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At first, Hanamaki didn't think about the weird pain in his chest. He just waved away the thought and continued to play and go about his day. Though, it seemed that the strawberry haired spikers life was about to get a whole lot worse. The pain moved to his lungs, making it hard to breath some times. He still thought nothing of it. He could still play and do everything else, it wasn't that bad. He didn't start worrying until he heard some classmates talking at lunch, half paying attention to his fellow third years, half listening to the conversation from the other table he caught bits and pieces of what they were saying.
"Yeah, she was coughing up flowers and everything."
"...started in her chest and moved to her lungs...."
".....unrequited......could die...."
"...think it's called hanahaki..."
The words hit Hanamaki with dread. The infamous Hanahaki disease was a terrifying topic for him, the idea of plants taking root in his chest and slowly killing him was stuff of nightmares. the words planted seeds of worry in the third years head. Could I have it? No there's no way, there's no one I like, right? Thoughts sawm through his head, trying to imagine if there was anyone he liked at his school or other places. He was so busy worrying that he didn't hear Matsukawa talking to him,
"Right Makki?" His friend looked at him.
"O-oh, sorry. Wasn't paying attention could you say it again." Hanamaki brought his hands down from his face.
Matsukawa just laughed, Hanamaki always thought Matsukawa had a nice laugh. Actually, Hanamaki thought everything about Matsukawa was nice, in a friend way though, totally platonic, totally. The middles blockers laugh was one that made every other person around laugh too, "I was just talking about how one time I mixed red bull and monster together and stayed up for a full forty eight hours."
"Oh ha, yeah." Hanamaki responded, preoccupied with the worry on his mind. Iwaizumi gave him a sideways look.
"Hey, Makki? Are you feeling alright?"
The spiker jumped slightly at the sound of his name, "Oh yeah! Just fine! Everything's chill. Totally cool."
Oikawa and Matsukawa each gave their share of odd looks and continued eating, Hanamaki prayed no one would pry any father.
Hanamaki couldn't focus on anything else for the rest of the day, even forgetting to text Matsukawa when he arrived home to talk about school, homework, and stuff like they normally do. Instead the third years went straight to his room and grabbed his lap top and logged in. Once he did he typed "Symptoms of Hanahaki" into the search bar and pressed enter.
"Symptoms of Hanahaki include but are not limited to, trouble breathing, pain in chest or lungs, throwing up flowers and/or blood, feeling faint, and other common side effects when it comes to similar respiratory diseases." He read out loud tracing his finger underneath the texts. The next paragraph down described the reason behind it, "Hanahaki Disease is an illness born from unrequited love, where the patient’s lungs will fill up with flowers, they will then proceed to throw and cough up the petals." This sacred Hanamaki even more, he knew a cure for the illness was getting the person you loved to love you back, but how was he supposed to do that if he didn't know who the person was. Trying to calm himself, Hanamaki assured himself that he didn't have it by saying he hadn't thrown up any flowers, so it was probably that he was just sore from playing volleyball and tried to fall asleep.
That night Hanamaki had a odd dream, he was standing on a beach, the sun was nearly going down and he could hear the waves crashing peacefully on the shore. It was nice. He spent a little bit of time just standing on the beach. He then saw a figure approach in the distance, it was Matsukawa of all people. Why is Mattsun here? Hanamaki questioned in his mind. His friend just sat down beside him and monitored for Hanamaki to sit down next to him. The spiker sat down next to him. The two sat in silence for a bit, mainly because Matsukawa didn't say anything and no matter how hard Hanamaki tired he just couldn't saw anything. He soon felt Matsukawa put his hand on top of Hanamaki's and interlaced their fingers, causing the shorter boy to go red and look at his friend. Matsukawa looked like he always did, though something in the back of his mind pulled a word to the front, handsome, Matsukawa looked handsome. Before Hanamaki could do anything, his friend brought his free hand to Hanamaki face, even though it was dream, Hanamaki practically melted and felt his face become hot. He looked into Matsukawa's eyes, they were a really pretty brown. Hanamaki had always thought his friend was good looking, but never in the way he was thinking about now. Some odd urge made him close his own eyes and lean in to fill the space between them.
And that's when Hanamaki woke up to a coughing fit.
Trying to cover his mouth he tasted an oddly sweet and leafy flavor in his mouth. Coughing into his hand, he looked down in horror at what he saw. Sitting there in his hand where seemingly innocent, light yellow, delicate honeysuckles petals.
"Oh shit."
