Raiden chuckled and said “it’s not that hard, is it? You always manage to get me stuff I like.”
“That’s different, I’ve known you forever. I could give you a somewhat interesting looking rock and you’d be over the moon with it.” Well, he supposed Kung Lao had a point there. For him it was always the thought that counted in terms of gifts. “But we’ve only known Kitana and Mileena for a couple of months. What the heck do I get?”
“You could go halves with me on some flowers,” Raiden offered, thinking it was the easiest option. Lao was right, they hadn’t known the sisters that long, but he had talked with them enough to realise they both like flowers.
“No offence, but I don’t want to be that basic.”
“Are you calling me basic?” Raiden gasped in mock offence.
“I mean I’m not calling you complex,” Lao replied with a cheeky smirk. Raiden rolled his eyes.
“Well, have fun figuring out what non-basic gift you’re going to buy them,” Raiden claimed as they came to the flower shop he’d had in mind. Lin Kuei Florals was a relatively new shop, a small family run business from what he could tell. He was all about supporting small businesses rather than corporate conglomerates. “I’m gonna go buy my flowers now.”
“Yeah, yeah, I’m gonna go see if I can find something in that clothes shop over there.” Lao pointed in the direction he was going.
Raiden just shook his head as he went to enter the flower shop. As he stepped in he was immediately met with the floral smell, making him glad he didn’t have any allergies. It was a small shop, but absolutely packed to the brim with plants of all kinds. It wasn’t just bouquets either, there were some plants in pots, including succulents and cacti. There were some cute hanging baskets, and even a rack of seeds.
“Welcome to Lin Kuei Florals, how may I help you?” A voice called to him from the counter, and when Raiden looked up, he actually felt himself go a little hot.
The man behind the counter was a bit shorter than Raiden, wearing his long hair up in a bun. He had a scar over the one side of his face, and two flowers, one yellow, one blue, tucked into his ear. Usually, Raiden wasn’t one to be distracted by someone’s looks, but something about this man made him feel dizzy.
“Are you alright sir?” The man asked, sounding genuinely concerned. Raiden’s eyes flicked to a little name tag on the man’s apron that read “Kuai Liang”.
“Ah. Yes. Sorry,” he said in a hurried tone as Kuai Liang came from behind the counter to approach him.
“Is there anything I can help you with?” Kuai Liang asked, tilting his head slightly.
“Uh. Flowers.” Raiden wanted to just slap his face with his hand because of course he wanted flowers, that’s why he was in a flower shop. Kuai Liang probably thought he was stupid or something.
“Well, you’re definitely in the right place for that,” Kuai Liang giggled, and it just made him even cuter to Raiden. “Any particular flowers you’re looking for?”
“Pretty ones?” Oh. Good. If Kuai Liang didn’t already think he was a moron he definitely did now. “I’m so sorry. I’m not normally this dumb, I just have no idea what I’m actually looking for.”
Smooth. Maybe Raiden had saved himself there.
Maybe.
“I’m guessing you’re buying them as a gift for someone?” Kuai Liang enquired, reaching for a notepad in his pocket and a tiny pencil.
“Yeah, I’ve got these two friends, they’re twins so their birthday is coming up.” He rubbed the back of his head. “I know they both really like flowers so I thought a bouquet might do it.”
“Any ideas what kind of flowers they like?” Kuai Liang scribbled something down on his notepad.
“That’s the thing, I think it’s like… All flowers.” He tried to think of something that might help Kuai Liang out. “Ah, one sister really likes the colour blue, while the other loves pink.”
“Were you hoping for separate bouquets for them?” He continued to ask, writing more things down.
“Yes I think that’d be for the best.” He was sure, being twins, they got people treating them like they were the same person all the time. And even in the few short months he’d known them, he’d definitely come to appreciate that for all their similarities, they were still quite different people deep down. “So maybe one with mostly blue flowers and the other mostly pink?”
“Alright, give me a minute.”
And like that, Kuai Liang was darting around the shop, picking up various items. Raiden watched in silence as he grabbed ribbons, pruners, and paper. Then he started going between flowers. He grabbed some deep blue ones, paired with some lighter blue and some that were bordering purple. A couple of smaller white flowers too. He put them on the table together, before returning to look around again. This time he was gathering flowers of various pinks, some deep magenta and some more dusky baby pink. He also grabbed a couple of yellow flowers.
