Grian had absolutely no idea what he was doing.
This was the fairy’s first time properly interacting with or befriending a human, let alone dating one! When was somebody going to tell him that humans have an entire holiday dedicated to loving each other?! And not only that, but that on that day you’re also supposed to treat and do acts of love for your significant other?! Not for the first time, Grian cursed in his head at the weird customs of humans.
He really likes Scar and doesn’t want to screw it up. So if learning about and abiding by the (frankly quite weird) customs of humans is what it took to maintain their relationship, then so be it. He could do it. I mean how hard could it possibly be?
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“Why is this so hard?!”
He’d spent a long while researching what exactly he had to do to celebrate this “Valentine’s Day” before he came across something he actually understood: gift-giving. So, determined to find Scar the perfect gift, Grian had set off on his mission!…
That was several hours ago, and Grian was not any closer to finding the perfect gift for Scar than he had been at the start. As he was walking past even more shops he let out a low growl of frustration before kicking a pebble with his foot before taking a seat on a stone bench (he had been too distracted by his emotions to notice, but the fairy had accidentally infused some of his magic into the pebble. A ways off in the distance a tree suddenly sprouts where the pebble had landed. Having been created with an upset fairy’s magic, the tree naturally reflected that emotional state. So as Grian was walking away, a sentient tree was running rampant in the background, using its branches to pick up and basically kidnap nearby unsuspecting humans. If he had realized what he’d just done, he likely would’ve thought it was deserved for making such a complicated holiday).
His frustration slowly faded away into despair. What kind of boyfriend was he? He couldn’t even do something as simple as find Scar a good present! Maybe Scar would be better off with someone more capable…
Just as the thoughts were getting to be a bit much, he felt something nudging his foot. He looked down and saw none other than Jellie, Scar’s familiar.
His first immediate thought was that something had happened to Scar. As if sensing his growing distress (knowing Jellie’s capabilities she definitely had sensed his feelings), Jellie shook her head and jumped up into his lap and laid down, letting out a meow. Because Jellie was Scar’s familiar, they were able to talk to each other. And thanks to a bit of magic, Scar made it so Grian could also communicate with Jellie. Through this communication spell, he was able to translate her meow into “Calm down. Scar’s fine,” before raising her head and shooting him an exasperated look accompanied by another meow, “I’m more worried about you.”
Grian was a bit hesitant at first to tell Jellie everything he was thinking because he didn’t want her to tell Scar and ruin the surprise (also partly because his thoughts were a bit embarrassing), but the longer Jellie spent staring at him as if she could see into his soul (which she probably could) his will to keep it a secret became less and less before he finally broke and spilled out everything. “I only just yesterday learned that humans have an entire holiday about romance that’s less than two days from now and I’m completely unprepared. I wanted to get Scar a gift because he means the world to me and I want to show him how much I love him. But I haven’t been able to find anything, and I feel awful cause I can’t do something as simple as this, and I’m wondering if Scar deserves a better boyfriend than me and-”, Jellie cut him off by gently placing her paw on his lips. She then slapped him on the cheek with her paw. “Mrow mow!” She said, which translates roughly to, “Pull yourself together!” “But-” “Meow meow! Meow mow meow!” “No buts! You’re going to calm down, march out there and buy him a present he’ll never forget!”
“Yeah! You’re right!” Grian nodded before springing up to his feet, Jellie’s mini speech had given him just the spark of motivation he needed to once again start his mission. “Hmm, but what do I get him?” Grian muttered to himself. At that exact moment, a nearby flower petal landed on Jellie’s nose, causing her to sneeze. The fairy’s eyes lit up with excitement when he thought of an idea, “that’s it! Thanks Jellie!” he said before racing off, leaving Jellie extremely confused. “Mrow mow?? Meow! MOW MEW!” “What did I do?? Wait come back! Don’t just run off on your own!” Jellie sighed exasperatedly. Sometimes it really did feel like she was taking care of two toddlers in a pair of grown men’s bodies. But, she supposed that’s what made them both so perfect for eachother. And just like his name says, Grian became Scar’s sun, lighting up even his darkest days. “Mew, meown.” “Thank you, Grian.”
“Hey, what’s that cat doing all on its own?” “I don’t know, but it sure is cute!” “Do you think it’ll let me adopt it?!” “MEW MOW! MEOW!!!” “BUT YOU DIDN’T HAVE TO LEAVE ME HERE! GRIAN!!!” Jellie mewled out as she raced to follow this pesky bird fairy she had grown to love just as much as she did her master.
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Riiiinnnggggg!
The shop’s bell rang out as Grian entered the flower shop. Immediately upon entering and seeing all the plants, the fairy found that all negative feelings and discomfort he’d felt throughout the day were washed away. He gently touched several of the plants and whispered small little appreciations towards the plants. Grian wasn’t the only one who seemed to perk up from this encounter. All throughout the shop, flowers and plants of all kinds seemed to perk up in his presence. “Uhm, is it just me or did those plants just change quality?” a man said from behind the counter. ‘Oh crud.’ despite not being too great at actually keeping it secret, Grian still tends to try and hide his fairy genetics from strangers. “Pretty sure it was just you, uh,” Grian said, squinting at the man’s nametag, “Cell. Yeah. Yeah, pretty sure it was just you Cell.” The man (now known as ‘Cell’) didn’t seem too convinced, but regardless he shrugged it off. He had a job to do after all, he wasn’t getting paid to investigate every customer who seemed suspicious after all (he can do that on his own time, anyways. Maybe finally pull back out his detective skin). “Well, what can I do for you, sir?” Cell finally said after a long (and tense) period of silence. Wincing a little bit at the awkwardness, Grian replied, “I’d like to buy lilacs, poppies, and sunflowers. Four bundles of each, please.” Nodding, Cell said, “That’ll be 20 iron nuggets please.”
