Rose

Yusei loved many things: d-wheels, physics, having an arm wrestling match with Jack for the last cup of ramen noodles, but outside was not one of them, at least not in the traditional sense. He lived in a world of metal and electricity and long before that in a world of dirt and unmitigated scraps. The greenery around him felt unnatural like a monster had come unbeckoned from the sea to swallow him whole. And yet, Kiryu had insisted he go outside and bring them back a plant for the office, a symbol of hope and serenity for every desperate soul who had the misfortune to need their unprofessional help. The stupid thing would likely wither and die in their shabby one room detective agency. Why bother putting any thought into an archaic novelty that he could never reliably keep alive?

While wandering aimlessly inside, the water sprinkler surprised him and mildly dampened his clothes. He clenched his fists and took a deep breath, staring evilly at the water sprinkler as it yet again spritzed him with water. You can do this, Yusei, just pick any old plant. Kiryu won't care. He'll complain about any choice you pick. Just like that, he picked up the most easily transportable thing he could find.

"Snapdragons, interesting choice, are you sure that's what you want?"

"I don't know. Do you have something that won't die easily?" Yusei asked. She giggled, and took the potted plant from him.

"This little guy likes to bloom when it's cool, wither in the summer, before coming back in the spring. You can keeps these plants blooming a long while if you know what you're doing. I'll write you some instructions," the lady said. He took a look at her name tag, Aki.

"Thank you, Aki," he said, grateful for the help. Yusei was out of his element. He was ready to get out of there when another plant caught his attention. A rose bush, covered in more roses than he was used to seeing at a time, he took a look at the tag, wondering if maybe Martha might like it for the garden she was growing. He read the name out in surprise.

"Hope for humanity," he said, thinking to himself. It had a nice ring to it. Aki waited patiently while he inspected the plant. He couldn't find anything particularly wrong with it.

"Is this easy to take care of?" Yusei asked.

"It's tougher than most roses, with proper care, not even winter can destroy it for long. At its core, it will always want to bloom even after the direst circumstances. This plant is very special to me. I was hoping it would go to someone who would appreciate it," Aki said, adding the plant to the little cart.

"It's going to a very good home," Yusei said, handing over his meager funds. He's spent more than Kiryu had intended, but he was happy with his purchases. They would just have to live on Ramen for a while till business picked up.

"Good luck, Yusei," Aki said, disappearing into the thickly foliaged plant nursery.

"Wait, how did you know my name?" Yusei asked, following after her and abandoning the plants at the register. She was nowhere in sight when he entered the back, but there were one or two other customers looking at flowers. He decided to ask them for information.

"Have you seen, Aki?" he asked.

"Oh, the owner? She usually has other people helping customers while she takes care of the plants. She zips in and out so much that people call her the Garden Witch.

"Witch?" Yusei said, puzzled. She'd seemed perfectly friendly while she was helping him pick out plants.

"Don't mind them, I'll help you take these to your car," Aki said, smiling knowingly. Yusei nodded but picked up on a key word that would put a dent on his quick exit strategy.

"I don't have a car," Yusei said. Aki smile faded and tilted her head slightly in confusion as she held up the very bulky plant.

"Then, how did you get here? Do you need a ride to the bus stop?" Aki asked.

"Oh no, I came on this," he said, gesturing to his D-wheeler. She whistled in appreciation. He beamed with pride. He did love his bike so.

"I'm afraid the roses won't fit," she said. Yusei refocused on his dilemma. Aki tapped him on the shoulder before he could ponder too long.

"Why don't you go ahead and take the snapdragons with you, give me your address and phone number, and I'll drop the roses off myself," she said, ready with a pen and paper.

"You don't have to do that. I'll come back with reinforcements," Yusei said, sure he could use Martha's connections to get himself a pick up truck for a few hours. Of course, it would ruin the surprise.