“What do you think? Before I commit to putting them together?” Kuai Liang asked, taking a step back to really observe them. Raiden wandered to join his side, looking over. He really didn’t know much about flowers, or which ones look good together, but even he could admire these flowers all complimented each other.
“They look amazing,” Raiden whispered. His personal favourite of the flowers was actually the smaller white ones, there was something delicate and sweet about them. “How long have you been doing this?”
“Ah, well, I’ve done some casual courses for flower arranging.” Kuai began to wrap the blue bouquet up, in a light pink paper Raiden now noticed. “But I’ve loved plants since I was a child, and my Mother brought me a pack of wildflower seeds to grow.”
“So, is this your shop?” He asked, because from what he knew this was a family owned business.
“Technically it’s my elder brother’s I suppose, but he did buy it for me, so.” Kuai shrugged, wrapping a sparkly blue ribbon around the bouquet and tying it in a bow. “My younger brother helps me out sometimes, but he isn’t quite as interested in plants as I am.”
“Huh.” His brother must be pretty loaded to just casually buy him a shop. Still he didn’t voice that, instead saying “you definitely seem to know what you’re doing.” He frowned, remembering something he’d read about once. “Is that stuff about flowers having meanings true or is that just a myth?”
Kuai Liang laughed as he moved onto the pink bouquet, wrapping that one in a light blue paper.
“There are some agreed upon meanings, but they’re not nearly as important as fiction would make you believe,” he said while smiling ear to ear. “That said if you ever need a bouquet to be extremely passive aggressive towards someone I can definitely help you with that.”
Raiden spluttered and covered his mouth with his hand. As he stood trying not to laugh, Kuai Liang finished up the second bouquet, scooping them both up and handing them to Raiden. They were beautiful and he was certain Kitana and Mileena would love them.
“Thank you so much,” he replied, following Kuai Liang over to the counter. “You’re amazing.” He realised what came out of his mouth and his face dropped, Kuai Liang was looking at him with an amused smile on his face. “They- they’re amazing. I mean. Sorry. Sorry.”
What is wrong with me today?
“Well, that comes to $60 all together,” Kuai Liang stated without missing a beat. Raiden reached into his pocket, passing Kuai the money he required. He opened the cash register, placing the money in and waiting for a receipt to print. Once it had, Raiden noticed he picked up a pen from the desk and wrote something on it. He didn’t think too much of it, probably just had to tick some boxes or something. He took the receipt as Kuai Liang passed it to him and said “thank you and I hope your friends like them.”
“I’m sure they will.” He gave a little bow of respect. “Thank you again.”
He might have rushed a little too quickly to the door so as not to make even more of a fool of himself. He gave a massive sigh as he went back out into the fresh air. From across the street, he saw Kung Lao.
“Hey- wow.” Kung Lao stood mouth agape at him. “Okay, going to be honest, those are way nicer than I was expecting.” He put his hand under his chin, and smirked. “How much did those cost you?”
“$60,” Raiden explained and Kung Lao blinked.
“Wait? Seriously? Only 60? When I looked it up online it was all saying in the 100’s?” Kung Lao questioned and Raiden snorted.
“You probably got results for wedding bouquets, they always put up the price for weddings,” he laughed, but it seemed Kung Lao wasn’t having it.
“Let me see the receipt.” Lao held out his hand to demand it. Raiden rolled his eyes and placed it into his hand.
Lao looked at it, eyes scanning before he reached the bottom and his eyebrow raised.
“Uh. Raiden? Have you actually looked at this?”
Raiden was confused, taking the receipt back and scanning it himself. Down at the bottom, in handwriting, was a series of numbers, sighed “call me ;) KL xx”.
“Oh.” He chuckled nervously, and there was the heat again, only now he could feel it down his neck and chest as well. His eyes were wide as he looked at Kung Lao. “Oh.”
“Seems like you managed to pick up more than flowers, huh?” Kung Lao gave him a very pronounced overdramatic wink and Raiden groaned.
“Shut up,” he muttered as he began to walk off, but he carefully put the receipt in his pocket so he didn’t lose it.
“I get to be your best man right?” Lao continued and Raiden groaned.
“Shut uppppp,” he whined, trying to drown out Lao’s teasing. Despite that though, he did find himself smiling. Maybe his awkwardness had come off as charming or otherwise endearing. It didn’t matter, all he knew was he was definitely giving that phone number a call later.
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