So a flower shop AU was something I wanted to do for a while cause flowers have always been a part of mergana and one of the things I adored about them in canon. So here I am!

Special thanks to my beta MissFiyerabaMeponineWholock for all her help!

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'Today is the day', he decides as he stands outside the flower shop.

Merlin saw her two weeks ago, in this small store, chatting animatedly with a young girl about how beautiful the new cherry blossoms were. She looked as lovely as ever in her long, sleeveless yellow dress. With her hair pushed to one side, he could see the several piercings on her right ear.

He thought he was hallucinating at first. It wasn't all that unusual. Some days only a flash of golden hair, or a shy laugh, was enough to convince him his friends were back. He saw them everywhere in everyone.

But upon blinking several times and failing to make her disappear, he realized that this time the person standing before him wasn't a figment of his overactive imagination; and when she had turned and caught his eye, he fled.

It took him another four days to pluck up the courage to go back again. By then he convinced himself that he was wrong and it was someone else and that was the only reason he was going back; though a nagging voice in the back of his mind said it was the complete opposite.

The second time he managed to hold her gaze for a few moments but when she raised that perfectly arched eyebrow with a cocky smile on her face, he bailed once more. He could hear her tinkling laughter as he rushed out the doors.

And now he's here again. Third time's the charm, he thinks as he takes a deep breath. The little purple wind chimes jingle as he opens the door.

It's closing time. The last customer hands her the money and walks away with his bouquet of red roses for his loved one probably. Once he's gone, Morgana looks up to meet his gaze.

It's eerily quiet. To him it feels like they're not even breathing, the dying ring of the wind chimes is the only sound in the room.

She breaks the silence first. "Are you finally going to buy something today? Or will you just stare intensely at me for a few seconds and then leave?"

Her tone is light and her posture relaxed. Merlin doesn't understand how she can be so calm. Does she not know who he is? He decides to play along.

"I'll take the lilies please." he says as he grabs the nearest bunch and walks up to the register.

They're too close now and her green eyes twinkle with secrets he wishes he were a part of.

"For a girlfriend or a wife?" she asks as she ties them up with a nice little bow. He's distracted by her profile.

"For a blind date." he answers truthfully.

She looks even more interested now. "Oh! Good luck then. I hope you meet your one true love tonight." He can't tell if she's mocking him.

"What's your name?"

She tilts her head. "Morgana." she replies boldly.

His heart skips a beat.

"Yours?" she questions as she hands him his flowers.

He takes them, fingers brushing hers ever so slightly. "Merlin."

Her smile never falters. "Well it was very nice to meet you Merlin."

"Likewise." he says in return. Flustered and confused, he leaves the shop with more questions than he came in with.

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His date is going terribly and it's all his fault. The woman sitting across him is very nice and trying her best, like anyone would on a blind date; but for the life of him he can't concentrate on her. Another face keeps flashing before his eyes, and soon he decides to give up.

He feels really bad and apologizes profusely at the end of the evening, leaving her standing on the sidewalk with the lilies gripped tightly in her hands.

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Merlin dreams of roses and thorns and vines strangling him that night. He wakes up drenched in sweat and rubs his eyes to wash away the horrific images. He hasn't had a nightmare in decades.

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He's back at the shop the next day. It's buzzing with people and she's very busy, occupied with one task or another. Merlin doesn't mind, he's content to roam around and smell all the beautiful flowers, occasionally looking up to steal glances at her.

When she finally has a minute he goes up to say hi. Morgana doesn't inquire about his date, but he tells her anyway.

She shakes her head. "It could've been worse. At least she got out alive."

Ignoring the jab, he points toward a peculiarly shaped white flower that almost resembled a bird. "What are those called?"

Before she can answer a co-worker calls her name and she's pulled away.

"Come back tomorrow and I'll tell you all you want to know and more!" she says over her shoulder.

