flower language

Matentines was a time for the celebration of love, sex, or those close to a bun. Shengjiang had gotten so accustomed to living and working on his own that Matentines was foreign to him. Sure, he’d had a few relationships in the past, but that was the past. He was young, not caring about the world around him, focusing on himself and his art.

It was only recently that someone had come into his life; someone who he actually cared about. It was confusing to him, he couldn’t put a finger on the feelings he held for her. He was unsure if it was love, per say, but he certainly cared about her and he would hate to lose her.

Take-hime may as well live in his mind at this point. He thought about her while he got ready for the day, when he pushed his fingers against the soft, malleable clay on his pottery wheel, when he laid down in bed at the end of the day. She was beautiful and sweet, even if the relationship was casual, he still cared about her.

It’s the thought that counts, right? So if you think about it, you can’t blame him for the exact date and time slipping his mind…

It was Matentines. He’d totally forgotten and had gone into work at his studio, failing to remember that it was, in fact, today that he was going to meet Take-hime later. He had planned this whole day in advance, he was going to get her flowers and chocolate, then go out somewhere to get something to eat before taking her back to his place. 

It was only when he looked at his phone did he realize what day it was. It was already the afternoon! He had to clean up and rush out to the flower shop quickly if he wanted to get any flowers. Surely most of them must have been bought up, he had to hurry if he wanted to secure any flowers at all.

Shengjiang raced to the florist, bursting through the door to check their stock. Unfortunately, only the last few dregs were left. Soggy, sad little flowers, sitting at the bottom of their water pots. His shoulders slumped in defeat. How was he supposed to give her a bouquet now? He’d even planned out which specific flowers he was going to give her.

Lotus for purity, lilies for unity, and jasmine for beauty. Flowers and the like weren’t his strong suit, but he would never shy away from a little research! Ugh, it would have been perfect, but he just had to go and mix up the dates. What was he supposed to do now?

He slunk back home, pondering on what he could get Take-hime. He could at least still get her the chocolates, but that wouldn’t be anything. Not to her. She was far more well-off than Shengjiang, and even though she’s reassured him, he still would have liked to get her something nice that she couldn’t just go out and buy with her pocket change.

He was kicking rocks down the sidewalk on the way back to his home when he had an idea. His walk turned into a jog, which turned into a sprint. If he wanted this to work, he’d need all the time he could get.

He raced back to the studio attached to his home and grabbed his special quick firing clay. He threw a slab of it down onto his work table and got to shaping it. 

Dozens and dozens of individual little pieces, they all needed to get cut, shaped, glazed, and fired before his meet up with Take-hime tonight. Time always flew when he was working in his studio, but this time, it slowed to a crawl. 

His hands were tired when he finally laid out all the pieces in the kiln and set it to fire. He had to rush off to get cleaned and dressed before they were done, not wanting to waste a single second of time. He had to be presentable, especially when Take-hime always looked beautiful.

By the time he was running back into his studio, his kiln’s timer was going off. He lifted the lid and looked down at his work.

The flowers were beautiful. Surely though, if he had more time they would look even better, but that could be saved for another day. The colors of the glaze he picked perfectly complemented each other. He let them cool before taking them out to arrange in a bouquet, wrapped with ribbon and paper. 

Just as he finished, he heard a knock at his door. He gave himself one last look over in the mirror above his studio’s clean up sink and headed to answer the knocking.

He swung the door open, clunkily hiding the bouquet behind his back. Take-hime was as gorgeous as ever, her delicate body framed by her flowing silk clothes, her eyes looking up through her lashes. Despite his innocent appearance, it took a lot to get Shengjiang blushing, but Take-hime always managed to do it.

“Happy Matentines,” Shengjiang pulled the bouquet out from behind him, handing it over to her. The paper crinkled in her hands as she looked at the flowers. Each petal rang softly like a bell when they touched her porcelain fingers.

“Shengjiang-!” She gasped, admiring it. “I love it…”

All her admiration was enough to have Shengjiang overlooking the flaws he’d made from it being a rush job. Instead, he saw them as little imperfections that mark the work as his. The fingerprints he had left in the clay were one of the things that made this piece worthy of Take-hime.

“I wanted something that could last and… Ah, it still comes nowhere near being as beautiful as you.” He gently took her free hand and led her inside, giving her a light kiss on her cheek. Even just that was enough to make her blush. “Come on now, I have an amazing day planned for us!”