An Explosion of Efflorescence

Everything had been going perfectly well. Alex had been blasted with a laser. As far as doctors had been able to tell, he was normal. His radiation exposure badge hadn't even blipped. In retrospect, Alex should have been a lot more suspicious about that.

"ALLLLLEXXXXX!"

Alex occasionally wondered where Tom dug up the energy to wake him up in the morning on a Saturday. Then he realized that Tom hadn't been kidnapped, coerced, or threatened the previous day.

BAM!

His bedroom door was unceremoniously thrown open. A wild-eyed Tom burst into his room. "What did you do to the roses?! They're blooming like crazy!"

Alex rubbed his eyes and tried to remember if he'd fertilized them recently. Probably not? Maybe Walker was serious about dumping his body bone meal on Alex's plants? As far as he knew, Walker was still soft banned from the UK, though. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

Tom grabbed his arm. There was a goofy grin on his face. "You have to see this, then."

Alex was dragged outside. Wearing nothing but his boxers and undershirt. Hopefully, nobody would take offense.

Alex inhaled in shock at the sight in front of him. Every inch of the climbing roses that covered the walls of the Chelsea house appeared to be in bloom. There were so many roses, Alex couldn't begin to count them. Several people were taking a few extra glances at his garden. The contrast between his house and the neighbors was striking. Nobody else had near the number of blooms his house did. The roses nearly covered the entire house in bright cheerful yellow. Alex was pretty sure these weren't even the kind of roses that liked the London climate. The old lady next door was staring at the two of them. Alex had never quite forgiven her after she had tried to make him cry after Ian's death.

"We'll call it good luck."

Tom rolled his eyes. Alex grinned. "Uhuh, I'm stealing your blood to water my pea plants with. Maybe then the stupid things will grow in time for the biology lab."

Alex gave Tom his most innocent expression. He was eighty percent sure that the problem was Tom forgetting to water. "Speaking of the pea plants, have you watered them this morning or any morning in the last week by any chance?"

Tom jumped slightly. Alex did his best not to smirk at that. "Fuck. My professor's going to kill me. This is the third round of pea sprouts, too."

Alex followed a slightly more sedate Tom back into his house. Tom raced to the kitchen. Alex stared at the beautiful green pea plants. They were also in full bloom. What the hell?! He was pretty sure they should have been near death. The white blooms were almost cute. The thick leafy vines were a dark healthy green. Tom looked between him, the kitchen knife, and the plants. Alex rolled his eyes. "You might have been overwatering, mate."

Tom made a noise. It was a cross between a sigh of relief and a wail of despair. "I swear. The stupid things just like you better."

Alex sat down in the kitchen chair. Tom made a grumbly noise and started brewing coffee. "How, er, did it go?"

Alex scrubbed at his face. He was still tired despite sleeping the entire night before. "About the usual. I go undercover. I get discovered and caught. Villain dude mildly injures me and I escape. I got zapped with some sort of non-radioactive laser. I think the guy who made it for him might have been a scammer or undercover for a different agency."

Tom placed a second mug of coffee in front of him. Alex hadn't realized he'd finished the first. "Thank you."

Tom grinned and fluffed his hair. It was nice to live with someone who didn't take everything seriously sometimes. "Ooooor the laser worked as intended and that's why the plants like you even more now."

Alex rolled his eyes. Tom just had a black thumb. That was all. "Or you just suck at growing plants, mate. Remember the time you killed your mum's bamboo?"

Tom flipped him off. Alex grinned as Tom managed to chug about half a pot's worth of coffee in about eight seconds. "You're mean. And horrible."

Alex snorted. He preferred the term realist. "Isn't this the last weekend you can do your extra credit? We should go just in case you manage to rot another root system."

Tom let out a sigh. "Yeah, but it's super boring. We're supposed to look at a plant that blooms every hundred years. Only thing is, it's not going to bloom anytime soon."

Alex shrugged. They had done worse for extra credit. He shuddered at the thought of the essay options that the history teacher had given them in A-levels. "Let me get dressed and then we can go."

Tom smiled softly and laid a hand on Alex. Alex quirked a brow at him. "Thank you, Alex."

The exhibit was rather sparsely populated. Alex could see why. It looked like a fairly ordinary cactus-shaped plant. It was kind of pretty if you squinted. He wouldn't exactly pick it for his garden, though.

Tom sat down next to Alex and began his plant drawing. His best friend's biology professor had a bit of a fixation on botany. Alex found it somewhat ironic. He took a sip of water and prepared to wait a good long while. Tom had to draw the plant and type up an essay. Alex felt himself drifting off just as a flash of yellow caught his eye.

"Tom? I thought you said it wasn't blooming for a while?"

Tom looked up from his phone picture of the plant that he was attempting to copy. Alex thought that the drawn cactus looked a bit crooked, but wasn't going to say anything. "What the hell?"

The flowers had sprouted from the top of the cactus plant. The large stem and bright yellow tufts stuck out like a sore thumb. "Alex?"

Alex blinked a bit. "Yes, Tom?"

Tom chewed his lip. "The whole room is in bloom."

Alex cracked his neck and looked around him. There was nearly every color of flower imaginable. It was beautiful. Tom took a picture of several plants around the room. "It's beautiful."

Tom rolled his eyes. "Dude, if this gets out, you're going to have everyone and their mother wanting to kidnap you. Can you imagine field after field of crops that went from sprouts to giant green fluffy blooms?"

Alex could imagine that just fine. "Right. I don't see anyone stopping us from leaving."

Tom grinned. "Let me just finish snapping a few pics."

Alex waited for Tom to finish and then took his hand as they walked out. "You know, I don't think I'll be having any more pea plant troubles."

Alex shoved his friend. Tom grinned and shoved him back. "Let's go home, you plant-murdering slacker."

Tom huffed and followed him. Alex knew that a bickering match awaited him when they got home.

Fin

Based on a prompt by Zyzyax (see story summary). This is the 217th work in the Winds of Change 2022 Alex Rider Prompt event, where a new prompt (plus a short 1-3K work) is posted every day. For more details, see the AO3 collection. We have an index of all the prompts used in this event so far and going forwards - join the discord to get access to the online index (and to take part in our events, chat about everything and anything, and meet a load of awesome people!