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She teaches him all the different meanings and symbolism of the flowers. Tulips for gratitude, daisies for hope and resistance, laurels for victory and poppies for remembrance.

"I thought forget-me-nots would be for remembrance."

"Yes, but they also represent eternal love, and as the name suggests, the hope to be never forgotten and kept in one's memory for all your life. A bit too cliché for me. Whereas poppies are more...think of me when I'm gone."

He nods thoughtfully and watches her as she ties up her hair in a ponytail, revealing all six of her piercings.

She notices him looking and says, "One for each person who has ever betrayed me. A constant reminder to never trust so easily again."

In his head he does the counting but they don't quite add up. "You know you're pretty morbid for someone who's surrounded by so much warmth and beauty."

Morgana shrugs. "Appearances can be deceiving."

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Everybody knows his name by now. He's become a regular visitor and her co-workers have even started teasing her about him. She brushes them off, but can't really come up with a reply when they ask her, "So why do you spend every break hour sitting outside huddled together talking about God knows what with him?"

Honestly, she doesn't know. The logical part of her brain tells her she should shut him out- like he did to her so long ago-instead of welcoming him back into her life.

But she can't deny that they're drawn to one another, like they always have been. They don't talk about the past, preferring to pretend it never happened. However she can't help dropping little nasty references here and there, which he always graciously ignores.

She hopes one day he'll take the bait though because sometimes just looking at him makes her want to explode with all the unsaid things between them. He wonders how she can be so calm, but in truth it's just a mask. Inside her rages a storm as tumultuous as his own.

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"You brought me flowers? Gee how original." her voice drips with sarcasm.

Merlin tuts. "Not just any flowers, yellow daffodils."

She gets it. "Oh, daffodils. New beginnings."

"I thought you would appreciate the gesture."

Morgana says nothing as she takes the flowers and places them in an empty vase behind her. She does appreciate it, more than she would like to admit.

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Late one night when everyone's gone and they're still sitting on the floor talking when they should've left hours ago, Merlin suddenly leans forward and kisses her. Her lips are softer than he had imagined and they open up readily without any resistance.

But when he moves back to look at her face, there's anger in her eyes.

"A little too soon?" he asks tentatively.

"A little too late." Morgana isn't angry he kissed her, she's angry he didn't do it a millennium ago when the time was right.

"Better late than never."

She can't argue with that.

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Merlin wakes up with his arms wrapped around her. He presses his face against her neck and inhales. She smells like lavenders and freesias and gardenias and everything else he loves.

Her eyes flutter open when he begins to trail kisses down her spine.

"Good morning." he murmurs against her skin.

"Is it?"

He grins. "Oh, don't be like that."

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She's gone. The other florists tell him she quit this morning, said goodbye and left. No number to call, no address they can provide him with. No mark she left behind.

Except he can still feel her head on his chest. He wants to laugh and cry at the same time. How did he not see this coming?

Of course Morgana would run. Just when he thought that perhaps they were ready to move on, together, she proves to him that she can't. Nothing forgotten, nothing forgiven.

Merlin walks around the city the whole day, he can't go back to his apartment now. Back to the emptiness, to her hair on his pillows, to that stupid smell of flowers suffocating him.

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He stumbles in during the wee hours of the morning. Bone tired and with a terrible headache, all he wants to do is climb into bed and forget everything. When he flips on the lights though, he sees that it would not be so easy.

There's a small cluster of poppies sitting on his mattress. The contrast between the red and the white is quite stunning.

He picks them up and reads the tiny note attached. Two words. In her lovely cursive handwriting.

For Remembrance.

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Sooo, left it on a hopeful note! They might meet again and this time he won't let her slip away, the flowers show it meant something to her as well. I just thought modern Morgana wouldn't get over everything so easily, and once he got too close, she ran to sort out her mind. Might seem a little vengeful to give hope and take it away, but she did it more for herself than him. Will write a sequel maybe!

But yeah lemme know your thoughts!