Hanamaki didn't go to school the next day, he just told his parents that he wasn't feeling well and had a coughing fit in the middle of the night. What he didn't tell them was the fact that a honeysuckle plant was growing in his lungs and he could die. Hanamaki had been in his room all day, only leaving to get food. Both of his parents had to go to work and worked late, so they wouldn't be home until a lot later. It was around noon and Matsukawa had already texted that he'd swing by after practice to drop work off for him. Which gave him plenty of time to deciphers last night's perplexing dream. He paced around his room with his laptop open on his bed, his search history was filled to the brim with things like, "I kissed my best friend in my dream", "What does it mean when you kiss someone in your dreams.", even the ironic "I am gay?" buzzfeed quiz. It wasn't that Hanamaki wasn't scared of being gay, the guy had already been questioing his sexualtiy and had come to the conclusion of saying he was definitely part of the LGBTQ and most likley bi, the scary part was about the object of his affections. His best friend, his partner in crime, his meme man, Matsukawa fucking Issei. Hanamaki always knew he thought of the middle blocker as a little bit more than his best friend, though, he had always just said it was a friend thing. But come to think about it, the more the pink haired boy thought about it the more obvious it became. The reason Hanamaki had Hanahaki Disease? Matsukawa Issei. He was in love with his best friend.
It was now 7:30 and Hanamaki now had a trash can in his room filled a fourth of the way full with Honeysuckles. he hated it, the pain in is chest, he horrible taste, and worst of all, the meaning. Honeysuckles just HAD to represent a lovers affections and bond. Hanamaki wasn't so thrilled at that. He heard a knock at the door and began to stand up to answer it causing him to go into a flower filled coughing fit. Somehow making it down stairs, Hanamaki opened to the door to see the object of his affections standing in front of him.
"You look like ass Makki."
"Oh shut up caterpillar face."
"You wound me."
"Just come inside what do you want?"
Matsukawa ducked down and stepped inside the Hanamaki house hold. Removing his shoes and placing them by the other he met Hanamaki in kitchen, "Here, I brought you this." He placed a folder of today's school work on the kitchen counter, "Oh and these." He then set down a small pastry box. Hanamaki took it and smiled as he opened it.
"Profiteroles, Mattsun you know me to well."
"That I do, so how you feeling?"
Like absolute shit, you know, you're the reason I could die you know that. Because I'm in love with you and you don't love me back, and I have a honeysuckle plant growing in my lungs so it's getting harder to breathe, all because I love you so damn much that it could kill me.
"Still shitty but a bit better."
"Good good, heard some guys talking about Hanahaki yesterday, that didn't scare you or anything right?"
Hanamaki tensed, "No why?"
"Well you told me this morning that if felt hard to breath, you're not coughing up any flowers are you?"
"No. No flowers for me." Hanamaki said, cursing himself for lying.
"Well that's good to know," The dark haired boy walked back over to get his shoes, "I should be on my way now, hopefully you'll be at school tomorrow?"
"Yeah, hopefully."
Hanamaki didn't start crying until after the moment Matsukawa walked at the door.
Crying turned into coughing which turned into pain. More honeysuckle petals fell into Hanamaki's hand. Crushing the tear stained petals in his hand, he threw them into the trash and stormed upstairs taking the cream puffs Matsukawa had given him with him. Flopping on to his bed, Hanamaki grabbed a pillow and his phone, checking the texts he skimmed over a few of them.
Alien Bitch
Yoo-hoo~ Hope you're feeling better Makki!
Arms™
Feel better okay.
Depressed son
first off don't die I guess secondly I will say mood at your funeral if you do die.
Caterpillar face
Bro you can't die on me okay? Who will I send memes too.
Water
Oikawa told us you weren't feeling well! Get better soon!
The rest where just the rest of the team telling him to get better soon etcetera. Rolling over onto his back Hanamaki set his phone down and took a deep breath, or at least tried to. Hanahaki spread fast, but hopefully he'd be able to go to school so no one would think anything of it. His chest hurt as he breathed, he looked at the trash can in his room filled with honeysuckles, it kinda sucked, the flowers he was coughing up. Hanamaki used to really like honeysuckles. There used to be a honeysuckle plant on the fence where he would meet Matsukawa to walk to school, so coughing up the light yellow flowers was a bitter sweet thing. While they made him think about how wonderful Matsukawa was, it also reminded him that the reason he had Hanahaki was because he loved Matsukawa and he didn't love him back, and probably never will. Hanamaki need to tell his parents, but he didn't want to. He didn't need to add another thing onto his parents already really busy life. He told himself to just try to manage until his parents busy life calmed down a bit.
