Chapter Text
Hanahaki Disease (n.)
An illness contracted through one-sided love, in which flowers of varying species will grow in the patient's lungs, and can only be removed through surgery, or the return of feelings.
Surgery will always end in loss of emotion, leaving the patient an empty husk of what they once were, or could’ve been.
Failure to treat will end in suffocation, either by leaving the disease to grow for too long, or by choking on an exiting flower.
…
“Hey! Wait up!”
It was late November, early on a Thursday morning. He’d slept in again, and Rikko had grown tired of waiting for him.
Mono glanced at the sky. It was a gray morning, and an unusual darkness had blanketed the city in a sad sort of exhaustion. He blinked, flinching at the raindrop that has landed perfectly in one of his eyes. His bag didn’t offer as much protection as he’d hoped.
Rikko turned, and Mono heard the familiar squelching of wet boots against smooth concrete. “Hey!” He slowed, glad that he’d managed to get up before the bus came.
The Pale City had recently issued an order, forcing everyone to use public transportation with the hopes of improving air quality. Mono was all for it, but it was annoying as hell to constantly be missing the bus, and having to wait for the next one to come. Though, it was probably better than living by the train station, since the busses rotated every 10 minutes,and the trains took 20, considering they had to stop at each station.
“You’re late.”
“I know, I know,” Mono paused, trying to catch his breath. His bag crunched as his rubbed his sleeve over one of the holes, “but not as late as I was last time!”
Rikko rolled his eyes, though Mono could see that he was trying not to laugh.
That was the nice thing about Rikko. He was always cranky, but he was so easy to crack. It was comforting to watch him struggle as he held back a laugh.
The bus pulled up to the stop, marked only by the slick metal sign marked ‘transport’. Rikko entered through the stained sliding doors, and Mono followed, glancing back at the now empty sidewalk. Something about the bus driver bothered him, though he wasn’t sure what.
Taking a seat next to Rikko, he heard the driver shift around before asking, “That all?”
Mono made brief eye contact with the driver. He looked just like everyone else. Sunken eyes, balding head, grayed suit, and as had strangely become normal, bits of skin were rotting off of his face. He blinked as the driver glared at him and returned to his previous position, waiting for Rikko’s response.
Rikko nodded, then, as Mono tried not to laugh, realized the driver couldn’t see him and said, “Yes!”
“Gods, Rikko, I can’t believe how stupid you can be sometimes.”
“Says the guy who literally wears a-”
“Paper bag everywhere? Come up with something I haven’t heard a thousand times, please.”
Rikko glared at Mono, which only caused him to laugh harder.
“Well, it’s true! You wear that supid bag everywhere! I don’t think I’ve ever even seen your face, and I’ve known you since 9th grade! Besides, why are you so self conscious anyways, none of us care if you’re ugly. Well Six might, but she’s an asshole, so really, who cares? Me and Reigan do-”
“How is Reigan?”
Reigan, Rikko’s...well, Mono didn’t actually know what they meant to each other, had been home sick for the past few days. Mono figured he hadn’t seen her for almost a week at this point.
Rikko’s expression brightened at the question. “She should be back today, Mrs. P said she was feeling fine last night, and-”
“You talked to her mom? Jeez, overprotective mu-”
Mono coughed as he was elbowed in the stomach. Rikko glared at the back of the seat in front of them.
“Yes I talked to her mom, it’s not like she was in any condition to speak for herself!”
“It was just a cold!”
Rikko paused, then sighed. “Anyways, she should be at school today.”
Mono was going to tease him about the slight blush that covered his face, but decided against it, since he already seemed agitated enough.
“How does that thing even stay dry?”
“Huh?”
Rikko pointed to Mono’s face, or the paper bag with two holes in it, specifically. How did it stay dry?
“Simple! It’s waterproof!”
“It’s paper .”
Mono winked, making sure his eye was visible through one of the holes. “ Waterproof paper.”
“Paper isn’t waterproof, Mono.”
“This paper is!”
“But how ?”
Mono shrugged, leaning back against the cracked leather of the chair. “Just is.”
Rikko gave him a disappointed look, before doing the same thing.
“We graduate this year.”
“Yeah.”
“We have to do things next year.”
“Yeah.”
“Like, work.”
“Mono, you sound like you’re only just realizing this.”
He sat back up in the chair, and stared quizzically at Rikko.
“What are you gonna do?”
