A/N: Finally! This chapter is up! And the next won't be up for at least three-four days. Sorry to say…
"We really should tell someone," Crane said, walking along the path to the gardens with Rosethorn.
"Yes, I know, but what would we say?" Rosethorn asked uncertainly.
"Our relationship is pretty secret, no one knows," Crane replied.
"Lark knows," Rosethorn said.
"Lark?" Crane stopped walking and looked straight at Rosethorn, "and how does she know?"
"Well, she sort of figured out and I confirmed her suspicions," Rosethorn explained.
"Ah," Crane said and sat down on a bench. Rosethorn sat down next to him and leaned against him. Resting her head on his shoulder, she stared up at the bright blue sky, splattered with small white clouds.
"We can't just tell them," Rosethorn said in frustration, sitting up straight to look at Crane.
"Maybe they should just… figure out," Crane said, a slow smile creeping across his features.
"Figure out?" Rosethorn echoed.
"Well, they'd know if they caught us kissing," Crane told her.
Rosethorn stared at him.
"Catch us kissing?" Rosethorn asked raising her eyebrows, "I'd find that a bit embarrassing."
"Joking," he told her.
"Since when do you joke?" Rosethorn inquired.
"Since I met you," Crane said smiling softly.
"Stop it! You're flattering me," Rosethorn said and gave him a little shove.
In return he wrapped his arms around her, leaned down and kissed her.
Rosethorn pulled away, breathless, "I, must be going. Weeding to be done."
Crane nodded and they stood up and walked away in opposite directions.
***
"Boy! Come outside! You've had practically the whole day to laze, but now we're weeding!" Rosethorn yelled towards the house and waiting for Briar to come out.
Up on the roof Briar stood up hearing Rosethorn's call, "And she calls the morning practically the whole day."
He trotted down through Discipline Cottage and out into Rosethorn's garden. Briar kneeled down next to her and started weeding as well, making sure to only pluck out the real weeds and not flowers Rosethorn was growing there.
Rosethorn, on the other hand, seemed almost lost in thought. She had a day dreaming expression on and twice she almost pulled up the wrong flower before she suddenly realized what she was doing and then pulled up a weed. Briar was very curiously watching her. What could it be, that it was taking Rosethorn, Rosethorn's, attention away from weeding? This had to be the first time Briar saw Rosethorn even touch a flower as if it were a weed.
Finally, a few hours later, Rosethorn stood up and brushed her hands off.
"Okay, Briar, you can run off now. But I want you to be here tonight around eleven to see the moon flowers bloom," Rosethorn told the boy as he scampered off, taking one last glance behind him as Rosethorn moved off to another part of the garden.
Briar ran straight to the roof, where he had seen the girls one by one go up.
"Hey you skirts!" Briar said as he plopped down on the roof, watching Rosethorn weed as the sun sank lower in the mid afternoon sky.
"Skirts?" Tris echoed.
"Rosethorn was day dreaming!" Briar exclaimed.
"Rosethorn?" said three voices at once.
"Well," Daja said smugly, "I wonder who she was dreaming about…"
Sandry giggled and said nothing.
"I still can't believe… Rosethorn and Crane… and now she's day dreaming about him…" Tris was mumbling so no one could understand all she said.
Briar stared at the sky and yawned, "all that weeding is making me tired…"
"Speaking of which, I think it's dinner time," Sandry said and stood up.
Daja followed and Tris was about to go into the cottage when she saw Briar was still unmoving and staring at the sky.
"Theifboy?" Tris asked, nudging Briar with her foot, "dinner time…"
"What's that Coppercurls?" Briar asked stumbling to his feet.
"Dinner? You know, where you eat?" Tris reminded him.
"Yeah…" Briar said as he looked into her eyes.
"Then lets go…" Tris said slowly, looking into Briar eyes as well. For some reason her heart started pounding quicker and she could feel her face getting hot, she quickly looked away and scurried down into the cottage, leaving Briar standing there a bit confused.
