His converse dragged along the floor behind the counter as he made his way from the back room, Hazel shoving him towards the cash register.
"Hazel~" he whined at his half-sister, trying to keep himself from moving forward at all.
Hazel however was relentless, "Go help the old woman," she pointed at a woman with silver hair picking through a bouquet of pinks and purples, "you love the old folk."
True, Nico did enjoy old people. There was just something about them, he wasn't sure if it was there kindness or the fact that they would die soon (Nico always seemed better with half dead people), or maybe it was simply because they where older (he'd always felt like he didn't belong in this generation). Either way he always had a soft spot for the people with greying hair that came through picking around the shops bouquets.
He shot his sister a meaningless glare, "Fine."
She smiled and clapped her palms together in that weird way she did when she was excited or happy. She was bouncing up and down slightly too, her feet never left the floor but her frizzy hair still moved up and down.
Her perfect teeth gleamed back at him, "Great!"
Nico rolled his eyes, "Oh yes! absolutely wonderful! I'm so excited."
His sister glared at him and lifted her finger to point at the woman who had wandered over into the next row of flowers. Nico put his hands up in defense and stuck his younger out at the younger girl, before walking of towards the lady.
Turned out her name was Margret and she was this little town in Canada where it snowed in July. Her daughter, Anna, had moved to America with her fiancé and had decided to stay. Margret had eventually come, her daughter hadn't wanted her to grow old alone (she was a widow).
She had stumbled upon the reviews for their shop online, and had decided the little flower shop was good place to look for a graduation bouquet for her grandson, Damion. He had just completed middle school and she wanted to give him flowers to make it memorable.
"He's always enjoyed the more… girly side of things," she had told him.
Nico nodded at the woman in acknowledgment, as she took a pink flower out of the bouquet and began rolling it between her fingers. She looked out at the store over her left shoulder, her eyes where glassy as though she wasn't really seeing the store in front of her.
Nico reached out and set his hand on the woman's opposite shoulder, "I have just the thing, give me a moment."
She nods but her eyes are still a bit glossy and she doesn't look back at him. He turns and walks the opposite way from the direction she's looking. He picked up a bouquet full of small blue, yellow, and white flowers inside of the plastic. He had no idea what they where called, that was his step-mother, Persephone's job.
Walking back towards Margret, Nico clutched the bouquets against his chest. Cradling the living things like a baby, he didn't mind if his arms got wet. He glanced out the window for a split second, it was nice day out but that wasn't what caught his eye.
No, instead it was the boy in teal shorts and a white tank walking down the pavement. His blonde hair glittered in the sunlight almost like gold, he had turned his body a bit- almost like he was yelling at someone behind him. He started laughing and his smile revealed perfectly straight white rows of teeth and his blue eyes sparkled with a childish glee.
Nico smiled softly to himself, before allowing his eyes to trail across the blondes body. What was the harm? No one was around, and Nico knew he wouldn't look in the direction he was watching from. His body was covered in stunning tattoos in various shades of the rainbow, there was everything from pastel blue to neon yellow across his body. A series of Pride Flags where tattooed firmly on the inside of his wrist. From Nico's point of view he appeared to only have a pansexual flag and the standard rainbow flag.
Long story short, he was beautiful.
"Nico, dear?" A woman's voice called from the front of the shop.
Cazzeo.
He practically sprinted back to the woman, however he did stop to spare the blonde haired blue eyed beauty a second look. Before sighing and continuing to the front of the shop.
"Coming Margret!" Nico called out as he brought the bouquet to the woman.
Addio, Bello.
Nico sighed and tapped his fingers on the counter, long story short he was bored. He didn't hate working in the flower shop necessarily, however he definitely would have prefers working in the back with Persephone, organizing bouquets. I mean he had a good eye for detail, and his people skills weren't the best so why was he being tortured to watch the shop.
Even if no one had come through yet (they opened only fifteen minutes ago) Nico wanted nothing to do with this area of the shop.
The bell above the door let out a musical jungle and Nico inwardly sighed.
"Welcome, how can I help?" Nico said faking a smile and barely trying to make his voice ridiculously pleasant (those people at the grocery store where ridiculous!).
