We are monsters

Wren

Blair kept her eyes on his, almost whispering.

"I'm sorry for-"

"Don't apologise, never apologise for sharing with me, and...know that you can be your true, full self with me. I will never hurt or judge you."

Her breath became ragged as if she had just finished a marathon across the world, her whole face shifted through different expressions until it broke into a glowing lopsided full of relief smile. The tremble in her legs calmed slightly as she took a deep breath, feeling for the first time in a year like a flower that waited for spring. Safety. Comfort.

She had lost all faith that feeling would return after Derrick's passing, but here it was, stronger than ever.

"Thank you, Wren."

Blair was breathless, all the emotions she had bottled up were spilling and tasting the air.

"Of course."

His eyes were full of sincerity and genuine care that she had longed so long to see once more, the pendant around her neck glinted in the light catching her attention. Wren smiled as if remembering something, and spoke lightly.

"My mother loved that pendant, she told me once that my father had found the opal in a stream, and on her birthday he presented the necklace to her as a proposal..."

Blair instinctively rubbed her fingers against the smooth stone, wondering if maybe she should return the treasure but Wren noticed and shook his head,

"Don't Blair, it's tradition for gifts to be exchanged during proposals. In our Warren when we reach our Nighnteeth year we are open to proposals and offer a gift, if the partner accepts they'll give a gift in return most of the time the gifts are precious or family heirlooms or something of significance."

"And if you were to reject a proposal?"

Wren's face soured and she wondered why, she tilted her head at him before he continued while looking away.

"You'd give them a specific flower, in our Warren we usually grow the flowers ourselves so we can choose which flower represents what we want to say, to reject a proposal...you'd give a striped carnation. To reject with disdain or disappointment, yellow carnations."

Blair remembered when Alrick had given her a brief tour of the camp when she first arrived and remembered seeing quite a collection of flowers, it was interesting to think of how they would express their emotions and feelings through flowers. In fact, it made Blair feel a slight comfort knowing that in terms of strong emotions like love, hatred, anger, sadness, and such they had a way to express it without it appearing on their faces or through their words.

In a way, it was their way of being vampires.

"Do you use flowers to express lots of things?" Her curiosity had gotten the better of her.

"Yeah, every flower means something different and we gift them often to each other, since we aren't always able to converse and sometimes it's better than talking especially for shy people."

Wren watched as she listened to him explaining some of the traditions of their Warren, eventually, she raised an eyebrow and asked a burning question in her mind.

"This pendant of your mothers...was it your proposal to me?"

Warmth flushed his cheeks as he rubbed the back of his neck, thinking about it now it was so silly but she was going to be his wife one day anyway, but his mother's voice seemed to reach him deep in his soul he wanted to give Blair some normalcy. They couldn't imagine that they'd be allowed to object to the marriage or even run from it.

"Was it dumb to propose to you even though we're arranged to wed?"

So he had proposed. Blair thought about his question and with a lift of her lips she replied,

"I wouldn't say dumb, it was sweet and a promise that you gave. It's...nice that you included me in your tradition when you didn't have to, so thank you."

His heart warmed to her words, feeling a sense of pride for following his mother's guidance.

"You don't have to reply to it though..."

"I will."

Wren's eyes flew to hers, startled at her quick response. She cleared her throat and turned her head to the side while explaining.

"One day, I'll respond to your proposal."

He had been kind enough to involve her in his tradition when he didn't have to, been a gentleman since the meeting, and protected her against the wrath of Miss Fauna. The least she could do was respond to him, just not yet.

"So your mother responded to your father with a gift of her own?"

"Oh no, she didn't respond to his proposal for weeks. There isn't a flower known for patience and she wasn't able to say it to his face so she avoided him for a while, eventually, she gave him a handcrafted bow with engravings of red tulips."

"Red tulips?"

"It means passion and declaration of love, it was her acceptance of his proposal."

Blair wondered if several flowers had similar meanings, for humans she knew red roses were given on a day of the year to your desired partner or lifelong partner.

"So she accepted and they got married?"

"Yep and then little old me came along!"

But where were they?