[closed] belated flowers

[antietam]

who: Adam and Ronan
what: The flower exchange turns them small and honest.
when: Earlier in the month.
where: The Parrish-Lynch home.
warnings: Possible mentions of child abuse, will warn if it comes up.

Adam didn't doubt that the flowers would have strange effects, but it was important to try them out. He'd grown fond of his fireflies and he was always looking for something to work on next. With his newfound plant powers, he thought it might be a sign.

Of course, he only planned to experiment in the safety of his own home, and considering he needed to have one more person to make the flowers work...

Convincing Ronan didn't take long, and he summoned the flowers to his hand so he wouldn't have to move from where they sat on their living room couch. And also to show off. He bundled the Baby Blue Eyes and Valerian flowers together and held them out to Ronan.

"Do the honors?"

Comments

[somnioergosum]

Ronan rolled his eyes at Adam's display as if they both didn't know he was pleased. Not that Adam wasn't special without his connection to Cabeswater or scrying, but it was good to be with someone else who wasn't quite normal. And maybe now Adam would be less tempted to go find it when they went home.

He reached for the flowers. "So romantic, Parr--" At that moment he pulled them out of Adam's hand. A younger, smaller Ronan finished in a significantly higher voice. "--Ish."

He stared at the flowers in his hand, blinking dumbly. When he stared back up at Adam, he looked at him with the same blue eyes but they were softer. Innocent. He'd been happy as a child.

"What's going on?"

[antietam]

Adam only had a moment to appreciate the smaller, cuter Ronan. As he opened his mouth to answer, the world became larger and he lost his train of thought.

Everything was familiar, but in a foggy way that he couldn't place. He was now as small as Ronan, probably smaller, and he looked incredibly wary.

His eyes caught on the flowers in Ronan's hand and he grabbed for them, trying to pull them back. "The flowers," he said, as if that was enough explanation.

[somnioergosum]

Ronan pulled back the flowers before Adam could take them. "They're mine!" He protested.

The prospect of having something taken from him appeared to be more distressing than the fact that Adam had turned from an adult to a small child before his eyes, or that he himself had.

[antietam]

Adam frowned and tugged on the flowers, at least until he realized that Ronan wasn't giving them back. That was a battle he would lose, so he let go.

"No they're not," he replied, voice quiet but clearly upset. He had not yet learned to hide his accent, but he didn't seem to enjoy speaking. "They did this. If you give them back, it'll get fixed."

[somnioergosum]

Puzzled, Ronan looked at Adam. As one of three sons, there was no such thing as someone just letting him have something. Even Matthew would get stubborn though he was usually first to cave. This was unexpected. He didn't know what to do.

"But they're pretty," he said, but more like he was trying to convince himself it was alright to be selfish when confronted with someone so passive. "You gave them to me."

[antietam]

Adam stared at Ronan for a long, tense moment. He couldn't understand the logic there. Yes, he remembered that the flowers had passed from his hand to Ronan's for some reason, but Ronan's response didn't answer his argument at all.

"Okay," he said finally. "Then you can give them back. You don't need them."

[somnioergosum]

If Adam were one of his brothers, the answer would be no unless Matthew started crying. But his mother said he should be nice to people. Maybe this was what she meant.

Ronan stared at the flowers for a few moments longer, then held them back out to Adam.

"Alright."

[antietam]

Adam was surprised that worked. People rarely listened to him. But then, Adam rarely spoke to people.

He took the flowers and stared at them, brow furrowing as he concentrated. There was no change.

He then looked up at Ronan to see if he had changed at all, but no. "... I don't know." He said, dropping the flowers between them.

"What should we do?"

[somnioergosum]

Now that the flowers had failed them, Ronan took them back. He ran his fingers over the petals. He glanced around the room.

He knew this home. He lived here-- with Adam?-- but he couldn't recall any of the details.

"I want to see what's here," he said and set the flowers down. Standing, he cast his gaze about for another moment before walking to the stairs. He looked over at Adam to see if he'd followed.

[antietam]

Adam didn't think wandering off was going to help much. An instinctive part of him didn't trust Ronan, but there was a much stronger part of him that did.

After some deliberation, he stood and followed. The house was much larger than anything he'd ever known, and it was too foreign to make him feel comfortable being alone.

Luckily, Ronan was more interesting than the house. Once he got behind the other boy, he reached out and tugged gently at a curl. He just felt a need to.

[somnioergosum]

"Hey!" Ronan swatted at Adam's hand without any real force, even taking into account the fact that he was six. When he looked at Adam, he had this strange feeling. It was kind of like Matthew. He wanted to protect him. At the same time, he knew that it wasn't like what he felt for Matthew at all.

"What'd you do that for?" Only his mother played with his hair and she was far more fond of his younger brother's.

[antietam]

Adam let out a singular chuckle, both at Ronan's reaction and the way the curl bounced right back into place. He wanted to test more of them, but he was afraid of annoying him.

"Just 'cause," he answered, mostly because he didn't know how to articulate why. He moved on by walking up the stairs. Almost as soon as he stepped on a creaky floorboard near a door at the top, multiple dogs came bounding out.

It was only when they realized that the people they'd been expecting were much smaller than normal that they stopped to sniff at them.

[somnioergosum]

Ronan immediately forgot about any transgression and focused on the newcomers. "Hey, puppies!"

Remembering what he'd been taught when his father first brought home a dog, he held out his hands to two of them. Unlike most dogs he encountered, they reacted more like some of his cats. Cautious and keeping some distance between them. But they couldn't resist for long and one ended up sitting on his foot.

He noticed the one who'd gone to Adam. "Wow, do we have a hundred and one of 'em?" It was less a question and more a reference to the fact that it was a Dalmatian. "That'd be so cool!"

[antietam]

The Dalmatian seemed to understand Adam's wary nature and sat patiently in front of him. Adam liked dogs, at least the stray dog who frequented the trailer park, so it didn't take long for him to reach a hand out and pet it. Pavlov reacted warmly and nuzzled his hand before circling him in curiosity.

"We wouldn't be able to take care of that many." Adam understood the reference even though he'd never seen the movie, but he had yet to develop his sarcasm. He led Pavlov over to the other dogs so they could get pets from Adam as well.

"I don't know how we take care of these ones." He said it fondly, scratching Tesla behind the ears. "Or this house. It's big." But also strangely rustic. Adam didn't understand why he would live in a house like this if he could afford a choice.

[somnioergosum]

"No, it's small." Ronan ran over to the window to see if there were any sheds in sight. The surroundings were pretty, but they weren't the Barns. Still, this was exciting. As a child, he hadn't left his home often, and never without his father.

He stepped away and ran back to Adam and the dogs. "No cows." He sounded almost disappointed.