Flowers to Transcend Time || Professor Membrane

9 // Hydrangeas

The café was a warm, homey looking place that smelled like well roasted coffee beans, breakfast burritos, and crepes. It smelt like breakfast with a lover, rather than lunch with your best friend. Nonetheless, the little whole-in-the-wall eatery was where your favorite restaurant used to be, but after nearly 30 years, the place must have been replaced with this one instead.

You were a little disappointed because it was the first place you and Membrane went out to eat at when you were younger, but you couldn't wait to try it here. Membrane said he'd helped fund the new restaurant himself, because he couldn't prevent the other one from going out of business yet.

"Carmel and Butterscotch?" You read the name of the restaurant out loud, looking at the sign outside with a raised eyebrow. "Sounds sweet." You joked.

Membrane shifted uncomfortably at your pun. He didn't know whether to laugh or facepalm like he did back in the day, so he did neither. "Yes, they specialize in sweet drinks and crepes, but they do have entrees." He said opening the door for you.

The two of you walked in, and the entire place was beautiful in it's own Olive Garden kind of way. It had vines hanging from the ceiling lights, the entire place colored like a log cabin in the woods, and potted plants in every corner and windowsill. There was a bar to the side, several booths, and tables in the middle. It was so different from what you'd seen here before, but at the same time you were excited to see what it had to offer.

"Well?" Membrane asked, trying to grab your attention again. "What do you think?" He led you away to a table, sitting down beside one of the booths by a window, a flower box right beside you on the window.

"It's not like before, but I love it at the same time." You said, still a little distracted by the flower in the window next to you. You extended your hand out to them, as they grew closely together, and you brushed your fingers against the petals.

"Poppies." Membrane spoke, when he realized you were looking at the assorted colored flowers. Even though his coat was blocking his mouth, you knew he held a warm smile behind them; it was the way his goggles crunched in on themselves because of his relaxed brow and his right cheek that lifted up just enough, as they pushed up his goggles.

Your eyes widened, mouth barely ajar. "You remembered?" You asked, feeling a warm, sort of painful nostalgia settle in your chest. "You remembered I liked poppies?"

"Of course." How couldn't he have remembered? It was the only thing he had left of you for years.

There was a long silence between the two of you, as if you both were truly just now processing that you were really there. Both of you were here in your old favorite place, despite changes. Despite that both of you, and even the restaurant you sat in was different. Although in some special way, nothing had changed at all either. It was a beautiful feeling after being lonely for so long.