Feliciano just loved the flowers outside of Kiku's home. He would spend long periods of time with his sketchbook and a pencil, drawing them while he stayed there. The chrysanthemums, the cherry blossoms, and the occasional lotus flower that bloomed in the little pond in the yard. The cherry blossoms were his favorite, though, and often he would go over and pick a few of them to put in his hair.
One day, as he was doing exactly that, he came to the realization that he had no idea how the pretty little flowers smelled. So, setting down the open brown book and his pencil, he leaned up on his toes towards the nearest branch and took a deep breath. However, he jerked back in surprise when his nose landed right in the center of one, causing him to inhale quite a bit of the pollen inside one of the tiny flowers.
At once he went into a fit of sneezing from the pollen that had gotten into his nose, dropping down into the grass while holding a hand over his mouth.
"Feliciano-kun? Are you alright?" The voice of his older lover drifted out from the house, his head poking out of the doorway to look at him in concern.
"I-I'm fine Ki-! Achoo!" The poor Italian cut off during his explanation, holding the collar of his button down over his mouth and nose.
Frowning a bit, Kiku stepped away from the lunch he had been preparing for the two of them to share, wiping his hands off on a nearby towel before heading outside. He sat down with his legs pulled up under him next to the still sneezing Feliciano, tilting his head to the side.
"I didn't know you were sick, Feliciano. Why didn't you say anything?" He queried, keeping a bit of distance between them. He obviously didn't want to catch whatever 'illness' Feli had.
"I- I'm not -ha…S-sick- Achoo!" He raised one hand to point at the culprit, those innocent little cherry blossoms filled with pollen.
"Then- Oh. Haha, did you try and sniff one?" Asked Kiku, unable to hold back a few quiet laughs at his friend's mistake.
Feliciano nodded vigorously, the sneezing fit finally starting to ebb away a bit, though an occasional sneeze would still manage its way out of him for a few moments after.
When they finally stopped all the way, he rubbed at his nose –now slightly red- and looked over at Kiku.
"Remind me not to do that again, ve~?"
The Asian only chuckled in response before getting to his feet once again. He was starting back towards the house when the Italian's sketchbook caught his eye.
There was a neatly drawn chrysanthemum on the open page, uncolored for now, though Feliciano would probably go over it in some bright shades later, as he always did. Maybe red, or yellow, perhaps even pink.
"Hm," Kiku hummed as he picked up the book, closer examining the drawing, "Feliciano-kun, did you know my name means 'chrysanthemum' in Japanese?" He pointed towards the flower on the page just in case Feliciano didn't know what they were called.
At once the younger male looked interested, sitting up a bit straighter to look up at his boyfriend. Quite innocently, while reaching up for Kiku's hand, he commented, "Really? Well, I guess it makes sense; you're pretty like them, after all!"
Almost immediately a flush of red spread over the Asian's face, and he turned his head away, trying to cover a bit of his embarrassment at the statement.
"I- T-thank you,"
It was true that Kiku was petty, in his own way. Delicate looking, kind of like a flower, yet Feliciano had seen him with fluid grace and skill in battle, and also knew he was deadly.
A rose, then, not a chrysanthemum; beautiful, but with thorns that could prick you and make you bleed if you weren't careful.
Feliciano was indeed careful with this rose, still holding his hand, thumb lightly brushing back and forth over the soft skin there. He stood up, pulling the red-faced Kiku into a quick kiss that had his tone going even darker.
"Ti amo, la mia rosa~!"