Chapter Text
Amity woke up in the middle of the night with a sore throat.
She had spent the day before at the Owl House with Luz, Willow, and Gus, and she immediately assumed that she had just overused her voice. She longed to get up and go get a glass of water to soothe the scratch, but she glanced at her cast and decided it would be too much work.
She tried to roll over and fall back asleep, but her throat hurt so much that it seemed impossible. After a few hours of lying on her bed restlessly, Amity finally turned to her last resort and decided to get some water from her bathroom. She slowly moved to climb out of her covers, moving towards the door (the healing magic had sped up the process, so she didn’t need her crutches anymore after a few weeks). When she got to the bathroom, she closed the door and switched on the light with a wave of her finger.
She was about to grab a small paper cup to fill up in the sink, but before she had the chance, her throat tingled, causing her to begin coughing. There must’ve been something stuck in her throat because her coughs lasted for a minute or so, and she couldn’t seem to breathe properly for most of it.
When whatever was stuck had finally been coughed up into her mouth (presumably some gross sick germs), she leaned over the sink to spit it out. However, as Amity looked into the sink to wash down the mucus, she realized that it didn’t look right. She moved closer to inspect what was in the sink, which was as disgusting as it sounds, and she saw that it wasn’t really spit at all.
It was...what was it? It looked like…
But that didn’t make any sense. That couldn’t have come from inside of her.
Yet right there before her very eyes was a flower petal. It was small and blue, and it was nothing like any flower Amity had seen before. Flowers on the Boiling Isles that weren’t scary or poisonous were a very rare thing. Not to mention, this petal had been in her body.
Needless to say, Amity was confused and very concerned about the whole situation. She racked her brain for possible explanations to this craziness. She did think of one eventually, and it sent chills down her spine.
That couldn’t be happening to her, right? She was a Blight. She was strong and independent and fierce.
Or at least she was supposed to be.
But she couldn’t think of any other reason why she would have coughed up a flower petal. She had only heard of such a thing one other time in Boiling Isles history. There was a book at the library that had peaked her interest several years ago. It was in the romance section, which she would never admit was her favorite genre, but when she went to check it out, it wasn’t in the system. The librarian surprisingly offered to let her keep it, so she took it back to her fort, read through it in a day, and found a new home for it on a shelf there.
Only now was she remembering the words at the beginning: “Based on a true story.”
Amity couldn’t quite remember what the book had called it or most of the little details, but she did know the main scope. It was some kind of disease in which the affected coughed up flowers that grew in their lungs due to unrequited love—and Amity hated to admit it, but she knew exactly what feelings the disease would be affecting her for.
Amity had realized a while ago that she was experiencing some feelings that were new and weird and foreign. She had kind of been hoping that they would fade, but it had been a few weeks and they were only seeming to become stronger. And knowing that this strange flower disease was because of those feelings not being reciprocated…because someone didn’t feel those ways for her, well, it felt like a punch to her gut. Or to her lungs, really, since they were currently on the path to ruin.
As if that wasn’t enough to scare the witch, she also remembered that the character in the book had discussed three possible outcomes of the disease. She wasn’t entirely sure of the last one, but she knew that if the affected confessed and their feelings were returned, they would be cured, but if there was no confession or the feelings were not requited, then the diseased person would choke to death on the flowers.
Amity was sure about those two because the latter had been what happened in the book. And it was a terrible ending.
Hopefully, the last possibility that she couldn’t remember was better, but considering the nature of the disease, she didn’t want to get her hopes up. She would have to go find the book the next day. For now, all she could do was just try to get more sleep.
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The next day at school was torture for Amity.
She had kind of hoped that the whole flower fiasco had been some weird dream, but of course she wasn’t lucky enough for that to be the case. She had only gotten about four hours of sleep, so she was having immense trouble staying awake in her classes, and her state was definitely bad enough to attract random stares and inquiries of concern from her friends.
“You okay, Amity?” Willow asked. “You don’t look so hot.”
Amity just shrugged and replied curtly, “I couldn’t sleep.”
Luz gave a look of understanding.
“Oh, man, that really sucks. When I can’t fall asleep, I like to write fanfiction in my head. It keeps out other thoughts and usually helps me go back to sleep,” she suggested.
