Work Text:
The characters in the novels Leo read always seemed to talk about that ‘one fateful morning,’ where they woke up one day and suddenly everything in their life was different.
Leo used to think that was bullshit.
Until, one fateful morning, he woke up with... a sore throat.
Groundbreaking.
Leo was frustrated, of course - surely he wasn’t getting a cold in the middle of a war, of all times? But he didn’t consider it to be anything major. After all, what harm could a sore throat do? It was nothing more than an inconvenience, one easily remedied with a warm drink and some honey. Or at least, it should have been. Unfortunately for Leo, after a week his throat hadn’t gotten any better - but it hadn’t gotten any worse either, which he guessed wasn’t a bad sign.
Soon, however, he began to notice the strangest thing - his throat would become worse any time he was around Takumi. At first he thought it was just a strange coincidence - how on earth could being around someone affect the severity of his cold? It was just nonsense. But every time he spent time in Takumi’s company - hell, every time he thought about Takumi, and he thought about him much more often than he was willing to admit - the pain in his throat would flare up, and sometimes even send him into a coughing fit.
Leo knew it was strange, but still didn’t pay it much mind - after all, the cold should pass soon, and then he wouldn’t have to worry about it anymore. Besides, it wasn’t as if the pain was going to prevent him from spending time with Takumi. Getting to see him, relax with him, play shogi with him, read with him, train with him- Leo was compelled to spend every spare moment of his time with Takumi. Those moments Leo spent with Takumi were precious to him, the only times he felt as if he could truly relax and be himself. He would spend his life with Takumi, if he could.
... okay, Leo could admit to himself that maybe he had a little bit of a crush on Takumi. A big crush on Takumi. But it’s not as if he could do anything about it - he had known from a young age that as a prince of Nohr, marriage to anyone but a noblewoman would be unacceptable, and so had resigned himself to his future of raising children with a spouse chosen for him and not by him, whom he could not ever love in the way she would want him to. And even if he were free to choose his own partner, Leo was absolutely certain that Takumi didn’t like him in that way. So he forced himself to be content in the friendship that he and Takumi shared, for even though he was not completely content when he was being honest with himself, it wasn’t as if he was willing to jeopardise their relationship for his own selfish desires.
Everything really did change, however, about two weeks after Leo’s cold first appeared. He had been reading in the library, as usual, and had happened to glance out one of the windows he was sitting near. This particular window overlooked the training grounds, and he could see from where he was sitting that Takumi was out there, sparring with Hinata. A pang of longing flared up in Leo’s chest, as did the pain in his throat, until he was coughing, doubled over and hacking into his hand, eyes watering and chest stinging. He could feel something in his throat and he gagged on it, coughing and coughing to dislodge it until the sensation abruptly stopped. Chest heaving, Leo sat back to catch his breath and looked down at his hand, curious to see what it was he had coughed up, only to feel the air leave his lungs once more - in his hand sat a smattering of yellow petals.
“Daffodil petals?” Leo murmured, stunned. Perhaps this wasn’t a normal cold after all.
•••
Elise was absolutely no help. A cough she could treat, no problem. But coughing up flowers? When Leo had first gone to her for advice, Elise had almost kicked him out of the medical tent, thinking he was lying to her. Leo had eventually managed to convince her that he was telling the truth by having an unfortunately timed coughing fit in the middle of the tent. Elise had panicked, having never heard of a disease like this before, and had quickly sent him to Azura. Many of the soldiers in their army had contracted strange diseases native to Valla, and Azura’s ability to identify them and suggest treatments to the healers, as well as keep up the spirits of those affected by illness, had proved itself invaluable time and time again.
Unfortunately, Azura had nothing hopeful to say about Leo’s disease.
“It’s called Hanahaki,” Azura had told him gently, “and it’s extremely rare. It’s also extremely dangerous.”
“How do I cure it?” Leo had replied, face grim.
Azura had taken a deep breath then, and looked Leo straight in the eyes, her mouth pulled down at the corners. “You have to profess your love and have it returned.” She said. “Or you will die.”
•••
So, he had flowers growing in his lungs. How many times had he heard that expression used in books and poetry, writers waxing lyrical about vines constricting their vocal cords and greenery filling their airways? He thought of the book of poetry Camilla had lent him just the other day, and how she had rifled through the pages to show him one of her favourites;
You made flowers grow in my lungs/
And although they are beautiful/
I can’t breathe.
How ironic, that he would be killed by the very things he controlled. He had thought of using Brynhildr to manipulate the flowers and force them out of his body, but was held back by the possibility that doing so would tear his lungs and give him an even earlier death. It had been almost two weeks since he had spoken to Azura, since she had told him that the only cure - and his only chance at survival - was to have his love returned. But even though this was a matter of life and death, Leo still couldn’t bring himself to tell Takumi how he felt. He couldn’t bear to even imagine his inevitable rejection, or the disgust Takumi would hold in his eyes when he found out - disgust at him, at his feelings that he had tried so hard to keep covered but still kept forcing their way out of him in the form of kind words, small favours, and yellow petals. Leo was also firm in his decision to never tell Takumi of his Hanahaki - he knew Takumi would force himself into a relationship with Leo just to try and save his life, but Leo couldn’t accept a relationship like that; he had no desire to force Takumi into anything. Leo sighed and buried his head in his hands, groaning at how hopeless he felt. How helpless.
He can’t tell Takumi about his feelings, or his Hanahaki, but he knew that one way or another Takumi’s feelings would still determine his fate.
