not a florie not a florie not a florie
The delicate petal of the wisteria bloom pressed gently on Wallflower’s finger. Fading violet pushed back against the green of her skin as she lifted up the flower from its vine just enough to get at her quarry. Pinching those few strands of impossibly silk-smooth hair, she carefully unwound the pink from the purple until the wayward strands could join their sisters, untangled and free..
For a moment, she held them both oh so gently by her fingertips. Two beautiful, dead things, shot through with capillaries that could still hold water in their post-mortem, giving them the illusion of life. But one felt so much more lifelike than the other. Gently, her finger stroked the curve of the petal, feeling a warmth from it that she knew was not truly there.
Then, holding the stem, she lifted the wisteria bloom out of its bed of pink, untangled strands parting from it on either side. Carefully, she stuck the bloom in its place on the vase on the hotel nightstand, stem in the water to suck it up through capillary action, hopefully giving the petals another day of lifelikeness.
“Only a few more,” she said, to the back of Fluttershy’s head. “Sorry it’s taking so long, I thought that it would take a lot less time getting these things out than putting them in.”
“Oh, you know. I’m not going to complain about you running your fingers through my hair.” Though as quiet as Fluttershy’s normal speaking voice, there was just that hint of something when she said, “And I’m sure you wouldn’t, either.”
Wallflower flushed a bit, and she swore she could see her smug smile through the back of her head. She tried to focus on the next branch, but the sight of the soft curves of the bell-shaped blossoms certainly didn’t help things.
“You know, you’re different from your usual self here.“
“Oh? What do you mean?”
“You’re more sure of yourself. You’re more confident. I like it.” Freeing another bloom, she stroked the spot of it with the back of her hand, one set of knuckles against the plant and the other against the mammal. ”I like it a lot, actually.”
Fluttershy giggled.
“I guess that makes sense. it’s just a very different kind of place, at a florie con, you know? Everyone’s just so accepting here.“
“Yeah. Everyone’s very nice here, aren’t they?”
She took out a particularly tricky knot of hair, letting her concentration break.
“Are you sure you don’t want to go to that room party without me? I really will be fine just by myself here, you know.”
“Wally…” Fluttershy laid a hand on Wallflower’s knee. She still had her plantsuit on, so Wallflower could feel the calming texture of cork leather.through her jeans.
“I took us here to show you what it’s like at a florie con. I’m not going to leave you behind in a hotel room so I can talk to the same friends I’ve been talking to all day.”
“I just don’t want you to miss out on anything because of me.”
“Well, if I go without you, I miss out on an evening with my girlfriend. That wouldn’t be so great, would it?”
Wallflower frowned in a way she probably wouldn’t had Fluttershy been facing her. As if Fluttershy could see it, she began to comfortingly rub Wallflower’s knee.
“And it’s really okay if you don’t want to go. I want to be with you where you’re comfortable. And you’re already doing so much, coming out here with me. I know it’s out of your comfort zone.“
“Well, I mean, everything’s outside of my comfort zone. That’s kind of my problem.”
Fluttershy gave her a squeeze. “If that’s your problem, it’s my problem, too. I understand.”
Sucking in a breath, Wallflower peeled another branch free from Fluttershy’s hair, feeling a tinge of satisfaction despite herself. She contemplated it for a moment, before joining it with its sisters in the vase.
“The blooms in the hair really turned out great. A lot better than a wig, that’s for sure.”
“I know, right? I mean, you were there. Everyone was complimenting me about it. Even IvyWhisper.”
“IvyWhisper?”
“She was the one that took the selfie with me? The one with the eye makeup? Magnolia plantsona”
“Oh? Oh. Oh, yeah, I liked hers.”
Fluttershy giggled.
“So, yeah. That one meant a lot.”
Wallflower blinked, realizing what was in her hand.
“Oh, hey, that was the last one!” She completed the collection of wisteria blooms, looking for all the world a pretty uninspired floral arrangement.
“Great!”
With a flourish, Fluttershy got up to shake loose her flowing mane before leaning back onto the bed, resting the back of her head on Wallflower’s knees. She stared up into her with her shimmering blue eyes, that confidence in them, and smiled..
“You know, IvyWhisper will probably be at Treehugger’s room party. If you ever wanted to see her with her hair down.”
Wallflower made a nervous noise. “Well, if I didn’t feel comfortable going to that room party before…”
Fluttershy laughed. “She’s very down-to-earth once you get to know her. And I’ll be there and I know both of you so it won’t actually be like talking to a new person. And- Oh, wow.”
“What is it?”
