Title:Of Roses and Receipts
Author: Prlrocks
Words About 1000
Disclaimer: Not mine, never will be *sniff*
Summery Written as a gift for
ru_salki99 for the
whedonland gift giving. She wanted something fluffy. Given the fact it’s unbetaed and it’s 4am, I can’t guarantee it makes sense or is readable on any level, but I tried. Anyone reading this free to point out all my many errors. :)
“The hell!” With a sigh, Casey reached into his locker and took the rose out. Classic red, he noted. Giving it a half curious, half disdainful sniff, he reached in with this other hand to take the note out. There was always a note.
I don’t care if you’re a man. Every guy’s crush deserves a rose. At least, one and here is yours.
XX
Casey paused a moment, before scrunching his eyes and shaking his head. “What?”
Reopening them, he read the note again. As his eyebrow shot up, he humfed. Nope, he hadn’t made a mistake. His admirer was indeed a male and likely one located somewhere within the walls of this damned store. Until now, he had assumed it was a women on the staff and honestly, he’d rather be dropped into the nearest war zone, then date any of them. But this? This was different. This gave him hope. If it was a male then it might be… He shook his head again. No.
Gathering his stuff, he slammed his locker shut and left.
Chuck was waiting.
Later that night, he set about doing one of his least favorite tasks, on this detail, going through the Bartowski family’s household garbage. It was disgusting, boring and more than a little bit foul smelling. It often ended with him wishing he could dull his senses and pondering how a family of three could use so much hair product.
Tonight, he knew he hit Chuck’s personal garbage when he saw the tech magazines. Chuck always left his magazines in horrible condition. Half the articles were clipped out, leaving the magazine looking like a bunch of loosely bound scraps of paper. Casey had once joked with Chuck that the moment the serial killer notes popped up, he’d know who to point to, but the boy hadn’t been amused. He just mumbled darkly about having his privacy violated and walked away.
Placing those aside for further viewing, he then sorted through wrappers, receipts and random bits he found in the bag. Deciding to do his favorite first tonight, he picked up and leafed through the receipts.
First, was his weekly one from the comic book store. Chuck, a creature of habit, wasted a good chunk of his paycheck on those cartooned stories. Unlike the magazines, Casey was sure that Chuck kept them all nice and neat and in plastic coverings. It was only the proper nerd thing to do.
Smiling fondly, he put it in an envelope and scribbled the information down.
The second receipt was for some odds and ends Chuck had picked up at the Buy More. Not shocking. Casey added it to the list.
And the third was from some random source. He’s place it under ‘misc’ even though it was likely from some gas station or corner store that Chuck went to. ‘The slushie’ was a dead give away. Eyeing the items, he wrote them down.
The last one was a receipt from some florist. Where the hell was Chuck getting flowers that cost $2.50? he wondered. It was then, it hit him. The price wasn’t for a bunch of flowers. It was for a single flower. His gut told him that it was a rose.
Dropping his pen down, he got up and quickly peeked through his blinds. Chuck’s lights were on. Before he even thought about it, he was out the door and tapping on Chuck’s window.
Chuck opened the window with a smile. “Yeah?”
“What’s this?” Casey said holding up the receipt between two fingers.
“Um, a scrap of paper?”
“No, it’s a receipt.”
Chuck rolled his eyes. “Which is written on paper.”
Leaning against the window frame, Casey leaned down and looked him straight in the eyes. “Chuck?” he asked softly. “I need to know, is it you?”
“Is it-”
“Yes or no. Plain answers. Is it you?”
Chuck’s eyes darted down, before he slowly gazed back up. “Yeah. It is.” The boy was blushing.
Casey took a moment to feel his heart tremble, before gathering himself together and giving a firm nod. “Good.”
Grabbing him by the neck, Casey pulled him forward and kissed Chuck the best he could through the window frame. When he pulled away, Chuck laughed happily.
“I was wondering how long it would take you to notice. If this one didn’t work, I was going to send you a big ass teddy bear. You couldn’t miss that one.”
Suddenly, it all clicked. Chuck wanted him to figure this out. In his mind, he went over the last few weeks. It was vague at best, but it was all there. The card and those burnable cds that must have been for the ‘mix.’ It was all there. “Why didn’t you just say something.” He growled and pressed another kiss against his lips in both joy and frustration.
Chuck jerk his head to the side, “It’s not my way.”
Shaking his head, Casey rubbed his jaw, knowing and not caring that he was beaming.
“So… “ Chuck licked his lips hungrily and glancing behind him, “are you going to come in?”
Casey tilted his head, as if thinking it over. “Yeah, I think I will.”
Chuck quickly moved aside, making room for him to come through. After he climbed through, he watched as Chuck sat down on the edge of his bed. Walking up to him, Casey pushed him backwards and climbed on top of him. After giving him a quick nip of he lips, he gazed down and muttered darkly, “Oh, and Chuck. If you do anything like this to me again and it will be me piecing the clippings together to send to the police. Got it?”
Chuck gave a swift nod. Knowing he had made his point, Casey wrapped his arms around him and got down to the more pleasant business.