do you have any flora/musa platonic or romantic headcanons 🙏 they are such an underrated pair to me
you've open pandora's box i fear YES they are so underrated and they're literally 2/3 of my top 3 faves. ask & u shall receive.
musa and flora, as non-princesses, are people who i feel would have to work harder to be at a prestigious fairy school such as alfea, which isn't to say that the other winx don't work hard, it just looks different on them. plus with the pressure musa faces from her father, with flora being more intrinsically motivated in her studies but also in my mind still facing pressure from her family (esp as firstborn daughter), they have a tacit understanding with one another about what it's taken for them to earn + maintain their spots. musa is blunter & like. flashier i guess in that her interests are geared more toward the performing arts, singing/dancing/band/dj-ing vs flora who's very much more of a homebody who likes to take things slow (although i still consider flora fairly outgoing)
but i think musa is less of a party girl and more ambiverted, like she likes being a performer but at heart she's more of a chiller and loves a sit-down patio smoke + chit-chat, which flora is more than happy to provide companionship for. i think musa is someone who feels a lot and feels it strongly and it's very internal, so she struggles with articulating it, but flora is someone who is so generally pensive that she's easily able to empathize with musa and then also help her vocalize her thoughts. their conversations are usually fairly intellectual or feelings-based, less about the people/events around them and more about concepts and their worldviews! they don't necessarily spend the most time doing activities together, but they always have the best conversations when it's just the two of them, and if musa really is in a pinch and needs someone to join her while she's out, flora is always happy to be that person for her!
i think as a romantic pairing, their tacit understanding of each other in spite of their outward differences becomes really, really important. i think flora is a very casually physically affectionate person, compared to musa where touch is a bit more uncomfortable for her even amongst her closest friends. flora has the potential to become a very cheesy/pda-forward girlfriend (see: helia), but i think with musa she would dial it back a lot just for her comfort. but as girlfriends, i think flora would just respect that relationship so much more by just gravitating toward musa more, finding her in a room full of people to twiddle with her fingers or twirl musa's hair or just have her hand pressed against musa in some way as a form of comfort, just to remind her of the steadiness of her presence. i view musa as a pretty big acts of services person, so i think she would end up cooking for flora a lot and making sure she's fed -- even when exams are crazy or flora has become so locked into one of her weird magical plant experiments that she forgets about everything else.
musa's snark is also such a big part of her character, so i think once musa and flora are romantic partners, part of musa's affection involves really upping the ante in terms of sarcasm and insults. this is like, fairly common and understandable with stella, tecna, and aisha because they're made of pretty tough stuff and will always crack jokes right back, but when she starts directing it at flora -- whos a tad more softspoken -- everyone's like, wait whoa. but flora surprises everyone by being able to take it verbally and then get back at musa through silly little pranks, like through singing flowers that interrupt musa's playlisting time or pollen that makes her sneeze for ten minutes straight. i think they're very silly together and are always giggling about some kind of inside joke that everyone else is like *shrugs* idk.
more privately, i think musa tends to be more of a night owl and while flora might not necessarily be the earliest bird, she does tend to turn in earlier. so i like to imagine nighttime cuddles where musa is on her back listening to music through her headphones and reading/playing games on her phone/scrolling/etc and flora's curled up against her sleeping soundly. then in the morning flora will throw together a funky ass breakfast with the weirdest food combos and musa will, groggy eyed, be like "what the fuck did u just make, flo?" but eat it anyways. and i think flora is big of more ~standard~ and explicit forms of affection like verbal affirmation, which is just like A Lot for musa. but i think just randomly throughout the day, flora might just shower musa with compliments just because She Feels It in her heart and she wants musa to know it and at first musa is like super flustered and doesn't know what to do about it. but then eventually she gets into the habit of reciprocating until verbally expressing her affirmation is part of how she shows love herself, even outside of her relationship with flora. they just teach each other to be kinder and softer and sillier <3
anyways thank you so much for this ask! this was so much fun!!!
