Drum Major Phoenix
Presents:
"New Plant on the Block"
Chapter 1
(Disclaimer--Little Shop of Horrors belongs to Howard Ashman and Alan Menken. Or, well, they wrote it anyways.)
"Seymour! Feed me!"
Seymour angrily opened one eye from his small bed underneath the counter in the store. Despite being adopted by the money-loving grumpy Yiddish storeowner, he was still forced to stay in the shop throughout the night.
"Twoey! It's…three in the morning!" he growled, glancing at his wristwatch. "Can't you wait until the morning? Then I'll find you something."
"Aw, c'mon! It's been a couple of days since I ate that creepy dentist guy! Mmm, he was delicious!" Audrey II licked his lips, his tongue dancing happily at the memory of his last meal.
Seymour smacked his forehead. "It's too early to go out, Twoey! For starters, Shmendrik's is closed, and I can't exactly find you anyone to eat, even though there are hundreds of bums out there."
Twoey sighed. "But, if I don't eat something, I won't look as good for the customers! I'll be wilting and drooping over everything, and Daddy won't be too thrilled…"
"Okay! Okay! Look, I-I'll go check the mouse traps in the back. You can eat whatever I find to tide you over. Will that do?" Seymour crawled out from underneath the counter, and stood facing his hungry plant.
Twoey hummed in thought. "I guess so."
Satisfied, Seymour wandered to the back room, where he had spent many a time with his beloved—though sometimes irritating—plant, before it grew into the talking monstrosity it was. He wandered, checking every nook and cranny, behind every pot and next to every box. He managed to gather a handful of caught mice, and carried them over to his plant.
"Here Twoey. Try to make it last if you can. Eating slower helps you savor it more and makes it last longer."
Twoey licked his lips hungrily as Seymour curled up under the counter to resume sleeping. "I sure hope these are as tasty as the dentist!" Completely ignoring Seymour's advice, he scooped up the mice and devoured them in a single bite. Still feeling a bit of a rumble in his stomach, he lightly prodded the sleeping body under the counter.
"Seymour? Seymour. I'm still hungry."
"Go to sleep!" the space under the counter responded.
Twoey grumbled to himself. "Fine, fine…good for nothing…" Pulling his pod up into his upright neutral position, Twoey eventually felt himself drift into sleep as well.
The next morning, business was going very well. Audrey had filled out more orders than she could manage to count, and Mushnik convinced the three girls Crystal, Ronnette and Chiffon to deliver the orders.
"Those three girls there, always hanging about, I might just offer them an actual job here as our delivery service!" Mushnik sang as he walked back in. Ever since the adoption, Mushnik was in such a more pleasant mood than usual.
Audrey looked at him as she watered a vase of magnolias, having a break from the constant phone calls. "Oh Mr. Mushnik! I'm sure they'd love it!"
Shouts started to echo from the street. "Mr. Mushnik! Audrey!"
"That's Seymour!" Audrey named the voice, turning around from her flowers.
Mushnik shook his head. "Oy, what is the boy up to now?"
Seymour walked into the shop, his hands hiding something behind his back. He panted, "You…would not believe…what I found today…at the wholesale flower district."
"Is it another one of those Audrey IIs? Think of the things we could do with two!" Mushnik said, Seymour swearing he could see dollar signs forming in his eyes.
"No, but close!" He pulled out the plant from behind his back.
"My goodness. A-a-a flytrap," Audrey said, her eyebrows rising.
"Yes! I know it's not as rare as Twoey, but there's so much we can do with it to raise business even more!" Seymour set the Venus flytrap onto the counter, Audrey flinching back a bit from the carnivorous plant.
"Look—it's getting ready to flower! We'll soon have some seeds to plant—we can farm our own plants!! And I haven't seen Twoey make any flowers or seeds, she's still far too young I think. They're very popular as pets already anyways, and until we can learn more about Twoey, people can take them in as their own little Twoey imitation."
Mushnik moved close to the flytrap. Prodding it with his finger, he spoke to Seymour. "I don't know about keeping this thing. I'm not about to lose our just-gained business by some nincompoop injuring themselves with this thing."
"We-we could place as much security as we have on Twoey on it to make sure nothing like that happens," Seymour said, absentmindedly stroking the ridge of the pot.
Mushnik looked at the flytrap's largest trap. "I don't know, boy…"
Audrey spoke up, eyeing the flytrap and slow scooting herself away from it. "I-I think there's n-no harm in trying it out. If we keep security on it like we have on the Audrey II, then there shouldn't be any problems. There's absolutely nothing to lose."
Mushnik looked from Audrey to Seymour, who looked back with a smile. "C'mon Dad…"
"Fine!" Mushnik threw his hands up. "It's all yours though, Seymour. You feed it, water it, care for it altogether. And do not let it take priority over customers!" With that he strode back to the cash register, and rang up a bouquet for a young boy.
Seymour went to carry it into the back room, happy to see another one of his plans in motion. He placed the flytrap where Twoey once sat as a tiny seedling.
"So. You're our new star, aren't you? I need a name for you. I feel bad for giving Twoey that name I did now, because I think Twoey's a male…even though he's a plant…Well, you are meant to be sold as a pet imitation of Twoey. I see no harm in you becoming Audrey III, right?"
He checked to make sure that Audrey III has sufficient water, and that the window was open enough to allow insects to fly in. He then headed back out front to help Audrey fill orders, catching himself looking at Twoey from time to time, and couldn't help thinking, Just how well might Twoey take this?
A/N: Whoohoo new story! Been a couple of years. Anyways, this story is already completed, but I'll be uploading pieces at a time. Make sure to check out my little bio page for any updates!