“Oh, uh...I’ll give that a try,” Amity said cautiously, blushing a bit. “Thanks, Lu—”
She was cut off by a fit of coughing, just as bad as the one from the night before. Amity placed a hand against the lockers on the wall next to her to steady herself as she repeatedly hacked into her elbow, her face becoming increasingly red, but this time for a different reason than the usual one.
Inside, she was panicking for two reasons. One, she couldn’t really breathe, and she was panicking by reflex. Two, she knew that if she didn’t do something quick, her friends would see her cough up a petal, which would only raise more worry and attention. She cursed herself for not thinking about how she would deal with the cough in public, but there wasn’t much she could do about that now.
So, for lack of a better idea, Amity tried as best she could with a disrupted respiratory system and a wounded leg to run to the nearest bathroom or at least to get away from Luz, Gus, and Willow.
Willow…
Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if Willow knew. Amity could definitely use someone to talk to, and Hexside’s resident plant witch wasn’t a bad option. Though it would involve her revealing her crush to Willow.
As she coughed up another small petal into hand and threw it in the trash, she decided she would wait until after she knew more to tell anyone. She quickly washed her hands and headed off to her next class, making a mental note to bring some tissues or something with her to school from now on.
The rest of the day went by agonizingly slowly for Amity, and she couldn’t get the whole problem off her brain, making it extremely difficult to focus on schoolwork. When the final bell screamed, she felt a wave of relief for having made it through, quickly followed by a wave of anxiety for what she might be about to discover about her disease.
Amity navigated expertly through the hallways, trying to keep a low profile in order to avoid running into her friends and getting interrogated about the incidence from earlier. She (surprisingly) managed to successfully make her way out of the school and to the library unnoticed. She walked to the romance section and found the right book without thinking, opening up her secret hideout.
Amity had a hunch as to where she had put the book she was looking for, and sure enough, after a few minutes of digging through her shelves, her fingers slid over the spine of the book. She tentatively pulled it out and brushed off the thin layer of dust that had collected on the cover.
There were no words on the outside, which was what had drawn her to the book in the first place. She opened up to the first page, where it said the title and those fateful words that had caused her to seek out the book for answers.
The Fate of an Unflowering Love
Based on a true story
In loving memory of…
The name of whoever the book was written in memory of had been smudged to illegibility, but Amity could guess that it was the person who had died in the book. If there was an author anywhere on the book, Amity couldn’t find it, but it was most likely someone very close to the victim, considering the fact that it didn’t seem like anyone on the rest of the Boiling Isles knew about this disease.
Amity flipped quietly through the first pages of the book, skipping over the preface and skimming the words that became familiar to her again as she looked at them. She only stopped the moving pages when she spotted a key word that triggered something in her brain.
She looked closer at the page, reading the text more thoroughly before discovering an important piece of information that she had been lacking: the name of the disease.
She ran her pointer finger across the words, almost hoping they would smudge away just like the name in the front. Though if she wasn’t careful, the only memory of her could also be a mysterious novel and some blurry ink lines.
She tested the name on her tongue, though not without hesitancy.
“The Hanahaki Disease…”
Amity shuddered. It sounded stupid for a second after she said it, but then just a moment later, it hit her that this was really happening. Something that had only, as far as she knew, happened to one other person ever was happening to her. This wasn’t a dream or a piece of fiction. This was real.
It didn’t take long after that realization for Amity to decide that she needed to tell Willow. She was still trying to process everything, but she definitely couldn’t do it all alone. She didn’t know what to do. She felt like crying and screaming and punching something and laughing at how crazy this sounded all at the same time, which was not a very good sign.
So she made up her mind and swirled her hand in the air, opening up her scroll and shooting her old friend a message.
Hey, can you meet me outside the library in thirty? I need to talk to you.
While she waited for a response, she kept browsing through the book. She was looking for the part of the book where the two main characters had started trying to solve the problem. She knew there was a section in which they listed their findings about the disease so far, and after a few minutes of continued skimming, she finally found it. She demon-eared the page so that she could find it again, and she quickly checked to see Willow’s response of “ofc, I’m omw.”
With that settled, she turned her attention back to the book, starting to read the information and taking notes on some of it. The details in the book were pretty vague, but she had managed to gather that there were flowers growing inside her lungs that would continue to grow unless her feelings were found to be returned, eventually climbing up through her system and choking her. It seemed from the timeline that was compiled in the book that she was still in the early stages since she was only coughing up one petal at a time and not yet whole flowers or leaves, which would then give her a few months to find a solution.
