AB ficlette -- Wild Flowers

[mhalachai]

I know I said nothing until Sunday, but today was a real bummer so I wrote some Anita/Nathaniel fluff to cheer myself up. Also, I bought season one of Stargate Atlantis yesterday. Phear.

Wild Flowers
An Anita Blake fanfiction story by mhalachaiswords

Disclaimer: The Anita Blake universe belongs to Laurell K. Hamilton. I'm only borrowing and will return them at the end of the fic.
Summary: Nathaniel can't quite figure what he was thinking when he picked that bouquet of wild flowers for Anita...
Rating: PG for language
Word count: 471
Fandom: Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter (master list here)
fanfic100 Prompt: 62 --Spring



The wild bunch of purple and yellow and red and green and blue flowers stared out at Nathaniel from the water-filled drinking glass on the table.

Nathaniel rotated the glass, to see if he could get a better angle, but it was useless. Fucking useless, Nathaniel thought angrily, looking up from his wild flowers to the recently arrived glass vase from Jean-Claude, which held a dozen white roses and three red ones. The flowers were elegant, sophisticated, adult... everything that Nathaniel's bouquet of the first wild flowers of spring out in the backyard was not.

Nathaniel wished with all his heart that he could believe that Anita would like his flowers, but it was hopeless. She liked the sophisticated things Jean-Claude got her, jewelry and furniture and those nice clothes.... well, some of the clothes. Richard got her that nice necklace for Christmas, the one that looked like tiny diamond snowflakes, and Micah had bought her a really beautiful painting for the living room. She loved those nice, pretty, adult gifts.

Nathaniel let out a sigh. He wasn't ever going to get it right, to get her things he knew she'd like. He grabbed the cup holding the wild flowers and walked them over to the sink, planning to dump them in the garbage. He wondered who he could ask about Anita, and what kind of nice things she'd like. Maybe Micah. At least he wouldn't mock--

"Where did you get those?" Anita asked.

Nathaniel jumped like a scalded cat, causing Anita to take a step back.

"What's wrong?" she demanded, putting out her hands to steady him. "Are you okay?"

Heart pounding, Nathaniel nodded. "I didn't hear you come in," he said. "Sorry."

She raised her eyebrows, her mouth turning up into an amused grin. "I don't think I've ever seen you that startled."

Nathaniel wasn't laughing. "I didn't hear you, that's all," he said abruptly, turning away.

He wasn't expecting Anita to reach around him, or to pluck the glass with the wild flowers out of his hand. "Did you pick these?" she asked, bringing the brilliantly colored flowers up to her face. She breathed in deeply. "They smell like spring."

"I picked them for you," Nathaniel blurted out, because he was so confused. "But--"

Anita interrupted Nathaniel with a big kiss on the mouth. "Thanks, I love them," she said when she pulled back, smiling so happily. She took Nathaniel's hand, her small fingers wrapping tight around his palm. "Come on, let's go put these in the living room so everyone can see them when they come over tonight." She didn't even look at the roses.

As Nathaniel let Anita pull him out of the kitchen, he spared one last glance at Jean-Claude's flowers, sitting all alone on the table.

He was never going to understand Anita.

the end

Comments

[houses7177.livejournal.com]

*wibble* This makes total sense for Anita. That is exactly the way she would react to wildflowers. Lest we forget the earlier books, this is the girl who spent time spelunking with Richard as a date.

[mhalachaiswords.livejournal.com]

Lest we forget the earlier books, this is the girl who spent time spelunking with Richard as a date.

Oh yeah. Of course, Nathaniel met Anita after she'd broken up with Richard, and she's spent most of her time since then *not* in the woods.

[houses7177.livejournal.com]

True. And any time Anita appears in the books not in the City, she's usually being chased or attacked. Poor Anita, she loves the woods, but the woods don't love her.