manubibi | [FREE!] something about flowers

Titolo: something about flowers
Fandom: Free!
Personaggi: Nagisa/Rei, Haruka
Genere: commedia
Avvertimenti: in inglese, AU, pwp, aged-up characters
Parole: 536
Note: ehhh cagatina per la M12 coi fiori, giusto perché ho fillato un prompt su tumblr e ho pensato di adattarlo a questa missione. Giusto così per *ride cupa*

It's quite a calm day, at the art gallery where Nagisa is spending his afternoon. Of course, they could have warned him that he did not have to show up at work because of a lack of personnel. But oh, well, it only meant he got to visit an art exposition from one of his favorite Edo artists. All of a sudden, a voice sounds near him.

“… So you’ll notice how all of these roses bear different meanings and how they figure at the exact center of the picture, following perspective rules perfectly, thus making the feeling they convey the center of the piece. For example, this Alstroemeria symbolizes wealth and fortune…”

Nagisa whips his head around, scanning the museum’s visitors for the one this manly, slightly pompous voice belongs to. He’s wide, muscly but dapper with his classy clothes and serious-looking glasses. He’s holding a chalice of white wine with three fingers, and he’s speaking about flowers in art.

Nagisa’s heart thrums immediately.

“That’s right! But Alstroemeria can also mean friendship!” He barges in a few seconds later with a smile, popping his head through the space between the man who was speaking and - apparently - a friend, who seems to have the expression of someone who’s dying of boredom and complete, utter disinterest. “And the next sketch has Heathers, Gardenias and Hydrangeas, so maybe the author wanted to express strong emotions of admiration for someone’s beauty, but also sweetness,” he continues, gazing at the man who was talking before while batting his eyelashes, and the silent friend who’d probably listened to stuff about flowers for way too long slowly steps away, relieved.

Thank god Rei found another nerd who cares, he thinks, leaving it to the two flowers’ enthusiasts.

Rei frowns, looking at the newcomer - a blond man with unsettling pink eyes beaming up at him with way too much joy and excitement to stand his gaze.

“Um, who are you again?” He asks, fully aware that Nagisa hadn’t introduced himself.

“Ah! I’m Hazuki Nagisa, I sell flowers sometimes. It’s one of my side-gigs!” He says, with a bright smile. And then he squints, looking around, and grabs Rei’s wrist - which makes him blinks with shock at the forwardness - before pulling him before another sketch. “I’m sure you’ll know these are Gallic Roses. Their meaning is an invitation to meet up under the moonlight,” Nagisa says, staring up at Rei and grinning.

“Uhm… yes, I’m not sure what you’re trying to tell me,” Rei mutters, with a light flush.

“It means he’s asking you out,” his friend says, flat, from the bench behind them in the middle of the art gallery. “Have fun.”

“Wha-?” Rei mouths, before a spectacularly strong hand pulls him away, uncaring of the glass chalice Rei is holding.

“Let me pay you some coffee and you tell me all about yourself!” Nagisa tweets, not paying any attention to Rei’s loud complaints. Somehow, it feels like he made a new friend.

Haruka looks at them, nodding without even caring that they didn’t see him. He just sips his wine, looking at the art with finally some damn peace, confident that finally now Rei’s found his match.