BLOODLINES: the owl house

matthiola incanas (and a single rose)

Ok so before we start this, lemme explain
Basically my sister and I had an idea where we used Wheel Decide to decide what fic we would write

So we spinned for two fandoms (TOH and DEH)
We spinned for a trope/AU (flower shop)
And we spinned for two ships (Lumity and Tree Bros)

This is mostly Lumity, and only has Tree Bros at the very end. The Tree Bros bit only makes sense if you know the prompt I used lol
Okay on with the story!

—

Amity stood at the counter, waiting for her shift to be over. There were still 30 minutes left until the shop closed. She knew she couldn't leave early; it would get her in trouble. So she waited. And waited. And waited for what seemed like forever, but only 5 minutes had gone by. She sighed. Might as well start cleaning up at least, right? She stepped away from the counter and walked into the 'EMPLOYEES ONLY' room. As soon as she stepped in, she started coughing violently, "Connor, not again!"

"What?" The annoyed boy's voice echoed from behind some storage boxes. Amity rolled her eyes. She was younger than him by a few years, but she knew she was much smarter than him. Who would smoke during work?

"If you're going to take a smoke break, at least do it outside the building. It isn't good for the plants," she picked up a green watering can and filled it up with water. Connor let out a puff of air and walked out of the back exit with no comment. "Jeez..." she sighed. She picked the now-full watering can up and began watering the various flowers. Roses, lilies, and orchids, oh my! Even with Connor getting on her nerves every day, she still loved being surrounded by beautiful flowers. She hummed a small tune, knowing he wasn't going to be back any time soon. Eventually, the humming had turned into lyrics. She wasn't much of a songwriter and only ever sang what came to mind. There was no deep meaning behind it. It was stupid, really, but it kept her calm.

Her song followed her into the shop's main room as she began watering the plants there as well. But something caught her eye. Or rather- someone. It was a girl around her age, on her phone while she waited for someone to help her. The girl looked up and stared at Amity, fixated on her voice. Once Amity realized the person was there, she immediately shut up. She didn't know someone had entered the shop. Oh God, why was she just staring at her? Did she sound horrible? Did she really just humiliate herself in front of a...very pretty girl? Amity's face began to heat up with embarrassment. Her ears reddened with blush, and she tried not to pour any of the water onto herself. "O-Oh, hi," she muttered, placing the can onto the ground, trying to do anything so she wouldn't have to make eye-contact.

The girl smiled, her brown skin glistening in the light of the sunset coming in through the windows, "Hi! Do you have any math- oh, wait, um- matthioli- macaroni- matthiola in-"

"Matthiola incanas?"

"Yeah! Do you have any?"

"I believe we do. I'll go get some from the back," Amity quickly stumbled away, nearly tripping over her feet. Gosh, why did she always become a complete mess around cute girls? She shook her head, 'Idiot! You don't even know this girl. Just give her the damn flowers and leave it at that.' She groaned, grabbing the flowers and putting them into a plastic floral wrap, 'But she's so cute...I mean, dumb! She couldn't pronounce the name. Only idiots would do that!'

Water was dripping onto the floor as she walked back with the flowers in her hand. She slipped and stumbled out the door, almost landing on her butt. She cleared her throat awkwardly and stood up, quickly handing the flowers over to the girl across from her. "Here you go! That'll be $6.99, please..."

"Thank you, Amity," she squinted to read the name tag on her chest. Butterflies erupted in her stomach after hearing her say her name. Her voice was so lovely. And her hands- oh crap, she's touching her hands.

Amity stared down at her hand as she placed a 5 dollar bill and some coins into her palm. Her soft fingers brushed against hers, and Amity tried her best not to give in to the ticklish sensation. "You're welcome," she finally squeaked out. She watched the girl walk away with the bouquet.

"Wow, that was horrible."

"Gah! Connor, I didn't expect you to come back," she crossed her arms and looked back at him.

He shrugged, "I'm expecting someone."

"Your drug dealer?"

"Would you just shut the fu-"

The bell ringed, signaling someone walking in. The pair turned to see a blond boy with a blue shirt and a broken arm. He glanced up before moving his eyes back to the ground.

Much to Amity's surprise, Connor stepped up and quickly picked a rose from the vase next to the cash register. "The usual, I assume?"

"Yep," the boy mumbled, keeping his stare fixated at the tiled floor. Connor nodded and handed it to him. He twirled it in his hands, staring at the vibrant red petals. His eyebrows furrowed, but he quickly placed it in his pocket and got out the exact amount of money the rose cost. Amity was quite confused. The usual? Does this guy come here often? She'd never seen him before... "Thanks," he opened his mouth to say something more but quickly shut it. "Bye," he turned around, almost bumping into a floral display, and rushing out the door.

And with that, it was time to close up shop.

—

"the store is dead and I go in the back to water some of the dish gardens and I bust out singing so I don't hear the door open but when I turn around I see you standing there watching me and you look so good and I'm such a dweeb how could this happen to me?" AU

"you keep coming in here and asking for a single red rose and you're such a regular you just call me on the phone and I have it ready for you when you come in but I'm also very interested who you're buying all these roses for?" AU (bonus: person B keeps wanting to give the roses to person A but gets too flustered so they just have vases full of roses in their house)

* 889 words (December 24, 2020)