Sabo, you do know we are on a mission, right?” the brown hair girl questioned as she stared down at him on the ground.
“Come on, don’t be that way, Koala. Just sit down and have fun!”. He said with a giant smile crossing his lips, staring up at her from his spot amongst the blue and orange flowers under his body.
Her brown brows furrowed as she crossed her arms.“We have work to do, that’s the whole reason we are out here in the first place,” she said, sounding exasperated with the man. She leaned down closer to their faces, so close to each other yet so far away.
“Come on Sabo, we do not have time for this–” she tried to say, only to let out a loud “OOF” as Sabo grabbed her wrist, yanking her right into his lap, his arms around her waist and his chin on her shoulder.
“Don’t be like that, mh? Maybe you're jealous that I'm paying attention to the flowers more than you?”
She sat there wide-eyed, feeling the back of her neck and her ears growing hot as the blush dusted across her cheeks.
He put a finger to his lips “You know, what if we made flower crowns? I know you have always wanted to make one. Could it be our thing?” he suggested with that dumb cheerful voice of his.
Koala let out a sigh of defeat: she knew she had to admit she lost the game with that stubborn man.
“Fine. But we can’t stay here too long, you know”. She said, turning around and pinching his round cheeks.
“Uh-huh, you say so, but you had made no move to get out of my lap,” he teased the poor brown-haired woman.
He moved his large hands and placed a bunch of orange butterfly weeds and a bundle of blue bluebells in her much smaller and cute hand
“Let’s use these, Koala!” He suggested to her before her brown eyes glanced down at the bundle.
“ Hey Sabo, do you know what these flowers mean?” she asked him, her face feeling hot. She knew that Sabo knew those flowers and what they meant, but so did she.
“Nope, not a clue. Why don’t you tell me?” He asked in a light but teasing manner, the same he always does when he already knows the answer to the question he asked.
Part of her was certain that he just liked to hear her talk. She let out a heavy sigh, tilting her head back to look up at him from her position.
“Butterfly weeds are supposed to represent joy, while it is said that Bluebells are the flowers of undying love”.
She could hardly get out with how much she was stammering from her own embarrassment, it was just a coincidence that these were the flowers he had grabbed.
He queried with a blonde brow “Oh really? Had no idea but I think it fits us. Butterfly weed makes me think of you, it almost matches your hair,” He said as he took a strand of her brown hair and brought it up to his lips, leaving a kiss on the lock between his fingers.
Koala stared up at him with wide eyes. Did he like her? Her brain could not wrap around the thought of the very idea that stubborn idiotic Sabo liked her the same way she loved him. It almost felt as if her heart was about to physically burst out of her chest at that exact moment. She could not handle another act like this or she would lose it or, even worse, do something embarrassing again (like the last time she had tried to confess to him, but she ended up telling him “Happy Monday”).
She was interrupted by her thoughts as she felt his finger pinching her cheek.
“Earth to Koala, where did you go?” He cooed in her ear, only to jolt when she flung her arm in surprise and hit him on his cheek.
She sulked seeing the red mark on his face and waved her arms frantically “I am so so sorry Sabo, I swear it wasn’t on purpose! I must have spaced out and then you scared me so I just acted–“
Sabo let out a laugh before he grabbed her waving hands “Hey careful, you’ll mess up the flowers there. But if you’re really sorry then… how about kissing me?”
She and Sabo had locked eyes in complete silence for what felt like a solid hour before he puckered his lips.
“Come on, you hit me hard!” he baited, only to find himself blinking when she leaned forward and kissed him on the cheek.
Well, that really was his fault, wasn't it? He never directly said where she could kiss him. But she was so cute he just wanted to grab her face and kiss her.
Sabo’s lips curled up into one of his sunshine smiles, but Koala could not raise her eyes to look up at him. She was almost glad she was sitting in his lap like this, mostly because it was harder to turn around and look at him.
“I thought we were making flower crowns?”
“We are, I'm gonna show you how right now. You have your flowers, right?”
Sabo placed his own flowers next to the ground beside him, his fingers brushing over the flowers in her hands.
“First, we are going to braid the flowers like this,” he explained, showing her how to twist and braid the vines of the flowers together. Koala watched as her hands tried to copy his movements.
Sabo was really good at everything he did, sometimes it felt like everything came so easy to him. But what she did not know was that he forced Betty and Ivankov to teach him for months: there were times it almost felt like he would never be able to do it, he even went as far as to practice in his spare time on missions.
Koala let out a groan of frustration as another one of her vines tore and snapped the crown she was making.
“This is not fair, how are you so good at this? I'm never gonna get this Sabo, this is the fourth time!” She said dejectedly as she hung her head down. Sabo could have sworn he saw little rain clouds floating over her.
