When Roots Grow Too Far, You Just Have To Dig Deeper

Chapter Five: When Can A Kidnapping Be Considered A Rescue?

When Nugget got to his next class after lunch, he couldn't focus on school work or the teacher's voice. The boy was filled with absolute glee about what he had seen; teens filing out of the cafeteria with one person having a tightly clenched fist on the hand correlated to Nugget's recent injury. Nugget was too overwhelmed that he actually forgot which person he saw, and then he filled with dread again.

Memories rushed of the encounter with Buggs and the embarrassment, his soulmate would probably hate him or worse, be afraid of Nugget. He was certain if he saw his soulmate again, he would recognize them immediately but what would he do if they wanted nothing to do with him? For the first time in Nugget's life, he was scared of rejection. A perfect storm had arrived for that to take place.

How could he express his feelings? Or rather did he have any at all? Why did he care? Nugget feared that he didn't feel anything for them at all except pity, pity that something was happening to cause flowers to grow on Nugget's chest and arms everyday. "Does Nugget actually love them....?" What did it mean to have someone be your 'soulmate?'

Nugget fought with himself unaware of the teacher until he was dragged out of the room and into the Nurse's Office. Honestly, Nugget forgot he was bleeding until he had glaze being shoved into his and with a bandaid. The nurse kept him there until he calmed down from his internal meltdown. But when he returned to class, only then did he notice the blood soaked worksheet. "Oh." Nugget whispered.

The day finished and the bell rang, but as several students rushed out of the building to finally escape their daily sentence, Nugget stayed behind. As he returned his things into his backpack, he noticed the rose that he had put in that morning, reminding him of his soulmate dilemma. Nugget held up the rose and looked at the intriguing design again, "so what if Nugget's Soulmate says 'no?'" The longer he looked at the bloom the more curious he got regarding the flowers, "where exactly did dark beauties come from?" He asked himself. The halls were growing quiet and Nugget realized if he was going to even get a chance to meet his Soulmate, his time was running out. So that's what Nugget did, what his time was doing and ran out, throwing the exit door open.

No one noticed Nugget's exit while he was searching for the one that he saw. However, Nugget couldn't find them anywhere, his soulmate was gone. Something slammed suddenly into Nugget's right side. It wasn't totally unusual for people to run into Nugget, Buggs usually pays people to do it. But by the time Nugget turned to face the perpetrator of the accident of flesh instead of metal, they were profusely apologizing quickly and running off to a waiting vehicle, cradling their left arm.

It took Nugget a solid two minutes to recover from the shock and realize that this was the person they were looking for! And they were getting away! Nugget started off and followed the vehicle, he was getting a good lead before remembering his last stalking attempt ended up with him in jail overnight. So Nugget stopped every once and a while to go into stores and back out to still follow the transport.

By the time the dark vehicle drove into the driveway, Nugget was exhausted. He concealed himself in the bushes and waited for the passengers to remove themselves. Two bodies got out and entered the premises, when the coast was clear Nugget slowly crept up to the door, debating himself if he should ring the bell. He stayed at the front for about an hour as he watched someone doing their homework from a window. Nugget was truly amazed at how stupidly a person could do their homework. He had messed up long division four times and he was still on question one. Yes, some quality entertainment for the Blonde.

He sat in silence, secretly watching the boy do his homework until Nugget heard something shatter, he felt his hair begin to curl. He put his hand in his hair and yanked, there was a fistful of daisies when Nugget's hand returned. The Underground Dweller quickly got up and tried to scope out a window and found one that shows some visibility from the kitchen. Glass covered the floor and there was a shoe poking out of the corner of a hallway. There was yelling that sounded like a serious argument, but only one voice was saying anything.

Nugget held his breath and waited until the The shouting stopped and he heard heavy footfalls up the stairs, but the shoe was still laying on the floor. "What should Nugget do?" He sat there for a few seconds before trying to open the window, surprisingly he was successful. He snuck as quietly as he could to the hallway and covered his mouth in shock, he hadn't seen that much blood since Kindergarten. Nugget crouched there before making a decision, "if Nugget's soulmate can't save themselves, Nugget will do it."

Nugget slowly placed his arms under the body's knees and neck, he braced himself for the weight he was about to carry. He was shocked when he stood up and felt how light his soulmate was. He held the body close to his chest and started to walk towards the door, he managed to get outside but as he was about to close the door, there was the Homework Failure looking terrified straight at him. Now to be fair, Nugget was creeping out of a house with a bloody body in his arms with the guiltiest look on his face, Nugget looked EXTREMELY SUSPICIOUS. But the boy just looked at him and slowly walked away, letting this happen.

Nugget went back to the Nugget Cave, the entire time counting his soulmate's heartbeats and feeling every breath. Nugget was trying to make sure that the person didn't just die in his arms. When Nugget arrived to his destination he unlocked the metal trapdoor and free fell into the Nugget Cave. Once he relocked the entrance, he walked over to the bed and placed the body down on a blanket and looked at the body, "Nugget just kidnapped someone. Nugget's Soulmate will wake up and not be home. But....."

Nugget gently started removing his soulmate's shirt and grabbed a first aid kit, "this, this is for their own safety, this was a rescue." Nugget started treating the several scars, cuts and bruises, that elective in Emergency Medicine actually paid off. Nugget finished the chest and moved on the arms, nothing too bad until he got to the left arm. Remembering the rose, he carefully started to treat it and placed something he didn't want to see in a drawer on the side table. Nugget finished up with removing the glass and applying bandages to the head before cleaning up and dressing them again in their shirt.

"Nugget has committed a kidnapping," he said pulling a blanket over the body and getting ready for bed, "but Nugget has rescued someone from danger." Nugget pulled out an extra blanket and settled on a beanbag chair furthest from the bed. "But when can a kidnapping be a rescue?"