Holidays Unearthed

by Bookish Delight

4: The Gift (Pt. 2)

For years, Nature had been the closest thing Wallflower had to a friend.

But there was one thing Nature couldn’t do, no matter how hard Wallflower tried: hold a conversation, in any form.

Nature couldn’t grow and change along with her, couldn’t work or play alongside her—mainly because it didn’t want to. Nature always did its own thing, and sometimes it was painfully easy for Wallflower to tell when she wasn’t part of Nature’s equation. When she didn’t fit into Nature’s schedule.

When Nature couldn’t care less.

“Wallflower? What’s wrong?”

But then, there was Juniper Montage.

Who could always talk with her, listen to her, and wanted to do both, ever since they’d met completely by chance, and grown close—to the point where, if Wallflower’s world consisted of only plants and Juniper, she might actually be okay with it.

Oh, and Juniper was also completely okay with Wallflower sobbing into her coat, apparently. Which was good, because she couldn’t stop. She’d been trying for a while now.

“Whoa, whoa, hey. Hey, now, I’m here.” Wallflower felt Juniper’s arms wrap around her, and felt one of Juniper’s hands stroke her hair, causing Wallflower to hold on tighter in response. “We can stand here and talk about what’s eating you for as long as you want. Or not. Just tell me what’s going on, when you’re ready.” Juniper paused, then sighed, and added, “It was how I got all excited just now, isn’t it? Sorry about that. I know I get really into things, and I forget to stop and think if I’m embarrassing anyone when I do—”

“No!” Wallflower exclaimed, a little too loudly, stepping back and looking into Juniper’s glasses-adorned eyes. “It’s not that. It’s never that, don’t ever change, just don’t… don’t ever stop being you. Okay?” she asked, gasping for breath.

“Okay,” Juniper said, her voice leveling off. “So… you’re okay?”

Wallflower nodded. “Better than. Trust me.”

Slowly, Juniper’s smile healed. “Okay, awesome.”

Wallflower looked at Juniper again, rubbing her eyes through with her own smile.

A lot of girls… way too many… don’t get to have what I have now. Especially not as a second chance.

Wallflower refused to waste it. But she also knew she was better at showing than talking. Gift-of-gab was Juniper’s department. “Anyway, thanks for the kind words about the garden. They mean a lot, especially given the last thing I planted that I want to show you.”

“Last thing?” Juniper looked up. “Kind of hard to single anything out on a set this elaborate. Not that that’s a bad thing, trust me.”

Wallflower’s smile slanted. “Look around, look closer. Tell me exactly what you see, everything you see, that isn’t a flower.”

Juniper did so. “I see… a whole bunch of bushes and shrubs, filling out anywhere the flowers aren’t, with really cute shades of green. Makes the whole place look full.” With a small inquisitive noise, she added, “Really, they’re kind of the unsung heroes of this place. The flowers, awesome and beautiful as they are, would look really lonely without them. They hold everything together.”

Wallflower felt the excitement bubbling again. “Thanks for noticing,” she said, tiptoeing to whisper in the other girl’s ear: “They’re my new collection of junipers.”

Juniper’s face went completely red as the words sank in. “You know, I really should have caught that,” she said after several long moments.

Wallflower giggled, walking around the garden. “I don’t blame you for not doing so. There are lots of different varieties of junipers, many named for the different parts of the world they’re native to, and each with their own hue and blossoming style. There are so many even I didn’t know about.” Wallflower gestured to shrubs which ranged from bright green to aquamarine, from firm and upright to smooth-textured, and everything in between.

She returned to Juniper, her smile the biggest of the afternoon. “Without junipers,” she said softly, “this garden couldn’t exist. They’re the backbone. They’re evergreen. They survive and persevere even when things look their coldest and bleakest. Once I learned the full extent of what they are and could do… they gave me the motivation to go for the whole garden. And I’m glad I did. Because now I have this,” she said, placing her hand on a gaping, short-of-breath Juniper’s cheek. "So I’ll always have a reminder of how lucky I am to be who I am.

“What I’m saying is…” Never breaking her gaze at Juniper, Wallflower’s right hand trailed down to thumb the juniper berry pin fastened to the chest of Juniper’s coat. “…you’re a subtle miracle worker, in an adorable, larger-than-life green package.”

The silence which followed Wallflower’s words was long, understated by their breaths and a winter breeze which gently tickled their faces. Juniper’s expression was unblinking, her mouth still slightly agape, though Wallflower could also see Juniper’s lips quivering ever so slightly.

Which was a huge mood for Wallflower, given the events of roughly five minutes ago, but still. She put her hands down. “Junie? Are… are you all right?”

Juniper jolted as if startled, then said, “Y-yeah, hang on.” She dug into her purse, taking out a cloth and making a show of turning away to clean her glasses again—though Wallflower did notice her sneak her arm across her eyes in a telltale fashion. Juniper then turned back with a smile, placing her glasses back on.

