Prompt from tumblr. ItaNyo!Ger

"Hey." A mysterious person with a hard face and a soft pink shirt marches up to the cash register with soft steps.

"Hello there." Feliciano smiles. "How are you?"

"I'm fine, howareyou. I'd like three of those." She says. The skin her eyes looks like a magazine models.

"Aren't these cool? I love these!" Feliciano grabs two alien flowers, oh, oops, three aliens, you caught him a little nervous about this person, he grabs the third and gives her a dumb wolf smile.

She gives him an evil smirk like he just cost himself $1.75. "Two would be good I suppose." No really what's wrong with her eyes.

"Three is a more natural number."

"Three is good."

Feliciano wraps them up and tells her about them.

"Thank-you very much."

"Hope to see you soon."

"Um, African daisies." She's back! She's so blunt. At least she's not rude to Feliciano per se, it seems more like the idea of flowers is under her... eyes.

"What color."

"I don't care."

"Okay." Feliciano gives her all three colors.

"Cute. Thanks."

"Come again.

"These are actually really pretty." Her voice wanders and she puts three flowers on Feliciano's counter. Three sunrise flowers with round middles and crinklish leaves, one of them rolls a few degrees before settling.

"They're enchanting. And, they're new." Feliciano cooes. His shop is doing that well, he has new flowers. Oh boy.

"Oh." She invents a plan. "Give them to me." Fiercely, she gives Feliciano a credit card.

What? She's so scary, her eyeliner is so dark and smudged, her eyebrows are so bold despite being so light, she's so tall and muscly, oh German women are so scary. "All of them?"

"How many are there?"

Yeah, like Feliciano keeps track of flowers. Haha. "Well, let me go see." He brings her card with him. She is Monica Beilschmidt and she's Mastercard. Monica Vargas?

Don't be silly, she's just a customer. She's only here every four days.

She's got pearls on and he knows that he's in big trouble he's sure in deep. But her eyes are still super puffy.

"Are roses different?" She says.

Oh good, Monica's giving someone roses, Feliciano can sleep tonight without thinking of her. Her affections are taken, so just give up.

"Roses are very different. There's no flower like it." Feliciano says romantically.

"But is a red rose different from a yellow rose?"

"Yellow is formal, red is love and passion,"

"No. I mean are they different species?"

You know? She always seems so mad at flowers. Maybe she's not really as scary as she seems, maybe she's just being flippant.

"I dunno, I just like flowers cos they're pretty."

"Well then I'd like an orange rose, a red rose, a white rose, a yellow rose..."

Good, whatever she's doing with these flowers she might not be giving them away. There is still a chance.

I mean, no, she's just juggling twelve first dates.

"I brought you hot cocoa."

I mean no, she brought him food! Feliciano can't react to this gift, his mind is a flurry : How dare you, Monica. How dare you ruin the friendship with this beautiful gift. I want to eat dinner with you and then kiss you goodnight and you come in here with that hot chocolate like you're not mad at me for selling flowers anymore but you still are. "Thank you for this hot chocolate!" Feliciano says.

"Fast day today?"

"What?"

"Too many people bought too many flowers and now you're yelling polite things. You're welcome for that hot chocolate!"

You are so important Monica! You are so beautiful and sarcastic and you could do anything. "Eee."

That hot chocolate was worth the 4 dollars, Monica probably thinks, To watch him so flustered.

"Do you have any recommendations?"

"Wha?"

"Flowers?"

"Oh! Right! Ummm, I have vanilla flowers now! They're so silly but they're selling really... well." Feliciano says. Monica, she seemed ready to interrupt Feliciano. 'No Feliciano, I don't care about that.' but she didn't.

"Do they smell like vanilla?"

"Kinda! Here." Feliciano grabs one for her.

"Um."

"Okay, no vanilla. Uh, tiger lilly?"

"Sure."

"Three?"

"Two."

"Aw, okay."

"I don't need the third one, I don't want to waste it."

"Alright."

Need them? Does anyone need flowers?

She is gone. For a whole month.

Feliciano is too naive to imagine that she's not coming back to the store.

Hawaii? No, she doesn't seem like the type to relax. Probably hiking around in Colorado and saying "Ah, the fresh air." When she means, "Oh, it's so cold and the air is thin and hiking is so hard."

Feliciano wants to go too.

"Whoa." Feliciano says when she's finally back. "I can't put my finger on it."

"On what?" She's still mad after all this time.

"You look good."

"Hm." She gives him a cat look. What an apathetic evil cat. Oh, her eyes are normal, now! That's it.

"Do you want some baby's breath?"

