A/N: This little drabble was inspired by Emma (aka quintisforlife)!
It started three days after Happy had told him she was married. Walter had just spent his first night of four in the hospital, and Toby had stopped by in the morning to bring him coffee - with plain creamer, free of hazelnut flavor - before heading the garage. It was technically a day off, seeing as their boss was down for the count, but Toby showed up to work anyway; he didn't feel like spending the day moping around his apartment.
He saw Happy as soon as he walked into the garage. She was heading out, and he caught just a glimpse of her black ponytail bouncing through the back door before she was gone. It would've been the first time they'd been alone together since she'd told him.
He headed over to his desk and sat down. The whole space was a verifiable disaster zone; piles of haphazardly-stacked paper fell onto old candy wrappers and computer cables, leaving him nearly no room to get any work done. It was so messy that it took him a moment to realize there was a new addition to his desk.
It was one of those kinetic-balancing contraptions in the shape of two people balancing on a seesaw. If you pushed one person down, the seesaw bounced for a minute before coming back to a motionless equilibrium. He'd seen one just like it at the craft shop the week before; he and Happy had been getting paint to refinish her bathroom and he'd pointed it out to her. She'd rolled her eyes, saying she could make one just like it in about two minutes.
And now here it was. Toby looked around for a slip a paper, a note with an explanation for the gift, but, if Happy had left anything, it was lost in the maze of his desk. He fiddled with the people for a little bit before turning on his computer and starting to work.
By the time Happy got back, Paige had arrived at the garage and was telling Toby about Ralph's field trip the following week. Toby looked over and caught Happy's eye. He glanced down at the toy, and then at her, and nodded. She nodded back. He hoped she understand what he meant.
Three days later, Happy arrived to work late to find a single flower in a vase on her desk. It was a big pink flower, too ostentatious for her taste, but it was only one flower - not quite the in-your-face bouquets Toby usually went for. A small note was tied to the vase. She unfolded it; it read Zinnia in Toby's scratchy handwriting.
Happy frowned slightly. She'd been hoping for something more, an I love you maybe, or I forgive you, or at the very least a silly pun to let her know they were going to be okay. It was probably too much to hope for - he was still searching determinedly for her husband. They hadn't talked in three days.
She looked over to Toby's desk, but it was vacant. He was probably upstairs, talking to Walter. She sighed and went over to her workbench to finish the solar panels for the roof.
It took her three hours to realize she should Google the meaning of zinnia flowers. That was exactly the kind of cheesy message Toby think to send. She allowed herself to hope a little bit again - could they mean love? forgiveness? - as she searched the name. But the first website told her otherwise: zinnia flowers meant 'thoughts of a missing friend'.
She could work with that.
The next day, she told him she was pregnant.
He didn't like her welding while she was pregnant.
He had told her that multiple times, along with advice on her diet, her clothing, and her sleeping habits. He knew he was annoying her, but there was just so much to worry about. The heat from a welder could wreak havoc on a fetus, as could inhaled sparks, not to mention what could happen if her hand slipped.
But it was hard to be angry at her at that moment, when he was standing in front of his desk, holding a handmade frame with a printout of Happy's first ultrasound.
The genius bun in her oven. They'd been able to listen to their baby's heartbeat at the ultrasound. They still didn't know the gender. Happy wasn't big on surprises, but Toby didn't want to know, and she'd allowed him that much. He wanted the full experience of holding his child in his arms and having the doctor tell him it was a healthy, happy baby girl or boy.
Toby had to put the frame down to keep from crying.
And so the little gifts continued. The tradition survived past the baby's birth - a healthy, happy baby girl - past their wedding, past a thousand other milestones. Sometimes the gifts would follow a fight or a particularly rough mission, but other time they'd just appear out of the blue, little reminders of I love you, little ways of letting each other know that it was all going to be okay.