Seymour stared blankly at the essay he was writing on the extent to which globalization fostered change in the United States economy from 1945 to 2000, eventually blinking several times before taking a sip of coffee in an attempt to keep his eyes open and focused. AP exams started tomorrow, and although he felt reasonably confident in the studying he had done with Audrey, he wanted to get this last bit of practice in, to work on making his handwriting at least kind of legible if nothing else. Even though they were studying in the basement of the shop for once rather than Audrey's room, having gone to the shop to check up on Audrey 2 after Audrey had suggested the idea, it hadn't bothered them and thus revealed its sentience and bloodthirstiness to her, which felt like a lucky sign for their immediate and more distant future. It wasn't that he was never planning on telling her, he knew that she wouldn't react badly or leave him because of it… probably… it was just that now, with the stress of the AP exams surrounding them on all sides and the plant still alive, didn't feel like the right time. Maybe it would make a funny story at, say, their celebratory dinner upon graduating high school, or after they had moved into an apartment together at whatever college they would go to… that would be nice…
Sitting on the room's bed instead of at the desk like he usually did when they studied in her room had been a mistake; it was making it even harder to just finish this last thing without falling asleep along with the temptation to get lost in those wondrous contemplations about their shared future… Seymour jolted his head up and his eyes fully open as he heard Audrey address him from his desk, looking up from her AP Art History essay. "How about we stop there? I think we've prepared enough." Seymour thought for a moment before nodding. "...Yeah, I think so too." After they placed their study materials aside where they could collect them the next day for the adrenaline fueled last minute study session they would probably end up having and Audrey took a final sip of their coffee, they got ready for bed, with Seymour going into the bathroom after Audrey before moving to join her on his bed. She smiled flirtatiously at him before pulling him onto the bed with her, gently but with impressive strength, and he gladly settled down at her side before pulling her into his arms. With Audrey, the most wonderful person that ever lived, here with him, wrapping him up in her arms and support and sweet understanding, he knew he… they could face anything. Audrey sighed contentedly, nuzzling in intoxicatingly closer to him.
"I love you, Seymour." He tightened his hold on her, tiredly running a hand along her back. "I love you too, Audrey." Hey, he had actually managed to say it directly this time! Seymour sank into a sleep that was restful for once, despite the stress that had surrounded them this semester and really for their entire lives… until it wasn't, and the stress was back. Seymour woke up as if being dragged out of sleep, realizing with a daze that Audrey was no longer at his side. …That was… probably fine, she had probably just gotten up to get some water or something, she wasn't leaving him… The sound of something crashing against the floor upstairs jolted him up even before it was followed by yells of protest and fear from Audrey and sadistic laughter from the plant. He was up the stairs and on the storefront before he knew it, staring in terror and disbelief as it lifted her far into the air with its horrific jaws. After what felt like centuries, he was at the plant, desperately trying to pull Audrey away from it while shouting something, he didn't know what through his panic and the ringing in his ears, as if that would help. Eventually, its head was lowered, and he shoved at its jaws with all the strength in his body, trying and succeeding in separating them enough to free her.
He stumbled away from it and towards the side door with Audrey in his arms, its mocking laughter seeming to follow them, and shoved through it, pausing at the other side in the alley outside and despairingly assessing her condition. "Are you okay?!" She directed her dazed gaze towards him, struggling to respond for a moment. "Yes… no." Suddenly, she dropped to the ground, sending additional alarm shooting through him. "Audrey? Audrey?!" Seymour immediately moved to help her up and to a bench, kneeling in front of her as she shakily sat down on it. "...Oh… no, no, I'm okay…" He felt his words spilling out of him as he reeled from what had just happened, his heart threatening to beat out of his chest as he moved to the bench with her. "I'm sorry, Audrey, I'm just so sorry, I should've told you it lives on blood, I should've killed it so nothing like this could happen, I never meant to hurt you and I'll never forgive myself for it…" Seymour trailed off, looking up at her in shock as she gently cupped his cheek in an elegant hand, her eyes brimming with compassion without a trace of anything like the hatred he deserved from her. "Seymour, it's okay; I forgive you." She paused, and her voice took on an almost wry, joking tone. "I wouldn't have known how to tell you about… that either."