Rikko shrugged. “I could take your dad up on his offer.”
Mono’s gaze shifted towards the window. Stupid Father, giving out job offers as if they were nothing, and refusing to help him with...well...anything. Rikko began to look uncomfortable, and followed Mono’s gaze.
“We’re almost there.”
“Yeah, I can see that, dumbass.”
Rikko pushed Mono into the aisle as the bus’s brakes squeaked, the school visible from the window. Mono choked as he tried not to laugh. Rikko had grabbed his bag and was using it to pull him towards the exit.
Someone was excited.
“Rikko! I’m back!”
Reigan was standing near the entrance to the building, wearing her usual neon yellow raincoat and standing next to Six, who was wearing the same blue sweater as she always did, along with a scowl that sent chills down Mono’s spine. He followed Rikko as he ran towards them, trying to ignore the faint sound of water hitting his bag.
It wasn’t really waterproof, it just wasn’t an issue as long as he didn’t spend too much time in the rain.
He walked up behind Rikko, who was already talking excitedly. Mono was both impressed and horrified to see him pull a whole 3 hamsters out from inside his jacket. Rikko had a habit of bringing animals into places that they really weren’t supposed to be in. Maybe it was more of a hobby...though that didn’t make much sense.
“Mono!”
Mono blinked, realizing he’d zoned out. Reigan was waving her hand in front of his face, looking very annoyed that she couldn’t reach it. That was another funny thing.
Mono was tall. Like, really tall. Like, 6’7” tall. Besides him, Rikko was 5’7”, Reigan was 5' 4” and Six was 4’9”.
How could someone so small be so intimidating?
“Mono!”
Oops.
“Class is starting, come on.” Reigan seemed to be her usual amount of annoyed, and Rikko was laughing at her, and he could feel Six’s cold glare from behind him.
Everything was good.
Everyone was happy.
So how did things manage to go so very wrong?
...
He stared.
What else was he supposed to do?
All that coughing, all the blood, all those…
Feelings…
Mono stared at himself. The person he saw in the mirror wasn’t him. Couldn’t be him.
Blood dripping from his lips, his hands, his nose. His clothes had abandoned their formerly sweet scent and comfortable cleanliness, instead adopting a sickly stench masked by the crimson stained over previous white. The bathroom counter was painted red, bits of green and brown resting in sticky piles along its edge.
The single white rose, blood clinging to its horrifically dry petals, bits of ghostly flesh caught on it’s thorns.
He slowly lifted a hand, bringing it to his neck, feeling for his throat, trying to understand. He hated it. The feeling of blood drying on his skin. The stiffness of his own body, which usually moved quickly, and fluidly. That person in the mirror.
This foriegn emotion.
…
It was late November, early on a Thursday morning. It was raining. It always rained.
“Hey, Six! You’re early!”
She turned, just as Reigan caught up to her. Her raincoat flung droplets across Six’s unusually slim figure. She stared up at Reigan. Her eyes were sparkling again.
“Boy, you sure do walk fast…” She huffed.
Six began to walk again, slowly shaking her head.
“So, um, did you miss me?”
Six nodded.
Reigan grinned, “So you can be nice!”
Six looked up at Reigan, and sighed.
“Don’t give me that look! I didn’t do anything this time!”
Six laughed quietly.
Reigan seemed to have become taller. More confident. More...relaxed, in her own way.
She was everything Six wished she could be. But she wasn’t jealous. She was just happy. Reigan accepted her for who she was, and didn’t try to force her to change.
“Have you seen Rikko?”
Six nodded, using her thumb to tuck a stray hair behind her ear. She used her other hand to pull a folded piece of paper from her pocket. She knew Reigan would be curious. She handed it to Reigan, who took it eagerly.
Six watched as she opened it, holding a hand over it to shield it from the rain. She watched as Reigan’s expression lit up. She folded the note up and slipped it into her own pocket, the raincoat acting as its new shelter.
Reigan glanced down towards her. “Hey Six?”
Six glanced up, eyes questioning.
“I can’t remember if you’ve told me before, but why do you hate speaking?”
Six shook her head, as they had not yet had this conversation. She didn’t have a pre-written note for this one, though, and it was too many words for her to be comfortable speaking.
So, she pulled a notepad from her back pocket, taking the pen which was tied to it by a fairly knotted string, and gently pressing her fingers against the worn cover. She began writing, passing the little book to Reigan once complete.
