Work Text:
“So, erm…” Mystia spoke, breaking the silence that had settled on their way to the Forest of Magic. “Why are you bringing us here?”
“Why else? It’s springtime at long last~” Wriggle hummed cheerfully, walking ahead of Mystia.
Mystia didn’t seem to question anything when Wriggle had badgered her to follow her an hour prior, blindly following her instead. And with the flurry of questions that’d started to plague her mind in the past few minutes, maybe it would’ve been a good idea to ask why. Knowing Wriggle, though, she very well might not even have an answer herself.
She was used to Wriggle taking her on such outings seemingly for no particular reason. The Human Village (at night, and in sufficient disguise, of course), the Garden of the Sun, and even the Forest of Magic, several times before this.
Mystia broke out into a smile remembering the time she’d lost track of where Wriggle was, only to find her asleep on top of a tree. Upon waking up, Wriggle had no idea how she’d gotten up there, and how she’d get down again.
She’d forgotten that she could fly.
Wriggle looked back at Mystia, who’d broken out into a small giggle. “Hm? What’s wrong?”
“Oh, nothing, nothing. Just remembered something, that’s all,” Mystia responded nonchalantly, still beaming. Her flashback was amusing, but didn’t help her figure out Wriggle’s purpose in taking them there at all.
The noise from the two of them eventually died down after a bit of small talk, leaving nothing but the rustling of their footsteps against the dried leaves on the ground beneath them. The near-silence was a more cheerful one than before Mystia’s bout of laughter, leaving them both in significantly higher spirits than before.
Neither of them said anything afterwards, though, until Wriggle started squealing.
“Mysti, Mysti! Look!” Wriggle gestured wildly at a flower just beside her feet, resting beside a tree.
Although Mystia wasn’t as enthusiastic about flowers as Wriggle was, she still found joy in seeing her so excited about something so small. “Ooh! Really pink. Kinda interesting shape too! Do you think they’d make for good tea?”
“Not really. They’re called, erm… Lampra… Lampro… cap… erm… bleeding hearts! They show up for a short period in spring and go dormant soon after that. And no, you really shouldn’t try to serve poisonous flower teas to your customers. Bad for business, probably.”
They continued on their journey, with Wriggle’s goal now more apparent, and having left the flower in place. Mystia tailed Wriggle yet again, the whimsy in her buggy companion’s step having stayed throughout their entire journey thus far.
It had been a while since any flowers had appeared, though. Mystia started to question if they were really here to see flowers, and was almost tempted to ask her directly. She would much rather not tell Wriggle outright that she had no idea why they were here, though. Ultimately, she decided to stay silent.
Seemingly picking up on her confusion, almost as if she’d read her mind, Wriggle turned back to her, explaining, “That magician lives somewhere near here, so there aren’t a whole lot of flowers near her house. She goes out foraging and takes everything she sees.”
She threw her hands up in half-hearted frustration. “Some of them have medicinal properties and stuff, so I can see what she’d want with them. It doesn’t look like she knows what she’s doing, though, since she’s taken plenty of poisonous ones, too.”
“Maybe she’s using them for something,” Mystia shrugged. She wasn’t all too familiar with flowers either, so it didn’t feel right to poke fun at Marisa for grabbing them to take home indiscriminately.
Their banter as they walked kept them entertained, till they finally stumbled upon another kind of flower Mystia didn’t seem to recognise either. This time, instead of a flower all by its lonesome, there were quite a number of them, now that there were no curious magicians nearby picking any samples they could.
“That’s a nice shade of red!” Mystia didn’t have much to say, owing to her lack of knowledge regarding flowers. She still thought they looked pretty, though.
And though it was pleasant to the eyes, Mystia still felt… unsatisfied, somehow. It felt underwhelming to only see a few flowers here and there, though they still looked nice. It was springtime, after all. Surely more flowers would be blooming somewhere.
Of course, Wriggle’s explanations did add some value to the flowers. They might have looked fairly simple on the outside, but Wriggle knew the ins and outs of them. Her explanations helped add more depth and meaning to an otherwise brief look at the flowers they’d seen so far, which did make her appreciate them a bit more.
She loved Wriggle in part because of that exact same reason, with her vibrant personality hidden beneath her otherwise unassuming appearance. Her undying passion for insects, how comically overconfident she got at times, how charming she could be when she wanted to come across as such.
It was this love for her that silenced her discontentment as they moved ahead, hoping for something worth more than looking at a few flowers she vaguely recognised.
“Oh, there’s something I’ve wanted to show you for a really, really long time! It’s pretty close!” Wriggle cheerfully told Mystia, raising her curiosity.
“Hm? If you say so, then~” Mystia chirped, her mood suddenly raised by the promise of something to look forward to.
The last portion of their impromptu journey came to a close fairly quickly. To be completely honest, Mystia felt kind of tired of seeing nothing but trees and grass and the occasional fungi. The entire forest, aside from the flowers they’d seen growing here and there, felt quite dimly lit and damp.
If it weren’t for the fact that they were accompanying each other, the mood would surely be far gloomier than it was now. The sun hardly shone anywhere in the forest, which, come to think of it, might have explained the lack of sunlight-reliant flora. So when they approached an area in the forest that seemed to be well-lit, it was quite a surprise.
“We’re here!”
It took a split second for Mystia to adjust to the brightness of the sun. But when her eyes, squinted shut, slowly reopened, she gasped.
A small clearing in the forest, with insects flying about here and there, and a glorious field of-
“Hydrangeas. Oh, wow! Oh, it’s- it’s beautiful!” Mystia cupped her mouth with her hands in surprise.
“I think I’ve told you about them once before. It’s a wonder they’re able to grow here at all.”
The field of pink hydrangeas was stunning. Almost glowing in the light of the sun, the view was a stark contrast to the rest of the forest they’d seen thus far.
“Pink hydrangeas represent… sincere emotion, right?” Mystia, slowly realizing what the flowers that stood before them meant, started beaming.
Wriggle giggled. “You still remember!”
She stepped carefully into a gap in the field, making sure not to damage any of the hydrangeas.
“What do you think? It’s all because of my insect friends that this is possible! Aren’t they amazing?”
Wriggle’s heartfelt smile as she stretched her arms out and spun about in the middle of that field of pink touched Mystia like nothing else could. Seeing each other be so happy - it was a joy only the two of them could understand.
Regardless of season, no matter what they were doing or where they were, these brief moments with each other gave her a warmth she always kept close to her heart. Moments of joy, of laughter, of childlike curiosity and innocence.
That moment in that field of pink was etched into her memory.
And in that field of pink, a tiny spot of green, white and blue danced about in glee.
In that field of pink, Mystia couldn’t help but fall in love once more.