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Lime has been meeting up with Blue more lately. They don’t know why, they just seem drawn to them. Blue is the only crewmate they trust on the entire ship, besides Cyan a bit, but that’s besides the point. As they were crawling around in the vents they felt their mind wander towards thinking about Blue. About how they always seem to know what to say, how they always seem to care deeply for everyone, and how they treated Lime like a real person. Lime brushed this off quickly.
As if on cue Lime began heavily coughing, it stung and felt like their throat was on fire. It felt like something had traveled up their throat. After a couple of minutes of coughing they look down and see a couple of blood spatters around them with a bloodied flower petal right in the middle of it all. It was dark red in the center with a light pink surrounding the edges of it, covered in dark red spatters. Lime stared down at the flower petal in the middle of the pool of blood.
“It must be those damn gremlins messing with the vents again.. yeah.. yeah,”Lime mumbled to themself.
They picked up the flower petal and put it in their overall pocket, thinking that Cyan would like it. They crawled through the vents acting as if nothing happened. They finally made it to their ‘room’ which was basically a couple of blankets, a bible, a cross on top of said bible, and a pile of their dirty clothes. It wasn’t much but they would rather die than use the rooms MIRA supplied on the ship.
As they drifted off to sleep they began to dream about a flower field. They were surrounded by flowers with white in the middle and a dark pink covering the edges The sky was a rosey pink color with hints of orange on the horizon. There were a few clouds in the sky being a dark purple. They looked down and saw a stone path leading forward towards a black silhouette. They looked familiar but Lime couldn’t really place their finger on who it was.
As they slowly walked forward they heard violin music playing. As they walked closer the violins began to play louder. As they were only a couple hundred feet away from the silhouette it disappeared. The violins stopped playing and everything was quiet, too quiet.
Lime woke up clutching their chest feeling a sharp stinging pain in their lungs. They saw that there was more blood around them with a couple more of the flower petals, similar to the one they coughed up earlier. They began having another coughing fit, much more violent then the first one. They looked back down to see that they had coughed up more of the flower from earlier. This time coughed up 4 petals, all bloodied. Lime rubbed their forehead with their index finger and thumb. They began muttering to themselves.
“Christ… how am I supposed to deal with this in the dead of night?”
They decided it would be best to get some water for their extremely dry throat alongside a rag to clean up the blood stains.
They began to crawl towards the cafeteria before hearing a familiar voice grumbling about something. They peaked through the vents to see Blue working in the dark of med-bay, only being illuminated by their computer's bright blue light. It was very out of character for them to be up this late, Lime thought about questioning them but realized that Blue would probably question why they were up this late. They didn’t want Blue to worry more about them and silently crept away from med-bay.
They hopped out of the vent careful not to make a sound to wake up or disturb anyone. They walked towards the kitchen and grabbed a glass and a rag. They slowly filled up their glass with tap water and drank it all in one gulp. They sighed and ran the rag under the water, feeling the cold water hit their hand. It was nice. They pulled the rag out from under the faucet and began to walk back towards the vent in the cafeteria. They hopped back in and slowly crawled back towards their room. It was just how they left it. They spent a solid 30 minutes just scrubbing the blood away. Finally, they finished and crawled back into their bed, which was just a pillow and a few blankets. They hoped that this would go away by the morning as they drifted off to sleep.
——a few days pass——
Their coughing did in fact not go away, it in fact has gotten much worse. Lime couldn’t go 30 minutes without having a coughing fit. The others finally convinced Lime to see Blue about it after they had a flower petal get stuck in the reactor. Every night they would have the same dream about the flower field and silhouette, getting closer to every time. As they were currently walking towards med-bay, as the automatic doors opened, they saw Blue sitting crossed legs in their wheelie chair by their desk. They looked happy to see Lime?
“Hello Lime, they others told me you have been having lung troubles. Is that correct?”
Lime walked over towards the bed that was the closest to the vent but was also closest to Blue. A fair exchange plus if things get awkward they can always vent away.
