strawberry and chocolate with caramel
Story: Timeless { backstory | index }
Title: Flowers
Rating: G
Challenge: Strawberry #22: flowers, Chocolate #3: sympathy
Toppings/Extras: caramel
Wordcount: 520
Summary: Robyn Walshe meets her new partner: Detective Sargent Perry “Flowers” Wroe.
Notes: Robyn and Victor’s caramel pieces continue! Post-Moonquartz Mystery.
The man assigned to be her partner for the next few cases was a smallish, shamelessly pretty chap with square-rimmed glasses made of black plastic perched on his owl’s-beak nose and a rather grim tautness to his jaw. Robyn smiled warmly, ignoring the fact that he scarcely smiled back, and shook him by the hand. In comparison to him she was a giant-not that this was much different to the norm.
“Howdy, partner,” she said with a grin. It wasn’t the first time she’d met him-being a private eye meant that she had tangled with all of the Valetta branch of the Lunar Police Department repeatedly-but she had never spoken much to him before. Or found out his name. “Robyn Walshe, as you probably know.”
“How could I not?” he asked, adding not unkindly, “You’re the new wondergirl of the policing world for putting the Breen family behind bars… you and your boyfriend.”
Robyn decided to let it slide.
“Yeah,” Robyn said vaguely. She decided to change the topic to something that had been niggling at her. “You know, have we met before? Did you ever live in Britannia? Because I swear I’ve seen your face out of Valetta before…”
Her new partner sighed. It was a small, only slightly aggravated sigh and one that was not directed at her-simply at the world in general and its unfairnesses.
“My identical twin is a male model,” he said, pokerfaced, voice entirely matter-of-fact. “Most famously the face of Tigridia perfume. Yes, the advert with all the… well, that’s why you may notice some of our colleagues calling me Flowers. Hint: don’t call me Flowers.”
How could she resist that? Robyn cracked a grin.
“Sure,” she said, making a mental note to begin calling him Flowers the moment they reached an appropriate level of friendship. Or sooner. Most probably sooner. “Must happen a lot… how come you didn’t go into male modelling too?”
“Because I’m not an idiot,” Perry muttered. After a moment, he added a little wistfully-“Anyway, I’m too short. Oliver’s six foot two. I’m only five seven. Bastard squashed my umbilical cord before we were born and stunted me.”
The indignation in his voice was absurdly hilarious. Robyn managed to keep a straight face, reminding herself that he was her superior.
“Never mind, eh?” she said. Ah, bugger it. “…Flowers.”
Too soon? she pondered as he arched an eyebrow at her.
“Come on, wondergirl,” he sighed, good-naturedly resigning himself to his fate of being known as Flowers for most probably the rest of his career. Despite his apparent reluctance to smile, he was very affable and Robyn found herself warming to him very quickly. “I’ll give you the grand tour. Don’t get your hopes up too high on the facilities, though-you’ll be wishing you were back to being a PI before you know it.”
“I doubt it,” Robyn replied easily, following the man out of the briefing room and down the narrow corridor-towards an office that was from now on to become one of the central points of her life. She could hardly wait.