Authors Note: I'm really sorry for the false starts for updating this story. I'm still getting used to the uploader on this site. Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read this, and a huge thanks to everyone who has followed and favourited it.
Short chapter here as I'm not even sure there should be more to this story.
And in other news I found where this idea originally came from. It took sifting through 76 pages of tumblr but I found it! Original concept was by user: demisexualmerrilland the hate bouquet was built by: koscheiis

–-~-
Zee had waited at home for her, left alone with the nice bouquet of flowers and google, and was full of giddy excitement when Artemis returned from her 'date'.

"First off, are you okay? How did it go?", the younger woman asked, high off of coffee and romantic notions.

"It went fine.", Artemis shrugged off. "Paid for another chick to dump a drink over her asshole boyfriend and then announced to the whole restaurant that my asshole ex had been sleeping with someone else."

Zatanna nodded. "I kind of already know. You went viral. The staff at the restaurant are calling the table cursed. Makes a good YouTube video though."

"How… How did that even go up so fast? It was only half an hour ago?"

"Oh, we need to watch it later, there's a great part that you missed."

"What on earth could I have possibly missed?"

"The part where Cameron is approached to pay the bill and he straight up says that he had been expecting you to pay it. He's banned from there now. He had to call his dad to pay off the dinner, and even then he only paid off his half."

Artemis blinked, surprisingly unsurprised at Cameron's pettiness. "My card got eaten, there's no way I could've paid.", she reasoned. But she still felt bad for the restaurant.

Zee waved it off. "Don't worry about it, your bill was footed by...", she pulled up a copy of the footage at the restaurant and pointed to the dark haired man Artemis had helped soak earlier. "This cup of tall dark and handsome, known to us lesser mortals as Richard Grayson."

"Who?"

"Richard Grayson? Gotham's sexiest bachelor now that his adoptive dad Bruce Wayne has tied the knot with his on again, off again, looks amazing in leather, wifey Selina Kyle?"

"You sound like a trashy magazine."

"This video proves you live like it though."

Artemis scowled. "It was nice of him to pick up the tab considering I broke him and his girlfriend up that night."

Zatanna shrugged it off. "He's super rich, I doubt it was anything to him."

"Anyway, it's done now."

"And now you're free to date about!", Zatanna finished for her.

"No."

"But flower guy...", the girl honest to God pouted.

"No. There's nothing happening with flower guy.", Artemis waved her hand at the flowers she'd so carefully carried home. "This doesn't mean there will be anything happening with flower guy."

There was a beat of silence as both girls looked at the flowers.

"Do you want to know what they mean?", Zatanna asked, looking to her friend for her reaction.

"No... Yes. I am slightly curious.", she admitted.

"How curious?"

"Like 30 percent." Zatanna sighed at her friends stubbornness.

"I don't know them all.", she said, taking care to point out each flower as she named them. "These Irises stand for Faith, so I'm guessing he was saying he had faith in you tonight. And Azaleas mean 'Take care of yourself for me', so he was wanting you to stay safe. I don't know the others. There's a couple of meanings for tulips, depending on the colour."

Artemis sighed, looking at the flowers. "Fine.", she ground out. "We'll take them to the florists, find out what they mean tomorrow, okay?"

Zatanna's childish cheers were worth the possible embarrassment of running into flower boy again.

–-~-

Flower boy was, only slightly disappointingly, not at the flower shop the next day when the two women went in, carefully carrying one of each flower from the bouquet in Artemis' apartment. And Artemis wasn't going to ask where he was, not her, no way.

Instead a cheerful elderly woman sat behind the counter, humming non-committally over the sounds of someone moving things in the back room. At the sound of the chime from above the door, she had brightened and gave both girls a motherly smile. Zatanna bounced up to the counter brimming and presented the flowers they had carried so carefully.

"I'm sorry to disturb you, but can you tell us the meaning behind these flowers, they were in a bouquet given to my friend here.", Zatanna flourished towards Artemis in true showmanship style. The woman's smile widened a little as she took in the appearance of both girls, and Artemis was quick enough to see a flash of recognition when the woman looked at the flowers.

