Cuteness is Cute

Being a guardian was hard work... actually, not really. There wasn't a whole lot that Richard did in this job of his. He walked around to make sure everything was good, talked to a couple of people and then went home every day. It was a casual life, but today he decided to change it up. It had been a while since he had visited the conservatory. It always reminded him of Lynn and how much she enjoyed being around the beautiful plants in here, but he didn't think she'd show up in the middle of the day when classes were supposed to be in session. As he walked in, Richard looked around to see the typical plants that the landscaper kept in here rather than putting outside. Everything was still blooming somehow, but the blonde wasn't going to question it. Going deeper into the greenhouse, he took a look at everything around him. It was all so beautiful. Well, until he heard the door open. "Who could that be?" he muttered to himself before he poked his head around the corner from where he was to see who had walked inside.

Well, if he didn't think that she would be around, then he was very much so mistaken. Perks of being the daughter of the plant-loving gift mastery teacher, she supposed. Every now and then, she'd sneak off away from class to help the school's landscaper during what-would-be her mastery classes. And every now and then, she'd get away with it. Today was thankfully one of those days. Brailynn had opened the door as quietly as she could, but she supposed not quietly enough. No matter still.

The girl hadn't noticed anyone else around, slipping inside and closing the door behind her, she let her backpack fall to the floor and stretched out. "Brendan?" she called out, "Anyone home?"

"Well... I don't know if I would consider this 'home,'" Richard said playfully, coming around the corner to see Brailynn walk in. With a smile on his face and his hands in his pockets, he leaned against the wall on his left. "Aren't you supposed to be in class?" he teased. Technically, she was. He should make her go back, but... he didn't feel like it. He didn't have anything to do anyway. The headmaster hadn't given him any work to do. All of the errands he was supposed to run had been done already. A little bit of time just chilling out couldn't hurt, right?

There was no way that she was ever going to admit it, but he did catch her off-guard, maybe even scared her a little. Well, she'd jumped, but not a lot! Brailynn quickly turned to the corner to face him, an exasperated smile on her face. "Are you gonna tell on me then, Mr. Sanford?" She asked teasingly, blowing a few stands of hair out of her face and stepping closer up to him. "What are you doing here?"

He gave her a simple shrug, looking down at the ground before his gaze came back up to meet hers. "I mean... by school rules, I should make you go back. Buuuuuut..." he paused for a moment, pushing off of the wall with his elbow and walking closer to her. "I'm too lazy to do that. It takes too much effort. As for what I'm doing here, I figured I should change up my routine a little bit. Taking the same route around campus is great for a couple of weeks, but it gets boring. I haven't been here in a while, so I figured I should look everywhere for trouble," he said with a sigh. "What are you doing here?"

When did he get so suave, she wondered, watching him find his way off the wall. She could still remember her old dorky roommate so clearly, who tripped over the old carpet and had her afraid that he'd fall straight through the vending machine. "That's not good. The big, strong Guardian shouldn't be slacking." she teased, smiling up at him. "Although I guess I shouldn't complain." The young woman found a leaf stuck to his shirt and reached up, plucking it off for him. "Well, it can be pretty quiet here too, sorry to tell you. I come here now and then to help out the Landscaper. But, since he's gone, you'll have to be the one to keep me company."

Pfffttt... It was all just a front. This was probably the smoothest he'd ever get. The only reason for that was he wasn't the one getting caught off-guard this time. He'd gotten the advantage when she walked in and didn't see him, so he rolled with it. Well, until he realized he had a leaf casually hanging onto his shirt. When she picked it off of him, his face suddenly flushed for a moment as he laughed awkwardly until the leaf fell to the floor. "Hah.. I, uh.. didn't realize that was there. Oops," he said before it finally registered in his head as to what she had said. Trying his best not to look flustered, he had to remind himself to roll with it. Got to make a quick recovery and roll... and smile. "I think I could manage that," he told her, pulling his hands out of his pockets to where only his thumbs were tucked into them.