“Uhh yeah.. something like that,” Lime muttered, just loud enough for Blue to hear. Blue grabbed a clip board and a pen. They wrote something down before looking back up at Lime.
“To find out the root of the problem, I’m going to need to ask you some questions.”
“No.”
Blue looked up at Lime, confused. Lime hated questions, plus they were going to use it to sell the government their information!
“Lime, I need to know your symptoms to help you.” Blue said, sounding very sincere, Lime felt that now familiar sharp sting in their lungs but decided not to say anything. After a few seconds of silence Lime sighed heavily before agreeing.
“Fine, but only if you shred it afterwards! I don’t need the government knowing all my personal information.”
Blue took Limes right hand and held it up towards their face.
“We can do it together.”
Lime blushed heavily seeing Blue hold their hand like that. Another sharp stinging pain hit their lungs, they had to swallow down the blood and flower petals. It hurt but they didn’t want to integrate them more.
“Alright, first question, how would you describe the pain of it?”
“Like a 4.”
Lime lied, it was much more like an 8 but still. After around 10 minutes of questioning Blue had finally finished.
“Alright, everything seems to be in order but I would advise you to not use those vents for a bit,” Blue said, smiling at Lime.
“Uhh huh.”
Lime has been forgetting what Blue had been talking about for the 5 minutes, the need to cough has gotten so unbearable they felt like they were going to faint. Right before they got up they felt more flower petals and blood flood their throat but because they hadn’t coughed in so long, they couldn’t hold it in anymore. As Blue turned away Lime began ugly coughing, dark blood flowing out of their throat as pain stabbed their chest from the inside. Blue immediately heard this and rushed over to Lime, seeing blood and flower petals all over the floor. Blue sat down on the bed, sitting next to Lime. Blue patted Limes back as they coughed up all over the floor. Blue stared down at the floor as it began turning more red.
After 15 minutes of Lime coughing it finally stopped, leaving a puddle of dark red blood on the floor with bloodied flower petals on the clean white med-bay floor. Blue looked towards their side seeing that Lime was crying. Tears were streaming from their visor as they just looked down at the puddle of blood. Blue began stroking their back slowly.
“Hey, hey it’s fine. I can clean it up, don’t worry,” Blue whispered to Lime. Lime rested their face in the palms of their hands.
“Shit..I’m just such a fucking mess.”
They sat in the silence of Limes soft sobs and the tears hitting the titled floor.
“Can you explain to me why you didn’t tell me about this earlier?”
Lime sniffed and brought their face out of their hands, staring straight ahead, still crying.
“I-I was scared of what you’d think of me.”
Blue looked apologetically at Lime. Lime turned their head around to face blue face first.
“Lime, I would never judge you.”
Blue hugged Lime. Lime was surprised at first and leaned into it. Blue’s embrace was warm and soft. Lime cried into their shoulder, the warm tears falling down from their face. After a few minutes, Blue backed away from Lime, keeping their hands on Lime's shoulder.
“I’m gonna have to ask you the questions again, ok?”
Limes nodded through their sobs, Blue walked over towards their desk. They grabbed a clipboard, a pen and the questionnaire. They sat down next to lime on the bed and began to ask them the questions again. Lime seemed to have answered more honestly this time, fidgeting with their hands. Blue clicked their pen as they finished checking the last box.
“Ok Lime, judging by the results I’m gonna need to keep you in here for a while.”
Lime looked up at Blue, like a deer in headlights.
“But I need to work on the reactor and-“
“You need rest, the reactor should be fine without you checking up on it all the time.”
Blue hopped down from the bed and began typing up Lime’s symptoms in the computer. They were surprised to not hear Lime’s protests about the government stealing their information. Blue quickly typed up everything into the computer and turned around to see that Limes had fallen asleep on the bed. Blue smiled and thought they looked cute. I should probably clean up the blood since it’s a biohazard, Blue thought to themselves.
They walked over towards the cafeteria, knowing that Green was probably there, mopping. Seeing Green mopping up a seemingly spotless spot, they decided to ask for the mop and bucket.