“Would gold nuggets be okay?” Grian asked, cringing slightly at the prospect of holding iron. Despite slightly raising an eyebrow at this, Cell replied “Sure, then that’ll be 10 gold nuggets please.” Grian nodded and handed him the gold nuggets. Cell took the nuggets from him and completed their exchange by handing him his requested bundles of flowers. Grian sent him a nod of appreciation before turning around and leaving the store to head someplace quiet to put together Scar’s gift.
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Knock knock knock
“Grian? Are you in there?” came Scar’s voice following the knock on their shared bedroom door, startling Grian from his thoughts. “Uh, uh yeah! Just give me a moment to put away the surprise I got for you!” Grian replied back. Scar gasped excitedly before saying “Ooooh! I love surprises!!” Grian couldn’t help but giggle a little bit at the child-like joy that could be heard in his boyfriend’s voice. Grian quickly (but carefully) placed the gift into a box and shoved it under the bed before cleaning up all the leftover supplies. Sighing in relief that it was done, he called Scar’s name and told him he could come in. Scar burst through the door, practically bouncing on the balls of his feet, Jellie following close behind him. “I take it you’re excited about the surprise?” Grian asked, stifling down some more giggles. “Boy, am I ever! But I’m even more excited for you to see the surprise I have for you!” Grian raised an eyebrow at that, “you got me a present?” he asked, slightly surprised. “Well of course I did! The best boyfriend in the world deserves a present, obviously!” chirped Scar. For some reason, Grian couldn’t help but blush a little bit at that. “W-well, who’s going first?” Grian said clearing his throat at the end. Scar smiled softly at Grian before saying, “Well, I don’t know about you, snickerdoodle, but I want to give you your gift first; I’m just too excited to see your reaction!” After getting the fairy’s approval, Scar waved his hand in a circular motion and softly muttered “ᓭℸ ̣ 𝙹∷ᔑ⊣ᒷ.,” a mini-portal just big enough for Scar to stick his hand into appeared. And he did stick his hand into it, before pulling out a lovely red, velvety gift box with a silver ribbon holding it together. “Here you go!” Scar said brightly, handing the box to Grian. The fairy accepted the gift and murmured a tiny “thank you…” before opening it and gasping, almost dropping the whole thing in surprise at the same time. Inside the box was a beautiful golden heart locket, inside being an adorable image of Grian, Scar and Jellie all sitting together. Scar had even enchanted the picture so that it moves, perfectly capturing Grian and Scar mid-laugh, and Jellie looking at each of them curiously. Scar cleared his throat, “I wanted to get you a locket, but I know that iron hurts you, so after doing a lot of searching I found a jeweller who works with gold and got it custom-made!” Scar said, almost sheepishly, “Do you like it?” For a good minute, all Grian could do was stare at the locket in pure amazement, before turning to Scar and giving him a look full purely of adoration. He didn’t know how to put into words all the love and affection he had towards this scarred, green-eyed wizard he so cherished, so he settled instead for, “I love it, dearest.” the fairy said with a soft, close-eyed smile. With soft, caring hands, Scar gently undid the clasp and put it around Grian’s neck. Scar gave him a big smile in return before saying “I’m glad you like it! Not to be impatient but… what’s my surprise?! I’m so excited! Tell me, tell me, tell me!” Grian chuckled softly before reaching for the gift box he had hidden under the bed. “I doubt it's even close to the level that your gift is on, but regardless I hope you like it…!” the fairy shyly said before handing the gift box to the wizard. Grian had chosen a gorgeous forest green (the same colour as Scar’s eyes) box with flowers braided together instead of ribbons. Scar was practically vibrating where he was seated from excitement, but stopped as soon as he got the box open. His sudden stop worried Grian. ‘Was it not good? Did he hate it? Did I mess everything up?’ his trainwreck of a thought process was cut off by Scar suddenly squealing (much to the irritation of Jellie). “Oh my goodness gracious me! It’s so cute! AHHH!” Scar practically shouted out as he gently took the gift out of the box. In the end, the gift Grian had gotten for Scar was a little Jellie made solely out of the wizard’s favourite colours. “I hope that was the good screaming…” Grian chuckled, “I enchanted it so it’ll never wilt, and the flowers will stay fresh for the rest of our-” The fairy was cut off by the green-eyed menace he had grown to love all but completely flinging himself at the shorter, red sweater-wearing gremlin. They both dissolved into laughter at the ridiculousness of each other, each laying flat out on the floor giggling like maniacs (while Jellie poked and prodded at her flower counterpart, not entirely sure what to make of it). Despite at first having a complete lack of understanding towards this human holiday, Grian thinks it turned out well for his first Valentine's Day. And if he’s being honest, he can’t wait until next year.
BONUS:
“By the way, Grian, do you know anything about the giant sentient tree that’s been terrorizing the main streets? For some reason, it seems to have a pebble stuck in the middle of it?”
“Uh….. ROLL CREDITS!”
“Roll wha-?”
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The End
I hope you enjoyed it! I’m not sure if it was made obvious or not, but I tried to make it so Grian was almost like a plant fairy, while Scar was a wizard who knows a wide range of spells but specializes in plant magic. I had a lot of fun with this, so I hope you had as much fun reading it as I did writing it!!
Sincerely, Ratter Patter
