Well I've used the language of flowers as part of this story, I love to use it as part of my stories sometime as it can make the plot interesting. Any way, please be nice about my spelling and grammar as I am dyslexic and I do my best. Warnings of same sex love, lots and lots of fluff, some mystery and possibly some angst I am not sure yet. Takes place somewhere before dragon games. In fact, most of the ideas I had or have were before this point so yeah…Anyway I hope you all enjoy.
Floral Admirer
Chapter one:
It all started with flowers. Raven was used to finding bunches of them for Apple outside their door room door or on the floor the other side of the window little did she know that the bouquet of flowers she would find this time would be different from all the others before it.
Raven returned to her dorm room, from her last lesson of the day, she spotted a small bunch of flowers, Raven went over to the flowers which lay on the floor she noticed that they were not the usual huge bouquets of red roses or some boughs of apple blossom which Apple's devotees sent her they were instead simple small bunch of yellow wild flowers.
Raven brought her magic forwards and very carefully used it to lift the blooms not wanting to ham them in any way. Once they were close enough to her, Raven looked at them closely and then said in a soft puzzled voice to herself. "Cowslip…Who would send Apple cowslip and why?"
It was then that Raven noticed a small card amongst the flowers, she used her magic to lower the cowslip into a nearby vase and put some water in with them. Raven then used a small tendril of magic to take the card from the flowers, when she did so her eyes widened because the card was not addressed to Apple, but to herself.
Raven quickly noticed that her name, which was written in a flowing hand on the front of the card, had a small black ink feather through a black ink drawn and silver coloured in crown carefully and skilfully drawn onto the front of it. Raven had to admit that this was a lovely and personal touch to the note and she greatly admired the artistry of the author of the note.
Carefully Raven opened the card over to see if there was anything written on the inside of it and discovered that there was indeed a note, which read. "When I was young my grandmother taught me that each flower meant something. Cowslip means you are divine and that is my message to you. Your floral admirer."
Raven found herself blushing at the end of this message, her insides felt warm and fluttery. Raven wondered who had sent her such a lovely message and if they would send her another.
She carefully looked over the handwriting trying to draw any clues from it about who might have sent her the flowers. There was something which was vaguely familiar about the neat flowing handwriting on the card, but Raven couldn't quite place her finger on were she had seen it before, but she was convinced that she had.
Raven sat down at her desk, she got on with her homework, but every so often Raven would stop working and look up at the flowers and smile to herself before continuing with her homework.
When Apple arrived back at their room, she looked over at Raven and smiled at her. "Hey Raven! How was your day?"
"It was good thank you and how about your day?" Raven inquired of her politely in return.
"It was the fairest day ever!" Apple told her as she always did. It was then that Apple noticed the small bouquet of yellow flowers in the vase on Raven's desk and she couldn't help but ask her in shocked voice. "Did someone send you flowers?"
Raven blushes slightly, nodded to Apple and answered this question. "Yes they did. They are a wildflower called Cowslip and according to the one sending them to me they mean you are divine."
"Oh! You have a secret admirer!" Apple squealed in excitement.
The blush on Raven's face grew brighter. "It does appear so."
"Do you have any idea who it is?" Apple asked her enthusiastically.
Quickly Raven shook her head. "No…None at all…I doubt Dexter would have sent me flowers, not after the way they wilted the time he gave them to me…But then again that was before I could control my magic, so maybe he decided to try again…Still it may not be Dexter as we haven't been on a date for months now…"
Apple shot her friend a small smile and asked Raven innocently. "Is there someone you would like this admirer to be?"
Raven found herself blushing all over again, but she nodded her head to Apple and admitted to her in a soft and shy voice. "Yes…There is someone…But I rather doubt that she would be interested in me in the way I would like her to be."
"Did you say her?" Apple asked in surprise.
"Yes, I did." Raven confirmed, before biting her lip a little and asking Apple nervously. "It's not a problem to you that I like another girl romantically, is it?"
Apple felt a little flustered by this question, she had of course heard of people who fell in love with their own gender, but she had never had any idea that Raven was one of those people. "No…I've just never met someone with feelings for another of their own gender before…"
"I tried with Dexter, I really did but it just didn't feel right to me…" Raven explained feeling a little nervous as told this to Apple.
"Hey, hey it's okay Raven…I get it…There is a lot of pressure here to be normal and fit our parts perfectly…But no one is perfect, not even me…" Apple admitted to Raven, in a soft voice.
Raven was extremely surprised that Apple was willing to acknowledge to her that she knew that she was not the perfect princess she always portrayed herself to be. This fact made Raven wonder if Apple would ever change the way she behaved or maybe reacted to those who wanted a different life from the one she expected them to lead.
Raven decided it was best not to voice these hopes to Apple and so she said to her instead. "I really hope that I get more flowers…I'd love to try to work out who this is…If it someone I might like we might be able to date and if it's not…Then I'll make sure to let them down gently."
"You said the one who sent you the flowers told you that they meant you are divine. How did they do that?" Apple inquired of her curiously.
Raven lifted up the note and held it out towards Apple. "This note was with the flowers. I'm sure that I've seen this writing before. I just can't think where it was."
