Project: Neverbound (A Double Life AU fanfic)

10 - Two Birds and One Stone

"Scott, can you restock the snapdragon seeds in the front for me? I'd get it, but the manager really needs me to take inventory on everything right now,"

"Sure, don't worry about it El,"

Eloise sighed in relief, leaving a "You're the best!" before dashing off to do her job. At this time, Scott had just gotten out of school and had been working at the flower shop for a little over 6 months, being very intuitive when it came to the care and love for plant life due to his condition, which the shop also specialized in medication for. Most people called it a "flower connection," it's scientific name was "Cutis Floritis," and Scott called it a physical curse. Ever since he was around 12, flowers would randomly grow out of his skin, be it because his emotions were strong, he focused too hard on something, or, rarely, if he actually wanted them to appear. Most of the time it was okay, but every now and again there would be days where he had to stay in bed because a bad flower grew, or too many were growing for no good reason. Today was okay, thankfully, though at the mention of the snapdragons, he could feel one pushing against his elbow sleeve. He had half a mind to pluck it out, but his elbows were an especially sensitive spot to pluck flowers from, so he just tucked it down best he could against his forearm and hoped it didn't make him look that stupid before it went away.

As he came back from the back of the store, carrying a row of the seeds and putting the packets where they belonged on the shelf, he heard a voice from behind him.

"Umm... excuse me," they said nervously. Scott turned around to see a blonde male with a yellow feather behind his right ear looking back at him with deep brown eyes. His bandana fell to the right of his neck, covering the collar of his blue overcoat and white shirt underneath. His blue jeans were ripped and slightly muddy, a big contrast to his perfectly black and white sneakers. "I heard this shop has some medications for flower connections, do you know where I can get those?"

"Oh, of course, they're just at the front if you'll follow me," Scott said, leading him to said area, "do you have a prescription on you? Or if you're picking up for a friend I can get someone to check the database,"

"No, it's for me," the blonde said, "but I've only had it for a couple months and it hasn't gotten bad until last week, so I never actually got... prescribed anything yet,"

As he spoke, he fidgeted with his hands and sleeves, petals from growing flowers falling out and causing him to pick them up in a scurry. Scott immediately recognized the petals as from grey roses, symbols of anxiety.

"Hey, don't worry about it," Scott said, "I'll see when our next opening for an appointment is and in the meantime we can set you up with some temporary meds if you'd like,"

The blonde sighed in relief. "Oh my goodness, thank you so much,"

"I don't suppose you know anyone else with it?" Scott asked, searching the shelves for the medicine he'd mentioned earlier. "I find learning about it helps a bit"

"No, no one I know of," he said. "Do you?"

"Yeah, I know myself pretty well," Scott said, grabbing a piece of paper out of his pocket notebook and a pen as he let a poppy grow on the back of his wrist, showing it to th blonde as a demonstration, "I'll need your first and last name for the appointment, and I can give you my number if you'd like to ask me anything,"

"Oh, uhm... sure! SolidarityGaming," he said his face going red, "most people call me Jimmy though."

"Alrighty then Jimmy," Scott said, writing his number on the paper and handing it to the blonde, "I'll let you know when we have an opening,"

With that, the two parted ways.

"Ooo, Smajor's got a boyfriend!" A girl giggled from behind Scott, staying silent for a few seconds before as Jimmy walked out. Now it was Scott's turn for his face to go red.