For the character in the book, the petals being coughed up were a light pink and had been identified as rose petals, which were bigger than what Amity had, so Amity concluded that the type of flower was somehow related to either the infected or the person the infected was in love with.
Amity has been trying not to think about what this meant for her little “crush.” She had been trying to push down her feelings for awhile, wishing for them to go away since she didn’t think anyone would approve of them. She was worried that thinking about it too much or even saying her name would solidify the problem at hand, confirming who was causing this pain.
But whether or not she said it out loud, Amity knew exactly who it was, and a small blue flower definitely fit her well.
Amity kept reading and was able to find what she had really been looking for. There were three options for how the situation could end. And she was right about the first two.
If she were to confess and the feelings were mutual, she would be cured of the disease.
If she didn’t confess and/or the love was not returned, the flowers would continue to expand and lead to her choking to death.
Then there was the last option, but Amity was very let down that it was not much better. In fact, to Amity, it sounded like a fate almost worse than death. The last possibility was to have the flowers removed surgically.
That doesn’t seem too bad, right? But there were two reasons Amity did not want to go through with it. Since Amity didn’t think this was a well-known occurrence, she didn’t want to get in trouble or have extra attention as a result of getting a procedure done. The other reason was that if the diseased got the flowers removed, it would remove their feelings along with them.
Even though Amity had tried to ignore her crush, she didn’t actually want it to go away. While her feelings were causing her plenty of internal confusion, she couldn’t help but think of the amazing parts of it—the bubbly feeling she got when she was around her; the pure bliss she felt when she heard her laugh; the absolute joy of knowing she’d get to see her soon. She couldn’t bear the thought of never experiencing that again.
Now, there technically wasn’t any proof of that actually being an effect of the surgical solution, since the book characters had based it off of lore that they had found about the disease, but it definitely wasn’t something Amity wanted to risk.
Amity’s scroll dinged, snapping her out of her thoughts. Had half an hour passed already?
The green-haired witch stood up and left her hideout, walking out of the library to where she saw Willow waiting expectantly.
She approached Willow seriously with a solemn look in her eyes, gaining an expression of worry from her friend in return.
“Hey, so what’d you wanna—”
Amity cut Willow off and practically dragged her back to the secret hideout before saying a word.
“Willow, I, uh...I need your help with...something,” she finally explained.
“Okay, what’s the problem?”
Willow’s face still showed immense concern for Amity, and the same was reflected in her voice. Amity wasn’t really sure how to start without further worrying Willow.
So she played it safe and went with, “Have you ever heard of something called the Hanahaki Disease? I don’t know if I’m saying it right, but…”
Amity trailed off when she saw Willow’s features morph to reflect a sense of recognition and then confusion.
“Yeah, I know about it. We learned about it a few units ago in class. There wasn’t a lot to say, though, so we didn’t really go over it or anything. Why are you asking about it?”
“I…,” Amity couldn’t help but hesitate. “...you’re going to think I’m crazy…,” she mumbled.
Amity cleared her throat and began again. Now or never .
“I think I have it,” Amity blurted out.
It took a few seconds for Willow to process what Amity had just confessed. Once she had, her confusion had risen to immeasurable amounts.
“WHAT?! Amity, what are you saying? The Hanahaki Disease is not a real thing. Part of the reason there wasn’t much info about it in the textbook is because it’s just some made up bedtime story.”
Willow thought for a moment before continuing, “I suppose creating such a curse wouldn’t be impossible, but it would require very, very powerful magic and most likely a terrible price.”
Amity sighed. “Look, I know this sounds insane, and I would’ve thought so too if I were you, but I don’t know how else to explain myself coughing up flower petals…”
Willow’s eyes widened as she understood something.
“Is that why you were coughing at school today and then ran off abruptly?”
Amity nodded.
“And...I have reason to believe that I’m not the first person to have come down with this absolutely real disease,” she said, walking over to her desk and picking up the book.
She brought the old novel back over to Willow and displayed it for her.
“I found this book years ago. Of course, I didn’t realize the significance of it until recently, but in the book, the main character gets the Hanahaki Disease and…,” Amity grimaced, “dies from it.”
Willow still looked a bit skeptical.
“Amity, that isn't really saying anything. The Hanahaki Disease isn’t a very well known myth, but enough plant witches know about it for there to be at least a few pieces of literature based around it.”