The Spring hid her laugh behind the back of her hand, glancing up at his face and seeing the flush of red spread across his cheeks. Ah, there was the Richard she knew and loved... Well, as a friend anyways... You knew what she meant. Ahem. Brailynn managed to compose herself, smiling at him again. "Good," was all she said. She moved before she really thought about what she was doing, reaching out to grab his hand out of his pockets, squeezing it gently. Jeez, was her hand really that sweaty, or was she just overthinking it? Either way, the blonde led him quietly towards the back of the conservatory, where the plants were larger, beautiful as ever, and thicker too - harder to be seen from the outside.

When Lynn grabbed his hand and began pulling him along to wherever she was going, Richard's surprise showed on his face, but it was pleasant. It was a little exciting, actually. It had been a while since they had really gotten to talk, like talk talk. He'd admit it.. he had feelings for her, but before graduation, everything was so confusing between classes and getting ready for the ceremony.. it was rough. Now, though, he kind of had all the time in the world. He had things figured out and in the time away from the school, he realized she was really the only friend he had and how much he missed her company. Now he was getting sappy.

As she pulled him along, he followed happily with a bit of a smirk on his face. As they got closer to the back to the conservatory, he looked around before his hand reached out for the first flower he could find which happened to be a yellow daisy. Quickly grasping it, he squeezed the stem, hoping it would snap off fairly easily. Nope. He nearly took the entire flower and flower pot with him as he passed by, the pot tipping before the stem finally broke. The pot teetered for a moment, making as much noise as it possibly could before it settled down again and they stopped at the back of the building. Turning to face Lynn, Richard, with a bit of red in his cheeks, held out the daisy to her with a flirty smile. "For you... Even if we are in a place full of flowers," he said with a small chuckle. "This one was hand picked. So it means more. I'm sure it has your name on it if you look hard enough!" He said playfully. Jokes covered up embarrassing mistakes like almost breaking a flower pot right?

She hadn't caught the flower in his hands, but she had heard the dangerous teetering and tottering of the pot on the shelf and forced them to pause, whipping her head around to stare it down - questioning internally whether or not she had time to dash in and save it or not, lest Brendan have both their heads for the evening. Did she accidentally bump into it? Was it too close to the edge? Thankfully though it didn't need any of her assistance and seemed to recover on it's own. The Spring had let out a visible sigh before she kept walking, leading him away.

Once they'd reached the back of the building however, she found herself still holding onto his hand, a strange fluttering about in her chest. It was a funny feeling, one that hadn't been there in quite sometime, and it only grew as she noticed him pull the sweet daisy out in front of her. "My, my..." she gasped quietly, grinning and taking the yellow flower out of his hands, holding it daintily up to her nose to smell it. "It's beautiful." Brailynn stared down at it for a bit longer before raising it up, tucking it in neatly into her hair and looking back up at him with a warm smile. "What do you think?"

It was crazy. Within just a few seconds of putting a flower in her hair, Lynn suddenly grew that much more beautiful. All jokes aside, Richard blushed (so manly, right?) and gave her a big smile. "You look-- I.. I mean, it looks beautiful!" he said, laughing a bit nervously. "It's right where it belongs." Reaching back and scratching the back of his head awkwardly, he simply just looked at her for a few moments. It was funny how the longer he looked, the prettier she got. After all of this time of just knowing her as a friend, he was just now seeing it. Well, that was a lie. He'd known it for a while but was now coming to terms with it. He never really thought he'd get anywhere past just being friends, but hey... They were here all the way in the back of the conservatory which was her idea; he had already kind of flirted and she seemed to take it pretty well... All he needed to do was stop being so scared.

The moment seemed right... right? Maybe? Just roll with it. That was really all he could think to himself. "Y-You look... You look beautiful too," he finally managed to say, reaching forward and tucking her hair behind her ear all while trying to do so with confidence. If it wasn't obvious already, confidence, flirting and being open with his feelings weren't his strong suits.

He should've have felt all too bad blushing, because she could feel a familiar warmth in her cheeks, and she could've only imagined how red her face must've been too. Brailynn tried to hide her grin at first, glancing down at her feet and averting her gaze away. But only for a moment. She did feel slightly guilty over this. They had been friends for so long, and she had liked him once, before giving up on him and forcing herself to move on... Maybe, things didn't exactly work out that simply, but still.

