A Flower's Affection (KiriBaku Flower Shop AU)

Eijiro Kirishima-"Well, this was going to happen eventually..."

Wait, what the frick is my title? I think I've just completely given up. Oh well.

        Kirishima was only half-focused on whatever Mina was telling him, infinitely more concerned with fulfilling an order that had just come in over the phone.

        Over the phone! He couldn't believe it! He hadn't even used the shop phone in so long that he forgot customers could call him! A customer was coming in to pickup an arrangement of daylilies and daffodils in an hour, and Shinso was battling with another picky customer and her meticulous demands, a second customer waiting patiently behind them. Other customers browsed the shelves and flipped through the catalogue, and Kirishima was beyond happy. This was the busiest his store had been in years.

        Uraraka bustled out of the back room with a rolling cart and several young plants to show to a customer, and she shot Mina a wink as she passed. The pinkette was half-seated on the edge of the counter away from the main storefront space, making sure to keep well out of Kirishima's way as he flew around his workstation, picking up and discarding scraps of flowers. He was almost done, and then he could take the next order and have that done, and was it really only three o'clock? Wow.

        "Hey, where's Tamaki?" Mina asked suddenly. "I haven't seen him yet."

        Kirishima smirked, glancing up and pulling a few filler stalks out of their vase before he answered her. "I finally managed to give Tamaki a day-off--though he blinked at me like an owl when I gave it to him. He's been working so much overtime with me being in school and patrol and bouncing around--I actually think he's skipped a couple school days, but I really hope not."

        "Nah, the third years get really flexible hours," she grinned. "Especially the ones that tested out of a bunch of subjects before the year started. Most of them only go to school maybe two or three hours in the evening, after working hours, unless they have to turn in a report or attend a meeting."

        Kiri chuckled. "That explains how they can be so active, then, but if he's not skipping school, he's definitely slipping on pa--" Kirishima stumbled on his slip up before he accidentally outed their entire network of organized underground hero-hood with the word 'patrol'. "--sta night..?"

        Mina wrinkled her nose at him. "Smooth," she teased. "Real smooth."

        "Shut up, I tried."

        "Well, he can't be skipping on patrols too much if he's out whenever he needs to save your sorry ass," she shrugged, never one to miss the oppurtunity to remind him of the time she, Suneater and Ground Zero had rushed to beat up the giant villain. She then immediately got distracted and picked up one of the blooms he'd been working with. "Hey, isn't there a flower that changes color based on soil acidity? I want one, how much?"

        The redhead carefully took the flower from her and threaded it into his work. "Hydrangeas, yes, but they're way out of your budget and will die if you shoot acid at them."

        "Damn," Mina pouted. "But don't they turn pink?"

        "Yes. They can also be varying shades of white, blue, or purple."

        "Can I eat them?" She smirked suddenly.

        He looked at her blankly. "I would not recommend it, no."

        The pout returned. "Aww..." she shrugged again. "I still want one. I want a bunch of pink plants to put in my window box."

        "Is that so?" Kirishima smiled gently at her antics, pushing one last flower into the arrangement he was working on before picking up a pen and moving to a notepad near his station. "Long-term project, right? And you want root pants, not cut flowers? I can get you a few hydrangea shrubs, but their season ends in August, which is only a couple months away. You'd be better off with Chrysanthemums and Dhalias, which will bloom at least till the end of November. Spider lilies are freaky looking things, you'd like them. You'd like snapdragons too, and they bloom so late in the year you can plant the seeds now and they'll be blooming in full by September until March, which is right at the end of the school year." A thought occurred to him, and he looked up. "Do we change buildings at the end of the year, or do they just change which years are in which building?"