“Hey Green, can I have the mop and bucket for a bit?”
Green jumped at hearing Blue's charismatic voice talk to them, they turned around to face the doctor face forward, blushing.
“Oh! Of course you can! May I ask why?” Green asked Blue nervously, handing the mop and bucket towards Blue.
As Blue grabbed it, they responded to Green's question.
“As much as I would like to tell you, my current patient would like it to remain just between the two of us.” Green nodded in response.
Blue walked back to med-bay with the mop. As the doors opened they noticed how much more blood was around Lime, guessing they coughed it up in their sleep. They decided to lock the doors for a bit, since they knew everyone would probably ask if they could help them mop up the blood puddle, and they didn’t want to wake Lime up.
As they began to mop up the puddle, they noticed how there were some flower petals and whole flowers sitting in the pool of blood. Blue bent down and picked up one of them, immediately recognizing the flower. It was a Dianthus caryophyllus, known for representing refusal of accepting one’s feelings. Blue stood back up and set it on their desk before returning to mopping. Blue was always fascinated by plant life and studied it as a side hobby.
Blue finished up mopping and went to return the mop and bucket to the storage closet. After they came back they saw that it looked like Lime had coughed up more blood and flowers in their sleep, but not too much.
They began to research more of the symptoms that Lime showed since it was like nothing they had ever seen before. They came across a Wikipedia article titled hanahaki disease. They clicked on it and read the first paragraph which just stated what it was and what it meant. Nothing special besides the fact it’s used in fanfic commonly, the next paragraph is what surprised Blue.
“The disease manifests as a physical reaction to unrequited love,[2][3] most often resulting in the growth of flowers within the lungs, heart, or throat of the afflicted character.[2] The primary symptom is coughing or vomiting up flower petals,[4] which progresses into full blooms as the condition worsens.[2][3] If untreated, the disease is usually portrayed as fatal, with death resulting from suffocation.(Hanahaki disease, paragraph 2)” Blue noticed how Lime fit all the boxes to have but their main question was, who could Lime possibly like?
As they read the rest of the article and others, there were two main solutions to it. One of the options was that whoever the person with the disease liked reciprocated their feelings to them curing it on the spot. The second was to surgically remove the flowers and their roots, causing their feelings for their crush to disappear. They either had to decide on one of these options, or the disease would cause the person to suffocate to death.
Right as they were going to see how Lime was doing, they heard a faint voice say something.
“Blue?” Lime asks, tiredly rubbing their face with their hands. Blue spun around to face them face to face. They needed to know who Lime liked for their well being. After a few moments of silence, Lime finally seemed to have woken up.
“Lime, may I ask you a personal question?”
Lime looked at Blue, confused at their request. They looked towards the side nervously.
“I would prefer it if you didn’t. I don’t want you selling my information to the government!” Lime said aggressively to Blue.
“I promise you I’m not asking for your medical information, Lime. It’s something much more personal”
Lime just stared at Blue before quietly answering to them.
“I guess…”
“Lime, do you by chance… like any one currently?”
Lime became flustered, being to stumble over their words.
“WHAT?! NO I DONT LIKE ANYONE AT THE MOMENT!”
Lime yelled at Blue, Blue remained calm to try and not frighten them.
“Lime, I need you to be honest with me right now,” Blue said in a serious tone.
“I TOLD YOU, I DONT!”
“Lime, please-”
“WHY DO YOU NEED TO KNOW, HUH!”
“Lime, just tell me who you like.”
“NO!”
“Lime-”
“NO! YOU DON'T NEED TO KNOW THAT!”
“I NEED TO KNOW BECAUSE YOUR LIFE IS ON THE LINE BECAUSE OF YOUR CRUSH!” Blue exclaims. They had never done that to anyone before. Everything was silent, besides the quiet hum of the lights. Blue sighed and got up, placing a hand on Lime’s shoulder.
“I’m deeply sorry for yelling at you Lime. Truly.”
