Flowers

272 6 4

by leafkinz

by leafkinz

//based on the au that flowers grow from your skin where your soulmate has injuries//

EVAN.

Evan has grown flowers, just like everyone he knows, since he was just a toddler. Scraped knees, cut fingers, and other childhood injuries were easy to tell from the tiny flowers that grew on top of his skin. As he got older, the flowers popped up less - growing up meant falling down less, his mother told him. He always felt bad, knowing the person he was destined to be with was getting hurt, but he loved to look at the violets and buttercups as they bloomed across his legs and hands.

But that was before it started when he was a young teenager.

Fiery red and orange petunias blooming across his inner wrist. He knew from his mother's studies - on her off time, she went to school and studied the meanings behind different flowers and colors - that these flowers signified burns. Not horrible ones, but hot enough to hurt.

The first and second time it happened, Evan didn't think anything of it. Sure, it was weird that it was near the same spot, but people get burns from all kinds of things all the time.

It wasn't until the third time that he realized - these burns were intentional. And judging by the placement, self-inflicted.

The flowers became less than pretty in Evan's eyes, and he dreaded the late nights when they would appear on his arm. A chorus of "no, no, no" would fall silently from his lips as he cried, watching helplessly as one after the other grew, begging someone he didn't even know to please stop.

It never hurt him physically, but mentally, it was torture.

----

CONNOR.

Connor never cared much for the flowers that bloomed from his skin. Were they pretty? Sure. But they signified something darker, something bittersweet, and were a normal part of life. So most of the time, he ignored them.

He saw kids whose soulmates had gotten into car accidents, been in house fires, and gone through other horrible things - the flowers that covered their bodies were huge and typically stayed for weeks due to the serious injuries the other person had sustained. The thought made him shudder.

But Connor's "soulmate" - something he truly believed he didn't even have - seemed to be fairly careful. A few cuts and bumps proved they were still alive, but anything worse rarely popped up. Until that day.

The summer before his senior year of high school. Connor was sat inside, minding his own business, scrolling through some social media site no one really cared to notice him on, when it happened.

A sudden, searing pain sent a blossoming of giant flowers up his entire forearm. He almost screamed, shoving his laptop away from himself. It happened so quickly he feared they were both dying. But once the pain subsided, he was left staring at a patch of what he recognized as purple dahlias, with his palm covered in buttercups.

God, if only he paid enough attention in school to know what they signified.