Blood & Roses

Realization

Chapter Specific TW's: ableism/ableistic language, body horror, talk of things under the skin/in the body that shouldn't be there, unresolved conflict

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"Ow! Shit.."

Grian hissed as he clasped a hand to his forearm, gritting his teeth slightly. The young college student was sitting cross legged on his bed, wearing a soft red sweater, blue jeans, and black socks, having just been scrolling through his phone until the sharp nick had scratched itself along his arm.

He carefully parted his fingers as the pain soothed itself into a gentle throb. Already, a small green stem pushed through his skin from a faint mark, a soft white rose blooming a second later.

"They get hurt again?" His roommate snickered from across their bedroom, watching the flower bloom as well. He sat cross legged as well, a textbook in his lap and papers spread out all around him. He wore just a simple yellow t-shirt and blue jeans.

"Shut it, Tango." Grian huffed, launching his pillow at his roommate's face. Tango quickly ducked out of the way, throwing his own pillow back at Grian and successfully nailing him in the face.

"Shit!" Grian cursed as he tossed the pillow away, scrambling for his nightstand to grab a tissue, stuffing several of them against his now bloody nose.

"You're gonna fuckin suffocate them now, are you happy?" Grian huffed again. He knew his soulmate definitely had some sort of respiratory issue due to how often his own lungs, throat, and nose regularly got stuffed up with flowers, leaves, stems, and vines.

"Yeah, well, at least you didn't nearly kill your soulmate with a high school science experiment." Tango laughed, holding out his arms to remind Grian of the scattered burns and scars along his arms, both of them knowing more lie below his t-shirt, all along his front, from his shoulders, down to his hips.

"Yeah, yeah, we know. I'm sure everyone on campus knows how you've nearly killed your soulmate." Grian grinned around the tissues, snickering softly, "Surprised you haven't found them by how much you blab on about it."

"God, I wish I could find them already." Tango sighed, picking up his open textbook and looking down at the pages, "Yet, I'm still stuck here doing Calculus."

Grian laughed softly, pulling the tissues away from his nose and gently touching the bottom of his nose with his free hand to ensure the bleeding had stopped before leaning over to toss the tissues into the trash can sitting next to his nightstand.

"You and me both." Grian spoke, grabbing his own textbook from his backpack as he sat back up, flipping it open and grabbing his notebook and pen from his nightstand.

The two roommates worked in relative quiet for a while, Tango quietly humming whatever he had gotten stuck in his head most recently, jotting down equations in his notebook while Grian worked through his own problems.

A soft alarm broke them out of their trances about an hour later, Grian reaching over to grab his phone from his nightstand and silent the alarm.

"Fuck, it's 8 already? I still need to shower.." Grian huffed, tossing his notebook and textbook back into his backpack before standing up from his bed.

"Damn. I still haven't eaten either.." Tango and his stomach grumbled as he closed up his textbook, tossing it onto the floor somewhat near his own bag.

"Mmh, sounds like your soulmate is digesting flowers then." Grian laughed as he locked his arms together above his head and stretched backwards, his back popping several times with the action.

"Feels like the only thing they've eaten too.. I'm fucking starving." Tango spoke as he stood up as well, grabbing his jacket from the back of a chair by his closet, as well as a pair of shoes from the floor.