some men never think of it

by elliefish

Summary:

Knox brings Syd flowers at work.

Notes:

I finished Proxy, cried, and went into the ao3 tag - where i found two lonely fics. I decided this was not good enough, so i have now blessed the world with this little ball of polyamorous fluff. kind of bad, hurried, polyamorous fluff, but hey! fic's fic.

title from 'flowers' by Wendy Cope.

There’s a flower shop on the well-travelled route between Knox’s computer science lecture hall and the hippy coffee shop Syd works at. Knox has walked past it countless times without ever really noticing.

One day he does.

He feels like an idiot standing on the pavement in front of Jubilee, tightly clutching a bouquet of roses he bought on a whim. But Knox isn’t one to stand down, and he pushes the door open, full of confidence that he won’t admit he’s faking.

Syd doesn’t try to contain his amusement. It’s been a slow day and he outright laughs.

Knox blushes. “Do you even know how lucky you are?” He asks, leaning his side against the counter. “Any girl would kill for me to buy them flowers.”

“That is a gross exaggeration!” calls Marie from her usual armchair. “I believe I’ve told you explicitly to never buy me flowers.”

“Which is why you didn’t get any, babe,” Knox says, glancing over at her.

“I wish I’d had the foresight,” Syd mutters.

Knox looks back at Syd, at his rolled-up sleeves underneath his apron, at his brown cheeks with a slight pink tinge, at the smudge of cream across his forehead. “You know you love it,” he says, wiping away the cream with his thumb.

Syd looks at Knox’s thumb in bewilderment. “I, uh…” he starts, then turns around to make coffee. On a second thought, he turns back and snatches the bouquet, then puts them in a bowl of water.

“You can’t just put them in a-”

“How was the lecture?”

“Uh. It was pretty good, actually. Kind of simple. How’s The Jubilee?” He says the name of the shop in a slightly mocking tone, and hears a quiet huff from Marie.

“Quiet. Sugar, yeah?”

“Why would I need sugar when you’re already so sweet?”

Syd chuckles and puts a mug down on the counter. “Go and see Marie. She’s dying to tell you about her new campaign. I’ve already been filled in.”

Knox smiles. “Okay, fine. Look after those flowers.”

Syd leans over, pecking Knox on the cheek, then turns back to the coffee machine. “Look after yourself.”