Title: Roses
Pairing: Pepper/OFC
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Femmeslash
Warnings: A little mild angst, plenty of fluff and alternate ending/AU
Summary: A ficlet from Pepper's point of view; Pepper contemplates the sweet and romantic nature of the love she and her "angel" share.
Disclaimer: None of the characters belong to me, I'm just borrowing them. I am not making money out of this - suing is futile!
Dedicated to my dear friend Mii-Mii Ramone - another cute Pepper story for you! <3
It was you who first brought me flowers, and you taught me that roses are the finest flowers of all to offer to the one you love.
"Not only are they beautiful, and smell so sweet," you whispered to me the first time you ever bound a single bright red rose to my top-knot with a ribbon of the very same shade, "they're all unique, no two are the same. Just like you are unique and special, my sweetest little jewel." You bent to kiss me gently on the lips, the touch of your mouth on mine soft and worshipful. At the time, I did not fully understand what your words meant, but I knew for sure that you loved me, and that I was completely in love with you.
I was never a freak in your eyes; you never called me a pinhead as did the others who came to gawk at dear Salty and me. "Nature's mistakes, those fools call you," you once said to us as you sat with one arm around me and the other around Salty, as we ate the candy you had brought for us and enjoyed the warm sunshine and the coolness of the breeze. "Nature's infinite and wonderful variety, that's how I see you both, my dears."
Again, the words were a blur to me back then, but I remember how delicately fragrant your perfume was and how it was far more lovely to me than any rose.
When I was in the asylum, and lonely for you (I learned later that you had been taken into the sky as I was soon to be), I saw the woman named Lana Winters and for a moment thought she was you come back to me. She was slim and graceful, just like you, and had hair like yours as well. I gave her a rose, and implored her to play with me as you used to do.
But the rose pricked her finger, and of course she was not you, angel. She could never be as loving or as pure as you have always been.
Now you and I are together again, and shall never be parted as long as we both live.
This morning, I woke before you and went to the garden you always tend so carefully, to gather roses of all colors. I arranged them all around our shared bedroom, and placed some in your favorite crystal vase next to the bed.
I want you to smile when you awaken to their sweet scent and see their glorious petals beginning to unfurl, and you will know that I have put them there because I love you.