Lime blushed at the touch of Blue. After a few moments of it, Blue began pacing around the room.
“The reason I needed to know is that you have the hanahaki disease, flowers grow in your lungs. There are only two know solutions, one of them is surgery but because MIRA’s such a cheapskate, they didn’t supply me with any anesthetics”
“And the other is?”
Lime questioned Blue, tilting their head to the side. Blue stopped hard in their tracks. How would they explain this to Lime?
“The person you're currently crushing on needs to return those feelings…” Lime laughed, throwing them into another coughing fit. Blue walked over and grabbed a small trash can. They sat down next to them on the bed.
“Here, cough into this. It’ll prevent blood from getting everywhere”
Blue handed Lime the trash can, Lime smiled thankfully before hunching down into it.
After a while, Lime began to speak again, hoarsely.
“I don’t know who I like…”
“You sure? Has there been someone on your mind all the time, someone you get butterflies just from thinking about?”
“Yes, but I doubt they’ll like me back…” Lime said bitterly.
“May I inquire about who it is?”
“No, all you need to know is that they don’t like me back,” Lime snaps.
“Are you sure?”
“Postive.”
Blue turned away from Lime, getting up from the cot and walking over to their desk.
Before Lime could speak Blue spoke.
“Keep the trash can, in case you have another coughing fit.”
Lime nodded and put it down next to them, laying back down.
“Lime, for your own safety can I hook you up to a heart monitor? It’s just to make sure your heart beat is steady. I promise it’s not going to steal your information.”
“At this point, I don’t even care if the government stole their information,” Lime said, sounding defeated. It hurt Blue seeing how much pain they were in. They walked towards the upper corner of med-bay to grab the only heart monitor MIRA supplied them with. They rolled it over to Lime. Blue realized that Lime still had their overalls on from the previous days.
“Lime, could you-uhh-take off your overalls.”
Lime got flustered and began sputtering. They felt their face heat up at the request.
“No!”
“Lime, I swear it’ll only be for a couple of minutes.”
Lime mumbled something under their breath as they loosed the straps on their shoulders.They only let their chest show, leaving the rest on. Blue was turned away while Lime did that.
“K, I’m done, doc”
Blue turned around and was met with Lime being basically shirtless. Blue felt their face heat up and stood there for a bit looking down at Lime’s chest.
“So?” Lime questioned Blue, snapping them out of their trance.
“Ah, yes the heart monitor.”
Blue walked over and began wiping down Lime’s chest with an alcoholic wipe. Lime blushed at Blue wiping them down. Blue then grabbed the heart monitor patches and stuck them on Lime’s chest, feeling their face heat up.
“Ok, everything seems stable right now”
Lime nodded.
“I’m going to sleep in here tonight to ensure you’re in good health.”
Lime blushed heavily at the thought of being in the same room as the hot doctor for the night.
“I’m going to get ready for bed, you can do the same if you feel physically capable of doing so.”
Blue walked out of med-bay, leaving Lime all by themselves. They never really changed for bed so they just sat there. Another sharp pain hit their lungs,they grabbed the trash can and began coughing up blood violently as flowers spew out from their mouth. It lasted 15 minutes, each cough being more violent than the last.
Once they had finally calmed down, they looked up to see their vitals. It looked normal to Lime’s understanding, they heard footsteps coming down from the hallway getting closer to med-bay. Blue walked in wearing white and light blue striped pajamas. They looked beautiful in Lime's eyes. They dimmed the lights down and lay down on the bed next to Lime. Lime felt their breath hitch as Blue untucked the blanket and laid down, facing Lime.
“Good night Lime”
They closed their visor, and Lime stared at Blue for a minute, before laying down themselves. They felt themselves drifting off to sleep.
It’s the same dream as the last few nights, same field of flowers, same violins playing and the same silhouette, except this time Lime could reach it in a couple of steps. Lime nervously walked up to and grabbed its shoulder. The figure spun around and faced Lime. It was Blue.
