i dooooooooooooo cherish youuuuuuuuu lmfao no but really

[sciencesaggressively]

It's been a month. Well, give or take, but still at least a month since he and Kate had gone on their first date. It seems like so much longer, after everything that's happened--the casket, the car accident, meeting the surrogate parent, the nightmare--and yet, he's still got butterflies in his stomach as he waits for her on the roof, holding a bottle of champagne. It had taken him most of the day to prepare this date, and she's been working so he wants so badly for this to be relaxing and enjoyable and all those nice words that should be associated with a date.

He'd been very specific. Meet him at his place, no need to knock--not that either of them do anyway. Just beyond the door, he'd placed that little pink flamingo she'd told him about, the one that her friend had put in the casket with her, with a note reading Change of plans. Take the elevator. Inside the elevator, another note: To the roof. The door to the roof has a bouquet of daisies propped on it along with another note: No broken limbs this time. P.S. Don't laugh.

And he's here, on the other side, surrounded by more arrangements of every kind of flower he could get from the shop--carnations, lilies, roses, tulips. He'd had help, of course, especially with dragging the round glasstop table and wrought iron chairs he'd found at the pawn shop up here. Plus another lawn flamingo that he'd strategically placed next to what is now being designated as Kate's chair. He figures he can leave it all, let whoever happens to come up here take advantage of it, but for now there's a lit candelabra on the table along with an ice bucket, two champagne flutes, and two plates of roasted lemongrass chicken that are still steaming under their lids. A portable stereo is playing some soft rock radio, and he's going to be pretty damn broke until he secures a job but he wants this to be special. He wants it to be something she won't forget.

Comments

[everyonetakes]

Kate's never been one to love any work, but her new job is turning out to be kind of amazing, even if it's exhausting, and by the time she gets to Newt's apartment she's half ready to just fall asleep and half excited to see him and tell him how it's going. But then she sees the flamingo and for a second, all she can do is stand there and look at it. It's the flamingo Jesse brought to put in the casket with her, she recognizes it the moment she sees it and she has no idea how Newt found it or when, but she picks it up, turning it over in her hands before she even sees the note. It takes her another few moments to get herself together, but then she leaves the apartment, holding the little pink flamingo in the palm of her hand and goes to the elevator, then up to the roof as instructed.

Despite what the note says, she laughs anyway, because she's suddenly nervous and her heart feels like it's racing, and she has no idea what she's going to find on the other side of the door, but even this is more than anyone's ever done for her and she can't figure out what she's done to deserve it. She tucks the flamingo into her pocket and takes the flowers from the door, then pushes it open, almost expecting someone to jump out at her and tell her this has all been a joke.

But it's definitely not a joke. "Holy shit," she breathes as she looks at the roof, at Newt, at everything he's done. She doesn't know what else to say, he's successfully rendered her completely speechless and she can only shake her head, staring at him. This is the sort of thing that deserves a response and she opens her mouth to try and say something, but there's nothing. Nothing she can say will be enough.