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Kaminari Denki, a total flirt, definitely super popular with all the girls, was on his knees, clutching his stomach as a torrent of coughs and gags escaped his mouth. He couldn't breathe clearly, in fact he hadn't been able to for a long while. He stared into the toilet bowl in front of him, wishing he could be done with this. Floating in the water, covered with blood, were clumps of flower petals.
It wasn't new, he'd been coughing them up for months, holding onto the hope they'd go away. But they only got worse. At first, he'd occasionally cough up petals, maybe once or twice a day. It didn't hurt, just tickled a bit. But now? Now he couldn't breathe anymore. Now every cough came in a group, and huge clumps of petals drenched with blood were coming out of his mouth. Thorns, too, that sliced his tongue and lips.
He'd been making too many excuses lately to get out of training. “I don't feel well” or “My side hurts.” He loved training, he really did, but he couldn't train if he couldn't breathe, and now he was falling so far behind his classmates he was on the brink of failing.
This time, he was definitely going to be in trouble. He'd been called on to answer a question, and when he'd turned to Sero desperately for help, he caught Jirou's eye, for just a moment. Then he'd had to run out of the classroom covering his coughs until he'd gotten to the bathroom and locked himself into a stall.
He rested his forehead on the edge of the toilet seat, not caring how unsanitary it may be. Shudders racked his whole body, and he was loudly gasping for breath, a small bit of blood spraying from his lips with each shaky breath.
“Kaminari!” The bathroom door flew open with the sound of Kirishima's voice, “Mr. Aizawa told me to come check on you!” Great. He really didn't need Kirishima here.
“Don't worry about me, I'm fi-” his voice was hoarse enough before he cut himself off with a huge coughing fit, and then Kirishima knew something was definitely wrong.
“Okay yeah, bro, you don't sound fine. Open the stall door.”
“I don't -” cough, cough. “need to-” Cough. “Open the door!” Kaminari protested, cough, cough, cough. Each cough sent an electrical shock through his body, and blood and petals came up his throat, as if threatening to end him right there.
“Denki, if you don't open the door right now, i will break it open.” Kirishima threatened. When he was met with only a barrage of pained, heaving coughs, a muffled no, and certainly no lock turning, Kirishima punched it.
The door came open easily after that. And what Kirishima saw was his friend crumpled on the floor, gripping the sides of the toilet he was coughing into. The water was tinted red from all the blood escaping his friend's lips, and floating in the water- and coming out of Kaminari's mouth as he coughed -were a bunch of rose petals, leaves, and even stems.
“Hang on- what the hell? You need to go see recovery girl dude! That is not normal!”
“No, dude, I'm good,” Kaminari wiped the blood off the side of his mouth, I'm-” he let out a much smaller cough than before, “-I'm okay now. ”
“Yeah, no you're not.” He said as Kaminari flushed the petals down the toilet and tried to stand, slipping, so Kirishima wrapped an arm around his friend, “We're gonna go figure out what this is and get you some medicine.”
“I already know what it is,” he leaned on Kirishima, breath still a bit wheezy. “I looked it up in the library.”
“You went to the library?”
“I read books sometimes,” Kaminari said with a weak smile, “It's called the Hanahaki Disease.”
“So it's all because you're in love?” Kirishima clarified, sitting next to Kaminari on the latter's bed. The two were looking at a book together, at the pages detailing the Hanahaki disease. Kaminari just nodded. “And it's why your stopped hanging out with us?” The blond nodded again. “Well who're you in love with? According to this book, all you gotta do is confess and bam, you're cured.”
“The confession is the problem.” Kaminari said slowly, touching his throat, “It's Jirou. There's no one else it could be and I'm pretty sure she likes Yaoyorozu.”
“And according to this book..” Kirishima laid his finger on the section of cures, “ ‘If the infected confesses only to not have their love returned, the flower's roots will strangle them...’” Kirishima trailed off, “Nah, man! No way! There's gotta be something else!”
“The only other cure is to have it surgically removed but..” Kaminari tapped a different paragraph, Surgical removal will also remove the infected's ability to love for the rest of their life. “I wanna be able to love people.”
“I've got it! We just gotta make Jirou fall for you then! And you can confess and she'll love you back and you can be okay again!”
