Flowers

9-Fake

Three months ago, Clay died.

The weather had started getting drastically cooler, and plants had started to die.

Tubbo was currently in the bakery, drinking lukewarm tea, working on the sketch of his flower. Beside him, Darryl and Zak were conversing, most likely flirting with each other. The brunette ignored them though.

In all honesty, the teen didn't really want to be at the bakery. He just went there so he wouldn't be lonely in the floristry, or alone in the cold graveyard.

He sighed, closing his notebook as he got up. He put a few bronze coins on the counter and waved a goodbye to the lovebirds who were too invested in each other to acknowledge the teen.

He hugged himself as he left the warm building, trying to preserve what warmth he had remaining. It wasn't too terribly cold, not as cold as it gets in the winter, but it was still too cool to wear what he was wearing.

He wandered around the village aimlessly, letting his legs take him wherever they decided.  He noticed the crops from the farms, almost ripe enough to gather for the winter.

Less people were out and about, which made sense considering the cool weather. The only ones out were guards, farmers, or whomever else had work outside a building.

He noticed himself stopping in front of the barracks, where the guards lived. The captain and his family lived deeper into the castle grounds, but the rest of the guard lived in these  barracks.

"Hey," a dark haired guard that Tubbo recognized as Nick said gently. "You okay?"

The brunette nodded, giving him a convincingly fake smile. It's scary how good he got at faking a smile.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Hey, um, is Tommy here?" The brunette asked, making his tone sound cheerful, or at the very least, alive.

In all honesty, he didn't want to see Tommy, he just wanted to get away from this stranger. Well, he wasn't entirely a stranger, but he didn't know Nick very well.

Nick nodded. "Um, he should be just about done with his rounds about now, so yeah. I could take you to his quarters if you want, though?"

The brunette smiled politely, shaking his head. "No thanks, I'll just wait for him here."

Nick nodded. "Well, if you need anything, I'll be here." He said as he walked towards another guard, making idle chitchat.

The brunette sighed, looking around for his friend. When he couldn't spot the blonde, he decided to walk around.

Tubbo had never been around the barracks before, he never needed to.

"Tub-Toby!" He heard the blonde shout from across the grounds, making the brunette internally groan as he plastered a convincingly fake smile across his face.

He wanted his best friend back, he really did, but it was hard to forget the past. He was usually a "forgive and forget" type of person, so it was incredibly hard for him.

"Tommy!" He said cheerfully, greeting his friend. "I was just looking for you!"

"Yeah, Nick just said that." He smiled at the brunette. "Whats up?"

Tubbo forced out an airy laugh that he hoped sounded convincing. "Eager, aren't we?"

"Well, you haven't been too excited to see me lately," the blonde explained, a light pink hue dusting his cheeks. "So I was just happy to know that you actually want to see me."

Guilt filled the brunettes senses at the explanation, knowing he wasn't really planning to talk to the blonde today.

"So, um, why did you want to see me today?" The blonde asked again.

Tubbo shrugged, giving him yet another convincingly fake smile. "To be completely honest, I was just taking a walk and ended up here, so I figured I might as well see what you were up to."

Tommy nodded, smiling. "Well, I just finished my rounds. Do you want to go to the hill?"

The hill. He hasn't been to the hill, their hill, ever since Tommy stabbed him in the back what feels like a million years ago.

"Sure."

~<•>~

The hill was located outside the kingdom walls, about an hours walk away. The two teens would spend most of their childhood there, after the death of Tubbos mother.

The hill had a variety of flowers on it, the most prominent ones being purple hyacinths, covering all but one patch of the hill, allowing the boys to sit at the top.

"I missed this, you know." The blonde said, breathing in the subtle scent of the flowers. "I missed being your friend."

The brunette nodded, not even giving him a glance. His eyes were trained on the black dahlia that grew nearby, always persistent, never leaving him.

He used to love black dahlias.

Now he can't stand to even look at them.

"I'm really sorry. He forced me to leave you behind." That earned the teens attention as he looked at the blonde. "If I didn't, he'd kill you."

"Who...?"

The two teens looked at each other, blue orbs staring at brown ones.

"I think you already know the answer to that."

~<•>~

850 words

I'm so proud of this chapter, honestly. I think this is the best chapter of this book, next to the epilogue.

Also, speaking of which, woo, I finally finished the damn thing, after working on it off and on all week.