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... What the ******** am I doing here? Theo thought to himself while standing vaguely outside of a café near his campus. Yeah, sure, alright, bringing someone a birthday gift wasn't THAT big of a deal... if you knew them.. And truth be told, Theo didn't know s**t about the guy who worked at this place and just happened to show up while he was doing his thing in the greenhouse. Whether or not that meant something like fate or destiny meeting someone twice randomly didn't mean s**t to him. But Chip seemed to think that it wasn't a bad idea to seek him out! Something about if you have access to the biochem lab, that means easier ways to steal things for science!.

But that didn't explain why when he was in the greenhouse earlier today, Theo decided to grab one of his smaller, harder to kill plants, and head over here. He even slapped on it a small little ribbon on it for the guy who's name he barely remembered.

And now that he was here, he paced back and forth in front of the store, trying to decide if this was a dumbass idea, or a good one. And it was very, very clear through the window that someone was loitering outside suspiciously, bundled up to hid from the chill and holding a box...

Well s**t.... He had been caught, and not by the person he wanted to talk to. If it was the short guy then he could have just shoved the flower into his hand and then run away without anything more than a Happy Birthday.

But now here he was, standing there and, Oh s**t, she even knew his name.

"Uh.. Um.. I mean, I'm here so I should, shouldn't I?" There was no escape, especially when he saw the one whom the gift was for disappear into the back for a bit.

"Just something quick... Yeah.." At her offer he slipped in past her, the well bundled up plant still tucked under one arm. "I guess something... Warm? I dunno, I still don't really like coffee..." Was this always so freaking awkward?! Theo as a civilian just... Did not know how to exist.

"Sure. Something maybe... Mid sweet? Cuz I like sweets and stuff, but drinks just go straight to my head. Really ******** picky, huh? " Her friendliness was nice, and the fact that it was still kept professional helped alot. If it got too friendly, that's when he started feeling a little odd.

With the sudden call of his name, Theo turned into a deer in headlights. Just stopping and staring at him with an almost "what the ********?" look on his face. Not to be rude or anything, but he had really really thought he would have been free.

Atleast he had the scarf on his neck, which he used to hide his startled expression just long enough to fix his face and maybe smile.

Just a little. It was hard to just look neutral when someone really did look happy to see him. It hit a bit differently than when Chip greeted him at home.

"Hi, Holland... Yeah... Classes have ended for the winter break, so I'm just, you know, wrapping a few things up until it begins again." Speaking of which, he took a few steps closer, while trying to keep his nerves at bay. Why was making friend's so hard?!

"I think you said that your birthday is soon, and uh... My house isn't so close here to come all the time when school is out, so I figured maybe I could... Give you a little gift, for a happy birthday? ... ********, it's not super weird, right? We've only met twice, but you said it and you mentioned liking plants but murdering them so I thought maybe I could get you one that didn't die so easy, but also I wasn't sure if you had any pets, so I couldn't give you the one you smelled before because it can be toxic, so I went with something that's harder to kill than a roach infestation and... Uh.." The longer he talked the more confused he made himself, and he realized just how much he was talking.

"... s**t, that's too ******** much, isn't it? ... Sorry, I can just, leave. Yeah, I'mma a dip." Losing that confidence came way too quickly and he turned on his heel, already heading towards the door.

Theo's eye grew wide as Holland seemed to laugh at him, a vibrant red blush growing across his face. And it was easy to just let it fall into a scowl instead, angry that his attempts of friendship was being thrown in his face. And when Holland came rushing to him, he was this close to just powering up and snatching a starseed then and there to protect himself!

But then.. Holland said it was cool looking. That got him to stop atleast his murderous thoughts and cool his intention to flee. Actually, it got him to pause long enough that he managed to actually hear what Daisy said too, calm down even more. And the funky little plant was placed down on the table between him and the two workers, the drink snatched up like a protective shield against their onslaught of thanks.

Maybe... That's not too bad. Maybe he could still hang out, for a little bit. Just until his drink was gone.

"I uh.. I mean, if you think it's cool... I guess I could tell you about it some more? And I gotta drink the drink, right.. If you're not too busy right now, if you're both not too busy, I can maybe hang around until the chill goes away... It's a Christmas Cactus... And on the little stick labeling it, I put instructions so it won't die anytime soon..." His body language was clear withhow anxious he felt, but atleast plants were easy to talk about. He could talk about them all day. "So... What's the drink...?"