“You think you can get her to fall for me? She thinks I'm an idiot.”
“Yeah! I'll get Sero to help, he'll totally be on board!”
“.. Can you.. Not tell him about the flowers?” Kirishima just smiled a big, sharp toothed grin,
“Don't worry man. Your secret is safe with me.”
“So we're getting Jirou to fall for Denki? Why?” Sero asked as Kirishima had pulled him aside after class.
“Cause he likes her, man. We gotta help a friend out.”
“Okay.. Why isn't he helping? I haven't seen him in a while I kinda miss him.”
“He's sick. The flu or something.” Kirishima said, just shrugging.
“The flu? We should bring him soup or something!”
“No he doesn't want soup. Recovery Girl said he just needs rest and stuff.”
“Um.. Okay. So, how exactly do we get Jirou to fall for him?” Sero ran his fingers through his tangled hair, “I mean, I wouldn't exactly say she's romantically attached.”
“Ooh I've got it! We gotta get her to realize what a romantic guy he is!”
“And... How do we do that?”
“We'll just describe what a date with him is like.”
“Good idea, but how would we know what a date with him is like?”
“umm.. Let's pretend you went on a date with him!”
“Me and Kaminari? I mean i guess I could see it.” Sero laughed.
“Thanks man, this'll be great.” Kirishima grinned. “Operation: Jirou And Kaminari is a go!”
For two weeks, Kirishima helped Kaminari keep his cover of ‘He has the flu.’, And for two weeks, he and Sero worked on Operation: JAK. Kirishima usually brought Kaminari soup and treats since his flu story required he stay in bed, but this time, Kirishima wasn't at the door. This time, it was Sero.
“Sero? Where's Kirishima?”
“He'd agreed a couple weeks ago to babysit Eri tonight while Eraser was on patrol. But don't worry, I brought you soup. Bakugo made it and it's amazing.” Sero set the tray in Kaminari's lap. “I hope you've started feeling better.”
“Yeah, a little bit.” Kaminari said, not able to hold back a grin when talking to Sero, ”I've just been-” he paused and coughed heavily into his elbow. Damn it. Jirou wasn't even here!
“Uh, you good?” Sero paused what he was doing to look at Kaminari, “You're coughing like, like really bad.” That was an obvious observation because Kaminari had started coughing so hard it brought tears to his eyes and he had to press his hands to his mouth to catch all the petals coming up his throat. Despite his best efforts, he couldn't catch them all and several blood flecked petals fell from his hands onto his sheets.
“Hang on- Kaminari is that Hanahaki?” Sero gasped, and Kaminari glanced up,
“How do you-” he cut himself off with a torrent of coughs, “-Know what that is?”
“My cousin had it a couple years ago. Why didn't you tell me dude? You've let it get really bad! Like, really bad!”
“Cause you don't need to worry.” Kaminari dumped the petals into a wastebasket beside his bed, “Kirishima said you two are getting Jirou to fall for me, right? So I'll be okay soon.”
“So that's why Kirishima was so insistent we get her to like you! That makes so much sense. I should've connected the dots.”
“Yeah.” Kaminari covered his mouth again, his entire body shaking as he struggled to cough.
“Okay let me help-" Sero moved closer and lightly hit him on the back in an attempt to dislodge the petals. As soon as he actually touched Kaminari, he got a strong electric shock up his arm. After a few more gasps, an entire rose head flew out of Kaminari's mouth. “Oh wow you've let it get really bad.”
“I don't know why I'm.. coughing.. So hard... All of a sudden..”
“Uh okay try not to think about Jirou. " Sero said, trying to push down his hair which was sticking out every direction from the shock. Kaminari nodded, closing his eyes. After a few minutes, his coughing died down. “You good?”
“I'm good,” Kaminari whispered hoarsely.
“Okay dude. I'm gonna head to bed, text me if you need anything.”
“Yeah, okay.”
Kaminari could hear the door closing. He was so glad he had Sero.
And with that thought, he coughed.
“Okay, dude. We're ready!” Kirishima said as he and Sero burst into Kaminari's room, “We told Jirou you wanted to meet her by the biggest Sakura tree outside the school and she agreed! You can confess and be rid of the flowers!” Kaminari weakly coughed into his hands.
