A/N: Yay! The sixth chapter! After this there'll be a seventh, eighth, and maybe a ninth. Or maybe a sequel….

In Crane's workroom…

"Roscra," Rosethorn muttered as she tended to the flower.

Crane came over to her table, "here try this."

He handed her a small bottle with a liquid in it. Rosethorn took the bottle and poured it into the flower's soil. It hissed and sizzled, but the flower didn't do anything.

"I don't think the flower does much of anything, except put people into a time stop… we should test that," Rosethorn said.

Crane looked at her, he was sitting at a desk taking notes on the flower for a book he was going to write on it.

"Not on us though," Crane said sharply.

"Maybe we could trap the smoke in a bottle… we could burn the flower under a case, the although some of the smoke to come out and it a bottle. In the bottle would be something that absorbed smell, so whenever you smelled the bottle, you would be time-stopped," Rosethorn explained.

"Oh, speaking of which, I sent a letter to the Control of Dangerous Plants Company, asking them to put the Roscra on the list of Illegal Plants," Crane told her.

Rosethorn, meanwhile was looking for a large glass case. Upon finding one she placed it over the flower and its pot. Then she took the case off, lit a match and started burning the flower. Before any smoke could come off it she put the case over it. Brown, ugly smoke started filling the case. She took a bottle filled with smell soaking up stuff and held it to a small opening. Once the bottle was full she closed its lid and the opening on the case. She held it up triumphantly. 

"There! One sniff should stop me for a hour or less, I'm not sure," Rosethorn said.

Crane stood up, horrified, "No! I refuse to let you do that!"

"And who are you to be ordering me around?" Rosethorn demanded.

"That's a very very unplanned test! This stuff has only been used once!" Crane said, but he was too late. Rosethorn sniffed the smoke, put the lid back on the bottle, "Rosethorn!"

"Don't worry," Rosethorn said, and sat down, the next instant she looked dead.

Crane stepped over to her and touched her arm. She was as cold as stone. There was no pulse. Crane shivered. So this was how they found him. No wonder he was labeled dead. He reached down and took the bottle from her hand. How long would he have to wait for her to wake? What if, what if she didn't? What if it killed her this time?

Idiot! He thought angrily.

He pulled a chair up in front of her and sat down to wait. He sighed. She was so, so stubborn! She just frustrated him down to the bone, but that was only down to the bone, down to the heart she made him feel like the earth spun round just for him.

He planned on yelling at her a good bit when she woke up, "Oh Rosethorn? Wake-up, wake-up!"

She was as still as ever. He glanced at the clock; it had been five minutes. He stood up and put the chair back and busied himself on writing down facts about the flower on some parchment.

He glanced at the clock again; now it had been nearly 20 minutes. He looked back at Rosethorn, she was as still as ever. He tried to busy himself in his work, hoping that no one would unexpectedly burst in.

"Crane?"

He jumped up and spun around. Rosethorn was standing up, she looked perfectly alive and healthy as ever.

"Rosethorn!" He said maybe a bit too gleefully, then added, "I should kill you! You could have killed yourself, we had no reasons to believe that the smoke would do the same thing to you as to me! You foolish idiot!"

"Me? I'm the foolish idiot?" Rosethorn raised her eyebrows calmly, "Seems to me the only idiot here is the one the burned a flower having no idea what effect the smoke might have on himself, not even bothering to open a window."

Crane opened his mouth, and then closed it. Rosethorn grinned.

He opened his mouth again as if he had a smart remark to that, then closed it again, he repeated this over a few times before finally giving in.

"All right, all right, I give up, we're both idiots," he said with a sigh.

"You mean I'm a idiot, and you're a bigger idiot," Rosethorn told him pointing her finger at him, to emphasize her words.

 Crane smiled, "Maybe we should make a group of idiots."

He pushed his chair away and walked over to her and put his arms around her waist.

"I love you," he said, "and I never want to see you hurt."

Rosethorn nodded, "same goes with me, Crane."

She put her arms around his shoulders and she leaned up to kiss him. Their lips met and she felt warmth flow throughout her body. He's actually a very good kisser, Rosethorn thought.

Just then she heard footsteps outside. She pulled away and looked outside.

"Someone's coming," she said, "quick, pretend we're arguing."

Lark peeked in. Rosethorn could make out the voices of Briar and the girls behind her.

Rosethorn gave a meaningful glance at Crane. He looked around wildly for a second then said, "Well, you're stupid."

"Your face is stupid!" Rosethorn retorted.

"Your butt is stupid!" Crane retaliated.

"My butt? My butt? My butt is stupid?" Rosethorn asked incredulously, "I have never been so insulted in my life! And you know what? Your hair, your hair is the stupidest thing I've ever seen in my life!"

"My hair? Your hair is stupid, ugly, beautiful, horrible, silky, awful, gross, wonderful, slimy, and most of all stupid!" Crane obviously wasn't aware of the other three words that happened to slip in; Lark luckily wasn't either. Rosethorn, on the other hand, had and  was grinning.

