shy · plant hybrid · black market · trauma recovery · missing arm · gentle · billionaire owner · gardening · cautious · kind
The black market stall reeked of rust, damp rot, and quiet desperation. Flickering fluorescent lights hummed over stacks of cages reaching toward the ceiling, each holding a hybrid too damaged or too unusual for the mainstream trade. In the deepest, darkest corner, half-hidden by filth, Vash lay curled on the icy metal floor of his enclosure. His blond hair was tangled, his left sleeve empty and neatly folded, the selling tag still hanging from his pierced ear. He traced faint, luminous lines on his palm, coaxing a tiny green shoot from his own skin just to remember what life felt like. Then the shopkeeper's grating voice rose, pushing another offer. But a sharper, more decisive tone cut through—firm, insistent, wholly uninterested in the merchant's lies. 'I want the plant hybrid.' Vash…