Blooming Together

Blooming Together Written by Mel Urciuoli Illustrated by Cynthia Lee

Finnie leaned against the doorframe of her room as she watched Sebastian collect his things. He glanced up at her.

“Something on your mind?” he asked. Finnie blinked.

“I want a new nickname for you.”

Sebastian’s eyebrows drew together as he finished packing his things into his backpack. “Why? I mean I’m not opposed, but what brought it up?”

She shrugged. “I dunno, ‘babe’ just seems kind of boring.”

“Okay, babe,” he teased.

“Hey, I didn’t say it was bad! It’s just so…common, I guess? Like it’s a good fallback, but I want something that’s more…ours.” Finnie picked up her own bag and the couple left their apartment, heading for the elevators.

“Don’t nicknames need to happen naturally though?”

Finnie scrunched up her nose. “Can I not try to be cute on purpose?”

“You know what I meant,” Sebastian replied, mimicking her expression.

“Hey.” Finnie faked indignation as Sebastian pressed the elevator button and slung an arm around her shoulders.

“I love you,” he said quietly against her temple.

“Yeah, yeah, love you too.” She leaned into him as they waited for the elevator to arrive. When it did they stepped in together and waited quietly for the light to ding on and doors to open.

“Do you want a new nickname for you too?” Sebastian asked as they fell into step walking outside. Finnie shrugged again.

“If you think of one, sure. No pressure though.” Sebastian squeezed her hand. “I’ll see what I can come up with.”

They settled into a comfortable silence as they made their way to the library and found an empty study room to work on their midterms. Finnie balked at the amount of Greek letters and other things she didn’t know the names for on Sebastian’s calculus (at least she thought it was calculus) work, and he was horrified by the length requirements on all her different history papers. Eventually they settled into their work too.

“What about Daffodil?” Sebastian piped up as a timer went off to signal a break.

“What?”

“Daffodil. As a nickname for you.”

“Sure?” Finnie blushed. “Why Daffodil?”

“Because they’re pretty,” he responded in an exaggerated tone. Finnie scrunched her nose again and he laughed. “But also they symbolize new beginnings and you’ve been here for a lot of those for me, and…” He looked down, still smiling.

“We’ve known each other so long that you just, you’ve made the lows bearable and the highs even better, and,” he shrugged. “I don’t know I’m not the writer here.”

“I love it,” Finnie said, resting her chin in her palm as she looked at him. “It’s sweet. You’re sweet.”

“Yeah?” He looked back at her.

“Yeah.” She smiled. There was a pause, then, “No I really need to think of one for you.”

He laughed. “Got any ideas so far?”

“Hmmm.” Finnie looked at the ceiling. “Sunshine?”

“Oof, my mom calls me that.”

“Okay yeah, no. My prince?”

“Cute, but no.”

“My Constant?”

“I love you, and I know it’s my major, but I don’t love math enough to have you refer to me by a math term.”

“Fair. What about--”

The library PA System sounded the 10-minute warning for closing and Finnie groaned.

“What’s wrong?” Sebastian asked, reaching a hand out for her shoulder. His touch reminded her to take a deep breath as she leaned back in her seat. “I’m not done with my draft yet and we were going to cook together after this.”

“It’s okay.” He rubbed his thumb on her shoulder. “I can get things started while you finish writing and we can do the rest together.” Finnie took another breath and nodded.

“Okay. Let me get packed up then.”

“Okay.” Sebastian leaned over to peck on the lips before starting to shuffle his work back into his own bag.

They both sighed heavily as they entered the apartment and dropped their backpacks on the couch.

“Don’t worry about food, okay?” Sebastian kissed the top of Finnies head before moving toward the kitchen. “Just worry about your draft.”

She nodded and leaned down to get her laptop from her bag. As she straightened,

her gaze settled on a picture of the two of them the first time they’d gone to Pride as a couple. They were hugging each other and laughing as rainbow confetti fell around them. Sebastian was early in his transition at the time, riding the excitement of cutting his hair short for the first time, and Finnie had been newly out herself, a bi flag painted on her cheeks.

A month before the picture was taken, they had sat in a batch of dandelions in a park near their high school. A conversation that started with them awkwardly coming out to each other had ended as their first real date. The corner of Finnie’s mouth ticked up as she brought her laptop to the counter and turned it back on.

Instead of pulling up her draft, she looked up what dandelions symbolized.

Sebastian glanced at her as he pulled ingredients from the fridge and started arranging them near the stove. “What’s got you smiling over there?”

“Dandelion,” she said without looking away from the screen. Sebastian paused and twisted his head around to look at her.

“I’m sorry?”

“I want to call you Dandelion.”

She turned and watched as recognition dawned in his eyes and a smile spread across his face. “Okay, why?”

She blushed and pointed at the photo. “Remember when we came out to each other? And got together?”

Sebastian’s smile grew as he cocked his head. “Yeah?”

Finnie came to stand next to him and angled herself toward him. “So, you remember how we were sitting in the grass? There were dandelions in the grass. So I kind of associate them with you already, and I was thinking about that, and I looked it up, and apparently Dandelions symbolize things like peace and happiness and growth and…” she dipped her head shyly. “Those are all things I associate with you too.”

Sebastian’s smile softened and he reached out, pulling Finnie close against him and pressing a kiss to her cheek. “I love that. And you.”

“I love you too,” she hummed. Sebastian gave her a final squeeze before letting go.

“Go finish your draft, Daffodil.”