Camus took a seat feeling most exhausted. His flowers wouldn't cease to gossip. However, it was more about trivial things. He chuckled slightly as he recalled a couple of things the flowers had spoken of.

FLASHBACK

Camus was praising the roses for their beautiful development, commenting on their vibrant colours and soothing fragrance. When he finished pruning some of the roses, he heard them start to speak of many different things. "Oh, you don't say? That is quite interesting. No, that really isn't in my place to judge. No, I did not say I do judge it. No, that is not so." He heard some other roses start to speak of a certain female student. "That is not so, she really is a bright student. Clumsiness is not a factor of intelligence. Well...you do seem to have a point there. But, that does not mean that she is not a bright student." Yet another conversation between three roses had started over the other side of the conservatory. "Yes, I do have to admit that's true. Oh, no no, you are reading me wrong!" He started blushing as the roses started to tease him for having feelings for the one they were speaking of, he then remembered they were the more ruthless roses, so he abandoned their conversation.

END FLASHBACK

"And that was just before lunch." He shook his head slowly, a small smile marking his lips. The roses had mentioned his friends and his cousin in their topics of gossip, but he did not comment on them. He didn't plan on bringing up those secrets either, that was for his friends to do.

Camus finished his glass of wine. He started to recount what his roses had started to gossip about three days ago. His mouth was always moving when influenced by alcohol, why his fellow Strahl didn't think to ban him from drinking wine none of them will understand. He put down the glass, chatting about everything.

Ludwig shook his head in despair as Camus mentioned a secret that nobody was to know about. He leaned close to Orpherus, Eduard and Naoji. "From now on, we commit our most secret acts away from Camus' flowers, they talk too much."

Eduard nodded in agreement as his secret of what colour underwear he had was shared among them. That was nobody's business!

Naoji blushed deeply and instantly reached to take the wine glass from Camus, insisting he'd definitely had more than enough. He was a bit late to keep his secret a secret.

Orpherus vowed to make sure none of Camus' flowers were around while he bathed, only Eduard had known of his habit of singing children's songs while bathing with a rubber ducky.

Camus allowed Naoji to take the glass and finally stopped talking about what his flowers had said. He looked around and saw they all appeared embarrassed or flustered. "Oh dear, I've done it again..."

"At least it was just among us and not to the female students like last time..." Orpherus assured.

"Speak for yourself, Orpherus," Ludwig commented. "Cousin, we are never allowing you to drink wine for the rest of your life, your tongue becomes much too loose."

Camus sighed and nodded. "Very well, Lui. Everyone, I truly am sorry..."

Eduard smiled slightly. "Oh well, no real harm done."

Ludwig and Orpherus both shot Eduard sharp glares that he actually felt. Both of their secrets could be used against them if their rival decided to play dirty in their future debates.

Camus felt really bad for this.

Orpherus, Ludwig, Eduard and Naoji blinked as Camus handed them each a single rose in apology for the night before. "You don't have to give us a rose to say sorry, Camus. We understand that you become more talkative after some wine," Eduard reassured.

"Yes, you really shouldn't have done this," Ludwig added. He was implying he didn't want more surveillance than he already had, but he kept the implication light so Camus' feelings wouldn't be hurt. He mentally threatened every flower in the vicinity to keep their mouths shut if they didn't want Camus to be hurt.

Camus smiled gently, not showing any sign of actually hearing anything negative from his flowers. "It was all I could think of. I really did feel bad about last night. I promise I will not have any more wine in the future."

That's not exactly the problem, Camus, it's the flowers...they talk too much... the other four young men thought to themselves.

The End