Stubborn Petals

Sixth place winner of Poetry to
Prose Contest, written
by Nicoismysenpai

Stubborn Petals

Even as a flower, Ryan was REALLY petty.

He couldn't really be blamed. After all, it was just his luck to have a homophobic witch as a stepmother. Literally. He had confessed to being gay, and BAM! Next thing he knew, he was a rose sulking in her massive garden.

"Come out to your mother, they said. She'll be okay with it, they said. They forgot to mention what to do if your mother has crazy witch powers and experience in turning people into flowers," he grumbled angrily.

Ryan knew no one could hear him except himself, given the fact that he was now a rose. He hated when it rained. He got very wet. He just thanked his lucky stars that he only had to carry out photosynthesis to eat.

Sure, he wanted his human form back. He also wanted revenge on his stepmother, but the most he could do was to curl up his petals and refuse to bloom, slightly spoiling the aesthethics of the other big, colourful flowers in full bloom.

Lucy Terlana was fortunately also very OCD, so naturally one closed up rose in an entire bush of them bothered her a lot.

"If you don't bloom, I'll send the gardener to prune you off!" she screeched, stamping her large feet.

Ryan stubbornly stayed closed. "Should have thought of that before turning me into a rose, bitch," he muttered, his leaves bobbing in the breeze.

Of course she couldn't hear him, but calling his stepmother a bitch felt really good.

♡♡♡

Two weeks after he got cursed, he was contemplating whether it would be possible for flowers to commit suicide, when a new pair of footsteps approached.

Ryan mentally frowned. He had memorised Lucy's footsteps, they were loud and clumsy, obviously from holding her fat bulk. These were more light footed, tapping gently on the cobblestones.

"Great. Terlana has a visitor," he thought. He was expecting maybe one of the members of her knitting club, but instead a young, very blonde man walked down the garden pathway, a pair of shears in one hand.

Ryan immediately started sweating dewdrops. A perfectly hot, muscular guy was going towards him, and he wasn't even able to flirt with the dude.

The man was obviously the gardener. His shears and worn overalls said that much. He was smiling, like he couldn't think of anything better to do than take care of a witch's garden. Of course, he probably didn't know that Lucy Terlana was a witch. Most people didn't.

His teeth were really white, his easygoing grin almost blinding. Ryan was enjoying the way sunlight glinted off his blonde locks when the gardener moved up to him. "Such a shame. This would be such a pretty flower, if only it bloomed. I wonder why Mrs Terlana wanted me to prune it off instead of doing it herself?" he said.

Ryan knew the reason why. Even Lucy wouldn't be cruel enough to murder her stepson, plus she believed that doing so would cause some bad karma. So naturally, her instinct was to trick some poor innocent fool into doing so.

He could see the sharp metal of the shears hovering above him, like a small death scythe. Ryan waited. He knew they would come slicing down soon, ending his short and rather miserable life.

Suddenly, he felt his petals unfurling, subconciously reaching out to the young gardener. "Wait! No! This isn't what I wanted!" Ryan internally screamed, but there was nothing he could do. His petals were blooming of their own accord.

The young gardener beamed broadly. "I was right! You are a beautiful rose indeed! Wonder why you're only blooming now, though?"

Ryan wanted to close back up, but his rebellious petals wouldn't let him. "Damnit. Death was SO close. What makes this guy so special that I'll randomly bloom for him? Oh well, better him than the witch. At least he's cute....." he muttered to himself.

The gardener leaned down. "I'm Kay. You're really soft." Ryan was ashamed to find that the gardener's fingers stroking against his petals both soothed him and turned him on to no end.

"This guy's wacko. He talks to plants," Ryan reminded himself, but somehow, he didn't really mind.

♡♡♡

Kay came by every week to tend to the plants.

Ryan couldn't help feeling his now nonexistent heart give a happy little leap in his chest every time the gardener came. It also helped that Kay gave him special attention.

"You know, if plants could talk, they'd probably tell me that I was crazy for talking to them, but they're the only friends I have," Kay told the rose during his lunch break one day. "You're my favourite plant here, rose, do you know that?"

Ryan wanted to tell him that he didn't think he was crazy, that he understood what it was like to be lonely, to not have friends, but of course, he couldn't. All he could do was secretly rejoice over the fact that he was the blonde's favourite plant.

For the first time in months, since he had been turned into a plant, he was happy.

♡♡♡

One day, the gardener just stopped coming.

Ryan waited for him, but a month went by, then two, and still no sign of Kay. As the days passed, autumn crossed into winter.

All the other plants wilted and died or closed up, but still Ryan held on, braving frostbite on his petals, waiting for his gardener to come.

One day, he heard his stepmother complaining to her friend about how she didn't have a gardener because he enlisted in the army. (Lucy Terlano had quite forgotten about her cursed stepson, but she still hadn't given up on her witching ways.)

Ryan's nonexistent heart plummeted to his roots. Kay could be dead, for all he knew.

He started to wilt.

♡♡♡

Spring came.

The largest rose on the bush was nothing but a dried up husk of crumpled brown petals, the edges tinged with white where the cold had bleached the colour from them. Ryan could feel himself ebbing away, all the life drained from him. He was hanging on by a thread, his thoughts fuzzy, slipping into the void of oblivion.

Sure, it wasn't like the other roses on the bush had bloomed yet, but at least they weren't nearly dead.

A flash of gold in the sunlight. Ryan frowned. "What the actual heck?"

A cheery whistling, a pair of green overalls, light footsteps on the cobblestones. Ryan wanted to shriek with happiness, although firstly no one could hear him, and secondly he wanted to salvage whatever dignity he had left (being turned into a plant significantly lowers your self-esteem, apparently) so he kept silent, silently rejoicing. His gardener was back.

Kay stepped up to the rose, gently touching the wilted petals. "Hello, little rose. How're you doing? You look wilted. I'm so sorry I wasn't here to take care of you, and it looks like Mrs Terlana didn't do a very good job. The war was exciting, but I'm glad that I'm back here in my old job. So much more peaceful. Maybe I can even bring you back to life."

He kissed the faded petals gently.

Ryan felt new life surging through his veins, his petals filling with colour. He felt insanely happy, on cloud nine. He felt himself unfurling, blooming, the kiss electrifying his stalk to his stem and making him too giddy to think straight.

♡♡♡

Kay froze in shock as the rose he'd so tenderly fondled burst off the bush and exploded into a rather short, very naked boy not much younger than him, lying on the pathway groaning, his body haloed in sunlight.

"Who are you? Wait did you seriously just come from that rose wait what's going on? What sorcery is this?"

The boy looked up. Kay blushed, trying to tear his eyes away from the boy's bare body and look up at his surprisingly pretty face. His lips were petal shaped, his eyes sparkling blue, chestnut curls falling over his face.

"You're right. It is sorcery. Lucy Terlana is a very bitchy witch. To answer your questions, I'm her stepson, Ryan Terlana. Sorry to rope you into this dysfunctional thing called our family issues in which apparently being gay gets you turned into a flower."

Kay blinked, still obviously very confused.

Ryan sighed. "Do you have anything I can cover myself with?"

"Uh, not really," the gardener stuttered, his eyes still bugging out of his head. Still, he held out a hand to help the smaller boy up.

Ryan flipped brown curls back from his face. "After I find something to wear, wanna get a drink or something so I can explain to you about this completely crazy thing you've accidentally walked into?"

Kay nodded. "Uh, okay."

Ryan grinned. It felt good, to feel human lips stretching into a smile over human teeth. "Well, let's go. I hope my stepmom isn't home."

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