An Archive of Our Own, a project of the Organization for Transformative Works
Chapters: 1/1
Fandom: Winx Club
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Flora/Helia (Winx Club), Brandon & Helia & Riven & Sky & Timmy (Winx Club), Aisha | Layla & Flora (Winx Club), Brandon & Flora & Helia & Riven & Sky & Timmy (Winx Club), Brandon & Flora (Winx Club)
Characters: Flora (Winx Club), Helia (Winx Club), Brandon (Winx Club), Riven (Winx Club), Sky (Winx Club), Timmy (Winx Club), Aisha | Layla (Winx Club)
Additional Tags: Mutual Pining, Bad Poetry, Love Confessions, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, a little bit of winx club worldbuilding...as a treat, Humor, Fluff, Platonic Female/Male Relationships, Texting, Brandon (Winx Club) is a Good Wingman, Gardens & Gardening, Awkward Flirting, Recreational Drug Use, Marijuana, the gardening and the weed tags have actually nothing to do with one another, college students just smoke weed ok!!!!!!, not betaed or proofread we die like nabu oops
Summary:
“Helia!” Flora exclaims just as Helia begins to round the shelves. “Are you leaving already?”
Helia nods, then dips his head at her in a bit of an informal bow. “Until we meet again, Flora.”
Then, he turns heel and leaves.
“Oh, um, bye!” Flora calls after him just as the doors slam shut once again.
Flora watches as Helia exits the library, heart in her throat. A hand lands heavily on Flora’s shoulder, causing Flora to startle. Looking up, she realizes the hand simply belongs to Brandon.
“Wow, he usually never acknowledges us before he leaves,” Brandon says in awe, eyeing the spot previously occupied by Helia.
Flora buries her face in her hands.
(Flora and Helia navigate embarrassing, all-encompassing college crushes for the first time.)
“Um, sorry,” Stella says, eyes wide and face tinted pink. There’s a bead of sweat trickling down her temple, which Tecna unthinkingly wipes away. Stella purses her mouth.
“Did I tell you?” Tecna blurts out, overheated and unfiltered. “You look really handsome today.”
Stella mouths the word: ‘handsome.’ “I’ve never gotten that one before. Beautiful, yes. Handsome… that’s new.”
“You’re beautiful, too,” Tecna says, matter-of-fact. This is a given. “And handsome lately. You have to know that.”
(Or: Musa gets a haircut. So does Stella. Tecna is a good friend. And, well, something else, too.)
When Flora closes her eyes, the Voice of Nature washes over her. The wind twirls around her, leaving crisp autumn leaves tangled in her hair. The pungent aroma of Magix flowers wafts toward her, and every blade of grass stands at attention in her direction. She feels them before she sees them — the familiar way their footsteps sink into the dirt — and when she turns around, she opens her eyes to —
The sharp curve of their jaw, the soft set of their eyes, their pursed mouth.
“Flora,” they say, the low timbre of their voice achingly familiar.
“Helia,” Flora returns.
Flora sighs through her nose, but feels heat in her cheeks. “Yeah, sure, I’ll go out with you, Riven.”
Riven quirks a brow, “That doesn’t sound so enthusiastic.”
“Take it or leave it, Miller,” Flora deadpans, but feels a laugh bubbling out of her throat.
“I’ll take it,” Riven says, and smiles.
my favorite personal stella hc is that sometimes she wants to say a word but has trouble finding the exact vocab so she verbally approximates it until someone can fill it in for her!! like for example in this unpublished wip of mine:
vy my beloved big brained winx mutual you simply must ramble about the platonic winx/specialists dynamics i'm actually begging you </3 aldhgl
like,, which ones are your favorite and why! which ones do you want to see more of in canon! which ones are you definitely sure would be great but have zero canon evidence for (tecna helia dynamics my beloved ueghhhh)
THANK YOU FOR ASKING! YOU WILL RECEIVE!
i'm a huge huge huge sucker for platonic friendships and i think the biggest personal attack winx club canon has made on ME, vy lynpheas, is that they never really develop... platonic winx and specialist relationships ☹️ i haven't seen s1-3 in a long while but i just rewatched s4 and i'm wracking my brain trying to remember any platonic interactions between the winx and their non-boyfriend specialists. & i got nothing. when there was a 30 second interaction in s5 between sky and flora right before sky got amnesia, my 12 year old self thought about it for months i swear 😭
so i'm just gonna throw out a bunch of fun random pairings i like and how i think their friendship would work because my basic assumption is that EVERYONE is friends with EVERYONE because i want them to be!!!
