Woah, people seem to really like these! Every time I got an email saying someone had favourited this little collection or a had a lovely review from one of your sweet, lovely readers, I swear my heart leapt. Thank you guys for your wonderful support!
This is my first attempt at a modern AU. I thought the idea was sweet, and it fit Odesta so well :) Hope you enjoy!
Annie owed Mags a lot.
When she ran out of flour mid-recipe, she always knew she could pop next-door and request to 'borrow' some. She'd add an extra bag to her shopping the next week, and try to persuade Mags to take it. The old lady would always refuse, insisting that she was 'just being neighbourly'.
Or there was that time when Annie had a particularly bad panic attack and found herself fired from her job at the tea shop in town by a particularly misunderstanding boss. She'd been a wreck when she arrived home, eyes red and throat sore. Mags saw her stumbling past, and showed up a few hours after Annie's return, a packet of chocolate biscuits under her arm and a selection of assorted Disney DVDs at hand.
Yes, Annie owed Mags a lot. So when Mags told her that she was going on holiday for a week and needed someone to look after her cats, Annie agreed to help her out.
Mags had two cats named Elmer and Ernest. Elmer was a gorgeous tortoiseshell. He was friendly, and often chased after people in the hope of a nice tickle behind the ears. Annie was rather fond of him. Ernest was a solid black cat with white paws. He detested anybody who was not Mags. Inwardly, Annie wondered how she was going to handle him for a whole week.
Annie stood on her doorstep on the day of her neighbour's departure, waving as Mags climbed into a taxi with a pile of suitcases twice her size.
That evening, she used the spare key Mags had given her in case of emergencies to let herself into the old lady's house. Heading through to the kitchen, she flicked the light on.
She leapt backwards a few feet, smashing the backs of her bare heels against the wall and wincing at the sharp burst of pain it caused.
Ernest sat on the kitchen counter, his eyes directly level with hers.
"Hello, Ernest." Annie said calmly, mustering up her courage and walking across the kitchen to the cupboard in which Mags kept her pet food. "Where's your brother, huh?"
She emptied the amount of cat food indicated onto the packet into the bowl in the corner of the kitchen.
Annie almost tripped over Elmer as she left. Bending down, she tickled him under the chin before stepping over him and leaving.
Morning and evening, Mags had said. Feed the cats once in the morning, once in the evening.
Annie hurriedly got dressed after her breakfast and headed next-door to feed the cats. They were both out at that point, but by evening they were back.
Ernest showed his appreciation for Annie's serving him his dinner by dragging his claws down her calf.
Scampering home, she contorted herself at several painfully unnatural angles as she attempted to clear the cuts up with an antiseptic wipe.
Annie knew that Mags' cats sometimes argued; they'd woken her up many a night with their hissing.
Still, she was horrified when she showed up on the fourth morning of Mags' week away to find Ernest nursing an injured paw.
Filling the food bowl up so that at least Elmer could have breakfast, Annie tried to approach the more wary of the two cats.
Ernest hissed at her and limped away at a speed far greater than she would have expected of something that seemed so hurt.
He disappeared out of the cat flap.
Using her key, Annie unlocked the back door and ran out into the garden after him.
"Ernest!" She shouted after him. "I only want to help! Come back!"
She felt her voice go dry when she realised she was not the only person in Mags' back garden.
Mags had warned Annie that her gardener came every Wednesday. Annie had never really been able to see him before over the tall hedge Mags insisted on growing between their gardens 'for the hedgehogs'. She'd only seen him from a distance, climbing into a little green van with the words "Odair Gardening Services" written in block capitals over the rear.
She had no idea that his eyes would be so beautiful up close.
"Hold on," He said, tossing his shears to the floor by his feet and darting after Ernest.
He caught him with ease, scooping the injured cat up and carrying him back down the garden. Annie held her arms out to receive the cat, cradling him against her chest.
"It's okay, Ernest." She murmured into the bundle of disgruntled, injured fur before turning to look up at their saviour. "Thank you."
"It's nothing." The gardener assured her, grinning.
Annie hadn't ever known the butterflies in her stomach to be this intense unless she was about to launch into a terrible panic attack. But somehow, today, she felt calm and content.
It was strange.
"Annie Cresta, yeah?" The gardener asked.
Annie nodded, confused as to why he'd know her name when she knew nothing of him save her kept her neighbour's garden in check and he had eyes the colour of the grass he mowed.