“Hello Lime,” it said, perfectly mimicking their voice. Lime stepped back in surprise at seeing Blue’s face.
“Wha…why are you here?” Lime asked. Blue appeared behind Lime and began whispering in their ear.
“You know why~”
Lime whipped around and saw it rocking back and forth on its legs.
“No, I don’t. Why are you in my dreams?” Lime asked it sternly.
“Come on, it's obvious.”
Blue disappeared again, reappearing on Lime’s left side.
“Just leave me alone!” Lime yelled. Blue suddenly appears in front of them, their faces inches away from eachother. They began walking their fingers up Lime’s chest, saying a word with each step their fingers took.
“You. Love. Me.”
They booped Lime on the head, the violins were playing so loudly Lime couldn’t even think. Blue walks off into the flower field, looking back at Lime.
“But you won’t ever get to experience it now~”
But before Lime could ask them anything, they ran away into the horizon. Everything became greyscaled then, the violins began screeching poorly as the flowers wilted away. They felt the ground shake them shake, they tried to run but tried on the rocks, but fell down.
Just then they woke up, clutching their chest. Blue along with the rest of the crew seemed to be up judging the fact that all the lights were on.
“Oh, Lime! You're awake!”
Blue said cheerfully to them, Lime wanted to respond but they couldn’t. They couldn’t think straight and that’s when it hit them. They couldn’t breathe. They were throwing up flowers. Just then, a loud beeping sound went off. Blue rushed over and saw that Lime was losing air fast. Blue grabbed onto Lime’s shoulder and felt their body go limp . A couple of the other crew mates came in to see what was happening. (A/N: because I’m lazy they doors automatically unlock each morning if they were previously locked)
Blue didn’t even care who it was, they needed to save Lime’s life. Lime couldn’t die yet, they are so young. Blue finally realized something, they liked Lime. They wanted to kiss them, they wanted to go on dates with them, they wanted to feel their skin pressed against theirs, they wanted to grow old with them, they wanted Lime. They heard footsteps as more crewmates entered med-bay and the beeping got louder and louder. The others were yelling at Blue to do something. Blue was going to do the dumbest thing in their medical career, but there was a chance it could work. They began kissing Lime, Limes cold blooded lips against theirs, petals flowing into Blues mouth. (A/N:DO THEY HAVE MONTHS?? HOW DO THEY EAT??. I’m saying their visors count as those, ok? Ok.) Everything went quiet, Blue stepped back and wiped off their mouth. They were visibly shaking. As the monitored flat lined, Purple began talking to Blue.
“Blue, I swear to god if you just kissed a dead body-”
Purple was cut off by a loud gasp from Lime as they sat up. Blue felt their face tear up. They hugged Lime, crying into their shoulder.
“Lime, you’re…” They said, as they were sobbing into Lime’s shoulder. Lime just patted Blue’s back.
“Heh.. yeah I guess I am..” Lime said, feeling themselves tear up.
“It was a true love’s kiss!” Cyan yelled happily before Blacked yelled at them
“SHUT THE FUCK UP! LET THEM BE GAY!”
“*ahem* I say we leave these too alone for a while.” Red said, gesturing everyone out.
Once everyone had left, Blue pulled away from hugging Lime, still sobbing.
“So…how am I alive?” Lime asked awkwardly
“I-I don’t know I guess you liked me and I reciprocated the feelings”
Lime felt themselves blush heavily. They were going to do something dumb but to hell with it. They kissed Blue aggressively, melting into them. Blue being caught off guard began leaning into it. They kissed for a couple minutes, before Lime pulled back.
“Sorry, that was really dumb of me..”
“It’s fine,don’t worry about it, but I will keep you here for the rest of the day to monitor.”
“Fine…”
Blue brushed away one of Lime’s tears and gave them a little forehead kiss. They walked back over to their desk and began typing stuff up. Lime sat, blushing from the kiss. They spent the rest of the day in med-bay talking to Blue about conspiracy theories with Blue talking about different plant types.