"Thank you for shopping at Leif's Flower Shop! Come again."

Dream paused in his chores when he heard the cheerful tone his brother had. Nightmare was always on the more sassy side, even with their customers. He stood up from the floor, watering can in his hand, and turned to face the counter where his brother was positioned. He didn't look like anything special to Dream, and that was saying something. He was an average height wearing a black turtleneck sweater and had jet black eyes. The customer thanked Nightmare before he left, and his brother watched him leave. As soon as the door closed, Nightmare's head whipped towards him.

"You were nicer than usual," Dream pointed out. "What gossip did that one bring to the counter?"

"That dude.... was just so.... so hot," Nightmare stated. "And that means something. Everyone always looks like they just crawled out of a dumpster."

"Even me?" He asked, acting hurt as he turned his head.

"Ehh... you look like trash, yeah," he decided with a nod. "On a good day, you look like an accounting major going through a divorce and running on thirty minutes of sleep and a black coffee."

"Err..... if you were getting any ideas, you might wanna look outside," he murmured, looking away rather quickly.

Nightmare raised an eyebrow bone at Dream's sudden uneasiness. Following his suggestion, the goop-covered monster turned his head to look out the large window of the shop. Dream kept looking out of the corner of his eye, holding in his breath without being aware of it. The two of them looked out of the window just in time to see the previous customer hand his purchased bouquet of flowers to another guy, one who was wearing a dark blue and orange Nasa hoodie and licking an ice cream cone.

"I..... well, I didn't have any liking for him anyway," Nightmare grumbled, but Dream could tell he was a little devastated. Just a little. "I'm gonna go drown my irritation with coffee. Call me if the shop catches on fire, the zombie apocalypse starts, or your ex shows up."

"Will do," Dream replied, walking behind the counter to take his brother's spot. "Oh! That reminds me, how is your hand healing?"

"It's doing just fine," he replied as he walked through the door to the staff room. "I would say you should be more worried about his eye, but after what he did to you, he's lucky he's still alive."

"R-Right....." He nodded.

He put the watering can away where it belonged on the tool shelf, pulling the rubbery gloves off of his hands and throwing them off to the side. The door to the shop swung open and the bell above it let out a chime, and two teenagers walked in. One was an average height with hazel eyes and chin-length brown hair, wearing a blue shirt with a red stripe around the waist. The other was a shorter, scrawnier girl with chocolate-colored hair that was in a beautifully done braid, wearing a purple sweater and a navy blue overalls skirt, her one visible green eye looking around nervously.

"Hello, welcome to Leif's Flower Shop!" Dream chirped happily, greeting them with a smile and wave. "Is there anything specific you're looking for today?"

The girl with the braided hair paused in her steps, looking up at her companion. The hazel eyed teenager gave her a nod, and she headed into one of the aisles to look at the displays. The teenager with hazel eyes turned and looked at Dream, their face holding a small smile.

"We're just looking around. If Aliza sees anything she likes, then I'll buy," they explained. They looked over as the girl with braided hair came back up to them. "Hm? Did you find something?"

"U-Um..... there's a black rose....." Aliza muttered out, pointing over to where the flower was. "C-Can I have that one....?"

The teenager with the hazel eyes followed Aliza over to where the black rose was. When they brought it up to the counter, Dream got a better look at it. It was a beautiful little flower, it came with its very own little clay pot too. Aliza set it up on the counter and took a step back, letting her companion handle the transaction.

"That'll be four dollars."

The teenager paid the due amount. Dream found out that they were lovers when the one with hazel eyes gave Aliza a kiss, holding her hand as they left the flower shop. Dream sighed heavily as the door closed, not wanting them to hear his complaints. He didn't have any complaints about them, of course. He'd never do something like that. He just wished that he had someone who would take him out and buy him flowers, without expecting something in return. Obviously he'd do nice things for them too, but he meant like.... more explicit stuff. Basically someone who wasn't like his ex.

Dream got startled as the door to the flower shop swung open. A tall skeleton monster walked in, one who looked annoyed and irritated. Dream felt his body tense up a bit when he saw him. Not only was he taller than Dream, he looked much stronger than him. The new customer's eyes landed on him immediately and, without saying anything, he stormed up to the counter. He reached into his pocket and slammed a $20 bill on the counter.

"How do I passive-aggressively say 'fuck you' in flower?" The customer demanded.

Dream stared at him, startled for a moment. No one had ever come into the shop and asked about the flower language or any meanings behind flowers. The only one that was ever asked about was which flowers mean love or something along those lines. His face broke out into a wide smile. He could finally put that trivial flower knowledge he'd read about during his Freshman year to good use.

"Oh am I ever so glad that you asked," Dream replied. "You'll need a bouquet if you really want to get the message across."

"Will a 20 be enough?" The customer asked, referring to the dollar bill they'd offered up. "It's all I have on me."

"It should be." He nodded. "You'll need geraniums, foxglove, meadowsweet, yellow carnations, and orange lilies."

"What do they mean?" He asked. "I've only heard of carnations and lilies."

"Well, they all have a negative meaning," he explained. "Geraniums mean stupidity, foxglove symbolizes insecurity, meadowsweet is for uselessness, yellow carnations basically say 'you have disappointed me', and orange lilies symbolize hatred."

"Oh that's the perfect bouquet to give her." He grinned. "It's for my toxic girlfriend, if you're wondering. Which you probably weren't, but this is a big thing."

"Oh, you have a bad one too?" He asked, offering an empathetic smile. "I did. I didn't give him the bouquet though, since he's too dumb to understand what they mean. I did think about it, though."

"You thought about it?" Nightmare called out from the staff room. "I had to argue with you about it! I said--"

"I know what you said!" Dream called back to him. "You said he would mistake it as me forgiving him and still caring about him!"

"And I'm right about it!"

Dream let out a heavy sigh as he shook his head. He muttered an apology to the customer, who chuckled in response to the short conversation between the two coworkers. Dream walked around the flower shop and gathered up the flowers for the bouquet, putting them in a nicely arranged bundle. He made small talk with the customer and learned that his name was Cross.

"I'm so telling my girlfriend to look up what these flowers mean." Cross grinned. "Thank you."

~~~~

A few months had gone by since their initial meeting.

Cross had become a regular customer at the flower shop. Even if the only thing he was doing was flirting with Dream, or buying a single rose just to hand it back to him. Nightmare would often tease him about Cross's obvious crush on him, but he pretended to be oblivious and not notice it. One day he came in while Nightmare had off, having a little gift for Dream.

"Hey Dream!" Cross greeted him.

"Good morning, Cross," Dream replied. "What's that behind your back?"

"Well, I wanted to get you something nice. I know you like flowers," he sheepishly said. "Sooo I tried to make you a bouquet."

Cross revealed the bouquet of flowers to Dream, handing it over to him. The bouquet was made up of red camellias, red roses, and light red and dark red carnations. Dream took the bouquet with a smile, feeling the petals of the flowers gently. He glanced up at Cross.

"Is this your way of confessing?" He asked him. "Using the flower language?"

"You seem to know it pretty well," Cross answered with a faint blush. "You've been acting oblivious to my several rose gifts, so I thought this would get the message across."

"You big dork." He grinned, walking around the counter. He plucked a rose from the bouquet and handed it to Cross. "I love you, too."