Description: Eiji misses Oishi when he leaves town.
Warning: FLUFF! Oh, God, the fluff. D:
Disclaimer: I don't own. I wish I did. Golden Pair would be a lot more blatant in canon. :)
Theme: #011; gardenia
Title: Flower Language
Eiji was frantic. His eyes flew over the webpage in front of him at lightening speed. He searched for something, anything, that would give him a clue.
He spared a glance back at the source of his current problem. A pretty white flower sat in a red pot by the window of the bedroom he shared with Oishi. It was a gift from him; something to remind Eiji of his love while he was out of town.
Eiji sighed dramatically as he turned to face the search engine. The once shiny green leaves surrounding the fragrant flower were turning a sickly yellow color. He didn't know what he had done wrong! He watered it daily. He made sure no bugs were trying to hurt it. He even sang to it! Nothing he did seemed to cheer the plant up. He finally came to the conclusion that the plant missed Oishi. He understood its grief; he missed Oishi too. However, his efforts to explain to the plant that Oishi was coming home proved useless.
And now he sat in front of a bright monitor trying desperately to find out how to cure his sick little flower before Oishi came home. He didn't want his love to think he'd treated his gift poorly.
He whined his frustration. He couldn't find anything! He wished he remembered the name of the flower. That might help a little. All he knew was that it was white and grew wild in Japan in some regions.
The sound of their apartment door opening brought his attention away from the screen.
"Fuji!" he called out. Oishi wasn't due home for another few days, so it had to be their roommate coming back. "Could you come here? I've got a problem!"
He couldn't help the pitiful tone that his voice took on. He didn't want Oishi to come home only to see his precious gift in shambles. That's not the kind of guy Eiji was!
Upon hearing the door to his and Oishi's room open, Eiji got up and bolted for the window. He grabbed the plant, ran over to the entrance of the room, and promptly froze. It's wasn't Fuji who stood there, but Oishi with an anguished look on his face.
"Eiji? What's wrong?"
Eiji quickly hid the plant behind his back. "N-nothing! What are you doing home so soon? I thought you were Fuji!"
Oishi's head cocked slightly in confusion. "Eiji, why are you holding that plant behind you?"
Deep blue eyes widened in surprise. "I-I'm not! It's um," Eiji's mind reeled in search of something he could say. "It's nothing!"
Oishi's brow furrowed. "Eiji, I saw the pl—"
"No you didn't!" he desperately denied, cutting Oishi off before he could finish his sentence.
Oishi sighed. "I clearly saw the flower, Eiji. Why are you hiding it?"
"Ohhhh," Eiji whined, knowing he was caught with no way out but the truth. "Oishi, don't look at it. It's terrible," he pleaded. He didn't want Oishi to see his gift like this. "I don't want you to see."
Oishi's face softened into a smile and Eiji calmed a little after seeing this. Oishi's smile had that effect on him. "Just show me, Eiji. I won't be mad."
Defeated, Eiji sighed. He nodded and slowly brought his hands around to show Oishi the awful thing that had happened to the formerly beautiful plant. His face turned away from his lover; he didn't want to see the disappointment that he knew would be there.
"I'm so sorry, Oishi! I don't know what happened to it! I took care of it, really! I sang to it every night before I went to bed!"
If Eiji had been looking, he would have noticed the look of amusement on his love's face. "You sang to it?"
Eiji did look, then. With a pout adorning his lips, he huffed. "Don't tease me! I was worried about it! I read that plants like it when you sing to them."
Oishi nodded, the smile still on his face. "Eiji, it's okay."
"It's sick, Oishi! I don't know what I did wrong." Poor Eiji couldn't help but look and feel utterly depressed.
"You didn't do anything, Eiji, it's alright." A gentle expression on his face, Oishi rested a hand on Eiji's shoulder and took the plant from his boyfriend. He pressed his lips to Eiji's forehead. "I was worried this would happen. This plant is temperamental."
"Eh? What do you mean? It wasn't my fault?"
Oishi laughed. "No, Eiji, it's not your fault. This plant needs an acidic soil. I forgot to tell you that this might happen."
He cupped Eiji's face in his hand and smiled gently. "We'll just put some vinegar in the soil and it'll perk up."
Eiji's face lit up. "That's it? It'll be okay?" At Oishi's nod, Eiji leapt into his arms (the plant being quickly and carefully moved aside). "I was so worried! I didn't want you to think I treated it bad. You gave me this plant to remind me of you and I wouldn't treat you like this."
Oishi laughed into Eiji's hair. "There, there. Everything's fine now. Let's help this plant out and then we'll unpack my bags together. Okay?"
Eiji smiled up at his love and nodded. "Okay!"
"Say, did I tell you what this flower means?" They walked together to the kitchen.
"Nope." Eiji ran for the pantry and grabbed the bottle of distilled vinegar they had lying around for cleaning. "Will this work?"
"That's fine." Oishi smiled and poured a bit around the base of the plant after uncapping it.
"So what's it mean?" Eiji watched Oishi work the way he did everything: with his utmost attention.
"Gardenias—this flower—mean 'you're lovely' in 'flower language.'"
The redhead couldn't help the blush that surfaced on his cheeks. He also couldn't help the ear-to-ear grin. "Well…I think you're 'a gardenia' too." His tongue stuck out cheekily and Oishi couldn't stop the abrupt laugh that left him.
"You think I'm what?"
"I think you're lovely, too, ho-o-ney." He stretched the word into three syllables, the smile still on his face.
Oishi's tanned-by-genetics cheeks flushed a dark red. "I guess we're both gardenias, then."
Eiji's face turned thoughtful at this. "Hmm. Oishi? Do you think it's weird for two guys to call themselves flowers?"
Oishi's cheeks turned a shade darker, but his smile still stood gallantly. "We'll just have to keep it our little secret."