Work Text:
Vash works at a small but successfully flower shop in the walking district of Gunsmoke. Work is a bit of an understatement because he co owns the shop with his twin brother, Nai, and does pretty much everything around the shop except for tax and anything legal related, which Nai takes care of. After Vash lost an arm and a leg to a terrible car accident, Nai has made it the utmost effort to make sure he’s still able to live a fulfilling life, and so when Vash brought up the idea of wanting to start the flower shop that he’s always dream of owning since he was a kid, Nai immediately withdrew his saving from working as lead engineer in a renown biomedical lab and gave it to Vash, despite his protest, to start the shop. Ever since, he has been running this small flower shop by himself. His neighbor is a cute coffee shop ran by a pair of wives named Meryl and Milly, and they cut a deal to give him free treats whenever he wants in exchange for the flower arrangement he makes them when they need. Vash loves running the shop, and he loves his neighbor, and life couldn’t be any better.
It’s a pretty slow day, and Vash spends most of it taking stock of his inventory, trying to figure out how to prepare for the upcoming holidays when there sure to be a surge of customers looking to buy gifts for their special someone, when the door chimes, and Vash looks up to see one of the most gorgeous man he has ever laid eyes on.
He’s tall, with long thick thighs that are not at all obscured by the tight dress pants that he wears, tall gorgeous hook nose, warm tanned skin, and massive pecs that sit perfectly on the window of the low cut shirt, adorn by a long rosary.
He’s walking up to Vash, and when he offers that easy smile as introduction, Vash hopes he isn’t physically drooling.
He's standing close enough to Vash that he could smell the woody smell of cigarettes. Vash doesn’t like cigarettes, but he thinks the man in front of him wears them well.
“Hi. Just here looking for flowers for my date. You got anything that a woman in her 30s would love?” The guy asks.
Vash has to try not to let the disappointment seeps onto his face. So this guy is already taken, not that Vash’s in the business of getting involved with his customer.
“Yea! I sure can make you something. Do you know what she likes?” Vash offers, trying to sound as cheerful as he could.
The guy taps on his chin. He has long, thick, and very attractive fingers.
God. Vash needs to get laid.
“She doesn’t like anything that smells too sweet. I never see her wear anything that’s too far from black or red, so something like that. Very sophisticated. Has great taste,” the guy replies. He looks like he’s completely enamored with her.
“Ok!” Vash nods, almost too quickly. “I know a perfect arrangement for her. Let me gather all of the parts and you can tell me if it’s something she’d like.”
Vash quickly puts down the pot he’s carrying and walks to the opposite shelf that is holding some of his more popular flowers like lily, carnation, and baby breathes, trying to not look at the man and reveal how red his face is, when suddenly, his leg catch on to a snag, causing him to nearly tumble to the floor.
That is, if an arm didn’t shoot out and wrap around Vash’s waist, holding him up. Vash’s body is suddenly pulled flush against his strong chest, and his nose is filled with the intoxicating smell of woody cigarettes and musky perfume.
“You okay there, sweetheart?” The man's voice rumbles, sending shivers down Vash’s spine.
Vash jumps, face hot, and stuttering. “I’m good! Amazing. Absolutely peachy!”
From behind his lashes, he can see the man chuckling, the corner of his mouth quirking up in an attractive way.
“Sorry about that! Let me go grab the flower and I’ll be right back with you,” Vash says, his body already moving toward his original destination.
Vash quickly moves around the shop to grab everything he needs. A couple of times, his arm nearly brushes the guy’s arm, and Vash is sure he would have jumped from the electricity of their touch if they did.
Vash puts out all of the parts on the arrangement table and waits for the guy to give him the nod of approval before assembling the bouquet. So his date is someone who likes dark colors, is sophisticate, and has great tastes. Vash pouts. That’s nothing like him. Not that it matters.
“Do you want a note to go with it?” Vash asks as his fingers move across the register.