“I don’t like the sound of my voice.”
Reigan blinked, eyes scanning the paper. “But you have a great voice!”
Six sighed. It wasn’t unusual for people to say that, though whether or not they liked it didn’t matter much to her. It was more the act of speaking around strangers that bothered her. And to her, Reigan was reminiscent of a stranger.
It had only been a year she’d known her, after all. Reigan barely knew the extent of Six and her personality. There was...a lot she didn’t know.
But that was okay. Things were fine as they were.
“I was bullied in middle school for it, so I’d really rather not talk.”
Reigan seemed thoughtful. She handed the book back to Six, putting the hand on her shoulder as the book was taken from it.
“Do you talk at home?”
Six nodded, unsure as to where Reigan’s words were going to take her.
“You don’t live by yourself, though...right?”
Six shook her head. She had a decently sized family.
“So you don’t mind them hearing you?”
Six rolled her eyes, slightly annoyed that she already needed to take the book from its place a second time.
“They’re the ones who got the bullies in trouble.”
“Ah.” She nodded. “I guess...that makes sense.”
Reigan sighed, lifting her arms to stretch. Six watched the sky. The clouds were getting darker, signalling a storm in the making. Well, a big storm, heavier than the consistent drizzle that was normal for the Pale City.
“Do you think you’ll ever talk again?”
Six shrugged.
“Do you want to talk again?”
Six nodded.
“It’s more convenient.”
Reigan shifted her gaze down towards Six.
“Do you think practicing would help?”
Six looked confused. Practice? How would she even-
“Like, you could practice talking in front of me, and once you were comfortable with that, we could get Rikko and then Mono and maybe some others?”
She glanced at the notepad.
“Let me think about it.”
Reigan grinned. “That’s a better response than I thought I’d get! Just let me know if you want to.”
Six nodded, bearing a smile of her own.
They reached the bus stop, and she waved to the driver as she made her way to the back. Reigan sat next to her, and showed her the book she was reading. ‘Little Nightmares’. Reigan smiled gently.
“The main character reminds me of you!”
Six responded by pulling out a larger book, and setting it down in her lap. The skin on her thighs turned white as the weight of the book sank into her skin.
Reigan hesitated, noting how quickly the outline of her bones had become visible with the impact. “Woah...you read that?”
Six nodded.
“Let me see…”
She took the book from Six’s lap and began flipping through it. “This text is tiny!”
Six grinned.
“1345 pages?! How did you even-”
Six pointed to the summary on the back of the book.
“Well, yes, I see how that would be interesting but...you’ve had this for less than two days!”
Six nodded again, eyes full of pride. Reigan giggled, lifting a hand to ruffle her hair. Six leaned into the touch, and Reigan awkwardly withdrew.
She pointed to the window. They were almost there! Six knew Reigan must be excited to see her boyfr- best friend after they’d been apart for the whole weekend.
The school was actually an old warehouse that had been renovated. Well, not really. It was still in the exact shape as it had been when the government decided it was no longer fit to be a warehouse, just that now it had some school supplies and somewhere they had installed an oven or something for the lunches.
Most people didn’t get those, though. Especially after the worm incident. Although Six didn’t mind the food, she actually liked it.
The place itself was up for one’s own judgement. It had clanky metal roofs, old broken windows, and every once in a while they’d put out “WARNING” signs because something had broken, but Six loved it there.
The teachers were kind, the principal was understanding, and the pupils were better than most.
The entrance to the school was made up of two sets of double doors, covered by a shallow awning, giving exiting students space to open an umbrella, or pause to lift a hood. The front yard was made entirely of broken cobblestone, with lone blades of grass and small mossy patches softening one’s step.
The scene from the bus window was gray, and one which most would consider depressing, but Six found it quite comforting. The overgrown trees, the walls that were littered with vines, the students hanging out in their little groups, smiling and chatting openly, and all of it glistening in the soft drizzle made for a beautiful awakening.
It was nice not having to dread school.
Reigan’s hand brushed hers as she moved to get up, and Six instinctively grabbed it, not wanting to get lost in the crowd. Reigan, taking advantage of her...height, navigated easily through the students who were still waiting for the school to officially open its doors.
“Rikko! Mono, guess who’s back!”
Six couldn’t see them yet, but she could hear Rikko talking.
“Man, I almost thought you were gonna be late!”
