[complete]📷⚰️ˢᵉᵖʰᶜᵃʳˡ ᴼⁿᵉˢʰᵒᵗˢ⚰️📷

📷⚰️Lilies

[Read the notes at the end]

[Fantasy AU, trans Aesop, non-binary Joseph, ambiguous/open ending]

[Content warning: illness, implied child neglect, implied minor character death, suicide ideation]

--•--

There was only one other person in the meadow.

Aesop wasn't supposed to be outside in the first place. He had a terrible fever. Whenever he would get up, his head spun and got light. It felt like his brain was pounding against his skull. Whenever he took a sip of water, his throat would get dry despite the hydration, and too much water would make him vomit out stomach acids. He couldn't eat without having a hard time swallowing, and whenever he could he could never stomach more than a fistful of food. Especially with sweets, much to his dismay.

Emily had gotten worried about Aesop. She was practically his sister, having been with him since childhood. But she could never always be there for him. She was a medical student, not yet a professional. She couldn't afford to miss classes with her weighing student debt and lost education on the line.

Aesop was another case. He was freshly out of highschool after being held back for a year, had applied to various schools that had caught his eye, and was waiting for an acceptance from any of the colleges. Just any form of sustainability for the future was enough for him. He would prefer a future filled with creation or restoration. If he ever reached his goal now was the question.

He found himself sleeping all day, having dreams where he spent his time in a meadow of posies, lilies, orchids-- there were many he could name. They came in different colors and sizes, some being so big that they could be sewn into ball gowns.

Somewhere in the meadow, a dark silhouette of what he thought was a hunched over person. Whatever it really was rooted into the ground. It seemed to be seeping in all of its surrounding colors, and it had no shadow. Despite the dreading feeling Aesop got from it, he was curious to know what it was. Every step he took, he was careful not to step on too many flowers. It would be a waste of life taken away from his foot.

Before he could close the one foot gap between himself and the unknown thing, which now looked more like a sticky blob of some sort, he was pulled back.

"Don't touch that."

The firm squeeze on his bicep held him in place. The object seemed to be buzzing now, vibrating, and it kept absorbing the colors from the meadow. He watched the flowers beneath the object lose vibrance and wilt. The colors were disappearing, turning into a dull gray. He watched in awe, only to be pulled back further away from the shadow.

The forest surrounding the meadow was filled with drying leaves, each leaf falling peacefully before meeting the ground. The orange contrasted with the colder, graying colors of the flowers. Orange and gray really did look nice together. He had to admit to Mike that he had been wrong, or maybe he thought that way because he felt sick to his stomach with dread.

When he turned his head around, Aesop was mesmerized. He had come across many people, but nobody as stunning as the person before him. Their hair, although a dark blue-- almost black-- seemed to twinkle despite the lack of hair product. Their eyes were dark, a void of purple. Their skin was an unusual color; it was violet. Their whole appearance really did look like somebody he would find in a dream, which would be the place he was currently in, currently breathing in. The surrounding area smelt floral.

The burning sensation of where the person held him on the arm also told him it was a dream. He pulled away from the touch, covering his arm with a hand to soothe the ache that had left as soon as he pulled away. It had felt like paper cuts had been littered all over his arm. His head wanted to scream danger because of the occurrence, but he was in a dream. There was no real threat, he had to remind himself.