Work Text:
Hanahaki disease: a disease that is developed if the patient is experiencing unrequited love. When hanahaki is developed, flowers will start to grow within the lungs of the patient, causing them to cough up the flowers and rendering it impossible to breathe if left for too long. Hanahaki disease can only be cured by the love becoming requited or, alternatively, by surgical removal which will cause the feelings, and all memories of the one the patient loves, to disappear.
Kuguri did not remember exactly when it was that he fell in love with Yuuki Shibayama. All he remembered was when the flowers started to grow in his lungs. It had started off as an average Saturday. He and Yuuki went to different schools so, since they had become friends, they made a point of meeting up on weekends to hang out. This Saturday was no exception. They were planning on meeting up at the local park just to chat and piss around, as friends do. Nothing special but a good catch-up session, or so it seemed.
He was on the phone to Yuuki at the time it happened. He was telling him how he was just putting his shoes on to leave when he suddenly started violently coughing, almost choking. Yuuki sounded panicked over the phone. He kept asking him if he was ok or if he was dying and if he should come over to help him or call an ambulance. Somehow managing to choke out that he was fine, Kuguri hung up the phone. Once Yuuki was out of the picture, the panic really started to set in. What was happening to him? He was straight up hacking up air by now and it was getting harder to breath by the second.
The coughing stopped just as quickly as it started but, to make it stop, he had ended up hacking up a small petal, soaked in blood. “…what the hell?” He looked down at it, watching as the blood dripped off to reveal the colour of the petal. It was red with white and black flecks towards the part that would normally be attached to the flower, the colour scheme that had always reminded him of Shibayama. He had heard of this before; people coughing up flowers was a topic often discussed on the internet. The name of the disease popped up a lot also – the hanahaki disease. He had never even thought about the possibility of developing hanahaki himself and, up until this point, he had always treated it like some kind of urban internet legend but now he had contracted it. He, Kuguri Naoyasu, had hanahaki disease.
It just seemed so surreal to him as he sat there on the bottom step, looking down at the black and red, bloodstained petal resting in the palm of his hand. Was this actually happening or was this just a really bad dream? He pinched his arm, an attempt to wake himself up, and all he felt was pain. He was definitely awake. No, this could not be real. He had not gone and developed hanahaki over his feelings for Yuuki. He didn’t even have feelings for Yuuki! Sure, his stomach felt a little fluttery when he was around him and his chest, for some reason, seemed to tighten but that doesn’t mean he liked him!
If someone he knew had developed hanahaki for Yuuki, Inuoka or even Daishou for example, he’d understand why. He did have a cute face, with big doe eyes and rosy lips that looked so kissable… Oh god, and his small body that he just wanted to wrap his arms around and hold close forever and ever and- He gasped. “Fuck…” He’d totally gone and fallen in love with Yuuki, hadn’t he. How the hell did it take him this long to notice? For god’s sake! If he’d noticed he was catching feelings earlier, he could’ve avoided this whole hanahaki business. What was he going to do now? He was supposed to be meeting up with Yuuki today! He couldn’t show up now that the hanahaki had started! What if he coughed up more petals when they were hanging out? What would Yuuki say to him? No, he couldn’t risk that happening. He’d just have to cancel his plans with him for today.
Taking a deep breath, he picked up his phone again and called him. The phone rang for a couple of seconds before Yuuki picked up. “Kuguri, hey.” His voice echoed in Kuguri’s ears, bouncing around his head. He sounded so happy, same as every week, and he felt guilty for having to cancel on him. “What’s up? Are you nearly here?”
He sighed, very quietly so the other wouldn’t hear him, and responded. “Yeah… about that.” Chewing on the inside of his cheek lightly, he continued. “I can’t make it today, sorry. You heard me coughing before, right? My mum’s making me stay at home for the weekend just in case it’s something contagious.” Yuuki let out a small and quiet but disappointed whine, a noise that Kuguri was all too familiar with from all the times that Yuuki had been upset with him. He grimaced slightly, feeling a pang of guilt in his heart. “Hey, I’m sorry man… I’ll still see you next week though, yeah?”
“Yeah, see you next week…” The other sounded so let down by this and it only made the guilt Kuguri was already feeling even worse. Repeated beeping was heard down the phone for a couple of seconds. Yuuki had hung up. He sighed. He felt so damn awful for cancelling on him last minute like that, but it couldn’t be helped. Within his stomach, a garden was growing for Yuuki Shibayama and, as much as he hated it, he had to do whatever he could to hide it from him.