Flora's feet shuffled in the sand, feeling the grain slip between her toes as she wiggled them, just for it to sneak their way in the crevices again once her foot touched the ground. She sighed, looking up to the sky where she saw the sun crept over the horizon, peeking its rays into the pink and orange sky, signaling the new day.
But for Flora, it was the same day, since she didn't have a wink of sleep that night. She could feel the bags darken underneath her eyes.
The morning breeze made her shiver, and she wrapped the green cardigan she had on over her chest, turning her body away from the water and began walking down the shore. She didn't know where she was going, but despite how tired she was, Flora didn't want to go home.
As she walked up to the buildings lining the beach, she let out a yawn. Shaking her head in order to wake herself up, Flora smiled up at a little coffee shop where a man had just walked up to the window and turned over the "OPEN" sign. Coffee probably wasn't a great idea for someone who hadn't slept in almost twenty hours, but she didn't care.
Her feet automatically began moving towards the wooden steps that connected the shop to the beach. Placing her wedges down onto the platform, Flora slipped on her shoes, shaking off some of the sand before walking into the shop.
The familiar scent of coffee beans and pastries filled her nostrils, and the growl in her stomach let her know that she should probably get a blueberry muffin along with her latte. After placing her order, she took a seat on one of the stools at the bar that was facing the window, where she was still able to see the sun rise over the curvature of the Earth, spilling its warm colors into the clouds. She was a sucker for pretty skies.
"Thank you," Flora said as a waitress brought over her order, and she sipped her coffee, picking off a piece of her muffin to silence her empty stomach.
She felt the tiredness begin to consume her as she ate, despite the extra shot of espresso she had asked to be put into her drink, the faint music of slow jazz surrounding her along with the whirring of the espresso machine and the chimes of the customers walking in and out of the shop. The warmth of the sun's rays through the window contradicted the chill that the windy beach had engulfed her in for the past few hours, and her wool cardigan began to feel more like a blanket than anything.
It wasn't until she heard a familiar name that made her eyes open back up.
"Order for Riven."
The Specialist walked up to the counter, grabbing his coffee, before he turned to face Flora. She watched as he slowly trotted up to her, looming over her and blowing on his hot coffee once he was a few inches away from where she was sitting, and she blinked up at him a few times.
"Hey," he finally spoke.
Flora bit her bottom lip, gesturing over to the empty seat besides her with her chin, and he understood, turning the stool so that he could sit down before turning his body back towards the window, his face never leaving hers.
"Hi," Flora whispered, the desire to sleep slowly dissipating. It was unexpected to see him, out of all people, and here, out of all places, but Flora felt a strange sense of comfort as she stared at the maroon-haired boy.
"It's kind of early to be up, don't you think?"
"I could say the same to you," Flora pushed over the half-eaten muffin as a silent offering for the dessert, which Riven politely refused.
"Can't sleep?" Riven asked, again bringing the small cup of what Flora assumed to be straight black coffee up to his lips. She resisted the urge to wipe the drop of coffee that had slipped out of the corner of his mouth, but she looked down when his tongue wiped it away.
"More like can't stop thinking," Flora admitted, unsure of what inclined her to not have just kept it simple and said yes.
"What's going on in that beautiful head of yours?"
Ignoring the choice of words, she looked back out the window, hoping the bright colors blended onto her face to hide the blush that crept on her face. "Isn't it my turn to ask a question?"
Riven lightly chuckled. "Didn't know there were rules to having a conversation."
Flora smiled, picking off another piece of the muffin and throwing it in her mouth. Her brain racked through the anxiety-fueled thoughts and the jumbled mess of over-thinking ponderings, and there didn't seem to be anything that she could tell him that wouldn't lead to her bawling her eyes out or having to explain that she wasn't going crazy. So she just sighed and grabbed her drink, trying instead to look for a reason as to why Riven was here as he watched her.
"I've been having a hard time sleeping ever since Musa and I broke up," Riven said, as if he knew what Flora wanted to ask. The way he mentioned their breakup felt more like he was stating a fact, because he was and Flora had known this fact for quite a while now. But he had said it with such little emotion, that she almost believed Musa when she said that "he's so impassive that it feels like I'm dating a wall."
