[COMPLETED] Poppies and Roses: A Flower Husbands Fanfiction

Chapter 8 - Surprise

CW: minor panic attack

It takes me three days to finally work up the courage to tell Scott how I feel. We're not in the Fairy Fort like usual. As much as we love everyone there, we wanted to spend a day at home.

Last night was one of the only nights I didn't have nightmares. Whenever I have nightmares, which is almost every night, I go over to Scott's hobbit hole. He's been joking that we should just share his house and turn mine into storage.

Right now, we're hanging out in my hobbit hole. Everything's amazing right now, and so I decide to take advantage of it. Hopefully if I tell him now, things can't go too horribly.

"Scott, I have to tell you something. Something important." I put my hands in my lap in an effort to hide that they're shaking. Holy moly, this is harder than I thought it was going to be.

"What is it?" Scott asks, giving me an encouraging smile. Is it that obvious that I'm nervous?

I take a shaky breath. "Scott," I start, then take another breath. "Scott, I-" Suddenly Scott cuts me off, putting a hand over my mouth. At first I'm hurt, but then I see his terrified expression. Confusion is slowly replaced with fear as I hear it too. Footsteps. Almost exactly above us.

There's multiple pairs of footsteps and hushed voices. Whoever it is, they're trying to be discreet. I hope against hope that it's not humans here to capture us.

Scott leans close to me and whispers, "We need to get out of here." I just nod. I'm too frightened to speak.

Scott slowly leads me to the door and we step out into the sunlight. At first, there's only silence and I think that maybe we were just imagining things. Then I hear someone shout, "Grab them!" I turn around and see a group of people, all holding weapons.

I freeze, but Scott grabs my arm and pulls me away. He leads me to a little alcove I'd never noticed before. My breaths are fast and shallow and my mind is racing so fast that I can barely hear my own thoughts.

Scott puts his hand on my shoulder. I look up at him, hoping that he has some great plan to save both of us. But instead, his expression is guilty. "I'm sorry, Jimmy," he whispers, before vines start to wrap around my legs.

I look at Scott in horror. It's clear he's holding back tears. "I'm so sorry," he whispers again, "but this is for your own safety." He's running away before I can process what he said.

The vines have finished trapping my legs and are now covering my arms and mouth. It's only when I'm fully trapped that I realize what's going on. Scott sacrificed himself to save me.

I try to cry out, but the vines block any sound. I can hear the sounds of fighting and it gives me hope to know that Scott is still alive, that he's not caught yet.

But then I hear a cry of pain and the sounds stop. "Tie it up," a voice says. "Looks like our accomplice was right. You, go find the other one."

My heart is beating impossibly fast as I hear footsteps slowly coming closer. Tears start to roll down my cheeks because I know I'll be caught.

A young woman with red hair in a braid down her back looks into the alcove. When she catches sight of me, she pauses. If I didn't know better, I'd said she looks sympathetic.

"No one's here," she calls, startling me. "He must have escaped." She gives me a quick smile before ducking away.

"It must have escaped," I hear the voice from earlier growl. "Well, one is better than none. We'd best be heading back."

As the sounds of talking and footsteps fade, I try to escape the vines, but they're too strong for me to break. After a few tries, I give up. Scott's gone. Scott's gone and I'm trapped and nobody from the Fairy Fort knows.

A small noise startles me. I glance up and see Grian peeking his head into the alcove. His eyes are wide and he keeps looking over his shoulder.

"Did you see what happened?" I ask. Grian nods. "I'm sorry I didn't help, but I thought it would be better to have someone left to tell the others what happened."

"I don't suppose you have anything to cut these vines," I say. "Actually, I do," Grian replies as he pulls out a dagger. I give him a suspicious look. "Where did you get that?" I ask. "Pearl gave it to me," he answers defensively. I raise an eyebrow and he shrinks a little under my gaze. "Well, I might've borrowed it," he mutters. "Please don't tell Pearl."

As soon as I nod, Grian gets to work cutting the vines. I'm worried that he'll accidentally cut my skin, but he's very careful to not so much as scratch me.

As soon as I'm free, we run back to the Fairy Fort. Everyone else is hanging around outside. They all turn to look at me and Grian as we rush in. Grian immediately runs over to Pearl and practically crushes her in a hug. Pearl looks down at him worriedly, as Grian's not one to give hugs.

Lizzie walks over to me. "Jimmy, what happened?" she asks. Then she looks behind me. "Where's Scott?"

"It's-Scott's gone, he-" My words are cut off as I start crying, the shock and adrenaline having finally worn off. I drop to my knees and then Lizzie's kneeling next to me, holding me close to her and running her hands through my hair. "Shhh, it's ok, everything's going to be all right," she whispers. I feel like a little kid, wanting the grownups to fix everything and make it ok.

Once my breathing has started to steady again, Lizzie pulls away, just enough so I can look at her. "Can you tell me what happened?" she asks gently.

My story is messy, with Grian adding some helpful explanations. When I'm finally done, everyone is trading worried glances. Cleo is holding Scar and Bdubs close to her and they don't pull away like they usually do.

Lizzie just looks at me for a minute before turning to Joel and asking, "Can you get him some hot chocolate?" Joel nods and leads me to his house, where he has me sit down while he makes the hot chocolate.

"Lizzie will come up with a plan," Joel says as he mixes chocolate into hot water. I just nod, worried that talking any more will make me start crying again. He hands me the hot chocolate and I thank him before taking a sip. It actually does make me feel a little better, and by the time I've finished, I feel well enough to join everyone else in coming up with a plan.

By the time the sun sets, I feel pretty good about the plan we've started to put together. It'll require everyone (other than the younger boys) and it'll be incredibly risky. It's not perfect, but it just might be enough to save Scott.

It has to be enough to save Scott. Because it's all we have.