Today, Brendon chose to explore. Not only because he had always been the curious, nosy type, but because he felt bad bothering Ryan so much. From the moment he’d woken up in the growingly familiar bed, he knew he wanted to explore the house today. He’d always been the curious kid, the one who wanted to eavesdrop on the adults conversations all the time, the one who always had to pick up every bug just to count how many legs or eyes it had. It was in his blood to explore, and while that desire had been dulled down with his growing maturity, he felt as if it was suddenly back. He couldn’t explain why to you, of course, but t just felt...there. And he wasn’t arguing.
When he walked down the stairs, cringing at every little creak once again, he found Ryan in the study. They wore an outfit that was a tad bit more masculine today; a black shirt, vertical sand-colored stripes adorning it, paired with a black, knee length skirt. No stockings or any of the sort, but they looked more comfortable in this outfit, which is what he assumed they were going for. Their eyes were fixated on a dark, thick book, both covers very much blank. Ryan seemed very invested in the book, regardless of the fact that it was way too early to be reading in Brendon’s opinion
“Hey Ryan?” He began, poking his head into the living room. Ryan looked up from their book, setting it down in their lap gently. Their brown eyes glistened with the reflection of the late-morning sun, the little folds at the cornered scrunching up a bit as a small smile appeared on their face.
“Yes?” They asked, their voice sounding a tad bit hoarse from sleep. Brendon was used to sore throats, so they didn’t affect him that much, but somehow, Ryan’s little hoarse disposition was adorable to Brendon. He didn’t even think finding something such as a sore throat cute, yet here he was. In fact, everything Ryan does is cute. It was almost like an instant infatuation- well actually, it was exactly like one. From the moment he’d laid his eyes on Ryan, he knew he would grow to like them far more than he should. Mayhaps that was the reason he was worrying about asking to explore their house, rather than trying to think of how to get home or an escape plan.
“Can I look around? I’m kinda bored.”
“Um, sure?”
“I figured I’d ask so I wouldn’t offend you. Or find your secret stash of demonic shit.” Brendon laughed at that. Ryan didn’t, mainly because they actually did have a secret stash of cursed relics and objects only really used in dark rituals. But that’s a story for later. They gave him a reassuring smile, nodding slowly.
“I appreciate you asking. You can, if you’d like. There isn’t much to explore, though. Just here, my study and my plant room, really.”
“Ooh! I like plants!” Brendon clapped his hands excitedly, his eyes lighting up like a child. Ryan stiffed a giggle at that, letting laughter take a hold of their mind for a moment before they remembered the plant room could be, well, dangerous.
“Oh- Uh, Brendon? You need to be-“ They looked around the study, noticing Brendon had very much left before they’d finished. “Careful.” As opposed to trying to go and find him, they sighed, resuming their reading as they twisted a piece of hair between their fingers.
Brendon, meanwhile, was already exploring. The plant room was relatively easy to find, mostly due to the fact it was labeled 'PLANT ROOM'. Ryan had chalked that on themselves, actually. It happened too many times that they were in a rush and, by accident of course, wound up in the lavatory instead of the plant room. The letters on the door were in a swirly, old-fashioned style cursive that Brendon found quite aesthetically pleasing. Little did he know, Ryan wrote like that all the time. They'd just have to write something out for Brendon sometime.
Everything about Ryan was whimsical, whether or not Brendon fully realized this yet. They wrote so elegantly, wore clothing that looked like it was dragged by its hair from the 1920's, danced around with every step like the floor was made of clouds. They acted like they bought the world for five cents yet graced it like they had enough to pay millions for it. They were just magic. And in more ways than one, unbeknownst to Brendon.
He pushed open the door to the plant room, clearly not expecting what he was met with. The title 'Plant room' was not misleading in the slightest. In fact, it was the largest collection of plants he'd ever seen inside of a house. The entire room was filled, ceiling to the floor with plants. There was green in every inch of the room, as if an entire century's worth of plants just exploded into life on the spot. It was absolutely stunning, and Brendon wasn’t even a plant nerd. He never quite was, as some are. Some go through phases of being ‘soft’, loving plants and sweaters and mom jeans. For some, that wasn’t even a phase, rather just who they were, but Brendon was never like that. Maybe Ryan was a little bit, even though they’d clearly suppressed it if so, but not Brendon. He was always the type who had bandages everywhere from playing too rough, rips in his clothes all over the place, paint and mud in random places at almost all times.
