Rapunzel has left the tower (gleamnglow) wrote in valarlogs, @ 2016-01-14 22:12:00 |
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Entry tags: | !complete, !partner thread, asato tsuzuki, rapunzel |
Who: Rapunzel and Tsuzuki
What: Rapunzel is buying plants
Where: Sweet Pea Greenhouse
When: Recently
Rating: G
Status: Complete
As far as work went, December had been a slow month. While most of the plants at Sweet Pea Greenhouse were grown inside, and the indoor walk-around area of the greenhouse was a little busier than usual, people generally didn’t buy flowers to plant when there was snow outside, and so Tsuzuki’s hours had been cut. Some people might have been disappointed, but Tsuzuki had quite enjoyed the extra time off.
But the snow was gone now, the weather was warm, and Tsuzuki had to come back to work. It wasn’t the worst thing that could happen, but Tsuzuki very much wished that he was still only working half-days.
That wouldn’t stop him from being friendly or helpful though. That was ingrained in him, whether he was working or not. “Hello!” he said cheerfully when a girl with very long hair walked in. “How are you today?”
The snow outside had been making Rapunzel feel a little...well… drab. She wanted something to liven her apartment up and she finally realized that she should just get some flowers and hopefully that would cheer her up. She wasn’t quite sure where to go, but after a bit of google searching she decided to try out Sweet Pea Greenhouse because she was thrilled at the idea of going into a greenhouse at the moment. It would give her something to do while she relaxed a bit more before school started back up.
The warmth inside the greenhouse was wonderful and Rapunzel took a deep breath when she walked inside and then turned to the voice that was greeting her. She flashed a happy smile, “Hi, I’m doing well. How about you?” Hopefully there would be a decent selection of cut flowers that she would be able to bring home. She may even be inclined to bring home a plant.
“I’m good too.” Tsuzuki said cheerfully. “Can I help you find anything?” The greenhouse didn’t usually deal in cut flowers, though he’d been known to make some fresh-cut bouquets for people who wanted them, so long as they were polite and he decided he liked them. His boss wasn’t always fond of him doing so, but he’d grown to accept that Tsuzuki tended to make exceptions for some people, and he wasn’t so grumpy about it so long as Tsuzuki remembered to charge people for the bouquets.
“I’m just looking for some flowers. Maybe a bouquet. I want something to brighten my apartment up a little bit. Oh, and perhaps a small plant that I can’t kill in two seconds,” Rapunzel explained to the man with a smile. Hopefully that did sound too silly of her, but it was what she was thinking about. And he wouldn’t have to worry about charging her because Rapunzel was incredibly honest and would make sure to pay for anything she took from the store.
“Unfortunately we don’t normally sell bouquets here,” Tsuzuki said. And then he winked at her. “But, if you keep your eyes peeled for flowers you like, I can probably make you up something nice before you leave. I’m more than happy to show you some easy-to-care for plants though! You can’t get much easier than members of the cactus family, though I do know a ton of pretty easy to care for flowers if you’d prefer flowers.”
The wink indicated that he would most certainly be helpful and Rapunzel gave him a smile, “Well, it doesn’t have to be a bouquet, I guess. But I will certainly keep an eye out, I appreciate it. Hmm, I’m not sure if a cactus is really me, but they can be kinda cute. Flowers wouldn’t be bad as long as they’re easy, like you said. I can probably try to grow them in their pot if I wanted. I just don’t have a yard or anything to plant them into.” There was apparently a lot more to gardening and plants than she had originally thought. She bet her girlfriend would laugh at her though if she put a cactus in her apartment.
“Oh, we have a lot of easy flowers,” Tsuzuki said. “Ones that happily live in pots too. Not everyone can have a garden, but anyone can grow flowers! Do you have any pets or children at home?” It was a question he liked to ask anyone before he started showing them flowers. A lot of plants could be toxic to pets or babies, so he could avoid showing those specific plants if he had to.
“I do not, so I’m pretty open to anything. Although, my girlfriend has a really good nose, so nothing that has an overpowering scent that would drive her crazy,” Rapunzel remembered that last part and realized Laura would probably appreciate it if she didn’t make it smell too strongly in her apartment when she came over.
Tsuzuki frowned to himself. “Unfortunately, I really only know what plants are over-powering from what other people say.” He tapped the side of his nose. “I don’t have much of a sense of smell myself.” While Tsuzuki didn’t know it, it was how he was able to eat his own cooking when very few other people could. “But I can avoid the ones I know are rather pungent, you can sniff the rest, and I’ll even let you return anything that your girlfriend thinks is too fragrant.” Returns being yet another thing his boss didn’t approve of but Tsuzuki did anyway in special cases.
