"So… why sunflowers?" Sting asked.
"Because for some reason, the florist was sold out of other flowers." Rufus explained, holding the sunflower bouquet.
Hild walked into the guild after doing her mid-morning jogging. Instead of going to the bar like she usually do, she went over to the strongest mages table. Naturally, she sat by her blond boyfriend. Heh, it was still pretty weird for Hild to call Rufus her boyfriend after a month of being together. On the contrary, Rufus happily called Eferhilda his girlfriend anytime when he would mention her.
The first smell that came to her were fresh flowers. Knowing who they came from, she turned to him.
"So, what's with the flowers?" She wonder.
"I'm hurt." The masked man said, pretending to have his heart broken. "You don't remember what today is? It's in my memories."
The storm mage didn't waste much time to answer him. "Our one month anniversary?"
"Oh, so you do remember." He happily said.
Hild shrugged. "Of course I do. I just didn't know we were gonna celebrate it since you never mentioned it."
"Any month of us being together without problems since you're bipolar should be celebrated as a victory."
Well, couldn't say Hild didn't agree to it. She was bipolar and she had to admit that he was right.
"Guess you're right. Though, I'm not interested in celebrating an anniversary of just one month. Six months, sure. One year, of course. But a month?" She paused. "But whatever makes you happy I'll do it… most of the time."
"That's marvelous. Here's your flowers, mi amore." He brought the flowers up with a gentle grin on his face.
"AHHH!" Everyone stopped what they were doing, wondering what just happened. "Get those things away from me!" Hild panicked, moving to the other side of the table.
"They're just sunflowers." Rufus said, bewildered. What was so scary about them?
"I know! BURN THEM!" Her hand lit up with flames and threw the fire ball at the flowers.
Of course, Rufus moved his hand away so he wouldn't get burned. The fire left a hole on the back board of the seat. Rufus couldn't get the flummoxed and flabbergasted look off his face. Seriously, what was so scary about sunflowers?
"Hild, calm down! I'm not about to buy more furniture!" Minerva shouted from the bar.
Sting, who was also wondering what the hell was wrong with Hild, went up to Rufus and picked a sunflower up from the bouquet.
"Yeah, it's only a sunflower." He started walking up to Hild, who kept walking away from him. Sting smiled and chuckled a bit. "Don't tell me that the all and powerful storm dragon is a afraid of a little plant." He kept following her to the point that they were going in circles around the table.
"Get that thing away from me!"
"Sting, leave her alone!" Rogue said to his partner.
"Come on!" Sting snickered, completely ignoring the shadow dragon. "It's just a flower Hild."
"I swear Sting. If you don't get that fucking thing away from me, I'm gonna burn you to death till no one can even find your bleeding ashes!"
Well, that warning was enough for Sting to drop the flower, but as he was walking back to his seat, he couldn't stop laughing at her. Hild took a deep breath before sitting back at the table. But this time by Rogue since Rufus was still holding those god damn plants. The memory mage noticed, so he went ahead and got up to throw them away. When he sat back down, Hild got up from seat and sat by Rufus again. Everything was silent, till finally Rufus opened his mouth.
"So, you have a phobia for sunflowers?" He asked carefully. "Do you wanna talk about it?"
"No I don't wanna talk about it." Hild said, crossing her arms and looking away with a faint blush of embarrassment.
"Okay, I won't force y…"
Hild interrupted. "Okay since you're bothering me about it." She took a deep breath and noticed that everyone in the guild is quiet. "It started when I was around five or six. My aunt would take me to her friend's house. I never hated going over there, it was pretty fun for me, but there was one place I hated about it. Her bathroom."
"Her bathroom?" Sting said, snickering. Orga hit the blond upside his head. "AH! MY HEAD!"
"Stop being insensitive!"
Hild continued. "Anyway, her bathroom was full of sunflower decorations. I mean there were sunflower shower curtains, window curtains, mats, toilet lid, even those sunflower statues. And every time I used the bathroom, it looked like they were staring into my soul." She hated plants back then, kinda ironic now since she can control nature.
There was a long pause in the Sabertooth guild before many of them started laughing.
"I WAS SIX!" Hild shouted at everyone.
"But you're a grown woman now Hild." Sting said, separating few of the words with laughter. "And you're also a nature wizard and you're afraid of a plant!"
The laughter still was happening around the guild hall. Finally, Hild began to get upset by it. Not like she was annoyed by it in the beginning, only because she had to admit that it was a pretty dumb fear. Everyone stopped their laughing when they saw it lightning and thundering outside. They all turned to the cause, only to see a REALLY aggravated woman. Nobody ever saw this furious and it scared everyone.
"I SWEAR, IF ANYONE OUTSIDE THIS GUILD KNOW ABOUT THIS I'M GIVING EVERY SINGLE ONE OF YOU A PUNISHMENT! Everyone but Rufus since I know he won't tell anyone, right?" She said darkly, looking for confirmation.
"H-hai…" He responded, not wanting to get her in a worse condition.
Well that warning was enough to make everyone shut up.
"Um, is there anything else you're afraid of, so I can make sure I don't get you anything that you won't like?" Rufus wondered.
"There is another thing. But I don't want people to know. So I'll tell you when we go to… whatever house we're going to later."
He nodded. "Okay then."
There was silence between them until… "Daisies."
"Huh? Daisies?"
Sting busted out laughing again. "You gotta be kidding me! Daisies!"
"Sting, stop it." Rogue warned.
"They're like the smaller version of sunflowers." Hild retorted as an excuse.
"Well since sunflowers are in the daisy family, of course they would look similar." Rufus explained.
Hild froze. "Of course they are. How can a nature wizard not remember that? Stupid, stupid…" She kept face palming herself till the memory wizard grabbed her wrist to make her stop.
"Hild, do you want me to help you get over your fears?" He asked.
"I'm good Rufus. As long as an enemy doesn't use a sunflower or daisy, which I hardly doubt why anyone would use one, then I'm good."
"…If you say so." He replied unsure about it. "Well since our anniversary started out terriblely, how about I treat you to some lunch, eh?"
"Yeah, sure." The greenette agreed.
So whatcha guys think? Should I do a small chapter of her getting over her fear? Leave a review if yes.
Fun fact: this was inspired by my phobia of sunflowers and daisies. And the story she told is how I became afraid of sunflowers. As for daisies, they remind me of sunflowers and they would grow in my grandmother's yard. Still love sunflower seeds though and how they move with the sun during the daytime.