run away, let your heart be your guide

“I like to think I had my fair share of rough hands and occasional dirt when I helped make this place,” he teased with an easy smile, even as he played with Morgan in his arms. There was nothing to make him forget his pompous need for a perfect image quite like his son. “Ah, I do believe that is my specialty.”

“Twenty dollars? Thirty dollars? However much people normally spend on flowers,” he decided with a fairly confident smile, as he wafted over to one of the displays. He had no idea, really. She could have told him it was a hundred dollars and he’d probably accept it, however begrudgingly.

She could have gone into specifics with him, but she chose not to.  Really, the personal orders weren’t the ones that brought in the majority of her income.  It was the unfussy, steady corporate accounts that did it.  “I think twenty dollars is something I can work with.  Somewhere out there is a rack with cards.  You’re welcome to pick one.  I don’t know if you have some personal, affectionate statement or not.  The flowers can be one on their own if you’d rather.”

“Probably should be,” he mused, glancing around the room at all the flowers. “They’re a bit scary… Hit people with axes, you know. But I think I’ll wait.” If he didn’t he’d probably get distracted and never come back. “About how much do you think it’ll be?” He asked as his hand riffled in his pockets for some notes.

Sophie nodded.  He was more than welcome to stay, as long he didn’t mess the shop up.  She fully expected him to mess the shop up.  “How much would you like to spend?  I can work within a range.” 

“No, no, dirt does not go well with my complexion,” he admitted with a grimace, cuddling Morgan to his chest with a low coo of conversation with him. “I can keep him as long as you like, and I’ll even stay in the store while I do it. Best of both worlds,” he suggested with a content smile.

Sophie snorted a gentle laugh.  “Of course it doesn’t.”  She couldn’t be too harsh with him, though, when he was drawing those sorts of happy sounds from their infant son.  “If you promise to take your turn with diaper duty, should the need arise, that would be the best of both worlds indeed.” 

“I don’t know if that’s an insult or a compliment. But I think I’m going to take it as the second. Thank you for noticing. I am a man,” he laughed. “Well, I suppose that’s one less dumpster baby. Astrid’s a mother too actually. And a viking. If that helps?”

“Take it as you wish, it was just a statement of fact,” Sophie said with a smile. “It is indeed, though if you ask me there are plenty of people who want babies.  I do think the dumpster should be a last resort.”  She nodded.  “The mother I can work with, the viking is not as familiar to me.  Regardless, I shall see what I can do.  Would you like to wait, or would you like to come back?  Totally up to you.” 

He couldn’t begin to describe the bubble of feeling that he felt in his chest at that softly breathed word. Howl had felt serious concern that there would be no hope for their relationship to be mended, but he now held at least some hope. “I’m afraid my hands are terrible for soil work,” he grinned easily before holding out his arms to take Morgan from her. “But I can certainly take that armful off of you.”

She arched an eyebrow at him.  “I think your hands would survive just fine, but your constitution may not.”   In spite of the teasing, she handed the baby to his father, and felt comfortable with it because Morgan seemed happy to go.  “How long are you willing to keep him? In my effort to not miss a moment with him, I’ve neglected everything here, I’m afraid.” 

“Oh, erm, I can’t say I really thought of a message,” he hummed, quirking an eyebrow. Despite being what he considered ‘a thing’ with Astrid, he hadn’t fully grasped the technicalities of something long term. The thought that one might need to say anything at all with flowers was a little beyond him. “My thought process was more ‘have some flowers, they’re really nice!’ Is that too much? Not enough?” He let out a short laugh and shrugged as his gaze returned to the baby. “Well, he’s cute either way.”

Sophie laughed.  “What a perfectly male thing to say.  Either way, that gives me something to work with and is much easier to manage than apology.”  She looked at the baby, who had laugh when she did, and her smile renewed.  “Well thank you.  He’s a bit of a handful, but he come by that honestly enough.  I think I will keep him.  Give me a few minutes in the back with your flowers.  Do you have any special requests in terms of colors or her personality?” 

Miguel blinked through the rows of flowers at the shop owner. While he’d never made a habit to frequent florists, he had a certain imagine of what they could be like burned into his mind and this wasn’t far off it. Flowers coming out of every corner. It seemed about right. “A bouquet. For a woman. A girlfriend, to be precise.” The word still felt a little awkward on his tongue, but he’d managed to make a little money on the side and he wanted to treat her for once. As he mad his way closer to her, he noticed the little spot on her arm and offered a soft smile. “How old is he?”

Sophie nodded.  “Easy enough.  What’s the message for this girlfriend?  Thinking of you?  I’m so sorry?” She looked him over.  He didn’t look particularly apologetic or anything.  She was guessing the first one.   She smiled.  “About six months now I guess.  Time isn’t my specialty.” 

“It’s just me!” Annora called before rounding the corner and coming into sight, waving her hand in the air like a white flag. “I decided that I’ve done so much studying that my brain might decide to pack up and leave, so I thought I’d stop by here and see if you needed anything. Any help maybe?”

