Old Habits Die Hard

A living hell

Hiiiiiii!

Sorry to come back from an unplanned 6 month hiatus, especially with such a short chapter. The list of reasons I've been inactive is long and boring, so I'll spare you all the details. What's important is, in the words of our lord and savior Elton John, the Bitch is Back.

 I hope you enjoy!

...

"There you are!" Benny called the moment Gnomeo stepped into the garden.

Struggling to match Gnomeo's brisk walk, he continued, "I've been waiting for you to get back- where were you anyways?"

"Unimportant" was Gnomeo's uninterested response.

"Anyways... I was waiting for you to get back, so you can see what we've been up to."

"Not now, Benny. I need to talk to my mum. It's important."

Gnomeo came to a cold stop, however, when he noticed the Reds circled into a bustling crowd.

Disregarding the imaginary line that separated their gardens, Gnomeo approached and shoved his way past red gnomes until discovering an enraged Tybalt, desperately gripping onto half of his face.

The goons barely managed to hold Tybalt to the ground as he tried explaining to Lord Redbrick what happened.

Between abundant threats and profanity, Tybalt managed to utter some intelligible information. "-that cocky little bastard and the traitor, did this- I'm minding my business then a rock hits me in the face- I'll kill 'em! I'll kill 'em both! And you-" The sight of Gnomeo must have given Tybalt enough of an adrenaline rush to overpower the goons, for he was in his face in a second. "I'll deal with you later. For now, I have something more important to deal with. If you would please get out of the way??"

But Gnomeo didn't move. "I'm sorry this happened, Tybalt, but you're hurt. You should rest. I'll give Benny a good talking to."

"Ha! Don't think I'll fall for that, do ya? For all I know, you were in on this. Now," Tybalt exclaimed as he shoved Gnomeo aside, "get out of my way!"

Gnomeo barely regained his balance before a group of Reds began pushing him all the way to the border and out of the red garden. Ending with a forceful shove, the crowd sent him tumbling to the ground.

With his nose in the dirt, Gnomeo heard Benny's overly-confident voice. "Back for more, ey Tybalt?"

Quickly turning to make sure his friend wasn't getting pummeled, Gnomeo was relieved to find Tybalt staying within the red garden.

"You little twat!" Tybalt called through a clenched jaw. "And you!" he exclaimed, pointing to Fawn with his free hand. "You backstabbing idiot, you tried to kill me!"

"Kill you?" Fawn asked, slightly surprised. "Break you? Yes. But kill you? If we wanted to kill you, you'd be dead. There are bigger rocks over here you know-"

"I don't care what you 'wanted' to do! Half of my face is smashed in!"

"Stop whining!" Fawn exclaimed, "you fall apart all the time. I'm sure you can get your slaves to glue you back together. It's not like you weren't broken in the first place, and that was your own hot-headed fault-"

Dropping his broken pieces to the ground, Tybalt reared his fists to cross the garden's border.

Fawn could easily tell Tybalt's punches were targeted at his face. Without time to even consider running, he closed his eyes and braced himself ... but nothing happened.

"Tybalt!" Lord Redbrick scolded, "That's enough!"

Fawn opened his eyes to find Tybalt's fists still raised in the air, his eyes staring straight into his own.

After a pause that felt like forever, Tyabalt turned back to the red garden.

"He he, that was close," Benny chuckled, nudging Fawn with his elbow, but the deer appeared too lost in thought to respond.

"Lord Redbrick, don't you think traitors should be punished?" Tybalt asked, still fuming.

"Yes, I do..." The garden leader hesitantly responded, weary of what Tybalt had in mind. "What are you suggesting? He may be a Red, but he's part of their garden now."

"Is he a red? Fawn has abandoned our garden for the blues, conspired against us, and threatened our safety-"

"He's right!" called a red from the crowd.

"I don't think he has any place in this garden..." Tybalt continued.

Gears evidently began to turn in Lord Redbrick's dusty old head. What better way to display his leadership and extrapolate the fighting than an official banishment? "Fawn," Lord Redbrick started, looking for the proper words to say, "you are henceforth banished from the Red garden. You are forbidden from setting hoove in the precipice of our um, garden. You are an enemy to our people and a threat to our safety and will be dealt with accordingly-"

"Ya hear that?!" Tybalt interrupted, "ya step hoove back over here and I'll kill ya, you bloody moron!"

All eyes were on Fawn in the blue garden. "So what?!" He finally erupted, "You guys think I'd ever want to come back? How psychotic do you have to be? You're a freaking idiot, Tybalt, and I'm going to make it my personal mission to make your life a living hell!"

Fixing things would be a little harder than Gnomeo thought...

—

"What's wrong, Juliet?" sighed a sleepy Featherstone.

"I can't sleep- got too much on my mind," Juliet gently replied.

"Me neither. What are you thinking about?"

"Just the gardens... and Gnomeo."

"Oh, ok. I was a thinking about a little frog I saw today but that too."

"Do you think he's alright?"

"I'm sure he's fine. Frogs are pretty smart creatures-"

"No, Featherstone, I meant Gnomeo."

"Ohhhhhh"

For a moment, only the crickets outside the greenhouse could be heard.

"Do you think... we should have gone back with him?" Juliet eventually asked.

"I thought you said they can't get along- that it's hopeless?"

"It may be, but who are we to give up the moment things start to fall apart? Gnomeo's back there and probably the only person fighting against this feud. Who's gonna keep him from getting himself killed" Juliet gently laughed at the thought of her lover's ridiculously impulsive behavior until she turned to see the look of distress on Featherstone's face. "It's okay, Featherstone," she assured, "you can stay here. I promise I'll come back for you- either with Gnomeo or to bring you back home-"

"No, no, you're good. It's just- even though it's scary, I want to go back with you..." Featherstone sighed. "I've sat by and watched my family be torn apart before. I won't let that happen again."

Juliet gave her friend an encouraging smile. "He's braver than most gnomes in the red and blue gardens," she thought, "to have gone through so much and still have the strength to remain optimistic. He's certainly braver than me."

Juliet tried to apply a bit of her friend's positive attitude to their current situation, but she knew their efforts would be in vain if they didn't devise a plan.

"There's just one problem," Featherstone added with a sigh, "we'll have to leave the orchid here all by itself..."

"Featherstone, you are a genius!"