•••
Leo was, apparently, a terrible actor when it came to hiding physical illnesses. After almost a month of coughing up flower petals - and now whole, bloodstained daffodils, which Azura had confirmed (between pleading with him to “just talk to whoever you’re in love with!”) meant that the disease was getting close to its final stage - Takumi cornered Leo in a secluded area by the mess hall.
“You’ve been avoiding me,” Takumi said, hands on his hips. “Mind explaining why?”
Oh gods. It was true Leo had been avoiding Takumi more and more as his coughing fits had become much more violent and frequent. For all his talk of persevering through the pain, he had still inevitably wound up avoiding his friend - Leo just couldn’t bear to have Takumi know about his illness, or what it meant. He was absolutely not ready to have this conversation with Takumi, not right now.
“Ah, my apologies, Takumi. It was not my intention to avoid you - I’ve been feeling unwell lately, is all.” Leo could feel a scratching in his throat, vines constricting his lungs, but he had to hold them back. He couldn’t cough. Not now. Not when Takumi was right there. It’s okay, Leo thought, just act normal for now and hold out until he’s gone, it will be fine.
It wasn’t fine.
Leo’s hands flew to his mouth as a violent cough forced itself from his body, collapsing to his knees as they came again, and again, and again. He was vaguely aware of Takumi, now beside him, rubbing his hand along Leo’s back and asking if he was okay. Leo tried to draw in enough air to reply but instead coughed again, gagging at the feeling of flowers in his throat, choking him and tearing at his airways as they forced themselves up.
The coughing fit stoppedy as quickly as it had started, and Leo sat heaving, trying to get his breath back. Takumi was still beside him, and Leo’s mind was running a mile a minute in an effort to concoct a way to keep the flowers he had just coughed up hidden from Takumi.
“Leo,” Takumi gasped, eyes widening at the sight of blood slipping between his fingers. “Is that blood? Oh gods, we need to get you to a healer right away-“
“It’s okay,” Leo sighed, defeated. “Elise and Azura already know. There’s nothing they can do for me, going to them now would only cause them unnecessary worry.” He drew his hands from his mouth but kept his fists clenched, praying to whoever would listen that Takumi would be too preoccupied to notice the flowers.
Luckily for Leo, he was. “Unnecessary worry?” Takumi almost shouted, “you’re coughing up blood, Leo, it’s not unnecessary! You have to take care of yourself!” Takumi was working himself up, face flushed in anger and voice strained with disbelief that Leo would care so little about his wellbeing.
“I told you, I’ve already seen someone,” Leo replied, voice clipped. “There isn’t a cure for this.”
“Like hell there isn’t!” Takumi growled, eyes narrowed. “We’re going to a healer right now, I’ll find a cure myself if I have to.”
“I told you, forget it!” Leo said. “Why are you bothering to worry about me, anyway?” He snapped, turning away from Takumi.
“Why am I bothering-“ Takumi spluttered. “Of course I’m worried about you, you idiot! I love you!”
Leo’s whole body froze, and he was sure that if he wasn’t already sitting on the ground he would have fallen over. He turned back to face Takumi slowly, heart hammering in his chest, taking notice of the other boy’s red face and wide eyes.
For the first time in weeks, Leo felt like he could breathe easily.
“Uh,” Takumi was now so red Leo was a little concerned he might pass out. “I. I didn’t mean to just blurt that out, oh gods I’m so sorry, just- just forget I said that, please.” Takumi had one hand over his mouth, eyes firmly looking over Leo’s shoulder.
“I’m not going to forget you said that, Takumi,” Leo said, swallowing his fear (and quite possibly a flower petal or two) as hope bloomed in his chest. “I’m not going to forget, because I love you too.”
Takumi’s eyes snapped back to Leo’s face. “You do?”
“Yes,” Leo smiled. “That’s what I said.”
“I’m glad then,” Takumi smiled back at Leo, breathing out a sigh of relief. “Nothing could make me happier than hearing you say that. But, maybe we could talk about this later? Preferably after you’ve been to see a healer?”
“Actually,” Leo laughed, “I think you just cured me.”
•••
“A disease that caused flowers to grow in your lungs because you thought I didn’t love you? Okay, you’ve got to be pulling my leg here Leo.”
“I’m not! I’ve been coughing up daffodils for a month and this is how you treat me, your very own boyfriend. I’m insulted.” Leo had reluctantly decided, after about two days of Takumi pestering him about his health, to just come clean about the whole thing. Now that he and Takumi were officially courting (well, they were the only ones who actually knew about it. They had decided that whatever scandal their relationship would inevitably cause could wait until after the war), Leo reasoned that there was no need for him to keep it a secret. As embarrassing as it was, Takumi had a right to know.
“Okay, but why daffodils? They’re literally the most inappropriate flower for this disease.”
Leo raised one of his eyebrows. “How so? They do represent unrequited love, so I thought they were rather fitting.”
“They do?” Takumi shouted. “In Hoshido, they represent joy.” Takumi paused for a moment, considering. “Remind me to tell my siblings to never get you daffodils as a gift.”
Leo laughed, “that would truly be an unfortunate present.” He smiled across the table at Takumi. “So, do you believe me?”
Takumi nodded. “Yeah, I do. As unbelievable as it is, I don’t see what reason you would have to lie about it. And it does make sense, in a weird way. It explains you avoiding me, at least.” Takumi stretched and stood up, walking around to Leo’s side of the table and holding his arms out to him. “Now come over here and kiss me, I don’t want to think about you almost dying anymore.”
Leo laughed, and did just that.