Requested by Ploopy666, thank youuuuuu

This'll probably be a bit short and slow at the beginning, I'm not great at writing Natsuki so bear with me lmao

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You didn't know how you managed to convince Natsuki to pick flowers with you. You didn't know how you even convinced her to hang out with you over the weekend. But it happened, you were here, and you couldn't believe that she'd been willing to spend time with you outside of school.

"Thank you again for coming, Natsuki," you called to her over your shoulder, smiling brightly. "Today's gonna be really fun!!"

She looked away, effectively hiding her face. "Yeah, yeah, whatever..."

When you'd asked her to go with you, Natsuki had insisted that the only reason she was coming was because she had no plans for the weekend and knew she was going to be bored. Not to "make you happy, or something stupid like that". It was really easy to tell when she was lying, but you didn't comment on that. You were just glad that she said yes.

Everyone else in the club had teased you about this being a date, and maybe that was why Natsuki had gotten so defensive– which had held up all the way till you'd arrived. Hopefully she'd relax a little once you got further away from the general public.

Regardless of how you felt about flower-picking, it struck you as the kind of activity that she'd like, even if she wouldn't say it out loud. It was the perfect balance of cuteness, calmness and serenity. Maybe even exploration depending on what mood you were in.

"Y/N, slow down a little," Natsuki exclaimed from behind you. "Geez..."

"Just get longer legs," you teased in response, and promptly regretted it when she came after you with a branch. After begging for forgiveness, Natsuki just huffed indignantly and crossed her arms. 

Worried that you actually offended her, you made it your personal mission to find her a flower she'd like.

You weren't the best at color theory, so you weren't entirely sure what you should choose. Wasn't green complimentary to pink? That might go with her hair, but you didn't see any green flowers around you and you sure as hell weren't about to give her a piece of grass.

...Maybe blue? Or just another shade of pink? Hm...

"Y/N? Where are you going?"

Natsuki's voice broke you out of your trance, and you jumped back up. "Hmm? What?"

"You're wandering away from the actual good flowers," she said, pointing in a different direction. "There's a bunch of good ones over there!! You just missed them 'cause you were too busy spacing out."

"Well, maybe I just left them for you," you joked as you made your way back towards her.

"Shut up."

The hills she was pointing at were actually a lot better than the field you were on currently. You excitedly jogged over to get a better view.

"Oh, wow," you breathed, excitedly hurrying to inspect the flowers closer. "These are gorgeous."

You were so close to saying "kinda like you", but stopped yourself at the last second. That was... a little too direct. For now, anyway.

"You're such a nerd," Natsuki sighed as she followed behind you, kneeling down to pluck a flower you couldn't see. "I don't know anyone who gets so excited about flowers."

Again, you refrained from saying that she seemed pretty hyped about going flower picking, and instead opted to go with, "What, are you saying you don't know me?"

"W– well, I'm just saying that you've never indicated that you were so interested in this."

"Well, it's not my favorite hobby of all time, but I just... I find it relaxing, you know?" You squinted at the flower in front of you before glancing back over at Natsuki to try and see if it would match her hair. "Flowers are cool. Nature is pretty. It's a nice break from life, you know?"

Natsuki stayed quiet for a few seconds. "Yeah. I... I get what you mean. That sounds kinda nice, actually. It's, uh, it's not– not bad, uh– I actually sorta like it."

Her words being sincere caught you by surprise, but not in a bad way whatsoever. It was sort of flattering in a sense.

You didn't go flower picking very often, much less with another person, and you were normally aware of how long you'd been spending outside, but time began to speed by without you noticing. The next time you happened to look at your watch, a few hours had passed and the sun was getting close to setting.

Natsuki had ended up wandering farther away from you at some point, and you needed to look around for a bit before you found her in a different part of the field, seemingly sorting through whatever flowers she'd found.

"Natsuki!!" you called, waving to catch her attention. You must have startled her, since she jumped and almost dropped the flowers.

"Jeez, Y/N," she grumbled as you approached. "You scared me."

"Sorry," you chuckled nervously before shooting a glance at the flowers she'd picked. She only had three– each of them very different, yes, but only three despite the hours and hours you'd been out there. 

"Oh." Natsuki glanced down at the flowers in her hands, seemingly understanding what you were thinking. "I, uh, don't really have a good way to care for flowers back home? Just 'cause, like, I don't– um... have a place to put them. So I just– uh– I didn't–"

"Don't apologize," you cut in. "You don't need to justify why you didn't find enough flowers to cover a small country, okay? It's totally fine to do whatever. Besides, you found some really pretty ones– we might have to do this again, and I'll just follow you instead."

Either the light was just filtering through the clouds in an odd way or Natsuki was actually kind of blushing, but you couldn't tell. Both were very possible.

"Yeah, well, I guess it wouldn't suck if you wanted to do this again." She took a deep breath before holding out the flowers to you. "I– I actually gathered these for you."

Your jaw hit the ground as you stared at her in shock. "Really?"

"Yes, you idiot!!" Natsuki exclaimed, very clearly embarrassed at this point. "It's– it's just a thank you for taking me here today!! Nothing else, okay??!?"

Looking closer at the flowers revealed more details you hadn't noticed. She'd managed to find three of your favorite colors (or at least, as close as they could get in nature), and also seemed to find flowers that were in great health. Saying it was thoughtful was an understatement– it essentially covered all the bases when it came to "flowers you like".

"I– um– thank you," you spluttered, flustered. "That's– that's really sweet of you, Natsuki."

"Whatever," she hissed, shoving the flowers into your hands. "Just take them already."

You smiled as you gazed at the flowers before snapping out of it and quickly saying, "I found you a flower too."

Natsuki's eyes shot open, and man, if she looked embarrassed before, she was absolutely dying now. "That's not funny, Y/N!!"

"W–well– I wasn't joking," you managed to stammer out before picking a particular flower and holding it out. "Uh, it– it matches your hair. Ithoughtitmightlookreallycuteonyou...?"

Instead of destroying you for calling her cute, she just stared at you for a second, her mouth open in surprise. Eventually, she remembered how to move and carefully grabbed the flower from your hand.

"This is..." Natsuki hesitated, inspecting the flower slowly. "That was... really nice of you, Y/N. Um, th–thank you. It's really incredible." 

You were about to thank her when she quickly said, "Kinda like you."

WHAT?????????

At this rate, you were pretty sure you were actually going to pass out. 

"Oh my God I can't believe I just said that," Natsuki breathed, turning away from you and burying her face in her hands. "Holy hell, just forget I said anything–"

"It's okay!! You're, um, pretty amazing too!!" you blurted out, desperately trying to not faint on the spot. "It's– it's totally fine!! That's– that's really nice of you to say!!"

"Of course it's nice, dummy!! I'm not gonna insult you when you just gave me a gift!!"

"...You just insulted me again?"

"God, you suck," she grumbled, crossing her arms again. You noticed how she made sure that the flower you'd given her wouldn't get crushed, though.

"Thanks, Natsu!! C'mon, let's get out of here, it's getting late."

Deciding that you absolutely had to get the last word in (you were feeling slightly petty), you followed that up with, "If it matters, you're really cute when you're flustered. Also, you should totally put that flower in your hair, you'd look gorgeous. Not that you don't always look gorgeous, because you do."

You immediately knew from the look on her face that either she'd be blushing for the rest of the day or you'd need to run for your life.