Forget Me Not (TomTord)[Hanahaki AU]

-1-

He had been watching the boy ever since the store had opened. The place across the hall had once been a bakery, but now it had been replaced by some pop culture and clothing store. The place was quite big, for what it was; much larger than the little flower shop Tom and his best friend, Edd, who just happened to also be the owner. The shop had been there for years, somehow outliving store after store in the ever expanding mall.

The flower shop had not only been one of the boys' passions, but also Edd's genius idea to hide Tom's disease. His best friend was the only one who knew that he had it- Hanahaki. He had not coughed up a concerning amount of petals in years, but now that HE had shown up, Tom had felt the familiar feeling returning.

The boy was absolutely captivating. He had caramel brown hair that was just long enough to be kept in a ponytail, as it was most days. His eyes were emerald green, sparkling rather brightly in the dim lights of the store. There was no set uniform in the store; the boy wore a different outfit every day- always coordinated with a singular flower in his shiny hair. Today he wore an almost sparkly pale yellow shirt, metallic gold jeans, and what appeared to be boots the color of some sort of bronze. The flower in his hair was a yellow rose. A small black name tag with white type showed his name, and Tom wished dearly that he could see what it read. But he could never bring himself to approach the store, much less the boy.

"Hey, lover boy, wake up," Edd gently whacked the side of Tom's head, startling him back to attention. Tom had been staring out the window for quite a while, dreamily watching the boy across the hall.

"Sorry- sorry," he apologized, shaking his head, clearly embarrassed," Wait, what did you call me?"

"Come on, I've seen how you look at that boy. You're absolutely gaga for him, aren't you?" though he had stated it like a question, it was clearly rhetorical, no answer needed or wanted.

"But the sickne-"

"If you avoid everyone you ever have feelings for, you might as well just get the surgery." Edd said, gently patting Tom's shoulder before turning around and walking back to the counter.

Tom sighed; Edd was right. His solution to the problem wasn't any real solution. He was just running away. He covered his mouth, coughing lightly.

He took the petals in his hand, only briefly acknowledging that they were red rose petals, and dumped them in the trash as he stepped out of the shop and across the hall for the first time.