Rcg was giggling, “Me? Late? Since when?”
Rikko sighed, the same sigh that indicated he was currently in the middle of an eye roll.
“Mono? You good? You look a little...pale.”
There were a few moments of silence, and Six’s curiosity had her peeking out from behind Reigan. She was right, Mono did look pale. Well, he always looked pale, but this time he seemed pale too.
“Hm? Oh, I’m fine, thanks.”
Reigan shifted, putting her hands in her pockets. Something was wrong. They could all tell. Even Six.
“Well, how was-” Rikko was cut off by Reigan’s sudden excitement/
“Six told me you broke your nose! So? How’d it happen? What stupid thing did you do this time?”
Rikke stared at Six, partially hidden behind Reigan’s numbingly bright jacket. Six smirked.
“Um...I didn’t...I didn’t break my nose? I um...I broke my finger...but that’s-”
Reigan grinned. “Even better! What's the story?”
Rikko sighed. “I just...kinda...dropped one of those stupid mechanical pencil sharpeners on it…”
Six had already heard the story, and started to turn her attention onto something else. No warning signs out today. The courtyard wasn’t as busy as it would usually be, either. She stared around. Everything seemed pretty normal…
She glanced at Mono. She hated the fact that he always had that stupid bag over his head. Though, he did always manage to make it seem like it was just for fun. Once Reigan had asked him what he was gonna be for Halloween and all he did was stare blankly at her and point at the bag, saying ‘oh, y’know, the norm. Self conscious as always.” Six sighed. Maybe she didn’t hate the bag specifically, it was more the fact that she couldn’t see what his reactions were. The only times she had ever seen any sort of emotion leave his face was that one instance two years ago, when she saw his eyes through the holes. He was smiling. She could tell from the way he squinted slightly, and the brightness that shone briefly in the brown of his eyes before he noticed her, and it went dull again.
She was pulled out of her thoughts by Reigan’s sudden movement. She had stepped forward, and suddenly the entire front of Six’s body went cold.
Stupid rain.
“Mono?”
She watched as Mono failed to react to Rikko’s prompt. Rikko nudged him, and the bag shifted.
“Sorry.”
Rikko eyed Mono suspiciously, before faking a smile. “I think they just opened the doors, cmon, let’s get out of this rain!”
The little group followed Rikko into the building, who then led them down the hall, and to one of the smaller classrooms. Six took her seat at the back, setting down her bag and changing out of her rain boots and into something more comfortable. Reigan and Rikko were still chatting, and Six could see Rikko taking his books out of his bag. Mono just seemed…
“Are you really ok?”
She passed the folded piece of paper to him, which was relatively easy since he sat in front of her. It crinkled softly as he opened it, then he turned around to face her, blank stare seemingly meaningful this time. She watched as he glanced back down at it, and back up at her.
His eyes...he almost seemed..scared.
No...not scared. Terrified .
Six tilted her head, an old habit she used to express confusion.
The door to the classroom opened, and in came the last few students, being ushered by the teacher. The teacher, Mrs. Anne, smiled briefly at the class before taking a seat at her desk. She waited for the classroom to go quiet, and Mono returned to his original position, staring intently at the clock.
Six took out her notebook and mechanical pencil, clicking it a few times to ensure that she didn’t need any extra lead.
“Alright, what did we talk about last week?”
The girls at the front of the class started giggling.
“Seats! The correct ones, please!”
Two of the girls got up and moved, still giggling. As they set their bags down, Mrs. Anne picked up her ruler, which she used as a pointer. Lifting it, she hit it against the board, right beneath the words; ‘Opposites’.
“What does this mean to you?” She gestured to the rows of desks.
Six glanced at Rikko, who, as always, was quick to answer
“Opposites, like, when two things are completely different from each other?”
The teacher nodded, glancing around the room to see if anyone would provide a different answer.
“Mrs. Anne? Didn’t we learn this in primary school?”
This time, the teacher laughed. “Yes, and that is why we must relearn it, understood?”
Six glanced at the student who had asked the question. The poor girl looked utterly confused, her brows were furrowed, and her mouth was barely opened into the slightest frown. This was most likely another one of her ‘special’ lessons. Trying to drag out the material to last until graduation, meaning most lessons were spent discussing the meaning of random words, instead of reading or writing or...whatever else they normally did during Literature.
“I’ll be okay.”
The crumpled piece of paper landed with a soft tmp in front of her.