“There we go, all good now.” She placed her hands on Wallflower’s shoulders. “I… Wallflower, I really…” Juniper shut her eyes tight, shook her head, and tried again. “Thanks. I… no one’s ever…” She blinked several times more, and each time she did, Wallflower could see more tears falling again…

…until, voice cracking, Juniper finally just cried, “Oh, to hell with this!” and pulled Wallflower into a tight embrace, and an even firmer kiss.

---

Sometimes, tiny frozen snowflake kisses were quite nice, and all Wallflower needed to feel good about the day.

And sometimes, incredibly heated kisses in the midst of winter, from someone she loved, and who she knew loved her, were just what the botanist ordered.

Amidst a wintergreen backdrop, and through tears which refused to end for both girls, Wallflower gradually backed Juniper against a nearby tree as they kissed deeply for as long as they wished. As far as Wallflower was concerned, this was a perfect substitute for a greenhouse, to say nothing of portable—and aromatic, what with Juniper still smelling of chai and mint from her earlier drink.

Minutes, seconds, it wasn’t Wallflower’s place to know or care how long the kiss lasted—only that they both had to breathe deeply once it was over, and they parted. Juniper, for her part, slouched against the tree, a lazy smile on her face. “I’ve… been wanting to do that… since I got here,” she said through gasps.

“Me too,” Wallflower said, hesitating for a short while before deciding to just speak her mind. “I think we should, then. Kiss more, I mean,” she said, her entire face now a sauna. “Only when we both want to, of course.”

Juniper looked happy to hear these words… but she also looked uneasy. Uneasier than Wallflower had ever seen her, even when talking about movie studio life. Not only did Nature have trouble listening, it had trouble remembering. Wallflower always made sure to not share this flaw, especially around those she cared for. “Juniper?”

Juniper glanced away, hugging herself. “Are you sure…? I… I-I don’t want to be weird about this stuff.”

Wallflower tilted her head in confusion. “What do you mean?”

Snowflakes fell again, through the forest canopy above. “This thing we have… whatever it is… I’ve been doing it all by the skin of my teeth this whole time. Every love story I’ve seen, every romance movie, is all hormones and makeouts, and rollercoaster plotlines centering on whether or not two people will get together, stay together, or break up, and that’s…” She took a deep breath, exhaling loudly. “That’s nothing like us, is it?”

“So many books, and the girls at school, sound a lot like those movies, too.” Wallflower put her hand on Juniper’s shoulder. “But no, I don’t think we’re anything like that, either.”

“Exactly!” Juniper blurted out. “And I like what we have! There’s so little… I guess, pressure? We’re just ourselves, and I don’t want to prove all that stuff right. I don’t want what we have to be that… that shallow!” Juniper threw her arms up. “Relationships aren’t all just kisses and PDA’s and emotional crashburns all the time, are they? They can’t be! They should make sense! They should exist because of things… right?” Juniper looked genuinely confused herself, looking around with her own brand of confusion before letting out a long sigh.

---

And yet, being one with Nature still had some benefits.

Wallflower smiled, with sage beyond her years—wisdom gained from observing people in her old, ever-pining, invisible state. Who knew that she would be in their shoes someday?

“I don’t have a lifetime’s worth of movies to draw from,” she said, "but I do know that for plants, the key to a long life and good growth is a healthy root structure. In other words, a strong foundation." She bent down and gave a nearby shrub a couple of pulls in Juniper’s view to demonstrate. It refused to budge. Satisfied that Juniper understood her point, she stood back up. “So, do you think what we have together is as shallow as those movies?”

Juniper shook her head. “I’m practically drowning in what we’ve got.”

Wallflower blushed. "And do you like… kissing me?"

“Are you nuts I’d do it forever if I—” Juniper stopped herself, blushing back. “I mean… yeah, maybe a little.”

Wallflower giggled. “Good, because I do too. So I… don’t think we need reasons to kiss, outside of the fact that we like each other? I know this is the first time in a relationship for both of us, and it may last… or it might not. I mean, I hope it does, but…”

Juniper rolled her eyes and groaned. “Ugh, the movies never cover that possibility either. It’s always ‘true soul mate love, happily ever after,’ never ‘two people who gradually found out they just really like being around each other and it went somewhere, kind of’.” Juniper grinned. “Beginning to appreciate the concept of variety.”

“I don’t know—the latter definitely sounds like too much nuance to fit into a two-hour Applewood blockbuster.” Wallflower winked. “No offense meant, of course.”

“Are you kidding?” Juniper laughed. “You took the words right out of my mouth!” She sighed again. “So, kick the romcom plots to the curb for good?”

“For now, maybe. I’ll do the same with all the gym class locker room talk.” Wallflower clasped Juniper’s hands. “And instead, I propose we explore what we have together, figure out what works, for us, and what doesn’t.” With a giggle, Wallflower added, “And then you can take that and make a real romance movie, that knows what it’s doing.”

