Have a safe and happy Easter, and thank you for reading!
Roughly a week before Easter, and Ventus was spending his time rearranging some displays in the hope someone would buy one. It could have been worse- he could have been placed on Easter basket making duty. Strelitzia and Lauriam were already in the back making some. Even more so, at least he wasn't on Easter Bunny duty. That was an event planned for the last day of March most of the time. And, thankfully, it was Ephemer who became their Easter Bunny. Not that anyone else wanted to volunteer...
The bell above the door twinkled as someone came into the shop. Ventus gave a half-hearted look up to give a customer service 'how are you today?' before recognizing that it was just Brain. Trailing right behind Brain was his sister, Sabrina (to whom Ventus absolutely did not have a crush on because she would never give him the time of day). Sabrina was giving her brother a rather irate glare as she sipped on her strawberry milkshake. Likely because Brain was going on about some tech video he saw earlier.
"Why don't you get how neat it was, Sabi?" Brain teased as they lingered near the entrance, possibly so Sabrina could finish her milkshake. "This guy was able to encode a full 5 minute video on a 3 inch floppy disk, and the quality was amazing. Amazing for what it could be, of course."
Sabrina took her lips off her straw just to rasp, "Nerd."
"Alright there peanut gallery," Brain snorted, "I see how it is."
He then attempted to mess up her hair, but Sabrina dodged it with a casual swoop to the side. It only lead to Brain to laugh at her even more.
"Oh!" he then realized, digging into a paper bag he was holding, "We got something for you Ven."
Ven blinked, as if he were unaware of his own presence, as Brain pulled out a large muffin. Sabrina started to sip her milkshake again, starting to give Ven a rather judging look. He was more aware of her looking at him than the muffin.
"Are you guys going to help Strelitzia and Lauriam?" he asked, taking the muffin with care.
"Yup." Brain grinned. "Even managed to drag Sabi into it because she needs something to do than staying at home managing her fashion blog."
Sabrina huffed. "As if it's my fault that Elie Saab's idea of escapism is 'cirque du soleil' extravagance. 'Designed with his costumers in mind', my well manicured pinkie toe."
"For the record, you should probably cover them with something." Brain told her, pointing down to her feet. They were well manicured, and presently being showed off with lace-up sandals. "We're putting small bags of potting soil in the baskets this year."
Everyone looked down at Sabrina's feet as she wiggled them a bit at the idea. After a moment, she just shrugged.
"I have a pair of socks in your locker just for this reason." she informed him before starting to head toward the backroom. Brain watched her leave with a grin on his face, his hand at the brim of his fedora in an equal amount of fondness. He looked over at Ven -who started picking at his muffin with some interest- and his grin grew a bit wider, as if he were thinking of something amusing.
"You can come join us, you know. I'm sure Skuld wouldn't mind you abandoning the store front for back end stuff."
"I… I'll think about it." Ven carefully replied, almost timidly. "There's a lot of stuff to do..."
"Gotcha." the older of the two nodded, tipping his fedora at Ven before also heading to the backroom.
Brain casually strolled into the backroom to see what kind of operation the Fleur siblings had concocted to get the baskets done. He was impressed to find that they came up with an assembly-line sort of set up. It started with the round wicker baskets they were going to place everything in, then someone would set a decent sized teddy bear in, then add small, unpainted terracotta pots with a bag of potting soil placed inside, then a young orchid, and finally a packet of flower seeds tucked between the orchid and pots. It was going to be a nice little display in all said and done.
"Look at you busy little bees," Brain teased, "You need some food."
Strelitzia, who had been measuring the potting soil to place in the zip bags, looked up at Brain as if she hadn't been aware they had arrived.
"You didn't have to do that." she told him. She then worked herself up and brushed the soil off her work uniform. Sabrina -now wearing a pair of socks instead of her sandals- took a few steps back with a look of disgust on her face.
"How many baskets did Skuld want this year?" Brain asked Lauriam as he handed him a bagel.
"Twenty-five." the pink haired man informed him. "That was the only amount of baskets she ordered."