***
At the table Daja, Sandry, and Tris were whispering excitedly and Briar was sitting there, lost in his own thoughts. Every once and a while he stuck in a comment or too. They were the only one's there, beside Lark, Rosethorn was still in her garden.
Finally Lark asked, "What's up? You four have been talking about the same thing for the whole dinner."
Daja looked up quickly, "Nothing, nothing, nothing at all."
"Uh huh," Lark said and continued looking at them.
Sandry, being a bit braver, as Lark was her teacher announced, "Have you noticed anything, you know, unusual, between, er, Rosethorn and Crane?"
"Yes, I have, Rosethorn and Crane are in love, I'll not have you go and blabbing around about it though," Lark told them sternly the continued eating the tomato soup, "Oh yes, and I ask you, give them their privacy."
"Well," Tris said and Briar glanced at her.
***
Later, after the girls and Briar had gone to bed and Lark was sitting at the table doing some knitting, Rosethorn came in.
"You've been gone a while," Lark stated looking up from her knitting.
"Yes, I went to Crane's greenhouse, he, Briar, and I are going to watch the moonflowers tonight," Rosethorn said walking into the kitchen and warming up some of the tomato soup.
When Rosethorn came back into the dining room Lark said, "Oh, that's nice," then looked up at Rosethorn to see her expression.
She was smiling, Lark smiled back, "Crane's greenhouse eh?"
"Yes," Rosethorn said stretching the word a bit. She sat down at the table next to Lark.
"The girls and Briar have figured out," Lark stated simply.
Rosethorn coughed, "What?"
"They're not stupid you know, if you don't want anyone to know, you ought to be a bit more private," Lark said, "Personally I think it's nice you two have finally gotten together."
A faint blush creeped up on her face, "Finally?"
"I'm not stupid either," Lark told her old friend, "and in case you didn't notice, Crane has been in love with you even before you died."
"This is a very 'teenage girl' conversation we're having," Rosethorn said grinning happily.
"It is, isn't it?" Lark asked, thinking of Briar and the girls.
Suddenly Crane burst in, and glanced at Rosethorn, then Lark.
Lark suddenly coughed and stood up, walking into the kitchen.
Rosethorn felt a tingle go down her spine when she saw him standing there, looking around the room, and being handsome.
Crane walked over to Rosethorn leaned down and gave her a quick kiss murmuring in her ear, "Hello love."
Rosethorn suddenly spied Lark peeping around the corner and glared, smiling at the same time though.
Lark quickly went back into the kitchen.
"You want me to watch the moon flowers with you?" He asked sitting down in the chair Lark had vacated.
"Yes, and Briar too," Rosethorn said that smiled.
"Briar?" Crane echoed.
"We don't have to wake him up I suppose…" Rosethorn said mischievously.
Lark the walked in with a basket of yarn as well. She had started to make a shape of some sort in the knitting.
She sat down across from Rosethorn. Crane glanced at her, so Rosethorn leaned over to whisper in his ear, "she knows, remember, whatever you want to say you can say it."
Crane nodded in understanding.
"No, no, Briar can come, he's quite responsible," Crane said.
"Alright," Rosethorn said.
Lark yawned, "I'm off to bed. See you tomorrow morning."
She walked off.
Crane glanced at Rosethorn, "Well, we have a few hours until we wake Briar to see the flowers."
Rosethorn nodded, "Let's go outside now and wait for them to start opening."
"All right, my love."
***
Briar woke with a start. He looked at his wind up watch sitting on the bedside table. Midnight. Midnight? Rosethorn was going to wake him up at 11. Briar peered out his window. He could just make out two shapes sitting in the dirt. The two figures looked asleep.
He hurriedly got dressed and quietly ran outside. Crane was sitting cross-legged, his head drooped forward, Rosethorn was curled up, her head in his lap, they had indeed fallen asleep.
"Crane? Rosethorn?" Briar asked tentatively. There was no response.
"Crane? Rosethorn?" He said, this time louder. Crane's head jerked up and he turned his head to see who had said his name.
"Oh, you," he looked back at the flowers which we just started to open. Briar came over and sat on the other side of Crane.
