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Cater yawned as he got out of bed. It was Saturday, but he had a lot of dorm chores to take care of that day. Things had gotten better since Riddle’s overblot, especially because Ace and Deuce had taken their duties seriously. But it also happened to be Valentines day. A lot of the members of the dorm- including the more responsible ones- all had plans for the day. The ginger wasn’t really bitter, he didn’t let things like that get to him. Instead, he’d offered to help out a bit more here and there. Feed the hedgehogs, clean out the flamingo pen. Paint the roses red- no other color would be permissible on Valentine's Day. Head to Sam’s and stock up the kitchen, so Trey would have what he needed tomorrow to bake on Sunday for the next unbirthday party.
He needed a shower and some breakfast, so he made his way to his door, grabbing his towel and shower caddy. When he opened the door, however, he had to stop. Things didn’t immediately compute, given that he had yet to consume any caffeine. There were a dozen roses lying on the floor, with a note attached.
The first thought that entered his brain was that someone had got the wrong room. The placard on his door would have made that hard. But if someone was in a rush and forgot to double check, it would explain things. Cater bent down to pick them up and read the note, so he could deliver it to the proper recipient. Only for him to find his own name scrawled across it. “What…?”
His next thought was that it might have been from Riddle. While he was getting better about it, his Dorm Leader was not well versed in social norms and may have thought that gifting flowers to his friends was part of the Holiday, he could even see Ace putting him up to it. With a laugh, Cater took the flowers back into his room and found a place for them. (They’d arrived in a vase). He pulled the note off to read it.
Immediately, the notion that Riddle was the one to gift him these was gone.
“Roses may be red, and violets are not blue, but neither are as beautiful as your eyes' green hue.”
Cater’s heart fluttered as he flipped the note around. I definitely had his name attached to it, but not the name of the person who sent it. The ginger had no idea who it could be from. One of his followers on Magicam couldn’t have managed to send it. It would have been impossible for them to get on campus, which meant it had to be a NRC student, and given how much of a maze Heartslabyul’s hallways could be, it was unlikely to be the work of someone outside the dorm.
Then again, they could have gotten a Hearts student to place it for them.
His brain was running a mile a minute, but he hadn’t had anyone openly flirt with him or respond to his normal flirtatious behavior.
Finally deciding he wasn’t going to figure anything out if he just stood in his room all day, he set the note down next to the flowers and went back to his original plan of taking a shower. Maybe once he’d gotten something to eat, he would have more brain power to figure it out.
A half hour later, clean and dressed for the day found himself heading to the Heartslabyul kitchens. He figured he’d grab a muffin and Trey’s shopping list. Only to walk in to afformitioned Vice Dorm Leader, putting things away in the cabinet. “Hey, what’s this? Didn’t trust me to get it right?” He teased.
“Nothing like that,” Trey shook his head, “I just woke up early and couldn’t get back to sleep, and figured I’d take care of it. One less thing for you to worry about today.”
Cater just shrugged. “Not used to you making my workload less,” he laughed. “But I’ll take it.” He didn’t really want to mention the flowers, even if there was a chance Trey had seen who’d left them. It felt like something he wanted to keep to himself for now.
He swiped one of the muffins on the counter and turned to head out when he saw Riddle standing there. “Oh, good, Cater, I caught you before you left.”
“Hey, Rids whats up?” he smiled bring his fingers up in a V as he often did. The ginger felt more amused than annoyed. Of course, the universe would balance out his workload. But what his dorm leader said next surprised him.
“I've got a package I need you to deliver to the botanical gardens. It's urgent. Don't worry about the rest of the chores. I know you were kind enough to take on extra duties, but this takes priority. Myself and the others can make sure everything else gets done. I'm actually looking forward to painting the roses. I forgot how enjoyable it could be.” Riddle held out the box. It was brown cardboard, secured with packing tape, about 12 inches long and 6 inches wide.
Cater took the package, but there was still some confusion on his face. “Don't you have plans with Floyd? It won't take me long to deliver this. I'd hate to ruin your day.” The reason why it had to be him hadn't crossed his mind, the lack of caffeine was showing. Never suspecting for a moment his friend might be up to something.
Riddle just laughed, “It's Floyd, he won't be up for a while, especially since he seemed to have been up until midnight to make sure he could wish me happy Valentine's day as soon as possible.”
