Chapter 4 - Tar Vedron

“Flowers for sale! Flowers for sale! You there, young man, would you like to buy some flowers for one of the young women in your party?”

Mel rolls his eyes. This again. At least he was no longer at risk of falling in the crossfire. It’d taken a while - admittedly because Mel really didn't want to have the "I think you have a crush on me, or at least want to act like you do so getting married at the end of this is less miserable for you" conversation and had thus done everything in his power to stick to implication - but Edward had, ultimately, gotten the hint. He still bought Mel things, but they were practical things like a new dagger or boots, not gifts unsubtly advertised as guarantees to woo. It would be interesting, though, Mel thought, to see how he handled Stella.

"Oh, well, er, no thank you." So he'd gotten that hint too. Nice. 

Stella's cautious, warm voice stops Mel from striding any further down the sandy path in front of him. "Excuse me, is the offer only open to young men, or...?"

"Oh, of course not! I'm sorry, young miss. Is it for the young gentleman, or one of the other ladies?"

Stella's eyes widen and shoot towards Mel. He grins lopsidedly, shrugs, and jokingly mouths 'sorry'.

...

"What should I have said?" Stella asks Mel later that day, once the rest of their party has cleared out of the inn to do some final shopping for the evening. She wanted to have the conversation in relative private, just in case. 

"To the woman selling flowers? What you said was fine, Stella. I can be a lady when I need to be." Mel laughs and sits down on the edge of the bed he claimed, across from Stella's and closest to not one but two windows. Lydia had made some snide comment about how he would regret that when the mosquitoes came out in full force, but he had told her to watch out for her own blood and she quieted quickly. "Honestly, I think it's ridiculous to ask someone who they’re buying a gift for.” 

Stella giggles, too, taking a seat across from him. "It is silly. Maybe I wanted the pleasure of giving them to you myself."

"You want me to give them back to you and we can try again?" Mel waves the bouquet in front of him, close enough for Stella to reach forward and grab from his hand.

"No, it's okay. Next time, maybe." She pauses, and regards him seriously. "But you're sure you're okay with how that went down?"

Mel sighs, setting the flowers down on the bed beside him. Stella left her vase back in Thais to save room in her bag. "Look, if someone looks at me and assumes something about what I am, you should feel comfortable playing along. I was a thief, and now I'm a spy, so it's sort of second nature to me. Besides, I grew up feeling totally comfortable when someone called me an orphan girl and having butterflies in my stomach when they yelled 'that boy snatched my wallet!'" He frowns and clarifies, "and not the scared kind of butterflies, because I was good and they weren't gonna catch me. Genuinely, it's all good."

"Okay, that makes sense." Stella folds her hands neatly on her lap and takes a sharp inhale. "But, um, I guess tangentially related..." Her eyes dart away from Mel's face. "We're sort of an item now, right?"

Mel leans back, raising an eyebrow. He counts out the arguments towards it on his hand. "Well, we like each other, Edward hasn't tried flirting with either of us in ages, and Lydia's stopped acting like I'm a threat to the un-liklihood of her engagement, so I think that counts as official. Unless that happens when Galahad takes one of us aside and warns us about the dangers of ill-thought out weddings?" He grins at her, a little nervous, mostly teasing. She smiles softly back at him. "I don't know, I've never done this before."

"I'd like to be, if you would. I was just wondering...what I should call you."

"Well, I hate the word 'lover'."

Stella bursts out laughing. Mel delights in watching the ways her eyes scrunch together and her cheeks lift up, the slight shake in her shoulders, although he genuinely didn't think it was that funny when he said it. "Boyfriend, girlfriend, partner..."

"Girlfriend's pretty nice." Mel cuts her off. "That's what I'd call you, right?"

"Yeah."

"I like the idea of being the same thing to each other," he muses. "And this might sound silly, but I feel most like a girl when I think about being with you, anyways. You must be contagious."

That wins him another snicker, and it makes him beam with a goofy sort of pride. "I’m assuming that’s a compliment. You'll tell me if you change your mind?"

"Of course. Who exactly are you planning on telling about me, anyways?”

“Well, I figure when I find out where my home is, I’ll have some friends or family to introduce you to.”

Mel falters for a second. He’d somehow barely thought to consider it - maybe because his own circle was two people wide before he made his way to Thais. “Huh. You will, won’t you,” he muses. “They must miss you.”

“I hope so.”

“I don’t imagine how they couldn’t. You’re remarkable, Stella.”

She looks like she wants to protest in modesty, but she closes her mouth and can’t fight the smile crossing her features. “You’re just saying that because you’re my girlfriend,” she teases.

“Maybe so. Hey, if you really wanna make it official, since I don’t have anybody for you to meet, I call dibs on introducing you to the others as mine.” 

Stella smiles, steps over towards him, and pulls a couple shorter flower stems out of his bouquet beside him. She tucks them into the pocket of his vest, and reaches her hand out to him. “Sounds fair to me. Want to head out now? We should probably think about finding dinner."

"It's a date."

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