Chapter Text
Coughing up a lung, as the kids say, isn’t something new to Steve. Compromised immune system and all. However, after all the odd illnesses and body pains, he can’t say he’s ever seen anything like this.
Steve stares into the snow, dumbfounded. He coughed, a little harder than usual but nothing out of the ordinary, and something came out. At first, he was convinced it was blood. The bright red against the pure white of the snow made it pretty obvious. But, looking closer he noticed that it wasn’t blood. They were flower petals.
What kind, he’s not sure, he’s not too into flowers, sue him. But not knowing the name of the flowers that he just expelled from his lungs was the last thing on his mind. His current problem was the fact that he just expelled fucking flower petals from his lungs . For the first time in his life, he finds himself actually wishing it were blood.
Instead of thinking about it more, doing research, or even telling anyone, Steve did what he always does with problems. He turns right around and ignores it. Surely if he ignores it enough he would be cured. Surely.
</3
It happened a few more times before anything changed. It was easy enough to explain away, even if Bucky looked at him weird when he suddenly had flowers seemingly falling out of his pockets.
When the super soldier serum was injected into his veins, he had bigger things to worry about than a few harmless flowers he sometimes coughed up. Hell, if he had gotten rid of all his other ailments who says this one isn’t the same?
Apparently it wasn’t, he reflected, staring at the tiny white petals lying in his hand. He starts to think that maybe, just maybe, he should start worrying about this. But then Bucky calls his name and he shoves the petals in his pockets, the pure white of the flowers stained by a horribly bright red matters very little compared to whatever Bucky could possibly need from him.
</3
It stopped, he realizes abruptly. He hadn’t particularly noticed after the last time, the blood and red and orange flowers falling right alongside his tears when it had truly hit him that… he wasn’t coming back.
It hasn’t happened since. And he can’t seem to find it in himself to be grateful.