Blood & Roses

Poppy Love

It's soulmate meet up time- or at least realization for one half.

I'm so bad at writing people I don't really watch, sorry to any Cleo enjoyers ;-;

Chapter Specific TW's: heavy abelism/abelist language

~~ ~ ~~

"Hey, what time does your last class end at?"

"Hmm?" Grian hummed, looking up from his lunch to the person sitting across from him.

Etho, as the group all called them- because what kind of white parents would give their kid the name Ethereal?-, had their arms crossed on the table as they leaned forward on them.

The tall, slender enby had long dyed white hair that was pushed mostly out of their face by a headband, the rest cascading around the sides of their face, resting on their shoulders. A few fluffs of hair fell over their dark brown eyes, contrasting against their pale skin. They wore a tight black shirt and a puffy winter coat over top of it, as well as black jeans and boots. They also wore a simple black mask over their mouth and nose, primarily to help them with their facial dysmorphia. It helped them think that people couldn't be staring at weird parts of their face if no one could see what those features looked like.

"When's your last class? Joel and I were going to go out for a hike later today before the cold really sets in this weekend and we were gonna see if we could round up the entire group." Etho spoke up to explain their plans.

"Oh, um.." Grian hummed as he thought about his schedule for the rest of the day, "I have class at 1, so I should be pretty free by 2? Uhh, make it 3 cause I'll probably change before we go out."

"That's perfect, actually. Our last class ends at 3." Etho chuckled softly, "I was thinking of hiking around the Pleasant Point trails across town. It's really pretty this time of year."

"That does sound really pretty." Grian hummed softly at the idea, "Sounds like a plan."

"Hell yeah. We'll see you out there." Grain could tell Etho was grinning by the tone of their voice, watching them as they stood up. They offered a fist towards Grian and he lightly rolled his eyes before bumping their fist with his own.

~~ ~ ~~

As 3 pm slowly rolled around, Grian found himself finishing getting ready in his room. He was wearing a simple, long sleeved shirt and jeans, a thin red jacket, and a black beanie on his head. He was currently sitting on the floor of his bedroom, tying his black boots. Tango was out of the dorm at the moment, having gone out for an event somewhere on campus. Grian didn't really care.

Grian's phone suddenly dinged from next to him and he grabbed it, glancing at the message.

Etho.
"We're heading to the park now. We can find somewhere to meet up when we get there."

"Sounds good." Grian sent back before adding a second text, "I'm just about to head out myself."

His phone dinged again a moment later as Grian was standing up.

"Bet."

Another ding.

"Party is just You, Me, Joel, & Cleo. That's all I could convince to come along. Everyone else is busy."

Grian nodded to himself as he headed to the door, grabbing his keys from the hook by the door. He closed and locked the door on his way out, hoping Tango had his own keys on him.

He left the dorm building a few moments later, jogging down the stairs and out to the parking lot. He made his way out to his little red car and unlocked it, climbing into the driver's seat. He buckled up before starting the car and backing out of his spot.