"Well, this would have made a lovely arrangement. Shame a few of these aren't usually stocked by florists.", the woman said, taking a closer look at the flowers, pointing at one closest to Artemis. "This one for example, that's garlic. It wouldn't be sold as a flower, which is a shame. It's actually quite pretty to look at. It stands for strength. Gillyflower stands for 'bonds of affection.", she indicated to another flower in the row.

"Iris's stand for faith, they're always such a pretty colour. And the Azalea's are 'take care of yourself for me'. A lovely sentiment. And finally you have the tulips."

Zee interrupted. "There's different meanings for the different colours, right?"

The women were interrupted by an elderly man, possibly the older woman's husband coming out from behind the back room. "Right Joan, that's the... Sorry ladies, I didn't see you there."

"Thanks Jay. These young woman came in to find out the meanings of these flowers. An interesting selection don't you think?"

Jay took one look at the flowers at burst out laughing. A large, booming laugh you wouldn't have expected from someone his age. "I take it one of these ladies got the bouquet of hate yesterday?" Joan nodded her head in the direction of Artemis. "Well thank you. It made all our day to hear that story."

"Is he working here today, the guy who served Artemis yesterday?", Zatanna cut in, completely ignoring the horrified, "Zee!", that came from Artemis.

Joan and Jay exchanged a look. Joan spoke,"I'm afraid not. Wallace doesn't actually work here, he stepped in yesterday to give us a day off for our wedding anniversary."

"Oh, congratulations.", Zee managed to smile, her hopes of setting Artemis up with a good man for once seemingly dashed. The man, Jay, seemed to notice Zatanna's disappointment though, and raised a questioning eyebrow at his wife. The woman, Joan, cleared her throat drawing their attention back to the flowers.

"These tulips are variegated tulips, as they have this lovely feathered pattern on the petals. They mean 'you have beautiful eyes'.", she said, with the tiniest hint of embarrassment.

She wasn't the only one feeling embarrassed, as Artemis' cheeks flushed pink at the sound of Zatanna's loud squeal. Sometimes Zee was super girly and it always threw Artemis a little off. Feeling her face grow increasingly hotter, Artemis stammered out a small 'thanks', turned around and practically ran out the shop. Zee looked at the place her best friend had once stood, then to the still open door, then back to the owners of the shop.

"I'm sorry for Artemis.", she said, surprised by the other girls reaction. "If you see, um, Wallace? Can you tell him thanks?"

Jay laughed, as if everything that had just happened was perfectly normal. "Don't worry miss. These things have a way of working themselves out."

Zatanna nodded, a little thrown by Jay's strange comment, and ran after her friend, almost colliding with Tuppence, Louise and Crystal on her way out of the shop.

–-~-

Artemis refused to even go anywhere near the direction of the florists for the next week. A somewhat tricky feat as her sister's apartment was on the same block and Jade had been asking her to babysit a lot lately. Not that she minded, her niece Lian was at the stage where Artemis was her most favourite person and no one else could compete. It was great to have Lian over, especially as it meant that she didn't have to talk to Cameron who was still trying to convince her there was nothing going on between him and Tuppence, and Zatanna, who was trying to get Artemis to at least start looking for dates even if she wasn't going to go for flower guy. None of this changed the fact she still needed a date for the wedding, but as long as Lian was round she could at least put it off. After all, why bother looking for a date when you can bake sugar cookies, or play with modelling clay? In fact they were so busy finger painting that when Artemis' phone buzzed she just automatically ignored it, lost to her painting of a tiger- her best work yet if she said so herself. So when the door went Artemis assumed it was Jade or Roy being early. She didn't expect Megan to fly into the room in a panic with what Artemis recognised as Megan's wedding folder and some very rushed apologies for not giving her more notice but that she didn't know what to do, and something that sounded suspiciously like, "Is Zatanna here yet?"

"Woah Megan, calm down. What's happened?", Artemis asked, closing the door so Lian wouldn't run out.

"Didn't you get Zee's text?"

"No. Maybe. I've been busy this afternoon.", Art motioned to her paint covered clothes. Megan's eyes went wide and apologies started to spill from her.

"Oh my gosh, I'm so sorry. I didn't realise you had Lian. I wouldn't have asked everyone to come round if I'd known."

"Wait, everyone?"

