Flour and Pedals

// Ring around the rosie - Pocket full of posie //

Since he's in the area again after his visit back to Torchline for a minute, he decides it'd be better to visit Mateo in person instead of writing him this time. Better to get the eyes on the merchandise, so the speak. He'd been rolling Charlie's idea around and around, smoothing it into a plan that starts here.

He crouches with his back against the shop's wall, waiting for it to open. His jacket is zipped up high on his neck, the pink windbreaker rustling every so often as the strong gusts of this city and season howl through. It gives the embroidered image of Flora on the front the look of winking as her face shifts a bit, the scrawl of her name on the back hidden against the stone side of the building. Each new burst of the chilly wind has Kaisel shivering for a moment, hands fisting tighter inside his pockets. His black sweats and boots are plenty warm, but he definitely should have put on a hoodie beneath this jacket. "C'moooon Mateo," he mutters under his breath.

Despite the weather, a group of kids are still out at play, seemingly impervious to the cold, whether because they're running around enough they don't notice it as much with body heat, or because they've padded themselves appropriately for dwelling outside. They're playing ball and getting closer as their game carries them, although a younger girl trails behind them, seeming to be a smaller sibling forced to tag along. She's not part of the game with the ball, but is instead marching around with intent focus on a wand of bubbles that she's blowing way too hard into—they pop with the force before they have a chance to exist.

"Hey!" he calls out to her with a gentle smile, waving a hand as the trio gets close enough. "Want me to show you how?"

Kaisel

// I'ma fucking blow all the ashes down //

Mateo

Unaware of his first customer of the day waiting for him to open up shop, Mateo is taking a leisurely walk down from La Verbena and into the Plaza, his boots (decorated with tawny blink hare fur) crunching through the salted cobblestones, his forest green coat buttoned high. A scarf - knitted in various shades of orange - is looped at least twice around his neck and still long enough to nearly trail at the backs of his legs, fluttering in the chill gusts of wind as he rounds the corner.

There's a cup of something hot and spiked and caffeinated in his gloved hands, and he's just pushing back the hood of his coat to muss his curls into place when he spots a vibrant pink windbreaker, a gaggle of children, and some bubbles.

"Ah, Kaisel," Mateo trills. "What trouble are you in to need flowers at this hour?" It must be dire to need to apologise quite so early in the morning, he thinks.

i've told you time and time again
i'm not as think as you drunk i am

// Ring around the rosie - Pocket full of posie //

The girl is not immediately open to the offer, stranger danger and all, but when the older siblings pause and draw near, sweet ol' bubbles comes in too. The elders mostly just want to see if they already know the secret (they do), and since that knowledge was so two years ago they roll their eyes and flutter off back to ballwork. The youngest one remains though, skeptical, but offering the soapy wand. Kaisel explains the importance of blowing consistently and firmly, not so hard that the tension of the shimmering veil stretched between the arch of the wand bursts, but enough that it flutters into shape. The perfect blow job is all about finding that spot between too much and too little and then holding it until something spectacular occurs. He demonstrates for her, exhaling steadily into the bubble wand, his breath alone sending out a flurry of iridescent spheres that womble through the air before popping at various intervals.

He'd have coached her longer, ensured she had the practice to produce it, but Mateo's arrival will require her to take his teachings to heart. Turning towards the botanist mid-blow, Kaisel's slick wand erupts in a stream, bubbles scattering everywhere. His smile blooms quickly behind the shimmering storm, and he quickly relinquishes the toy back to the girl with a call for good luck. She runs off back to her siblings, who have continued on.

"Mateo!" he beams, rising into a tall and bendy overhead stretch after all his gargoyling in front of the shop while he waited. "No trouble," he assures with a huff of a laugh. "I'm having something made for Flora, and a friend suggested that I add a personal touch to it, like a charm. I thought perhaps I could find her favorite flower and preserve it in glass, make it a small keychain of sorts." His features have risen in hopeful expectation that this sounds even in the realm of possible to Mateo, not that he needs the man's talents at glasswork. There's a vendor further down who could manage it.