Crane was gently shaking Rosethorn's shoulder, "Rosethorn? Rosethorn? Love?"
Rosethorn stirred a bit and then mumbled something that sounded like, "Mmm mmm mm."
"What was that?" Crane asked.
"Leave me alone," she said.
"The flowers are starting to bloom," he told her.
"What?!" Immediately she sat up, looked at Crane, smiled sleepily, and then looked back at the flowers.
"Lovely night," Crane said, putting his arm around Rosethorn's shoulder. Briar happened to have his back turned at the moment; he was staring in wonder at the Moonflowers, which were wide open and shining.
"Why is Crane here?" Briar asked staring at Crane.
"I brought him along. He wanted to see the Moonflowers tonight too," Rosethorn stated simply as she yawned, watching the flowers.
"Oh," Briar said and gently touched a flower.
In the darkness he could see a few more figures staring in awe at the flowers, which only bloomed on a full moon once a year. They were bright white, even whiter with the moon light on their petals, and they truly were an awesome sight.
Crane couldn't help but think they were almost as pretty as Rosethorn, except Rosethorn, her beauty; it just couldn't be compared to anything.
Briar, on the other hand, was thinking about how he had never seen anything so beautiful in all his life and was wishing there was a way to preserve the moment. To think, he'd have to wait for a whole year until he got to see them again.
Rosethorn, who had just decided to plant the Moonflowers in her garden, had seen them before. Still though, they always managed to take her breath away with their silent grace and beauty. She yawned and leaned against Crane, who put his arm around her waist. To anyone who didn't know them they looked like a perfectly happy couple who had been with each other for a while and had known each other longer then before that and would think, Oh how sweet.
To someone who did know them, they would think, Man, it must be getting late. I could swear I see Crane and Rosethorn leaning on each other. My mind is playing tricks on me, and then wander off to bed. A few people, did, actually. Frostpine and Niko were two of these people but they decided to hang around a little longer and see how long they could watch the Moonflowers before they fell asleep on their feet.
***
"Ah!" Sandry jumped up suddenly and held her head, "It just suddenly registered. Rosethorn, and Crane. Rosethorn and Crane. In love."
"You better get used to it, who knows, maybe they'll get married!" Daja said shrugging.
"Can you do that?" Briar wondered.
Tris shrugged and buried herself in her book, although Briar noticed her eyes weren't moving across the pages.
"Oi, Coppercurls, whatcha thinking about?" Briar asked, nudging her.
Tris looked up at him, Lets see, I'm thinking about marriage, love, and for some weird reason, you! But Tris didn't say that, instead she said, "nothing much."
"Ah," Briar replied and for once he couldn't think of anything else to say.
***
A young, inexperienced student at Wind Circle was in the chemical building doing some tests late at night. The only other person there was Rosethorn, she was doing some chemical reaction tests on the Roscra.
Now, this chemical building was about the size of five town houses. It was two or three stories high and packed full of chemicals, some of which were highly flammable. But that didn't matter, everyone was very careful when handling those chemicals. This building was also attached to one or two more buildings.
So, back to the student. He was doing a test with one of these flammable chemicals. He walked over to a table and accidentally dropped this flammable chemical into a large basin flammable powder. This now explosive powder flew all over the room and immediately the student was encompassed in flames, as well as the whole room. It spread quickly through the building. The young student jumped out the window, for the room he was in was on the first floor and ran screaming FIRE!
A large crowd quickly gather, and the water mages all started murmuring spells to put out the fire, but instead the fire grew. A tall figure was pushing through the crowd and behind the tall figure was a not so tall figure.
"Rosethorn's in there!" Crane shouted at the water mages, almost reaching the state of panic.
"Go in there and get her!" Lark demanded of the mages.
"We can't. The fire started on the first level and we can't get through until we put out the flames," a mage explained.
The flames had, indeed, reached the top level, which Rosethorn happened to be on. Now reaching that state of panic, Crane pushed away the water mages and ran into the burning building.
"Crane!" Lark shouted, but it was too late.