(also i wrote most of this in oct 2023 and forgot about it but if anyone wants to ask me abt any more platonic pairings i would be so so so down 😭😭)
tecna & riven
okay this dynamic i have a lot of fun thinking about just bc tecna is musa's roommate so she deals with riven on a diff level than the other girls
i think esp early tecna would tend to make snap judgments of people & she immediately thinks riven is like. rude and immature and so everything he does after that point is framed through that lens. & i think riven is primarily motivated by his emotions (at least in terms of his interpersonal relationships) and tecna who is more "logic" based so she doesn't really understand why he acts the way he does. (i put logic in quotes because i do think tecna is biased toward her feelings when it comes to interpersonal relationships, but she sorta confirmation biases herself into thinking her judgment is more factual) & so i think their relationship begins as being vaguely antagonistic/indifferent (ie tecna making snarky comments to the side and riven being like. offended but kinda writing it off by acting like he just doesn't care about tecna), especially because she doesn't see why musa would like such a jerk and thinks musa deserves better.
then i think because of proximity and just facing a lot of mortally perilous conflict together, tecna begins to respect/sympathize with riven a lot more as a strategist because riven is actually like. pretty contemplative about his next moves, and she sees how his abrasive personality obfuscates that and leads to the specialist squad initially just. bulldozing over his ideas bc they're like "oh riven's just an asshole all the time let's go with sky's plan." and i think riven begins to really appreciate and respect tecna's tactical skills but also be slightly envious of how the winx do rely on tecna and trust her judgment. and he tries to learn from her approach: more levelheaded suggestions rather than condescending/combative remarks to express his ideas.
& i think riven's really good friends with timmy (they might be roommates in s1? i don't know if i made that up tho) so when tecna starts showing up more often & he can tell she's very important to timmy, riven makes an effort to be less rude and standoffish toward her, although still awkward. i think this is what especially shatters tecna's preconceptions about riven bc besides her relationship with timmy, he doesn't have any real reason to make nice with her -- especially after she's been pretty rude to him about him and musa.
and then they become pretty decent friends! maybe not super emotionally intimate, but they like, advocate for each other. tecna really utilizes riven's skillsets in her plans and makes sure he isn't overlooked & riven gets more protective over tecna bc he's like. this girl is smart and capable. and even when they don't always see eye-to-eye, she's very kind in her own non-traditional way.
musa & timmy
between riven and tecna, musa sees a Lot of timmy. i think as riven and tecna stop being as icy with one another, the four of them hang out as a group a lot. musa can kinda be the odd one out at times, because tecna and timmy can technobabble together a lot but if they veer into. hovercrafts or battle strategy riven and tecna can get Really into it with each other bc they agree on enough to not argue but have enough strong contrasting opinions to have very spirited conversations. so musa can kinda sit back and watch as timmy gets ousted from the convo and they have solidarity in that LMAO
they're both very chill and timmy is just. super curious about all of musa's hobbies and interests bc he doesn't know Anything abt music or anything. & i feel like timmy is an edm/techno/trap kinda guy & i hc that musa freelance djs at clubs and parties. so timmy is like fascinated by the mechanics of all of that and musa loves talking about music in any capacity so they reach common ground through that. and in turn musa gets interested in like, hovercraft mechanic convos and videogame lore that also helps musa better connect with riven and tecna!!
& i think these conversations evolve into. timmy tagging along with musa to raves LOL like they party it UP together!!! like timmy is pretty self-conscious and awkward at first, but musa really shows him that dancing/enjoying music isn't about how you look or acting cool -- it's just about having fun. and it really brings him out of his shell. timmy's got his white boy dance moves!!! riven goes to musa's shows sometimes but edm gives him a headache and most of the girls like to party but they're not into the subculture at all so they're not consistent participants. but timmy is a yes-man! he always wants to come!
& timmy and musa get fairly close because of this! timmy is such a huge hype man and occasional technician for musa and musa knows she can always rely on timmy to show up for her! and they just learn a lot from each other!
plus because they're both close with the other's respective partners, they like to go to the other for relationship advice because they'll get some unique insight into the problems they're facing. timmy is a huge riven-is-just-misunderstood advocate and musa knows tecna's ins and outs.
musa & timmy besties agenda <3 like i really really just love the idea of their friendship
aisha & riven
this is the only non-romantically involved winx/specialist combo i had actual recollection of interacting before i did my rewatch tbh. or i guess also riven and bloom. riven is just a very notable character LMFAO
anyways, aisha is hyper-independent and riven is prickly and easy to misjudge so. aisha doesn't fuck with him very much at first BUT when she comes into the winx's life she didn't firsthand experience riven double-crossing them w the trix. so she's an asshole to him for like. "i think you're kind of a loser and i don't like men that much in general" reasons instead of "you have personally wronged me" reasons. she challenges him to petty stuff because she likes poking the bear and she finds it kind of entertaining to see him get annoyed and want to prove himself for the sake of his ego, but eventually she just starts genuinely thinking that riven's a pretty decent guy. like, he never tries to undermine her for her skills, he just wants to match and surpass her. and he simultaneously respects her authority but also respects her enough to disagree with her and involve her in certain decisions, where she's used to having to put her foot down to assert herself.
