Red Tulips Mean I Love You
A/N: So, a new multichapter fic begins! As usual, I will warn you that this will not be updated at all regularly, but hopefully this will work out better than other… discontinued fics. Anywho, this idea came from tumblr - credit to whoever originally thought of it, I've no idea who. It seems like pretty much every fandom has one of these fics, but not the Crewdom (to my knowledge), so why not write one? Holleni and Ranni will be the main ships in this (Ranni is pre-established, Holleni will be a slow build because why not) but if people want other ships they might be included. Also, if people would like cameos as customers let me know and I'll try and add you in (though I've never done anything like that before, so don't be too upset if it's only a sentence or two!) Anyway, with that long-ass exposition out of the way, lets get on with the story.
Chapter One: Daffodil
The bell above the door to "Poison Ivy" tinkled as Aaron pushed it open, greeting his co-owner and good friend Danni as he did so. When Josh, Aaron's best friend, had introduced Danni as his girlfriend two years earlier the pair had quickly realised their shared love of flora. 8 months and a lot of hard work later, the two had proudly opened their new florists. Specialising in unique arrangements themed around games, comics, and fantasy, they had been surprised by how great the demand for their services was, for everything from geeky Valentine's day gifts to eccentric weddings. But, hey, they weren't complaining - their little shop was doing well.
"Morning Aaron! Did you hear the news?" Danni greeted, looking up from the order sheet that had come with that morning's delivery.
"Hear what news?" replied Aaron as he pushed his backpack under the front desk and started putting away the new fresh flowers.
"There's a new shop moving in next door, where that old bookshop used to be. Apparently they're opening on Friday."
"What sort of shop?"
"A tattoo parlour, from the looks of the equipment they were moving in last night."
Aaron nodded, sorting the flowers into their designated places in the storeroom to be arranged into their requested bouquets later. "So probably not going to be sending much traffic our way, then."
Danni shrugged. "We're doing alright without it. You never know, maybe there's lots of people that want both tattoos and flowers."
The pair worked quietly for another half an hour until the time came to open their doors at 8:30am. There was often a comfortable silence in the store - that is, until Josh came in on his lunch break and caused a ruckus.
As Aaron flipped the sign on the door from 'closed' to 'open', he noticed that Danni had changed the floral displays in the window. "I like the new Halloween display," he noted, and his friend grinned.
The blue haired man took in the delicate arrangement of cosmos, daylily, chocolate cosmos, and orange milkweed into two large vases, proudly displaying her skill. "It needs a little something else though…" he trailed off, slipping into the storeroom to grab some poppies and add them to both vases.
"Ooh, edgy." Danni teased. Aaron rolled his eyes and returned her smile.
"That's why we work together, I bring the edge."
Most of the day passed like any other Tuesday; they worked the morning away fulfilling orders they had been given, taking in new ones from drop-in customers, and selling their basic bouquets of flowers that they had on display in their shop. They had a quiet laugh about a young man who'd rushed in, bought some roses, and quickly departed - clearly someone had forgotten an anniversary. At 12:17 on the dot, as always, Josh waltzed in. He presented Danni with the lunch that he'd brought for the two of them that day, on the way over from his job at a local indie games development company. Aaron took the opportunity to head out to pick up some more Halloween-y decorations for the window display.
The weather was surprisingly warm for October, with just a light breeze chilling the day. He hoped the weather would continue, but reports that it would only get worse from here on didn't fill him with confidence. Turning to walk towards Tescos, he noticed someone on a ladder outside the building next door, replacing the old sign declaring the shop to be "Fullman's Second-Hand Books" with a new one; black, decorated with roses and cursive writing spelling out the name of the parlour - "Eternal Inks". Cheesy, but classy, he thought. As he walked past, the person on the ladder lightly scampered down in front of him. From ground level, Aaron could see this person was a woman; fluffy blue hair framing a small, pixie-like face. A few inches shorter than him, but taller than most girls he knew. Shit, he was staring, wasn't he?
"Can I help you?" She offered him a small smile, eyes raking over his face. Her voice was strongly accented - German, from what he could tell.
"Oh, uh, I'm - um - from the florists." He stammered, mentally cursing himself. To his relief, the woman grinned instead of laughing at him.
"Nice to meet you! I'm Leni. I own this parlour with my friend Lily. What's your name?" Leni held out her hand, revealing wrists covered in leather bracelets and showing a peek of her sleeve tattoo.
"Aaron." He took her hand and shook it, trying not to stare at her face again. Instead, he took in her pierced ears and lip, her pale green eyes the colour of the gladiolus he'd been arranging just hours before.
"So, um, it was nice to meet you." Leni smiled, a light blush colouring her cheeks as she noticed him taking in her features. "I'm sure I'll see you soon."
As she finished speaking, a blonde woman in her mid-twenties poked her head round the door of the tattoo parlour. "Loulou, I need your help to get the chairs- oh, hi! I'm Lily." She stepped out from behind the door and waved to Aaron.
