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You have been stuck in these time loops for a good little while now and you have started to notice something… new? You feel congested like something is constantly stuck in your chest, until one loop during a snake break you have to cough… You are very surprised when you cough up a few petals. Petals of a flower you can’t identify… You feel light-headed at seeing them and you quickly deposit them into one of your many pockets before anyone can see them.
You don’t want to worry everyone about this new development but your insides scream at you to talk to someone. Even when you loop back to Dormont to see Loop you don’t mention them. You hope they were a one-off, something that will go away in time, but they don’t, if anything they get worse. One loop you make it to the bathroom and cough and hack. Dozens of flowers come out and are splattered on the floor with a lot of blood.
You stare at them, confused and scared. You bite your lip and try to think, How do you fix this? How would you even learn anything about this? You figure you could ask Odile about it, hypothetically if someone was coughing up flowers what that could mean? So one loop you ask,
“Hey Odile, would something cause someone to cough up flowers?”
She looks at you, confusion and suspicion in her eyes, Mirabelle is the one to speak up, however.
“I didn’t know you liked romance novels, Siffrin!” She chirped happily
“It’s called Hanaki disease and it happens in some novels when one of the main characters won't tell another how much they love them! It's a tragic trope that often leads to the character confessing on their deathbed, in their soon-to-be lover's arms~ The confession causing them to survive and go on to live happily together! It’s such a good trope too! Have you found a book about it? I would love to read it when you're finished!” You had felt your heart drop at that.
A disease that causes flowers to grow in someone’s chest cause they won’t confess they are in love? But, if it’s a trope why is it happening to you? You look over to Isa who’s watching you, you make eye contact and both flinch and look away. Just tell Isa you love him and it will fix itself right?
What a silly idea you think, it must be connected to the loops, maybe Loop will know how to fix it? When you ask about flowers Loop just stares, before breaking into an odd laugh.
“You too huh!? How embarrassing~” They manage to get out between laughter “Poor thing~ are you in love with your fighter Stardust?” they ask once they calm down.
You had blushed so fast and hard that it just caused Loop to start laughing again. You practically pull your hat over your face at this point, just to hide your dark cheeks. You mumble something along the lines of “Yes, I think so. But why now and not before the loops?”
Loop finally sighs and looks at you with pity in their eyes, “I… Don’t think it’s that simple Stardust.” They sounded sorry as if they knew this was coming, did they? You don’t linger on the thought however and get back to trying to free yourself from the time loops.
You finally come to the conclusion you have to beat the king on your own and after making everyone mad at you you head into the house. You are soon coughing up flowers in almost every room of the house, and simply leaving them on the floor where they had landed. It’s not like anyone is going to see them, right?
After a long painful few hours, you make it to the king and you start to fight him. It takes everything in you to not cough up flowers as you fight, he seems to notice how much pain you are in.
“Oooohhhh Bright one, what is it you’re hiding? Shivering as much as you are, is there something causing you more pain than I?” You ignore his words and bite your lip as you nearly retch on the flowers demanding to come out.
When the king freezes you and you find yourself in a dark void, with nothing but your own homesickness you notice, it’s covered in those flowers… twisting and coming from everywhere! It speaks to you in your family’s voices, mocks you for your selfishness, and chides you for your forgetfulness. You want to let go, to just die for good, to just sleep forever.
But you don’t rest for much longer as you wake up with your family in front of you, protecting you from the king. Mirabelle deflects the King's attack and freezes him in time. As everyone is checking you you can’t hold back the flood of flowers that come pouring out of your mouth. Everyone is suitably horrified at the site and rushes you out to the head house maiden.
You know the journey is going to end soon and everyone will leave you, forget you, you can’t let that happen, you can’t, you won't! Soon it’s you who’s fighting your family, you won’t attack them, you can’t, so you attack yourself. Everyone protests this as Mirabelle heals you. They demand answers, demand to know what you wished for.
You finally break and spill everything to them, how you want to travel with them, how you care for them, how you trapped everyone in a time loop because you were scared of being forgotten! And finally, you calm down, the world around you going back to normal. You feel lighter and less burdened, and after a few minutes of just sitting and breathing you notice… You can no longer feel the flowers inside your chest? Was it that easy to get rid of? Just talking with them?
As you think this Isa comes to sit next to you, he looks worried, he pulls a flower from his pocket, one you still can’t identify. You look away and he asks how many loops this has been happening. You take a few deep breaths and tell him everything, how you didn’t know what they were at first, how you asked Odile but Mira had told you about the romance trope, how you had thought it was because you were in love with him. The last part caught him off guard.
“Wait… Sif you love me??!” You darken and look into his eyes, you nod and look away. Isa quickly has you caught in a hug as he blubbered. He stated how he didn’t know and that he loves you too, loves so much about you, from your hair to your eye, even to the way your cheeks puff when you eat! You feel impossibly warm, you are darker than you thought was possible but you cling back, hugging Isa as tightly as you can.
You love him, and he loves you! You are both happy in this moment. Soon everyone wanders back over to join in on this hug. Mirabelle says something about being sure to talk about your feelings in the future to avoid any more flowers from sprouting and you laugh, it feels good to laugh, and you promise to be more open and to talk more with everyone. You are happy, and you will travel with your family for a bit longer. They won’t forget you and you won’t forget them!