“Hm. Sure. Can you write ‘for the most beautiful woman I know in Gunsmoke’, and sign my name?”
Gosh. It’s so cheesy and Vash would have loved it if someone gave him a note like that. Vash quickly writes down.
“And your name, sir?”
“Nicholas,” the guy replies.
Vash hands Nicholas the bouquet. “Here you go, Mr. Nicholas. Hope your date goes well.”
Nicholas grins. “Thanks, sweetcheeks. You have a good day.”
Vash shrieks inwardly. He can’t wait to run over Meryl and Milly’s shop to tell them once his shop is closed.
To his surprise, Nicholas returns the following week, asking for another bouquet for the same woman. Vash asks how his date went, just out of courtesy, and the way Nicholas’s face beams and for the fact he comes back to get another bouquet for her tells Vash all he needs to know.
“She must be a wonderful lady by the way you talk about her,” Vash comments, hands moving delicately to wrap the carnation into a simple but elegant display.
“She is,” Nicholas smiles, fond. “Only known her for a couple of weeks, but she’s great. Smart. Funny. Beautiful. Anyone would be lucky to have her.”
There’s a jabbing pain in Vash’s heart. He’s a bit jealous, seeing the way Nicholas clearly adores the woman he’s dating, and goes out of his way to get her flower again. Despite what his exes think, owning a flower shop doesn’t mean he doesn’t like to receive flowers from them. Maybe they thoughts because Vash is always so generous and open like the vast, infinite sea that there is no space in his heart to take.
“And she’s lucky to have you. I don’t see many guys who talk about their girlfriend or wife like that, let alone their date,” Vash comments.
“Heck. Even I wish I have someone who talks about me like that,” Vash says, his voice deflated. That was a bit too honest.
Nicholas raises an eyebrow, and Vash feels he might have fuck up saying that. He sounds needy, maybe even jealous. His mind is racing, trying to find something to say. Maybe haha, just joking . Gosh. It’s so embarrassing.
“I find that hard to believe,” Nicholas replies. “Pretty boy like you? I would never let you leave my sight.”
Oh my fucking god.
Vash is going to faint. He’s going to faint right there, right now, and Nicholas is going to have to call an ambulance, and they’re going to have to take him to the ER and resuscitate his heart, and he’s going to look like an absolute fool in Nicholas’s eyes if he let any of that happens.
“Uhm- er- thanks?” Vash stutters.
Jesus. He already looks like a fool in Nicholas’s eyes.
With nothing to say and wanting Nicholas not to hear how fast his heart is beating right now, Vash quickly finishes wrapping the bouquet and hands it to Nicholas.
“Thank you again, sweetheart. Have a good day,” Nicholas waves, his other hand holding a large bouquet as he heads to the door.
Vash feels his heart thump in that familiar and scary way.
“He’s hot. He’s so hot, Milly. You have to see him. The definition of tall, dark, and handsome. And he’s been to the shop four times already in the last three months to get her flower.” Vash whines into his chai latte. He’s sitting at the bar, Milly leaning against the countertop on the other side as she listens to what has to be his fifth breakdown over Nicholas.
“He’s so sweet. He asked me how my day goes, and he even asked me what book I’m reading and didn’t mock me when I showed him the mass market romance I’m reading. And he asked me if Alyssa finally dumped Josh for Chris, which is the correct choice. He remembers,” Vash throws his hand up, then slumps again the chair, a whine threatening to escape his lips.
“He’s perfect. And he’s taken.” Vash’s head is on the table as his fisted hand hits the wooden surface dramatically.
“Geez. That’s tough, Vash.” Milly replies, hand nursing her cup of coffee. The shop dies down a bit during the afternoon, so that’s why she and Meryl have time to entertain him as he whines to them about his tumultuous love life.
“That’s tough? That’s all you’ve got to say?” Vash throws his arm up and offers Milly his most pitiful look.
Milly laughs. “You are pining over a taken man. I’m not sure what to tell you except go get a different crush, Vash.”
