Shirogane Takashi ran a small florist on the edge of the city centre.

He had been dismissed from the army honourably with a shiny badge, an arm replaced with a robotic one and a nice small slice of PTSD at the grand old age of 23. A year and a half later, though at the time it seemed like forever, he was finally back on his feet, running the small business that his mother spent years building up only to die a couple of days before seeing it open, about a month before he was deployed.

So, it was easily said by the now 25-year-old that the last couple of years had been hard on him, but, he was proud to say that, with Matt of course, he had been able to push through all of it.

So, when a grumpy 17-year-old Latino kid stomped into his shop one Wednesday afternoon, drenched from the spring rain, $20 scrunched up in his hands and an angry expression etched onto his face, Shiro couldn't find it in himself to be very surprised to find out what he wanted.

"How do you say 'you're a massive dick' in flowers?"

The kid sounded resigned, despite the anger on his face, and Shiro couldn't help but internally agree with it on some level. Sighing inaudibly, he flipped through a flower meaning book, searching up a request that he had never gotten before. Sure, he had had lots of requests for love, especially in February, as well as a couple of yellow roses request for break ups, usually after February. There was also friendship or death, but he had never been asked about sending someone hate flowers before.

It seemed to be a bit too much effort in his opinion, and very passive aggressive but a paying customer was still a paying customer.

It doesn't take long for Shiro to find the flower that the kid is looking for, orange lilies. It was a nice-looking flower, but not something that people went out their way to buy, thus he only had a couple in stock, and it was currently the closest thing he had in stock to calling someone a dick.

(Why someone wanted to say that in flowers was beyond Shiro's comprehension, but hey, the guy was paying for it.)

"Okay, so I haven't got anything on calling someone a dick, but I've got something about hate, would that work?" Shiro asked, looking up from his book to see the drenched kid in front of him. He considered the options and shrugged.

"Sure, that'll work."

So Shiro makes a small bonnet for the kid, charges him for it and watched as he accepted it and walked away, muttering about the rain and other illegible words under his breath.

Shiro went home about an hour later, and tells his friend about the incident, laughing over all the effort the kid went through just to tell someone that they hated them while placing an order for a few more lilies, frowning when he found out that it would take over a week for them to get there.

It doesn't matter, it's not like it was that popular of a flower any way.

The next day, and, while it isn't raining like yesterday, it's still wet and quite chilly, with the wind blowing too much for anyone to want to brave it. This, of course meant that not a lot of people came into the florist that day, not that Shiro really minded that much.

Other than that, it really was an unremarkable day.

Then, about 4ish, a teenager who Shiro could only describe as the personification of emo, with a red cropped jacket, black skinny jeans, and fingerless leather gloves, walked into the shop and walked straight up to the counter, money in one hand, a motorbike helmet in another and what looked to be an empty bag on his back, as if he had just come here from school.

(Though, looking at his age, he probably did.)

"How can I help?" Shiro asked, trying not to stare at the kid's hair, having not seen what seemed to be a mullet on somebody so young before.

"Yeah, how do you tell someone that you hate them back?" He replied, looking at everything but Shiro, seemingly interested in the different flowers that Shiro was selling, but the light blush on his cheeks told him something different.

Frowning, Shiro opened up the book again, flicking through to see if he could find something other than orange lilies, as there was still a couple of days for the stock to arrive. However, the next closest thing was basil.

He was not going to give the kid a bunch of basil, a herb, as a bonnet of flowers.

So, he put geraniums, meaning stupidity, as the main flower, the eye popping red contrasting with the dark green leaves of the basil. To finish it off, it put a little bit of meadowsweet, meaning uselessness, in the background, giving the bonnet some height and a pale white to make the geraniums stand out even more.

The kid pays for it, places the bonnet carefully into his rucksack and leaves, placing his helmet onto his head as he does so.

The next day, the first kid comes back to the store, in the afternoon again, asking for a bonnet that says: 'you are a disappointment to me'.

Shiro sells him a small bonnet of yellow carnations, and reminds himself to place an order for more flowers with negative connotations, because he's got a bad feeling about the pair of them, and whatever goal they're out to achieve.

A week later, they're still at it. It makes Shiro wonder, but he's getting paid for the pair of them to insult someone, so he really has no complaints, just quite a bit of confusion.

Matt think's it's hilarious, and reminds Shiro of this fact every time it's mentioned or brought up in one of their conversations.

Saturdays were usually the busiest, mainly due to the fact that most people don't work then. Shiro does, but Pidge does too on Saturdays, a joint attempt between Shiro and Matt to get her out of the house more often. She only does it for the money and the fact that it was hard for a 15-year-old to even find a weekend job, let alone one that involved computers, and Shiro doesn't expect anything less. It's because of her that the shop has a good CCTV, a decent database for their stock and even an online section, that she and Matt are both in charge off, as technology was not one of Shiro's skills. So, she sits in one of the shop corners, moaning about the pollen getting into her hardware as she works on the website.

He's serving the emo kid again, he still didn't know his name and didn't really want to ask, when she walks in the shop at about 10am, computer under one arm and a 500ml can of Red Bull in another.

"Hey Pidge." He smiled, wrapping a bonnet of lavender and Balsamine for him. Instead of replying to Shiro, she took one look at the bonnet, then at the customer, before sighing and sitting on the floor next to the desk, setting her can next to her and starting up her laptop.

"I still can't believe you and Lance are keeping up with that stupid bet." She muttered under her breath as she began to type, bringing the noise of nattering keys to the background of the shop.

"I'm not going to lose to him." He muttered back, paying for the bonnet then leaving quickly, as if Pidge repelled him.

"What was that about?" Shiro asked, beginning to put the extra paper away and cleaning up the flower clippings.

"it's a stupid bet that Lance, the other guy buying flowers, made with Keith. Who can insult the other the most with flowers. You wouldn't think that they're dating, would you?" Pidge grumbled out, pressing onto her keys maybe harder than deemed necessary.

Shiro only sighed before greeting the next customer, a regular, with long white hair and brown skin, who always brought a lily and an orchid for her father's grave.

The next Saturday, Pidge comes in to tell him that Keith lost the bet because he ran out of insults to give to Shiro. He came in later that day, ordered the biggest bunch of deep red roses, and left with a face darker than the flowers in his hands.

Pidge thought it was hysterical, snapping a few pictures and cackling when the other kid's started to yell at her when he left.

Shiro thought it was sweet.