typing something into the ancient computer sitting on his desk, "and I hope you'll be back soon!"
The blinding smile he flashed Nico accelerated his heart rate by 200 mph, and Nico finally understood that this is how he was going to leave the world—having a fucking heart attack in the middle of a gods damned flower shop.

"Bye!" Nico stumbled out the door just in time for the lady who was behind him in line to roll her eyes so powerfully that the entire earth shook.

Damn, it was too late already. Nico had a habit of being late to every single class in uni, and today was no exception. The university was right next to his coffee-shop, which were both a substantial distance away from the flower shop. Professor Lunes was going to kill him. Snapping out of his "hot boy" induced daze, he started a slow jog down the narrow streets, praying to all the gods he got to class on time.

Apparently, the praying wasn't enough—he burst into the classroom four minutes and 200 sets of stairs later than the 9:00 start time. The second the middle aged lady in the middle of the lecture hall turned to face him with pursed lips, was when he knew he was dead. Her dark eyes pierced through him, beady slits plastered on her face,

"Mr. DiAngelo, would you care to explain why you are, yet again, late to class?" he flinched at her biting tone and looked at his feet in shame.

"I- uh, ya know, just ran a little late?"

Professor Lunes ran another critical look by him before swishing her hand towards the seats in the hall, gesturing for Nico to just sit down and shut up. Nico swiftly made his way to the back of the lecture hall, snagging a seat next to some blonde haired girl. Usually, Lunes' class wasn't too bad, especially for being in the morning, however, he just couldn't focus today. Flashes of gold hair and those dreamy smiles plagued his mind, and he barely even noticed Lunes dismissing them.

"DiAngelo—I'd like to talk to you for a moment—you don't have class after this right?"

Professor Lunes had put her glasses on and was seated at her desk, pen in hand. She looked up at him expectantly, eyebrows raised the slightest.

"Uh, no, I don't have class…" Nico stuttered something out. He brushed his hand to the back of his neck, gently touching those baby hairs—a habit of his when he was nervous. It's not that he meant to be all emo or whatever around teachers—he was just awkward. Nico was an awkward person in general, but around teachers, man, the awkwardness amplified twentyfold. Like when he was in the first grade, Bianca had taken him to the get to meet the teacher night or something, and Nico was so shy he refused to even look at his teacher. The teacher of course, took it as a sign of dislike, and stayed distant from Nico, like most people usually did.

"Good," Lunes' cold, somewhat scratchy voice cut through his train of thought, and jerked him back into reality, "So, I want to talk about your father."

Will couldn't shake that shaggy head of black hair and freckles! from his memory, even as new customers filled into the shop. A quick glance at the clock told him that his shift ended in around—15 minutes, which gave him 30 minutes to get ready for class. Alas, Nico—he loved that name by the way—already had a girlfriend. Whom he was going to buy flowers for. And who was the poor chap making that flower arrangement? Will, of course. Gods, he was so tired.

A tiny voice and a tug on his apron interrupted him from his reverie, "Will? Do you have any roses?"

He looked down, and a little girl stood, with two cute little pigtails, and the biggest puppy eyes he had ever seen in his life. He grinned, flashing his dimples, and dropped into a squat to face the little girl.

"I save a rose for you everyday, sweetie," Will stood up slowly and made his way to the rose plants. "You pick whichever one you want, and I'll cut it, ok?" When the girl nodded fiercely and began examining the roses, he went up to the front of the shop to pick up his shears. He rummages through the drawers carefully, worn through the years, still thinking about Nico. He looked like a Uni student, and the only uni was the one nearby. But if he did go to the uni, they'd probably never see each other anyway, with Will's crazy call times.

"Hey Will! Whatcha doing over there?" He's jerked out of his reverie by a warm, lovely voice, belonging to none other than Kayla, his half sister and partner in crime. Like legal crime—Will wasn't a criminal. "Don't mind me, I'm just trying to prevent your daughter from ever growing up," he looks over his shoulder at Kayla, who rolls her eyes and laughs.

"Hey, have you heard of a Nico diAngelo in this town? He dropped by the shop today, and I've never seen him around."

"That's because no one in their 20's and in their right mind would come to a flower shoppe willingly!" Kayla grins again, light eyes filled with mirth. Will gives her a shove, and makes his way to Lyra, shears in hand.

"Seriously though, I think he goes to your uni. Hey, wait a second. Isn't diAngelo some bigshot company?" She pulls out her phone from her jeans pocket, and starts typing, her long, straw hair falling into her eyes.

"Hey, Ly, have you picked your rose yet?" Will crouches again, facing the row of flowers. "Mmhm! I want that one!" she points to a small, wilted rose, reaching the end of it's days. He turns to her and examines her face.

"Are you sure, sweetie?"

"I'm a 1000% sure, Uncle Will," Lyra's face turns up, and she crosses her arms for more effect. "I'm not picking another one."

"Ok, then" Will carefully reaches through the tangle of stems and clips it off. He ruffled her hair and places the flower in her arms. Kayla watches this exchange with a close lipped smile, eyes hooding.

"Can I ask you something, Ly?" she nods, and Will lays a hand on her petite shoulder.

"Why did you pick that rose, out of all of them?"

Lyra looks up at her uncle, a defiant gleam sparking in her bold eyes. "I think it deserves more love than the others, am I'm gonna give it that love."

"YOU SWEET CHILD I LOVE YOU SO MUCH!" Will pulls her in for a giant, prolonged hug, and the more her words process, the more Will can see Nico diAngelo's sweet face filling his life.