"Yeah, sure..." While Holland hadn't heard him, Theo atleast gave Daisy an nod. Had it been that late already? Damn, he guess he spent more than just half an hour deciding on a plant. Or maybe it was several hours... Either way, It was nice... Not going home immediately. Surely Chip would have alot of questions and be nosy, especially since he would go home with coffee clinging to his clothing, but was that so bad?

"Chai.. Tea right?" A little sip was taken and... woah. It was mildly sweet, but more heavily spiced and it brought a smile to his lips. If he wasn't warm before, he was quickly warming up now. "It's really ******** good, Daisy. Thanks."

A sparkle came to Theo's own eye at the questions about the Cactus, and one would almost think his nose grew bigger while he began to spew out facts.

"No, not for every holiday, But there are Easter and Thanksgiving Cactuses. But they aren't all the same family. Thanksgiving and Christmas are members of the same genus, but Easter is different, and grows in drier forests. And they live for EVER. Like, this one is young, but it's a seedling from one that was like, 70 years old! So long as you take care of it, it won't ever die. It only really blooms between November and February, hence kinda Christmas named buuuuut, it has really pretty flowers. This one is very droopy though. But it's really really good for new plant owners, because you can't really kill them. And they really like indirect light, so not out on a porch, but kinda inside a window that's facing north or south. Kitchens tend to be good because they are humid and they like it. You only really gotta water it every couple of weeks, but only when the top 1/3rd of the soil is dry. Otherwise you're going to ******** drown it!" The enthusiasm of talking about plants was so very obvious, and he seemed to almost seem normal, rather than the anxious mess he was just a few moments before. There was a reason why he easily aced his classes when plants were actually involved.

"Does that help some?"

The only people Theo ever saw that were actually interested in what he had to say about plants were the ones he worked with, and half the time it was him just calling them absolutely ******** dumbasses for messing up one of his seedlings. Holland was impressing him more and more by the moment, to the point where he nearly leaned in and grinned big and wide.

"Wait, wait, don't get a new plant until this one lives! You have to be responsible dad, and not a ******** dead beat first. Plus, you know, what if they all try to die all at once? You gotta wait, start small, make sure you're ready for the responsibility!" That had him snort laughing at the idea. One plant leading towards 20 plants all over. Maybe he'd have the sense to get one that actually wouldn't die immediately. Like roses. Nice, but goddamn were they fragile.

That was a good question though... What to do if it got sick?

"You could take it to a florist to get repotted, but that will probably cost cash, and you're just a kid, you probably don't got that kinda pocket money. SO I can be nice then! What if I gave you my number and if something happened to Charlie, I can help you out." There was no problem at all with the plant name, especially since the parent plant of Charlie was named "Baroness BonBon Von Sweet." If anything, it only made it easier to talk to Holland because it was a shared quirk.

"Good, good. You may become a proper Plant-Dad yet!" Theo nodded sagely, crossing his arms over his chest as if ready to give a good long lecture on something. But then he remembered his drink and picked it up giving it a nice long swig.

Once offered the phone, he quickly typed in his number, then sent himself a text. The phone in his pocket gave a little ping sound, and he pulled it out.. It wasn't the oldest phone out there, but it was clear he didn't really use anything super fancy. It could text and send memes, but that was it. Atleast it had that really good flip-phone action that he snapped shut after saving Holland's number.

"There. So if you run into any problems, you can just give me a message. ... I can't say how quickly I'll respond, but I'll try."

"No problem, really. It'll just make me really happy if you don't, you know, straight up ******** murder the poor thing. And I like, really appreciate the sandwich offer, but I'll pay. It's a birthday gift, you know? It'd be kinda weird to get a free thing just because you gave someone else something on their Birthday." A quick glance was shot to Daisy, then back to Holland. Didn't he tell him not to say anything last time about the free stuff? It'd be bad if he said it loud enough for his coworker to hear.

"... Still, It's nice of you. And I'd like to order two more of those to go. I can give one to my kid later, since I know he'd really like it."