"Sure." She says.

Monica puts some random flower on the counter with a twin.

"Nice to see you. I brought you some fancy chocolate. Girls like chocolate."

"Thanks."

"See you."

"See you."

"Monica wait," Feliciano calls when she comes in and shops around. "I picked out your flowers, they're up here."

"What the hell are those."

"Flowers."

"No."

"They really are, people get them for weddings when they need this color."

"Well I'll admit you've painted this piece an unnatural yet appealing color."

"Thanks but I don't paint flowers, they're too hard."

"Is this like 50 dollars for half a bouquet?"

"Usually, somewhere around there. How's 10 for both?"

"No, come on, you've got student loans to pay soon, what is it really?"

"I don't have student loans, just rent and flowers. I'm guessing you have student loans, so 10."

"You're not in college?" Monica seems shocked. You might think she's always here but she's only here at 2pm, she doesn't know Feliciano's shift is 10 hours. (He's the only one here, no boss. He eats, naps, draws, sits down, sweeps, talks to the flowers. Basically he lives here surrounded by colors and happiness. But he can't go pantsless. Also sometimes people are mean. And February, it's hell.)

"Yeah my friend and I were gonna open a flower shop but she bailed so now I have a flower shop and I'm the only guy I can trust with the books because I don't really do them I just, you know." Feliciano glances at the cash register and realizes he can't just go around spilling business secrets.

"Oh, yeah," Monica follows his eyes and nervousness. "I'm only here to learn you're secrets and rob you, uh-huh. After all this time."

"I won't have any evidence if I tried to sue you or whatever I'd do, cos books take too long." Feliciano sort of fakes a laugh because Monica is probably going to give him a lecture about money. Instead she pushes her bangs back and lets them fall.

"Wow. I never realized 'open 11-8:30 closed Sunday and Tuesday' meant open 11-8:30 closed Sunday and Tuesday. You work too much!"

Feliciano laughs, pleased someone as tough as Monica would say something like that. "Yeah I figured I could sleep in and then if ya got a date at 8, swing on by. But it seems like some of the older flower shoppers want me open at a normal time like 8-10. No cashiers."

"14 hours no thanks!"

"That's exactly what I said." Feliciano winks.

He couldn't hire someone else to work at his shop. It's his.

"Hey."

"Hey Monica! How's your week been, huh?"

"Urh."

"What's wrong Monica? Tired of flowers."

"Mn." She was at the stage of her anger chilling into despair.

"Two sad flowers. Don't give up on me now."

"Hey, I live across the street, do you want to come over some time." Monica mumbles, counting ones in her wallet.

WHOA. WHOA! Amazing. Truely a dream come true for a coward like Feliciano who is afraid of rejection and in general confused by Monica's angry obsession with flowers. "Yeaaaaaah, I mean I'd, yeah I mean, yeah,"

Monica snickers. "Okay. Maybe next Sunday."

"Okay. Chrysanthemums? Back to the basics."

"Haven't I already bought those?"

"Um." Feliciano says. "Um, okay, this is really weird. I don't have a book but I have a checklist of flowers you, uh, I'm sorry. You were so interesting usually people buy the same flowers but you,"

"You have a list! Let me see it."

"Okay. Um. Sorry I swear that's, here."

"This is going to help me. Yeah. I guess I haven't gotten Chrysanthemums." Monica says. "Thanks!"

"Yeah, you can keep it."

"No I don't really need it I have my own but, um, at first I wasn't keeping track. It's always good to compare lists, too."

"Two chrysanthemums and a date." Feliciano tried to quirk his eyebrows but he couldn't do it and Monica laughed but she couldn't do it either.

Feliciano is so excited! ! ! ! ! ! ! !

Feliciano is in agony! It's not next Sunday yet! Okay he knows Monica left with her chrysanthemums five minutes ago but agony.

"HA!" Monica bounces into the store.

"Ha! Nice! Something cool happened." Feliciano smiled with Monica. "But you look terrible are you okay?"

"I did it mister! I figured it out." In Monica's tone is the hidden reason why she hates Feliciano's flower shop. Also her eyes are pink and leaky.

"Do you need a ride to the hospital? Are you blind?"

"I am allergic to chrysanthemums!" Monica takes a moment to herself to calm down. "When I moved into that little apartment across the street my eyes started running and my ears were itchy. And I saw I'd moved next to your shop, I knew one of your damned flowers was irritating me."

Feliciano's face bends into ridiculous disbelief. "You could have just asked."

"No I couldn't have. Which Flower, you'd ask me."

"So you... Monica! No. Poor Monica. Monica no."

