how petals fall (like i, for you)
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Listing Series
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the language of flowers (and silent things) by bukopandanstiko
Fandoms: Real Person Fiction, Vatican (2025) RPF
30 Nov 2025
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Summary
An itch starts to form again in Robert’s throat as he desperately thinks, God, please, not now. But God doesn’t listen to sinners like him, so he can only continue to blame himself for how he ended up here: heaving and coughing again and again and again in utter desperation to get rid of the obstruction in his airway before he can choke on what is deemed to be something divine, but apparently only to those not like him. His ears are ringing and tears are forming in his eyes as he coughs with so much force one final time, and the taste in his mouth is bitter as he spits out a single, white flower in full bloom, covered in spit and blood.
That particular one had only been a closed bud yesterday. There hadn’t even been blood.
He looks beside him, to Chito still with a hand on his arm and the other on his back, now horrified with the truth he had just witnessed, and Robert mockingly says, “I told you. You cannot help me.”
The Holy Father is sick, but no one shall know the true reason for it.
Series
- Part 1 of how petals fall (like i, for you)
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flowers for saints, blossoms for sinners by bukopandanstiko
Fandoms: Real Person Fiction, Vatican (2025) RPF
04 Apr 2026
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Summary
“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned,” he slowly starts in a low voice. “My last confession was last week. I—”
As if mocking him, a cough rises up his throat and makes him choke. His grip on the armrest of the wooden kneeler tightens for support until one of his hands repeatedly and forcefully hits his own chest as if it will even do anything. It still hasn’t become easier despite the mere size of it, despite the Holy Father briefly telling him a week ago that it will.
When his throat finally eases up, the flower gets stuck on his tongue, and he knows he cannot just spit it out in this confessional. So, he takes the stupid flower — surprisingly only one — from his tongue with his own hand, and a mocking scoff comes out of his mouth before he admits, “I am coughing up flowers for a man whom I am unworthy of.”
How cruel it is to have sampaguitas in your lungs that bloom for the Holy Father.
Series
- Part 2 of how petals fall (like i, for you)