Chapter Text
Waiting around for the action to finally start was usually almost as titillating as the action itself, but in this dilapidated flower shop it was downright boring. Not just because there would be little potential for Arthur to get dilapidated himself here without some serious creativity and determination; he had made do before. It was the contrast between the… floral arranger? something stupid and placid… flaccid… like that position he was applying for and his previous hard earned and appropriately hardening position of dental assistant. He had loved that job and tried so, so hard at it, but apparently that hadn’t been enough to make up for ‘being unprofessional’ and ‘too much of a team player’ and ‘moaning along with the customer’s screams.’ Not that there had been many… at least he had his Wednesday dental appointment to look forward to… and some of the flowers here would have thorns. His mood improved further as he remembered the existence of gardening shears and weedkiller (possibly good for putting on open wounds?) and the pretty but soft and gentle current employee of this establishment returned from getting the boss for him. Said boss was sturdy and stern looking in comparison, much more alluring… and possibly dominating…
Arthur, now much more enthused, stood up to greet him… Mushnik? The store was called Mushnik’s Skid Row Florists after all… as he approached him. “So, Audrey tells me you want to work here… You know the position is being a floral arranger , right?” Arthur nodded enthusiastically, not finding that prospect quite as dreary now. “I’ll get into any position you want me to, sir!” There was a long pause before Mushnik responded, walking back to where he had come from as he did so. “...You can have the job as long as you promise to never say anything like that to me again…” He paused, standing in front of his other employee and addressing her before leaving the room while shaking his head exaggeratedly. “Audrey, show him the ropes.” Ropes! That’d be great, not that she’d know what to do with ‘em… Audrey reached him, tilting her head towards a different room to indicate it before guiding him there. “This is the room where you’ll make the floral arrangements…” She ducked her head as they entered the room. “I’m sorry, I could’ve tidied it up a little better…” Arthur barely heard her as he practically dove towards the table in the center of the room, picking up several roses that had been left there so that those oh so sweet thorns dug into his wrist. He hadn’t gotten a hit of pain for a full twenty minutes before this, and it felt so good… “...It’s fine, I can figure this out from here… thanks…”
Relief shot through him as he heard the door close behind him, and he dug the thorns in further, slowly dragging them along his arm. Very annoyingly and rudely, Audrey opened the door again, and Arthur hesitated before frustratedly putting the roses back down and spinning around to face her. “...What is it…” Arthur trailed off, his breath catching in his throat as he saw it. Its sharp, piercing thorns put the ones he had been making do with just seconds ago to shame and completely disarmed him of his desire to once again feel them against his flesh, its alluring mouth was the perfect size to allow it to disarm him and his member in a much more complete and satisfying way, its… were those teeth ? Oh God… It got mercifully closer to him as Audrey approached him with it. “Do you like her? She’s so strange and interesting, right? I found her after the…” Arthur drowned out her weirdly high pitched voice as he eagerly ran a finger along those enchanting teeth, feeling the sweetest pain imaginable as it snagged on one of those pointed tips, drawing blood… the pain was cruelly taken from him and replaced with annoyance as Audrey took the plant away from him, placing it on the table.
“Oh! You’re hurt… here, let me take care of that for you.” She exited the room, and he immediately turned back around to that glorious plant, forcing himself to turn back around as she reentered it with the worst buzzkill of all time: bandages. How had they managed to make binding of any kind a drag? “That’s okay, I like the…” Arthur changed his plan for that sentence halfway through as he remembered how he had gotten fired from his last job; he couldn’t let himself be separated from his amazing plant! “...bandages I have, just a sec…” He made a show of patting down his pockets for bandages that weren’t actually there. As if he’d ever willingly spend money on those things… “Damn it, I must have left them at home! Oh well. Yes, I really like this plant. It’s great.” They both blushed, Arthur because he had managed to get his hands back on the plant and Audrey because she had managed to get hers on him putting one of her stupid bandages on its mark on him. The first of many to come… “I’m glad you like her, I do too… Who knows, maybe she’ll be strange and interesting enough to attract more business for the shop!... I just hope I can figure out why she’s been sickly lately, I’d hate for something to happen to her…I’ve tried everything I’ve been able to think of so far and everything my books said to do. I haven’t been able to find her in them either, but I think she’s some kind of flytrap?”
Arthur’s blood that the plant hadn’t yet gotten out of him ran cold at the thought of its suffering and his is something were to happen to it, and he quickly turned around to face her. “I’ll help, I’ll save it, where are those books?!” He waited impatiently through Audrey being surprised by his desperate request for some reason and agreeing to go get them and leaving. It took her a long time to get back, but at least Arthur had the silver lining of being able to obtain more amazingly painful cuts from the plant while he waited. In less obvious areas this time; he didn’t want to have to deal with them being covered up and forced to heal far too quickly this time. Not that any speed was ideal… Painfully and not in the good way, Arthur jerked the inside of his elbow away from the plant and quickly covered it with his sleeve as she entered the room, dread filling him as he saw how many books she had and realized how long it might take for him to find anything useful in them in this potential race against time. “Here.” She put the massive and intimidating… not qualities that usually went together for him… stack on the table, thankfully not disturbing the plant, before turning to him. “I also grabbed some of my books on flower symbolism and how to make floral arrangements, they might be helpful for you. They’re on the bottom here.”
She pointed to the only books that wouldn’t be helpful for Arthur’s current extreme predicament before mercifully making her way to the door, pausing at it for some reason. “I have to leave for now, I… have a date… but I’ll be ready to help you with her tomorrow morning-afternoon. Thanks for helping her, I really appreciate it.” Arthur turned back towards the plant distractedly, waiting for the sound of the door closing behind her. “...Yeah, sure.” The sound finally came, and Arthur pulled the plant off the table by its head, hoping to use it to do the same before figuring out how to help it. Much to his surprise and delight, it bit down on him hard, drawing even more blood from the first mark it had bestowed upon him and loosening the bandage, eventually unsticking the adhesive on it and freeing him from it as it sucked blood from his finger. Not what he was planning on having it suck, but he certainly wasn’t complaining, and that and he could come later. Or maybe it wouldn’t be later… The plant’s healthy color that he hadn’t known it was missing until now oh so satisfyingly returning to it as it almost seemed to grow more erect and in general confirmed this.