"Or maybe I should go with a rose, since it's the symbol of love?" His thinking is an audible hum as he pinches his chin in consideration. "Perhaps a unique or rare flower?" He's whittled down her favorites based on the floral scents she always has on hand, but maybe those aren't her completely favorite flower, just the ones she likes the smell of the most. He certainly doesn't need to consider aroma for this project.

Kaisel

// I'ma fucking blow all the ashes down //

Mateo

Finding himself caught in a flurry of sudden bubbles - and not feeling upset about it in the slightest - Mateo uses his free hand to bat a few away from his face so he can see Kaisel better, taking a sip of his drink while the other man explains how he definitely absolutely is not in trouble. And the botanist is (understandably, he thinks) skeptical at first, head tilting as if to follow Kai's bendy stretch, before he's swanning past him to dig in his pocket for his shop keys.

"Oh, I see," he trills, grinning. "Too many gifts and I may accuse you of love-bombing my sister, you know. And I can say from experience that resin might be a better idea than glass if you want it to be more durable. But then I have only tried it a handful of times for fun." Clicking the door open and stamping the snow from his boots, he welcomes Kai inside where it is a much more pleasant temperature.

Closing the door and turning on the lights - but not yet flipping the sign to open since this is a very special customer - Mateo is in the process of freeing himself from his scarf and coat as he ponders the matter. "Her favourite flowers are hydrangeas and peonies, if we are going on the look of them," he explains. "I would probably take one of the small hydrangea flowers - they grow in large clusters, but are made up of smaller buds. A peony or a rose would be much too large for charm or keychain. Unless you just wanted to use a few petals instead of the whole thing...?"

i've told you time and time again
i'm not as think as you drunk i am

// Ring around the rosie - Pocket full of posie //

He figured Mateo knew, but now he's wondering just how much he's been told. "Wha—" Kaisel laughs nervously as he steps into the shop behind Mateo. "Is it too many?" Did she say it's too many? His expression lifts high with the anxious wonder of it all, staring down Mateo like he needs the truth of the matter instantly to even continue surviving through another exchange of breath. He wipes his own shoes off on the entry mat, an autopilot habit because his mind is already rifling through memories and counting them off. His fingers twitch at his sides to keep track, lips moving faintly as he whispers them aloud to himself.

• Flowers from the Greatwood - a very sad bouquet, he's sure Mateo would agree
  
• Parchment - really a gift for both of them, so surely that doesn't count?
  
• Violet bouquet - more like an hourglass than anything wonderful...
  
• Breakfast in bed and spa day - are those really gifts if they aren't permanent?
  
• The wind bag - not even complete yet, and really less a gift and more a fulfillment of a plan
  
• Flower charm - technically part of the bag, and could be considered a trade off for the keychain she got him
  

Hmmmm. Kaisel considers that list rather short if he's going to be accused of romantic genocide. "Mm, you're probably right, can't believe I didn't think of that. Do you have any resin?" he says a touch brighter, focus catching back on that suggestion now that's he's rummaged through his doubt and memory. He does not have a resin vendor picked out.

Unzipping his windbreaker now that the sharp chill of the outdoor winds is closed away, his STORMBREAK Steam Room! shirt peeks out from the pink frame of the outer jacket. His gaze drifts from the idle movements of Mateo settling in to the variety of arranged plants on display, stooping over a nearby one to give it a whiff. "I was thinking the whole flower, and figured it might have to be an immature bloom to keep the size small. If one of her favorites is already little though that's even better!" He has found some difficulty in acquiring flowers this time of year, which is why he'd gotten her violets for his departure up here. "Do you have any of those growing right now?" He'd been worried about this, but a glance at this shop already boasts a wider variety than the sad little shack in Torchline he'd used.