“I can’t,” Vash pouts. “I’ll never be able to find someone as perfect as him.”
“Who’s this you guys have been talking about? Is it Vash’s sexy hunk crush again?” Meryl interjects. She has just finished making what’s probably her fifth ice lavender honey oatmeal latte of the day and is now joining Vash’s and Milly’s little gossip circle.
“Yeah. It’s about my sexy hunk crush again.” Vash sighs. “It’s terrible, Meryl. An avenger-level crisis.”
Meryl snorts. “You’re so dramatic. He can’t be that hot. Just go to Julai with us this weekend and we’ll find you a big titty boyfriend you can drool over. You’ll forget him in no time.”
Vash puts his hand up to his chest indignantly. “Don’t disrespect Nicholas like that. His boobs aren’t the only big thing on his chest. His heart is very big too.” That got a round of peeling laughs from all of them.
“Come on, Vash. You’re hot. You’re young. You’ll find someone who will have eyes just for you eventually,” Milly consoles.
But he won’t buy flowers for me like how Nicholas does for his girlfriend. And he won’t look at me the way Nicholas looks when he talks about her. Vash thinks.
“Let me think about it,” Vash sighs.
Meryl has one of her hands on her hips, her head tilts to the side and one eyebrow raised in a judging gesture, but her eyes are soft. “Okay. Just let us know. We can always get a couple tubes of ice cream and binge-watch Schitt’s Creek again if you don’t want to go out.”
“You guys are the best,” Vash fake sobs into his hand, eliciting a laugh from both Milly and Meryl.
He really needs to find a way to move on though.
They ended up staying at Vash’s place, sprawling out on his old pilling couch with a tub of ice cream in each of their hands, binging the first season of Schitt’s Creek as Vash tries to ignore the way his heart itched for the sight of a tall, dark-haired, easy smile and flaming eyes that lit the fire in the bottom of Vash’s stomach, making him hot at giddy all over. Vash was tempted to take up the offer to go out, but he’s over the years of binge drinking and getting shitfaced on the sticky alcohol-soaked floor over guys who couldn’t return his feelings. It’s terrible for his liver and Vash always woke up with a burning sense of humiliation in his guts over spilling his heart open to strangers on the dance floor, letting them take advantage of his heartbreak and vulnerability to pull him closer and bruise his skin with their selfish desire. And he was selfish, returning their touch and letting his flesh help him forget that somewhere above these walls, his mind yearned for someone who would never answer.
Just when Vash thinks maybe his heart has moved on from this childish crush, Nicholas returns, two weeks later, asking for a simple bouquet with jasmine as the centerstage component.
It’s raining outside, flurry of droplets that beat themselves on the cautious and weary shoulders of the inhabitants of Gunsmoke, who hurried from one destination to another, never stop to open their hearts to any serendipitous moments that might irrevocably change their lives forever, and down to the crack gray pavement, seeping into the earth and back to the ocean through the twisting meandering path of the sewer systems. There was a time when Vash was like that himself, walking and moving through his life like a corpse, unsure of where he was going and where he wanted to end up, running away and never toward something.
“Hello,” Vash looks up from the book he’s reading, some trashy romance novel that Nai has a distaste toward but he has picked up without shame when he hears the doorbell chimes. His eyes widen when he takes in who’s in front of the door.
Nicholas’s hair is gray and wet, water seeping through and running lines down his face.
He’s wearing the same body-fitting suit that he usually wears, the one with a neckline that cut too low and two crosses adorn the cuff of his sleeves. The shoulders of his suit are also darkened with moisture, and shiver a bit as the air-conditioned atmosphere inside the shop hits his skin.
“Oh my god, Nicholas! Let me get you a towel,” Vash exclaims, feet already moving toward the room in the back to grab something for Nicholas to dry himself with.
