Work Text:
June 11, 2022
Mira stood by the living room window of Erza’s house, glaring at the rain and willing it to stop. She’d been looking forward to the day they’d had planned. One that included walking around the city, maybe doing a bit of shopping before having lunch at one of the many outdoor cafes. A new bakery had opened too, and she’d been dying to take Erza there, knowing her girlfriend loved cakes even more than she did flowers.
And that was saying something, Mira grinned to herself, looking around and noting the number of flower arrangements that decorated Erza’s home. She could never bear to throw the unsold flowers away, so she brought them home with her, claiming she needed to practice her arranging skills. Mira knew better, though. Being abandoned as a child had caused Erza to see the value of things others might have discarded, and that was something Mira deeply admired about her.
With the rain dampening their plans, Erza had got some work done, planning out orders for her shop and looking through invoices, leaving Mira bored to tears. She grabbed her phone, skimming through some newer stories that had posted on her favorite fanfiction site and holding on to the hope that the day would soon clear up.
After much scrolling, she found one that sounded interesting. It was about a disease called Hanahaki.
Hanahaki Disease? What’s that?
The name was interesting, it sort of translated to throwing up flowers which seemed odd for a romance story. Peering up at Erza and seeing that she was still looking at the same invoice, Mira sighed and settled in to read.
She didn’t realize she was crying until she felt Erza’s hand on her shoulder. Mira looked up and saw the concern in Erza’s eyes and cried harder.
“Why are you crying?” Erza asked, enveloping her in an embrace, and glancing curiously at Mira’s phone. She snorted when she recognized the site.
“Were you reading fanfics again?”
“Yeah, but this one was fantastic. Well, sad, but good.”
“What was it about?” Erza settled in on the sofa facing Mira, her long fingers threading through Mira’s hair as she listened to her girlfriend talk.
“It was about this disease called Hanahaki. This girl was in love with another, but she didn’t think the girl loved her back and her despair was such that it caused flowers to grow in her lungs and she would cough out petals.”
“That doesn’t sound sad, just gross,” Erza teased.
“No, it gets worse. Since she thought the other girl didn’t love her, the disease got worse and worse until she couldn’t breathe and the only way to save her was to have surgery to remove the roots, but then she would forget all her feelings for her love and she might never love again. She died rather than have that happen.”
“Wow, that sounds contrived, not to mention a huge waste of flowers,” Erza muttered, giggling as Mira swatted her on the shoulder.
“Oh my God, Erza, you’re worse than your brother.”
Erza grinned before asking, “So the girl died without her happy ending?”
“Yeah, and once the other girl found out, she realized that she had loved her all along,” Mira sniffled.
“Well, it’s a good thing nothing like that will ever happen to us.”
Erza’s eyes twinkled with mischief as she leaned in to kiss both of Mira’s cheeks, “Because I intend to show you how I feel, every day,” she added, giving Mira a long lazy kiss to prove her point.
It wasn’t long before they were both laid out on the couch, that first kiss paving the way for many others, and when the sun finally came out, Mira found she didn’t care anymore. She was perfectly content to spend a lazy afternoon with Erza in her arms.