looks like may flowers came early
Author's Note
If you noticed, I did delete my last story. I wasn’t happy with it at all. It was a retrofit of a story I wrote for a friend and it didn’t transfer well. So, I gave this a second go, and this is a wildly better version of the secret admirer trope. If you still want to read that last story, it’s on my ao3.
looks like may flowers came early
Twilight coughed on the scent of roses when she opened her locker door.
“What the…?”
“What is it?” Rainbow Dash asked from beside her, peering into her locker. The two had walked to school together after staying up practically all night on a science project Twilight forced the athlete to help out with. They had gotten it done, at the cost of their sleep.
Twilight reached into the depths of the locker, searching for the smell. At the bottom, she found roses scattered over her books. She gathered them carefully, standing up.
“...Roses.”
Twilight held them up, inspecting the flowers. They were definitely real, the thorns poking her softly but not enough to break skin.
“Does someone have a secret admirer???” Rainbow asked, teasing. Twilight laughed and gently shoved her.
“No way! High school is no time for relationships. They’re a distraction.” She looked back at the flowers.
Rainbow rolled her eyes. “Who knows, maybe it’s a warning sign that you’re getting hanahaki.”
“That’s not real, Dash.” Twilight took a sniff of the roses. They smelled sweet and slightly headache inducing. She ran a fingertip over one of the petals, then adjusted her glasses.
“What are you gonna do with them?” Rainbow asked.
“I dunno, wonder who they’re from,” Twilight replied. She hummed to herself, counting the flowers. Five roses. “It’s not Valentine's Day, is it?” she asked, slightly alarmed. Rainbow shook her head.
“It’s April, Sparkles.” Twilight let out a sigh of relief. “Sunset got you that bear, remember?” Rainbow continued. “The pink and brown one?”
“Ohh yeah,” Twilight said, remembering. She stared down the hallway, thinking. “I like that one. It’s soft. Smells like Sunset.”
“How do you know what Sunset smells like?” Rainbow asked, raising an eyebrow.
“You don’t?” Twilight asked.
“Vanilla?” Rainbow guessed.
“Berries and warm,” Twilight said.
“Warm is not a scent, Twilight.”
“Yes, it is! Smell Sunset next time she passes by!” Twilight defended.
Rainbow laughed and propped her foot up on the locker. “You’re weird.”
Twilight laughed too. “Where is everyone anyway?”
Rainbow shrugged. “Aren’t you the one with trackers on all their phones?” Twilight narrowed her eyes at her, causing the other girl to laugh.
She looked down at the roses. She sighed and set them back inside her locker.
That was a mystery for another day.
…
It continued.
When Twilight opened her locker on Tuesday, she found marigolds. Four of them, laying on her books just like the day before. On Wednesday, it was daffodils, this time only three.
“Watch there be like… lilies today or something,” Rainbow said, approaching Twilight’s locker with her. She had started walking with her to her locker every morning now, thoroughly invested in what she had been referring to as “The Flower Saga.” Apparently, she had nothing better to do than stick her nose into Twilight’s love life.
Twilight rolled her eyes and put in her combination. She tugged on the door, finding it stuck. Her eyebrows furrowed. “Come on!” she groaned.
“Twilight. You put in a six instead of five,” Rainbow pointed out. Twilight looked down at the lock. She giggled sheepishly.
“So I did…” She corrected her mistake and opened the door.
There was less of a scent today, but Twilight honestly couldn’t smell much beyond the roses that lingered. She had been taking the flowers home and hiding them in a box in her room. The scent of flowers invaded her life, currently. She wasn’t sure that she hated it.
She immediately reached down to the bottom of the locker. She returned with two flowers, one pink and one yellow.
“Two tulips,” she observed.
Rainbow snickered. “This person has it bad for you.”