“That’s really sweet,” the other grinned. He’d been really happy for the couple when they finally got together. He could remember Floyd being listless because he couldn’t get Riddle to understand how he really felt. It wasn’t until the redhead had decided to try and ‘relax’ more that their relationship had gone anywhere.
“But you should hurry along. I did say it was urgent.” Riddle held up a finger. “It needs to go to the back right quadrant. I’m counting on you.”
“You got it,” Cater saluted with his empty hand, the box tucked up under his other arm.
The walk to the botanical gardens was nice, it was warm for February, and he was in good spirits. It wasn’t often people offered to take work off his plate. He was a little curious about what had to be so urgently delivered, but it wasn’t in his nature to pry, so he put the question at the back of his mind.
When he entered, there was no one around but the fairies who would help tend to the various flora. Nice, tranquil, and serene. This really had been a good start to his day. Making his way down the path, he started humming. It was only when he got halfway through the gardens that he realized he didn’t know who he was delivering the package to.
Cater just shrugged his shoulders. If no one was there when he arrived, he’d just call Riddle and ask him what exactly he wanted done with the package.
It wasn’t until he got close to the area that he noticed flower petals on the ground, and the mystery roses from that morning pushed back to the forefront of his mind. “There’s no way…”
Trey and Riddle wouldn’t have been in on some plan to lead him all the way here just to find out who sent those roses, would they? Trey could be very sly when he wanted to be, but Riddle had no idea how to lie. Not like that…right?
But his heart was pounding in his chest as he kept walking forward, the package now firmly in his hands, gripped like a lifeline. Cater followed the trail of petals. If he’d gotten this wrong, he’d feel so embarrassed, but as he turned a corner, he could see a cute little table set up with service for two.
Slowly, he walked over, setting the package down on the table. Maybe he’d gotten it wrong, and Riddle had him deliver the package for whoever had set this up for someone else. That made more sense to Cater. Flowers notwithstanding, no one would go out of their way to do something like this for him on Valentine’s Day.
He turned to leave, his job was done, and clearly someone had plans for the place, but as he went to turn the corner again. “Leaving so soon?”
Cater froze. There was no way it was who he thought it was, right? But he’d know that voice anywhere, the number of times he’d listened to it, had dreamt about it. He turned around in near shock to find Vil standing there. “I was just,” he pointed back toward the entrance, clearly flustered. “It’s um…Vil?”
Vil brought a hand to his lips, laughing slightly. “I’m sorry for all the secrecy, but I was afraid that if I put my name on the flowers, you might think it was some kind of prank. I know what those potatoes of yours are capable of.”
“You sent the flowers?” Cater felt warm, as his cheeks tinged red. “And set this all up for me?”
“Well,” the blonde hesitated for a moment. “Us. if you’d like to join me,” he held his hand out to the table.
Cater was now entirely certain he was still asleep, and his brain was forcing him to dream about his crush again. “I’d love to,” he managed, walking back over to the table. “But I don’t get it.”
“Let’s just say I had a change of heart,” the actor opened up the package, revealing a red plush heart, holding it out to the ginger. “I’ve had a lot to think about lately. And decided I’d rather start living life, rather than just going by some imaginary script I made myself.”
Right, Vil’s overblot hadn’t been that long ago. But how had that led to this? Cater decided he really didn’t want to question it as he looked at the heart in his hand. “Wow.” A small spread on his face. “I’m sorry, I just didn’t think-” he moved to wipe his eyes, realizing he had a few tears in them. He felt overwhelmed. Cater had had feelings for Vil for so long, and he never thought anything would come of it. “This is amazing.”
“I’m the one who should be sorry.” Vil moved closer. “I was afraid, and it made me say things to hide my own feelings. Honestly, I’m still afraid, but I’m willing to give this a try if you are.”
“Yes,” Cater’s answer was immediate as he sat the plush down. The gesture was not lost on him. Vil had literally taken his heart out of a box and given it to him. “Well, as long as I’m actually awake this time,” he tried to laugh.
“Well, if you weren’t, it would ruin all the work I put into this.” Vil sounded amused. “That would be terrible.”
“A nightmare,” the ginger replied, feeling giddy. He still couldn’t believe someone had gone through all this trouble for him. But this was Vil, if anyone knew how to put on a production, it was him. “Thank you.’
“You’re very welcome.” The blonde leaned in and placed a soft kiss on the other’s cheek. “Happy Valentine’s day Cater.”