floriography [ stories five ]

thornless rose || polyamory thing

[ a thornless rose- love at first sight. early attachment. gratitude.
song- california friends by the regrettes

⚠️- obviously poly relationship, some language, concerned friends, etc

there might be a part two bc i rlly didn't get into much for this part wow

most of this was written almost two months ago wow

stay safe,
lew. ]

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Lewis is happy with Alex. Definitely. He makes Lewis feel so loved and special and needed, and has for so long.

But all of a sudden, Alex seems distant. He's just not as attentive as before. Always texting someone else, leaving and not calling to tell Lewis he wouldn't be home, and just all around giving Lewis bad vibes.

—

Alex always picks the worst times to want to talk. Like now, when he's sucking bruises into place on Lewis' collarbones.

"What do you think about adding another person to the relationship?" He asks, then goes right back to what he was doing.

Lewis literally whines, trying to free his wrists from where Alex has got them pinned against the bed. It doesn't work. "Can we talk about this when— when you're not doing this?"

"But I wanna talk about it now," he says with a shit-eating grin. He's careful as he lets go of Lewis' wrists and starts to unbutton the floral shirt wrapped around the other's thin frame.

Lewis stops him at the last button, pushing the older man off of him. "Let's talk about this before we forget to. We can continue this later, but—"

Alex is talking excitedly before Lewis can even finish his statement, pulling him into a sitting position. "There's this girl that I met at work. I like her a lot, and I think you'd get along with her. She'd be open to it, because I've already hinted, but if you don't like her, then she's gone. You're my number one, y'know?"

Lewis grows silent, chewing on his bottom lip for so long that Alex wants to take back the question. Finally, when he does speak, he's staring at his hands and his voice is so soft and unsure. "I, um— are you— Just tell me if this is just your way of saying that you'd rather be with a girl—"

Alex frowns, gently tilting Lewis' chin upwards to better look at him. "What? No. This is absolutely not me saying that. Lew, baby, what kinda person do you think I am? Forget I said anything—"

"If you wanna... then invite her over, I guess. I trust you. Don't... don't do anything too stupid. I gotta go meet Logan at the studio around six anyway." It's a lie, but he needs an excuse.

The air in here is suffocating now, the weight of Alex's words forming a pile of cinderblocks on Lewis' chest as he buttons his shirt again and leaves.

—

Logan can tell his friend is troubled as soon as he walks in. He looks like his mind is somewhere else, and it's such a good thing that he normally doesn't drive.

"Everything okay, dude?" Logan asks when he pulls the smaller man in for a hug. "You don't normally text me with an 'sos please let me come over and vent' message while we're off tour."

Lewis hugs back, and it takes all of two seconds for him to shake his head. "I think 'Lex might break up with me soon."

"Why?"

"It's really just something stupid. I'm... I'm a jealous idiot and... Promise you won't think differently of us when I tell you this?"

"Lewis... I dated you for over a year, I think I can handle a weird confession."

Before he can psych himself out, he just blurts his confession. "'Lex just asked if I'd wanna bring another person into the relationship and I feel like either he's bored of me or I'm not enough anymore."

Logan falls into one of his long silences, holding his friend close still as he thinks it over. "He's a dumbass, but he's not stupid enough to let you go. If you're gonna agree just to make him happy, don't do it. Don't make yourself miserable just to make someone else feel good."

Lewis takes a pause then, before affectionately pecking the younger man's cheek. "You're the best, sunshine."

"I know," Logan replies ever-so-humbly. "Now, are you going to go talk to him?"

"Do you think I should? I told him to invite that girl over if he wanted to—"

"It's a girl?" He sounds shocked, letting go and softly asking, "Does Alex know about—?"

"You're the only person I've told even though I should really probably fill him in on this." Lewis fidgets with the sleeves of his hoodie, sighing as he briefly closes his eyes to center himself. "It shouldn't be that hard. But... maybe I should meet the girl before I say anything to 'em. Anyway! Enough about my problems! How's the family?"

Logan looks as if he's going to scold Lewis, but the second that family is mentioned, the annoyance melts away.

——

Lewis leaves Logan's house with a renewed sense of confidence. But that fades when he sees the unfamiliar car in the driveway at home.

But he still goes inside, hangs up his keys like normal. And like normal, Alex hears the door opening, like an excited dog, and comes to give him a hug before he can really get too far into the house.

Alex doesn't give him time to shed his shoes and jacket though, before he's tugging him into the living room. He sits down on the loveseat and manhandles Lewis into sitting on his lap.

Lewis can't help but smile, until he remembers— "Alexander! You made me get mud all over the floor, you're gonna clean it up because I just got back from tour and already had to clean the house!"

There's a soft giggle that he doesn't recognize, too wrapped up in dealing with Alex to actually notice the blonde woman sitting across from them on the couch. He falls silent, shrinking against his boyfriend and waving shyly. "Hi, sorry 'bout that. Alex isn't good at keeping stuff clean."

"Oh my god, I know. He's the messiest guy at work and it seems like half my shift is just cleaning up after him," she laughs, giving him a warm smile. "I'm Z, by the way. It's nice to finally meet you."

"It's nice to meet you too," he responds, sliding into the spot next to Alex so he can wrap the older man's arm around himself. "So, um, tell me about yourself? I'm sure you've heard plenty about me from this dude but all he's said is that you work together."

"Really, man? You gotta work on communicating better." Her voice, although meant to sound scolding, only holds a hint of laughter. "Anyway. My real name is Daisy, I do photoshoots and things on the side when I'm not cleaning up the record store after Alex the Walking Tornado goes through, and I'm twenty five."

"Alex is twenty nine, and I just turned twenty six," Lewis informs her. His hand tangles with Alex's and it brings so much comfort, it has since they were shitty teenagers twelve years ago. "I'm gone a lot, since my friend Logan let me rejoin the band—"

"This is why Alex keeps on pushing With Love cds to people!"

Lewis turns to look up at Alex, who shrugs a little and smiles. "I'm proud, okay? And if the old band would've gotten its shit together and recorded an album, I'd push that one too."

Affectionately, he kisses the other man's shoulder, the only place he could reach easily. "You're a dork."

"Yeah, but I'm your dork."

They don't talk about the thing. They don't even bring it up, not until Z's already gone and they're getting ready for bed.