"I'm Aaron, I help run the florists next door." He waved back.
"Nice to meet you, but I really need Loulou to help fix one of our chairs. We'll be having a party to celebrate our opening on Friday, you should come." Lily grinned at him, dragging Leni back into the shop.
"Shall I bring the other florist?" The blue-haired man asked quickly before the pair disappeared.
"Yeah! We're going to be neighbours for a while, so we should get to know each other." Leni smiled, and then the door closed and they were gone.
Aaron wandered further into town, stopping at the supermarket to grab some lunch as well as the decorations. He found pumpkin buckets, cobwebs, a witch's hat, and a small cauldron. Throwing a fun-size bag of sweets into his basket alongside the decorations, he checked out his items and headed back to the shop in time to see Josh give Danni a kiss goodbye and head back towards his job.
"Hey man, are we still on for game night tonight?" Aaron asked.
"You know it!" Josh patted his arm as he walked past. "Bring alcohol."
Aaron laughed and walked back into the florist. Danni came over to give him a hand with organising the decorations in the window, placing the cobwebs in the corners and the hat on top of the cauldron. They put one of the pumpkin buckets on the counter and filled it with sweets, smiling every time a child came in with a parent and took one. By the end of the day, when the fresher flowers had been put in refrigeration, there were only a few chocolates at the bottom of the bucket.
"I'll pick some more up tomorrow morning." Danni said, swinging her bag over her shoulder. "When are you coming tonight?"
"Probably around nine, I need to finish up the new wedding order sheet." Aaron slipped into his jacket and left with Danni, locking the door and handing her the keys. "I'll see you and Josh in a bit." He waved goodbye and headed off to catch his bus, while Danni walked back to her flat.
All day, Aaron hadn't been able to get the cute tattoo artist out of his head. She seemed like she'd be fun to work next to, though he couldn't say he wasn't hoping they'd get to know each other a little better than just professionally. He sat on the bus, laptop perched on his knee, tapping away at the Excel spreadsheet, his mind wandering to the party on Friday. Would there be alcohol? Should he bring alcohol? Why were social norms so fucking complicated. He sighed and shut the computer, stepping off the bus and thanking the driver before returning to his small apartment. It wasn't much, just a bedroom with a small en-suite bathroom, a kitchen, and a living room, but it was home. To be honest, he spent so much time at the shop he barely saw this place any more, and when he was home his time was mostly spent marathoning video games at his computer.
Video games. Shit. He was gonna be late to Josh's.
Aaron grabbed a few bottles of beer from a kitchen cupboard and bolted to the bus stop, getting the same bus he'd just got off but in the opposite direction. When he arrived, Gubiak and Juke were already there, taking turns swigging from a bottle of straight vodka.
"Hey, we've already started Smash Bros." Josh called from the sofa, his chin resting on Danni's shoulder.
"Without me? I'm insulted."
"Yeah, we collectively decided that you suck." Juke grinned, passing Aaron one of the bottles of beer from the floor next to him.
"You guys are the worst." Aaron took the beer, settling down on the sofa next to Josh and Danni.
An hour later and Callum and Evanz arrived to join the party, their excuse for their lateness being that they got caught up with practicing DotA with their e-sports team, which prompted everyone in the room to tell them what, quote, 'fucking nerds' they were.
"So Danni, we've been invited to the shop-warming party that the tattoo parlour is having on Friday." Aaron said, his Wii remote balancing on his lap as he watched Josh and Gubiak's characters pummelling the shit out of each other on screen.
"Shall we go?" Danni asked from her position on Josh's lap.
"I was thinking we should go for at least a while, meet the people we'll be next door to."
"This wouldn't be anything to do with the cute blue-haired girl who works there, would it?" Josh teased. Aaron glared at him, and the shorted man poked out his tongue. "I saw her through the window when I walked past, she looks like your type."
"Shut up, asshole." Aaron grumbled, nudging his arm and causing Josh's character to go flying off the screen. Gubiak's win screen appeared, and he cheered before downing the vodka that was left in the bottle.
"You made me lose!" Josh whined, dropping his controller into Danni's lap.
"Your lack of skill at Smash Bros made you lose." Evanz teased.
"So, Aaron, you need a wing man?" Callum asked, turning to him with a mischievous grin. Aaron rolled his eyes, handing his controller to Juke so he could play a round.
This was how they passed most of their time, playing video games late into the night. It was gone two o'clock in the morning when Aaron finally stumbled back into his flat, slightly buzzing from the beer and good company. He changed into his pyjamas, crawled into bed, and immediately fell asleep.
Flowers mentioned in this chapter, and why I picked them:
Cosmos - a bright orange flower, obvious for Halloween
Daylily - also orange, and really pretty
Chocolate cosmos - black, and goes with the orange ones
Orange milkweed - Orange, and also means deceit, like dressing up for Halloween
Poppies - meaning imagination and oblivion, both quite appropriate for Halloween
Green Gladiolus - green like Leni's eyes, also meaning strength of character and love at first sight