Bro ...

Avery raised an eyebrow, his arms crossing over his chest. What kind of business was he playing at? “Does your employer know you greet your clients this cheerfully? Not that I was aware we were clients to begin with… Colette, I’m assuming?”

He fought back the urge to roll his eyes, stepping back from the doorway to gesture for him to come in. Merlin knows how much bullshit that woman purchased to liven up the house. He ran a hand through his hair,  giving the foyer a quick once-over. It wasn’t dirty, maybe a little dusty…. the house was a little unloved, but it wasn’t exactly as if he needed it to look warm and inviting. The office was where the real clutter was anyway.

“To answer your question, yes, I live here. I… we don’t have house elves. Not exactly a hub of activity here.”

noah shrugged at the man’s question, looking the man over and back at the exterior of the house. the house had a pureblood feel to it, and a part of him wondered if he would know the owner of the house, the pureblood families being familiar with each other, but he never really could tell based on style.

he nodded over at the assortments of flower arrangements, those levitating and following him into the house, his own hands full with another arrangement. “what my employer doesn’t know won’t hurt her, would it, lestrange?” he smirked over at him, nodding his head over to the side for the arrangement to follow him, before dropping a bit roughly after he pulled his focus from it.

“Would somebody get that? Anybody? The other inhabitant of this house, perhaps?”

The door sounded once more and Avery groaned, pushing his chair out from behind him with more force than necessary. He wasn’t even sure if his wife was home, but what he did know was how irritated he was becoming with the increase in visitors this bloody travel ban was causing. Couldn’t a man get some bloody work done around his own home every once in a while without an uninvited guest or his brother trying to make a mess of literally everything? For Merlin’s sake…

Avery made his way to the heavy doors, swinging it open and trying to ease the irritation from his features when he was met with a familiar face. 

“Flint?”

@noahof

deliveries were not part of noah’s job, but of course it was just his luck that the delivery man didn’t understand that a certain combinations of certain flowers will only disturb the house dynamic (and smells). he secretly hated that he was able to distinguished this. being a florist wasn’t really the manliest job in the world, and it didn’t help that everyone in the world right now knew that his father was the fairy of the pureblood world.

arriving at the house, he started off with a regular pound of their door knocker. those knocks only really lasted a minute before he started to pound harder on the door. he didn’t have time and patience to wait for this stupid family to open the house for him to set everything up and leave. he groaned to himself once the answer didn’t come again, cursing to himself in his mother’s native tongue. “come o -- “ he straightened at the door opening, though his face dropped a bit at the man who was at the other door.

@phoebemaddock

“bye!” noah’s rude tone was evident in his voice as he waved at a customer leaving the shop with a bouquet in hand. this lady was another customer who thought she knew what she was doing with her arrangement with flowers; both muggle and magical. he had to continuously remind them that certain flowers won’ts mesh, even with the pretty colors and how some smells with conflict with others. by the end of his assistance with the woman, his patience flew out of the door along with his plastered smile. 

he stood behind the counter for a few minutes, watching people pass by, before he started to clean up. -- no one was going to walk into the store or hopefully no one did. he started to pick up the stems and with a flick of his wand, levitated little flower petals to the nearby trash. by the time he dropped everything in, the door bell goes off and he sees a familiar hue of brown on the time of the woman’s head. “what now?” he called out. “i helped you with everything and you were happy. what the fuck do you want now.” he snapped, making his way back to the counter.

His shoulders tensed up, feeling his wrists being thrown off of the other man’s shoulders. Noah was slowly getting louder, and Scorpius struggled regaining his balance as an unexpected shove came from the other man, stumbling before standing straight. He watched the friend carefully, waiting for something to happen, but knowing he wouldn’t expect what would come next.

Scorpius’ eyes widened, watching as Noah rushed towards him, recognizing yet another familiar phrase from the Flint household, pipinsenka. Rip you to shreds, oh shit. He swatted away the first punch thrown, a rather weak one as he noticed it coming towards his neck. The second, coming towards his chest was also quickly avoided, before a third came flying, hitting him in the center of his chest. Noah was replaced with someone that Scorpius didn’t recognize, someone angry and severely hurt, but refused to admit it. “What the fuck, shi-,” the last word was matched with a punch to the mouth that he couldn’t see coming, making him stumble backwards, this punch being harder than the rest had been.

He straightened his stance once more, looking into the eyes of his childhood best friend, holding his mouth, feeling the cut burn from the split lip. He could practically feel the bruises form, both from the punch earlier and the current punches to the chest and face. He took a finger, stopping the blood that had started flowing from the busted lip. He sighed, wiping it off on the edge of his shirt before taking another step towards Noah, knowing how risky it would be, since he didn’t doubt his friend could have another outburst. He would’ve reached out and touched the man’s arm, but that’d be pushing it too far. Instead he just put his arms down, not in a way to go for a hug but more to suggest one if it’s needed, “I hope you know, I don’t plan on going anywhere while you’re like this. Just… please, calm down. Don’t be violent… you don’t have to be fine all your life. I know it’s part of being a Flint to hold things in, but for now you don’t have to be Noah Flint, you can just be Noah.”