But Flora was never the one to pick sides when she only knew one story, despite Musa being one of her closest friends and Riven was.. Well, Riven. She had always given him the benefit of the doubt though, since they had seemed to do well after the breakup during their missions, so she wanted to entertain the idea of his side of the story.
"I'm aware. But Musa didn't specify what actually happened."
"I had wanted to break up with her for a long time," Riven confessed after a few minutes of silence, as if debating whether or not he should speak. Swirling his cup in his hand, he looked away from Flora before he continued. "I think she liked fighting. It was a way for her to distract herself from the real things and not have to talk about the conversations that mattered."
"She doesn't mean any harm when she fights."
"Yea, I know, but it was constant. It was every time I did something she didn't like. It was every time I didn't do something that she did like. It felt like she wanted me to be someone she created in her head. She had certain expectations about me that I shouldn't have to always live up to."
"I think," Flora said, trailing off before deciding to say it anyway. It's not every day that she's sitting next to Riven at six in the morning and he's talking about his problems. "You remind her of her dad."
Riven moved his head to fully face Flora again, an eyebrow raised on his hard face, surprised at the bluntness that the Nature Fairy possessed. Musa's dad was a sensitive topic, everyone knew that. It wasn't just something that people took lightly because Musa had certain reactions when it came to her father - either anger or avoidance.
"That's never a good thing."
Giggling, Flora leaned back, turning the stool so that she was in Riven's view. "You remind her of who her dad was. Strong, independent, a lone wolf. I think she fears the abandonment that her dad bestowed on her in you, and she wanted and expected you to be different from him. She fights as a coping mechanism, a way to get attention, because it works with her dad, but of course, that doesn't correlate well in a relationship as it does with her father."
Flora's eyes widened, realizing that she had said a little bit more than she had intended to say. She didn't even know how true it was, it was just her own personal view on the situation, during a rare moment that Musa had confided in her about her relationship with her dad.
"Sorry, I don't know why I told you all that," Flora waved her hand, looking down at her lap as she brushed a strand of brown hair behind her ear before reaching over to grab her muffin, nibbling on the remainder of the pastry.
"No, I'm glad that you did. It helps- I get it, in a way. Can't really blame her for that, can I?"
Flora shrugged, not wanting to say any more. It wasn't her place to say that she thought Musa should've worked on her daddy issues before projecting that trauma into a relationship or that Riven could've been more understanding and talked her through her troubles rather than letting it all just unfold and break. She finished her muffin instead.
"Now it's your turn to talk. That's how it works, right?"
Flora laughed, nodding. "It's only fair."
"Because we're all about fairness," Riven joked, winking at Flora over the rim of the plastic coffee cup.
The smile remained on her face until she thought about what was bothering her. There was no easy, simple way to explain her feelings, but then again, Riven's situation with Musa wasn't either.
"Helia wants a relationship," Flora said with about as much emotion as Riven did.
"So, pretty much the opposite end of my situation."
Flora could hear the humor in his tone of voice. "I guess you could say that."
"You don't want one?" It took Flora a second to realize he was referring to a relationship with Helia.
"I can't say," Flora pursed her lips together, letting the stool bounce back to face the window as Riven did the same, their shoulders slightly brushing. "What I want is for people to not expect us to be together just because we're similar, just because we're both quiet."
"Helia seems to think that you two are going to get together," Riven said. Flora had shared so much about Musa that it was only right for him to do the same about his friend.
"I know, which is why I've been feeling so bad. He's sweet and he cares about me, but I just don't have the right feelings for him as everyone thinks that I should. I feel like I've allowed myself to let others make decisions for me. I agree to go on dates with him, and I accept all that he does for me, but that's what made me realize that I've only done it because I was expected to. Like I am supposed to be with someone like him."
Flora held back the tears that were threatening to fall as the words slipped out of her mouth with such ease and little to no hesitation. She had wanted to tell someone about the way she really felt about Helia for months, but she had never got the chance to put her feelings to spoken word, she had always just kept it bottled up inside her because it made her feel awful that this was the way she treated someone who only cared about her. The guilt of that feeling of leading Helia on ate her away at night and haunted her nightmares, the very reason as to why she would rather wander the beach in the middle of the night than be in her bed.