"It's not trouble at all. " Yusei hesitated. He'd been trained not to accept help from strangers although this seemed like one of the few times the stranger probably didn't want anything in return.

"Do you want anything?"

"Just your friendship, we were friends once, in another timeline," Aki said, in such a casual manner that Yusei nodded along without thinking before he had time to really examine the implications.

"What?" he asked, truly bewildered. She snatched his number and address and once again disappeared without a trace the minute he looked away. She'd left the snapdragons. He picked them up reluctantly and returned to the office. Kiryu immediately hugged him. Yusei simply waited for him to be done and handed him the plant for inspection. For once, he seemed extremely pleased with his selection, pinching the plants to make them talk.

"Good choice, Yusei. Crow and Jack were betting that you'd just ask Martha for one of hers," Kiryu said. Yusei paled. He could have avoided this entire existential crisis if he'd taken two minutes to think outside the box. Oh well, there wasn't anything to do but wait for the witch to drop by. The door bell rang. He opened it. Aki help up the plant proudly, not bothering to explain how she had managed to get there seconds after him.

"Wrong place, here is the right address," Yusei said, writing down Martha's address on a post it note. He was sure Martha had seen worse than a teleporting witch before and didn't have any qualms about pawning her off on his stepmother.

"Who's that Yusei?" Kiryu asked, prying like a no good family aunt.

"This is Aki. She was just leaving," Yusei said. He wasn't normally so rude, but he was starting to freak out. She'd been targeting him specifically, telling her the two places where he normally was the majority of the time was starting to seem like a mistake.

"Nonsense, any friend of Yusei's is a friend of ours. You can put that down anywhere. We'll have Jack take it later. He's just drinking coffee in the back," Kiryu said.

"For the last time Carly, we barely opened today. I don't have any scoops, and if I did, I would have used them to solve crime, not give them to you," Jack shouted.

"But Jack, think about it, a crime fighting couple. You bag 'em, and I write about them," Carly said. Jack was quiet for a moment before replying excitedly.

"Wait. If you write about our crime detective agency, that's bound to bring in business. Then, we can have all the Ramen we want."

"Our goal is to eat something besides Ramen, Jack," Crow shouted irritably so everyone could know the pain of being stuck in the same room as those two.

"Okay," Aki said, putting the plant down so she could look around. Yusei took the time to pull Kiryu aside and tell him what was going on while she was distracted.

"She's a witch." Kiryu stared him blankly.

"That lady left work to bring you this plant. You apologize right now," Kiryu said, about to drag him where Aki was preoccupying herself looking at their photos of loved ones. He was even more of a nervous wreck now.

"She's a time traveling witch. She probably has no concept of money, " Yusei hissed.

"Now, you're being ridiculous. You're still cranky that I had you bring a plant in. I think it really brightens the place up. I stand by my decision," Kiryu said, moving the plant slightly to left of his desk with a nod. Yusei rolled his eyes.

"She says we used to be friends and tricked me into giving her my address," Yusei explained.

"It's not like she knows where Martha lives - oh," Kiryu said, finally getting that it might be best to err on the side of caution, or that was what Yusei thought, until Kiryu snapped his fingers.

"Let's just ask her," Kiryu said, pushing Yusei forward.

"No, she's probably evil. No. No. No. Aki, can I ask you something?" he asked politely. She turned around, putting down a recent photo of the four of them standing in front of the decaying building they had chosen for their agency.

"Yes," she said, smiling warmly.

"Are you evil?" She laughed.

"I used to be. " Yusei wanted to return the stupid roses and call it a day, but Kiryu intervened, putting his arms around the two of them like a red string.

"It happens to the best of us. Why don't you join us for dinner?" They had to stack a few boxes after that so the six of them could sit in the same tiny table. They planted the roses the next day, together. He might have been over reacting a little.

Thank you so much for reading my stuff over the years. I hope you enjoy the final installment of this one shot series. I definitely enjoyed writing them.