"Yeah, very sad. Without further ado, would you mind not selling chrysanthemums?"

"For you, sure. No more. What should we do with the rest of them?"

Monica smiles. "Have a Black Friday sale. I dunno."

"Maybe I could get those clothes racks shops around here have for sales and put all the chrysanthemums there."

"I don't know if that would work but it's a good idea in theory."

"We could give them to a church I bet they could use some flowers, you know. Oh it's March, no flowers for us."

"It's spring, it's flower time?"

"Not to Catholics we hate spring. We hate everything, it strengthens our love for God."

"Catholics are so backwards."

"We're terrible." Feliciano said. "Ah... So, more flowers? Did you, like, inhale them deeply and rub them in your eyes? What?"

"I put one in a glass in the kitchen and I tore the other up and slept with it. Um." They both laughed at Monica's phrasing.

"WhAt iF yOu DieD?" Feliciano's voice had a panic attack.

"Flowers can't kill me." Monica said. "I mean really, two flowers really shouldn't be able to kill someone."

"The roses must have been fun."

"Oh yeah. Kind of sad to have to cover your own bed in rose petals, but fun."

"Yeah." Feliciano said. "It's better than putting candles out for someone and they get distracted and won't follow you and the bedroom catches on fire."

"Distracted by what?"

"Maybe they get hungry, maybe a show comes on, maybe the phone rings."

"Okay... Well I'm all for optimism about Sunday bu,t you are never ever getting candles."

"Aw. So about Sunday..."

"Yeah. Don't think I'm only dating you for your flowers."

"Are you sure?"

"Well kind of I was going to give up and see if I was just allergic to you."

"Aw, how cute."

"Also, I brought you this." Monica pulls something out of her pocket.

It was a little crocheted cat doll. It was tiny and gray and fat and had a red ball of yarn. "Oh my gosh." Feliciano whimpers and pokes the cat's tiny cheek.

"Yeah. When I was 12 I wanted a girlier hobby than Neopets. And I sort of. Haven't given either one up."

"Oh wow! Do you have the lab map?"

"Not everything is about the lab map! Not everything can be random."

"Says the girl who met the cutest guy in the world by moving next to his flower shop which just happened to have crysanthemums."

"Chrysanthemums are very common and admittedly flower shops are cute and bohemian."

"Meow."

"Yeah."

She never stays long. She goes to college.

"Well, I guess I'll see you Sunday."

"Sounds good. Give me your phone number."

Feliciano writes on a flower-gram.

It's 8 o'clock on a Saturday night and Feliciano is helping guys pick out flowers. Usually it's fun and cute giving date advice, but Feliciano's knees are cold and he feels lonely. You'd think this would be the night he feels the least lonely, but he's got a coconut in his stomach for tomorrow.

"Um, may I help you miss?" Feliciano says to a young woman with a trench coat, sunglasses, and a fake handlebar mustache. ? ? ?

"What's,"

"Oh it's you!" Feliciano starts laughing at Monica. "Oh my gosh."

She smiles and pulls the mustache off, holding up to Feliciano so it looks like she's still wearing it and she and Feliciano giggle.

"What's a good first date flower and also, um, in all the time I've known you I never caught your name."

Feliciano laughs. "Are you serious?"

"You should really consider a name-tag."

"But then people would try to call me by my name. It's very Italian."

"Italian? What did I get myself into?" She laughs.

Feliciano grins and winks. "Feliciano Vargas at your service. I'd suggest starting with a rose, it's a classic."

"Feliciano."

"Mmmonica."

"So how were you going to test if you'w're allergic to me?" Feliciano picks at his salad.

"Eating all your food, maybe? Here, try this." Monica offers Feliciano a leaf from her salad, on her fork.

She continues while he chews, "I mean, if I wasn't actually dating you on purpose, I'd tear you up and sleep with you, but I think we should keep you in one piece and date a little more."

Feliciano nods thoughtfully. Monica's salad is the same as his, but better! So he reaches across the table with his fork. She sighs at him. "Do you want to trade?"

"Let's cross pollinate." Feliciano winks.

"Okay, we can't trade anymore, sorry."

Feliciano pouted.

"You can't use stupid pick up lines on me unless you A. Don't know me, or B. Are married to me."

"Speaking of which, no proposals on Valentine's Day, please, I'm too busy. So don't expect it, it's not coming until at least the 15th."

"Noted."

"And no Bee Movie jokes. Ever. No."

"The feeling is mutual." Monica says. "What about Little Shop of Horrors?"

"Never seen it, so, I guess so."

"Ooh, I know what we're doing for our second date." Monica smiles.