Noah shouldn’t have let his anger get to the best of him. He really shouldn’t have, but if there was one thing people knew about it, it was that when he asked something, he gets it. It wasn’t a spoiled thing, or maybe it was, but when he wanted something from someone, he’d get it from them or he takes it from them. It’s always been that way. That was how him and Jacob always got the things they liked. Noah was the bronze, and Jacob was the brains. All Noah wanted was to be let free from the hug, from the vulnerability that his childhood friend had forced upon him, and he really should have took a step away instead of holding onto him.

That what he should’ve done, but it still didn’t stop the fact that Noah felt like shit when he saw blood streaming down the man’s lip from the impact that he had made. He was still angry though, but by his own stupid feelings, it was a fight between staying angry or apologizing. He never apologized. He never did unless his brother or mother forced him to. His hands curled into fist again at the thought of yet again his brother and his glare started to slowly come back again as the man put his arms out. Who the fuck did he think he was?

“Bakit naguusap ka pa?” Noah huffed, his eyes jumping back and forth between Pipi’s eyes and his lip. “Hindi — I don’t need your sympathy and I don’t need any of that shit.” He decided to turn off his Tagalog, though he spoke in an accent instead. “Do you think I’m stupid? I don’t need to be fine all my life? Do you think I didn’t know that? No one is fine with all their life. No one is!” He shouted at him in frustration. He glared at him again, tightening his jaw and swallowed. He wanted the other to leave. Why couldn’t he leave. “The problem with death is that when someone dies, you eventually move on. You can be happy again ‘cause you don’t — you don’t have our connection. You don’t have someone that you’ve had since day one. Since the day you had a wombmate. You didn’t lose someone who is a part of you.” He swallowed again and grit his teeth in frustration. “You didn’t lose someone who can’t hate you for more than a day. You didn’t lose someone who dumped a girl because she said you were a loser. You — you didn’t lose someone who could control you more than you could control yourself.” He looked off to the side and he squeezed the little corners of his eyes. Fuck this. Fuck feelings.

Scorpius felt his grip loosen at the please, surprised to hear it come from the other man. Please wasn’t a part of Noah’s vocabulary, Scorpius hadn’t ever heard him say it before, not when asking for something, and certainly not when needing favors. In fact he’d never really heard Noah say thank you either, but it was a thing you get used to. 

Nevertheless, Scorpius kept holding onto Noah, he didn’t care if he was punched, that had already happened today. He knew that eventually, or at least he hoped, Noah would give in. He needed the comfort, he was tense and he was holding in his anger and grief, it was a Noah thing to do. Instead of letting him go, Scorpius held him my the shoulders, looking him in the face, “You’re not fine. There’s no one here Noah, you can be not fine, even if it’s just this once.”

Noah felt a bit relieved as the man’s hold on him started to loosen. The man got the message that he didn’t want to be held, nor ever again. Jacob really was the only person that Noah allowed to hug him, and even then they were never in public. They were always alone when it happens and left alone like the time Ja-Max saw Noah cry and never spoke of it again. His shoulders raised just a slight bit in reaction to the man’s hands that were still on him, until they moved up to his shoulders.

“Ano ba? Anong ginagawa mo?” He slipped into Tagalog, feeling himself slowly getting more and more out of his own control. Why won’t he let go of him. “Umalis ka na.” He demanded, though he fell silent as the man started to speak. Rather than words to calm him, all it did was aggravate him and the look on his face shifted from confusion to anger. “Sino ka.” He grabbed at Scorpius’ wrist and squeezed them, pulling them off his shoulders. “Sino ka, ha!” With every single word, his volume started to increase. He shoved the man away. “Sino ka nga imbaga dayta!”

He could feel the blood rushing to his head in anger and before he knew it, he was rushing at his childhood best friend, whom he promised Jacob he’d never hurt. “Pipinsenka aggingana papatayin kita!” Every word came with a punch, one after the other being a bit harder than the other. He wasn’t even looking where he was hitting, whatever came into contact with his fist was what he hit. After the last punch, he could feel the cuts on his knuckles from the impact, but his eyes just stayed glued to the other’s as he panted. The angry remained with him for a few seconds before he finally took in what he had done. His eyes roamed over the man and his face turned into panic at what he had done. That panic only lasted for a quick second before it went back to an angry look, though it fell short with any venom. He deserved it. He — yeah, he deserved it.