“Finally.” He Whispered as his friends pulled him to his feet and he coughed into his hands again. Finally. Finally he'd be able to breathe freely again. He'd never have the taste of roses on his lips after this.
Kirishima and Sero helped him get to the tree where Jirou was waiting. He wasn't sure if he was feeling butterflies in his stomach or roses in his throat.
“Um, Kaminari, are you sure you should be up?” Jirou asked as soon as she noticed him being practically dragged over by his friends.
“Never better,” he responded in a strangled gasp, “I need to tell you something.”
“Yeah? What is it?”
This was it. This is what he'd been suffering, choking for months for. He was finally going to be free of the thorns.
“I- I love you, Jirou!” He said in a half-whisper, half-yell .
“I.. Kaminari, you know I don't think of you that way.”
Kaminari heard this. He knew this was coming. At least he should've. His throat closed up and again, he started coughing up rosebuds. But he wasn't being strangled. At least, not instantly, like he was supposed to. He hadn't been rejected by the one he loved.
Which meant it wasn't Jirou.
So who could it have been? Who else could he possibly be choking on roses for? He had to figure it out; he was running out of time.
“It's someone else.” He gasped.
“What? Who?” Sero asked and Kaminari just shrugged, coughing uncontrollably.
“Okay dude we're getting you back to bed!” Kirishima scooped Kaminari straight into his arms, “Try to figure out Who it is!” The he ran off, leaving Sero to explain the situation to Jirou.
Kirishima carefully laid Kaminari in his bed,
“Okay, dude, rest and figure out who it is okay? Call me when you figure it out. You need to focus so I'll be just outside.” Kirishima set Kaminari's phone right next to him, and left the room.
Kaminari awoke in a cold sweat, practically unable to breathe. He'd just figured it out. Who he was in love with. Who was always there when he was with Jirou. Who'd made him cough up petals even when she wasn't near.
Sero. It was Sero. He was the one Kaminari had fallen for. He reached for his phone- where was it? He'd knocked it off the bed while he'd been asleep. He pulled himself out of bed, trying to search for it, and simply crumpled to the floor, no strength left, reaching desperately for his phone.
He could feel the roots slowly twisting around his lungs, it was getting harder to breathe, to stay conscious with every second. He turned his phone on, and texted Sero.
Dude come over I need y
Before he finished the text, Kaminari's vision went dark and his eyes closed. He collapsed, phone falling from his hands, unable to breathe anymore.
Kaminari Denki never hit send. killed by roses, all alone. What a way to go, huh?
ALTERNATE ENDING BECAUSE I ALSO NEED HAPPY
Kaminari awoke in a cold sweat, practically unable to breathe. He'd just figured it out. Who he was in love with. Who was always there when he was with Jirou. Who'd made him cough up petals even when she wasn't near.
Sero. It was Sero. He was the one Kaminari had fallen for.
He grabbed his phone from where it sat next to him, pulling up Sero's number.
Dude come over i need you
And send. It took only around thirty seconds for Sero to burst into the room.
“What is it Kaminari?” He gasped, as Kaminari started hacking and coughing harder than ever before. Tears streamed down his cheeks, it was hurting him to be alive.
“You.” He managed to whisper, “It's you!”
“Me?”
“yes. I.. I love... YOu..” Kaminari felt like he was being strangled, and he didn't doubt he was, he couldn't breathe. Sero was trying to process this. But damn, he didn't have time. So he blurted out the first realization that came to mind.
“I love you too, Denki!”
All at once, the tightness in Kaminari's chest lifted, and with one big, final cough, came out a bright crimson rose, thorns, roots and all. And finally, Kaminari could breathe again. And oh how sweet clear air felt.
“You do?” His voice was still scratchy from all the thorns, but he didn't care. Sero was grinning wide than Kaminari had ever seen,
“Yeah, i think I do.”
“Can.. Can we cuddle?”
“Yeah. We can definitely cuddle.”
And so they did.
the next morning, they held hands. Kirishima and Jirou exchanged knowing, relieved glances before smiling with relief. At least Kaminari was alive.
Two weeks later, Kaminari ran into Bakugo in the hallway. The latter coughed loudly, and in his hands? Rose petals.