A/N: This one was fun to write! Today is about flowers! That's all I got... I'm not exactly... flowering with jokes... eh? eh? Alright just read it.

Chapter Summary: For some reason, Callum's got a sudden infatuation with picking flowers. And Rayla's left to do damage control after he realizes not all plants in Xadia are child friendly.

Word Count: 2,155

Picking Pain & Plants

"What're you doing?"

The sudden arrival of Rayla's voice sent Callum into a startled shriek. He stumbled away from the bush, ungracefully landing on his rear and hands. He looked over at the confused Elf, who was notably holding Zym in her arms. He too perked his head in interest, curious about what was going on. Rayla however, remained concerned. Her face scrunched up with worried brows as her lips dropped to a pout. In all honesty, Callum had no idea what he was doing himself.

He never thought picking flowers would be so hard, yet here he was. Covered in dirt and soil, a few questionable stains that either came from the flora he was set to remove, or some creature of some sort. Regardless, he had no back up plan.

"Ummm… picking… flowers?" he slowly edged out.

Rayla's expression remained as it was, worried and confused. "Why?"

"Uhh… because they looked pretty?" he took a shot in the dark. It wasn't exactly false, they were beautiful. It was precisely the reason why he was drawn to them in the first place. Near the base of the olive coloured bush, laid an assortment of blue-violet flowers, with the petals forming a ball-like cup, and the stamen coated over with a light luminescent yellow. It reminded him of her. And like a child on instinct, he stopped in his tracks and immediately tried to pick some. But as it turned out, flowers have these things called roots, and so Callum was met with some resilient force.

Rayla merely stood still and stared at Callum as he helped himself to his feet. "But… those are…" she seethed as her shoulders rose in fear. "Ya do know those are poisonous, right?"

Callum's face dropped within an instant. And then so did his body.

:::

After a short seven minutes, Rayla managed to cleanse Callum of the irritation contact that arose from the flowers he had been interested in. The two were sitting on a nearby log, with Zym encouragingly watching from the base of their feet as Rayla worked her magic—figuratively, not literally. With a dab of a cold wet cloth, she caressed his hands, carefully observing them as she did so. "Yeesh, what made ya want to stop and sniff the roses?" she jested, dabbing his palms once more.

"They looked pretty," he repeated once more, as if that was an answer.

"No duh," she replied, "I meant, what made ya just stop walking and just start going on a flower hunt?" Rayla looked up at Callum. It was then she noticed how elusive his eyes were, how deadset they seemed on staring at Zym. "Callum?" She followed his sightline and realized he was actually staring at the set of flowers he attempted to collect. "Callum."

Like he'd been awoken from a daze, he whipped his head back at her. "Yeah?"

"What is up with ya and those flowers?" she inquired.

He shrugged. "What can I say? They look pretty."

She scoffed as she dabbed his hand once more, hard. As he winced from the cold sting, she shot him a look. "Now ya might not be able to feel your hands for an hour or so. They're numb from all the contact they've had and all the odour they've picked up. Ya're not allowed to pick anything up until ya can feel them again, okay?" He seemed uninterested, or at least, more amused at the idea and so Rayla followed up with a remark, "Next time something's pretty, sketch it instead of touching it, okay?"

He merely chuckled softly in response.

She felt weird, about how lacklustre that was of a reply, and so she added, "Be more careful, okay?"

Callum nodded. "Yes Ma'am." he offered a two fingered salute and smiled.

Zym immediately perked up and hopped onto his lap and with that, they continued their trek.

::::

Their walk was short lived. Callum knew he was getting distracted, but he couldn't help it. It wasn't because he couldn't feel his hands. Though the numbness was annoying and very discomforting, he simply ignored the strange feeling as he looked around. Xadia just had so many beautiful things. The flora practically emitted magic from their roots. The wildlife seemed to bask in magical prowess and beauty, it just left him dumbfounded. All this wondrous light, and it all seemed to precious and pure. Everything caught his eye. He wanted to sketch it all, to roughly lay out the background and foreground and establish a set of colours—to canvas this world with a poor copy of a painting, because he could never actually capture such scenery. It was all so beautiful.

And it all reminded him of her so much.

Rayla's home was definitely a place filled with exciting adventures. He doubted she ever got bored within the borders of Xadia. Every acre they walked turned up newer and more magical walks of life and setting. The insects and birds, the sounds of their instrumental chirping and hollering, were an elegance of their own. The array of plants and leaves, with how they arranged themselves into a scattered but coloured pathing, it was mesmerizing. Vines hanging high and low of strange patterned cold colour schemes. Bushes had bold colder but more beautiful, eye catching combinations spread around them.

It wasn't long before Callum found himself distracted again. A good hour into their walk, starting from their recent hiccup, was slightly smooth sailing before he noticed another collection of flowers. These ones were at the foot of a tree, and stemmed fairly close together from the ground. Their stems were a dark green, pricked with spots of olive. The petals were also cupped, like the ones before, but were violet with splashes of olive coated around the edges, and its stamen—a glowing white beacon.

It was easily the eye of Callum's beholder.

He spared one glance ahead of him, noticing Rayla's attention seemed focused on Zym and his perky desire to munch on every insect in sight. Now was his chance. This time, Callum approached the flowerset slowly and carefully, readying his fingers around the stems as he squatted down before them. His hands hesitated as his eyes reflected the golden gleam of the white stamen within the flowers. It was just so captivating. Slowly, his hands curled around a good bunch, grouping together four flowers. There was a slight, strange feeling he felt from holding them close, but he chalked that up to the numbness in his hands.

