#my grammer software is crying

[spoiler1001]

🥺 widomauk

It starts, as all bad things do, with counting. Molly could do that much. He counted many things. Molly counted his money. He counted heartbeats. Counting shouldn’t be that hard to do.

But when his eyes are filled with tears and words and screams are trapped in his throat.

Red daisy petals fell from his lips.

In this world, there were many flower curses. One flower kind for each kind of curse. Pink roses for heartbreak, violet chrysanthemums for betrayals, Black roses for grief, and red Daisies for guilt. Apparently, the Wildmother did not care too much for strong emotions, or she cared too much and it brought out her magic.

Red daisy petals fell from his mouth, suggesting a pang of deep guilt. Molly had no idea what he would be guilty of. Sure, he did many bad things, hurt way too many people.

This train of thought lead Molly to sit down and just start counting his sins. The first few… dozen were easy to get to, then a name came up. Caleb Widogast. Then it came up again and again. It pulled more and more petals from him, mixing with tears.

The world of gods and miracles were supposed to be a wondrous thing, but molly saw what it did to Yasha. She had her own curse of the black petals. Hers was not as devastating as his was. Yasha’s curse only flared up under stress and faded as she took frequent breaks. It came in waves for her, but Molly felt like he was underwater. The last time he had felt like that, he had pulled himself from his own grave.

The wizard tried to help. Molly knew that Caleb noticed that something was wrong. He tried to talk to Molly but there…

Molly had started pulling away from the group when he had found the first petal. Things got real to him after that. It had started as just an emotion that clawed at him. The flowers just made it something he couldn’t run away from. He knew that he had guilt about betraying-

Caleb did not give his love freely. Caleb’s love and trust were something that had to be nurtured and developed. Molly was pulling away and hurting that trust. It was just adding to the guilt feeding the flowers in his soul. If Molly kept going he might hurt the wizard in ways that would not heal. With that thought, molly could feel the flower grow stronger. The curse was so visceral, and it seemed to number his days.

Molly, for all of his virtues, was never one to apologize. So he decided to start packing a bag to try to wait this out, no matter how this ended. It was good that he had managed to convince the group to let him have his own room.

His thoughts were interrupted by a knock on his door.

“Hello,” Molly yelled through the door from across the room.

“Mr. Mollymauk, we have something we need to discuss.” A heartbreakingly familiar voice answered through the door. Dammit. The wizard that haunted his thoughts.

Molly swallowed through the flower and walked to the door, opening it slowly.

Caleb looked like he hadn’t slept in a week.

Of course, molly was sure that he did not look much better.

“What do you think we should discuss, love?” Molly cleared his throat and tried to smile through the exhaustion. It was almost painful to look Caleb in the eye but it was the least he could do.

Caleb did something that Molly hadn’t expected.

“What is poisoning you?” Caleb asked, his tone soft and understanding. Caleb’s hand was raised to cup Molly’s face. Molly leaned into the touch and his purring was muffled. A few seconds passed before Molly pulled away, desperate to not answer the question.

Unfortunately, Molly did not have a choice in the matter. He coughed and a whole daisy came up and fell onto the floor. Molly hoped that Caleb hadn’t noticed. Of course, that was almost insulting, because it’s Caleb.

Caleb picked it up, careful as to not break it like it was a delicate piece of glass. He ran his finger over the petals, and the magic of the flower seemed to grip onto his thumb.

“Guilt.” Caleb almost whispered. It was the loudest thing that Molly ever heard.

“...Yes.” Molly nodded. Caleb let magic build up in his fingers, burning the flower away.

“How long?” Caleb let his eyes wander from the ash of the flower to Molly.

Molly just shrugged. It was a question that had a lot of answers.

Quiet took over the moment.

“I forgive you,” Caleb whispered, breaking the silence. Molly was confused and shocked. All he could do is blink.

“Whatever you did, I forgive you.” (‘Even if I know what is literally eating you alive’ was left unsaid.) Caleb gave him a sad smile.

“I hope that stays true.” Molly looked away.

“You have done nothing that doesn’t deserve forgiveness.”

“I hurt a lot of people I care about. I failed them.” petals upon petals fell from his mouth in clumps, clearing his throat as he was confronting the source of his guilt.

“All of us have, Mollymauk,” Caleb responded. There were barely hidden tears in his eyes. “You are the only person that blames you, Mollymauk.”

Molly took a deep break, coughing up more of the flower, with tears streaming down his face, the tears steaming in the cool air.

“I can’t let go of what happened. You want to know what is poisoning me? It’s your blood on my hands.” Molly wiped the tears away.

“None of that is on you.” Caleb walked towards Molly.

“I forgive you for leaving the group, and if it will help, I will forgive you for Lucien.” Caleb cupped Molly’s face. “I can forgive you. Forgive yourself.”

“I don’t want to die, Caleb,” Molly whispered, his voice was raspy and had more air than anything.

“I know. Just let me in, forgive yourself. Stay.”

“Don’t leave.”

“Never.”