Completely overwhelmed, Seymour attempted to process this, eventually shakingly placing his hand over hers on his cheek. "...Really?" She moved her hand so that it was holding his and squeezed it reassuringly. "Of course." He had never wanted to kiss her, to be completely wrapped up in her more as her angelically kind words and gestures washed over him… but he knew that he had a score to settle, a shop to make safe for her. With a seemingly Herculean effort, he stood up from the bench they had shared, facing the store and his destiny. "I'll kill it, Audrey, I'll kill it for you." Immediately, despite her recent trauma by the plant's vines, she was standing at his side. "You can't, Seymour, it's too dangerous." He turned towards her slightly, wanting her to understand. "I can't let it hurt you or anyone else ever again, Audrey, I have to kill it." He managed to tear away from her, his legs feeling like lead as he moved back towards the side door, and paused outside of it as she caught up to him after a moment, holding onto his arm. "Wait! I'm coming with you." Seymour hesitated for a long moment, fighting back the fear that was rapidly catching up on him, before shaking his head in a mostly failed attempt to rid himself of it. "No; it's me that got us into this, and I'm the one to get us out… Wait for me, Audrey… This is between me and the vegetable…"
Before he could lose any more courage or be talked into altering his plan by Audrey, Seymour burst into the shop, staring the plant down with all the righteous fury he could muster even though he was pretty sure it couldn't see him. "How dare you do that to her!" The plant tilted its head, bringing it closer to him menacingly with a cocky grin. "How dare you not bring on the meat!" Suddenly, Seymour's legs were shoved out from under him, and he fell at an awkward angle, realizing a moment later that the plant had hit him with a vine. He scrambled upwards, even angrier now. "Alright, that does it!" Seymour ran behind the counter, grabbing Mr. Mushnik's gun and hesitating for a moment before shooting at the plant. It just kept laughing, seemingly undeterred by this, and he realized with growing horror that the bullets were deflecting off of it without hurting it at all. Suddenly, the gun was out of his hands and in a vine of the plant's, and bullets were flying right at him. He dove under the counter, trying to shield himself, and watched helplessly as the plant lifted it as if it was nothing, exposing him. "Had enough yet?" Seymour grabbed the thing that was closest to him out of everything that had fallen off of and out of the counter in defiance, which turned out to be a leaf cutter, and in response the plant threw the counter at him.
He barely managed to move so that it didn't land on his torso, but it hit his leg instead, and he gasped in pain that only increased as he slowly managed to pull it out from under it. Seymour regained his bearings and lunged at the plant with the now open leaf cutter, trying to cut at its head, but hadn't managed to penetrate it when it shoved him, hard, away from it and through the window of the floral arranging station with a vine. He landed in a crumpled heap in the station, not sure where the pain was from his landing and where it was from glass, and watched, frozen in horror, as the plant almost theatrically grabbed at parts of the walls of the shop with its vines, laughing mockingly at him. Seymour only fully realized what its plan was as it said "Bye bye, Seymour!," and he desperately moved to cover his head with his arms. The walls and ceiling started buckling around him a moment later, sending debris landing on him and kicking up dust that dug itself into his lungs, making it feel like some of the glass had gotten into them. Even through what felt like a mile of rubble, he could hear that infuriating, obnoxious laughter, the vines sweeping over the wreckage above him in triumph, and… some kind of buzzing sound?
A shocking pain came into his awareness at the same time as the buzzing sound, and he realized that they were coming from a broken electrical cable. Desperately, Seymour fished for it, not being able to move his arm much through the rubble but eventually gaining a hold on it. He gathered all his strength, thinking about Audrey and how he needed to get back to her side and their shared future, before shoving it as far up as he could manage, hoping that it would make contact with that vine he could hear. Finally, he felt something hit it and stop, and the sounds of the plant's laughter were replaced with a pained groan and an even louder buzzing sound a moment later. "Oh, shit!" He heard what sounded like some kind of explosion and started fighting to get above the rubble, to Audrey, eventually breaking through and seeing no plant in sight. Completely dazed and exhausted, it took him several seconds to reorient himself to the direction Audrey was in through the dust billowing in the air and the wreckage of the shop. Seymour managed to start limping his way there, relieved beyond the words he could muster in a century that they were okay and the plant had been taken care of and desperate beyond measure to be with her again.
Eventually, far before he had fully made his way out of the area where the late shop had stood, he saw Audrey, lovely Audrey emerge through the clouds of dust, staring at him in shock before breaking into the biggest grin he had seen from her, from anyone, really. With his heart soaring unbounded with love, joy, and pride, Seymour made his way to the most wonderful person that ever lived, his girlfriend, his Audrey, and wrapped his arms around her, feeling her immediately envelop him in hers as well. She was crying from happiness with adorable sniffles, and he probably was too, he just couldn't feel his face to tell if tears were flowing down it with it buried against her shoulder. Seymour let himself sink into her, savoring this perfect, triumphant, wondrous moment at her side and the knowledge that there would be many more to come.