Shades of Petals

I've Been Thinking Lately

The taste of copper filled her mouth and she swallowed the blood, keeping the petals in her mouth until she could spit it out into a garbage can.

"Are you sure you're up to walking around?" Francis asked and she hated that he looked so concerned. She didn't want him so concerned over her. It was the last thing she wanted.

Wiping her mouth after she'd spat out the red petals into the garbage can she'd found, she ignored the red smear on her hand. She'd known there had probably been blood on her lips after she'd gotten rid of the petals; more and more blood seemed to be accompanying the flower petals.

"I'm okay," she tried to reassure him. "I don't want to be stuck in your office, being treated like glass," she said in exasperation. "I'm not fragile."

"Are you really not?" he asked, focused intently on her. "Because I don't want to see you passed out in my bathroom and covered in flower petals and blood again."

She flinched. "That won't happen again," she pressed him. "Come on, Fitzgerald-san. I want to go have fresh air and it's been awhile since we've gone to eat out or do something silly you came up with. Louisa-san told me it would be okay too, as long as you were to come with me and watch over me."

Atsushi watched him frown and she wondered what other thing was bothering him now.

"How come I'm still 'Fitzgerald-san' when you call Miss Louisa May more familiarly? I would think we were closer," he grumbled. "And Fitzgerald seems to be more complicated and harder for you to pronounce than Francis! Why won't you just call on me by my first name?"

She blinked. Was this really bothering him that much? "To be fair, I call on Eckleburg-san and Poe-san politely too," she pointed out. He opened his mouth, but before she'd let him start, she continued on. "And Louisa-san is a different point. I don't honestly know her last name —I don't even know the names of your other former subordinates in the past —at all. Lucy-san is the same —and she works close to me now, down in the café."

"You really don't know Miss Louisa's last name? Or Miss Montgomery's?" he asked, sounding utterly bewildered.

She laughed in embarrassment. "No, of course not. You guys didn't exactly introduce yourselves properly when you first appeared. And even when we started a truce, I only came to know Louisa-san's name by accident from you. Lucy-san had long ago introduced herself, though she'd left out her last name. You, of course, had several —usually long and drawn out —introductions; and then you did actually properly introduce yourself to me, which is how I found out your first name, especially after you started insisting I drop formalities to use it."

"Well, regardless, use my name now," he insisted to her. "I'll agree to take you out if you do so. And no honorifics!"

That made Atsushi hesitate, but it wasn't a big deal. Right?

"F-Francis," she uncertainly tried out, causing him to beam at her. Her cheeks flushed a light red. "Can we go out now, Francis?" she asked, still not used to the idea of being so informal with him like this.

"Alright," he agreed reluctantly.

She smiled in relief, though her chest squeezed tightly and she started to cough, petals escaping her and her only grabbing a handful that had come out of her. Irritably shoving them into her pocket since the garbage can was now too far away, she turned to Francis. He was frowning again, making her feel disappointed. She hoped he wouldn't be changing his mind.

"Here," he murmured and took out a handkerchief that he moved to wipe her mouth with. He put it back into his pocket and then held out his hand. "Now...where do you want to go?"