at first riven really just. does not care that there's a new winx girl bc besides musa and maybe bloom they're all kinda the same to him. but then aisha is just kinda mean to him and temporarily hogs his hoverbike so he starts actively disliking her but underneath it all begrudgingly respects her. THEN he finds out she and musa are getting really close and she's actually a princess and he sees her put sky in his place over smth that wouldve irritated the fuck out of riven privately -- and he just starts to really like and respect her.
at first, aisha just likes to aggravate riven bc she initially thinks he's kind of standoffish and takes himself too seriously. so they'll be walking with the group and she'll all of a sudden be like "bet i can reach that tree faster than you" and riven's like "what are you talking about" "so you know you're gonna lose?" "uh, fuck no, you're on" and suddenly they're sprinting past everyone else and leaving them in the dust. but aisha tends to win these little competitions and eventually after she starts genuinely liking riven, she gets bored of trying to get a rise out of him. but riven still thinks she's cool asf and wants her to realize that he's actually Not A Loser so he's the one that ends up instigating more often.
their friendship is mostly characterized by them just. egging each other on. bet you can't do more hoverboard tricks than me. bet you can't do a backflip on the spot. bet you can't tell musa you haven't listened to her mixtape yet. bet you can't let stella give you a makeover. bet you can't swing from that vine across that canyon. holy shit riven ur lucky i have wings otherwise you would've died. nah i knew i could trust you.
like honestly riven is basically just aisha and tecna's kid brother. with aisha specifically he just rly wants to prove himself to her lmfao. little does he know, aisha already thinks he's cool but she will never ever ever tell him that.
stella & sky
so canonically stella has probably never met sky before red fountain in order to be able to pull off the whole name-switch situation, but i think it'd be fun if they had at least some awareness of each other before going to school from being the royals of their respective realms. like you can't tell me they've never attended the princess balls of some realm that's mutually allied with eraklyon and solaria! if anything, as his squire, brandon and sky must've always attended events together and been so close/tight-knit that a lot of people weren't exactly sure who was who, just that the duo themselves were sky and his squire. (because sky also barely looks like his parents lmfao)
i like to think that stella is extremely put off by sky for multiple reasons, including that he ultimately fucked up her relationship and completely broke bloom's trust. and pettily she sorta vows to make sure solaria and eraklyon never have good relations ever again. sky's like. well, can't let that happen + i need to be on stella's good side for the sake of brandon/bloom
and i think this results in him just like !! slowly trying to initiate a relationship with stella, like if he agrees with her about something he'll go out of his way to make it known he agrees with her. and just making comments and stuff to get on her good side
and stella sees right thru this lmfao she's like ok... i see your game... and i don't respect it... but she fully just leans into it and if sky is saying some kind of affirmative to an outrageous idea she has she's just like ok bet. put your money where your mouth is
which is how sky ends up in a lot of ridiculous situations because of stella like maybe during a mission stella suggests going down a path everyone else is hesitant about, and sky is also hesitant but he doesn't necessarily DISagree with her so he loudly corroborates her plan and then. it's just the two of them who get sent down that path and then get fucking eaten by a venus flytrap monster or smth idk. or sky ends up being stella's mannequin for like 12 hours straight while she figures out draping. or he ends up accompanying her to a stuffy ball where everyone around her is condescending her
and then eventually they'll just have more and more moments where they're spending time together like one on one and theyre like???? hey we actually do have a lot in common because of our upbringings and we can give each other diff perspectives about how to deal with the expectations that were imposed on us growing up
like stella has reacted to being in the spotlight as a princess by being aggressively and unapologetically herself. shes not afraid of fucking up but shes like inifinitely empathetic and kindhearted. sky is kinda the opposite where he's always tried to mold himself into expectations and really lean into this idea of being a leader-prince charming type guy. and basically they teach each other how to Be A Royal in a way that allows them to be their truest selves. like sky helps stella figure out how to use Royalty Etiquette and Rules to get her way and stella helps sky figure out how to let loose and not be so bogged down by duty all the time