“Hey now, don’t be like that, you'll get it. I had to have others teach me. Here, just follow me once more, okay? It does not need to be perfect at all.”
“...I guess you are right for once.”
He rolled his eyes despite the laugh that left his lips. He held her hands once more this time moving her fingers, helping her braid the vines. Koala’s brown eyes widened seeing how they weaved into the tight braids Sabo was showing her. After a couple of long moments, Sabo smiled widely “Ahah! There we go, all done”.
He held out the lovely flower crown gleaming under the sunlight: the lovely Bluebells and the orange butterfly weeds just made them seem all the more enchanting as he placed the crown on the top of her head.
He sucked in a sharp breath, his face glowing alight. She was beautiful, how had he really never noticed before was beyond him. His lower lip trembling “Sabo, are you okay? You’re shaking…” Koala asked with worry in those big doe brown eyes of hers.
“H-huh. Sorry, I got lost in my thoughts”, He said, his voice having a little edge of nervousness to it.
She quirked a brow since when did Sabo get lost in his own head? He was the type to act first and think later more than often.
“You big liar, what terrible scheme are you brewing now.”
“Why do I have to be scheming anything?! Can’t I just enjoy spending time with my best friend?” He asked with a tone of amusement laced in his words.
Koala narrowed her eyes “That makes me trust you even less. Just spit it out, Sabo, it can’t be that bad.”
Sure how was he supposed to blurt out that he finally saw her as a girl he had never really considered one? He was so sure she would freak out on him but, if he really had to pinpoint when this started, it would have to be on the last job they did together, where they had to pose as a married couple.
Sabo was never one to think of marriage, he really didn’t care about relationships nor did he have the time to partake. But with Koala, part of him wanting to see her in a pretty white dress… the idea became more and more stuck in his head.
He was pulled out of his fantasy by Koala pulling on his cheeks “Hey, I am talking to you! First, you drag me out here while we are working and now you're ignoring me. What is the matter with you ?!”
“Let’s get married!” He blurted out, giving the poor woman whiplash from how fast she whipped her head around to face him.
“WHAT?!” she exclaimed with wide-darting eyes, feeling like the wind was knocked right out of her chest. Her face resembled one of those ripe cherry tomatoes that they had growing on the base.
Sabo at this point just about was ready to surrender himself to the navy rather than deal with trying to come back from what he just said out loud. He rubbed the black of his golden locks
“Ah, did I say that out loud?” He asked with the hope he really had not.
“You did and you have not explained yourself!”
He gulped with a nervous expression as he could feel the sweat on his forehead. Well, crap, he would just have to bite the bullet, wouldn’t he?
Sabo turned his body so he was facing her before he grabbed her round face, which made her stare and let out a sound as he leaned closer. A sound of surprise, when his soft lips pressed on her own smaller ones.
Koala felt like the wind had knocked out of her body once more. She moved her hands, gripping his shoulders. The kiss felt so right and something out of a fairytale. Her body felt so light as if she was dreaming the whole thing up. If you had told her four days ago when she left with Sabo that he would have kissed her, she would obviously have laughed it off.
When he pulled away and the air came back to her lungs, she turned a scarlet color “S-Sabo! What was that?!”
A cheeky smile crossed that handsome face of his “Well Koala, that was a kiss. I did not realize you didn't know what that was.”
“ Now is not the time to get smart, Sabo,” she cried out with tears threatening to bubble up. There was no way Sabo really liked her, he was playing a cruel joke on her!
Upon seeing her tears, he jolted “H-hey, did you hate it that much?”
“It’s cruel to play with a girl’s feelings, you know? You're being a jerk!” She said as the tears rolled down her round cheeks.
Sabo moved his hands, his thumbs wiping her tears away “ I should have made myself clear Koala. I am not pulling a prank, I am in love with you. I have always been since we met.”
Koala kept getting whiplash at his words “W-what… Why, there are so many girls who are in love with you, Sabo. So tell me, why me?!”
“Why you? Why not you Koala, I don’t want anyone but you.”
Her lower lip trembled as she gulped “You really feel that way?”
“Of course I do, haven't ever said anything I don't mean Koala. You are the most beautiful girl I know, inside and out.”
“ Why have you never said anything until now?”
Sabo let out a laugh “I tried, but you kept misunderstanding me. Still, you haven't answered me either, do you like me?”
She placed her hands over the top of his warm calloused ones. “I do…I love you, I thought you didn’t like me.”
His blue eyes widened before he softened. “Then… After this job, let’s go on a date, mhm?”
“Sounds like a plan, be on time for once.”
“I wouldn't dream of being late.”
ellievsbear
areudirty
theartofmadeline
romaincrisis
gummygunk
prguitarman