Kaisel

// I'ma fucking blow all the ashes down //

Mateo

It's Mateo's job as flamboyant older brother never to reveal his hand, even when one of his sister's love interests also happens to be a friend. And so, naturally, at the other man's question, he can give little more than a secretive smile in response, leaving him to stew on the number of presents he's lavished on Flora while the botanist potters around to get the shop in order. "Flora likes receiving gifts," is all he will point out with a nonchalant shrug as he loops an apron over his head and ties it, then sweeps his curls up into a bun.

"I do not have any resin, alas. But I can tell you where to go to have quite a fetching keepsake made, once we get you the flower." Speaking of which, Mateo thinks nothing of swatting Kaisel with his scarf on the way to hanging it up with his coat, shooting him a glare that's only half playful. "An immature bloom? That is an insult to my flowers and to my sister," he declares, before beckoning him through the shop with a good-natured huff. "They are her favourite flowers - what kind of a brother would I be if I did not cultivate them year-round?"

They pass through all manner of foliage, some more mischievous than others if the vines have anything to say about it, until they come across a few species of hydrangea in full bloom - one a vibrant blue, another a soft purple, and a third a pale pink in colour. "Take your pick," he says with a flick of his wrist.

i've told you time and time again
i'm not as think as you drunk i am

// Ring around the rosie - Pocket full of posie //

The relief in his exhale is long and a bit loud when Mateo confirms what Kaisel had always thought. Though, a skeptical shadow remains in the corner of his eye before it flicks over to the flowers at hand, because Mateo's remark lands alongside one Charlie made, and a past warning from Sunjata too. They build, but the weight of them settles somewhere distant still, bobbing away from real consideration, the swell of adoration for her like a living tide inside him. "Good, because I like giving them." Call him Mister President the way he's got the nuke codes on hand for love bombing her.

He's nodding along to Mateo's reassurance of knowing where to go for resin, focus drawn to the flower, until the soft slap of the scarf catches him. He flinches up from his stoop over the petals, features crinkling against the intricacies of insulting foliage. "Oh, my bad Matty." He flashes an apologetic smile, hands lifting faintly from his sides. It grows into something grand at Mateo's haughty reassurance of his stock, and Kaisel leans in to bump shoulders with him and snap a finger gun towards his chest. "YES! See, this is why I came to you, the expert. The ninny in Torchline doesn't have shit on you."

Falling back to make it through the doorway, although no less hyped, Kaisel vibrates behind him as they walk. He does get tripped up once, literally stumbling over something that isn't there anymore when he glances back accusingly. "What the," he mutters, the nearby plants shifting mildly. He gives them a suspicious once over before scurrying back to the shelter of Mateo, swinging around to his side to view the flowers at hand. Admittedly, Kaisel did know what a Hydrangea was when Mateo said it, so there's a crisp recognition that arrives as he beholds them. "Ooooh yeah, these! There's some growing around the house." Which, maybe could have been a clue for him. He hums aloud in consideration, drawn immediately to the purple one, because that's his favorite color. Wouldn't she prefer the pink though? The blue is more like her eyes, sorta. "The blue would go best with the bag," he decides, reaching down to pluck a cluster up.

Kaisel

// I'ma fucking blow all the ashes down //

Mateo

"I will be sure to let you know when the tide of your gifts begins to ebb," Mateo trills, leaving out that he'll tell Kai because Flora will probably gossip to him. It hardly needs said at this point anyway, he thinks. Shooting the other man a withering look at the nickname - Matty he has never been, though he's sure that won't stop Kai from using it in the future - it's a short-lived shadow in his expression at least; the companionable bump to his shoulder and the compliment (or rather, the insult to the Torchline florist) has a fresh smile dimpling his cheeks.

