Stop and Smell The Flowers!

Hi there! Garrett is my name! I love flowers and flowers love me. In fact, they seem to sprout whereever I go! Sorry about the hardwood.

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“I love flowers, when I stayed at my family’s country estate I use to make floral arrangements for each of the rooms.” She smiled  thinking about her old life. “Um, I think I do… I have never met the one for this ward though.”

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Garrett smiled at that. “That’s excellent really. What’s your favourite flower?” He thrummed with excitement, as he loved talking about the plants that always seemed to follow him everywhere. More daisies sprouted. “Third ward...? That’s the one with the dark hair. The man. He is very pretty, but I don’t know if he’s nice.”

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The power of floral arrangements || Kaliyo and Garrett

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Kaliyo grinned, pleased that she had managed to teach a being of immeasurable power (and beauty not too far behind) about something so small as a linguistic expression. When he asked her what chocolate was, however, she made a sound of utter disbelief. “You’ve never had chocolate? Or caramel?” She leaned closer to him, visibly concerned. 

“We need to fix that, they’re the most delicious things in the world! Chocolate is made out of cocoa beans, which are cocoa tree seeds so - plants. And milk, and sugar, so on and so forth for chocolate bars. And caramel is actually just boiled sugar. It’s yellow and sticky and in a Mars bar it’s the most wonderful thing. Nougat is a mixture of nuts, sugar, honey I think and something else to give it consistency but I can’t remember what. I wish we had some chocolate in the shops, I’d buy you a bar immediately. Actually, I’m going to check if they do, and bring you one next time.”

Kaliyo shrugged, shaking her head at the same time. They had never, indeed, asked her about her heart flower but now she was definitely curious. “You might be right. But anyways what’s a heart flower, really?”

Without a pot at hand any time soon, it fell to Kaliyo to empty the contents of her mug, setting it down between her feet to pull the teabag out. She then proceeded to carefully pour the dirt and the flower into the mug, looking up at the man every so often in case she was messing it up. “Just add water! I’ll keep it as long as I can. By the way, you never told me your name, did you?”

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“Nope,” he answered, popping the p. He hadn’t meant to upset her, and the face she was making showed him that the prospect of having never had chocolate was upsetting to her. However, when she launched intot he explanation of what each thing was, he listened intently. “But the cocoa bean is so bitter. I feel as though it would make any food taste foul.” When she offered to buy him one, he shook his head. “I couldn’t allow that. You should save your money.” What had he done to warrant a gift, after all? But then... he supposed he was a little hypocritical. The Blue Iris in her palm spoke to that. But that was different. That had taken no effort.

“It’s the flower that is the closest to what you’re like. It’s a concept mostly acknowledged by people like me, who can hear the whispers of the plants.” He nodded. “Mine is a daisy! They grow around me most often.” In truth, there was a small field of daisies which seemed entirely centered on where he was seated. “It might take some time to find.”

As she poured out the mug, he watched intently. It housed the plant well, he though. “Good!” he encouraged. “Very good. It will need a bigger pot as it grows, but that should be perfect for now.”

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Roommates and Roses || Garrett and Athos

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Athos hummed in pleasure, his own tongue dancing up to greet Garrett’s. He moved the hand in the faerie’s hair down, sensually dragging it down his back, stroking his wings.

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Garrett shuddered as his wings were touched, feeling heat shoot downward. His hips pressed into Athos’ as he allowed their tongues to move together. As he pressed against the other, his breath hitched.

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Roommates and Roses || Garrett and Athos

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Athos parted his lips for the faerie, giving him permission to enter his mouth, or keep nibbling his lips, he honestly didn’t care either way.

He groaned quietly at the tugging on his hair, and leaned back till he was laying on the thickly covered ground, faerie on top of him. The hand on Garrett’s back strayed lower till he was gently but firmly grasping the younger man’s rear.

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Garrett’s tongue did dart in to taste the inside of Athos’ mouth, running over the roof of it slowly.

As he was moved the fairie gave a soft sound, but found that he quite liked being on this massive chest. He certainly didn’t have to worry about hurting the other man with his size. Some of the other fairies he’d been with had had that concern. He was very tall, after all.

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The power of floral arrangements || Kaliyo and Garrett

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It amused her to watch him try out the sentence and figure out its proper inflection. “Usual emphasis is on the ‘shit’. Sometimes both that and ‘Sherlock’, though.”

Kaliyo couldn’t imagine someone never having tried a Mars bar, delicious goodness that it was. “It’s a candy bar, chocolate with a layer of caramel and one of nougat inside it. But in the States they’re just like Snickers bars, and our Mars bars are called Milky Ways…I think. Took me long enough to find that out, I don’t even like almonds that much. Anyway, one of those - chocolate, caramel, nougat - deep fried in batter is a sort of delicacy back in Scotland. If you ever go, make sure to try one.”