With one quick motion, he swept his hands high, yanking the bunch straight out from the ground. It turned out he used a lot more force than he anticipated, and so he flew back from his squat and fell on his back. During his fall, he caught a brief flash of the flowers within his grasp, launching high above him and scattering about. It was a pain, as he now had to gather them and neatly arrange them, but his focus was more on the actual pain stemming from his palms.

Releasing a loud, painful wail, Callum rolled around on the ground, screaming in agony as he clenched his now bleeding hands. The pain was so sharp and cold, it stung worse than any wasp. The last he recalled before passing out was a worried Zym rushing to his aid, and very terrified looking Rayla kneeling beside him. Bright side was he could at least feel his hands again.

::::

After a good fifteen minute break, Callum finally came to. And was immediately met with a fury of rage. "What the hell were ya thinkin'?" Rayla shouted. "Ah, I know the answer, ya weren't!" she hastily added, "Why would ya start touching things when ya know nothin' about the area!" She paced back and forth, shaking her head as she continued, "Honestly, ya've got me thinkin' ya have some sorta death wish or somethin'! After what just happened earlier this mornin', why would ya touch more flowers! Especially ones with thorns!"

Zym remained seated during her rant, simply glancing back and forth between the two. Callum was laying down on a sleeping bag they recently acquired, wrapped heavily in a blanket. Well tucked in too. He barely managed to make sense of what Rayla was ranting about, as his senses were just returning. He instantly winced as he moved his hands, a reaction that definitely caught Rayla's attention. "Hey, don't move!" she ordered, stomping her foot at him, losing all sense of bite in her tone. "Your bandages are still new, I don't wanna ruin 'em!"

Callum nodded as he sunk back down. "Right… of course…" he managed to say.

That seemed to light a fury in Rayla's eyes. "Oh don't go actin' like ya finally understand me! Because if ya had, ya wouldn't be like this to begin with!" she shouted, waving her arms about infuriatingly. "What the hell were ya even touching those for? And don't ya dare say it was 'cause they looked pretty!" she barked out, pointing an accusatory finger his way with a vengeance.

"I…" Callum closed his mouth.

Rayla raised a skeptical brow, expecting a witty remark or a cleverly thought out retort of some sort, but nothing followed out of the Mage's mouth. Nothing except his element, just a breath of air exhaled from his lips as he hung his head low. Since when did he ever do that? He simply accepted defeat without a fight. "What is up with ya?" she softly asked.

Callum glanced up from his sadness and let out a sigh. "It's… it's stupid."

Rayla rolled her eyes as she knelt before the boy. She wanted to push, but she knew better than to stay mad. "Callum, ya've done plenty stupid things. The list can't get any worse," she mused. It was a slam on him, but in a more light-hearted reassuring way. He managed a small smile, which in turn made Rayla smile back.

Another deep breath, and Callum shook his head. "I… I just…" he glanced over at his bag, which laid near him. Beside it, rested his satchel sketchbook. He reached over and began flipping through the pages, ignoring Rayla's obvious confusion. "I just wanted to give you something that well… reminded you of how… cool you are," his voice dropped into a soft spoken hesitance as he turned the book toward her, "But I don't think this means anything."

Rayla's hands trembled as she held Callum's precious book, the one thing she had never been able to see for herself, let alone hold. The page he'd shown her, was a rough sketch of a flower. It didn't look like it was of an actual flower, or at least, not of one they had passed on their travels. It was very sharp, with its stems pricking outward a coat of small thorns, shaded with extensive care and reworks. The petals bloomed into a wide spread, each one folding intricately into the next—similar to that of a ball gown, creating a puffy outline of petals surrounding a stud of a stamen in the centre. It was small and the buds were very round, sketched to a perfection of a sphere, but it was captivating. It was just a flower.

Rayla blinked out of her trance as she realized she'd been staring for a while now. She glanced at Callum, and noticed his shyness enveloping him. Rayla looked to Zym, who seemed to encouragingly nod over to the sulking artist. Right, Rayla remembered, words are what he needed. She continued to blink at the drawing in awe. Like, any words would have to do. "It's… wow…" She looked back at Callum as she very cautiously thumbed over the details of the drawing. "What made ya want to do this?" came her soft question.

Callum's gaze did not stray from the grass. "I… I dunno… I just wanted to try sketching flowers. But, after I saw all the ones today—they all seem so much better." He raised his head at Rayla as he found her eyes. "Because every single one reminded me of you… and your culture and well…" his voice trailed off as his gaze flew elsewhere, "they… for… you," he muttered under his breath.

Rayla's brows rose as she processed what he was trying to say. Taking one more glance between the sketch and the artist, she was dumbfounded. She shook her head as she leaned over. Placing a hand on his shoulder, she said, "I was wrong… ya are stupid," she thumped the top of his head with his own sketchbook, then flashed a pearly white smile. "For even thinkin' that a flower made by ya wouldn't outshine all the others."

She stood up and admired the piece one more, before handing it back. "When ya get the chance, 'pick' me some more would ya?"

A/N: It was fun making Callum pick all those flowers because his reasoning seems to me the kind of conclusion he'd usually make. But also, he's an idiot so of course he'd just go around and start touching random plant life. Because why not? Tomorrow is Moonberry Juice! Twoshot relation to the other oneshot titled, "Confession." Expect delays!

Until next time,

- Bleh