"Yeah," a male voice says from the general area of the doorway.
Nico finally looks up towards the costumer who just walked in. It was the guy from the window, he wore a T-shirt that was so faded Nico could not longer make out a single word on the pink fabric. His cargo shorts fell to his knees and had patches sewn in the pockets, his flip-flops where lime green.
"Oh, um.." Nico stuttered, "I- uh…"
The blonde didn't seem to notice Nico's reddening face, or was to polite to acknowledge the fact. Instead the blonde just flashed Nico his heart stopping grin.
"What type of bouquet would you give someone you'd like to confess some feelings too?" The blonde ask biting his lip.
The blush leaves Nico's face, he's taken… Accidenti!
Nico takes pride in the fact that he managed to recover from the blow so quickly, "This way."
The blonde follows him towards the wall of flowers they have. They are all arranged in color the red, the orange, the yellow, and so in in the shades of the rainbow until the color violet was over. After violet the bouquets became mismatched and itching lined up exactly the way it should, it annoyed Nico to no end.
"These are often what people purchase, and you can write a card to go with them," Nico said punctuating his sentence with a nonchalant shrug of his shoulders.
"Thanks," there's blue eyes and a smile again.
"No problem, do you want me to help you? Or is it okay if I go back to the front?"
"Oh, um.., I think I've got this! I think…" The blonde seems a bit unsure about his ability to pick out the proper bouquet.
"Alright well, I'll be at the front just call for me if you need help, alright?"
"Yeah, um, what's your name just so I can be sure I get the right person and I'm not standing here screaming 'help' like some idiot."
"Nico," The brunette says in a shyer tone of voice, "Nico."
"Alrighty then, Nico."
Nico made his way back to the front inwardly cursing himself for not bothering to her the blondes name, and for making an absolute fool of himself by being some hormonal teenage mess.
Dio… Then again Nico wasn't entirely sure why he even cared. The other boy was buying a bouquet to go and declare his love to some pretty girl from somewhere and they would get married and have a nice little family and settle down somewhere. And then he'd forget about Nico, he was just the boy who sold him a nice bouquet to win some pretty girls heart.
It wasn't to terribly long before the blonde can back a simple red and white bouquet in his arms. The white Lilys drapped elegantly over the side of the wrapping and the red flowers (Nico didn't know the names of half the flowers in the place).
The blonde placed the bouquet on the countertop nicely giving Nico a chance to ring it up.
"Do you wanna write your card out now?" Nico asked as he punched the numbers into the IPad they used to check people out.
"Yeah I need that,"
"Oh, alright," Nico says handing the other the little card and a pen, "Cash or card?"
"Card," the other says reaching into his pocket for his wallet.
Nico turns the white IPad around and shows the other where to swipe the card. He probably knows how but Nico is one of those people who'd rather be safe than sorry in some cases.
A blue and green cards swiped through and the other signature is signed on the devices screen. Nico hands him the bouquet that's been re-wrapped with better paper during the time he was signing his name and writing out the card.
Nico's handed the card and he efficiently slips it on the bow that's holding the new wrapping on around the flowers.
"Here you are," Nico says handing the bouquet to its hot blonde tattoo covered owner.
"Thanks," the guy says smiling at Nico, "It's actually for you though."
"Huh?" Nico says honestly confused, "but you said you where confessing to someone that you liked the- oh… uh.."
Nico's cheeks and ears began to heat up, cazzeo he was acting like a hormonal teen again. He finds himself and the blonde just staring at each other for a minute like in one of those romantic movies his sisters like.
And then the blondes phone dinged.
They snapped out of there little staring contest thingy as the blonde pulled out his phone to check it .
"Crap!" The blonde says looking at the device, "I have to go, but my numbers in the card ok?"
Nico numbly nods along, still a blushing mess from a bit ago, "o-okay.."
The blonde smiles and shoots him a quick wink before walking out the door. Nico doesn't manage to snap out of whatever just happened until the little bell above the door rings again. He mumbles a rather late goodbye before glancing down at the flowers in his arm. He grabs the card and opens it, inside the card there's a phone number and an address, along with a quickly scribbled name.
Will.