Despite all that, he was very impressed.
He walked up to the first plant, which was immediately closest to him. It was a small flowering plant that was a violent shade of orange. It’s leaves were a happy green but the petals of each puny, delicate blossom were more orange than any plant Brendon had ever seen. It was quite the cute little plant, sitting on a pedestal so it would have easy access among taller and larger plants. He leaned over and sniffed the plant, raising an eyebrow in confusion as he moved away. The plant smelled exactly and unmistakably like orange sodapop. It was one of Brendon’s favorite drinks as a child, and he knew the scent anywhere. Odd.
He moved around from plant to plant, admiring each’s healthy nature. Ryan clearly cared about these plants a lot, and Brendon found that undeniably cute. No homosexual feelings involved, of course. Brendon may be pansexual, but that doesn’t mean he goes around falling for everyone he meets. Definitely not.
He appreciated how Ryan clearly took care of things they cared about. Everything was clearly well loved, but still good; Books were always stacked neatly and cleaned off, despite the spines being cracked and worn from reading many times. The furniture was kept neat, despite the faint ghosts of stains here and there and the fabric being faded from years in the sun. Even the pots all the plants rested in looked nice, a few scratches here and there and, upon closer examination, Brendon noticed some crayon markings. Just the typical rudimentary drawings of butterflies and flowers and cats, scratched on with fading wax that had once been white. It was now more of a yellow-y color, everything down to the signature faded from time. Each pot was signed in messy scrawl ‘George’. It was clearly the work of a child, but not old enough to be older than Ryan. Maybe they had a sibling that Brendon had yet to meet? He’d have to ask them about it later.
Towards the back of the room, though, his eyes landed on the largest plant by far, which captured his interest right away. There was a path directly through the room, plants lining said path spreading to the wall, but this one plant was directly at the back of the group. Brendon advanced toward it, a few pebbles crunching beneath his feet as he walked. It was incredibly large, green, snake-like tendrils unfurling into magnificent leaves that stretched in all directions. It almost looked like a large, green octopus, except with one single flower in the center. It was a deep red at the edges, reducing to a pastel pink towards the center with spikes of black and deep red shooting out along the petals. It was absolutely gorgeous, and as Brendon walked closer, he felt one of the petals in his fingers. It felt as if it shuddered, almost like the plant was alive. That couldn’t be, though, because it’s a plant. Although, one of the leaves, still largely resembling a tentacle seemed to move a bit, too. Brendon felt a tap on his shoulder and he turned around quickly, looking behind him. There was no one, and the door was still very much closed.
That’s not right.
His foot was pulled out from under him, and he was dangling in the air by one ankle in a matter of seconds. He let out a yelp, craning his neck to see how he was being held up in a panicked manner. It was… Green? Ah, yes. The good old ‘sentient plant’ trope. Brendon really should’ve seen that coming. The plant- which probably was an octopus of some kind, and definitely a hungry one, growled from behind him. Now, Brendon would like to narrate that he fought back somehow and did something heroic.
But no, he didn’t feel as though lying was the kind of fun he was going for right now. He just screamed.
The scream did it’s job, though, and Ryan burst through the door in a matter of seconds. They’d expected Brendon to have stepped on a nail or something of the manner, but they truly didn’t expect to see the plant, endearingly nicknamed ‘Chewy Jr.’ by Ryan, trying to eat Brendon. That was in fact what it was trying to do, although it was going unusually slow about it. Usually it just tore out it’s victim’s stomach in a matter of seconds, eventually just devouring the entire body, but today, it was being abnormal, apparently. Ryan took advantage of this situation, letting muscle memory take over as they removed their wand from the waistband of their skirt and pointing it at the plant.