The Spring bit her lip, there was no way she could feel truly bad about this, though. Not with the way he made her heart leap, or seeing the way she looked at him. "Thank you," she said, looking back up at him, starting to feel really lightheaded as he talked on... Calling her beautiful. She'd never felt happier. "Thank you," Lynn managed to say coolly, taking a step closer up to him and leaning up on her toes. "You're looking pretty handsome yourself now-a-days, I think."

As she tiptoed closer, Richard's heart began to race. It was almost as if it wanted to leap out of his chest. After a moment of just looking at her, he had realized that he'd forgotten to breathe. Taking in a deep breath, he looked down at the ground for a moment as his face practically turned cherry red before he looked back up with a smile from ear to ear. "Thank you," he said, almost in a whisper. It was strange. He had tried saying it louder, but he was so caught up in the moment that the words just kind of got stuck in his throat.

You know, the last time that he'd just impulsively tried to kiss a girl, he ended up getting slapped. Pretty hard at that, but at the same time, that technically wasn't his fault. This time, he felt it was a good move. Which was good because by the time he had come to that decision, he had tenderly placed his hands on Lynn's shoulders, pulling her closer for a kiss.

"Brailynn? You still here?" Of course, just at that moment because forget young love, Brendan walked into the conservatory. Earlier, he had seen her walk towards it but couldn't meet with her at the time due to some intense gardening on a nearby bed. Earlier in the week, some idiot had run right through it, screwing up the whole plant bed and Brendan finally had the time to fix it. Now he was done and wanted to see if she was still here waiting on him. He had plenty for her to help with if she was. He walked through some of the aisles giving a quick search before he reached the back. "Brailynn, you-- oh.. oh." He found them. Whoopsie.

It was stupid how many times she'd picture the two of them like this before, that she'd never really expected her day dreams to come true. Now that it was really happening, she almost seemed lost in the moment. Of course, she'd kissed her fair share of boys before, but those times were never quite like this. Brailynn could feel her palms get sweaty and her breath hitch silently as he put her hands on his shoulder. Everything seemed to happen so clearly, so perfectly, she couldn't help but smile as she leaned up closer to him, her lips just shy of touching his.

And then she'd heard her named call. Before the Spring could react in anyway, he'd found them, and the blonde found herself stepping back quickly, her face flushed a bright red. "Oh, hey Brendan..." She called, forcing a small laugh. "I was wondering where you were. Real nice timing..."

At the sound of Brendan turning the corner and blatantly catching them, Richard took in a sharp breath, let go of Lynn and stepped backwards but not before practically tripping over his own feet, only catching himself on the table that happened to be close by. "Got damn it..." He muttered under his breath. There was no hiding how cherry red his face was and the guardian barely wanted to look up to make eye contact with the landscaper. Would he get in trouble for this? Technically, he was staff now and she was still a student, but there had to be some kind of leeway for new graduates, right? He could keep his job... right? Cue slight panic attack.

Brendan really had no idea how to respond. He'd always seen PDA on campus. It was part of life, but this was kind of awkward. With it being not so public and one of them being a student he saw on a regular basis (which was strange in itself), he just kind of... couldn't react. "I, uh... yeah, I was looking for you," he replied, letting out a deep sigh purely out of confusion. He really didn't look at either of them and instead shifted his gaze around to the plants around them, the floor, the ceiling, anything but the two embarrassed lovers in front of him. But he quickly regained his cool and smiled at them. "Don't worry, you two. If it's a secret you're keeping, then it's safe with me! However, since technically you shouldn't be getting all kissy in here in the first place, you're both getting put to work. Lynn, if you would be so kind, the roses up front could use some water." he then look at Richard who was still barely making any kind of eye contact. "Richard, right? You can start by properly taking care of that daisy you almost ruined. Nice gesture, though." It was cute. As Brendan walked towards the back, he noticed the damaged stem and then the flower in Lynn's hair and put two and two together.