My Sweet Flower - Larry Stylinson

7

He soon spotted Zayn and Harry, sat together with two glasses of wine that Zayn had pulled from his bag, Harry had been Blindfolded with the velvet that had been holding his hair back so now his curls fell in small ringlets over his face, and he had a slight pout at the situation he was in.

Zayn smiled "So you have bested the other lads." The masked man nodded "I have indeed," Zayn shook his head "well you will not best me so might as well give up now." The masked man chuckled and sat in front of the two his eyes drifting towards Harry's pouted expression and royal clothing.

"Something tells me you will not be challenging me to a physical battle?" Zayn nodded "For me that would be suicide, I am what people would probably call the brains of the operation."

 The masked man smiled "So you are smart then?" Zayn smiled slightly "I suppose so," The masked man beamed "So I will challenge you to a battle of wits!" The man pulled a small brown tube from his belt and uncapped it a light powder dusting into the wind "Here smell this," he tilted it forward and Zayn warily smelled it "But I do not smell anything?"

The man nodded "Exactly, what I have here is one of the strongest sleeping spells in the world its odourless, dissolves instantly in liquid, colourless, and tasteless. Completely undetectable to an untrained man."

He took both wine glasses and hid them behind his back tapping the powder into a glass. Out of Zayn's sight "So which glass is the powder in?" he asked placing them before Zayn.

Zayn shrugged "I could not tell you, I only know that a smart man would take a risk and hope he had made the right choice, as I do not know you well enough to understand which glass you have put it in."

The man in front of him smiled, Zayn shrugged "It only puts me to sleep anyway, and I don't have much of a desire to murder princess here." he said jerking a thumb at Harry's blindfolded figure. "Let's drink then." Zayn smiled slightly as both took a sip of the liquid in front of them, moments later Zayn slumped to the side, sound asleep. The masked figure again propped him up in hopes that he would be able to breathe.

He spotted the royal crest at the foot of the hill and stepped over to the prince gently undoing the blindfold and tying the band into his curls with practiced hands, Harry opened his green doe eyes and looked at the masked stranger a slight fear in his eyes "who are you?"

The stranger shook his head "No one to be messed with, that's all you need know." He ducked to undo the restraints on Harry's wrists and ankles helping him up to his feet. Harry sighed "to think that you put it in Zayn's glass and not your own is risky."

The stranger shook his head and smiled "No they were both laced, but I am immune to that particular drug" He took Harry's arm and pulled him away to a ledge where he believed the royals would not find them when they passed by in search of Harry.

He sat Harry down on a rock and stood in front of him "I know who you are." the stranger tilted his head "Oh really?" Harry nodded "You're the dread pirate Roberts only such actions could belong to a man like you." he was biting his lip "Admit it".

The dark man in front of him smiled and bowed a little "With pride, what can I do for you then?" Harry grumbled and looked down feeling a leather finger tilt his chin up "What was that?"

"You can die and get cut slowly into a thousand pieces."

"Oddly complimentary your highness, why use your venom on me of all people."

Harry looked at him face blank "You killed my love," the other tilted his head "It's possible, I kill a lot of people," He began to pace slowly around Harry, "Who exactly was this love of yours? Another royal like the one that you are betrothed to ugly? Rich? scabby?"

Harry's eyes glossed over slightly "No" he whispered, "He was a farm boy, poor but it was perfect, eyes like the sea after a tough storm, on the high seas your ship attacked the Dread pirate Roberts never takes prisoners."

The man settled against a tree stump "Well I can't afford to make exceptions most of the time, I mean once word leaks out that a pirate has gone soft people begin to disobey and then it's nothing but insane amounts of work all the time," Harry cut him off "You mock my pain."

"Life is pain princess anyone who says differently is usually selling something."

Harry turned away, angrily wiping a tear from his cheek, whipping his head up when the man came back into his line of sight "I remember this farm boy of yours I think," He paused and looked at the slight tear stain on Harry's face "This would be what? Five years ago? Does it bother you to hear that?"

Harry shook his head "Nothing you can say will truly upset me," The man began his pacing again "He died well, that should bring you some comfort, there were no bribe attempts or blubbering, he simply said please, Please I need to live it was the please that makes me remember, I asked him what was so important for him to live."

He turned to Harry "Do you know?" Harry shook his head "Love, he said. He then spoke of a younger boy of surpassing beauty and faithfulness, I can only assume he meant you."

Harry looked up to the man eyes glassy "You should bless me for destroying him before he found out what you really are." Harry stood using his height against the man "And what am i?"

"The faithfulness he talked of princess, your ever enduring faithfulness, now tell me truly, when you found out he was gone, did you get engaged to your prince that same hour, or did you wait a whole week out of respect from the dead."

"You mocked me once, never do it again" the anger in the younger boys' voice made the older freeze "I died that day. I didn't sleep or eat for weeks. I lived on the brink of death to be closer to him, and he still never came back."

They both turned at the sudden sound of hoof fall spotting the royal guard along the hilltop. "And you can die to for all I care." Harry put his hands onto the shorter boys' shoulders and began to push just as the darker one lost his footing Harry heard an "as you wish," slip from the falling boy.

A gasp left Harry's mouth as he watched the shorter boy tumble down the steep hill, "Lou, my sweet Lou you idiot, you stupid stupid man." Harry muttered throwing himself down the hill after the other boy.