“All good, blondie. Don’t bother yourself with it,” Nicholas waves his hand, but there’s a tremble on his slightly blue lips that makes Vash gesture for him to sit and waits as he quickly tears through the back room, grabbing the first towel he can find, then hastily runs back to Nicholas. Without thinking, his towel-holding hand reaches toward Nicholas’s face and starts wiping the water away. Nicholas’s face is rough with stubble, some of it snags between the fiber of the fabric as Vash runs his hand on the hill and curves of his face, from his high hook nose to the sharp outline of his jaw.
It’s only when he’s half-dried and Vash notices the way his gray eyes look up at Vash that he realizes what he’s doing.
Vash jumps back, the hand that was wiping Nicholas's tingle with electricity from the touch, and let go of the fabric, which falls to the floor.
“I’m so sorry,” Vash stammers, face burning. His head hangs low, out of shame of his presumption and a clear violation of the relationship between a shop owner and his clearly taken customer.
“Don’t be,” Nicholas’s voice rumbles in soft tremors. “That was nice of you. Thank you.”
He doesn’t sound angry, but it still takes Vash a moment of chewing his lips and trying to swallow down an embarrassed whimper before he can look up to look at Nicholas.
He’s looking at Vash with a look of adoration, his stormy eyes shadowed but warm despite the white neon light. Vash feels his heart thrum against his rib cage. Please don’t look at me like that. Vash wants to whine. You’re giving me false hope, and I don’t know if I can stomach anything else once I know a taste that sweet.
“You having a good day so far?” Nicholas asks. Vash sighs in relief at the change of topic.
“It’s good. Pretty slow day, but it’s always like that when it rains,” Vash claps his hands behind his back and shrugs his shoulders.
“Perfect time to find out who Alyssa ended up with. Was it Chris?” Nicholas smiles, his body leaning toward Vash.
“It’s Josh, unfortunately. That book sucks.” Vash sighs. He threw it into the to-donate bin the moment he finished it.
“Ah. That’s unfortunate. What are you reading now?”
Vash’s face lit up. “It’s called Drop Dead Gorgeous. It’s about this girl named Anna who’s a necromancer who finds herself entangled in a love triangle with a mortician and a zombie she accidentally revived. Sounds weird, I know, but it’s actually very well written,” Vash rambles, hands moving and fingers gesturing excitedly.
Nicholas laughs. “That’s interesting. I might have to check this out. Seeing if they got the mortician part correct.”
Vash’s cheeks heat up again. He hopes Nicholas doesn’t make the connection that he picks up the book because Nicholas tells him he’s a mortician, and that Vash is rooting for the protagonist to end up with the mortician.
“So, what can I do for you today?” Vash asks before the silence could suffocate him.
“Right,” Nicholas stands and straightens his suit. “I’m looking for a jasmine bouquet, something simple.”
Vash nods. “Okay. For your girlfriend?”
“You know it,” Nicholas smiles, but it isn’t his usual easy smile. There’s a hint of sadness in there.
Strange.
Vash moves quickly around the shop, grabbing a mix of flowers and bud and stabilizing green to assemble what he thinks would be a simple and elegant bouquet the woman Vash never met but has familiarized himself with. He works in silence as Nicholas waits, feet tapping on the floor and occasionally looking at the watch. He seems distracted, preoccupied with a thought that is beyond these four walls.
The rain has died down into a drizzle, clouds receding to the field for the ray of sunlight that pry themselves against the shiny concrete corners of Gunsmoke. Vash prefers sunny days, but for this moment, he wishes that the rain has stayed, keeping Nicholas behind the door of his shop and just for himself.
Ignoring the heavy feeling in his heart, Vash finishes wrapping up the bouquet and heads over to the register to ring up Nicholas.
“That would be $$40,” he says, voice deflated and eyes refusing to look Nicholas in the eyes. He expects Nicholas to reach into his pocket like always and pulls out his credit card. Instead, what he sees is a single stem of gardenia placed gently on the counter next to the bouquet.
He looks up to see Nicholas looking at him, waiting for him to let him know the updated price. It’s different than his usual, but Vash doesn’t ask
“That’d be $$45 then,” Vash says, pulling out a small wrapping bag to put the flower in.