“Dimittas!” They commanded, and the plant did as it was told, the spell seizing a hold of the plant’s tentacles and forcing it to release Brendon. The cherry-colored wood (yes, it matched the floors, and rather nicely, too) hummed in Ryan’s mind, the aftershock of the spell echoing in their head. They ran their finger over the cherry blossoms that had been burned into the wood, calming it down before running over to assist Brendon. They dragged him back a few feet from the plant, ignoring meeting the other’s eyes in fear of the look in them.
The plant wasn’t very happy about losing it’s meal.
It roared loudly, it’s tentacles shooting into the air angrily. The plant didn’t scare Ryan, though, regardless of the fact it would most likely try to eat Brendon if they didn’t do something now. They just gave the plant an unamused look, pointing the wand at the center of the plant.
“Somnum.” They said clearly, and watched the plant promptly fall asleep. Easy peasy pumpkin peasy, as expected. The tentacles went limp, the flower closed in on itself and the plant went silent. What they didn’t expect, however, was Brendon’s reaction. When they turned around, they had clearly forgotten that Brendon most definitely had never seen magic before. No human really ever had, not since the 1600’s.
“You’re… you’re… y-you’re a-”
“A what, Brendon?” They asked, unamused, running their finger over the engraving to calm the magic concentrator once again before tucking it into the waistband of their skirt.
“A w-witch.”
“Yes, and?”
“You’re a witch.”
“Yes.”
“You’re a witch.”
“And you’re repeating yourself, darling.”
“But… b-but witches don’t-”
“Don’t exist?” They finished for him, spinning around slowly with their arms held out in front of him. “I’m pretty damn sure I exist, aren’t you?” They clearly did exist- it’s not like they were Josh or anything like that. Although, they weren’t quite sure who ‘Josh’ was, but they had the feeling that someone did.
“O-Oh.”
“Mhm. Are you hurt?”
“N-... No. No, I’m not. What the hell was that thing?”
“Haven’t you ever seen a plant that eats humans?”
“No?”
“How ignorant are you humans?” Ryan asked, rolling their eyes.
“Aren’t you human too?”
“No. Witches are technically a different species, yet simultaneously a subsection of humans. I don’t feel like explaining it all right now.”
"Oh."
"So pretty damn ignorant, I suppose."
"That's kinda rude."
"Shut up." They waltzed over to Brendon, helping him stand up and examining him quickly. There didn't appear to be any venom on him or quills sticking out of him, so that was always a good sign. "Are you sure you aren't hurt?"
"Yeah, I'm pretty sure." Brendon was still mostly in shock from all of that. How was any of this possible? He wasn't sure what was more unbelievable, the fact that a plant just tried to eat him or the fact someone just performed magic in front of him. Both were incredibly unbelievable and yet, here he was.
He promptly remembered the pots with writing on them, spying one out of the corner of his eye and opening his mouth to speak. He got distracted for a moment, though, by the large pair of gorgeous, brown eyes in front of him, sparkling like an amber galaxy. Focus, Brendon.
"Who's George?"
"You just saw me do magic, as well as you almost just got eaten by a plant, and you're going to ask who George is?"
"Uh... yeah?" They sighed, noticing Brendon looking at the pot out of the corner of his eye. They turned to look at the pot too, promptly realizing just what had prompted Brendon to wonder this.
"Oh. You mean on the-... I drew those. George is my formal name. 'George Ryan Ross the third'," They put that in air quotes, exaggerating their tone of voice to make it sound fancy and exquisite. "But I don't think it suits me. I went by Georgie as a child, and often thought of maintaining that, but it was brought to my attention that is the name of the small boy victim in Steven King's It. And besides, it was my father's name. My father was a man. I am not."
Brendon nodded, showing he understood. Of course he did, but he didn't have time to say anything kind to Ryan like he'd planned, rather promptly fainting. His head hit the floor with a loud thud, and Ryan sighed, shaking their head in dismay. "Christ, not again."
(A/N)
Heh. Sorry I died. It's summer and since I don't have access to a computer, I can't write as much as I usually do. Anyway, I hope you enjoy! Please please please share of you guys like what you see!