Pausing, Kaliyo chuckled. “This is one conversation I never thought I’d be having, I’ll tell you that much.” She watched him approach while wondering what a heart flower was - maybe one’s personal spirit flower, like a spirit animal but different culture? Kaliyo couldn’t offhand remember what a blue iris was, but she still watched excitedly as he covered her hand with his and a single blue flower with rays of yellow from its center sprung up from her own hand once he uncovered it. She smiled, looking up at him. “It’s lovely, just my kind of blue. Reminds me of a kaleidoscope shape. Thank you.”

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“Thank you,” he said. “No shit, Sherlock. I like that. I’m going to use that!” He sat back into the grass.

He cocked his head. “What’s chocolate?” he asked. “And caramel? And nougat? Noooo-gut. I like that one.” He didn’t know what she was talking about, but she seemed excited about it. “I know almonds! Almonds grow, so... But I don’t really eat them much. I always feel bad eating the plants, but they seem to forgive me for it.” He nodded his head again. “But I’ll surely have one if I ever have the opportunity.”

“What do you mean? About your heart flower? Don’t people ask you?” He shrugged. “I guess they wouldn’t. People don’t pay enough attention to flowers, in my opinion.” He bounced on the balls of his feet.

He smiled with her, glad that she was happy. “You’re very welcome, Kaliyo. If you put it in a pot, it will grow for you,” he promised. “Just feed it and water it and give it sun.”

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Roommates and Roses || Garrett and Athos

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Athos quite eagerly kissed him back, carefully moving a hand to rest on Garrett’s lower back, the other tangling in his hair. He rather liked the ivy in his hair, taking it as a very good sign.

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Garrett gave a soft giggle against the other man’s lips. He moved to crawl into Athos’ lap, biting at his lip. His hands pulled at Athos’ hair gently.

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Roommates and Roses || Garrett and Athos

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Athos smiled, pressing a tender kiss to Garrett’s nose. “I love flowers,” he purred, growing excited and aroused with the faerie. He really, really wanted to “play” now, and all this groundcover was really quite useful for that sort of thing.

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Taking the tone of his voice as a signal that Athos wanted to start playing, Garrett crawled into his lap to press a kiss to his mouth. His hands moved to tangle in the Incubus’ hair, and little ivy bits threaded through it. But that was an accident on Garrett’s fault. At least they were pretty.

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The power of floral arrangements || Kaliyo and Garrett

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“An expression of what?” he asked simply, moving to pet his venus fly trap, Hyacinth, under the chin. She was out here in her pot to be around the other flowers; she was less rude that way. 

As she spoke, the flowers grew much slower. She had made him a little bit sad, after all. “Oh. That’s too bad. I’m sure she was wonderful.” Well, he didn’t know. But he liked to believe that all Nans would be wonderful. And that they would all smell of nice things. And give excellent hugs.

At her excitement, he perked up. “Yes! They just follow me around and pop up whenever I’m about, I suppose. They love me. And I love them, too. So they let me grow them. I can grown anything. What’s your favourite plant?” He looked at her. A favourite plant told him a lot about a person.

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“Uhhhhhhhhhm…” Kaliyo paused, wondering how to better explain the complexities of verbal communication while she watched the man - probable faerie, rather - pet a venus fly trap like it was, well, a pet. “That was me expressing excitement and disbelief by using the expression ‘well slap my ass and call me Timothy’. Only I think the default name is Sally? But Sally isn’t as much fun. There’s others, like ‘fuck me’ for frustration amongst other things - it depends on tonality or it can go somewhere very different - there’s also ‘no shit, Sherlock’ for when you’re being told something you already knew…”Kaliyo shrugged.

“She was. Made the best deep fried Mars bar in the world as well.” So much so her mother had had to put a stop to it eventually, lest all four of them got diabetes out of visiting nan. She took a sip of her drink while the man explained how his power worked. Eventually, Kaliyo had on her face a grin of wonderment with a dash of endearment. Normally, perhaps before all of this, she would have laughed at a man who said that plants loved him and he loved them back as though plants could actually feel feelings but nowadays she wasn’t so certain of anything to be that cynical.

His question stumped her - no pun intended. “Oh! I dunno. Um, um…” She looked around. “Something purple or blue, kind of large…” Gaining a second wind of sorts, she piped up again. “Or tiny, so I can make flower crowns with them. I can rock those and a sundress so well it’s as if it doesn’t rain 75% of the time where I’m from.” Looking up at him she smiled. “Tell you what, you’re the expert, why don’t you see which kind of flower you feel belongs to me?”