Scorpius laughed and swatted at Noah’s arm, trying to push him away, “Not the hair, Flint.” If there was one thing that he got from his father, it was a care for his hair. 

He shook his head at the friend’s ranting, “Hey, calm down. Your father made a choice, a fucking weird one if I’ll be honest, unexpected that’s for sure, but he made it. Let’s not think, or talk about it right now.” From the times Scorpius had seen Marcus while spending time at the Flint manor, having an affair with father Wood was not something he expected out of him. He personally didn’t see anything wrong with it, besides the fact that he was married, but he saw the reason for anger from Noah, being the son of Marcus. 

Scorpius put two and two together as Noah talked about his brother, his face dropping immediately. Realizing his childhood best friend, the twin of the man standing in front of him, was dead made his heart break. “Oh- I- uh,” without being sure of what to say, he pulled Noah into a tight hug. He didn’t often give hugs, but now was an exception. He lowered his voice slightly, “I’m so sorry.”

Noah smirked and purposely patted the man’s hair only because he had said to not touch his hair. “You’ve always been a pretty boy, Pipi.” He poked at his childhood friend, though he took that moment to move a strand of hair out of his face. He nodded along with his friends suggestion. Maybe it would be smarter for them to stop talking about his father. He didn’t want to give Pipi another black eye.

“Flowers don’t get sick with human diseases.” Julian wasn’t exactly in the mood to mince words about Herbology either; magical plants were way different, and he just wanted to get his mom something now that he was actually in town to visit. “And roll your eyes at me again – I’ll need to ask for your manager.”

Julian was a bit of a tattletale when he was in school, but being rude to a sick person was a pretty damn serious customer service offense. Even though he had convinced himself he wasn’t sick. But he could play the part if it meant that this idiot would stop harrassing him.

“Well, you didn’t ask me anything about flowers,” Julian corrected – and this was true – all Julian had been asked was a question about colors and whatever his father had gotten his mother before. “She won’t like red. And a green ribbon might be better… she – she used to play Quidditch.”

All of her sons had been sorted into Gryffindor, but the house itself was probably more associated with his father than it was with her children. Julian himself had taken to wearing all sorts of maroon, as if trying to represent Gryffindor in a less loud way. But that didn’t stop him from asserting that he was a Wood either.  

“Of course they’re famous,” Julian mentioned absentmindedly. “They’re the Woods.”

While his own presence wasn’t as bold as his brothers, he was still proud of being a Wood despite the fact that he had been off the pitch during the better part of a decade. Even off the pitch, Julian had something to prove.

noah took a second to look the man over and nodded his head quietly. he halfway went through another eye roll on his way to the back, but stopped midway, chewing on the inside of his cheek. “i’m sorry that our customer services is not currently up to your satisfaction.” he recited, a little sentence that he had created in his mind after the first few talks about his rude behavior. jamax always had the way with people.

he took a quick scan over the flowers in the back, certain arrangements came to mind, but was pulled back by a request that went over his head for a few seconds. “anong sabi mo? a green ribbon? do you know how yak –” he stopped himself before he could say another word. it’d just be another word from him and he’d lose a customer. though he didn’t mind it, the thought that he had wasted his breathe for five minutes wasn’t something he fancied. “i’ll get that for you. any reason for the green ribbon?” he asked, trying to keep small talk, though the man didn’t want any more of it. 

he started to gather a few more flowers, pulling out anything that was distinctively red and tossing them off to the side or cutting them off completely from the little get well soon piece and walked out, just in time for the final blow of the man’s words to hit him. he stood in front of the man frozen for a few seconds with a bewildered look before his face went back to it’s default bored look. “ – wood, as in oliver wood?” he spoke in a strain voice, his free hand, the one that wasn’t holding onto the arrangement gripping onto something under the counter. 

Scorpius realized that his actions were different than they normally would be, the hug being something that he didn’t exactly expect for him to do, and champ being a foreign name that he hated using. Maybe it was the fact that he hadn’t seen Noah in a while that made him act instinctively, he didn’t know exactly what it was. The mentioning of the dilemma with Noah father changed his mood slightly, realizing the reason for the punch now. Not that he exactly thought that Wood deserved a punch, what their parents did were up to them, although cheating on their wives wasn’t right. 

