Blooming Iris | ✓

-Blooming Iris Chapter 9-

Richard's POV~

"I hope you like it." I smiled widely, staring down at her, waiting for her to open it, so I can see her cute happy face.

I waited patiently as she slowly unwrapped the wrapping paper, and finally after what seems like forever, she finally looked inside the box. What came next wasn't what I expected of her, Iris was crying, not jumping up in joy, and thanking me for the amazing gift. She turned to face me, showing me her face, streaming down with tears.

"You don't like your g-gift?" I asked, trying to hide the hurt in my voice, but choked on the last word.

"Richard," she said slowly, trying to hide her tears, "I can't believe you would do something like this for me." Great... she hates it; I knew I should have just given her the clothes.

"I'm sorry, I guess it wasn't smart of me to get this for you," I told her sadly.

"No!" Iris screamed.

"What?" I asked confused.

"Richard, I love it, I just can't believe you would go through the trouble to find them for me."

"Then why were you crying?" I asked. I mean people usually jump up for joy if you love a gift, right?

"These are tears of joy, not of sadness."

"Really?" I asked, relief taking the place of my sadness.

"Yes really." She giggled. "But how did you found all of my old things?"

"Iris please, finding your old foster care home wasn't that hard. Trying to get the person in charge to believe that I'm your friend was the hard part."

"Mr. Remington didn't believe you?" she asked surprise.

"At first no, but after a few hours of debating and showing him proof, I finally got him to agree to let me into your old room."

"I can't believe they kept all these things for me," she murmured, more to herself than to me.

"Yeah your old roommate kept them for you, just in case you ever returned."

"Alex?" she asked, her eyes lighting up with an emotion I couldn't place.

"Yeah, she really did help me a lot, she also told me to tell you that she missed you, and to visit her someday," I informed her.

"Really? She said that?" Iris asked, her eyes tearing up again. "She's still there?"

"Yeah, why wouldn't she be?" I asked confused.

"Because the day I left, it was also the day she was suppose to get adopted."

"Well maybe something happened, so she stayed?"

"I don't know, I met the family that was supposed to adopt her, and they seemed to really like Alex a lot. They wouldn't give her up like that and not adopt her," she responded in concentration, trying to comprehend the matter.

"If you want, I can look into it for you," I suggested.

"Really?" she asked. "You can do that?"

"Of course, if that's what you want," I reassured her.

"It is, thanks Richard," she replied, smiling at me and drying her tears away.

Iris' POV~

"No problem," he said, patting my head affectionately. "Now let's get you upstairs in bed, for the second half of your gift," he said, while he pushed my wheelchair to lead me there.