They were interrupted by a very energetic Lian bounding from the kitchen, her finger painting held proudly in her hands as she presented it to her aunt. Megan was quickly distracted from her own problems and proceeded to coo in delight at the splotchy pink and purple cat picture. Lian shyly proceeded to drag Megan around the paint splattered kitchen, showing off everything they'd done all afternoon. Part way through Lian motioning to a mostly eaten plate of sugar cookies, asking Megan to try one, the front door went again and Artemis had to leave her friend and her niece to their own devices for a moment. As if in answer to her silent prayers, Jade stood on her doorstep, shadowed closely by Zatanna and Karen. Ushering them all inside Artemis addressed Zatanna and Karen first.

"Megan's already here. She's in the kitchen with Lian." She then turned to her sister and said, "Sorry, I lost track of time, I'll get Lian washed up and ready to go."

Jade shrugged and nodded to the gaggle of girls in the kitchen. "What's going on?"

Artemis rolled her eyes. "I have no idea. Guess it's my own fault for ignoring my phone. We won't be long, there's cookies in the kitchen. Lian? Can you come here a minute?", she called out, scooping up her niece and 'flying' her to the bathroom.

It didn't take long before Lian and Artemis had gotten all the paint off themselves and Lian was zipping back through to the kitchen to show her mom everything she'd done that afternoon. Artemis followed at a slower pace, wanting to delay whatever drama had happened now. She didn't expect Megan and Jade of all people to be pouring over something in a notebook.

"And if you move them to that table that should stop any arguments."

"Oh my gosh, thank you so much for your help Jade.", Megan gushed, her eyes wide and roaming over what Artemis guessed was the seating plan. Jade shrugged off the thanks.

"It's your wedding. Please yourself first, your husband second and everyone else after that."

Megan blushed, and tried to thank Artemis' sister again but Jade was already picking up Lian and giving Art a quick peck on the cheek before sauntering out of the apartment with a feline grace that if Artemis hadn't grown up with her, she would swear Jade put on on purpose. Sadly it was natural and if it was hereditary Artemis felt she'd missed out on those genes.

Artemis shook her head at her sisters actions, seriously hoping she wasn't giving her niece any bad habits, and turned her attention to the group that had taken over her kitchen.

"So, what's the dilemma?", Artemis asked.

"Actually, Jade's sorted it.", Megan admitted sheepishly. "Conner's friend, Dick, broke up with his long term girlfriend and only told me today. So I panicked because the seating was all sorted and the wedding party had been arranged and I really thought it would take us all night to rearrange everything."

Zatanna butted in, "Wait, are you calling someone a dick? Cause that's so unlike you..."

"Oh, no. His name is Dick. It's short for Richard but no one ever calls him that."

"What happened between him and his girl?", Karen asked, having met the couple and being curious as to what could split them up.

"Dick won't talk about it.", Megan replied, a frown forming. "Conner said he kinda deserved it and whenever I asked Wally, he just laughed and wouldn't stop."

"So who's Dick bringing to the wedding?", Karen questioned. Megan shook her head.

"I don't know. I don't know if Barbara is still coming either. I hope she will but apparently her and Dick are not talking at all."

"Speaking of dates, who are you bringing Artemis? Seeing as you and Cameron have now split.", Zatanna questioned with a calculated but restrained glee. Megan and Karen looked at her in surprise.

"You didn't tell me you and Cameron had split up.", Megan said sadly. Artemis looked at the wedding plan with a little apprehension, she didn't want to undo all of Jade's hard work.

"Yeah, it's no biggie. I was thinking of asking this guy I work with, Kal, to see if he wanted to go. We're pretty good friends and he could probably do with a night out, meet some new people."

"That sounds like a plan.", Karen said with a small smile. She must've known about Cameron cheating on her Artemis thought bitterly to herself.

"Okay, so. For the wedding rehearsal then. Karen and Mal will go first, then Raquel and Garfield, then Zatanna and Tim, then Artemis and Dick. My uncle John's agreed to walk me down the aisle. Your partners will be seated at the front of the church, behind where you'll stand.", Megan cut through Artemis' depressing thoughts, almost as if she could sense her friend was getting herself down, and they proceeded to discuss wedding plans late into the night.