🌼 Chapter 21 🌼
John woke up to the chirping of birds and sun seeping through the fabric of the tent above him.
He opened his eyes and was greeted with the yellowy gold of marigold petals. Why? Oh right.
He rolled over and stretched, feeling tired but well-rested, which truly was quite an oxymoronic feeling. Burr was still asleep so John nudged him awake.
"What?" Burr asked groggily. "What is it?"
"Wake up. We've got to go soon."
"Go where?"
"The shrooms, Burr. The shrooms."
"Oh yeah." He say up, rubbing his eyes then looked around properly. "Christ that's a lot of marigolds. Was that you?"
"It's not that many." John protested, looking at his flowers. "And yes, I grew them."
"John." Burr reprimanded. "You look all pale and dead, is that any way to go meet your boyfriend for the first time in three months?"
John shook his head and stared at his hands. "It's not that bad. Alex was worse, he looked like a walking corpse."
"Well it's still not great." Burr commented. "Eat something; drink some water; brush your hair. That's the best we can do in the twenty minutes we have."
"Seriously, I'm fine."
"John I would insist upon all of those things even if you were fine, cause it's Dawn and we're not getting anything to eat or drink for about two hours unless we get them now."
"Fine." John groaned, grabbing a brush and passing it through his hair swiftly, tying it up without letting himself remember his mother's hair, which was the same shade. (don't quote me on this, idk if it's historical (just don't quote me in general, I'm not very knowledgeable or eloquent)) He followed Burr out of the tent after getting dressed and they got themselves some food.
"One of the perks of the new job is that we can skip the stupid and practically aimless marching." Burr commented as they walked past the few soldiers who were awake preparing their weapons. "And target practice, though I did find that fun."
"True, but we do have to participate in the afternoon."
"Oh but that's not so bad." The pair fell silent as they stood in front of the door to the funny wooden building.
"Prepare yourself for the worst." Burr whispered to his friend.
"There is no 'worst'. Every scenario I can come up with right now is pretty bad." John retorted, heart beating in his chest and palms getting sweaty with anticipation and nervousness.
Burr pushed open the door and led John down the hall. Their footsteps echoed but John felt as if the pulsing of the blood through his veins was louder, drowning pout all the other sounds that tried to get in. The only things that rose above the steady pounding was John's frantic thoughts, what-ifs and maybes circling his mind like hungry dolphins.
Burr was practically dragging a lifeless body behind him as he stopped by the previous guard, who was just leaving. They talked over things for a little while, Burr searching for every possible detail and excelling at seeming like a keen new recruit.
John felt his legs moving below him and tried to focus on the sound that they made hitting the ground.
It's been three months since he'd seen Alex. Technically it was three months, one week and two days.
What if something had happened during that time? What if Alex didn't love him anymore? What if he'd taken too long? What if—
Burr snapped his fingers in John's face, getting his attention.
"Stop with the what ifs. It's fine." He said. "Do you want me to go in first, see what's up?"
John nodded meekly, trying to keep his focus on the faerie in front him.
"Remind me what he looks like?" Burr prompted.
"Curly red hair, shoulder length. Pale. Freckles. Short. Big blueish indigo eyes." John recited.
"Got it. I'll be right back, ok?" Burr offered.
He opened the door and slipped behind and John counted the seconds as they ticked by oh so slowly.
Burr reopened the door and stepped out after 118 seconds, a half-smile on his face.
"I'm pretty sure he's there. I can't be too sure but there's a faerie there that matches your description." Burr said and John almost broke down sobbing there and then. "Let's go in?"
John nodded. Burr opened the door and stepped into yet another hallway.
"I asked the guard. There are lots of rooms and each hand the shrooms from a certain camp every day they come out into this hall thing and can mingle. Since it's our first day we can choose a room to work with. He's in room 7."
John pursed his lips and wiped his eyes only to find them dry of tears.
Room 1
Room 2
Room 3
Room 4
Room 5
Room 6
Room 7
"You better appreciate me going through every single room for you."
"Yes. I very much appreciate that."
Burr was about to open the door when John slapped his hand away and opened the door himself. The room was long and narrow with pitiful excuses for beds lined up against the walls and stacked on top of each other. Nine shrooms were scattered around the room. Two very sickly looking ones were on the beds, and it seemed that another three had been tending to them bud had fallen asleep on the job, while a group of three was huddled in back.
At the sound of the door and footsteps, three pairs of eyes fixed on him, all hostile but clouded over with pain and indifference.
Then he saw him. Alex was at the very back of the room, at the center of the group of three. His eyes burned with rage and a little bit of fear, face insanely pale and sickly looking. He had shackles in his hands and was the only one, as far as John could tell, that had any, which led him to assume Alex had done something brave and reckless but stupid. His auburn hair was dull and messy, tied back by a piece of fabric that was frayed and looked like it'd come from a shirt of some sort.
John blinked rapidly, voice catching in throat as he tried to speak. That's when Alex seemed to recognize him and stood up, hindered slightly by the shackles holding his wrists close to each other.
Alex was weak in his feet but walked over slowly, never once breaking eye contact with John.
Once they were a foot apart, Alex spoke.
"John?" His voice was hoarse and strained, but undeniably his.
"Alex."
John reached out to hug Alex but the short faerie slung his arms over the Petalbasket's head and pressed their lips together, closing his eyes as he held John tighter, the chain of his handcuffs very present against John's back. He melted into it, closing his eyes and placing his hands on Alex's cheeks. All the circuits on his body frying with the feeling of his love pressed against him.
They pulled apart, still close enough that they were breathing each other's air, and Alex spoke softly.
"I've been waiting for you, Mr. Marigold." He whispered.
"I know, and now I'm here."
Alex hugged him tightly, legs giving out slightly which caused John to have to hold him up.
"You're here." Alex's voice cracked, and John felt tears deep through his shirt. "It's not a dream you're really here."
"I'm here. I'm here. I found you, Mushroom Boy, and I'm never losing you again."
"Never?"
"Never."
—~•~—
Alex is back! Who's happy?
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