Carefully Apple took the note from Raven she read it and then looked the note over closely, before saying to her in a thoughtful voice. "Your right, this handwriting does look familiar, I think I have seen it somewhere too…That as well as knowing about the language of flowers, it is clear that whoever sent this note can also draw rather well…I'm sure that this person practiced getting this motif on the front of the card right for a long time before they drew it onto the front…It's clear that they wanted this note to be perfect for you."
"You really think so?" Raven asked her, clearly awed that someone would wish to dedicate such time to a gift for her.
Apple nodded to Raven as she said to her confidently. "Oh yes, I am very sure of it." Suddenly Apple clapped her hands together, she bounced on her toes as she said excitedly to Raven. "Oh! Oh! We should write up a list of suspects!"
"That's a hexilent idea Apple." Raven said to her gratefully.
Raven quickly drew over one of her note pads, she opened it up and then thoughtfully tapped her pen against her lips as she considered who to put on her list. "Well, Daring and Darling seem like obvious choices, I can see the language of flowers being something they would have been taught in order to charm people."
"Agreed. Oh, what about Briar? She knows a lot about flowers." Apple told Raven.
Raven shot Apple a shocked look as she said to her. "I'm surprised you'd suggest one of your best friends…"
Apple gave Raven a nod and then spoke to her in an understanding voice. "Well at this stage it's best not to overlook any possibilities, we can start eliminating people once we have a list."
"Good point…" Raven murmured.
Apple and Raven settled down at her desk to continue writing the list of possibilities. When they reached the end the list had on it, Dexter, Daring, Darling, Briar, Cupid, Rosabella, Blondie, Humphry, Nina, Holly, Poppy and Cerise.
Side by side Apple and Raven looked the list over. "Can you think of anyone else?" Raven asked Apple.
Apple shook her head. "No, I'm confident we have all those it could be on the list now…So are there any we can exclude right away?"
Raven considered this question as she looked over the list. "Well…I'd say Daring can be excluded…The language of flowers doesn't really strike me as his kind of thing to use to woo someone…Even if he did know about it…He'd just walk up to the girl and ask her out knowing him."
"I agree." Apple said with a nod of her head.
Without hesitation Raven put a line through Daring's name and then looked over the list again.
Apple spoke up with the next idea of who to exclude. "I don't think it will be Humphry, he…He has a crush on me…He has for a while now"
Raven looked up at Apple, she could see that there was a delicate blush spread over her cheeks and this mad Raven think that maybe Apple liked him too. Without commenting on the fact that Apple had just admitted she knew about Humphry's crush on her and that she might just have feelings for him too Raven put a line through his name.
"I think for now the rest can't be excluded." Raven said going over the list one more time with her eyes, saying to Apple as she does so. "To try and work out who this is I'm going to need to be extra observant of those around me."
Apple caught Raven's hands with her own and said to her excitedly. "And I'll help! We are going to be like two detectives trying to crack a case."
Raven chuckled softly to herself, as she imagined Apple and herself skulking around the school, dressed up as detectives.
"This is going to be so much fun!" Apple enthused, before releasing Raven's hands, coming to her feet and gracefully twiring across to her half of the room while gushing to Raven. "Once we find out who it is I am sure the two of you will be so fairest together!"
"Now Apple don't get carried away. I might not like this person." Raven told her in an attempt not to have Apple get to carried away by her own imagination.
Apple stopped twirling and gave Raven a serious look, while saying to her sternly. "But Raven, who ever this is, they put a lot of thought into wooing you. Surely they deserve a chance!"
A large sigh left Raven. "Maybe they will get a chance…But that all depends on how I feel about them. I think that I need to at least like this person, maybe even have some sort of romantic feelings towards them before I give them a chance."
"Yes that is true and you had someone you wanted it to be." Apple said to Raven eyeing her with unconcealed interest, while she clasped her hands together in front of her in a gesture of excitement and expectation.
Raven blushed, she quickly shook her head at Apple and stuttered out. "Oh no! No Apple. I'm not telling you who that is!"
"Oh, I wonder who at school it could be!" Apple squealed coming back towards Raven.
"I just said I wasn't going to tell you." Raven countered quickly.
Apple lifted a finger while saying to her. "Oh come on Raven! I'm supper good at keeping secrets! Who is it? Are they on the list? Do I know them? Please, tell me! Please! Pretty please with sprinkles and a cherry on top!"
"Apple!" Raven ground out, her magic starting to flare around her.
"Oh no! Are they involved with someone?" Apple asked with wide sad eyes.
"No, they are not! I would never go after someone who was with someone else!" As soon as she spoke the words Raven slammed a hand over her mouth, because she realised that she had just inadvertently given Apple a clue about this person.
Apple shot Raven a victorious smile. "Oh, so they are single! Have you tried to ask them out already?!"
A deep sigh left Raven and she said to Apple in a voice full of aggravation. "Ugh, I'm not telling you that Apple."
"Okay then I'll try and guess who it might be!" Apple said enthusiastically.
As Apple started to list all of the singles at the school, Raven let out a deep sigh, this was going to be a long evening and knowing Apple she wouldn't stop until she told her which of her guesses was correct or she wore herself out. Knowing Apple as well as she did now, Raven was unsure which would come first, but she had a fairly good idea that it would be the first of the two options.
Cursing her bad luck of ending up rooming with Apple, Raven tried to get on with her homework whilst ignoring what her roommate was saying.