“Shut up,” Twilight said, sniffing the tulips idly. They smelled like summer, and a tiny bit like that god awful body spray a girl in her gym class used. Twilight shrugged and set the flowers back in her locker. She picked up her books. “Come on, let’s get to the band room. Everyone else is probably waiting.”
Rainbow nodded and pushed herself off the wall. Twilight turned to leave and Rainbow was about to follow her when she spotted something. She bent down to inspect the lock of Twilight’s locker.
A single strand of long, red hair was sitting on it. She quirked an eyebrow, picking it up. Glancing up and down the hallway to make sure nobody was watching, she sniffed it.
Strawberries.
Weird.
Rainbow dropped the hair and followed after Twilight.
…
Twilight was alone on Friday afternoon.
She walked into the main hallway, humming to herself. Classes were over for the day and she was in a good mood. She hadn’t had a chance to make it by her locker practically all day, rushing between class to class as she hurried to get teacher recommendations and finish projects before the school year ended. But now the stress of all that melted away and she was left with the warm sunny day as the seasons turned to Spring. She made her way to her locker with a skip in her step. She had almost completely forgotten about the secret admirer thing.
She opened her locker with more ease this time, kneeling down to put away her books. Her hand touched something odd and she gasped, remembering. She felt around for more.
She pulled out the object. Just one flower today. A purple orchid, soft in the lighting of the school. It was really pretty. She smiled and tucked it behind her ear, continuing to gather her stuff.
She heard shuffling behind her. She stood up, holding her books to her chest.
“Oh, hey Sunny!” she greeted, smiling at the redhead. Sunset smiled back, blushing a bit. She coughed. “What’s wrong, are you sick?” Twilight asked, concerned, moving closer to her friend. Sunset shook her head.
“No, no, not sick, promise,” she said. She bit the inside of her cheek. Her hands were held behind her back.
“What’cha got there?” Twilight asked, trying to peek around her to see what she was holding.
Sunset took a deep breath. She pulled out the bouquet from behind her back and presented it to Twilight.
Orchids, blue and purple, held out in front of her. Sunset’s blush was more noticeable now.
“Who are those for?” Twilight asked. Sunset giggled. She held the flowers with one hand and used the other to reach up to Twilight’s ear. She brushed her fingers along the single orchid there. Twilight gasped. “Me ?” she asked. Sunset nodded.
“Uh, yeah, they’re for you.”
Twilight reached out, gently taking the bouquet from her. Sunset dropped her hands awkwardly to her sides.
“They’re meant to represent love and beauty, or something…” Sunset looked away, flustered.
“Love, luxury, beauty, and strength,” Twilight marveled. She held the flowers up to her face.
“Yeah, just like you,” Sunset said quietly. Twilight looked up at her over the flowers. She smiled.
“You were the one leaving the flowers?”
Sunset nodded. “Yeah…” Twilight stared at her, unblinking. The gears turned in her head as she tried to come up with a reasonable explanation for this. All week, Sunset had seemingly been normal. She tried to catalog her memories, analyzing every interaction she had had with Sunset. Her eyebrows furrowed and Sunset giggled, shuffling closer to tap on her nose and bring her back to the present.
Then, it clicked. “You like me?” Twilight asked, looking up wide-eyed.
Sunset nodded. “I… I’ve been wanting to tell you for a while. I didn’t know how.”
Twilight lowered the flowers from her face. She inspected Sunset’s expression, memorizing every detail of her features.
“You’re pretty,” she blurted out.
“Don’t you mean the flowers?” Sunset asked, genuine. Her eyes moved from the bouquet to Twilight’s face. Twilight shook her head, laughing.
“No, you’re pretty,” she repeated. Sunset smiled. She took a step closer and placed her hands over Twilight’s holding the flowers.
“And you’re beautiful,” she whispered.
Twilight giggled. Sunset smelled like a sunny day right as the sun was setting on a strawberry field. The hallway was quiet, most students already having left for the day. She looked at the flowers.
Maybe high school romances weren’t as stupid as she had once thought.
