Ink Flowers

We shouldn't mix

A/N: enjoy
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The words stuck to his mind throughout the day:

"Stop being afraid and start being the hero you can be"

By the time Caspar had managed to get to his next class, he had those words branded on his memory.

Throughout the day, his friends repeatedly asked him what was wrong, and all Caspar could muster was a shrug.

He sat on the campus lawn, idly picking yellow flowers and trying to keep up his end of a conversation with Josh, Marcus, Mikey, and Alfie. His eyes were closed, his breathing even.

"What's with him?" Asked Alfie, and Caspar pretended he couldn't hear him. He plucked the flowers with more force.

Mikey sighed "Dunno, we think it has to do with the whole Joe picking a fight thing" Caspar's eyes flew open and he glared at Mikey, not entirely sure why he was suddenly so mad at him.

Mikey was a great friend, he considered Mikey one of his best mates, but right now all he wanted to do was rip him apart.

"Uh-oh, think he heard you" Alfie said, with a teasing smile.

But Caspar just grumbled a fuck you and went back to plucking flowers, ignoring the way his friends talked about Joe and the fight he had caused.

As their words wove conversations, Caspar wove flowers. Slowly, painfully slowly, Caspar started to get the decent shape of a flower crown.

"He's just an asshole" Mikey said, resting his head atop Josh's shoulder.

Marcus smiled "hey, that's what Conor called Caspar today!" He laughed, and Caspar stopped weaving flowers to look up, and he saw that Josh was smiling too, as if a memory involving Conor Maynard wasn't disgusting at all.

Maybe it wasn't. Maybe that was the problem. Caspar sighed, plucking white flowers to add to his hand made flower crown.

"He's actually quite funny, ain't he?" Asked Josh. And Marcus nodded his head "I liked the Oli guy" he said.

Caspar grumbled. They weren't supposed to like those guys, they were dangerous and liked to rip their clothes and kiss in corridors. They were the ones to do shot after shot and never drop dead, the ones that rode through the university as if they owned it, regardless of who liked them.

And yet, Joe always looked so miserable.

Not like Caspar cared. Caspar reminded himself he, in fact, does not care about Joseph Graham Sugg, and he put on his flower crown.

"Looks pretty on you, Caspar" said Mikey, his smile honest, so honest Caspar believed it for a moment.

"It's stupid" he muttered and took it off, starting to destroy it slowly, peacefully, with no anger.

His friends looked confused, but said nothing as they spotted someone who had been watching from afar, a slight blush covering his bruised face.

By his side, Oli and Jack waved at Josh, even if neither Caspar nor Joe saw.

Marcus, feeling left out, sat closer to Mikey, who he realized then, was looking intensively at Jack, who in return looked at Marcus. Marcus noticed right away how Jack seemed to try and tower over Joe, as if protecting him from a scene that wasn't meant to happen.

Because none of them had ever looked each other's way, let alone wave and stare. Something moved deep within Marcus chest, and he saw a world full of possibilities that all scared him too much.