"Excuse my interruption, but dinner's ready and um, if you want some then it'll be sitting on the table," Lark said tentatively.

"Ah, yes, dinner," Rosethorn said unable to stop grinning, "Heh heh," she glanced at the clock, "lost track of time, what'd you know."

Lark nodded her head, "Well I'll be off then. If you want to join us Crane, don't bother to help your self, come along Briar, Tris, Sandry, Daja."

They left.

The foursome had been very quiet during the… fight.

Lark peeked back in the window to see if they had resumed fighting. They hadn't. They were kissing. She raised her eyebrows and followed the girls and Briar.

***

"Did you get the feeling they weren't really fighting?" Tris asked later at the dinner table after Lark had left.

"No, not really," Sandry said.

"Oh come on! Your butt is stupid? How fake can you get?" Briar asked.

"They're in love," Daja said dreamily.

"No they're not," Sandry said as if it was obvious, "I mean really, they haven't even kissed, we have no proof what so ever."

Briar grinned wickedly, "Wanna bet?"

"You don't mean to say, you actually saw them, well, kissing?" Tris asked in amazement.

"No, but I'll bet if we were to secretly watch them long enough…" Briar suggested.

"You mean spy?" Daja demanded.

"Unless," Tris said thinking, "they don't know they're in love."

"For the millionth time, may I remind you, they're not in love," Sandry said tapping her foot impatiently.

"I'll bet you two silver crescents," Briar said challenging her.

"We're not actually going to spy on them?" Daja asked.

"Sure, why not?" Briar wondered casually.

"Well, Briar, you were a street rat for your whole life, and we weren't," Tris reminded the boy.

"You're not all saying that you've never spied on someone?" Briar asked in disbelief.

All three girls immediately looked away or busied themselves with they're empty plates.

"You see?" Briar said triumphantly.

Two hours later…

Briar, Sandry, Daja, and Tris all found themselves crouched outside the window of Crane's workroom.

"Check again," Briar whispered to Tris.

The copper-curled girl peeked carefully over the windowsill. Rosethorn was leaning over the flower doing something with something else. Crane was taking notes. She couldn't see either of them very well due to the large plant that had been planted right in front of the window on the outside. If one wanted to look in, one had to push away quite a bit of branches.

This, of course, also provided a good hiding spot, from both Crane and Rosethorn, and any person who happened to walk by on the outside.

"Same as before," Tris muttered to them.

"What did I tell you?" Sandry hissed, hoping greatly nothing happened. She didn't have two silver crescents at the time.

"Just wait, just wait," Daja said, sure something, even a very little something, would happen.

"I'm checking again," Briar said and peered through the window. Rosethorn and Crane were both looking at each other, their eyes locked.

Briar ducked back down, "they're looking at each other!"

"So?" Sandry asked, "what's wrong with that?"

Daja poked her head up, "Crane stood up! He's walking over to Rosethorn and whispering something in her ear. She's smiling, as if it's funny. Okay, now she's turned her head and is smiling up at him."

Sandry snorted, and looked up for herself, Tris and Briar followed her example.

"They're very close," Tris observed.

"They're just talking," Daja pointed out, and indeed Rosethorn's lips were moving.

"Can anyone here lip read?" Briar asked as he, and Tris and Sandry, ducked back down.

"I can," Daja said, grinning mischievously, as she too ducked down.

"What did she say?" Tris demanded, but Daja shook her head.

"You don't want to know," Daja said.

"Why not?" Briar demanded.

"Oh all right," Daja said, "she said… she said, well let's put it this way. She said, well actually I can't lip read."

Briar peeked through the window again, "they're really close now, I think, wait, no."

He leaned back down, "let's open the window a crack."

Tris leaned up with Briar to push the window open a tiny crack. Rosethorn's voice drifted through.

"Go and sit down, we really need to get this flower figured out," she said. Sandry looked triumphant.

"You meant the Roscra," Crane reminded her. He was talking a tone of voice they'd never heard him speak in before. Tris raised her eyebrows.

"Roscra," Daja said thoughtfully.

Tris pushed her ear to the crack, then stared back through the window. Crane brushed a strand of her hair away from her face.

"Your eyes are beautiful," he said softly.

"You guys listening to this?" Tris asked.

Suddenly her eyes wide she sat back down leaning against the wall, "You guys…"

"What?" Sandry asked and took a peek herself, "Oh," she said as she sat back down, "I guess, I guess I was wrong."

"Really?" Briar quickly stole a glance through the window, "Ugh, they're kissing!"

"What's so gross about kissing?" Tris asked, "It's a perfectly normal thing and you'll probably be doing it one of these days."

"Yeah, but Crane and Rosethorn!" He said.

"You guys, they named the flower from the first three letters of both of their names," Daja suddenly spoke up.

Before anyone else could say anything Rosethorn's voice once again drifted out to them.

"I thought I just heard something outside."

"It's nothing, love. I have charms on this room," Crane answered.

There was a sudden scrambling and flying a twigs and dirt as the four hurried off.