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Flowers, flowers were normal, people who sold flowers should thereby be… relatively normal, even if you knew that your, sort-of-dad had some dealings with them and that they had been in caught up in things.

STILL.

Flowers. Were. Normal.


Having had that thought, he was now more than slightly sure he was going to find some carnivorous plant that wanted to chew off Detective Mercer’s fingers, because really… whom else was it going to chew on? He’d probably make a deal with it.

Still, he really….really wanted to believe that Flowers, were, and could be normal because in all honesty he was going into the shop for, at least primarily, normal reasons.

He wanted to send Melina, flowers, maybe anonymously, but he needed advice on what to send, before he worried if it was going to be anonymous, which to be fair it probably would be. Attaching a name would be like admitting aloud that he liked her.

After flowers though, well he’d have to admit that he really needed to meet the man who could ‘see’ otherness. He had no actual intentions of asking about that skill but… then again he was also hoping he didn’t look other, or at least not VERY other, and that he wouldn’t have to apologize, and that most of all, there would hopefully be no vomit. His last conversation with Detective Mercer had warned him not to go to see about flowers –too- soon, as there had been a great deal of vomiting after the most recent events.


… Yeah…

He was already preparing an apology.

Zac froze for a moment, had he …said something? Had Jer said something? What on earth?


“Um… I’m, sorry?” He said cautiously.

“I was going to ask about, flowers, for, well…someone? I can uh…Yeah, I can go… like.. chocolates or something for them, or something.”

He couldn’t really help but ask though.

“…did I -do- something?” He asked carefully, if slightly prickly. He knew flowers were a dumb idea he decided… even though right up till that moment they had seemed -perfect.

“… Ha…” He started to ask about Halo but stopped himself. “No…I was actually worried I might make you …toss your cookies too, throw up, vomit, things. If I’m not too bad uh… I mean, dreamer is bad enough but, um yeah.”

He took a breath and let it out. “No…I’m here for flowers for this…uh…person, that I like…and um… It’s the first… girl, that I have uh… I mean Normally I don’t, and normally it’s…well guys. like…you but.” He waved his hands clearly having a hard time with anything like, admitting liking.

His shoulders sagged.

“…I need something normal because this…dreamer s**t is ridiculous and I’d really like to pretend for a little while and I -do- like her, but I really have no idea what to do…so I thought flowers, and I heard you were good with them so….freaky apparent things that…I can’t see aside. Help? I mean …I don’t know how much gossip I have other than that they need to do more than just -stare- at each other longingly.” He rolled his eyes.

He was pretty sure in retrospect that more than half of what he had word vomited out was something that any english professor worth their salt would have run him up a flagpole for, but it was a little too late to try and process his thoughts into something more coherent.

“… Sorry I don’t have better gossip, I mean, I don’t think I do.”

The line ‘Thanks, but I’m taken’ caught Zac so…utterly off guard that he had to honestly just blink for a moment, open mouthed in surprise and some confusion before managed, if barely to skirt a stammered apology that his crush was on someone else.
“H! I ah…well, maybe that’s why I had to crush on someone else...!” He stammered after a moment.
“… That… that came out pretty awful didn’t it.” He added after, perhaps the span of a blink and hung his head.

“She… She uh… she’s the young woman who works with Borr, she really likes cinnamon rolls and um… I see her wear things with daisies a lot but, I looked them up with the language of flowers a bit, and I’m totally sure it was accurate but…sending someone a bouquet full of ‘innocence’ just seems like… like you went to a field and just ripped up handfuls I was afraid, so I thought maybe Gerbera daisies but, I…could really use some advice for flowers that sort of fit ‘sorry you thought the fog ate me and sorry you saw creepy fliers but I’m glad you aren’t in this?” He said helplessly.


“…and if you have a bouquet that says ‘I swear to god if you make deals with sunny again I’ll finish you first”…then we could send one to Detective Mercer.”

Zac’s shoulders dropped. “Is it really that clear who?” He said anxious. He was more than a little worried that his seldom sparked attraction had landed on someone that far.. ‘Cooler’ people might likewise be hopeful about. After all, her teasing might just …end at teasing.

“But…the bouquet sounds good.” He nodded. It wasn’t as ‘pushy’ as roses seemed but the colors and the meaning seemed perfect.

HE had to laugh a little at the plant name. “Well… hopefully desertion won’t be…his end game but that does sort of fit that I may have moved out on him.” He grimaced slightly. “… maybe we’ll get lucky and He can convince Alg to move in. “

That set off a fresh round of laughter from Zac, the blue pill, oh lord if they ever heard -that- one.

"Oh my god..." he said with the laugh still in his voice as he tried to smother the sound of it so he could talk. "With the gazes they give each other I really don't know, but ...oh man, if you ever wanted to set up a hit on someone, you could just tell them someone suggested that." He chuckled.

he gave a softer laugh, slightly more serious. "If I could think of some way to get them to talk to each other that didn't end up in a fight, that would be perfect." He said shaking his head. "Honestly you'd think that 'relationship' was more a swear for them than it was to...well, me I suppose. I'm not doing much better." he admitted.

"Is it honestly hard or am I just... are WE just..." he waved his hand at the plant to indicate its connection to certain ornery detectives, "making it hard."

Zac’ dropped head slightly at the mention of Jeremiah vanishing.

“…That’s…partly my fault. I may not have been … stupid enough to make a deal with her but that… “ he made a frustrated face. “SUNNY… She dropped me into Other Ashdown and then I guess couldn’t get me back OUT.” He huffed. “So… Jer made a –deal- and now …” He shook his head with frustration blazing in his eyes.

“Sorry.” He apologized.


But his face did heat at the mention of doing well with a first relationship.
“Watch…it will turn out she hates me genre.” He muttered. “Or at least… just likes , I don’t know… some other genre. I feel like I went from a… Nancy Drew book to a fantasy novel.

“Well… no, not directly at least.” He admitted then laughed softly. “… Logic, awful stuff really, takes the wind out of most guilt sails unless you add more ammunition.”

He picked a card, something simple that… might have had a panda on it and stared at it for a long while before started to fill it out.

“…Aleksy? Thank you.” He added.