Chapter Text
Akaashi couldn’t breathe!
Akaashi hadn’t stopped coughing for over thirty minutes now. His throat was so dry and so raw he could feel it almost closing in in itself.
Akaashi could taste blood.
He was wheezing and gasping for air, curled into a ball on his cold wooden floor. He knew something was trying to get out of his throat, but what the fuck could it be?! He didn’t eat anything strange, he thought to himself.
Akaashi could feel whatever is in his throat getting closer and closer to coming out with every gasp and cough. He willed himself onto his hands and knees to crawl to his bathroom in order to throw up whatever it was that was causing him to choke.
Akaashi had been in pain for about a month now. First, it started with his lungs. He had been having a hard time breathing and every once in a while he would cough a little, nothing too serious he thought. He just played it off with him maybe getting a cold or even allergies. Eventually, he started coughing more and more frequently. A week ago he was coughing up something that looked like petals? Akaashi hated hospitals so he just kept it to himself and pushed through.
I should’ve gone to the fucking doctor.
When Akaashi reached his toilet he hugged the cold porcelain bowl for dear life. Akaashi’s breathing was that in a state of panic, rapid and uneven breaths and wheezes. He let out one more cough into the toilet and it suddenly fell out of his mouth. Akaashi stayed hugging the toilet with his eyes sewn shut. He was panting and gulping down deep breaths that he so desperately needed to catch up on.
Once he was breathing, he slowly pried open his eyes. After a few blurry teary-eyed blinks he saw it...
“A flower?”
Akaashi removed himself from the toilet in order to rub his eyes. He had to be seeing things. There’s no way he coughed up a fucking flower.
Well, he did. And it was a pretty one too!
How is this even possible. Akaashi thought to himself
Akaashi slid his body to lay down to the comfort of his cool tiled bathroom floor. He pulled out his phone from his back pocket and started typing away the many questions racking in his brain.
Is it normal to cough up… “No of course it isn’t normal to cough up a flower.”
Is it possible to cough up a… “No, not that either.”
What does it mean when I cough up a flower?
Much to Akaashi’s doubts of nothing coming up for this search, he was surprised to see that something did indeed pop up. He clicked on the first search result that was titled “Hanahaki Disease.
Hanahaki disease (花吐き病) comes from the Japanese hana (花), meaning flower and hakimasu (吐きます), which means to throw-up.
“Yeah, no shit” Akaashi scoffed but continued reading.
Hanahaki disease is a sickness that only occurs when someone is suffering from unrequited love.
Akaashi read the line confused. Who could he possibly be in love with?
The disease usually happens in stages, the first one being pain, then progresses to a horrible cough which will eventually lead to the victim coughing up flower petals. In the final stage, the victim will begin coughing up flowers in full bloom. Usually, someone will find them passed out on the floor or will see them coughing up full flowers alerting everyone not only that the victim has the disease but also that the victim has allowed it to progress so far.
Akaashi stared at his phone in horror. He should’ve gone to the doctor, he should’ve known that this wasn’t normal.
This disease is only cured when the victim’s feelings are romantically returned. The only other way that the disease is cured is surgically. This surgery removes the flowers that are growing in the victim’s lungs, roots and all. The surgery doesn’t only remove the flowers though, it also removes the victim’s romantic feelings. This means that once the victim is cured via surgery, they also lose their love for the person who caused the disease.
Akaashi let out a sigh in relief “ So there is a cure.” He read the whole article fifteen more times and read every single article, journal, blog, and comment on the disease that he could possibly find. The most interesting thing he searched for was the surgery for the disease.
The victim is put under anesthesia reluctant to go through with the surgery even if it will save their life. When the victim wakes up, they don’t sense that anything has changed, it was as if their feelings were never there in the first place but their friends and family, and most importantly, the subject of the affection notice how different the victim is after the surgery. This can sometimes result in the object of the victim’s affection realizing that they have had feelings for the victim all along but had never noticed and then they themselves will become a victim of the disease.
Akaashi pondered his options. Get the painful surgery, find out who his unrequited love is, or just live with the disease forever.
“I’ll just wait it out… I’m not willing to get surgery, and I’m too busy for love right now… I’m sure I can just deal with it.”
Akaashi looked into the toilet again to see the flower staring back at him. He had no idea what the white flower was, so he took a picture of it before flushing it down the drain. Akaashi remembered while he was looking up anything and everything about the disease he found a fourum of people who have or have had the disease, maybe someone on there will know. Akaashi posted the picture of the flower in the forum with the simple question: “Does anybody know what kind of flower this is?”
After posting on the forum Akaashi hissed at the pain in his abdominal muscles as he rose from the floor. He padded into the kitchen in order to make himself a cup of tea before going to bed.
Ping!
“Well, that was fast!” Akaashi placed his tea kettle on the burner before he pulled out his phone out of his back pocket to look at the notification from the forum. He unlocked his phone and immediately went to the notification.
Pretty_Setter01: First I want to say welcome to the forum! I understand you are probably having a panic attack about this unfortunate situation you are in, just know you are not alone in this journey. We are all here for support and don’t feel afraid to ask any questions.
Speaking of questions… Looks like the first flower you have coughed up is a Gardenia!
All flowers have different meanings/symbolize many different things like pride, affection, inspiration, longing, etc.
The first flower you have coughed up here actually symbolizes “Secret Love.” Not the coolest first flower to cough up because we all already know you have this disease due to unrequited love.
I hope you find the love of your life soon! If you have any other questions throughout your journey, or just need someone to talk to, just send me a PM!
Good luck!~ ♡＼(￣▽￣)／♡
Akaashi stared in awe at his phone as the tea kettle screamed at him to remove it from the hot surface, after a few moments he obliged to the tea kettle's screams. “How could someone be so positive about a situation like this?” Akaashi rolled his eyes in irritation at the situation he has been put into. He wondered what awful thing he must've done to be put in this irritating situation. He poured himself a cup of some of his favorite camomile tea with more honey than necessary. He gulped down the scalding hot beverage in hopes that the burn of the tea would just burn away the pain that was already in his throat. It didn’t help him feel better so he decided that sleeping it off might do the trick.
As he lay in bed he was going through the mental list of people he knows, and if he could possibly be in love with them. He had never been in love before, so how would he know what it felt like? He had probably been oblivious to this “love” he has for this person for so long that he didn’t even realize that his feelings were love. He was just seventeen… isn’t love a little bit too early for him at his age? He has to be someone pretty close to him in order for him to be so oblivious to this. The last person he thought about in his list of people he knows before drifting off to sleep was Bokuto. Can’t be him….right?