"Mm? Oh, apologies - they like to play in the morning," he says mildly at the sound if not the sight of Kaisel tripping over something writhing out of sight. "You are perfectly safe, though. I keep all of the more dangerous specimens out back." In his lab, but he doesn't say as much or call it that out loud very often. Besides, now that they have safely reached the hydrangeas, it appears that the flowers are the ones in danger as Kai grabs for an entire cluster of them.

"Smettila!" he snaps in the travelling tongue, voice lilting around the word and his hand reaching out to smack the back of his friend's. "You better not be grabbing my sister like that. We choose them. Carefully." So saying, he drops to one knee to gently tease through the blooms for a good selection.

i've told you time and time again
i'm not as think as you drunk i am

// Ring around the rosie - Pocket full of posie //

The apology does little to create comfort, never having thought about plants at play until Mateo so graciously plopped that idea in his mind. He'd assumed a subtle slope in the ground or perhaps a vine that got kicked out of sight in the process. Instead it seems he might have missed a flower trying to grab ass, which only one particular flora is welcome to do. "Uuh, right. Like those walking ones you gave me." Not nearly as unsettled by semi-sentient plants as Koa is, he's still accustomed to them just vibing and not visibly moving. "They never sprouted," he's a touch sad about it, having wanted to use them to prank his cousin.

The hydrangeas distract him, for the moment, from asking further about what the fuck Mateo means by more dangerous specimens. Kaisel knows some plants can kill you when ingested (that's why it's safer to lick rocks), but the way Mateo said it seems to suggest those ones also play, just maybe a bit too hard.

A yelp of surprise leaps from him quick and sharp as he draws his reprimanded hand back as though burned, the remnants of overly active plants putting him on edge. Nothing but the florist to blame for this one though, he quickly realizes, turning a wounded look towards Mateo, like a puppy that's been stepped on after stopping right in front of your active stride. "She's never complained," he mutters under his breath, huffing through his nose as he instead wisely observes the proper method of selection. "No, no, get that one Mat-man," he encourages with a point towards a back bloom, backseat flower picking because you know, teamwork.

Kaisel

// I'ma fucking blow all the ashes down //

Mateo

"Mm, yes, like those," Mateo agrees with a nod, only to furrow his brow to hear that they had never sprouted. "Well that will not do. Perhaps I could give you a sapling to take home, if you are so keen to have one grow?" The botanist might know of Koa's absolute horror when it comes to sentinent plants, but he doesn't know that's why Kai wants one so much. Ergo, he can't be blamed for any future chaos that potentially comes from this meeting today.

In response to the other man's kicked-puppy look, Mateo merely offers a quiet narrowing of his eyes, before starting to gently examine the hydrangeas. "That one?" he echoes, moving towards the back of the plant and teasing away the cluster Kai has suggested. Raising his eyebrows to confirm this is the one he's content to have, Mateo takes a set of delicate hand shears from his apron and looks for the most promising blooms to clip away.

Soon enough, he offers in his palm a selection of four or five perfect little blue flowers. "I will put them in a container for you?" he offers. "That way you can choose which is best to put into resin when the time comes."

i've told you time and time again
i'm not as think as you drunk i am

// Ring around the rosie - Pocket full of posie //

While normally the idea of getting another opportunity to have a moving plant on hand to scare Koa with would delight him, the conversation they still need to have is horrific enough. "Oh, thanks, but maybe another time," he says with a gentle shake of his head. "Now's definitely not the time to be upsetting Koa any further, and I feel like there's enough things moving in the house without adding another." That does remind him of something though, and with a soft, "oh," he reaches into an inner pocket of his jacket. The one specifically for safeguarding precious items.

Carefully Kaisel withdraws something, clutching it in his fits, which he extends towards Mateo in a clear gesture for the man to hold out his palm. "I did wanna give you something though, as a thanks." An easy, lopsided smile has woven its way back into place. "Steve and Ruby have been very happy, all because of you. Mateo the matchmaker." His grin grows, though it's genuine, as he deposits the gift. "Greg garnet and Amy amethyst have outgrown their ledge at home and would like to be part of your shop." The gemstones have some drawn on, cheerful expressions that peer back. Kaisel leans onto his empty palm, head tilting as he lifts his gaze from the rock children to his friend. "Your plants really cheered me up. Gave me a purpose, however small, every day to check on something alive. Made a lonely time feel easier to handle."

