Chapter Text
It started with a cough, just a cough. Barely a nuisance for most people, but it was hell for someone like Pina. No one wanted to date a sheep that sounded like they just got out of the infirmary, after all.
For the first few days he thought it might have been a cold, after a week maybe the flu?
Then the petals started to appear. Pina'll never forget the first one. It was towards the end of drama club that day, as the actors were left to repeat any problematic lines in the script. He'd gotten Riz to act as his partner and it was all going well. Riz may have been on sound design, but it wasn't due to lack of talent.
"I will never let them have you" Riz stated as he read Adler's lines.
The response rested on Pina's tongue before he felt the tickle in his throat. He tried to fight through it, but it was no use
"Then you truly are my prote-" was as far as he got before he couldn't hold it back anymore. He was forced to bend double from the force of the coughing as Riz looked on.
It took ten seconds before Riz helped him sit down and fifteen before it stopped with a petal the color of gold resting in his hand. Riz seemed worried but Pina nipped that in the bud.
"Dang flower petals. They're so delicious, but they're a pain if they go down the wrong pipe" Pina says before walking over to the waste bin and shaking it from his hand.
"Where were we?"
Sundays were for his romantic escapades, without fail. The cough drops and flower petals he now had to eat to cover up his... unique respiratory issue were cutting into his allowance a bit, but between picnics and coffee dates at the local bookstore he managed to stay afloat. This week's victims suitors were more than understanding about his plight, if it came up. The one thing about coughing fits is that you start being able to predict them after a while. The girl across from him was a gazelle with eyes that alone made her worth pursuing, although the rest of her certainly didn't dissapoint either.
After a few seconds of Pina just looking at her, she glanced up from her book and caught him in the act. She blushed before going right back to her book like nothing happened which was just adorable.
"Can you blame me? After the second I laid eyes on you, everything else turned dull" the dall sheep says with a smile, trying to ease her nerves. It seemed to work because shortly after she let out a small chuckle. It was then that he felt the tickle that warned of another bout of coughing. He stood up and grabbed his cup.
"My tea is running low, I'm going to grab a refill. Can I get you anything?" The dall sheep waited for a second but the second she shook her head he turned around and powerwalked to the bathrooms.
The second the door shut behind him it was all he could do to grab the herbivore-sized sink in front of him, spilling his half-full cup of tea in the process, not even able to make it to a stall. The coughing was wasn't good on the best of days, but it seemed to be getting worse. He hacked and wheezed, not able to catch his breath. A few petals never felt this bad, this was something worse. He felt something carving his throat, as if he decided to swallow a cord of barbed wire. His legs started to shake from the force of it as the door behind him opened with a shocked gasp sounding shortly after.