#but the only reason i didn't write shadow receiving flowers is purely because he tends to stumble into them himself | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

south-sea · 11 months

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💐💐💐💐💐!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

from this list! i'll be writing a few more mini-fics today if i can help it

you expected one of the second chance guys to get flowers BUT IT WAS THE OC, ROS

~476 words

There is a split second in which seeing the visage of Shadow at his doorstep is enough to fill Roscoe with a reflexive anxiety.

This world and this time and this place are different, though. The moment passes.

"You're not one to show up unannounced," Ros tells him, front door held open wide enough to entertain his guest.

Shadow makes no indication he expects to be let inside. "And you're not one to admit when you're not feeling well." He carries with him a shallow box containing a potted flower of some sort, and what is no doubt a packet of its seeds. "So I thought I'd cut out the part where you deflect it with jokes."

Straightforward as always. Ros isn't sure yet whether he liked it better when people let him get away with pretending, or if Shadow's way of handling it is preferable. At least this way, he doesn't have to admit to feeling anything other than cold. At least this way, he can more gracefully accept that which he knows he shouldn't reject. Care, attentive concern, simple warmth—he deserves them all, foreign as the concept is. But to have it delivered by Shadow of all people still, even months after coming to terms with the fact this iteration has no reason to hate him, sets his head spinning.

"Okay, you got me," the cat holds up shaky hands in playful surrender. "So what's up with the flower?"

Shadow meets his eyes briefly with a look that suggests the question strikes him as odd. Don't you like flowers? Don't you already nap in fields of them often? Isn't that how we met?

"The scent works like ginger," he explains plainly. The box and its supplies and potted something-or-another is held up for Ros to either take or get a better look. "It isn't too overpowering. But a few minutes with it should help settle your stomach. I brought extra seeds in case you ever want to plant more."

Ros doesn't have the heart to tell him the queasiness brought on by medication side-effects is the least of his concerns. But Shadow means well, and Ros gives him a weary smile for it as he accepts the box.

The single flower in the clay pot painted in earthen-toned stripes is equally simple in its complexity. Five small petals, each off-white with yellowish-lime veins near the middle, an evergreen-shade stalk dotted with extra buds between dandelion-like leaves. Ros finds it not only "works like" ginger root, but inspires a familiarity in scent. Spicy-sweet; pungent but not an assault on unprepared senses.

The more he thinks about it, the more he accepts Shadow may be onto something. Maybe the point is that he shouldn't have to endure something unpleasant, even if it's mild, even if he's "used to it".

Maybe he'll start his own garden here.

#sea answers #measlyfurball13 #second chance au #fics by sea #oc: ros #flowers tend to be a recurring theme in this universe #did not hit me until today that is indeed the case #it's never 'just flowers' it's always 'flowers with additional effects of some kind'#like those ones that smell like hot chocolate shadow keeps in his house #but the only reason i didn't write shadow receiving flowers is purely because he tends to stumble into them himself #or deliberately takes steps to grow them at home; also like the hot chocolate ones #so there's never been a case where he was given A Flower directly-- more just introduced to the concept of them/their effect in the wild

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