"Quite a bit, don't you think?"
"Seems like it, but we're in an outdoor mall and pretty well known locally. We'll get rid of them eventually. Speaking of, Skuld wants us to take picture of the baskets so we can put them up online."
"We should have Sabrina do it." Strelitzia happily suggested as she went to the sink to wash her hands off.
Sabrina scoffed as she took a stool to the prep table- right where the pending orchids and teddy bears were. "Because last time you used me as a marketing ploy, sales were so high that we had a party to celebrate."
"You have a very marketable face, sis." Brain teased, playfully rubbing her back. Sabrina let out another indignant scoff. The banter between siblings made Lauriam and Strelitzia go into a light laughter.
After everyone had something to eat, it was back to business. Strelitzia went back to measuring out the potting soil. Sabrina made herself the one to place the teddy bear and orchid into the basket, Brain sat beside her to get the bags of soil from Strelitzia so he could place them in the little pots. This then left Lauriam with placing the seed packets inside, and decorating the basket with a ribbon. Once they found a comfortable groove to work with, that was when the four of them started to talk.
And since she didn't come around that often, Sabrina was the focus.
"Have you found a new job yet, Sabrina?" Strelitzia curiously asked.
"No." came the rather annoyed sigh. "At this rate, I might as well get into politics."
"So we should all be afraid, then?" Lauriam mused as he carefully tied off a bow.
"El Presidente Sabi the Tyrant." Brain remarked before giving his sister a teasing side glance. Sabrina sneered before poking him with her elbow. He poked her right back without shame.
"Have you thought about working here?" Lauriam asked, a smile on his face reflective of the fun environment. "You and Brain could carpool. I'm sure Skuld would arrange schedules so you two share the same shift."
"Or share it with Ven." Sabrina immediately spat back. She paused for a moment, as if she wasn't quite sure of what she had just said. It was Strelitzia who didn't see this hesitation, so she thoughtfully asked without meaning any harm;
"Have you and Ven started dating yet?"
"Strelitzia." Lauriam quickly -but still oddly gently- admonished.
Strelitzia's cheeks immediately started to flare a bright pink. "Oh. Is that still a sore subject? I'm sorry. I didn't mean..."
"You're fine, Strelitzia." Sabrina told her with a wave of her hand- not that the woman could see it. "It's not your fault that some people can't mind their own business." She shot her brother a dark glare that he just as easily shrugged off. After giving an exasperated sigh, Sabrina then went on to say, "I don't see why I'm the one that has to ask him. I get that it's obvious, but I'm not the one that needs to put a spine in him. If he can't do something that simple, then I will wait- for him or otherwise."
"Sabrina, I hate to break it to you, but not everyone can be like Ephemer."
"Don't be stupid- Anora was the one who took the lead in everything they did. Probably still does."
Strelitzia let out a snort so unflattering that everyone turned to look at her.
"Do you have something to say, Zee?"
"N-no!" the young woman stammered- her face becoming a shade so red, it could have rivaled a blossoming rose. "Not at all!"
"Some things never change." Lauriam calmly noted as he went back to work.
Meanwhile, Ventus was doing his absolute best to grow a spine. He was caught in a conflict over whether they could really use his help, or if he just wanted to sit by Sabrina and make it less than obvious that he was admiring her. Other than that, he remained in the front as he tried to look busy in case someone came in. If he did go help the others, then who would come out to help a costumer than came in? There wouldn't be much of a competition, would there? Everyone but Sabrina was still a clocked-in employee, after all.
It's not like everyone didn't know he liked her. Everyone at that stupid flower shop wouldn't hesitate to place the two of them in the same room so something would happen. If Ventus went back to help, and a costumer came in, he'd almost place a hundred bucks that Brain himself would go to help.
"You know what?" Ven mumbled to himself as he took a look outside the windows. There wasn't anyone that looked remotely interested in coming toward the shop, and so with a nod, Ven went to the backroom. His confidence in his choice nearly faded the closer he got. When he was just steps away from joining the others, Ven nervously cleared his throat before asking;
"Room for one more?"