Sophie breathed out a sigh of relief when she saw Annora, rather than a paying customer.  It was no secret to her that she needed to make money now that everything in the shop wasn’t dead.  She’d been without income for some time, which made it hard to go about the practical details of living that people like Howl and demons like Calcifer seemed indifferent to at best. 

“Well, I am sorry to hear about your brain, but I am happy to see you.  I’m having some thinking problems myself at the moment. Would you rather prepare soil or hold a baby so I can prepare soil?  The choice is yours, but I will say his needs are all suitably met for the moment, so he may be the easier task.” 

Robin was on his way home from a job site. It’d been a long day and he was ready to get home to Marian. But he’d seen the flower shop on the way home, and on a whim, he’d popped inside. It was abloom with beautiful flowers and colors and smells and he waved away her apology with an easy smile. “Not to worry, miss. Lovely place you’ve got here.” He glanced around and tried to imagine the most glorious bouquet Marian had ever seen. He was many things, but he was certainly not a skilled florist and knew he lacked the creative design gene it would take to make the kind of bouquet his wife deserved. “I’ve a lady back at home I would like to impress, would you be able to help me with that?”

Sophie bounced her babe as she considered his question.  While she typically wasn’t detail oriented, unless she was scrubbing grout or picking apart Howl’s appearance to decipher what sort of mood she was in, she found his statement lacking important information.  The child’s sing-song coos may have stolen her heart, but they also distracted her for a moment and she was forced to ask more questions rather than to try reasoning through the request.  “A lady back home.  I can probably help, but I need more information.  First, who is this lady to you?  A daughter, a sister, someone special, maybe a wife?”  She let her eyes drift over the flowers nearby.  “And.... why would you like to impress her?”  She thought of reasons Howl would be trying to do something to impress her; these days, it seemed the sum total of his efforts were in trying to make amends for his magical failure.  “Are you apologizing for wrong doing?  Trying to propose marriage?  Celebrating?”  She shook her head and smiled.  “I’m sure we’ve got just the thing, whatever the thing that is needed may be.  Also... what colors does she prefer?” 

Calcifer watched Sophie with her son just outside the shop for a bit longer before entering the building. A grin appeared on their face when they saw the flowers, aware that the life has come back to this place. They will never admit it but relief came back to them, knowing that everything worked out as it was suppose to. The fact that they were pretty certain of who had Sophie’s child, which was confirmed by Howl, still weighed on their mind but they pushed it aside. For now. 

“Well you can thank me” Calcifer said, placing a hand over their chest- where their heart is suppose to be, they believed- and sighed dramatically, “For helping you with this place while you were so preoccupied.” Looking around, they smiled, “Looks great though. I told you that everything will work out. How’s everything going?” They glanced to the child, their eyes softening, “It looks like he is healthy and so are you. I’m… That’s good.” 

Sophie rolled her eyes and shook her head at Calcifer’s dramatics, but could not bring herself to be cross with them and, so, smiled as she did it.  She was even back to being a walking contradiction, or so it seemed.   “I suppose you did -- all of those things,” she admitted reluctantly.   “I think things are going well, but if I could breathe a few more hours into each day, or if you could, I think we would all be able to get some sleep.  That would be a novel change of pace.”  Even as she said it, and looked at the infant in her arms, she knew she wouldn’t change any of it.  “You’re what?  Surprised, maybe?  Suspicious there seem to be no lasting effects?”  She arched an eyebrow.  “It is good, but I suppose I’m just waiting for something to reveal itself.  Something always does.” 

Howl couldn’t help but watch Sophie and Morgan through the window of the shop for a moment before deciding to walk in. The hesitance of their son’s absence was gone, replaced with the pure joy of having his family together. Slipping through the door, the smile didn’t disappear at his wife’s greeting. Rather, it broadened and he moved over to her.

“And here I was thinking I might help you for a while,” he offered with a slight shrug. “I’m free for the rest of the afternoon, if you could use a hand or two.” Lifting his own, he ran a gentle one over the soft hair of their son as he looked at her.

Sophie was trying, honestly.  In the end, their son had been found and she knew Howl was much happier with the change.  The incident had not been his intention and she wished to put it behind her, though it wasn’t the easiest thing.  She was trying.  She fixed a gentle smile on him.  “Always,” she breathed.  She fixed him with a small grin, lightly teasing.  “I don’t suppose those hands would like to prepare soil for the winter crops.”  She brushed a kiss across Morgan’s downy crown.  “Or maybe you’d rather take this one.” 

She sort of loved it.  

Today was a bit of an exception to the new usual, though, and she was using  her free arm and one tenth of her brain space to attend to her other ‘child’ -- the flower shop.  What had wilted and died in Morgan’s absence had come back to life, abundantly so.  Her creations, through little effort of her own, were bursting out of every available space in the shop.  She greeted the person who came in with a smile and a mildly insincere apology.  “Quite sorry, excuse the mess.  Transition in seasons, and preoccupied shop owner.  How may I help you today?”