the flower boy.

four.

that friday, sam worked up his courage to visit the flower shop again.

"where are you off to?" his mother asked, her tone mildly displeased and her words mildly slurred.

sam could smell the odor of cheap alcohol on her breath; she had taken a few drunken steps towards him. he felt his stomach churn and his breathing quicken.

something felt terribly wrong.

he couldn't say anything, even if he tried—which he so desperately was. all that came out of his mouth was a stammering mess of ums and uhs.

"why don't you ever fucking speak to me?" she demanded, her voice breaking painfully.

sam couldn't breathe. he tried to take in deep breaths, to tell himself that his mother was just having one of her episodes again, that everything would be fine, but—

slap.

his hand flew up to his face where his mother had just hit him. an angry, burning sensation spreading across the handprint. tears blurred his vision.

"get out."

—

he was sitting on the ground underneath a large magnolia tree, rolling a dainty little daisy in his palms when, suddenly, he heard faint crying from only a tree or two away. gabriel looked up, his green gaze sweeping the small, grassy meadow he often frequented whenever he was bored out of his mind. there was always something interesting there.

and today, that something was a little boy crying into the sleeve of his stained and tattered sweater, his other hand digging into the earth.

gabriel kneeled down beside the boy, his hand slowly resting on his shaking shoulder. the sniffling boy's hand fell from his face.

"sam," he breathed.

sam's heartbeat haltered, just for a moment. his wide, brown eyes glittered with large, jeweled tears, ones that had not yet escaped down his rosy red cheeks. a weak, pitiful sob escaped his lips before he fell into gabriel's arms, burying his head into the crook of his neck.

the first thing sam noticed was that gabriel smelled distinctly of lavender and grass and that sweet scent of wet earth after a light rain.

the second thing was that the feeling of gabriel's arms wrapped around him was a wonderful thing.

"it's okay, i've got you now," he whispered, sending odd shivers down sam's spine.

sam choked back tears, attempting to calm himself down. god, you're so fucking stupid. such a burden. such a fucking burden to every fucking person around you. pathetic. fucking pathetic.

he was about to go down a down spiraling of degrading thoughts.

but then gabriel's freckled fingers were suddenly in sam's reddish-blondish hair, ruffling the wavy strands, making him feel incredibly alive, tingly sparks igniting from wherever he touched sam, setting fire to his insides, the kind of fire that makes you feel so hopelessly lost in something you can't even start to comprehend, a dangerous maze of emotions.

gabriel was the centre of that maze.

sam relaxed, melting into the warm embrace that gabriel had him in. he leaned against the tree, running his fingers through sam's hair, whispering sweet nothings into his ear until the sun slowly lowered himself from his watchful post in the sky, heading home for the day.

and what a day it had been.

—

sam had fallen asleep with his head in gabriel's lap. he wasn't quite sure how sam had gotten there, but he had been staring up dreamily at gabriel, his eyes red from either a lack of sleep or crying or both. gabriel listened silently to the quiet whispers of sam in his sleep, something about green eyes and curly black hair. a small smile tugged at the corners of gabriel's lips.

looking down at sam, he could tell the boy was pretty. maybe not in a conventional way; his face wasn't perfect, nor was it symmetrical, but he had the cutest button nose and wide, brown eyes.

no, gabriel—you can't be falling for anyone. especially not a boy. you are a florist, and you have a shop and a dog to take care of. you cannot do... whatever you're doing. you have more important things to do than pine after a—

goddamnit, he's gorgeous, he found himself thinking with a soft sigh. gabriel brushed a lock of reddish-blond hair out of sam's eyes, and he smiled in his sleep, the cutest smile gabriel had ever seen.

okay, well, maybe bailey and the floristry can wait.

———

bailey is the name of his dog by the way, because i really didn't make that clear

it's also the name of the stuffed reindeer i sleep with bUT YOU DIDN'T HEAR ANYTHING SO
DON'T BLACKMAIL ME
ples

<3
(because i'm too lazy to make it pretty or ehateverh i need to sleep)