He knew he was out of his depth here. Overwhelmed, cornered and surrounded by the explosion of colour, his sensitive nose was being worked overtime as the hundreds of odors and scents pervaded the entire area and relentlessly assaulted his nasal senses.
Gods why did this have to be so difficult?
C'mon Mitsui, suck it up, men of far lesser calibre have done this before and have succeeded.
Still, he knew he was out of his element here. He was like a beached whale upon shore, frantically flapping his fins futilely against the sand, moaning his whale song inwardly.
Let's face it, he, Mitsui Hisashi, sucked at choosing flowers. He had no sense of floral arrangement and couldn't tell which colours went with what.
That said, he was still in the little floral shop along 10th Avenue, grimacing and grinding his teeth against each other as he tried vainly to pick out the perfect bouquet for Ayako.
It was all his students' fault. Those nosey parkers were aghast when in their attempt to extricate details about his Valentine's Day rendezvous, they found out that he had hardly spent anytime with his girlfriend of 2 years on that special occasion. Their horror was heightened when he further revealed that no gifts or love tokens were exchanged and they refused to be consoled when he tried to explain to them the special understanding he and Ayako shared with regards to Valentine's Day.
"But Sensei! That's just so unromantic!" Keiko, one of the players from the girls' basketball team, said petulantly and sighed. She continued to shake her in disapproval towards Mitsui throughout the rest of the basketball practice.
"Yeah Sensei, I mean, even I know how to treat my girlfriend right on Valentine's Day!" Tasuke, ace of the guys' basketball team, chimed in. Then in a more conspiratorial tone, he whispered to Mitsui, "It also gets me in real good with her, if you know what I mean."
Mitsui, of course, knew what the boy had meant at that time and promptly sent him off on ten laps around the basketball court to work off any excess energy generated by raging hormones.
And now, here he was, in a little flower shop, stupidly following his students' advice, carrying out the excruciating task of selecting a silly little gift.
He would make a mental note to have them do double of their practice drills tomorrow.
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He heard the keys jangle in the door, the lock turn, and the sound of heels clicking against the hardwood surface. He stared at the bouquet of wild flowers in his hand, the mesh of purple, orange, red set against a leafy green. He tweaked one of the stems, tried to position it in a manner that in his mind seemed more beautiful.
"Oh honey, I'm home." Ayako called out in a sing-song voice as she strolled into the living room. Her gray pinstriped skirt swished around her knees, the top two buttons of her starch white blouse had already come undone and her hair was piled messily on top of her head.
She looked perfect. Mitsui gaped at her, letting the sight of her take his breath away as it always did. Ayako's lips were poised to quirk up in her usual easy smile but then a dark look clouded over her face and her eyes narrowed.
"What is that?" Ayako said pointedly, and jutted her chin out towards the bouquet Mitsui held in his hand.
"Oh, uh, a gift. A belated Valentine's Day gift, a token of my love to you." Mitsui said, cringing slightly as he heard the cheesy words that rattled off his mouth. Nevertheless, he held out the bunch of wild flowers to the lady, and grinned charmingly.
Nothing could have prepared him for the reaction she had.
WHAP! WHAP!
"OW! What the..? Why the bloody hell are you hitting me!" Mitsui yelped as he dropped the flowers to cover his head as Ayako continued to rain blows on him with her trademark paper fan.
"Why? Why? WHAT ON EARTH DID YOU DO THIS TIME?" Ayako roared as she chased Mitsui round the room with her fan, her face an interesting shade of red whilst Mitsui's arm turned an interesting shade of blue.
"What are you talking about? I didn't do anything!" Mitsui said, whirling around on her and forcefully grabbing her right wrist, causing Ayako to drop her fan in surprise. She quickly recovered though, and fixed a deathly glare on him
"Then what are the flowers for?"
"They're a gift! G-I-F-T. Have you never heard that word before?" Mitsui said in exasperation. He continued to levy a firm grip on her right wrist, lest she had any other ideas.
"Yes, but why? What did you do? The last time I received a gift from you, it was because you got drunk, mistook my sister for me and almost manhandled her!"
"That was an honest mistake!"
"Yes, and you gave me a huge teddy bear to apologise. Now what I want to know is what did you do this time and what are those flowers for!" Ayako said, her eyes flaming. She leveled a steady gaze at Mitsui and tried to search his eyes for some answer, for some secret she could hopefully discern and decipher.
"Ayako, I swear. I didn't do anything this time. My students thought it would be nice if I bought you something and I followed their damn advice. I wish I hadn't now." Mitsui said seriously, trying to choke back his own indignation and ire. He didn't want to take it out on Ayako. He realized as she had pointedly mentioned that he did only buy gifts as compensation, he couldn't quite entirely blame her for the suspicion that he aroused then.
Still, it pissed him off that she always had such violent reactions.
"So… they really are a gift gift? You didn't do anything?" Ayako said slowly, understanding slowly dawning in her eyes. Mitsui nodded and resignedly explained the events that had prompted such an affair, how he had let himself be convinced by his students that a long overdue romantic gesture was in order.
"But trust me, if I had known it would lead to this," Mitsui said and held up the swollen arm that suffered the brunt of Ayako's rage. "I wouldn't have bothered."
He could see the swift change in Ayako's mood. The fire left her eyes and her features grew softer. Raising her own hand, she gently traced the bruises on Mitsui's forearm.
"Oh dear, it seems that I've made a mistake." She said softly, her eyes locking onto his, her lips quirked in a half smile. Her way of making an apology.
"No kidding," Mitsui said gruffly, but he felt her hands encircle around his neck and he let himself automatically lean into her.
"I would like to make up for it." She said, her eyes gaining a different glow. They were sly and full of mischief now. Mitsui wondered at her, this woman whose moods shifted like the wind, who had somehow ensnared him completely despite her dreaded fan.
"That would be nice." Mitsui said and led her into the bedroom.
The flowers continued to lay on the floor, untouched until Ayako came out of the room the next morning to adorn them in a nice blue vase.
A/N: hoped you liked it! Please RNR! I love to read comments.