Hey folks! here's a fluffy little gift from me to you! Enjoy!~
Earlier, I looked around and saw an adorable little plot bunny; when I reached out to pet it, it grabbed a hold of me and wouldn't let go. The only way to get rid of it was to write. *Grins* rabbit stew, anyone?
Plot: Sasuke confesses his feelings for Naruto with an unusual bunch of flowers. Fluff. BL. All of the meanings behind the flowers are real.
Disclaimer: I'm not alowed within 50 feet of Naruto. *sigh*
The bell above the door chimed loudly as Sasuke entered the Yamanaka flower shop. Ino looked up in surprise at the Uchiha's presence.
"Sasuke! What are you doing here?" She questioned, moving from behind the counter "Do you need something?"
"I need a bunch of flowers."
Ino's eyebrows rose at the words. She never would have pegged the Uchiha heir as a flower giving type of guy. She wondered who they could be for, and secretly willed it not to be Sakura. She would never hear the end of the pink haired girls gloating if Sasuke actually confessed to her. Suppressing a shudder she smiled at her unlikely customer.
"Of course! We have some pre-made bouquets if you'd like to take a look." She gestured to the stand packed with beautiful blooms and buds, neatly wrapped in printed paper, that she had spent the morning filling. She walked over to the stand and picked out her favourite arrangement; pink and red roses, complimented by white camellia, orange blossom and primrose. She had lovingly interspersed a little baby breath between the flowers as well, before wrapping the bouquet in pink and white coloured paper. It was perfect for a confession of love, if she did say so herself.
"Hn, no. I already know which flowers I want. I just need you to make the bouquet for me."
Ino felt slightly insulted at the look of distaste on the Uchiha's face as he looked at the flowers in her arms; she had put a lot of work into them. She smiled at her old crush and set the flowers back in the stand; the customer was always right, after all.
"I'd be happy to help! What flowers were you thinking of? I can tell you what they mean, if you'd like?" she smiled again; customer service was one of her strengths. Sasuke took a small piece of paper from his pocket and unfolded it, but didn't hand it over to her.
"I already know what they mean. That's why I picked them."
Whoever it was that would receive the gift was very lucky, Ino thought; it wasn't every day that a guy actually researched the flowers that he gave to you. Let alone that guy be Sasuke Uchiha! He didn't look uncomfortable being in the flower shop at all and Ino felt a little stab of jealousy toward whoever his chosen was. It had better not be that billboard browed Sakura…
"Okay then, let's get started! What is your first flower?"
"Meadowsweet."
Meadowsweet? Perhaps he hadn't researched the flowers as well as he'd thought. Meadowsweet meant uselessness; it was a horrible flower to give someone, especially if you were trying to confess your feelings, Ino thought to herself. She smiled and opened her mouth to inform the Uchiha, but he spoke first.
"And I need you to write the flowers meanings on the card too."
Her eyebrows rose in surprise, but she schooled her features and replied. "Of course! Any particular colour for the card?" she walked to the counter and picked out the selection she had to offer, showing them to the Uchiha heir.
"Hn." Sasuke shrugged as he looked at the card selection, a look of indifference on his face as he pointed to a bright, cheerfully orange card. Ino picked out the card in question, putting the others back under the counter as she did so. She reversed the small square to reveal the plain white side and picked up her pen; beginning to write. She left a small space at the top for Sasuke to address it to his chosen if he wanted to. Finished writing the first flowers name, she added its meaning next to it, feeling a little nervous. Perhaps she wasn't so jealous of whomever this bouquet would be going to after all.
Straightening up, Ino smiled again at the Uchiha, leaving the card on the counter and picking up her pruning shears to trim the flower stems if necessary. She slid them into the big pocket in the front of her apron as she rounded the counter retrieve the meadowsweet. The store didn't usually keep a large stock of the flower, simply because not too many people used flowers to tell someone that they were useless. She picked up the remainder of their stock and walked to her arranging station, where she set down the flowers and took out her sheers, snipping off the ends at an angle to prolong their life when placed in a vase. She pruned the odd leaf here and there as Sasuke waited, gazing around the shop with a bored look on his face. When she was happy with the flowers she put them upright in a pot and turned to her unlikely customer again, smile back in place as she asked for his second flower choice.
"Geranium." He replied as he followed her back to the counter so that she could write the flower down on the card. Ino barely managed to curb the action of biting her lip. She wrote the flowers name down and then next to it, the meaning behind it in her beautiful, looped cursive. Stupidity. She was starting to feel quite bad for the poor soul that would be getting this bunch of flowers. She rounded the counter again and gathered the Geraniums in her arms to take them to her station. Sasuke followed once again in silence, and offered no small talk as she prepared the flowers for the bouquet. Geraniums were quite a hardy flower, not normally used in flower arranging. People would come by to ask for cuttings so that they could plant them in their gardens as they made for lovely boarders. She stripped the leaves from the lower stems and set the best looking ones to one side to use as greenery in her arrangement. She looked up at Sasuke as she finished putting the flowers in the pot with their fellows.
"What other flowers were you thinking of, Sasuke?"
"Lilies. Orange ones." He said unapologetically. He even huffed at the look she shot him, before she schooled her features once again.
