Chapter Text
A nice, peaceful morning. This is what Flame always wanted.No more fighting, no more Law, just quiet peace. But peace was an unusual thing in a server like Unstable. He could only hope it would last a little longer.
Flame decided he should take a shower. For some reason, he had woken up drenched in sweat, perhaps from a dream he couldn’t quite remember. His new base which he shared with his best friend, Lomedy, was huge. Luckily, a bathroom was nearby, unlike the kitchen, which was farther away.
As he began to walk toward the bathroom, he felt a strange sensation in his lungs, perhaps his throat. Maybe I overworked myself and got sick, he thought. That would explain why he felt so terrible upon waking up. He hoped there would be some medicine in the bathroom cabinet.
Thankfully, he found a few pills and some cough syrup. He walked toward the kitchen, pills in hand, but the hallway felt strangely long. He couldn't dwell on the thought for long, however, because he bumped right into Lomedy.
"Oh, hi Flame! I was just about to see if you were even alive. You never sleep in this late," Lomedy said.
"Hi, Lom. I'm okay, bro. I think I just caught a bit of an illness, but I’ll be fine in no time. No need to worry," Flame replied.
Why does Lomedy sound so worried? Flame wondered. But it's him, it’s nothing new. He always cares.
"Flame, are you even listening?" Lomedy asked, snapping him out of his thoughts for the second time in minutes. "Anyway, as I was saying, I'm glad you're okay. I’m heading out to the farm, so see ya!"
"Oh, bye bro," Flame replied as Lomedy walked toward the exit. Hopefully, the pills would ease the pain.
༺♰༻
Why was he starting to wake up later and later each day? He’s not getting any better, is he? A week had passed since that morning, and he wasn't getting any better. Why did it feel like something was trying to creep out of his body?
As he began to wonder why the universe hated him, he started to cough. It didn't feel normal. It felt deep, ugly, and burning. He felt as though he was going to collapse. When the coughing finally stopped, Flame was met with a horrifying sight.
Petals,maybe even whole flowers, lay on his bed and in his lap. No, no, no. This couldn't be. Why him? He didn't even have to guess who they were for, the deep purple colour told the story for him.
Despite this being a "disease" from a fairytale, there were only two known methods to get rid of it. Either undergo surgery, which would also remove the ability to love, or confess. Well, there was a third method. Death.
All three options felt impossible. Losing the ability to love? No. Confessing? A big no,he would never love Flame back. And as for death... that was self-explanatory.
Since Lomedy wasn’t going to be home for a while, Flame realized he could do a little research. Maybe there was another, unknown solution to his condition. Lomedy loved reading about flowers, so there was a big chance Flame could find a useful book in his collection.
Everything felt so strange as he walked. The world itself seemed to be slowing down around him.
When he reached the small library, which held maybe two hundred books, he thankfully found one of the volumes he was looking for. The flower book wasn't massive, but you simply couldn't call it small, either. After a few minutes of flipping through the pages, he found the flower he had been looking for. The purple gladiolus.
It suits him, Flame thought quietly.
Now that half of his task was done, he needed to find the other book, the one about the disease itself, if it even existed.
After what felt like hours of mindlessly searching between the crowded shelves, he found nothing. Great. This is not helping. God, all of this felt so pathetic. Why did love have to be so diseased? He felt a wave of hopelessness wash over him. But he couldn't just give up, he couldn't do that to everyone. A tiny, quiet thought echoed in his mind: What if he likes me back? Maybe, just maybe, we could be happy together.
This is going to be very hard, he cannot let anyone know about this.
༺♰༻
Two days passed. Surprisingly, the condition hadn't gotten any worse since that night. However, Flame now had to decide whether he should go and have a friendly spar with his rival. The purple demon had only invited him out of boredom, or maybe because they hadn’t seen each other in a while. Flame figured he might as well go, leaving early to ensure he arrived on time.
When Flame arrived at the field where they were meant to meet, he immediately saw him. He caught sight of his long, beautiful purple hair and his eyes. Oh, he could get lost in them. The endless deep purple…
No, Flame, stop, he scolded himself. This will just make the situation worse.
Suddenly, without any warning, the fight began. No talking. No mockery. His rival lunged into the sky, bringing his mace down with dangerous unpredictability.
Flame quickly moved sideways. Barely in time, the mace missed him, smashing into the ground with a heavy thud. Flame tried to fight back, raising his sword to counter the strike, but in that exact moment, everything fell apart.
The fragile peace in his chest shattered. A wave of heat tore through his throat. A suffocating cough threatened to come out of his lungs. Terrified of what was about to spill out in front of his rival, and completely unable to fight back, Flame didn't hesitate for a second. He turned on his heel and fled into the deep woods.
He left his rival standing completely alone in the middle of a field that was supposed to be a battlefield. Sadly, Flame didn't look back as he ran. If he had, he would have seen his rival's expression, one full of shock, fear, and maybe something else entirely.