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He only half understood, but he listened intently to the human anyway. He was certainly interested in whatever she might say, as long as she wasn’t suddenly a mean person. “No shit, Sherlock,” he tried. “No shit, Sherlock. No shit, Sherlock.” He tried out all the emphasis possibilities, quite content with himself. After a moment, he looked back to her, now listening to her talk of her Nan. She was wonderful. Oh, that was excellent.

“What’s a mars bar?” he wanted to know. “I know mars the planet. How do you fry a planet?” Other beings were weird and he didn’t understand them. But he tried. After all, fae weren’t the only things that lived on this earth, as this safehouse made very clear.

As she floundered, he considered. “Hm... I can’t choose your heart flower for you! But... I like blue irises!” He caught her hand and cupped is own over it. When he pulled away, a blue Iris sat in a small pile of soil in her hand. “It means hope and faith to the humans! I just think it’s very pretty. And it’s blue, like you asked for.”

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Roommates and Roses || Garrett and Athos

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Athos nodded, ever so gently stroking the broad surface of one of them. “They’re absolutely amazing. And I happen to be very fond of the colour blue. It’s the colour of the sky, and makes me think of home.”

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“Well,” he said with a smile, his body relaxing into Athos’ touch. “It’s good you like blue. Because that would be sort of awkward if you didn’t.” He turned toward the other man, moving to run his hand over Athos’ broad chest before pressing a kiss to his cheeks: first one and then the other. If Athos wanted to play, Garrett was very good at these sorts of games. Though he couldn’t help the steadily sprouting lavender.

“Sorry if there are too many flowers in your apartment,” he said shyly.

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Roommates and Roses || Garrett and Athos

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Amos took a moment to take in the sight of the faerie man. He was beautiful, in the most charming way, and the wings only added to it.

He grinned in kind, chuckling softly.

“I love it. You’re quite beautiful, you know. I especially love the wings.” He added, reaching out to touch, but then stopping, unsure of whether it would be okay or not. Some butterflies died, or at the very least were unable to fly when a human (or humanoid) hand touched their wings, and he certainly did not want that.

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Garrett was glad to not have to uphold his glamour at the moment. It made it easy to relax fully. His wings fluttered excitedly as he rolled his shoulders. Watching the other, he was glad that he seemed pleased and not concerned or afraid. Garrett hated frightening people. He had done it before, by accident, and it always made him so sad.

“Thank you,” he said graciously. “I like myself well enough. Even though I’m blue.” He watched as Athos reached out to touch and nodded encouragingly. “You can touch them as long as you don’t pull. They are much stronger than butterfly wings. They just look like them.”

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She chuckled before noticing the flowers sprouting at his feet. “Oh daisies, how lovely!” She smiled before looking back up at him. “It’s quite useless if I cannot live in it. I suppose I’ll have to go to the Resident Manager.”

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He looked down before grinning. “Well, daisies are my favourite, actually. Do you like flowers?” As she mentioned the Resident Manager, he nodded. “They would be able to help. Do you know where they are?”

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The power of floral arrangements || Kaliyo and Garrett

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The question caught Kaliyo so off guard she simply stared at the man wide-eyed before giggling in delight. “No, it’s an expression. My name is much better than Timothy, I agree.” Good to note he had ignored the ‘slap my arse’ part, at least. 

“I do too,” Kaliyo nodded, apologetic. “But that was a long time ago. Well probably not, relatively speaking, but for me anyway. Nan died when I was fourteen, there was no reason to go back.” Once again, Kaliyo’s eyes widened as little blue flowers sprung about his feet. “That’s-” She looked up at the man again, bewildered. “You make flowers!”

The more he went on, weaving actual nature from out of nowhere, the wider her mouth went. She half-ran over to where the action was taking place, a seat being made out of branches and flowers where he told her to sit. “Oh my stars,” She exclaimed, her drink sloshing out of her mug as she sat. “That is legitimately amazing. You’re amazing!”

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“An expression of what?” he asked simply, moving to pet his venus fly trap, Hyacinth, under the chin. She was out here in her pot to be around the other flowers; she was less rude that way. 

As she spoke, the flowers grew much slower. She had made him a little bit sad, after all. “Oh. That’s too bad. I’m sure she was wonderful.” Well, he didn’t know. But he liked to believe that all Nans would be wonderful. And that they would all smell of nice things. And give excellent hugs.

At her excitement, he perked up. “Yes! They just follow me around and pop up whenever I’m about, I suppose. They love me. And I love them, too. So they let me grow them. I can grown anything. What’s your favourite plant?” He looked at her. A favourite plant told him a lot about a person.

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“Oh, oh my. I am standing in the hall yelling aren’t I? I am so sorry. The lock is just jammed… I think?”