"God, I sound horrible."
Riven didn't say anything, and Flora's anxiety gnawed at her insides due to his silence, as if confirming her intuition that she was a terrible person. But his rough hands placed on her shoulders soothed away the tension.
"I don't think so. It's not like you two are official and you're feeling this way. You're just dating, and the point of dating is to learn about them and decide if you want a lasting relationship. Sure, in a way, you did lead him on, but come on, it's Helia. If you're saying he's similar to you, then he should understand."
"Because I'm so understanding?"
"Because you're not the type of person to want to hurt someone like that."
Flora sighed, picking up her latte and finishing up the drink as Riven did the same with his.
"If you don't want to be with him, it's okay," Riven said, once he placed the empty cup down. "If the feelings aren't there, then they're not there. You can't force yourself to love someone. You gotta do what's best for you, Helia will get over it."
"I know that he will, but it doesn't make it easier. If I'm going to be with someone, I want to be with someone that I love, and I'm not at that level with him. It's just- saying that I don't love him enough to be with him seems wrong because you're right, I don't want to hurt him."
Riven placed a hand on the table, as he leaned back and looked out the window, the sun now completely over the horizon. "Just curious, but is there a reason why you wouldn't want to be with someone like him?"
Flora bit her lip, going through the list of reasons why but choosing carefully what she wanted to tell Riven. He was his friend after all.
"It's not like he's a bad person. We get along very well, we have interests that we both share, but that doesn't mean that I automatically should be attracted to him. I hate that I'm only seen as the quiet type and should only be treated that way. The girls think that that's why we would be perfect together, that we would have the most perfect relationship because we're the same person."
"Sweetheart, I wouldn't take what they think about relationships too seriously," Riven chuckled, knowing enough about Flora's friends to understand why they would believe that. He didn't agree, but no one argues with Bloom and Stella when they're in an alliance. "From what I hear from Sky and Brandon, they should worry about their own problems."
"Tell me about it," Flora responded, thinking about all the times Stella tore apart her closet in frustration over Brandon's absence or Bloom accidentally setting something on fire due to Sky's attitude.
They shared a laugh, and Flora looked over to Riven, his tired eyes boring into hers. They still twinkled with amusement, and the grin on his lips mirrored hers.
A small silence echoed between them until Riven spoke again, "You shouldn't have to pretend to be with someone based on someone else's warped perception of what a perfect relationship is supposed to be like."
Nodding, Flora looked back down to her lap, thinking about Riven's words. There was no such thing as a perfect relationship, the two of them have and been around enough experience to prove it.
"Life goes by too fast to be with someone you don't love, or care about what other people believe is best for you. If you do things to make other people happy, then you're just making yourself unhappy. It's your life, and you gotta do what you want instead of living in other people's expectations."
"Because I don't want to have expectations about me that I shouldn't have to live up to, right?" Flora referred to his own parallel with Musa, a soft smile in her voice.
"Exactly," Riven chuckled, reflecting back to their earlier conversation.
There was a pause in their conversation, as the lack of sleep finally caught up to them. Flora let out a small yawn that she hid in her sleeve and Riven's eyes drooped closed for a second, before he pushed himself back onto the stool, turning his body to look at Flora again.
"And by the way, you're not only seen as just the quiet type, Flo," Riven continued. "I see you as more than that."
Butterflies swarmed Flora's stomach when she looked up to see him raise a hand to her face, his fingers supporting the back of her head while his thumb stroked her flushed cheeks. Her green eyes met his violet ones again, and they stayed that way for a minute, Flora getting lost in his eyes. She almost didn't hear what he said from how loud her heart was beating in her chest.
"You're smart, kind, and caring, and you deserve more credit than you get. I hope you see that. If anyone makes you feel any different, let me know."
"Thank you Riv," Flora whispered, closing her eyes and allowing her tears to fall. He let her to push his hand away from her face so she can throw her arms around his neck, melting into his chest as he replaced his hands onto her lower back. "It means a lot."
"I know we said no expectations," Riven breathed in her ear. "But I hope you never lower your expectations for yourself. You can be more than you think you're capable of."
i love the flo and riv friendship arc almost as much as i like them being together