Juniper’s eyes sparkled in the daylight, amidst the snowflakes. “Why do you always know how to speak my language?”

And one last time, Wallflower lost herself in Juniper’s eyes on purpose. “Because I pay attention. And I plan to keep doing it.”

“That’s a really good practice that I’m also in favor of you continuing.” Juniper met Wallflower’s eyes in kind, and pointed to her glasses. “I promise, my camera lens will always be centered on you, too.”

“Back to the terrible puns, I see,” Wallflower giggled once more, hand to her mouth. “Guess you’re feeling better now?”

“Yeah,” Juniper said, bringing her face close. “I guess I am.”

As she and Juniper kissed again under the canopy of Nature, Wallflower decided that there was, at last, a tangible difference between being by herself, and being herself.

And she was grateful that, now, finally, she had a choice between the two.

Comments

[FanOfMostEverything]

Never breaking her gaze at Juniper, Wallflower’s right hand trailed down to thumb the juniper berry pin fastened to the chest of Juniper’s coat.

Depending on however the heck personal symbols work in this world, that could be an incredibly intimate gesture in and of itself...

In any case, magnificent Bookish goodness throughout. Thank you for some fantastic character interaction and refutation of Hollywood romance in favor of something more meaningful.

[Tums Festival]

I don't normally dig into relationship fics, but that cover art is too adorable for me to resist. Bring on the wholesomeness!

[Tums Festival]

Surprised nothing happened with the constantly regrowing plants, but not every story needs a threat. This one did just fine with its cuteness and saucy but not too saucy ending. Nicely done!

[The Voice in the Water]

Okay, that was really sweet. Wallflower using her girl's namesake as the keystone for her newest garden was really lovely. And their frank discussion about what it meant to be in a relationship. Really, beautiful.

There are lots of different varieties of junipers, many named for the different parts of the world they’re native to, and each with their own hue and blossoming style.

Small botanical nitpick: junipers are a type of conifer. As such, they don't blossom since they don't make flowers. Juniper "berries" are the seed bearing cones. Think a tiny, soft, fleshy pinecone, like such.
images-wixmp-ed30a86b8c4ca887773594c2.wixmp.com/f/80eccd0c-9c20-4b7a-89dc-b75efbf68051/de5nxsg-d87e0c55-f6ae-4e24-9500-078f328b6ec4.jpg/v1/fill/w_1032,h_774,q_70,strp/img_5604_jpg_by_uabetantu_de5nxsg-pre.jpg?token=eyJ0eXAiOiJKV1QiLCJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiJ9.eyJzdWIiOiJ1cm46YXBwOiIsImlzcyI6InVybjphcHA6Iiwib2JqIjpbW3siaGVpZ2h0IjoiPD05NjAiLCJwYXRoIjoiXC9mXC84MGVjY2QwYy05YzIwLTRiN2EtODlkYy1iNzVlZmJmNjgwNTFcL2RlNW54c2ctZDg3ZTBjNTUtZjZhZS00ZTI0LTk1MDAtMDc4ZjMyOGI2ZWM0LmpwZyIsIndpZHRoIjoiPD0xMjgwIn1dXSwiYXVkIjpbInVybjpzZXJ2aWNlOmltYWdlLm9wZXJhdGlvbnMiXX0.0vCFZddiYRMn6v962N90gQvkmbKrrNp5-eL7Qmn4_IY

[SkycatcherEQ]

Naicu. I know what I'm reading at lunch tomorrow. Nice to see you back here.
Did you commission that piece from Bevin?

[The Chronicler]

> sees lack of Romance tag
> sees synopsis and some comments
> is suspicious

[TheOneAJ]

Wait, was this implying that they’re both asexual? Funny story, I mentioned this ship and the responce was thinking they were both such ^^’

[Pete100]

Wallflower refused to waste it. But she also knew she was better at showing than talking. Gift-of-gab was Juniper’s department.

Gift-of-gab?

Not only did Nature have trouble listening, it had trouble remembering. Wallflower always made sure to not share this flaw, especially around those she cared for.

What does that mean?

“Exactly!” Juniper blurted out. “And I like what we have! There’s so little… I guess, pressure? We’re just ourselves, and I don’t want to prove all that stuff right. I don’t want what we have to be that… that shallow !” Juniper threw her arms up. “Relationships aren’t all just kisses and PDA’s and emotional crashburns all the time, are they? They can’t be! They should make sense! They should exist because of things… right?” Juniper looked genuinely confused herself, looking around with her own brand of confusion before letting out a long sigh.

?

[TheOneAJ]

It’s done ^^’ sorry for the dry run, but felt proud enough to try jt

[Bookish Delight]

10589075
You should feel proud! Thanks a bunch for this!

[TheOneAJ]

10589075
Of course
Curious to hear what you think in my own comment section if you got time
Also, don’t suppose you could also spread the love around by letting your fans know via a blog or something
Also, I never heard back why this story isn’t marked as romance, so I marked the reading as such hoping it wouldn’t be a big deal