As for the hydrangeas, Kaisel nods to confirm Mateo's selection, carefully rising from his stooped position near the blue flowers. He idly brushes some debris from his pantleg, glancing over at the plucked blooms with a beam of satisfaction. "That's perfect, I owe you one!" Maybe something other than pebbles next time. "Stormbreak's lucky to have you," he says with an affectionate clap on Mateo's back, his arm lingering like a scarf around the shoulders of the botanist. "You know, I regret not paying you visits more often when I lived here." They'd been friendly, but aside from routine visits to grab flowers for his mom or a short lived romance in town, he'd been more focused on clinging to Koa's side and scrapping around in the training field. "All the more reason to come back for a visit now, yeah?"

Kaisel

// I'ma fucking blow all the ashes down //

Mateo

"Suit yourself. That is probably a good point," Mateo agrees with a knowing smile and a raise of his eyebrows. "Just let me know if you change your mind, and I am sure I will be able to cultivate something." If it isn't sitting/crawling about already, the botanist giving a cursory glance about his shop as if a walking palm might have come to say hello purely because they've been discussing it and its brethren.

Drawn back by Kaisel's soft oh and the way his hand extends towards him, it's with a furrowed brow that Mateo opens his palm (the one not cupping the hydrangeas) and watches the cheerful little gemstones tumble into it. "I do not think I have ever been called a matchmaker before," he says, a dimpled smile already sneaking onto his face. "Grazie mille, Kai. I will find a place for them to sit." Probably nestled in one of the plants near the cash register that aren't for sale, so they can socialise without fear of theft.

"You do not need to thank me for that, though. The plants did all of that themselves," he adds quietly as he approaches said register so he can carefully put the blooms into a container. "They are good listeners too, if ever you have something to say that you would struggle to tell a person."

With the other man's arm slung around his shoulders, he sets Greg and Amy down on the counter and produces a small box to slip the hydrangeas into, offering it out to Kaisel. The words that come next pluck a string in his chest he hasn't realised could still make music, and Mateo's smile grows wider. "Well, I am not going anywhere, and if I am not here in the shop, you will definitely find me somewhere in the Silk Houses," he says. "So do not be a stranger, yes?"

i've told you time and time again
i'm not as think as you drunk i am

// Ring around the rosie - Pocket full of posie //

He doesn't want to doubt the clear professional here, but he's pretty sure talking to plants is on par with talking to yourself. Although, everytime he's with Mateo he learns more about them than he ever knew, so maybe they've been listening this entire time, whether he's talking to them or not. He glances surreptitiously towards one by the register as they approach, expecting to see it lean in to better hear Mateo. Flora did tell him that Mateo always knows, could be he's got a whole network of spy foliage. With a sly and knowing glance sliding back towards Matty, Kaisel just nods and winks.

Sure, sure Mateo, he'll get right on divulging all his secrets to the plants. Damn chismosas.

Releasing his hold on Mateo he gently takes the offered prize of the flowers, tucking it into the inner pocket where the gemstones had been. "Oh, no way, I didn't know you were also a fighter down there!" His broad grin falters for a minute, realization of Silk House uses dawning slow but sure. He's never used them, except for a bar or two, especially when he'd been too young. "Are you?" He waves the image away with a hand, shaking his head in dismissal. "Ah, doesn't matter, I'll find you, count on it!" Since he's taken up enough of Mateo's morning and his other duties await, not having made the trip up here simply for some petals, he collects the resin information and is on his way. He'll drop it off with the vendor and pick it up the next day, right before LongNight hits.

[FIN]

Kaisel

// I'ma fucking blow all the ashes down //