Chapter Text
6 Months Later
Nick hummed to himself as he made his way through the greenhouse, empty watering can in hand and ready to be filled so he could take care of the plants before sweeping up and heading home for the night. The earbuds in his ears blasting a good beat that he bopped and danced to a bit along the way.
The storefront had closed fifteen minutes ago, so it was just Nick and one coworkers left in the building taking care of the end of night checklist. Nick, being the newest person on staff, got the task of watering all of the plants and making sure the greenhouse floor was clean and ready for the shop opening up in the morning. They weren’t tasks that took long, or were even hard to do really, but most of the staff didn’t care for them as they were kind of boring. Nick was more than happy to take the duties on.
“Are you listening to AFI again?” Troy asked teasingly with a grin, startling Nick where he was stood at the tap in the back of the long room filling his watering can.
Nick pulled his earbuds free and gave his boyfriend an unimpressed glare. “Don’t music shame me. How’d you get in here?” He asked in all seriousness before giving in and grinning back.
“Cole let me in. I tried texting, but I’m guessing your phone’s dead.” Troy explained as he stepped forward and took hold of Nick by the looped strings that was tied around his waist to hold his apron in place. “Want a hand closing? Sooner you’re done the sooner we can go to dinner.”
Nick huffed a laugh as he was pulled forward so he and Troy stood toe to toe and chest to chest. “I told you we don’t have to do anything.” Nick muttered, face heating a little in a faint blush.
Troy scoffed at that and let his arms wrap around Nick’s waist now, pulling him even closer. “You’re six months clean and sober. Like hell we aren’t gonna celebrate. You told me yourself this was the longest you’d been clean since you started using as a teenager. I wanna celebrate that.” He explained before planting a soft kiss on Nick lips.
Humming happily, Nick broke the kiss and pulled away. “Fine. But you had better not do a half assed job watering the plants. There’s another watering can over beside the row of geraniums.” Nick warned, waving his hand in the general direction of the flowers that the can was sitting by.
“Yes, sir!” Troy said with a salute that made Nick laugh before wandering off to find said watering can.
Nick just shook his head, a fond smile tugging at his lips as he shut off the tap right as his watering can was about to overflow.
It didn’t take long for the two of them to take care of watering all the plants and sweeping the floor clean. They left half an hour earlier than Nick normally would have thanks to Troy’s help.
Dinner turned out to be a little surprise party at Nick’s favorite Mexican restaurant, with his friends from work, Troy’s brother Jake, and Alicia in attendance.
Sitting at dinner, surrounded by the people in his life that meant the world to him, made Nick feel like things really were going to be okay. Like he’d found a home. Found himself. He wasn’t drowning anymore. He still missed Gloria. And his missed the heroin, sometimes. But in that moment none of that mattered. He had everything he wanted right there.