Fluttershy’s voice was tinged with a bit of her old quietness. “I think Rainbow’s said the exact same thing to me before. And I know how that felt.” She looked at her. “Just want to make sure you know. I’m not trying to get you to change your mind. I know it’s a lot.”
“I know…” She sighed. “I want to want to go, you know?”
“That’s not the same as wanting to go.”
“I know! And everyone’s been so nice and you’ll be there so I know everything’s going to be okay so I don’t really have a reason not to go.”
“You don’t need a reason.” Fluttershy took Wallflower’s hand with a comforting paw of cork leather. “And you don’t need to talk about it if you don’t want to. We’ll just have a nice evening here, the two of us. And, you know. Hold on. Could you?”
She got up, standing still as Wallflower sat up to unzip the back of her plantsuit before flopping back down onto the bed. Fluttershy stepped out of the plantsuit, stretching for a moment before crawling back into the bed to nestle herself against the bark of the rough sweater Wallflower always wore, even now. Skin against sweater against breathable cotton against soft skin against pulsing, warm blood, no longer muted. Wallflower tried to ignore that as Fluttershy continued.
“You know, we could even just drive back tomorrow instead of doing the second day of the con, if you want. I saw my friends, I finally got to take you to one of these things, I’m pretty happy.”
Wallflower shook her head. “No, I want to do the second day!”
“Really?”
“Yeah! Tagging around with my girlfriend, surrounded by flories and observing them as a nondescript non-florie? I liked that part.”
Fluttershy snorted. “Oh, right, you’re not a florie. I know that. I mean, you’ve told me that before.”
“Yeah! Like I said, I’m like, worse than a florie.”
“‘Worse’? What does that even mean?”
“Well, you know? There’s this culture of, like, being weird and owning it, you know? Being earnest, and nice, and non-judgmental, and not being afraid to express yourself. But I spent my whole life trying not to be weird, and not expressing myself. And, like, it’s not a matter of being in the right environment, or whatever. It’s almost like not expressing myself is how I express myself.”
(Suddenly she could feel the itchiness of the sweater on her, the one she returned to after that brief phase of bright smiles and sundresses after the one big literally magical epiphany that surely meant her life would be completely different forever.)
“You know,” Fluttershy said, “dressing up as a plant isn’t what being a florie is.”
“I know.” Wallflower sighed. “But there’s the nonjudgmental stuff too, you know? And I feel like judging everyone is all I do sometimes.“
She squeezed Fluttershy.
“Not you. You’re, like, the only one I don’t? But a lot of the time I just can’t shake off how weird all of this is.”
“Or maybe you just have internalized stuff to work through.” Fluttershy squeezed back. “Or at least you would, if you were a florie. Which you’re not.”
“No, I’m not,” Wallflower agreed enthusiastically. “I don’t have a ‘plantsona’. I don’t actually want to be a tree or whatever. I just… really like plants.”
“Yes, that’s right,” Fluttershy agreed even more enthusiastically. “And you just like it that your girlfriend has a plantsona, and dresses up like a tree. And when other girls do. And you really like writing about really liking plants on a certain secret blog that’s certainly not yours, all without being a florie. All of that is just okay. I mean, I’m not about to tell you how to identify.”
Wallflower laughed, a low rumbling somewhere between a chuckle and a giggle.
“Okay, I admit it. Part of the fun is meeting all of these people and not having a single one of them know that I’m internet famous.“
“That is kind of fun. I think what they’d be the most surprised by is that you’re not thirty.”
“Thanks. I put a lot of work into my teenage angst to make it not like the other teenage angsts out there. It’s the one thing I did in high school that I can be the most proud of.”
Fluttershy seemed to giggle lightly at that, but Wallflower heard something else too at the end. A quiet sigh, in a mixture of sympathy and exasperation.
“Wally?”
“Yeah?”
“Do you want me to put the plantsuit back on?”
“No,” Wallflower lied. “I mean, you were in it all day…”
“I’ll take a shower in the morning. And I’ll leave the back open. It’ll be fine.”
Fluttershy wriggled out of her halfhearted embrace, and before she knew it, she was the one being embraced by the comforting touch of cork leather. The hint of warmth beneath it, without the warmth itself.
“There’s this one dog at the shelter that won’t let us even approach her unless we’re wearing this ratty old sweater she came in with. You can imagine what state it’s in.”
“Are you comparing me to one of your rescue animals again?”
“I thought you liked it when I did that.”
Wallflower smiled, her eyes closed..
“I do.”
“Good.”
She sighed contentedly, as Fluttershy cooed.
“I just want to be a tree, and hold you like this, on the shore of a peaceful lake. And the animals will burrow and play and live and die under the shelter of my branches.”