The next day Hanamaki was back at school, but his parents said no volleyball practice until he could breathe better, so he only got to see his friends during class time and lunch. The first two people the spiker ran into where Oikawa and Iwaizumi. Oikawa, like always, was begging his boyfriend for attention. It was a bittersweet feeling, seeing the two together and hanahaki-less. Oikawa was the first to notice Hanamaki.
"Makki! You're back!"
"Mmhm, though my parents told coach I'm not allowed to play volleyball until I can breathe better."
"Nice to have you back, lunch was a lot more boring without you." Iwaizumi added on.
"Ayyy! Makki! You didn't die!" Matsukawa appeared seemingly out of thin air and put a hand on his best friends shoulder, causing a light pink to dust Hanamakis face.
"Nice to see you too caterpillar face." Hanamaki teased.
The rest of they day went by smoothly, well almost smoothly. A few times Hanamaki had to excuse himself from class because of the horrible petals that infected his lungs. He didn't eat much at lunch but no one asked him about it, but Hanamaki was glad. School ended and Hanamaki headed on his way home when Matsukawa stopped him.
"Yo Makki, if you ever need help on your sick days for me to get you work or shit you can count on me alright?"
"Yeah yeah I know."
"You seem distant, you sure you're okay?"
"Mmhm, perfectly fine."
"Takahiro," Hanamaki blushed softly as his friend put an arm on his shoulder and looked him in the eyes, "I know when you're not doing great, you know you can always talk to me right."
"Yes Mattsun, I'm fine. There's no need to worry about me, it's not like I'm gonna die."
The taller boy removed his hand, "Alright, well I'll see you tomorrow."
"Have fun at practice, oh yeah and you srimage, block Iwaizumi for me?"
"You got it."
With that his friend left just as the petals rose in Hanamakis throat. He shoved them in his pocket and just continued heading home. Hanamaki finally arrived at his house, a note was placed by the coat rack, he noticed it as he removed his shoes.
Dad and I won't be back till later! We'll miss dinner so there's some left overs in the fridge! Makes yourself some dinner! Love you Hiro!
Hanamaki sighed, this was normal but it wasn't fun coming back to an empty house with no one to help you if you start choking on flowers. He sorted through the fridge until he found some pizza and settled on that. Once he had reheated it, Hanamaki took a seat at the table in the kitchen and worked on his school work as ate is pizza. After his dinner, he headed up to his room to just hang out. Practice had ended to he and Matsukawa texted back and forth for a while until Hanamaki checked the clock, it read 10:02, texting Matuskawa a quick good night text, he put his phone away and went to sleep.
And that's how the next few days went. Wake up, cough up petals, go to school, cough up petals, get home, cough up petals, eat dinner, cough up petals, go to sleep, repeat. It was brutal but he even gave any indication that he was hurting, he just didn't want anyone to worry. Two weeks went by of this every day flower filled cycle. Until one night where everything got worse.
Matsukawa was in Hanamaki's dreams again. Every so often the tall middle blocker would appear at the beach and head and Hanamaki would just sit and be. The closest the two every got besides the almost kiss the first time was when Hanamaki would rest his head on Matsukawa's shoulder. He knew that this Matsukawa wasn't real but it felt like he was, and Hanamaki relished in those small moments of intimacy. This night was a bit different though, like normal Matsukawa was at the beach and the two sat down. Everything was fine until, to Hanamaki's surprise, Matsukawa stood up. He faced his friend with a look of pain and guilt and said something for the first time. "I'm sorry." Hanamaki didn't understand until he blinked and Matsukawa was gone, in his place was a pile of honeysuckles. And to make matters worse, Hanamaki couldn't breath. Hanamaki was torn out of the dream and shot up in his bed. Just like in the dream he couldn't breath, something was in his throat. A fit of coughing took over Hanamaki's body until he looked down at what had been in his throat. An entire Honeysuckle. Up until now it had only been petals, now sitting right in front of him was the whole flower. This could only mean one thing, Hanahaki was almost about to kill him. Hanamaki went straight to his parents room.
"Mom, Dad. I need to tell you something right now."
His parents groggily sat him, his father turned the light on, "Hiro, it's 3am what do you need?"
"I'm dying."
His mother looked at him with confusion, "Takahiro, what do you mean?"
