A/N: Inspired by this tweet about Taeyeon once admitting she gave her girl crush a cactus and Jessica's Love Me the Same teaser.

“Careful, watch your finger,” Taeyeon says as Jessica digs into unwrapping her present like a child on Christmas morning.

Jessica pauses. “I thought you said this is a plant. Why do you sound like it’s going to bite me? Did you get me a Venus Flytrap or something?”

“A Venus…what?” Taeyeon stares at Jessica like she’s crazy.

“A Venus Flytrap. You know, one of those plants that—”

“I know what they are,” Taeyeon says. “No, I didn’t get you a Venus Flytrap. That…doesn’t really seem like your type of plant.”

“So this is my type of plant?” Jessica continues her unwrapping, albeit in a slower and more careful fashion.

“I hope so.” Taeyeon is looking at Jessica intently, her eyes bright with anticipation, like she’s the one opening a present. It makes Jessica stop for a moment and just look at her.

“What?” Taeyeon asks. “Did you hurt your finger?”

Jessica can’t help but smile. “No, I’m fine. I’m better than fine. I’m.”

She doesn’t even finish her sentence, but Taeyeon smiles like she had heard her anyway and looks at her like she’s saying me too.

“Come on,” Taeyeon says. “Open your present.”

Jessica does and peels away the rest of the wrapping paper to find—

“A cactus?” she asks in surprise. “You got me a cactus?”

“You don’t like it?” Taeyeon asks, her eyebrows drawing together.

“No, that’s not it,” Jessica says hurriedly. “It’s just… I didn’t expect you to get me a cactus.”

“It won’t kill bugs for you like a Venus Flytrap, but.” Taeyeon looks hesitantly at her. “You can tell me if you don’t like it. I can get you something el—”

“Taeyeon,” Jessica says firmly. “I like it just fine.” Taeyeon doesn’t look convinced. Jessica isn’t lying, exactly, she’s just…surprised. “So, you said that a Venus Flytrap doesn’t seem like my type of plant, but a cactus does?”

“Well…”

“Are you calling me prickly?”

Taeyeon smiles. “Only when I wake you from a nap.”

Jessica laughs, and runs a fingertip cautiously over the cactus. “This is a pretty cactus. I haven’t seen one like it before.”

“It’s a prickly pear cactus.”

“Prickly pear? Isn’t that the name of a sticker set on Facebook?”

Taeyeon doesn’t laugh, but her eyes do. They do a lot when she’s with Jessica. “Yeah, it is. They must have named it after this species.”

“What does it have to do with pears?”

“They produce a fruit which is known as a prickly pear. Because it’s…prickly. And looks kind of like a pear.”

“What a great name,” Jessica deadpans, and Taeyeon’s eyes dance with laughter again. “So is this thing going to give me fruits?”

“It’s not fully grown yet. If you take care of it properly, eventually it can.”

“And I can eat them?”

“You can, but you have to be careful to remove all the spines first. Otherwise it can hurt you.”

“You’ll do that for me, right?” Jessica asks. “You wouldn’t want me to be hurt.”

“No.”

“No?”

“I mean – yes, I’ll remove the spines for you, and no, I wouldn’t want you to be hurt.” Taeyeon looks at the cactus. “But it’ll probably be a while before this cactus can bear fruit.”

“I’ll take really good care of it,” Jessica says, even though she’s never been able to keep a plant alive. Or a goldfish, for that matter. She’s not really the best owner. Krystal had gotten her a pet rock last year because “I can trust you not to kill a rock, unnie. Right?”

“It’s not too much work to take care of a cactus,” Taeyeon says.

“Is that why you got me one? Because you know I’d kill any other kind of plant?”

“Well, I know you don’t exactly have a green thumb, but I wouldn’t say that either,” Taeyeon says. “Cacti are—resilient. They adapt to all kinds of environments. And they look tough, but they produce beautiful things: flowers or even fruit.”

Jessica blinks. “Are you saying I’m like a cactus?”

Taeyeon looks surprised. “No. I just think they’d be a nice plant to have.”

“Oh.”

“But you can interpret it in a really symbolic, meaningful way if you want.”

“Well, I can’t now,” Jessica says dryly, and Taeyeon gives her that hesitant look again. “I like it, Tae.”

“Really?”

“Really.” Jessica touches the cactus again, a little more firmly this time. It doesn’t sting as much as she thought it would. “I’ll take really good care of it, and then one day it’ll give us prickly pears and we can eat them together.”

Taeyeon looks at her, eyes lit up with—not laughter, exactly, but something bright and warm like it. “Sounds like a plan.”

“And you’ll get rid of all the spikes, right?”

This time, Taeyeon does laugh, and Jessica is lit up with it.

“Right.”

A/N: This is a prickly pear cactus. This is a prickly pear. This is the Prickly Pear sticker set on Facebook. I have no idea what kind of cactus Jessica had in the LMTS MV. It probably wasn't a prickly pear cactus lmao.

This is an alternate (byuntae) scene that was what I originally wrote for the story.

“Come on,” Taeyeon says. “Open your present.”

“You’re making me scared to now, with your finger warnings.”

“Well, your fingers are important.”

“That’s true,” Jessica says. Once, she had cut her index finger while cooking and she couldn’t text or type comfortably for a few days, which greatly inconvenienced her life. And she also couldn’t— She casts her eyes to Taeyeon, who looks back at her with an innocent expression that always means she’s thinking about something that’s just the opposite. “Yah, Kim Taeyeon!”

“What,” Taeyeon says innocently. “Aren’t they? I’m just thinking about your safety here.”

“My safety,” Jessica snorts. “More like my—” She cuts off, reddening, and Taeyeon takes her hand and brings it to her lips, which makes the warmth in her cheeks spread to her chest.