“Yeah, I-uh heard about that, I understand the punch now, I’ll kill you if it leaves a mark though,” he gave a small chuckle to imply that he was joking before giving a smile. “So, how’s Jacob, is he here with you?” Jacob was the brother that Scorpius was introduced to first, the more extroverted brother. The three of them spent many vacations together during school years and when they were younger. He figured that Jacob had come along with Noah, after all where one brother went, the other followed. They were like two peas in a pod, and Scorpius missed both of them quite greatly.

noah smirked and grabbed his childhood friend and gave him a nuggie, holding him as long as he could. “you can try kill me, but that’s only going to leave more marks, pipi.” he chuckled and patted a hand on his shoulder. “you -- aren’t the toughest looking auror in the world, pipi. it’d give you more character, or as my father would say. -- you know before he bakla himself.” he sighed. “i don’t get what it is about that wood guy. he’s not even decent looking. panget.” he bared his teeth at the thought.

he chewed on the inside of his cheek, knowing this was coming. he dreaded it once he accidentally let his twin’s nickname leave his mouth and he didn’t know how he was going to tell his childhood friend that his twin was dead. -- noah kind of knew that scorp liked his brother better than him, that was for sure based on how rowdy he has been growing up. “uhh -- jacob came here before me.” he bit onto his bottom lip nervously. “he was -- uh -- he was --” tangina. tangina mo jamax. “he was at the world cup, pipi. tanga siya kasi he knew i wanted to go.” he said with a dry laugh. 

At the sound of the nickname, and the tug on his shoulder, Scorpius stopped in his tracks. A smile spread on his face as a chuckle was let out and Scorpius ran a hand through his hair while shaking his head. “Flint, you have always been a very instinctive person, but next time, shove your fist in your pocket before you swing. Haven’t you ever heard of talking though your problems?”

Scorpius took in the others features, who looked the same just more mature. He aged nicely and Scorpius felt reminiscent as he thought of memories. He couldn’t help but to feel relieved, seeing as how he genuinely thought that he was punched out of hatred, though he hadn’t done anything that deserved hatred in return. At the sound of Noah’s confusion, Scorpius realized that while he had seen Noah, the opposite wasn’t true in return. “No, the Christmas party from last year.” 

Unlike himself, Scorpius pulled Noah into a hug, a very fast one that didn’t last long but a hug nevertheless. Once he let go, he burst into laughter and smiled at the other.

“So, champ. How’s life been going for you?”

noah half expected some sort of lash out from the other, especially after his little attack on the other, but it was a nice surprise to see a smile on the other’s face and a chuckle. he definitely was not in the mood to deal with an angry pipi, no matter how adorable he’d look when he got mad. that was one thing that noah was glad about when it came to his heritage, he didn’t turn red and constipated looking when he got angry. 

“pipi, save that speech for someone who listens. i’m not ja-max.” it slipped out before he could stop himself and he tried to keep the amused look on his face. it dropped just slightly, but he hoped that maybe the other won’t see it. he hasn’t seen him in a while after all. “i punch first ask questions later.” he said with a forced chuckle. 

he rolled his eyes, which only turned to widened eyes at the sudden contact with pipi. “whoa, pipi, call down.” he joked. “it’s been a while but not enough to warrant a -- champ?” he smirked. “who the hell are you and what happened to pipi?” he joked and shrugged. “it’s -- it’s going. you’ve heard about papa right? for a second i thought you were wood.” he admitted.

“Bold and simple aren’t mutually exclusive, and flowers don’t get sick,” Julian wheezed, his coughing finally calmed down enough to answer. What kind of florist was he if he were going to sound so rude and so stupid? Maybe it wasn’t worth the argument to get these flowers if the customer service was going to be so awful. “Besides, I don’t think my mom would want anything that reminded her of my dad…”

Julian didn’t know if Oliver had ever gotten Heidi any flowers; there wasn’t anything he could remember that was even related to flowers during his childhood. Now that he thought about it, Oliver didn’t exactly have expressions of love towards Heidi. Not really.

“They got along,” Julian conceded, then shrugged. “But my dad was better off elsewhere. I wish that he figured that out earlier. Can you just make your recommendation, and I’ll let you know if I think my mom will like it?”

That should probably speed up their interaction some; Julian knew his mom enough to know what she would appreciate. He sounded bitter, muttering under his breath, his coughs coming like hiccups. “Hell, I’m betting the Daily Prophet knows what my mom would like better than my dad ever did.”

noah rolled his eyes at the other man’s statement, perking up just a bit at lack of coughing on the other side. “if flowers don’t get sick then do weeds do? -- flowers are like humans in the sense that they need the right air and water and food.” he went on, not really realising that what he was saying and knows was somewhat nonsense. he crossed his arms and nodded over at the water bottle in front of the other. “i didn’t pull out that water for nothing, drink it or water one of my plants.” he demanded. 

“do you think i’d actually ask about the flowers to include them into the arrangement, sir?” he nodded over at the samples around the area. “the question was so i don’t include the flowers in the arrangement, sir.” he huffed and nodded over at some of the flowers around the shop. “i was going to use some of those and a few in the back, a good variety of the colors yellow, red, and pink with the possibility of a blue ribbon.”