"I mean I'm dying mom! There are flowers in my chest and I can't breathe well!" He was crying now, "I didn't want to tell you guys because I didn't want to worry you but I coughed up a whole flower meaning that I'm about to die. Mom, mom I'm about to die." His mother shot out of bed and grabbed her son and pulled him into a hug, his father soon joined them. There the Hanamaki family stood crying. Crying for Hanamaki and what he's going through, crying because their son might die, cry because they were scared.
That morning, Hanamaki Takahiro was checked in to the hospital. Reasoning? Final stage Hanahaki disease.
"Takahiro why didn't you tell me?"
"I didn't want you to worry okay."
"You didn't want me worry? You didn't want me to worry?!?" Hanamaki flinched at Matsukawa yelling through the phone. "That's bullshit! I'm more worried now than I ever had in my life."
"Look its not that bad-"
"Yes Takahiro it is, you've been coughing up flowers for two weeks and only told your parents yesterday for fucks sake! Takahiro you could die."
"Okay geez I get it!"
"Who is it over."
"What do you mean?"
"Who do you like you dumb fuck, who's causing you to die!"
"Why would I tell you?"
"Because I'm your best friend and I care about you!"
Hanamaki took a breath, he knew what he had to do, "Fine. It's you."
"I'm sorry what?"
"It's fucking you Issei, you're the one who caused this stupid fucking plant to grow in my chest. I'm sitting here dying because my heart chose you! Out of all the people! I got you. Hell! I almost kissed you in my dreams!"
"Really?"
"Yes! I have this because I'm in love with your stupid face, your big eyebrows, your laugh, your personality, everything! I love you so damn much that's it's killing me Issei!"
Both of them didn't talk for a few seconds.
"I, I need to go."
"Wait Issei no."
"Goodbye."
"No! No, stop! Don't!" the line went dead, "hang up on me." Hanamaki cried, crying just seemed like a natural occurrence for him now.
"Mr. Hanamaki, we need to know your decision by Thursday. That gives you a day to think it over." The doctor explained, "If you choose to have it you'll have your surgery and everything will go back to normal, though, as you know you will lose all romantic feelings for Mr. Matsukawa, and even though it's rare, you could lose all memory of Mr. Matsukawa."
"Thank you doctor, I'll think about," I had been 3 days since the last call Hanamaki had with Matuskawa, and because he was a scared high school student who didn't want to die, he was considering getting the surgery. He didn't want to leave just yet, and he was willing to lose his feelings if it meant everything would just go back to normal, but there was one thing he needed to do first. Call Issei.
"Please pick up please pick up please pick up-"
"Hello?"
"MATTSUN!"
"Woah you don't need to yell."
"Sorry."
"Why are you calling me."
"I have something I need to tell you."
"...Okay."
"I'm going to get the surgery?"
"What?"
"The surgery, the one that removes the plant. It'll also kill my feelings for you."
"Wait, Hanamaki are you sure."
"Yes, I'd rather live and be your best friend then die and never get to see you again."
"Oh."
"One more thing, it's rare, but I could forget all about you."
"Wait, Takahiro what?" Matsukawa sounded choked up.
"I just thought I'd tell you-"
"I'm coming."
"What?"
"I'm coming to the hospital there's something I need to tell you."
"Can't you just tell me now-"
"No! I, I, I just need to be there!"
"Okay, okay. See you soon I guess?"
He hung up and placed his phone of the table next to him. What could he need to talk about. Maybe it was something to be hopeful for, maybe todays goodness would keep going. So far, Hanamaki hadn't cought up a flower since last night, it gave him some relief.
About and hour had passed by when Matsukawa came into Hanamaki's room. He looked like he hand been crying, with no warning Matsukawa hugged Hanamaki. The spiker was caught off guard but melted into the hug. Matsukawa finally let him go.
"Takahiro, you don't need the surgery."
Hanamaki stared at his friend, "What do you mean."
"You just don't."
"I'm going to die without it! The only other way would to be for you to....return my feelings? Wait, Issei-"
Matsukawa didn't let him finish his sentence by kissing him. Hanamaki sank into the kiss. Matsukawa tasted like bliss and honey, and it was fantastic. Like magic, when they pulled apart Hanamaki felt like he could breathe again.
"You kissed me."
"I did."
"Does this mean...." Hanamaki trailed on.
"Yes Takahiro it does."
Hanamaki pulled Matsukawa into another kiss and pulled back crying and laughing.
"I'm not gonna die."
"You're not gonna die."
That afternoon Hanamaki Takahiro checked out of the hospital without hanahaki, but with a fantastic boyfriend.