Chapter Text
Poptart felt his breath catch in his throat for the third time since bandcamp had begun. His head felt like it was swimming, making it hard to concentrate on the charts that he was supposed to be looking at. “S-sorry.” Poptart said. In his half dazed stupor he had stumbled directly into a fellow mellophone. After a few more minutes of Poptart stumbling his way through the charts, a steadily growing twist in his chest slowly grew. By the time Mr. Wiley called the practice he was barely able to hold back the urge to cough, the last thing that he needed was to be yelled at for something as menial as that.
“Poptart?” A voice from behind him said, and Poptart felt the heavy feeling in his lungs grow heavier. He spun around quickly and looked into Cadence’s eyes. “Are you alright?” Her brow was furrowed together in concern and Poptart felt his face flush, she was the last person that he wanted to see right now.
He swallowed the clump that had risen in his throat, and then swallowed again as he felt the lump completely stick. He backed up slowly, trying to keep at least some semblance of composure around the drum major. As she stepped closer to him, an almost unreadable look on her face, and he turned around and ran. He barely made it off of the field before the lump in his throat made him double back and, after nearly slamming into a very disgruntled Marian, threw open one of the porta potties and began to cough into his hand hard. After only a few hard coughs he felt something that didn’t feel quite right plop into his hand, which he clenched tightly as his lungs felt minutely lighter. Slowly pulling his hand away from his mouth he stared in shock at three small soft hot pink petals in his hand.
His brain felt like it was swimming. He'd heard of cases of hanahaki but never thought it could happen to him, after a few moments which mostly consisted of swallowing back what he assumed were more petals climbing up his throat, he tossed the petals into the toilet and opened the door. “C-Cadence!” He stuttered as he spotted the drum major hurrying towards him with a water bottle. Before he could even think of something to say she slammed the water bottle into his face.
“Marian told me she heard you getting sick.” Cadence hesitated slightly “Well, she told Mr. Wiley she heard you were getting sick and was trying to get him to move their practice area.” Cadence sheepishly rubbed her neck with her free hand. Poptart looked at her and felt his face blush. After a few moments he reached out to grab the bottle and heard Cadence gasp. As he looked over he noticed a petal, stuck to his finger still glistening slightly with saliva. In a small voice Cadence said “Who?”
Poptart felt anxiety rise in his throat for a moment he considered lying, there were so many people that he could have said anything would have felt better than confessing to her like this. But in a small voice he said “You” he swallowed again, watching the gears turn in her head and after a few moments she gasped. “I’m sorry I know we haven’t known each other that long and now I-” he trailed off looking off and feeling his face go red. He felt his face go even redder as Cadence grabbed his hand tightly and pull him into a tight almost bone crushing hug.
“I like you to Poptart” As she spoke, and hugged him even tighter he felt the tightness and the weight of the flowers slowly release from his lungs.