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“Well, yes. I thought you knew that you were doing that.” He bounced on the balls of his feet, daisies springing up around him. As she mentioned the door, he frowned. “Well that’s no good. What good is a house if you can’t get inside?”

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“Damn these keys, do any of the locks work on this damn floor.”

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“You seem upset. Can I help?”

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The power of floral arrangements || Kaliyo and Garrett

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Vaguely recognizing the language in which the man was singing, Kaliyo smiled as she approached, and only smiled more as she noticed the pointed ears and his skin hue. An honest-to-goodness fae, without the things they did to appear as humans (she had managed to learn that much), standing by a bunch of flowers singing in Gaelic. It was like a fairytale. “Well slap my arse and call me Timothy.” She murmured. 

When he changed to look like any regular human Kaliyo couldn’t help a split-second of disappointment. “It’s Kaliyo, the name. Sorry to startle you. That was Gaelic you were singing in, yeah? Which kind? I lived in the Highlands for a while as a child, my nan was Scottish and she spoke a bit of it. Picked it up while I was there but now I can only recognize the sounds.”

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“Why would I call you Timothy?” he asked. “Is that you nickname?” He cocked his head, confusion on his face. “Quite honestly, Kaliyo is prettier to me.” As she spoke of her roots, he grinned. “Really? Oh, I wish you could still speak it. Then I would chatter at you. It comes so easily, and it reminds me of my family.” Little blue forget-me-nots sprouted at his feet. “But that’s all right. I’m where the humans call Ireland. Or I was.  Now I’m here. Obviously.” He gave a small laugh.

“Sorry, you said you came to visit the flowers? They love visitors, not that anyone ever asks them how they feel but me.” He gestured to a grass spot where a bench of natural branches formed and flowers began to weave themselves through the gaps in the wood. “You can sit there!”

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Roommates and Roses || Garrett and Athos

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Athos nodded. “I wouldn’t ask otherwise.”

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Garrett considered before nodding. “Well, all right.” He let the glamour fad away slowly; he didn’t want to overwhelm Athos with a sudden drop of the concealing magic. The first thing that came out were his pointed ears, which poked out of his hair easily and gave him an entirely whimsical look. As the glamour continued to fade, his skin went blue--a light blue in the center of his face and much more concentrated around his hair line and the tops of his ears. It was a healthy sort of blue, not some icy or suffocated blue that was tinged with whites or purples. This blue had the yellow and grey undertones of the sky when it was sunny and there wasn’t a cloud to be seen except for the whispy cirrus. 

More fading and his eyes when black in the sclera, the blue colouring his pupil now. He grinned as his fingers elongated and thinned, a fourth knuckle popping to life. As a matter of fact, much of him was thinning out. He had always been light and delicate, like a bird, or a butterfly. This latter was more accurate, he supposed. After all, his enormous wings, given to him by a loving blue butterfly who had kissed his nose before she died, fluttered in excitement as they unfurled form where they were always forced to press close to his body. As the last of the glamour melted away, Garrett still grinned, but hsi smile rested in a much more aquiline and pointed face.

“Ta da!” he said in excitement. 

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The power of floral arrangements || Kaliyo and Garrett

lookhowyourgardengrows

The same second news had sprung out about the storm’s end and subsequent lift on lockdown, Kaliyo thought to explore the locations adjacent to the safehouse proper - starting with the garden. She liked flowers, always had, and if she hadn’t been too busy learning how to slip in and out of places undetected she might even have learned how to garden. Not to mention, flower crowns looked fabulous on her head.

She walked in with a song in her head and a cup of something warm in her hand, tapping her fingers against the mug and stopping abruptly at the sight of someone else. A new person! Trying to curb her excitement, which was unbecoming and really not that warranted, Kaliyo inhaled sharply.

“Hiya! Not interrupting anything, am I? Just came in to properly enjoy the fact that I do not suffer from any sort of pollen allergy.”

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Garrett had immediately come out to the garden after the all clear had been given. He now stood surrounded by the flowers he had grown, trying to make sure nothing had drowned in the water. As he did so, he sang in a strong tenor a song in Gaelic as he did a little jig for the tulips. He had already seen to the vegetables, and most of them were all right. The tulips needs uplifting, but the sunflowers glowed in the new sun.

When he focused on his plants, Garrett often forgot to uphold his glamour. So his ears were pointed and his skin was beginning to tint blue again as flowers sprouted up. Of course, he hadn’t expected to be walked in on. So the voice that spoke up had him jumping, startled. “Oh. Er... hello, new person.” He swallowed. He probably looked weird to her. Withing seconds, his skin went back to ‘normal’ and his ears rounded off.