Chapter Text
Tedesco waltzed into his office without knocking. He had been mostly amicable for his usual standards during his short stay, and he would be going back to Venice that afternoon, so Aldo was not too angry about it. Or about the Patriarch being too early to the meeting to be held there alongside Thomas. Or about him smoking his cherry-scented vape inside.
Whatever. Even with all of that considered, he was behaving way better than usual, staying mostly silent and snooping around Aldo’s bookshelves.
A sudden halt.
—What is it, Eminence Tedesco?
—Never took you for an origami fan, Bellini.
He looked back to see Tedesco observing the small display of the six origami flowers. He wondered if he should tell Tedesco about the little mystery surrounding them. Thomas had enjoyed the tale very much, after all, but that was Thomas, who read detective novels in his sparse spare time.
He finally decided it couldn’t hurt. A small testament of Tedesco actually becoming less of a pain to deal with lately.
—Oh, I am not. I am not patient enough for it.
—Then?
A shrug. Tedesco’s expression was unreadable as he looked at the flowers.
—Someone has been sending them to me.
—Someone…
—I don’t know who. They started appearing during the past synod. See that small one, the one with the stripes? That was the first one.
—You don’t know… at all?
Now that he thought of it… Tedesco had attended the synod where the first few flowers had appeared.
—Did you happen to see anyone coming back to the room during the break? Perhaps that person…
—No. I saw nothing. All of them were… gifted to you during it?
—Just the first three. The other three appeared during this past few days.
Tedesco hummed, pensative.
—Why did you keep them?
—Huh?
—The flowers… we are bound by vows, you wouldn’t be able to return this person’s feelings. Why did you keep them?
Aldo shrugged again.
—They are pretty to look at. And I admire the skill it took to make them.
—The skill?
—Well, yes! This person must be very skilled if they managed to make such a small piece of paper look like a rose.
—You mean the small one? It looks like crumpled paper.
—Until you look at it properly. It is impressive all things considered.
Another hum. Aldo turned back at the sound of the door opening, announcing Thomas’ arrival. A puff of cherry came out from behind him.
—Ah, Goffredo! Have Aldo told you about the little mystery of the paper roses?
—Yes, Tommaso, he was telling me about it…
The meeting went well, although Aldo later couldn’t really recall most of it later. Not once he realised.
He didn’t realise something had changed until way later. Both the other men left. He worked alone for some hours. Some assistants, priests and Monsignors came and went. Some Sisters came and went. It was already night, as he was getting ready to retire, when he spotted it.
There was a seventh flower in his display.
Aldo rushed at it immediately. This one was different, and not only because of its blue hue. As he observed it, it was clear this one was more complex, no longer just folded paper, but involving cutting and pasting several layers together. The petals were cut to a rounder shape, and bended delicately so they would emulate proper petals. Not only that, but they were carefully placed and pasted in a spiral pattern, making this new flower look almost exactly like a real, natural rose.
His thoughts hurried to think about his whole day, and halted, frozen in place as they realised the answer.
A blue rose. Signifying, as he had read, an unattainable love, or willingness to try and reach it in spite of it being impossible.
“—The flowers… we are bound by vows, you wouldn’t be able to return this person’s feelings. Why did you keep them?”
Aldo had never mentioned the idea of this mysterious person having feelings for him. It wasn’t that hard of a jump, but…
A scent of cherries. Lingering in the room but especially strong near the seven flowers.
…of all the people that he had seen today, of all the people that had gone into his office today, only one had gotten close enough to the shelf to leave that seventh flower.