roses. | eren x levi

roses. | seventy-one

"i love you!"

no, you don't.

"i'm completely serious, mr. florist," he said, batting his eyelashes and flailing his hand over his mouth. "i love you. i want nobody else other than you."

he was unquestionably burlesquing me. it didn't appear affectionate; it didn't even deceive my heart. i rolled my eyes and pushed the mask closer to my mouth.

can you drop this already? you have a fiancee.

he lamented and sagged downwards as if i had disappointed him. i could scarcely scoff.

"but i want to help! i feel incompetent, knowing that you're standing there and dying, and it's all my fault! can't you just let me do this one thing for you?"

i furiously scratched the pencil's lead against the paper.

don't you get it, mr. rose? you're not helping me at all. there's nothing that can help me. i'm dead.

he didn't appear to like this.

he stared at me, though it seemed as if i was never there in the first place. his bottom lip shivered, and prominent earthquakes overtook his body. his gradual and poised breathing became frantic, and he lunged out to grab the hems of my jacket.

"you're... you're kidding, right? you'll stay... of course you'll stay... just a joke..."

i quirked my eyebrow and put the hand that was reaching out for my pencil down.

"yes, i'm okay! are you suggesting that i'm crazy? i'm not crazy! i'm just... i would never kill a man... i could never kill a man..."

i pulled out of his despairing grasp and back down to the notepad to compose something else, but with one expeditious and unbalanced action, he pushed his face to mine until there was no space left.

i could feel his damp skin against my cheek. i could feel all the splinterings and blemishes of his lips as they slid into place, intertwining mine.

i could not help frowning at this fact. it was wrong. it was all too harsh to mrs. rose, for her fiance to kiss the florist and then present a rose from the florist. she would shun me forever if she hadn't previously.

i pushed mr. rose away from me, and i could not refrain from glowering at him.

he looked so terrified, so uncomfortably unsure of everything around him. when he met my eyes, he did not pause for me to ask him to leave.

for the first time, mr. rose ran out of the shop without a banquet of roses in his hand.