Nicholas stops him. “That won’t be needed. That’s for you, sweetheart.”
Vash’s hands freeze. He looks up at Nicholas, eyes wide and mouth slightly open. “Me?”
Nicholas nods, a smile tugging at the corner of his mouth.
“You don’t have to,” Vash stutters, eyes darting between Nicholas and the flower. “ I- “
Nicholas grabs the flower and puts it in his hand. Vash’s palm tingles where he was touched. “For you.”
All Vash could manage is to stutter out a thank you as he accepts Nicholas’s card, runs it to the card reader, and hands it back to him as his body tingled and cheeks flushes red.
“Thanks again,” Nicholas waves, his other arm carrying the bouquet. A shy ray of sunlight sneaks through the display window and hit part of his face, making his stormy eyes turn dusty white. He looks so gorgeous Vash’s heart could stop.
Then the doorbell chimes, and Vash’s shop is empty again.
Nicholas doesn’t come back after that. At first, Vash was half in denial, spending his days tapping nervously at the counter as his eyes alternate between scanning uncomprehendingly at his book to staring at the door, waiting for the familiar figure to darken the steps. He whines incessantly at Meryl and Milly, and it has seeped so much into his personal life that even Nai starts prying at him to find out who’s the guy who’s broken his baby brother’s heart.
Then came the drinking. Meryl and Milly were happy to go out with him at first, with the hope he’ll find someone who can make him forget how Nicholas makes him feel, but they turned worried when the fun night out turn into drinking sessions where he would take shots from whichever strangers try to pick him up, and buying rounds for people he barely knows, keeping his mouth full of liquor until he blacked out so bad Meryl had to call Nai to pick him up. Nai was furious when he insisted on continuing to go out after that, trailing after him in the club and chasing away any person that approached him with a sharp glare. It was only when Meryl and Milly put their feet down, refusing to continue on his alcohol-laden heartbreak parade, that he stopped, instead going to their place when they have the time for him to binge-watch sitcoms with a tube of ice cream in his hand or holing up in his apartment to mope while Nai blew up his phone.
By the time he deem himself to be completely over Nicholas, he had watched both Schitt’s Creek and Gossip Girl back to back while eating copious amounts of ice cream and donuts and finished up the romance book he was reading, where Anna did end up with the mortician, which did not make him feel any better.
Vash sighs as he gets his shop ready to open. Valentine’s is coming up in a month, and Vash has been so preoccupied with getting over Nicholas and ordering the stock he needs for the holiday to find someone to spend the day with. He puts out the board at the front of his shop, written with the new flowers and plants they have in stock, then turns the door sign to Open.
Nicholas hasn’t been to his shop in two months.
He’s halfway through a chapter of a new novel, this time with no mortician love interest, when the doorbell chimes.
Vash looks up. His eyes immediately widen when he sees the familiar figure between the door frame.
“Hey. It’s been a while,” Nicholas waves, still that easy smile on his face.
“Hi,” Vash breathes, hoping his voice doesn’t betray the erratic way his heart is beating. “Another flower bouquet, I’m guessing?”
Nicholas nods. “Yea. Not for the same lady, though. We broke up. She left the country last month.”
Oh .
And he already has someone new.
Vash tries to smile, despite the little stabbing pain in his heart. “I’m sorry to hear. Who is it for this time?”
Nicholas doesn’t answer right away. Instead, he walks up to Vash and darkens the counter he’s sitting at, fingers still between the last pages he was on.
“I was wondering… if it would be appropriate for me to give you flowers,” Nicholas asks, eyes soft and yearning.
Vash’s breath hitches. He looks at Nicholas, at the way he leans toward Vash but does not encroach on his space, and the earnest way to which he returns Vash’s gaze.
It takes a moment, but Vash finally nods. “Yes. I think that’d be perfectly appropriate.”
Nicholas’s face lit up with a smile.