Tsuzuki began to lead her into the section of the greenhouse where they had the plants, making sure to lead her past a few flowers that would look great in cut and displayed for a few days on his way to the Peace Lily. “The Peace Lily’s usually a pretty big hit,” Tsuzuki said. “They’re easy to care for and they look lovely, though they are toxic to pets and humans if they eat them.”
Rapunzel certainly noticed the the pretty flowers as they walked by them and mentally marked down what ones she would potentially want. When he pointed out the Peace Lily she gave a nod and made a small noise of thought as he mentioned the toxic part, “Is it toxic for lizards? I have a chameleon that likes to move around the house, so I don’t want to leave it somewhere he could get to if it is.”
Tsuzuki frowned, placing his index finger on his cheek. “You know, I’m not really sure,” he answered after a moment. “I can look it up for you if you’d like, though I’d guess that it’s likely. There are plenty of other beautiful flowers we can look at though.” Nearby was a small purple flower that he went to stand near. “These are African Violets. They’re also fairly easy to care for.” ‘Easy to care for’ flowers being a fairly common request, Tsuzuki had requested that they were displayed near each other.
“I’ll just have to make sure he doesn’t get up to where the flowers are and try to snack on them. And ooo, those are lovely,” Rapunzel exclaimed as she made her way over to the purple flowers. African Violets was a nice nice and they were such a lovely shade of purple. She looked around at the other plants that were nearby and noticed Kalanchoe and Orchids, “Oh, these are lovely too. I may end up buying too many plants, but it’d be worth it.”
“I’ll let you in on a little secret,” Tsuzuki said, winking at her again. “There’s no such thing as too many plants.” At least, Tsuzuki didn’t believe so. “Once you get into a watering schedule and making it habit, then they’re really not that hard to keep alive either. If you’d like, I’d even be happy to make up a general watering schedule for you. You may have to tweak it depending on the conditions in your own home though.”
“That would be great. You’re so incredibly helpful,” Rapunzel beamed at all the help she was getting with this new endeavor. She finally managed to pick out about four new plants that she would want to take back to her apartment and she would spend a long time putting them in the right places, “I think I’m going to stop myself at these four and see how I do. I may be back in a few months to get more.”
“Well then, I’ll bring these to the front with us,” Tsuzuki said, moving to gather all the plants into his arms. It took a bit of maneuvering to make sure he was able to gather all of them without risking dropping any. “I do hope you’ll be back. I’ve always found gardening to be very calming. A good way to relieve stress. I hope you’ll enjoy it as much as I do and come back for lots more plants. Maybe you’ll even think of picking up some of the more difficult ones then as well.”
Rapunzel moved a few times to help carry them, but Tsuzuki seemed to be quite capable of bringing them all up to the front register. “I think I will be back. And I don’t need the stress relief, that’s why I paint, but I do wonder how this will go. I’ll only go for more difficult if I actually manage not to kill these ones off.” They reached the register and Rapunzel grabbed her wallet to pay, “But I do really appreciate you helping me out because I don’t think I would have come up with these on my own.”
“I’m sure you’ll do very well,” Tsuzuki said. He didn’t want to say some of the plants were nigh unkillable, because he had known a few people cursed with black thumbs who could kill even cacti.
He rang up the plants and quietly knocked off a percentage before he gave her the total. She seemed like a nice person, and she had bought multiple plants, so if his boss gave him hell for it later he could use that as an excuse. “That is what I’m here for,” he said. “And if you ever have any questions, don’t hesitate to call me.”
“Perfect, I’m really excited,” Rapunzel admitted with a smile as she handed over her card and paid for the purchase. Hopefully Laura wouldn’t mind too much and the smell wouldn’t overwhelm her girlfriend at all. At least she was trying something new and her apartment would be brightened up. She signed the receipt and handed it back over, “I really appreciate your help. I’ll make sure to let your boss know how awesome you were.”
Once Rapunzel had paid for everything, Tsuzuki carefully packaged the plants in a box for Rapunzel to carry out, slipping in the promised care sheets as well. “Thank you,” Tsuzuki beamed. It was always rather uplifting when he got praised for his work, and the ego boost was never unappreciated. “He does need to hear it more often, in my humble opinion. I hope you have a fantastic day, and make sure to let me know how the plants are doing!”