“But that’s the thing, Willow. I would’ve thought the same as you except,” Amity flipped to the cover page, “for this.”
Willow looked at the words with surprise, finally starting to accept Amity’s words as truth.
Amity continued, “They go into so much depth when researching the disease and possible cures that it can’t all be made up. But despite learning all this information about the disease, they still couldn’t fix it in time.”
Willow places a hand on her chin in thought, leaning back away from the book.
“Hmmm...that does seem pretty convincing. All I’ve heard from various stories is that the Hanahaki Disease is where flowers grow inside the lungs of the diseased because of love not being returned and that if their feelings are not reciprocated, the flowers will eventually choke them to death.”
As Willow recited the facts that Amity had repeated to herself over and over for the last several hours, she came to realize that this whole interaction made it painstakingly obvious that she was in love with someone and either hadn’t tried to confess or had been rejected. Willow was being extremely considerate of Amity’s privacy by ignoring that part of the conversation so far, and Amity was very appreciative of this. She had definitely made the right decision for an ally in this situation; anyone else would’ve been very pushy about the matter, but Willow was probably the most respectful person she knew. Even so, Amity knew that it would only be fair for her to tell Willow who was indirectly killing her since she was so willing to help, and Amity didn’t doubt that Willow quite possibly already knew of her crush.
Amity momentarily left her head to keep explaining everything she had learned.
“That was pretty much what I had known too, just from memory of reading this. But I went back through it before you came, and there’s a lot more stuff in here.”
She opened up to the page she had marked and went over the text with Willow, updating her on everything they might need to solve the problem, along with all the things Amity had inferred herself after reading the section again.
They spent a few hours going over the book and searching for any tales of the Hanahaki Disease on their scrolls trying to gather as much information as possible. After the 42nd folk tale that had led to a dead end, the two witches were exhausted. They lay down on the floor, looking up at the ceiling and pondering.
“Maybe we should break for the day,” Amity sighed.
“Are you sure? Not to be blunt, but you’re kind of on a time limit,” Willow responded sensitively.
Amity’s forehead creased with a bit of worry. She rolled over onto her stomach and leaned up on her elbows to face Willow properly.
“Willow, I...I’m…,” Amity hesitated. Everything in her was screaming against saying what she was going to say. Blights don’t show weakness. Blights don’t show emotion. Blights don’t have fears.
But as she felt overwhelmed with conflict, Amity’s eyes welled up with tears and she couldn’t hold it in anymore.
“I’m scared .”
Her voice cracked as she let out a sob.
Amity leaned her head down to the floor and cried her eyes out, heaving and shaking more with every wail. She was barely able to hear the movement before she felt a comforting embrace that pulled her into a sitting position. She leaned into Willow’s body, crying harder than she ever had before.
Willow slowly rubbed Amity’s back as she felt her heart sag with sadness for her friend.
Once Amity’s bawling has quieted a bit, Willow spoke up.
“Of course you’re scared, Am. But we’re gonna find a way out of this. We’re magical , for Titan’s sake! We’ll be okay.”
Amity continued to shake in Willow’s arms, so Willow continued with her comforting gestures.
“Let it all out, Amity. No judgement here,” she reassured. “You’re right about taking a break. We won’t get anywhere with fried brains,” she said.
Amity gave a small chuckle. “How did I end up with a friend as sweet and supportive as you?” she asked quietly into Willow’s shirt, her voice muffled by the cloth.
Willow smirked. “Well, they do say that opposites attract.”
Amity really laughed at that, lifting her arm to give Willow an affectionate punch.
“Alright, I guess I deserved that,” Amity said, raising her head to look at Willow, soon following with the rest of herself so that she was sitting up on her own.
She wiped her eyes and sniffed before looking her friend in the eyes.
“Willow…”
Said witch looked expectantly at Amity with a smile of encouragement.
Amity shifted her gaze back away from Willow and to the ground before going on.
“I...really appreciate you not prying before I was ready to tell you, but you deserve to know who it is.” Amity took a deep breath and forced herself to meet Willow’s stare again.
“It’s Luz,” she choked out, her face going red.
Willow kept her smile, trying to express her support.
“I thought so,” she said with a sparkle in her eye.
“I know you two are best friends and all, but you won’t tell her right?”
“I wouldn’t dream of it,” Willow shook her head.
“Thank you, Willow,” Amity breathed, initiating another hug.