Ino fought a groan; this was turning into a very mean flower arrangement, if such a thing was possible. Orange lilies signified hatred. Sasuke was basically going to hand over a big passive aggressive bunch of 'fuck you' to some unsuspecting sap. And he wasn't being subtle about it either; he had her writing down what the flowers meant! At least this would be an interesting story to tell her father when he came home from work, she thought to herself. Sasuke Uchiha saying 'screw you' with flowers indeed. She fought a smile as she wrote the flower's name and its meaning down again and wandered to the lilies. They had a lot in stock, including plenty of orange ones; people didn't often think of the meaning behind the orange lily as they were such a pretty flower. She carefully selected five of the best full blooms and three that were still yet buds and carried them back with her, as she moved to where Sasuke was already waiting at the flower arranging table. She worked efficiently, snipping the stems with her shears as she tried to make small talk with the Uchiha heir. He mostly just grunted in reply. Having finished preparing the lilies she added them to the pot on the table and began arranging them, adding in a few of the geranium leaves as she did so. Standing back she admired her handiwork. It had to be the prettiest 'screw you' that you could receive, if she did say so herself. She turned to Sasuke, gesturing to the arrangement as she asked him if he was happy with it. He nodded, a small blush staining his cheeks as he spoke;
"I uh, also need a red rose and a-" he glanced down at the piece of paper once again in his hand "-a pink camellia." He scowled, looking uncomfortable for the first time since entering the shop. Ino couldn't stop the look of shock that found its way on to her face. She hadn't expected that.
"Just one of each?" she asked, already moving to gather the flowers in question. At his nod of affirmation, she slid the two stems smoothly between the others. After fluffing the bouquet slightly she wrapped a band around the stems to keep it together and took it to the other, smaller, gift wrapping table.
"What colour would you like the flowers wrapped in?"
"Orange." There was still a light pink tint to his cheeks as he replied.
As he averted his eyes with a glower, Ino's own eyes widened in realisation. She fought to keep the grin off her face. Sakura's gonna be so jealous when she finds out…!
She wrapped the bouquet artfully and took it to the main counter, laying it down gently as she picked up her pen to write the last two flowers onto the card. After paying, the Uchiha asked to borrow the pen, and bent over the counter as he scribbled something onto the card, shielding it from her view with his free hand. Ino found herself infinitely curious about what he was writing, now that she had a good idea for who the flowers were meant. Sasuke left the shop and she found herself grinning broadly, moving to the window to watch his retreating back as he vanished around the corner, flowers in hand.
Sasuke walked along the village streets until he found what he was looking for; he could see the orange of his teammate's jumpsuit clad legs under the curtain at the Ichiraku ramen stall. He could also see Iruka's legs; meaning that Naruto was being treated to some noodles. Not wanting to enter with a bunch of flowers in hand, Sasuke called out to his friend from where he stood. Suddenly nervous, he whipped the bunch of flowers behind his back so that the idiot wouldn't notice them immediately.
"What you want, teme? Naruto emerged from the ramen stall with a frown on his face. They weren't scheduled for more training until the next day; he wondered what had bought his rival to him. A sly grin spread across his face as he noticed that the Uchiha was hiding something behind his back.
"What you got there, asshole? A present for me?" he took a step toward his rival, grin spreading wider as he held out his hand, trying to wind the Uchiha heir up.
"Shut up, moron."
"Woah, you actually did get me something!" Naruto's eyes widened in shock, but narrowed into a squint as he scrutinised his teammate;
"It's not a box of spiders or something, is it?"
Sasuke grinned as the blonde took a step back automatically. Now that would have been an interesting way to confess his feelings, he thought as he pulled the flowers from behind his back and thrust them into his friend's arms.
Realising that what had been shoved into his hands wasn't indeed a box of spiders, Naruto let out a relieved breath, before grinning at his teammate.
"Flowers? Really, teme?" He laughed as he reached for the card, plucking it from amongst the blooms.
"Hn." Sasuke was suddenly quite nervous; he had never confessed to anyone before, and he was doing so quite publicly too. But it was better than being alone, where the Uchiha might punch his rival upside the head if he made fun of him.
Naruto looked down at the card in his hands, reading both the beautiful script that he recognised as Ino's handwriting and the neat, but cramped, writing that he knew was Sasuke's;
Meadowsweet – Uselessness. (You are pretty useless, dobe)
Geranium – Stupidity. (You are definitely stupid)
Orange Lily – Hatred. (I hate you)
Red Rose – Love (But I, kind of, love you too)
Pink Camellia – Longing for you (Don't make me say it, idiot)
Looking up from the card, Naruto laughed loudly, unable to contain himself "You know, you really are an asshole, Sasuke." He looked down at the bouquet, admiring the flowers and the thought that the Uchiha had put into them, before looking back up to grin over at his rival "I hate you too."
Releasing a relieved breath, Sasuke returned the grin as he closed the distance between him and his teammate. "So, what's your answer, dobe?"
"I accept." The blonde smiled slyly "But I'm spending the rest of my life trying to make yours miserable, teme. How about that?"
"hn. Deal." Sasuke found himself smiling affectionately for the first time in a long time as he leaned in toward the blonde, stating matter-of-factly; "You should know then; I hate being kissed."
Naruto's eyebrow rose as he laughed at the Uchiha's words "Oh yeah? Well you're gonna hate this." He connected their lips in a chaste kiss, feeling his rival smile against his mouth. Pulling back, the Uchiha moved the bouquet from between them, leaving Naruto to hold it loosely in one hand at his side.
"I hated every second of it."
"Same here, teme"
"I don't think I'm miserable enough yet though. Try again." The Uchiha smirked as he captured the blonde's lips once more with his own.