"Mags told me you'd be looking after her kids while she was away." He explained, referring of course to Elmer and Ernest. "I'm Finnick by the way."
He extended a hand for her to shake but, realising that her arms were full, quickly retracted it and laughed nervously.
"Pleased to meet you, Finnick," She said. It was certainly an interesting name, and she wanted to ask if he knew where his parents had drawn their inspiration from, but she thought that would seem weird- maybe even rude- and so kept her mouth shut.
"The pleasure is all mine." He grinned again, and she felt her knees go weak. "Now, I'll leave you to tend to our friend here." He ran a finger down Ernest's nose, much to the cat's disdain.
Annie drove Ernest to the vets.
His paw wasn't badly injured, thank god, but she was told she'd have to keep him indoors for at least the rest of the week.
Dropping him back off at his own house, she made sure to lock the cat flap shut before leaving. She hoped Elmer would go easy on him that night.
As she headed down the path to her own house, she was surprised to find a single pink rose lying on her doorstep, freshly cut.
It was one of Mags', she was sure. Mags loved roses; her back garden was filled with bushes bearing the flowers in various different hues.
Which meant Finnick must've left it for her.
She felt her cheeks heat up as she carried the flower inside. She didn't have a vase, so she filled a plastic beaker with water for the rose and set it on the window sill of her bedroom.
Elmer and Ernest did not fight again for the rest of the week, thank goodness. Whenever she entered the house, Ernest took to leaving the room as quickly as he was able. She suspected he thought she was going to drive him to the vet again.
She tried to feel sad, but the cuts on her calf reminded her how much he liked her company, and so Annie instead filled their food bowl and tickled Elmer behind the ears every morning and evening before leaving.
She found a small, childish part of her wishing Finnick did not only work on Mags' garden on Wednesdays. So that she could question him on the rose, she reasoned, and not just because she wanted to make him laugh that sweet little nervous laugh of his. Not because she missed the butterflies.
Mags returned home that Sunday, exactly a week after she left. She showed up at Annie's house that evening with a box of home-made cookies, to say 'thank you'.
Annie invited her in, and explained Ernest's paw and his trip to the vet over a cup of tea.
She somehow managed to completely avoid bringing up her encounter with Finnick.
"And what did you think of the gardener?" Mags asked once she had finished. "Pretty scrummy, don't you think?"
Annie felt the blush rising in her cheeks.
"Mags!" She spluttered. "He's old enough to be your son!"
"He can't be much older than you though." Mags insisted, smirking and taking a sip of her tea. "So? What did you think?"
"He seemed quite nice." Annie admitted, thinking of the rose upstairs in her bedroom, of the way he'd gone sprinting down the garden to catch Ernest for her.
"Quite nice," Mags repeated flatly. "Is that all you have to say about him, Annie Cresta? He was quite nice?"
"We didn't really talk." Annie lied, looking down at her tea. "He smiled at me through the kitchen window, but that's all."
Mags smiled as though she knew that wasn't by any stretch the truth, but thankfully she let the subject drop.
She was trying her hand at painting (so far, it looked rather like a big blue blob, but if need be she'd just give it eyes and call it a friendly monster) when their came a knock at her door the following Wednesday.
Barely daring to hope, she laid her paintbrush down and went to open the door.
Finnick stood on her doorstep, hands in his pockets.
"Mags sent me." He said quickly.
Annie leant against the doorframe and raised an eyebrow, prompting him to go on.
"She said you lost your job a few weeks ago and you need some cheering up." He continued. "And I think I'd quite like to make you happy. Oh god," He grimaced. "That sounded bad. I didn't mean it like that, I swear. I just meant we could go out for coffee or something. Only if you want to, of course. God, I'm rambling now, aren't I?"
"It's alright." Annie assured him, smiling gently. To be honest, she found his nerves rather sweet. "I'd like that."
"Great." He grinned, and his face seemed to glow. "I'm free Fridays, so I'll come pick you up around one. Deal?"
"Deal." She confirmed.
She waited for him to reach the end of her drive before finally shutting the door.
She wasn't sure whether she wanted to kill Mags or hug her. Maybe she'd just have to wait and see how Friday went.
I just want to remind you all that I'm more than willing to accept prompts for these. So long as it's nothing m-rated, I really don't mind. It can be canon or AU. And in terms of AU, really as domestic (university, perhaps? Or pizza delivery guy?) or as wacky as you like (idk pirates? Cowboys? Victorian London?). I mean seriously. Just drop it in a review or PM me and I'll do it :D